Buffer Labs becomes iOS developer

February 10th, I got a mail saying "Thank You for Joining an Apple Developer Program". Through a simple and sweet application process, Buffer Labs got enrolled into Apple developer program for an year.  It required us to send two faxes to Apple office in California, which were easily done through a free fax site. With this done, we got access to iOS 5.1 beta which I immediately installed on my iPhone 4s. This moment marked the iPhone4S become fully functional/ carrier compliant etc.

Since the day I bought it (by exchanging my old iPhone4), there has been serious issues with the carrier settings. Apple had decided to do away with the turn off 3G button. The phone used to stay on the 3G network for calls as well, which was not compatible with Airtel and Idea (It somehow worked on BSNL though) and hence whenever you tried to call someone, it would take 1 minute before you connect. Receiving calls and message was not possible at all. After this update, the phone can actually make calls. The phone is actually glistening white and beautiful and as remarked by Shubham "almost like a jewel". Slightly washed out theme of the OS adds to the beauty. Siri is a disappointment though as it doesn't understand half the time in Indian context. The speed however is amazing fast and 8 MP camera with face recognition and video stabilization is amazing. See the picture below :

Now it's time for some app development. Since the license allows to test the app on the phone, I was excited again to work on my JoPlanner app. Within two days, and with help from Stackoverflow, the app is almost near completion. I never expected iOS programming to be so fast and simple. I had always looked at ObjectiveC as unusually complex language but iOS api adds unprecedented power to it. The only place where I had to really read long documentation and take Shubham's help was when I got stuck not knowing how to pass data from a child class to parent class. Finally, I used custom Delegates and Protocols as described in following links :

http://tiptopcode.blogspot.in/

http://www.theappcodeblog.com/2011/04/15/passing-data-between-views-tutorial-using-a-protocol-delegate-in-your-iphone-app/

I have also been quite excited about designing some icons for supplementary apps :

Do more with your iPad

Came across two amazing apps for iPad which have filled the gap I was looking for and taken my iPad experience to a new level. The first one being Blogsy- the blogging app. Unlike its counterparts, it offers rich viewing along with raw HTML. Also, adding pictures, videos just got easy with it. Within two clicks you can select the source of media and the location to store it. It is very easy to drag and position the image on the screen.

You can add multiple accounts, create local copies of the posts etc. But the great thing about the app is the easy access to your blog and editing comfort.

The second app is the web albums. It is a Picasa web album viewer, uploader and downloader. And what a UI, I am overwhelmed with the work these guys have done. They have replicated the pictures app on the iPad along with the pinch to go back, swipe to next gestures. Click on the photo and you can see all the camera EXIF data. Add captions to the photos, upload new ones, even move pictures between your web albums - wow! It even gives you option to cache entire albums locally, and adjust the cache limit as per your wish.

While still amazed with the above two apps, I came across a photo editing app - Photogene for iPad. It features more than 2 dozens of editing tools which are very effective. This app definitely has the capability to shift the photo editing platform from laptop to iPad.

To Steve Jobs

I still remember May 3rd, 2008, the day I got my first Apple product - the white Macbook. It was an adorable and well polished creation. Just the hardware itself had spelled me enough to love this white glistening machine, with a glowing Apple sign behind the screen. Being extremely light weight, it was a pleasure to work while holding it in lap. Unlike most of the other laptops, there were no exhaust openings at the bottom or sides and it was absolutely silent in operation. I recently came to know that Jobs had learnt this from his father - even the parts which are not visible should be well finished. 

The battery backup was 5 to 6 hours - travel all day long without worry; wake up from sleep was unbelievably fast - open the lid and it was on. Browsing through the Apple website for help, somewhere it said "Mac might appear very unconventional initially but in a week you would feel as if you have been together for ages". I am glad that Apple has kept all its promises as this one. The bond has grown stronger everyday. The operating system and applications have been packaged to give a soothing experience. It came with all the essential softwares with easy to configure steps for which I would have to spend whole night on a new PC. I rarely had encounters with a waiting cursor or any virus. The best part was that it was well consistent and organized throughout the OS and all applications. Help is actually helpful as it is easily available and most of the things are accessible in not more than a couple of clicks. It was a design marvel and a source of inspiration. It was only after working on it for sometime that I realized how much change I had undergone. I was learning to do things with perfection till the last bit of it. I had always hated making documents and presentations - found them really boring, in MS-Office; organizing my folders and desktops was a tedious job. I tried iWork for one day and now I was loving every document, because of its limited and yet equally powerful controls.

