I’m sure by now everyone who has an iPhone 3G or 3GS will be on iOS4 (I hope the 2G and 3G folks don’t feel left behind). OS4 is really cool for users in many ways. Multitasking, home screen customization, camera zoom, new mail handling capabilities etc etc. So that’s for the users. What about developers? How is iOS4 going to help developers? As Steve Jobs had announced back in April, iAd is going to “revolutionize” the way that application developers will be making money from Apple. I will be first introducing my readers to what iAd is all about and then will follow up with a post on how to integrate iAd into your applications.

Firstly, why iAd and what the hell is it all about? Do you realize the thousands of free apps in the app store have some form of advertising or marketing in built in them? It could either be in the form of some of those ads from admob or the app could be an extension of a business like ebay. Take the example of the ads served by admob. What happens when you click on the app? You get kicked out of the app and land on the advertiser’s website. So what if you want to get back to your app exactly at the same point that you left? Pretty much impossible if you ask me.

What iAd does is to exactly address this issue. The ad is served in such a way that when the user clicks on the ad, he does not have to leave the app at all. The ad appears right in the application and there is no need to leave the app. So after viewing the ad, the user is able to get back to the exact same point where he clicked the ad. Pretty cool if you ask me. Now users will not have any second thoughts to click an ad if they liked what is was serving.

iAd is supposed to bridge the gap between emotion and interactivity. In Steve Job’s keynote address he mentions that while internet ads have interactivity, they lack emotion. And while TV ads have emotion, they lack interactivity. iAd will have both interaction and emotion which is very apparent from the example ads that he has shown in his keynote. Let’s face it – this is going to revolutionize the ad industry in a big big way. The ads will not be intrusive and will be served to the user only once every 3 minutes. That’s almost like the frequency of a television ad according to Jobs.

As a developer I’m certainly excited to try this out. I have already thought of quite a few free applications which I will be launching over the next few weeks. Instead of just relying on the marketing returns, I can certainly hope for some immediate revenue through iAd IF it is successful. I have not seen any live iAd being served on my current apps. Still waiting to see how it will look like in real life although I do have a good feel of it after seeing Steve Jobs’ keynote address.

If you are interested to view this video then I would encourage you to take a look at this youtube video. Its pretty straightforward and gives you an overall idea of this cool concept. Trust me, its 9:38 minutes well spent

I was watching a show on computer games this afternoon and suddenly a thought popped in my mind – how I miss playing video games for hours on end! Yes, I was almost an addict and my grandparents had to pry me away from my Atari and PC. I thought that I would like to list five of my favorite games from the 80s and 90s that had captivated my imagination.

1. Pac Man

Definitely one of the most addictive games that I have ever played. I was searching the web for some screenshots and I found this cute youtube video which brings back so many memories.

The game play is pretty simple – steer Pac Man with the arrow keys, avoid the ghosts, and chomp all the pellets. The beauty of the game lies in its simplicity and a very interesting background score! Yes, the game is still very much alive and available for download at Download Free Games.

2. Super Mario Bros.
This is another game that my brother and I used to spend hours on end. I used to love it for the beautiful graphics (at that time yes) and the colorful layout of different levels. It certainly was interesting to see my Mario character grow bigger while consuming the mushrooms and headbutting bricks to collect extra points. Although the objective is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, survive the main antagonist Bowser’s forces and save Princess Toadstool I never managed to get to the end of the game. Probably I should try my hand at it again. I found a way to beat super mario bros on youtube . Check out the video if you’re interested too!

3. Prince of Persia
This was probably the first game that I played on my PC (yep that was a 386 processor powered “power PC” back in the 90s). Actually this game was first released for the Apple computer back in 1989 and a year later was ported to the PC platform. My first PC keyboard used to take so much punishment as a result of playing this game. I even had friends coming over to my house just to play Prince of Persia. Again, I found a video of this game and I was in a world of my own!

You can download the game at Best Old Games.

4. Tetris
Tetris is an amazingly addictive game. The gameplay is to fit blocks of various shapes and sizes into each other and make sure that each level is cleared. Yes, Tetris messes with your mind. Check out the first ever version of Tetris below:

You can download Tetris at Mahalo.

5. Donkey Kong
Although I didn’t play Donkey Kong as much as the other four games here, I still found the game extremely interesting. This game was released in the early 80s by Nintendo and soon gained massive popularity. Apparently the game was inspired by a combination of Popeye and King Kong. Interesting right? Donkey Kong is considered to be the first platform game. Never got a chance to play the game? Check out the video below:

I hope that for those who have played these games before this post has brought some memories back. I had fun writing this post and thinking of some good old times. If you have any thoughts to share feel free to comment below!

