1. The iPad is not a fit-in-your-pocket mobile device. You'll still need your phone. In fact, you still might want your iPhone. Being able to pull out your iPhone to look up quick contact or contact information is very useful in the middle of a conversation. Having to dig your iPad out of your bag for something so trivial isn't ideal.
2. If you're reading my blog, the iPad is not your full-time computer. The iPad fills the market the MacBook Air was trying to fill, but failed to. It is a secondary computer to a more powerful full-time computer. You'll still want your main computer to do "real" work. Sure, the iPad will cover most work-related tasks, but software development, graphic design, etc. just won't be covered.
3. On the other hand, if you are one of the people Google Chrome OS is targeting then maybe the iPad can be your full time computer. You can use a physical keyboard for heavy typing, work with e-mail and office files, as well as just about anything else the average user would need.

Also, digital download services bother me, because I don't physically have a copy of the product. When I want to install a game, I really don't want to wait hours to download it.

I recently started playing Left 4 Dead 2, which requires Steam as well. This time around, however, my impression of it has completely changed. The reason behind the change is Left 4 Dead 2 makes excellent use of Steam and the community features. It is easily compared to Xbox Live, but less awful. Here's a few cool features:

1. Steam will automatically download updates for Steam-powered games.
2. Steam Cloud keeps my settings synced between computers.
3. I can make physical backups of the games I download.
4. Steam sells a lot more than just Valve games. In fact, most new games are available on Steam.
5. Valve Anti-Cheat is better than PunkBuster.
6. By pressing shift-tab, I can bring up an overlay which includes friend information, and even a web browser. I can do this in any game, even non-steam games. The ability to bring up a browser in-game is very handy, especially in games such as Borderlands.

I could keep going. Overall, I think Steam is pretty cool.

First the good news. IE9 brings significant improvements to JavaScript performance. This is fantastic since IE8 cannot keep up. I've actually disabled some features on the REAL web site when using Internet Explorer because it just is not fast enough.

The bad news is that Microsoft is continuing to threaten standards. Rather than supporting the proposed cross-platform WebGL, Microsoft intends to support their own Windows-only Direct2D. Once again, developers will need to choose which side they're on. It is nothing new either. In the IE6 days, developers needed to choose to do things right and support everything except IE6, or do them simple and wrong to support IE6. This will be even worse, because a developer looking to do 3D will have no choice than two write two sets of code, or choose to support only IE9 or standards browsers.

Does it surprise me? Yes and no. It surprises me because it seemed as if Microsoft was interested in making a good browser. It does not surprise me because Microsoft gets everything else wrong, so why would this have been different.

OpenSearch Support
If you use any OpenSearch enabled browser, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, you can visit http://feedback.realsoftware.com/ and your search field will light up with the ability to search our Feedback database. If you add it as a permanent search provider, you'll be able to search Feedback from your browser. The results will still launch Feedback and display the results there, but it can be handy if you are on our forums or read the mailing lists using a webmail app.

iSeek Site
For the few and far between users of iSeek, I've prepared this search site that will allow you to search Feedback from your menubar.

Alternate Theme
Feedback uses three different themes to render its content. On the Mac, either Aqua or Graphite is used according to the user's system preferences, and on Windows & Linux, a more neutral theme is used. Currently, only the action bar is rendered differently, but that could change in the future.

You're not completely confined by your OS though. If you want to use the neutral theme on Mac, fire up terminal and type

defaults write com.realsoftware.feedback "Use Neutral Color Scheme" -bool YES

And reset it by using the same command, but replace YES for NO. On Windows and Linux, it's a little trickier. On Windows, you need to edit the registry. The path is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\REALSoftware\Feedback and add a value for "Use Neutral Color Scheme" = 0 to enable Aqua.

Linux uses an XML file in ~/.realsoftware/Feedback/Preferences.xml which you can add a key to:

<element><key>Use Neutral Color Scheme</key><value type="8">0</value></element>

I've been working on this system for a long time, since about mid-March if I recall correctly. It's so nice to finally see it live. I'm so proud to have contributed this to REAL Software, since it is such a crucial part of the company. Sure, I've worked on critical parts of the company for about a year now (new website backend, new servers, new order system), but there is something special about this. That other stuff is all very important, probably more than the feedback system, but this is an app that our customers will use frequently.

