After a little snooping with HTTPScoop, I found that the name comes from an Apple server.

System profiler will send the last 3 characters of your machine serial number and the server will send back the machine name, in xml format.

My iMac serial ends with “5RU” so calling the url below and passing “5RU” as a parameter:

curl -o - "http://support-sp.apple.com/sp/product?cc=5RU&lang=en_US"

gives:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<root>
<name>CPU Name</name>
<configCode>iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)</configCode>
<locale>en_US</locale>
</root>

Changing the locale works:

curl -o - "http://support-sp.apple.com/sp/product?cc=5RU&lang=fr_CH"

gives:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<root>
<name>CPU Name</name>
<configCode>iMac (27 pouces, fin 2009)</configCode>
<locale>fr_FR</locale>
</root>

It works also with the iPhone:

curl -o - "http://support-sp.apple.com/sp/product?cc=A4S&lang=en_US"

gives:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<root>
<name>CPU Name</name>
<configCode>iPhone 4</configCode>
<locale>en_US</locale>
</root>

Enjoy.

Mike Lee, aka @bmf

So many times I’ve heard people say: “it’s not my fault, it’s a bug in the framework/OS/firmware/WTFware”.

Do what you’re paid for. Make it work.

Read the complete post here: Layers + Ruler = Swearing

You can find it on my blog here.

The only thing I want to say is:if you want to improve your skills in Cocoa, for Mac, iPhone or iPad, you should go: you’ll have the best speakers, the best organization you can dream of. And you will come back with new contacts, new ideas, new code to try.

You can (should) read Alex Repty report here.

It’s a GreaseMonkey (and GreaseKit) script that will obliterate all mentions of the words “Tablet”, “iSlate”, “iPad”, “iTablet” and replace them with “Unicorn”, because more people have seen Unicorns than the famous iTablet.

So this is how this post looks without the script:

And with script installed:

To use this script, you’ll need to have GreaseMonkey installed (if running Firefox) or GreaseKit if you use Safari.

You can install (or download) the script here .

This script is based on the dumbquotes sample, my previous attempt with jQuery was a too heavy to load for each page.

Have fun, and I hope I will not need this script for too long.

These are:

• mailto
• YouTube
• maps.google.com
• iTunes
• AppStore

I’ve written a generic BrowserViewController, code available on GitHub here: http://github.com/sburlot/browserviewcontroller which handles all these cases:

mailto links are handled with a MFMail: I tried to handle all variations on the link: “to”, “cc”, “subject” and “body”.

YouTube, Map, iTunes and AppStore links are opened in their respective apps.

You can customise the view and decide if you want a navigation tab bar or not.

The navigation tab bar will add standard web buttons: Back, Forward, Stop, Reload and also a button to send the url of the current page via email, or open it in Safari.

Enjoy!

So here is a list of some of the tools, template to design your next iPhone application.

Templates:

• Keynote ’09: via MockApp
• Microsoft PowerPoint (WTF?): via MockApp
• OmniGraffle: via Patrick Crowley
• OmniGraffle: via Yahoo
• OmniGraffle: via Designing Web Interfaces
• Illustrator: via Mercury Intermedia
• PhotoShop: via Teehan+Lax

Specialized Tools

• Balsamiq Mockups

For pen & paper aficionados:

• Stainless steel stencil: iPhone Stencil Kit
• DesignCommission also provides a PDF template
• Sketch Paper in pdf: on labs.boulevard
• Printed SketchBook: Kaplan Software Group

In Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware, Andy Hunt recommends using pen and paper to use your right brain and free your creative mind. When using a computer, you will concentrate on the details, not the complete user experience.

Another drawback of using a computer: if you show your design to the client, he also will concentrate on the details (“can you change the shade of this red button? It’s TOO red.”). Showing a hand-drawn design will let him imagine how the final product will look. This can be a double-edged sword, so you better know what the customer is expecting before using one of these techniques.

Here is the code:

- (CGImageRef)CGImageRotatedByAngle:(CGImageRef)imgRef angle:(CGFloat)angle
{
  CGFloat angleInRadians = angle * (M_PI / 180);
  CGFloat width = CGImageGetWidth(imgRef);
  CGFloat height = CGImageGetHeight(imgRef);

  CGRect imgRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height);
  CGAffineTransform transform = CGAffineTransformMakeRotation(angleInRadians);
  CGRect rotatedRect = CGRectApplyAffineTransform(imgRect, transform);

  CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
  CGContextRef bmContext = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL,
                                                 rotatedRect.size.width,
                                                 rotatedRect.size.height,
                                                 8,
                                                 0,
                                                 colorSpace,
                                                 kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst);
  CGContextSetAllowsAntialiasing(bmContext, FALSE);
  CGContextSetInterpolationQuality(bmContext, kCGInterpolationNone);
  CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
  CGContextTranslateCTM(bmContext,
                        +(rotatedRect.size.width/2),
                        +(rotatedRect.size.height/2));
  CGContextRotateCTM(bmContext, angleInRadians);
  CGContextTranslateCTM(bmContext,
                        -(rotatedRect.size.width/2),
                        -(rotatedRect.size.height/2));
  CGContextDrawImage(bmContext, CGRectMake(0, 0,
                                           rotatedRect.size.width,
                                           rotatedRect.size.height),
                     imgRef);

  CGImageRef rotatedImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(bmContext);
  CFRelease(bmContext);
  [(id)rotatedImage autorelease];

  return rotatedImage;
}

Some companies are already providing (or planning to provide) a gateway to the APN:

These are:

• Urban Airship
• iLime
• AppNotify

These are in closed beta:

• Push.io
• iPushServer.com
• msgpush

Urban Airship and iLime also provide In App Purchase.

Or you can build your own: Open Source & Tutorials

• ApnsPHP: Apple Push Notification & Feedback Provider
• EasyAPNS: Open Source solution (PHP, MySQL)
• Tutorial on how to setup your own server in PHP
• Source code (in PHP), requires PHP with memcache
• Python wrapper for Apple Push Notification Service
• A universal Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) provider in Python
• Apple Push Notification Library for Haskell
• Apple Push Notification Library for Ruby
• Rails plugin for Apple Push Notifications
• Apple Push Notifications on Rails
• Apple Push Notification & Feedback Services Client C# Library
• Persistent Apple APNS interface for Perl 5

I will try to keep this list updated.

Edit: added ApnsPHP & pyapns.org
Edit: separated the active services from the beta, added msgpush.com and C# Library
Edit: added a Rails plugin
Edit: added AppNotify (in Beta)
Edit: AppNotify is no more in Beta.
Edit: Added EasyAPNS source code
Edit: Removed Bigcurl HTTPush, since it’s reserved for bigcurl agency customers
Edit: added a Perl module