Download and play Donkey Kong at Classic Retro Games.

Thanks to @amirulruslan I’ve finally jumped on the googlewave bandwagon as well. I’m still trying to figure out my way around it. I have added a few friends on it and looking forward to add more. I guess you must be aware that googlewave is still in beta mode and its not possible to signup without an invite from google or from a googlewave user. So here’s the deal – I’ve got 8 invites left! All you have to do is to either drop me an email or just comment below. I’ll send you an invite right away. Remember, I’ve only got 8 invites left so first come first served . Would be nice if you followed me on twitter too!

By the way, here’s a video demo of what googlewave is all about.

I’ve seen numerous tweets on twitter asking help from people on how to open an iTunes account in Malaysia. Pity that Apple doesn’t trust us Malaysians to give us a legal avenue to open an iTunes account and download music legally. Probably they are worried about our notorious history (and present) for piracy and also credit card fraud. But we’re not alone. A lot of countries don’t actually have the iTunes store available and hence will not be able to buy music from the the iTunes store. If you really want to open an iTunes account, there is a way to get around this.

itunes store malaysia takes you to the app store

There’s a little trick that you can employ to get this done. Thanks to Globalitunes you can now create an iTunes account from anywhere in the world. All you need is your credit card or paypal details and you can well be on your way. You can also purchase an iTunes gift card which would mean that you wouldn’t need to enter any credit card details. Here are the steps you need to take to create your account:

1. Go to the itunes application and locate the lower right corner of the application. You will see the Malaysian flag which indicates that you are connected to the Malaysia iTunes store (which doesn’t exist by the way). Click on it and change it to Unites States.

2. Click on ‘Redeem’ on the top right corner of iTunes.

3. Enter the redemption code for the iTunes gift card you purchased and click ‘Redeem’

4. Click ‘Create Account’

5. Click ‘Continue’ to indicate you have read the terms and conditions

6. Create your iTunes account here

7. Now you will be required to fill out your name, address etc. This will have to be a US address. Fret not, you can easily get through this step by visiting fakenamegenerator. This website helps to create a random identity for you with a corresponding US address as well.

Enter the details in the box that appears in iTunes but DO NOT enter any credit card details. Just click ‘None’ and continue.

8. That’s about it! Enjoy downloading music and videos from iTunes.

Step by step instructions reproduced from Globalitunes Setup Guide.

A neat way to create an iTunes account for Malaysians. But I certainly hope that Apple will soon bring the iTunes store to Malaysia as well.

This is a question a lot of people have actually asked me. Apple has done a great job of marketing their app store and according to some recent reports, there are more than 80,000 apps in the app store. A lot of people have made it big by selling their apps on the app store and this has actually fuelled a lot of interest among those who don’t even own an iPhone. Not only individual developers but even big game developers have started to embrace the Apple app store. Not exactly surprising considering the fact that some have even suggested that the app store is going to be as huge as the internet. As exaggerated as it may sound, the app is HUGE and it is able to reach to millions of customers each day. The keyword here is – convenience. It’s just too easy for any customer to browse the app store, search for some keywords, look at a few apps and decide to download it for a buck! And when there is enough interest the volume of customers who are downloading apps is enough to make a developer rich.

So if you are one of the aspiring entrepreneurs aspiring to take the plunge into the world of iPhone apps, let me tell you something – there are 2 ways of doing this. One is the traditional way – you get a mac, get an iphone, learn up objective C, learn up iPhone SDK and start writing apps and of course put it up for sale on the app store. Simple enough! The other way, the not so traditional way is to hire an iPhone apps developer. Certainly you will need to have a mac at the least since you will need to compile your apps and attach your “certificate” that Apple will issue to you when you register as an iPhone developer. But if you think that you even want to eliminate that investment there is a way to do this too! I will be revealing the techniques you can follow based on my interaction with my clients.

The traditional way!

Ok, this is how I started off. Luckily I did have the headstart of knowing objective C. But learning up the SDK is not really the most easiest thing that I have encountered. When I started off sometime in early 2008, there weren’t many blogs or books or tutorials except for some boring literature from Apple themselves. This is probably the reason why there were few developers around and the app store wasn’t really “booming” like it is now. But somehow I got through it thanks to some great blogs and books that I read.