During my internship in Sweden, I came across Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford. I liked his passion for doing something new and good. By that time iPhone 1st generation was already launched and 3G was about to be launched in July. Around the end of June, I was browsing through the iPhone pages on Apple's site. I was already using an HTC P3300 Windows phone and I never really liked it except for its mp3 playing capability. I looked up used iPhones on Ebay/US and was fortunate to win one of the bids for ten thousand rupees. My first day with the phone was amazing. More about it : here. It was something beyond our imagination. With time, I moved to 3G, 3GS and now iPhone 4. Not a day has passed in last three years, when I have not adored it - consistency again. It has really simplified my life giving me more time to focus on real problems. Be it accessing my mail on the go or video chat on 3G or finding my way in any part of the world and of course the games, google, camera and iBooks, its much more worthier than any single handheld device can be.

Looking back, if there was one single person behind the technological revolution which made these possible, it was Steve Jobs. His contributions are countless. With Wozniak, he invented the first small computer, introduced the mouse, the amazing Mac, the multi-touch interfaces and various other things which make up today's Apple products. These in turn has inspired many other products which make our life easier. His insight into user experience was amazing. At the same time he was a true businessman who knew how to bring people together and make them work towards one big target. But more than anything he was a great visionary who paved the way for generations to come. He mentored many other companies which have contributed to many more technological revolutions. He laid down the foundation of a world where things would magically work, where a user would just relish the technology while the computer would understand his master and do all the work. Rest in peace Steve, the world will miss you.

  

The picture below, one of my favorites, shows him passionately holding the first Apple computer. The video below that from a 1983 Apple event where Steve is playing game with Bill Gates and others. The second video is a documentary on him - it has some really classic pics of him. Third one is an interview of Walter Isaacson who shares some of his pics and audio used in writing his biography.

Jailbreaking Iphone - Hacking the world's best phone

Since the time I planned to buy the Iphone, I had been following Zibri's blog. The software he had released for cracking the Iphone then costed 25$. But some others released a free version of the same. Praneeth downloaded the v2.2 firmware and an application "quickpawn" for cracking the phone. As soon as I reached his room we connected the phone to iTunes on his comp and pressed the restore button. It took some 20 minutes for the firmware to install and then the jailbreaking process. It flashed the ROM and what do we see ... "no service found". We again pressed the restore button but the connector being loose hung the process. The screen went blank - then a symbol saying connecting to iphone. We were afraid, it was not even restarting. Second thought : ..crap.. we had to use the right SIM not the AT&T one before cracking it. And then the entire process again with the BSNL sim and I had my fully functional Iphone in my hand.....
It was a really different experience using it - such smooth GUI and superfast response - it was simply amazing. I transferred my music an photos to it. Sound quality - simply mind blowing - this is THE phone I wanted. Next day I fiddled around with it for a while trying to install some apps but it required proxyless connection ! Next day I woke up at 12 and went to lab. Praneeth and Shubham were also there. Then we went to CC where Praneeth did some of his usual tricks and ran a proxy server on his comp to tunnel without authorization. Soon Cyndia - the third party installer started working through the CC wifi and we installed the SSH server and the Mplayer on it. Then transferred some videos to it. Tried running youtube but didnt work. Then the terminal and the OSX Finder.We stayed there till the entire battery drained out at 7 pm.

|Running the VNC service|
Then we went for food and came to my room. The 2nd session starts now. We connected to the iTunes and a huge bundle of apps awaited us. First the video recorder then the VNC client. Wow we connected to my laptop through VNC on phone - looked cool. Then Remote Itunes app to control my laptop's itunes through the phone. From virtual stethoscope to natural cures app to piano to flute to the amazing NES ROM games -- yes Mario and Contra ...we were simply under the phone's spell. Chess, car racing, dictionary, unit converter and graphic calculator and night stand - now it was not just a phone.. it proved to be a real Personal Digital Assisstant, rather a complete companion. We kept playing around till 12 before leaving for Hall 4 - a day fully dedicated to the world's best phone indeed.
Recently I also installed resistance value calculator, google talk, scientific calculator, photo editor, google earth, sudoku, chronograph watch and the best of all the dream IMU - it records the vibrations and sends them over via mail.

  

