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I got a sneak peek inside Apple’s new flagship retail store during its construction. The location is in the lot formerly occupied by the Borders book store. The build requires the tallest construction crane currently in Santa Monica because the ceiling … Continue reading
For when you just absolutely have to have those glass ceilings on your new flagship store, there’s no substitute for the Apple iCrane. Apple’s Third Street Promenade store is moving to new digs south of Santa Monica Boulevard. It makes sense for them to want to be closer to the new Santa Monica Place mall, an area generally considered to be the heart of downtown Santa Monica. This photo was shot from the north corner of Santa Monica and Fourth Street, across from REI (the former site of Santa Monica City Hall).
Not a huge deal, but we can see where this is going. requestAnimationFrame and cancelAnimationFrame are very useful for – drum roll – JavaScript animation.
WebKit on iOS now supports the requestAnimationFrame and cancelAnimationFrame methods in JavaScript, as described here http://www.w3.org/TR/animation-timing/.
Note that because the specification is still at the Working Draft state, these methods have the webkit prefix, so they are window.webkitRequestAnimationFrame, window.webkitCancelAnimationFrame.
Looks like browser-based video games do have a future!
via iOS 6 beta download link: Apple’s iOS 6 now available to developers.
When the iPhone concept started taking shape at Apple, installed apps were not given much consideration. No plan existed for an installed app marketplace because the WebKit-based iOS Safari mobile browser would be able to do all the work,* thus allowing web apps to be written in a unified standard. And that unified standard would be platform-independent; it would also never need a software update.
* WebKit is the code-base for the DOM and layout rendering engines in all versions of Safari, Chrome, Android’s “anonymous” default browser (it’s even going to be powering your cable box in the coming years).
The application would be served over the network in realtime, from static html files, eliminating the need to push software updates to users, and providing a unified interface through an open-source standard architecture — HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The “web stack” can run an application entirely in the browser, without the need for server side programming. And WebKit’s HTML5 features eliminate the need for Flash or other browser plug-ins.
There are a lot of other cool tricks you can employ once you have users accessing your web app from their home screen. E.g., display a static image as a loading screen while Safari downloads assets, renders the layout, and processes JavaScript).
Listed in detail below, these three steps are as follows:
STEP 1: Add the “apple-mobile-web-app-capable” meta tag to the head of your html file.
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />
When users are visiting your web app from within Safari mobile, they can choose to bookmark it and add it to their iOS home screen. Using the aforementioned meta tag will remove the bottom browser chrome, but only when users visit your web app via their home screen shortcut. This has been a feature since iOS 2.1 and the official Apple documentation on this is available in Apple’s Safari Developer Library.
STEP 2: Add the “apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style” meta tag to the head of your html file.
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black-translucent" />
No one’s yet discovered a means of removing the iOS status bar while running Safari mobile. Even step one (when fully implemented) won’t do the trick. The only workaround is to use the “apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style” with a very specific “black-translucent” setting.
When used with trick #1, this meta tag will force the status bar and browser into separate layer depths — the background of the status bar is set to black, but with only a 50% opacity. So, technically, you’ve got a full screen, but you have to live with the semi-opaque status bar on top of your web pages.
The other two valid values are “default” and “black”, but neither of these create the layering effect like “black-translucent” does.
EXAMPLE: I’ve tried it out on a weather app I’m building — remember to add the home screen shortcut and launch the web app from there.
STEP 3: Suggest users add your web app to their home screen.
So, we want people to use our web apps in full screen mode. This means getting them to add a shortcut on their home screen and launching it from there. If only there were a relatively pain-free way to do this. Fortunately, JavaScript can be used to check and see if an icon already exists on the home screen and — if it’s not there — suggest they add it.