We've already been getting many compliments about the design of the app, and I do plan to do a post-mortem type article on the company blog. It does surprise me though, because although I find the UI simple, it's certainly not ground-breaking in my opinion. Or I just have high standards.

Early in the development process, we discussed a very critical choice: web-based or desktop-based. The discussion was heavily weighted towards web-based, and I could certainly do it, but I saw an opportunity to do something special. By creating a desktop app, it could be designed to show-off some of the abilities of REALbasic (not that the IDE does not already do that) and it allows us an unprecedented level of integration with our products and our user's systems.

Since it was being developed on the desktop, the argument was made that this should be completely integrated into REALbasic. While an interesting thought, that posed a couple problems:

1. If REALbasic crashes, that system has a lot of functionality that needs to work inside an application that has already had an exception and locked up. There is a lot of potential for lost information there.
2. If there is a minor bug in the feedback system, it could not be fixed until the next release of REALbasic. That's a significant problem for a new system. Keeping it separate allows us to push updates (yes, it has an auto-update system) to our users without them downloading the entire REALbasic package.
3. What about our other products? Should a customer really be expected to launch REALbasic just to report a bug about our website or REAL Server? No.

So development on the app began from the ground up. Code was developed to handle preferences correctly on each platform, open source projects were utilized to provide animation, client-to-server communication and CoreFoundation support, and the source list and automatic updates were provided by code I had laying around and needed a good testing route. Right off the bat, many of the core systems of the application were falling into place.

Another big source of debate is the app's client-to-server communication method. This app does not speak to our database directly. An abstraction layer was implemented on the server to provide security and ease development. During the beta process, many bugs were fixed simply by updating server-side code. Using a straight SQL connection could not have done that. If we needed to move databases, upgrade servers, etc then we would need to issue an update to app. Instead, we could switch the database backend entirely without the app ever complaining. There's no database login details in the app, nor does it even know where the database is. That provides a significant amount of security. This abstraction layer also allows the activity viewer to work. You'll notice that the app almost never locks up or appears unresponsive. That's another thing an SQL connection could not have provided. There is still some debate that the app should be speaking directly to our REAL Server, but I stand by my position that this abstraction layer is not only very useful, but very important.

We quickly realized people would be asking for some of this functionality in REALbasic. It'll happen. I don't know when, and I don't know what, but we are aware of some gaps in the REALbasic framework that the code from this app can fill.

We have big plans for this tool. Remember, this is the 1.0.0 release. There is plenty of room to grow. Of course, I can't say what ideas are floating around, but I will say it will keep evolving.

Lastly, although I did all the development work on the app, the entire team provided lots useful feedback, suggestions, requirements, etc. I can't take all the credit.

HIToolbar was a challenge because I was fairly new to declares, and the model required by the OS does not fit with REALbasic's method of doing things at all (this very point has caused some lengthy discussions about the REALbasic toolbar as well).

I've taken on another challenge: OSCAR. OSCAR is the protocol used by AIM and ICQ, so the module will naturally allow the developer to quickly build an AIM client like iChat, Adium, or Pidgin. I've already got it logging in and retrieving the user's buddy list.

While I considered proposing to have the code built into REALbasic, I think it's just far too much of a niche to warrant building into the framework. Its seriously a niche market, I might get one or two developers using it at best. But I'm not doing it because there is a need in the market, I'm doing it because it is difficult.

But the honeymoon is over.

Enter Disney, a company which lost its touch many years ago. Aside from a couple lucky hits, Disney produces nothing but utter trash. Disney is only kept alive by it's forced-popular teen "sensations" and most Pixar movies. They produce a large handful of movies each year, most of which receive some of the worst reviews possible.

Future "Marvel" movies will likely follow a simple formula: Marvel's compelling hero + Disney's hefty dose of racism + dull screenplay with no real conflict = more Disney. Just like Microsoft's acquisition of Bungie and Rare, Disney will turn Marvel's intellectual property into an abomination.

