In theory, the new phone supports a theoretical maximum download speed of up to 14.4 Mbps. This is a pretty insane speed for a mobile device, if your network even supports it, and if it is available in your area. To give you a comparison, my fixed line broadband connection at home only goes so far as 8Mbps downlink maximum, but normally averages out at about 3-4Mbps in reality (Eircom).

My current mobile provider is 3 Ireland, which is known to have rolled out HSPA+ on certain parts of its network.

So I decided to run a simple test, using the SpeedTest.net app, to test the data speeds on the iPhone 4 and on the iPhone 4S at the same location (in Galway) around the same time of the day. All background apps are closed and wifi is disabled. Here are the findings:

The full nitty gritty details can be viewed here.

Basically, I ran 38 speed tests on each device, averaged them out, and compared the results.

So it looks like we can get vastly faster speeds with the 4S. It’s hard to know if that’s the HSPA+ kicking in, or is it because of the dual core A5 power making everything faster overall? What do you think? I’d be interested in your comments.

Either way, I’m getting about the same speeds now on my mobile as on my fixed line broadband. Time to ditch Eircom and go Personal Hotspot full time? That idea is beginning to become plausible.

Application executables may support either or both of the Intel architectures:

i386 (32-bit)
x86_64 (64-bit)

Other architectures may not be included in submitted binaries.

No problem says you. However, until recently, Apple did not check things like dylibs contained within your app bundle. They do now.

This means that you must make sure that any 3rd party components you have imported to your project are stripped of any old PPC remnants or they will fail validation and be rejected within 5 minutes of submission (seems like they have automated these checks).

So how do we do this? Simple enough, but it requires and extra step after building the archive.

1. First to be safe, you should check your target build settings to ensure that your target architectures are set to i386 and x86_64.  So first click on the Project in XCode, then select the target:
   Then, under the ‘Build Settings’ tab look at the ‘Valid Architectures’ and check that it looks like this:
2. Then, as normal, build the product for Archive
3. The Organser window should open automatically when done. At this point, we’re interested in finding the .app bundle. Where is it? Lets see… Right click on the archive, and select ‘Show In Finder’
4. The xcarchive location will be shown. Right click and ‘Show Package Contents’
5. Inside here, browse to Products/Users/NAME/Applications/ to see your .app bundleThis is the .app bundle we need to strip non x86 or 64 parts from before signing and submitting to Apple. To do this we can use something like TrimTheFat, by dragging the .app bundle into it’s window and deleting the resulting Jelly SMS Lite-U.app (as it’s not needed any more).Or alternatively, we can run the following command on the .app bundle.

ditto --rsrc  --arch i386 --arch x86_64 MyApp.app build/MyApp.app

(from Apple Dev Forums)

If anyone knows of a way this command can be automatically run during the archive or build process (possibly during a build step maybe??), please let us know in the comments below…

[Update] Important: I forgot to mention – you should launch your .app at this stage to test if you’ve actually stripped out something that your app depends on. If so, you will get a crash here. In this case you will need to look at your project more closely and remove the code/parts causing the exceptions.

Now you can simply submit your archive as before and the nasty stuff should all be gone from it and you will once again be in Apple’s good books.

Jelly SMS Mac App Store demo video

Jelly SMS has been re-designed from the ground up, so why not download this preview and get texting on your Mac! The beta will expire within 2 weeks and is only supported on Mac OS 10.6.6 or later.

What’s still missing:

What’s fixed in the latest build:

Please let me know of any bugs you find or features you’d like to see. Preferably, please feedback using the Jelly SMS>About>Contact Support menu as this lets me know important information to help me debug your setup.

Download from JellySMS.com

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys. It is hugely appreciated.

Faq

Why are you releasing a new version of Jelly SMS only for Mac?

When Apple announced the Mac App Store, they made it clear that applications developed in Java could not be accepted. They also deprecated the latest Apple Java Runtime around the same time, and noted that Java would no longer be installed by default on new Macs.

This left me with 2 options for Jelly SMS on the Mac:

1. Continue on as we were and maintain the Java desktop version of Jelly SMS, in the knowledge that our long term user base would be gradually reduced in time with the release of Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) as Java would no longer come pre-installed with new Mac’s. This extra step of downloading and installing a JRE is not something novice users will do.
2. Develop a new Cocoa application from scratch, which complies fully with the Mac App Store submission rules. Doing this will enable users to get the app in the most convenient and simplest way, and will remove any confusion about Java, runtimes and all that technical stuff they don’t care about.

I decided to do both. Keep the existing Java app alive, while building a new version exclusively for the Mac.

