New Technology Reviews!.: universal

Pixelmator releases ... an iPhone game called Flapcraft

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I am a big fan of Pixelmator, the excellent image editor for the Mac, and was surprised to see that team's latest project: an iOS game called called Flapcraft, which hit the App Store today. Not surprisingly, the team used Pixelmator to create the game's look. What a clever way to show off your image editor.</div>
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Flipcraft is a lot of fun. You play as a viking who jumps off of a ramp and executes elaborate tricks. An extensive upgrade system allows for higher jumps, bigger tricks, and more points. It's short, but entertaining. Plus, it looks great. You can pick it up for US$1.99 in the App Store right now.</div>
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The Pixelmator gang has produced a making-of video which shows the team creating the game's art and designing its website. Pixelmator is indeed a really powerful graphical tool -- it's too bad all of that art and design talent doesn't come with it!</div>
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Pixelmator releases ... an iPhone game called Flapcraft

I am a big fan of Pixelmator, the excellent image editor for the Mac, and was surprised to see that team's latest project: an iOS ...

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me agitate for Lion Rosetta

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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Dear Aunt TUAW,</span></div>
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Apple should SELL Rosetta in the App store. Please remind folks that they can complain about Lion most effectively by writing to Apple's feedback page.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Your loving nephew,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Dave Y.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Dear Dave,</span></div>
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Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as that. Rosetta represents far more than a simple app. Auntie is not an expert on these matters so she turned to Uncle Mike for clarification. Here's how he explained things.</div>
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The Power PC (PPC) backwards-compatibility provided by Rosetta was created by an entire OS of "fat" frameworks, combining support for PPC as well as Intel. Apple described it this way:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">New applications bearing the Universal symbol will run natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac computers. What about the applications you already own? Enter Rosetta. You'll never see it, you'll never configure it, you'll never have to think about it. It's built into Mac OS X to ensure that most of your existing applications live a long and fruitful life.</span></div>
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Rosetta was pretty awesome. It invisibly translated and executed code so old apps could continue to run on new hardware.</div>
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Here's what the QuickLook framework looks like under Snow Leopard</div>
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<tt style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">% file QuickLook<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />QuickLook: Mach-O universal binary with 3 architectures<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />QuickLook (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library x86_64<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />QuickLook (for architecture i386): Mach-O dynamically linked shared library i386<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />QuickLook (for architecture ppc7400): Mach-O dynamically linked shared library ppc</tt></div>
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And under Lion</div>
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<tt style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">% file QuickLook<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />QuickLook: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />QuickLook (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library x86_64<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />QuickLook (for architecture i386): Mach-O dynamically linked shared library i386</tt></div>
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Notice how the new frameworks don't have any PPC architecture? Even though Snow Leopard wouldn't run on PPC hardware, it still provided this backwards compatibility for PPC-compiled apps to link to, which was in turn translated in real time to the native instruction set.</div>
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Apple can be pretty brutal when it comes to policy decisions. From the floppy drive to Rosetta, it has a vision of the future that it moves forward to meet. It never hesitates to cut away the anchors of the past.</div>
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Lion has dropped support for all PPC applications, creating a leaner meaner cleaner operating system that isn't tied back to archaic processors. But that means Apple can't just sell Rosetta in App Store.</div>
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Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me agitate for Lion Rosetta

Dear Aunt TUAW, Apple should SELL Rosetta in the App store. Please remind folks that they can complain about Lion most effectively by...

IR-embedded Surc case converts iPhone into a universal learning remote

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Whoa, Nelly! ThinkFlood won't like this... not one bit. If you'll recall, the RedEye universal remote dongle was well received, as a simple 3.5mm adapter added IR beaming to Apple's slate of iDevices. But now, Mashed Pixel has taken the integration one step further, seamlessly embedding an Infrared emitter into a case. Simply pop the Surc around your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, download the (free) accompanying app and start programming.<br>
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IR-embedded Surc case converts iPhone into a universal learning remote

Whoa, Nelly! ThinkFlood won't like this... not one bit. If you'll recall, the RedEye universal remote dongle was well received, as...