Luckily, Iron Man 2 is already deep into production, so we'll likely get that one mostly unaltered. But Wolverine 2, Magneto, Deadpool, Green Lantern, Captain America, and Avengers... too bad. Though in all honesty, who on Earth cares about Green Lantern and Captain America?

Voice Control is seriously sub-par. Dialing works well, but playing music never works. I say "play music by Chemical Brothers" it repeats "playing music by York" - wtf? I have never got it to play the music I've asked for.

Launching apps and generally using the phone is noticeably faster. Compass does not seem very precise. The camera is outstanding. Overall, I'm impressed.

Now for the bad. We were giving my original iPhone to my wife until we can swing the cash to get her a 3GS as well. She is upgrading from a very nice Sony Ericsson S500i. I was under the impression this would require AT&T assistance. Upon bringing it in, we were told to just plug it into iTunes like I did on launch day.

We did that. After wiping it, it presented her with the typical setup steps. After all was done, it retained my phone number (not hers) and never provisioned the SIM card. In fact, her phone was still usable. That's when I realized it never asked us for that info. Hmmm....

Upon looking around online, the solution is to put her SIM in the iPhone. Odd, I was [incorrectly] under the impression the iPhone used specially shaped SIM cards to prevent this sort of thing. Upon doing so, I wiped it again and we got the screens necessary to add the data plan and transfer her number. Fantastic.

Her voicemail didn't work though. We hit the button, it calls some line and claims she don't have a voicemail box. After struggling for a while, I found an AT&T support article which says to hold 1 on the keypad until voicemail is called, setup a password and greeting, then hang up. In a few moments, a dialog is presented asking for that password. After all this, visual voicemail was working.

Lastly, her contacts got double-synced. One from her computer and one from MobileMe. Despite turning them both off, nothing would clear her contacts from the phone. The solution here is to remove the MobileMe account, then re-add it. Upon doing so, it'll ask if you want to merge the data already in the phone with the data on MobileMe. Choose yes, and it'll correctly nuke the extra records. Disable the contacts syncing in iTunes as well, unless you want the same thing to happen again. Why on Earth does iTunes now allow you to do this?

Overall, my upgrade was smooth. Her upgrade was 4 hours of frustration.

Address 68.232.170.19:16567.

It was the final trailer that changed my mind about the entire presentation. Rightly so, Nintendo did not announce the title until it became obvious to fans what it was. The surprise was epic, because the game looks like nothing we've seen in the franchise before.

It's a new Metroid called Metroid: Other M, set mostly in third person, with some seriously kick-ass moves. It looks like they've taken some cues from Smash Brothers and given Samus some real melee combat. I remember seeing a preview for Metroid Prime Corruption where the player on stage used the remote to punch a Space Pirate in the face with her gun arm. Sadly, that was removed from the final game. This new game goes much more in-depth than that in terms of combat.

What I gather from the trailer is that this is a prequel. The woman shown early in the trailer looks nothing like Samus, and her name is never said. It could be her, but I don't think it is. It later shows somebody transforming from the zero suit into the power suit. The woman's hair is longer, but face still does not look like Samus.

Near the end of the trailer, a woman in a lab coat is surprised by power suit Samus, and somebody says "I'm Samas Aran." Judging from the echo, it sounds like it comes from the suited Samus. However, the other woman looks exactly like the Samus we've seen from previous games.

So it seems there is a bit of a mystery here. Based on this, it placing my bet on prequel. Probably near the beginning of Samus' career.

There are some things that don't add up though. The trailer leads one to believe the federation developed the power suit. According to previous Metroid lore though, the power suit was designed by the Chozo. Continuity error, or more mystery to be revealed?

As for other little tidbits I've noticed, it seems you'll start with the power suit and get at least the Varia suit upgrade. I bet there will be more. There's a charge shot, missles, etc - all you'd expect from a Metroid game. The action appears to be overly frenetic, so I bet there will be some sort of fancy targeting system. It mostly likely will not make extensive use of the motion controls, except in first person view. There are a couple scenes from first person view, I'm guessing for precision targeting. Ridley makes an appearance, though no Kraid I could see. Notice I said Ridley, and not Meta Ridley - move evidence of a prequel. There also appears to be some additional meter under your health display. It's either ammo, or sprint. Based on the fact that Metroid games don't usually have beam ammo, and that this game has a lot of fancy maneuvers, I'm placing my money on sprint level.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this. I think this trailer just destroyed my productivity for the day.