Developing from scratch also has a number of other advantages:

• Using past experiences and lessons learnt from building many versions of the app across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, we have developed an extremely efficient operator framework, which allows us to react to any changes on the provider websites (e.g. Vodafone.ie) within minutes, without the need to re-compile and re-release a patch to fix any breakages caused. This change alone can save the user weeks of frustration as they wait for Apple to approve a small update.
• By removing this dependency on Apple’s approval process, we can add support for new operators in a matter of minutes. All the user has to do is restart the app, and boom, they get the new feature or bug fix instantly.
• Developing in Objective-C means we can make an app that actually feels like a proper Mac application, which is tricky to do using Java (especially when targeting for cross-platform).
• We can take advantage of many of the cool native frameworks available such as Core Animation to enhance the user experience in ways that are not possible without a lot of work in Java.

Why will the beta version expire?

The beta will help us identify bugs, and hopefully gain some great feedback from users. In order to prevent users from running an old buggy version, I have time limited the betas. At the end of that period, the user will be prompted to download the latest beta, thus keeping you up to date with the latest fixes.

Hint: users who provide good feedback stand a great chance of getting a free promo-code for the app when it is released in the Mac App Store.

Does this mean that you will no longer be providing the ‘free’ Java version of Jelly SMS Desktop for Mac?

We will continue to offer the Java version of Jelly SMS Desktop for Mac for free alongside it’s Windows & Linux counterparts. There will be no change here. You can still find the old Java version on the Sourceforge.net page.

However, we will encourage users to use the Mac App Store version as this version will be the simplest to install, provide the best user experience, and as outlined above, will get provider related fixes instantly.

The system will be very similar to the iOS App Store but will lead to a fundamental change in the way desktop users source their applications.

Here are some of the key points:

Users will be notified of app updates automatically. It remains to be seen if developers will be allowed to charge for major revisions of their software (unlike iOS). Again, this could be a deal breaker.

One of the main problems for me when I moved from Windows to Mac about 6 years ago, was “where do I find software?”. Even to this day, it can be daunting trying to find an image manipulation program that works for my needs. When the app store comes along, I’ll be able to find that program in 3 clicks, read reviews, and download it if I like it. Google is great for search, but it’s not that great as a store front.

For developers, this opens up a new revenue stream. Ok, we will now be keeping 70%, and giving 30% of sales to Apple, as opposed to keeping 100% before. If you can’t deal with that, then stay away from the Apple model. Stick with your website or CD distribution methods. Or maybe sell it on both, while charging a slight premium for the App Store version to make up for the lost 30%. At the end of the day, you will get more eyeballs on your product and this can only be a good thing.

Also, for small developers like myself, who have relied on donations to keep projects running, I now have an option to charge a small fee for an app, without having to set up any payment system, dealing with refunds, setting up DRM, etc etc…

I know a small portion of nerds don’t want this to happen, and may abondon the Mac because of it. Maybe they feel like they are losing control of the Mac. I don’t think so.

For the vast majority of normal users, this is good. This bridges the gap between developers and users, and I for one, welcome our new app store overlords.

Some initial impressions on Ping:

- Importing friends is nearly impossible (unless you like typing peoples email addresses manually). You can search by name or email only for now. Facebook integration would have been nice, but I guess that won’t happen until Apple and Facebook agree on who’s paying who.

- Artist ‘follow’ suggestions are rubbish. I really couldn’t give a crap about 50 Cent. I have bought a lot of music on iTunes over the years. Apple should already know which artists I want to follow. Also, they have all my Genius playlist info (with star ratings), so they know all the music I like from external sources and CD imports over the years.

- Viewing photos, videos and listening to recommended tracks is well done, although a ‘Preview All’ button would be good when sampling an album in Ping

- Ping doesn’t detect URL’s and make them clickable. This is pretty basic stuff Apple.

- I do like the way you can access Ping on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Now I have a reason to launch iTunes on the device.

Overall, I think Ping could evolve into a great network if they fix some of the issues above. They may also open it up more to allow following of iOS developers and gaming studios, encouraging interactive feedback and reviews of apps. And also, why not include GameCenter integration & Movies in Ping?

I’m sure they will, and in the end, Apple may once again succeed in making me buy more content from them.

http://www.hanchorllc.com/2010/08/24/introducing-ios-beta-builder/

No longer does the user have to sync with iTunes to get your latest build. Hopefully Apple will have baked in support for this in XCode 4.

Note: edited original image to show all operator prices

These attractive iPhone 4 price plans are making some potentially new and existing iPhone consider moving over to Three.

