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News
Apple Should be the Netflix of Cloud Computing
Drew McCormack on iCloud and the general state of sync services. It's a good look at the landscape and the issues surrounding it. The only thing I can't ever see happening here is Apple opening iCloud up to anything other than iOS and OS X. Whether or not it would be a good idea is almost irrelevant, it's not going to happen.
tumblr.com
The Open Source development of Unreal Tournament 4
This is fascinating and a very shrewd move from Unreal. Epic are going to fully open source the development of Unreal Tournament 4 to promote Unreal Engine, their new game engine. If you ever wanted to watch the development of a large game title take place, this is your chance. It's not clear whether UT4 is going to be on iOS or not at this stage but the engine certainly is so if you are considering using it, this is going to be a goldmine of technique.
unrealengine.com
Sponsored Link
App Links That See Further
Facebook has just announced App Links, making deep linking to installed apps easier. Extend the reach of those links through Tapstream's Deferred Deep Links: for apps not yet installed the link is stored on our servers until the app launches for the first time, letting you customize the on-boarding process for that user. Use Deferred Deep Links alongside App Links or on their own - try them today.
tapstream.com
Tools
I Stopped Using NIBs Thanks to Auto Layout
Kirby Turner on abandoning XIBs and Storyboards for assembling everything with code. There are a few advantages of doing things this way; easier merges, more transparency around what is being set and where and never ever having to commit a XIB/Storyboard change when the Xcode version updates. It's a good post but I remain unconvinced, I'll trade those few points for the convenience, ease of use and visual nature of IB every time.
thecave.com
Dringend
Xcode on iPad? OK so you need to have a Mac powered on and available somewhere as the build and code signing process still requires OS X but this is quite an impressive feat nonetheless. My first thought was to put this into "And Finally..." but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it deserving of a non-sarcastic link. A glimpse of the future maybe?
dringend.cc
Code
When an Autorelease Isn't
The Friday Q&A has been on hiatus for a little while but Mike Ash brings it back this week with a story about autorelease which turns into a bit of a quest to dig deep into the internals of ARC.
mikeash.com
Replicating UIScrollView’s deceleration with Facebook Pop
Rounak Jain follows up Ole Begemann's post from last week on rebuilding UIScrollView by adding inertia scrolling using Pop. Grant Paul then added bouncing and rubber banding as well. It's great to see Ole's little experiment expanded and improved like this.
iosdevtips.co
iBeacons Lessons Learned
Sean McMains with a solid run down of what you can and can't achieve with iBeacons. The capabilities of beacons are quite often misunderstood by developers and I'm guilty of this too, for quite a while I believed it was possible to get a heading and distance of a beacon which simply isn't possible. This post will help you brush up on your knowledge.
github.io
Design
Error Messages
Brent Simmons on how to write great error messages. I'm guilty of occasionally apologising in error messages but the key point here is how to structure the message to get the most important information across and to give the user something they can do about it. Very wise words.
inessential.com
Questions I ask when reviewing a design
Jason Fried with a great set of questions to ask when reviewing designs. Notice how few of these have anything to do with how it actually looks.
signalvnoise.com
Business and Marketing
How to make $250,000 with ASCII graphics
Barrett Sheridan interviewing Michael Townsend and Amir Rajan about A Dark Room which is a game written with very little attention paid to visuals or UI design. Instead, the narrative makes it compelling and even though I find the UI uncomfortable, I find this fascinating.
medium.com
Jobs
Mobile Tech Lead @ Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California
Edmunds' award winning iPhone and iPad apps help car shoppers find and purchase the car that meets their every need. We're looking for a Technical Lead to join our mobile team who will have the opportunity to lead the development of our hugely popular iOS apps and take a central role in driving the mobile experience at Edmunds.
jobsco.re
Mobile Software Engineer: SDKs for iOS (Boston)
The mission of Brightcove’s SDK team is to build libraries, frameworks, and developer tools that help Brightcove’s customers build the best possible video and media app experiences on a wide range of devices. We’re looking to bring on a developer with knowledge of Objective-C and iOS development to help build our SDKs for iOS.
jobvite.com
iOS Mobile Software Engineer, Austin, TX or Denver, CO
MapMyFitness, an Under Armour Company, is the leader in Connected Fitness – building the world’s largest digital fitness community by providing interactive tools to make fitness social, simple and rewarding. Our flagship consumer brands are among the most popular apps on iOS and Android and the cloud-based platform has been supporting millions of users since it launched in 2007.
mapmyfitness.com
And finally...
The Story Behind After Dark
Flying toaster anyone?
lowendmac.com