Enter the “Mobile Bookmark Bubble” project. A number of volunteer developers have collaborated to build a small JavaScript kit that does exactly that. On the difficulty scale, I’d say it’s a little more tricky than adding a jQuery plugin — in other words, it’s something most Flash developers should be able to handle. ;)
This method will allow users to experience your web site in full screen mode with no visible browser chrome. Unfortunately, we are dependent on the user to make this happen. If they do follow through, we should encourage them to keep the icon on their home screen. This means we should give them some good icons and make sure they’re right for the phone and easily recognizable. I’ll cover that in another post.
Can’t wait until this is available on iOS Safari mobile.
From your browser you can now upload pictures and videos from the camera as well as sounds from the microphone.
via Android 3.0 Honeycomb is first to implement the Device API | David Calhouns Blog.
The Santa Monica Planning Commission approved Apple’s plans for a new retail store with a giant glass roof on Wednesday without any discussion.
via AppleInsider | Santa Monica Apple Store with glass roof given swift approval.
The Chiat/Day relationship with Steve Jobs and Apple is nothing short of legendary. That legend goes something like this:
Chiat was hired by Apple to create the (also legendary) Ridley Scott-directed, $1 million, only-aired-once-cause-it’s-so-goddamn-special 1984 commercial that introduced the Macintosh line of computers during the Super Bowl.
Big Brother on the telescreen in the Apple 1984 commercial
When Jobs was forced out of left Apple, he used some of his newfound wealth to put Chiat/Day on retainer as his personal ad agency; basically, he took them with him when he left the company.
Artist's rendering of Jobs departure
The Building
The ad agency used some of that money to build a new office building.
LOL Binoculars
Completed in 1991, Chiat’s Gehry-designed building on Main Street in Venice is a globally-recognizable structure that boasts office space of 71,935 square feet teamed with the iconic presence of Claes Oldenberg‘s enormous binocular edifice arching over the original parking entrance. The building is within sight of the original design space of Charles and Ray Eames, a stone’s throw from one of our favorite Austrian’s old hangout spots (e.g. Gold’s Gym), and across the street from the original Venice Short Line Ocean Park Yard trolley station (it’s now an MTA bus depot and you can still see some original rail tracks from before the buses took over).
In 1996, the ad agency left that building and moved to Playa del Rey. Jobs was running NeXT computer when that company was bought by Apple. TBWA/Chiat-Day created a self-contained subsidiary called Media Arts Lab. This new organization would be dedicated to a single client, Steve Jobs.
Apple’s New Rivalry
“Make no mistake: Google wants to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.” – Steve Jobs addressing Apple employees in early 2010
Apple (Jobs) seems to thrive on competition. See Microsoft (Bill Gates) for more info. Jobs has always had a reputation for being the “cool kid” amongst the tech giants. Your cute lab partner in chemistry class? Steve’s ex-girlfriend. And like any good Alpha geek, he’s got a chip on his shoulder. Just let him think he’s in charge and everything will be cool.
Steve Jobs (Noah Wiley) confronting Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) about Windows in The Pirates of Silicon Valley
I’m still researching the origins of their personal relationship, but they’ve been neighbors for years. Schmidt was a big deal at Sun when they developed Java and then went to run Novell before leaving to head Google. He’s taught at Stanford. It seems like the guy has been in the Valley since grad school.
Fast-forward to 2010. Rumours develop of a rift between Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs.
It’s like watching Lex Luthor fight Dr. Viktor von Doom: baaaaaad aaaass (I leave it up to you to figure out who’s who in that simile)
So, this post will never be done. I have to publish it now or I will never stop working on it.
But the saga continues…
Further reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/technology/14brawl.html
UPDATE: An anonymous source at Google confirmed that this theory is not unlikely. Internally, Googlers are a little jealous of the unstoppable climb in Apple’s share price. Coupled with the its fanaticism, the reality distortion field (RFD) at Apple breeds contempt amongst the faithful toward any perceived non-believers.
Ooops.
A security flaw in the iPhone allows strangers to bypass the handset’s lock screen with a few button presses.
via Secret Button Sequence Bypasses iPhone Security | Threat Level | Wired.com.