Blogs/Websites that I recommend:

icodeblog
iPhone DEV SDK forum

Of course there are quite a number of other blogs written by developers including yours truly ! I’ve always had a passion for books and there are a few books which helped me quite a bit on the way too!

Books that I recommend:

Beginning iPhone Development 3
The iPhone Developers Cookbook

If you need some basics then you can start reading the three part series on how to become an iPhone developer.
How to become an iPhone app developer – Part one
How to become an iPhone app developer – Part two
How to become an iPhone app developer – Part three

These are all great resources to get you started on developing your apps. Of course more than developing apps what is important is getting your market research done. Look at what apps are doing well, why are they doing well etc. Next thing you need to figure out is whether you want to put in your app as a paid app or as a free app. There are pros and cons for both which I will be discussing in the upcoming continuation posts of this series. I hope that you will find the above resources to be helpful for your next app development.

I will be discussing the non traditional way of entering the iPhone App business in my next post. Lookout for it! If you would like to be notified about my future posts, do consider subscribing to my RSS feed.

FINALLY its here – push service for Gmail. It’s really baffling how come Gmail didn’t incorporate this feature for their millions of loyal users. Although Yahoo! was offering push email for quite some time, it seemed that you needed to purchases third party software to enable this feature in Gmail. Although it was widely speculated that it was just a matter of time before Google was going to enable push services on Gmail it wasn’t very clear when exactly! So what exactly is Push Email?

According to WiseGeek

Push email utilizes a mail delivery system with real-time capability to “push” email through to the client as soon as it arrives, rather than requiring the client to poll and collect or pull mail manually. With a push email smartphone, for example, the client’s mailbox is constantly updated with arriving email without user intervention. Smartphones announce new mail arrival with an alert.

In simpler words, what it means is that your mailbox is updated as soon as a mail arrives in the server. You do not have to login to your account to get the email by yourself.

Now that push email is available for Gmail, I couldn’t wait to try it out on my iPhone 3GS. Here are the steps to follow:

(Reproduced from Google Support Page)

Requirements and Upload
1. Google Sync is only supported on iPhone OS versions 3.0 and above. You can check your current version by going to Settings > General > About > Version. To upgrade, follow the instructions at http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/. Please upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0 before setting up Google Sync.

2. Perform a sync with iTunes to ensure that Contacts and Calendars from your iPhone are backed up to your computer.

Getting Started
1. Open the Settings application on your device’s home screen.
2. Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account….
4. Select Microsoft Exchange.

Enter Account Info
5. In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address. If you use an @googlemail.com address, you may see an “Unable to verify certificate” warning when you proceed to the next step.
6. Leave the Domain field blank.
7. Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
8. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
9. Tap Next at the top of your screen.
9a. Choose Accept if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
10. A new Server field will appear. Enter m.google.com.
11. Press Next at the top of your screen again.
12. Select the Google services you want to sync.
13. Unless you want to delete all the existing Contacts and Calendars on your phone, select the Keep on my iPhone option when prompted. This will also allow you to keep syncing with your computer via iTunes.

If you want to sync only the My Contacts group, you must choose to Delete Existing Contacts during the Google Sync install when prompted. If you choose to keep existing contacts, it will sync the contents of the “All Contacts” group instead.

You’ve set up Google Sync for your iPhone. Synchronization will begin automatically if you have Push enabled on your phone. You can also open the Mail, Calendar or Contacts app and wait a few seconds to start a sync.

Remember to upgrade your iPhone to version 3.0 before enabling this service. Have fun!

This is a continuation of A roundup of iTunes 9.0 and iPhone OS 3.1 – part 1. In the previous post we saw some of the neat (and not so neat) stuff that comes with iTunes 9.0. So what’s new with iPhone OS 3.1 then? Well before you install iPhone OS 3.1 you will need to download iTunes 9.0. Once you’ve done that then you got to of course download iPhone OS 3.1 (which is a pretty huge file) and this would probably take you quite some time if you’re on Streamyx – how surprising (trying to keep a straight face here).

Ok, so what’s new with OS 3.1 actually? Here’s a quick snapshot:

I’ve pretty much covered most of the features here in the previous post and I wont go through them again. But here are some of the features that are worth mentioning:

- You can now trim a video (if you have an iPhone 3GS) and save it as a new file
- You can save a video file from MMS or email
- Organize your apps via iTunes 9.0 on your homescreen(s)
- Remotely lock iPhone via Mobileme (useful if your phone gets stolen and you have personal information)
- Use voice control with the iPhone 3GS using a bluetooth headset

These are some of the features that really caught my attention. For a more comprehensive list of features and updates you can go to the official iPhone OS 3.1 website.