So I ordered the drive, a better one than I would have spent the $350 for, a nice WD 320GB 7200rpm drive. Restored it from my time machine backup, and it can now leave my desk again. Woot!

Since I've done that, Spotlight deems it necessary to eat up about 100% of one core and index the new drive. Okay, I can live with that. What I find funny however, is the remaining time estimate:

Wow, that's a long time. I did the math, because I'm a geek. That's 115,915.12 years. Guess I'll be here a while.

So human beings will read this as "Windows: Life Without Walls". Okay, so without walls, what holds up the windows? There's already only a handful of things you can put windows on, and we've been told to exclude walls. So let's look at life without walls:

• Doors: Well, without walls, doors are pretty useless.
• Transportation: Okay, you can put windows on cars, planes, etc. It could be argued that these things have walls as well and thus could no longer exist in many forms, but I'd say that a boat doesn't have walls, it has a hull. I'm not going to start listing everything here, I think you get my drift.
• Ceilings: True, you can put a window on the ceiling and then hold up the ceiling with posts around the outside, like a big tent or something. Since we're not allowed walls, it's the best we're going to get.
• Floors: Okay, who on earth puts a window on the floor? If you have a window on the floor, isn't it just a window on the ceiling to whoever is below you. And if there is nothing below you, then it's just a glass hatchway to dirt, and I'm not sure it qualifies as a window.

I'm well aware I'm not the first person to pick on this slogan. I won't be the last. I'm also aware my logic is not bulletproof. It's just for fun.

REALbasic's New TrueWindow Feature

As much as I love writing content on my own blog - and I'll continue to do so - it makes more sense for the company if I do the tutorials and such in a more official capacity.

The question has come up though, why TrueWindow, why not just "fix" the Window property? If you've read Aaron Ballman's blog in the past, I bet you'll figure out the answer. It's because changing the behavior of Window would break code in a non-obvious way. A good chunk of code would continue to work as expected. But some code, especially code that walks up the hierarchy to find a RectControl's global screen bounds, would go haywire. It would not trigger compile errors, stuff would just start going wrong. We can't have that.

We could have renamed the Window property to trigger compile errors, but that would cause alarm when developers would open the project in the new IDE and try to build and be presented with lots of "This method does not exist" errors and cause a big WTF moment. We don't like that.

This way is most code-compatible... as long as you don't have my other TrueWindow methods in your project of course.

Picture the Ewok party at the end of Return of the Jedi. If I had an army of Ewoks, I'd be doing the exact same thing.

Double-Buffering Canvas
Whoa, this too?! With just two features, this release has become a UI designer's paradise. Now we can answer the ever-common "Why does my app have seizures on Windows?" question with a very simple solution: turn on double-buffering. While this nukes your translucency, it's only an issue on layered controls and with some clever work can be worked around. It's not perfect, but it's a huge step in the right direction. The rest of the issue is Windows, and I'm not sure there's much we'll be able to do to completely solve the issue. Also, to make this work, turn off EraseBackground. EraseBackground adds the extra step of erasing the previous contents which will still cause flickering. Since double-buffering will overwrite everything on the canvas anyway, the EraseBackground setting becomes nothing more than hinderance when DoubleBuffer is enabled.

Simple Trial Editions
With the new website, we made it quick and simple to get a trial edition key. Maybe a little too simple. So we've gone back to having REALbasic download its keys directly from our server. REALbasic did this a while ago, and stopped for a variety of reasons. But we came up with solutions to all the issues, and now anybody can download REALbasic and just use it.

QuickStart
This new window shown at launch makes it simple for new users to get started with REALbasic. I think it's pretty neat, and hopefully we'll add stuff to it in future versions to be more useful to veteran users.

I'm preparing a tutorial series about designing custom controls. They'll use these new features, so I suggest you renew or start a trial if your plan is expired.