First, I've quit one of my jobs to make time for the project. It was a tough descision, but it had to be done.

Second, the amount of study and coding time will increase drastically. Literally there will be no single day I'm not coding and studying (note that 'coding' is in first place). I am re-taking some of the previous iTunes courses, taking additional courses in Visual Design, and setting up a real work-place (with minimal distractions and maximum productivity 'helpers').

Third, this site is going to become quite a different place, I am starting to turn it into more 'Personal Creative Business' and less into 'A Guy Chatting About Something' type of a place. Structural re-design, emphasis on mass-appeal, the homepage. Blog will remain, but in a less dominant role (probably as a sub-page).

Four, the project will at some point evolve into business-model. Not quite profitable at the beginning, but hopefully profitable enough to support me in the future. I'll be starting a company, first of my own, and then expanding if needed.

Five, expanding into social networking. I've resisted this in the past because I couldn't figure out how to do it and at the same time not to be too obtrusive, especially to my friends. :) However, I believe I'm on a brink of finding the right balance and it's time to make it happen.

There are Six, Seven, Eight... and so on in this list of SimpleBeat evolution, so maybe it's more accurate to call it revolution. No matter what the name is though, it's going to be fun, exciting, hard, challenging, and totally worth it. At the very least it's a better life when you're active! :)

Cristmas came early, I've got myself a present, the new iPhone, the 4s. To say I am satisfied is to say nothing - I am very happy and excited about the latest Apple product! Especially considering the fact that my current phone is iPhone 3G (not even 3Gs).

It is very snappy, quick and powerful, the camera is great, and even half-working Siri (which still does not support European maps and locations) is quite useful. It is fun and easy way to set reminders, calendar events and quickly check things. I am yet to check how it works for messages and e-mail, though I suppose it'll work just fine. I'm also surprised on how accurate the speech recognition is. Most of the times Siri gets what one says exactly right!

As much as I enjoy the fact of this upgrade, there is also a practical issue: I'm now able to check all my iOS apps on the latest hardware, which will be relevant at least a year. This is not to mention that developing for iPhone 4s would be my priority.

This comes out badly only in the situation of long holidays: the New Year. The business in theatre starts looming, so drains my free time for any side-projects! :)

And these times have started early this week with the first rehearsals. So, I'm late already on this post, and this will continue into the following weeks. I'll do everything possible to keep up with the studies and blog updates, but it's going to slip from time to time: gotta make living and it's not by coding just yet! :)

Also I had some family emergency business this week which complicated things even further. It all turned out to be just fine eventually, but I had to take time off from all my other activities.

To end on a positive note though there is going to be official launch of iPhone 4s in Russia on December 16th, and that's when Christmas actually kicks in for me! :)

The system did improve, and in many ways it is a great step forward:  Mission Control and Fullscreen Mode both quickly became my favotites.  And the way it's implemented on Macbook's trackpad is even more compelling!  XCode in Fullscreen Mode is just pure joy to code in!  Nothing is distracting, no pop-up dock, no upper menu to eat up valuable space, maximum efficiency with its 64-bit archetecture.

This upgrade did however take some of my time to get used to and tweak some of the settings (for example, the reverse scrolling in windows wasn't something I would want to persist;  it was relatively easy to fix, just one switch in the settings).  I also had to re-install the XCode (this time the free version compatible with Lion) and since I started with the update and clean-up I also bought the three iLife '11 apps (just one glimpse:  love iMovie Trailers!)

As you've probably also noticed I updated the design here, but I'm still figuring it out, can't yet say it is the one I will stick to.

The week ahead is more coding and studying, some interesting lectures are waiting!

I then updated XCode and found it to be a very much big improvement over what I had before!  Two most striking features are the Storyboard (and its automatic code generation) and the Automatic Reference Count (it vastly improves the memory management, especially when someone like me has a poor understanding of how memory should be managed).

Following the update, I've completed three lectures of the new course and did the very first assignment (it's also a calculator, but this time RPN).  I've enjoyed coding in the XCode so much that I re-made the calculator a couple more times, which also helped me to get used to the new subtleties of the app and the way it works.

Another bit of a good news is that I've decided to update my system to Lion (eventually), and join Apple Developer Program for iOS and OS X.  I've started the sign up process some days ago, and right now I'm in the middle of making it all work (for some reason I need to fax my confirmation to Apple, and the most interesting part in here is where do I find... a fax-machine!).

There was only one semi-bad event, I had Internet outage during Sunday, so this post came out late, sorry.  However, the good side is that I've had lots of time on my hand to code, code, code!]]>I've Build... a Calculator!http://www.simplebeat.com/blog/ive-build-a-calculator.htmlSimpleBeat2011-11-14T07:00:00ZCS193 Calculator Objective-C Stanford appsJust as I expected there were more time to study and code after the 10th of November.  So, I went ahead and did one assignment from Stanford CS193 course on iOS programming and coded a calculator.  Now, I do remember coding one calculator in the past, but that was more of remembering the code rather than understanding the code.  This time I was able not only replicate what the instructor was doing, but go one extra step thurther and improve the original concept.