So what are the issues that I found with the firmware update? The most obvious one is the quieter “tick” sound while typing the keys. I miss the louder ticks as I got used to it already. Well I guess at least people around me are not going to get annoyed anymore. Here’s a forum I found which lists some issues on iPhone OS 3.1 as well. I’m still playing around with the new firmware and I will update this post if I find any other issues with the new firmware update. Meanwhile if you find anything unusual feel free to share it in the comments section as usual !

Overall you aren’t really losing anything if you didn’t update to the latest and greatest firmware for the iPhone. Of course you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of all the features in iTunes 9.0 without this update but like I mentioned in my previous post it doesn’t mean much to Malaysian users since the iTunes store is not available to us anyway. What use is Genius when we cannot even download music from the iTunes store?

One word of caution: For those who are happy and contended with your jailbroken iPhones please DO NOT upgrade to OS 3.1 yet! You will NEVER be able to jailbreak your phone again. Please wait for the dev team to release the new jailbreak/unlock for OS 3.1. Be patient – after all it’s not that big a deal. If you’re using OS 3.0 then you’re good to go.

The entire blogosphere is buzzing with information right from Apple’s new range of iPods, Steve Jobs’ health and the latest and greatest iTunes 9.0 – of course with a little mention of iPhone OS 3.1. Somehow I feel that the iPods and iTunes have taken the limelight in comparison to Apple’s latest firmware release for the iPhone. I had anticipated not many drastic changes to version 3.1 and my assumption proved to be correct. Subtle changes have been made which I will be discussing in a while, but more importantly lets discuss iTunes 9.0 first.

Whats new in iTunes 9.0?

Frankly I’m quite impressed with the latest version of iTunes. I kind of had the feeling that Apple hasn’t being doing too much to it but can we blame them – why fix something that ain’t broken? Ok let’s get to the point. Here’s what you get with iTunes 9.0:

Now let’s look at each of these features.

iTunes LP

So what is iTunes LP? Remember the good old days when you still head out to the CD store with the week’s savings from your pocket money to get that latest MJ album? Well iTunes LP might bring those good old days back. It actually gives you a visual experience of the CD including lyrics, liner notes, videos and photos. According to Apple, this is “The best thing to happen to fandom.”. I personally would like this feature a lot IF the iTunes store was actually available in Malaysia. Time for me to register a bogus US account so that I can start downloading my favorite albums. This is great!

Home Sharing

I never thought Apple would ever carry the word “sharing” in any of their marketing material. Isn’t that supposed to be blasphemous Mr Jobs? Well apparently he’s had a change of heart recently and thought that he could do something nice for us after all. Well basically home sharing lets you share your music, videos and TV shows within 5 computers that you authorize. This way you do not need to purchase it everytime that you want to transfer it to your computer at home. Sweet!

Redesigned iTunes Store

This is probably the best feature that I like. The new design change is subtle yet cool. Here’s a snapshot:

Then again, don’t expect to see this in the Malaysian store since we don’t have access to the iTunes Store. You will be directly taken to the App Store and it might look like something below:

iTunes Extras

Again, not for Malaysians sorry! But this feature is something like the extra features that you get on a DVD – interviews, trailers, photos etc. Not really losing much here. I can live without it.

Genius Mixes

This is not entirely new and basically what it does is to search your music library and creates mixes that you would love. It also suggests songs based on your interests that you might want to buy. I like this feature quite a lot. All you need to do is to choose a song from your library and click on the genius button below. The software keeps learning and will get better over time. Nice and cool feature, but doesn’t work with all songs especially non English ones. I’ll pass on this one!

A simpler way to sync

Frankly I didn’t see any marked difference in the syncing experience. The only feature which caught my eye was the virtual home screen where I could arrange my apps before syncing with my iPhone. We’ll look at that when we talk about the latest 3.1 firmware for the iPhone.

So in short I definitely believe that the new iTunes 9.0 is cool. Too bad we can’t enjoy a lot of the features thanks to the unavailability of the iTunes Store in Malaysia. Hope that will change soon (as soon as we lose our pro-piracy image) and we will be able to download legal stuff from the iTunes Store. Well I guess that’s all I have for now and I need to go register for that bogus US iTunes account. Watch out for part two of this post where I’ll talk more on the new firmware upgrade for the iPhone. Until then, have fun downloading iTunes 9.0!

