iPhone 3GS

One of the web sites I currently read with regularity is Smashing Magazine. I must say that I enjoy this site a lot and have been learning a lot of things. They recently published an article by Jen Gordon of Clever Twist. The article is entitled “How To Create Your First iPhone Application”. It lists the steps that you need in order to create your first iPhone application.

With the iPhone’s rising popularity, applications for this device are rapidly gaining market share. The great thing about the iPhone is that for the first time there’s a great mobile platform that people really want to use. I’ve been using mobile devices for a long time and I haven’t really seen a great platform that made me want to use my mobile device. In fact I think the Palm OS was the closest thing that did it for me. The sad thing is Palm’s development stagnated until recently with the introduction of the Palm Pre. We’ll see how that goes.

As of now the iPhone/iPod Touch is the mobile device to beat. So more and more people are getting interested in developing for it. I’ve read the article and here are some of the things pointed out.

A great idea is the most important aspect. No matter how good a designer or developer you are without a great idea your skills will just not be enough.

Assemble the things that you need to build the application. This goes both for the hardware and the manpower. Ask yourself, “What am I good at? What can I bring to the table?” and based on that assemble the other pieces that you need to build the application. Apart from the manpower you’ll need the tools such as a membership to the iPhone Developer Program, an iPhone or iPod touch, software such as Xcode, etc.

Learn the iPhone/iPod Touch OS and UI. There are a lot of great reads at the Apple Developer web site. This requires a membership though.

Other things that you need to do are upload it to iTunes and have your app approved and a have marketing plan to promote your app.

Like I said, the iPhone OS is a great platform that will surely become more popular in the years to come. More and more people are using it, the apps are getting better and better. So if you think you have that next great idea that you think will make for a good application get started and make it happen. Who knows, it might be your ticket to fame and fortune.

Read the complete article here.

Post from: EveryJoe

Steps To Creating Your First iPhone App

Let’s start the discussion on what you think the best examples of technology design are these days and in recent history. We don’t have to focus on items that are just beautiful aesthetically either. Great design can also encompass a great user-interface too. I don’t like iTunes to manage, but the simple interface of iPods are a great example of design in my opinion.

I’ve mentioned before my love for my first personal desktop computer with the Toshiba Infinia. It was one of the first non-beige desktops. Bummer that my monitor for that machine is no longer working. It’s got a short in it or something. Doesn’t detect a signal sometimes and doesn’t turn on.

What’s more important to you with your devices? Should it look great or work great? Nice to have both, but would you give up features for a flashy design? Would you forgive a little ugly if things "just worked" like you expect?

Let us know in the comments.

Image: Product images from product websites

Post from: EveryJoe

Top Technology Design Discussion

After getting all of the stickers off my laptop that I had on there initially, it took quite awhile. They didn’t come off as easily as I had hoped and thought they would. After getting most of it off, I used some Goo Gone to completely get all of the glue residue off. My laptop looked like new again.

If you’ll remember, here’s the before image of my laptop. I had quite a few more than that since the picture was taken. My laptop was completely covered before this, there wasn’t hardly a space left that you could see the original laptop cover.

After removing my custom MyTego from the package I carefully applied the quality sticker to the laptop cover and smoothed the edges.

It was quite the change to see my laptop with a single image. Nice that it was my new logo and image that was created for me by Kyle Lacy over at Brandswag.

Here’s the finished result:

Overall I was very pleased with the results. The quality of the image could have been much better on my part if I had a higher quality image to upload. I only uploaded a 72dpi version of the image as that was all I had at the time. I would really suggest sending them a 300dpi image that’s already sized to fit your device. The only other comment I have is that the sticker is slightly larger than my laptop screen. The MyTego site walks you through picking your device and I chose correctly. I’m sure they can’t guarantee sizing is always perfect, but you may want to consider giving yourself a little bit of play room for trimming to fit your device perfectly.

Give MyTego a try and give your devices a personality all their own… yours!

UPDATE: Forgot to include this originally, but here’s a code you can use to get 20% off your order with MyTego. Use Code INST865286308 at checkout.

Image Credit: Jason Bean photos

Post from: EveryJoe

MyTego Arrived! – A New Face for My Laptop

Bokeh Effect Image created with Pixelmator

The Colorful Bokeh Effect tutorial was the one that caught my interest. I like these types of images and saw it as a great opportunity to learn how to create one. So I downloaded a copy of Pixelmator again since the last copy I downloaded was an older version and the trial had expired. After installing it I proceeded with the tutorials. I honestly thought that it would take longer but I was over and done in less than 10 mins. It’s really easy in Pixelmator.

Not only was I surprised at how easy it was to do the image but the quality of the resulting image was great. For this tutorial I got to use the gradient tool. All I can say is that the gradient tool was great because you can see a live preview of the gradient you’re creating. Pixelmator makes use of the Macs GPU and produces quick filters and tools.

For $59 bucks, Pixelmator is a great buy. It has most of the features that everyday people will use. Sure Photoshop is still better but it also comes at a price. Most people won’t need that. Pixelmator makes it affordable for people to start and improve their image editing skills.

I would seriosuly recommend this app.

Post from: EveryJoe

Pixelmator: Photoshop For Everyone

However, I had to figure out that the command would be stored under the “Layout” section of the page.

I still love the ribbon, and I understand that there’s a little bit of a learning curve, but this seemed to not take advantage of the contextual placement like it should have.

Post from: EveryJoe

Merging Table Cells in Word