My experiences…

I bought an iPhone 4 from the UK unlocked a month ago and decided to look for a better value and coverage alternative to O2.

Porting

I got myself a free 3pay sim card, and ported over from O2 (my O2 18 month contract was expired). It took under 2 hours for the port to complete.

After I sync’d the iPhone 4 with iTunes, I received a carrier update in iTunes which automatically set up all my settings for internet, MMS, and tethering on the iPhone.

Now I’m paying €20 per month as opposed to the €60-70 I was paying on O2. Out of that €20, I purchase data add-ons as I need to (I even get a text to remind me when I’m low on data). Since I have wifi at home and at work, I was surprised to see how very little cellular network data I do actually use. I’m finding that €5 a month (for 500MBs) is all I need to use for data out of the €20 credit.

Plus, unlike Vodafone or O2, tethering is free. Still no comment regarding Visual Voicemail from Three.

Coverage

I find that Three’s network coverage is better for me than O2, in the places where I most need it. I am getting 3G in the places where I was only getting ‘EDGE’ on O2. Now, this will differ from person to person according to where you live/work. I know there are black spots in certain areas in the country where there doesn’t seem to be any data coverage (although there seems to be voice coverage everywhere I’ve been so far).

So my advice would be to walk into a Three store and grab a free 3pay sim card and pop it into your current phone. Then you can measure the signal strength in the places where it is most important for you. If you’re happy, then make the switch. If you’re not happy, then go elsewhere.

Other things I like about Three

- I am often going up north, so it’s nice that I don’t ever have to worry about roaming charges (for voice and data).

- I used the Speedtest.net app on both O2 and Three on my iPhone and consistently get double the speed on Three 3G (3.5MB downlink) in Galway.

- Three have the national broadband scheme so their 3G can only get better, whereas in the past few years on O2 I haven’t noticed any improvements in coverage.

Overall, I’m happy I made the move to Three. I can’t see any argument against my move from O2. After all, I am getting better service, and paying a lot less for it.

Disclaimer: I don't work for 3

Are you an iOS developer living outside of the US? Or are you in the US, but want to promote your app in Europe or Asia?

If so, then you are probably hoping that some day Apple may allow developers to give promo codes for our apps to non-US iTunes users.

I am trying to get people aware that we all should post a bug report at http://bugreport.apple.com/ and post your “vote” there by requesting “iTunes Connect International App Store Promo Codes” from them.

Apple collects these reports and when a certain number of people request the same functionality then Apple will be compelled to fulfill their user’s wish. The same thing happened after enough people cloned the radar request to get an iTunes Connect API, and recently resulted in Apple developing and releasing the iTunes Connect app.

You should mention that you “vote for” bug report number 8170041, because then this increases weight and visibility of the original request.

Power to the people!

Here is the exact bug description if you want to copy it into yours:

I vote for bug number ’8170041′

Summary:

I, as an iPhone developer, would love to see Apple lead the way in allowing international developers to hand out promotion codes to anyone for our apps. Currently, developers can ONLY give promo codes to US iTunes account holders. And while this is a great feature, it is of little or no value to international developers such as myself in Ireland.

Bottom line ~

We want to promote our apps within our own country and generate more sales.

Steps to Reproduce:

At present, all developers must follow the steps for ad-hoc distribution in order to ‘give away’ our apps for free for promotional purposes such as reviews. This can be hard for a non-technical user to understand, and takes much more time and effort than a simple promo code handout.

Expected Results:

We expect better from Apple! It would be great to expand the current functionality provided by iTunes Connect, to allow the developer to select the destination (country) app store which the developers reviewer, or the receiver, is from, and then choose the amount of codes as currently is the case.

Actual Results:

As outlined

Regression:

N/A

Notes:

Please also spread the word to other devs and Tweet about this.

Announced at WWDC 2010 by Steve Jobs today and making it’s way to Ireland in July, is the new iPhone 4.The follow up to 2009′s iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 packs some serious hardware upgrades with a front and back glass enclosure, a front facing camera for video calling, a 5 megapixel camera with flash on the back, and containing Apple’s own A4 processor inside. Video calling will only work over wifi in 2010 but will work over 3G later after testing on cellular networks is done.

The iPhone 4 is 25% thinner than the 3GS and will have the ability to record and edit HD video. It also will come preloaded with iPhone OS 4 which Apple has now renamed iOS 4 (because it now runs on multiple devices such as the iPad as well as iPhones and the iPod Touch).

I’m looking forward to upgrading my dated iPhone 3G! Roll on July…