This post is a continuation of How to start an online forum – Part One. In this part we will discuss some good hosting packages available and also how to install vBulletin. Finally we will also see what are some of the SEO techniques possible with vBulletin as well.

For hosting, I would recommend going with Hostgator. Although there are many hosting companies around I have been a fan of Hostgator simply because of the fact that they have an excellent technical support team. Most of my queries have been solved over their online chat link or via email quite fast. They have some good cheap shared hosting packages as low as $4.95 per month and I would advice you to go for the entry level package for a start. Head on to Hostgator and check out some of their packages available.

One you have you domain and hosting setup, the next step would be to purchase vBulletin and download it from their website. Once you have downloaded vBulletin you will also have access to the online manual which outlines the steps required to install vBulletin on your website. Typically you will install vBulletin on a folder such as www.my-domain.com/forums.

Here are the basic steps:

Step 1:

Download the latest copy of vBulletin here.

Step 2:

Go to where you downloaded it, and UNZIP the file. Inside, you will find a file called config.php.new. (Located in upload/includes).

Step 3:

You will need to edit the following information:

$config['Database']['dbname']=’Insert Database Name Here’

$config['Database']['technicalemail']=’Insert Email address to send errors to’

$config['MasterServer']['servername'] =’Insert Host MySQL Server Here. Your webhost should have it.’

$config['MasterServer']['username'] =’Insert Username here for MySQL Database’

$config['MasterServer']['password'] =’Insert Password for MySQL Database.’

Prior to doing this step, you will need to create a MySQL database from the control panel of hostgator. The steps do do this can be found here. Note the database name and username that you have created which will be used to update the values above.

Step 4:

After you are done editing the values above, save the file and rename it to config.php

Step 5:

There will be a folder called “upload” which you will need to upload to your domain using an ftp program such as FileZilla.

Step 6:

Now comes the Install Script. Yay. Enter the full path of the URL like this: www.my-domain.com/forums/install/install.php

Step 7:

This is the first step of the installation and this is where you will need to enter your customer number.

Step 8:

Continue with the remaining screens and your installation should proceed well if you have created the MySQL database correctly as well as the username. Don’t forget to remove the install script once you finish the installation.

That’s pretty much all that you need to do to install vBulletin. Once you have your forum up and ready you might want to do some SEO to ensure that you get enough traffic. Some common techniques might be using adwords and twitter. Another good software that you might want to try is vbseo. A lot of forums have seen good results with vbseo and it should be a good investment for your forum as well.

Once you have completed all these steps, you will be on your way to creating your very own community or forum. Have fun like what I am doing with The iPhone Kopitiam. Good Luck!

I’ve recently been busy working on an all new online forum for Malaysian iPhone developers – The iPhone Kopitiam. Although there are quite a lot of information available on the internet for iPhone programming, I started this forum for the following purposes:

- A virtual hangout joint for Malaysian iPhone developers

- Create a closely knit community

- One stop shop for resources

- Share any news related to iPhone in Malaysia

- Any hacks or mods that have been uncoveres

- And finally also share any potential job opportunities

Since this is my first experience in starting an online forum, it was quite a learning experience for me. I had to do quite a lot of research before setting up the online forum and also while setting it up. It wasn’t as straightforward as wordpress installation and I thought I could share how I did it with my readers.

First of all you probably will need to choose between free hosting and paid hosting. There are quite a number of free forum hosting websites but you will not be able to use your own domain. Here are some of them:

Forumotion
Lefora
Website Toolbox
Zetaboards

Note that when you use free forum hosting like the above, you forum will have quite a number of ads and this could be annoying for your users. So I would advice you to go for paid hosting instead. Here are some of the top paid hosting forum software available:

Vbulletin – $180
PhpBB – Free (opensource)
Simple Machines – Free

You could actually evaluate which suits you the best. But after doing some research I found that vBulletin suited my needs as it was pretty easy to use and to setup as well. And the support also made a difference in making my decision. Of course it meant that I had to fork out $180 as initial investment but then which business doesn’t have an investment? So I went ahead and purchased vBulletin.

I found a great website which has a comprehensive review of all the top forum softwares available and even demos/screenshots. In fact I used this website to make my final decision. If you would like to check it out, head on to Forum Software Reviews.

Stay tuned for “How to start an online forum – Part two” where I will discuss hosting packages available and also how to install vBulletin for first time users.