Iphone ...Yet another gadget in my box

After a long struggle - going through all hopes and despair IPHONE finally reached me - thanks to all the people involved in the transaction and transport.
The story goes like this :
During my stay at Sweden, I was going through the Ebay site and came across a 16GB Iphone which was priced at 100$. I made a bid for it and by the time the bid was over, the price had risen to 400$. It was the first bid of my life so I didn't want to loose it (stupid argument though but works since I was thousands of mile away from US and was not bound to pay) so I kept increasing my stake till I finally won it. Within a day I started getting mail from the seller forcing me to buy it. I consulted Praneeth and we decided not to buy it. I tried to avoid it but Ebay started forcing me (that they would discontinue my account bla bla) so I had to convince the seller that I was running low on money and apologized for it.
Within a week I bade again for another 8GB Iphone. This time I was strategic. I went through all the available ones on Ebay. All of them were priced high. But there was one which had a title PDA phone and was priced 50$; 5 hours left for the bid to get over - with no other bidder. I kept following it and finally won it at 248$. That was a cool deal but I was confused. I told my parents - my dad got very excited about it so I made my mind for it.
Next day itself I got a mail and a person named Jason (from California) added me onto his gtalk list. I talked to him about the condition of the phone and was satisfied. He was selling it as he wanted to buy the 3G one releasing that day (11th July) in US. I asked Ashish Bhatia who was then doing his intern in California for his address and gave it to him. Jason said that Bhatia's house is a few kms away from his so I was pretty satisfied and paid him on Paypal immediately. He said he would personally give it to him. He even called him up. Three days later, there was no news about the phone and Jason was unreachable on his phone. I was little scared. Then he told me on gtalk that Paypal has suspended his account as he had not submitted the postal tracking number with them so he had parceled the phone to Bhatia. I waited for two days. Then Bhatia told me that the address he had given was of his friend. The package did arrive there but they needed his signature so it could not be delivered. I asked him to leave a message on the door but it didn't work. Tried asking Jason to advise the Fedex people to not ask for signature. By the time it could be managed, 3 delivery attempts were done by fedex and now the only way was to go and collect it from the fedex office which according to Bhatia was 20 miles away. He said he would go on weekend. It was hardly 10 days left before he had to leave US. But he didn't get time. On the last day I even told him to take a taxi to the place I will pay for it. He said "You should have given me this idea before .There's hardly any time. Please samjha kar yaar" and he came to India without it. :|
That was just the beginning of a long journey. I was pretty hopeless and disheartened by then. It was 8 am here. I went to mess with Lord and cursed Ashish like hell. Then I started thinking "what next". I asked Jason to collect the phone and parcel to India for 100$. But he went off the town for a few days and fedex made 3 delivery attempts to him and failed. He said he would collect it and parcel it. Suddenly one day I came to know that Vibhor Jain was in California itself. I asked him and he agreed. I once again continued with the broken dream.It was already 25th July and he was coming on 13th August. On 9th I wanted to confirm about the status when I came to know that Vibhor was leaving US on 11th. I asked Jason. He said he had planned to dispatch it the day after and it wouldn't be possible for it to be delivered so fast. So here was the second bump.
In the meanwhile Anshu bhaiya came home and Papa discussed the issue. He said many of his friends were in US and I could get it shipped to them. He even gave me the addresses. I kept pursuing Jason and he kept saying that the fedex people were not replying properly - its lunch time etc etc. One day he finally told me that they are saying that the package had reached their warehouse in Utah and someone needs to file a claim. Then he again became dormant for quite a few days until he told me "Is there anyway you can manage it yourself". He gave me their phone no which was not accessible from here. I started pursuing them through mails. First I gave Anshu bhaiya's friends address but the matter required regular touch with the recipient. I called Fedex India. They said that Indian service is not related to the US one. "But Vibhor Jain would have reached back by now and will definitely come to India sometime", thought I. The situation was strange. The sender(Jason) was not very active - the recipient(Bhatia) of the package had left US and a third person (me) was claiming it from India to be delivered to a fourth person in US. This was the very question Fedex asked me. I tried convincing them and finally they asked me to file an online claim. I went to the page and filed a claim in the name of Vibhor. It asked for 3 documents - print of the claim page, airbill and the payment bill. I managed to find the pament bill from Paypal but airbill must be with Jason. He said that he might have it in his car and would scan fax me. After so many requests he never sent it.
Alas ...what a bad deal. Vibhor told me that he got a call from them and he asked them to deliver it to him. Ok! some hope again and again before I could imagine the phone in my hand I got a mail "We shall not process the claim without the 2 documents". One more request to Jason but no response. Then one day I return from lab and the gtalk flashed a new mail message with subject "Got the iphone :)" from Vibhor. I literally didn't believe it. I was surprised because the documents were not yet submitted. That was an offline message. I buzzed him next time he was online and no reply. No reply next time as well. Now what mystery was that..... for God's sake......!!
Finally he replied after 3 days saying that when he reached home it was lying outside. I took a great sigh of relief. I asked him if he was coming to India. He said there are many people coming to India in December so it wont be a problem. He handed over to Vaibhav. I sent him a mail with my phone number but he didnt contact me for next 5 days - Vibhor said it was exam time there. Around 20th I asked Vibhor again and he said he was in India for 3 days. I was leaving for home. I mailed him again and got a call from him saying that he would be in Kanpur the next day.
By the time I could reach here he had to leave. I was on the bus so I asked Surya to call him up and take it from him but he had no balance. Lord was also not here then. After hour i got a call from Lord that he was in campus. And he did the honours. I reached here around 7 pm and he was busy finding cracks for it. The entire journey was 10000 km and 5 months long....!!
The next post describes how it was cracked and what happened next.