Geocoding and fetching maps with VirtualEarthKit
Posted by Colin
Today we released a framework for interacting with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Web Services called VirtualEarthKit. I thought I’d put together a little tutorial on using this framework.
To get started you’ll need:
• A Mac running Mac OS 10.5 (this is Objective C 2.0 so Mac OS 10.4 is not supported)
• Phillipe Casgrain’s CoreLocation framework for Mac OS X (included with VirtualEarthKit, if you’re on the iPhone you don’t need this)
• A Virtual Earth user id and password
• VirtualEarthKit
This tutorial expects that you know your way around Cocoa a bit, but most of the VirtualEarthKit classes are analogous to classes in the official Windows Communication Foundation API. Read the rest of this entry »
Draft version of O’Reilly iPhone Development Book Available
Posted by Colin
According to iLounge O’Reilly is making available it’s “rough cut” of “iPhone Open Application Development” available. I’m not sure how useful this book will be with the official SDK on the way from Apple this month, but hopefully most of the frameworks should be the same. Still cool for those that want to program for the mobile version of OS X.
Enabling your OS X software for multi-touch
Posted by Colin
Cocoadex has posted an excellent article on how you can take advantage of the Macbook Air’s multi-touch trackpad in your Cocoa OS X application.
Thanks to Charles Srstka for sending me the link.
Software Engineers: Apple’s Unsung Heroes?
Posted by Colin
The other day Jens Alfke made news when he announced he was leaving Apple. I first met Jens at WWDC2006, where I have attended a session that he and a mutual friend were giving. Afterwards I had dinner with him and some of his team, where I got to talk with him about his history with Apple.
Jens raises an interesting concern about Apple and how they treat their engineers. Those of us who were around for the pre-OS X days might remember that in every software, in the about dialog, there was a list of engineers who worked on the project. It never felt obtrusive, but I imagine that it gave engineers a chance to show their family and friends that their name had ended up on a finished product that they had been working on for the last six months. Read the rest of this entry »