The calculator was supposed to be a usual one, supporting floating numbers and basic set of operations:  addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and square root extraction.  It was very simplistic in both visual design and structural complexity.  Speaking of structure, though simple it quite well illustrates the Model-View-Controller paradigm, having three distinct classes:  CalculatorBrain (model), CalculatorViewController (controller), and the view which is build via Interface Builder in XCode.  While coding I've realized the boundaries between the three classes, and was even able to implement the extra features in the correct way, choosing the right class to modify!

My additions to the original app were just three buttons:  'AC' to reset everything back to 0, '+/-' to be able to enter negative numbers, and '.' to have the ability to enter floating point numbers.  It didn't take long for me to implement any of these features, but it surely provided a great experience and boosted my interest to continue with the studies.

I'm not posting any screenshots of the calculator here, because it's way too generic and frankly speaking looks ugly to me.  However, it served its purpose very well, and it even posed some design questions I really need to consider for my future apps.

I'm going to have a bit more free time during this week, so there will be more coding, studying, and hopefully great screenshots of my first apps posted here!

Most of the time I've been preparing for my day-time job project due November 10th (which seems to be turning into something original and viable already, but not related to coding in any way), and keeping up with my second day-time job (thankfully it's a remote one with flexible hours, but also not related to coding).  After November 10th I hope to have more time to pick up with mastering iOS app development.

I've started Project Euler problem, but still cannot optimize it to work fast enough to produce the answer in reasonable time.  I believe I'll make it work and figure out the math for it sometime during this week.  Meantime I watched more lectures and read a bit of manuals from Apple.  Not much excitement, but still not a complete nothing.

Due to the hard time restrictions I've mentioned for upcoming 2-week period I might take a quick break from this project.  However I'll do everything possible to avoid any interruptions and stive to do some coding, reading, and lecture watching.

I’ve watched a couple of video tutorials and lectures as well.  But my main point of progress was the newly solved problem from Project Euler (which by the way has gone through a pretty nice re-design just a few weeks ago).  The problem itself wasn’t too hard to implement, but it was kind of a problem that provides very enjoyable coding experience.  I’m glad I’ve returned to Project Euler again, it’s a refreshing feeling.

Next week I’m going to continue watching lectures and reading Apple Guidelines.  I also hope to start a very simple Objective-C based project (maybe just a plain ‘Guess the number’ game) just to get into habit of coding in Objective-C.

I've watched The New Boston series of tutorials by Bucky, a really good introduction into OS X and iOS development (as well as into many other programming topics).  Overall it's a great project, but for me it's very basic, still I've learned a couple of nice tricks.  Want to thank Anton for the links once again!

I've read 3/4 of Apple's 'The Objective-C Programming Language' textbook, and also started one called 'iOS Human Interface Guidelines' also by Apple.  Fascinating read, I must say, lots of design insights there.

I've updated my iPad to iOS 5, and already enjoy it!  The two greatest features for me are Messages (now I basically do not need to SMS somebody who has a recent iPhone or an iPad), and wireless sync with iTunes (it all happens in the background).  

Reading and watching how people react to the new iPhone 4S (especially the camera and Siri), I've decided this model to be my upgrade of current iPhone 3G, which feels very old to me (not in a negative way, it's a great phone, and works just fine, but there are no updates for it).  I'll still keep it around, probably for compatibility reasons to test apps on and such just as I intend to do with the very first iPod Touch.

I am also considering applying for developer's account for MacOS X and iOS later this month to get everything set up and ready to go.  Hope will have no problems.  :)

That's it for this week, preparing to code a few examples and make a simple number-guessing game using standard Apple Foundation and UI.

Looking through all the tributes, videos, quotes, reactions I've discovered one particular recording of 1997 WWDC Q&A with Steve (who just came back to Apple) and developers.  Worth watching over and over again, so much insight and thought.

Watch it here.

Thank you, Steve!

On the other side there are times when I realize I should've better planned my time, for example, coding requires concentration and (preferably) quiet environment, by which I mean 'distraction-free'.  Such conditions rarely occur on their own, unless they are planned.  In order to have more coding time I simply need to schedule it at certain days and give it a higher priority.  Reading and watching is not that demanding in terms of surroundings, and I can do it pretty much everywhere I have an iPad at.  And while it is all good and useful activity, I realize that without practice it will not benefit me much.  So my goal for the next week will be implementing a new schedule with coding times built into it.

This evening, however, I'm still watching a lecture.  :)

I've read first three chapters of the book and did examples to become familiar with the language, and must say it wasn't hard at all (unlike all the previous times, when I was basically guessing what the words meant).  I understood quite well the logics behind the syntax and it came down to realization, that Objective C is basically C language (even very much like C++), but with some 'add-ons' to make it more flexible and suited for modern coding practices.

Next week I am going to continue studying and practicing Objective-C, and hope to continue my Project Euler problems (still need more time for that).

Another line of study was watching Harvard lectures, but I only saw one (on tables).  Sadly enough I had no time to practice this week, so no Project Euler wins this week.  However, I'm starting to read the book by Aaron Hillegass called 'Cocoa Programming for MacOS X' and it's known to be practice-driven, so my coding will continue very soon!