S60 is Gone

Not Any More

Nokia's favorite platform is gone now. www.s60.com no longer works. This is really a subtle decision to scrap something that has a huge install base. I am not a fan of Symbian OS all together (Read Why Openmoko at www.openmoko.org). But still, there are so many users still using S60 platform. In other words all high end Nokia and few Samsung phones. But above all, the really worst thing is that they cannot upgrade their platform. So basically they are stuck with an age old platform.

Although there is nothing much to complain they any way cannot upgrade the OS of the phone.

Java Developer News and Bihar News

I have been learning the Objective C and Cocoa Touch (and still learning) and came up with two nice applications Java Developer News and Bihar News. These apps are available for free from the iTunes App Store.

Java Developer News :

This iPhone application displays the headlines from NetBeans, Sun Developer Network and Webtier in a nice and elegant format on iPhone and iPod Touch devices and links to them. The application features a built-in browser that enables users to view SDN and netbeans.org without leaving the application.

"Java Developer News" is available in the 62 countries around the globe. It can be installed on any iPhone and iPod touch devices running iPhone OS 3.0 .

You can use the following link (You need iTunes to open it). You can also do a search for Java Developer News in the iTunes Store or the iPhone App Store.



For the Java Developer News use the following link

Download from the App Store

Bihar News :

For the Bihar News you can use the the following link

Download from the App Store

My KDE 4 Desktop with Cairo-dock

KDE 4.3 RC 1 Release

KDE 4.3 Beta 2 Release

iPhone 3GS : Not enough reasons to upgrade

Ok so iPhone 3GS has been released and most of us may upgrade to it. But here is the thing. iPhone 3GS is not a revolutionary thing its just an upgrade over iPhone 3G and that is mostly in terms of speed. It is like buying a 1080p resolution tv over 720p tv where your real eyes cant actually tell the difference unless you have a very big screen. To me i don't think iPhone 3GS is necessary here is why :

• iPhone OS 3.0 is already fast: This new iPhone OS has done some wonderful things my phone is better and faster now.
• Developer Friendly: Since iPhone 3G is going to maintain its position as mass market phone, probably its better to stick with iPhone 3G for a while
• Save Money: If I stick to iPhone 3G I am going to save lots of money. With that money I can buy something more like ... Sony PSP GO (Awesome portable gaming platform) or the new PS3 possibilities are endless. Think about that.
• iPhone 3GS has mostly not needed new features:
  
• Speed: I think its enough on iPhone 3G with OS 2.0
• Compass: It is a nice thing to have but not necessary. Specially in India.
• Video Recording: My digicam is doing that job for years
• 3.2MP Camera: Again my 10MP digicam is unbeatable. It has optical zoom too.
  
• HSPDA 7.2 MBPS: Again thats not available in India not in US too.

To me, I would have gone for iPhone 3GS without a blink of eye if iPhone OS 3.0 was not available on iPhone 3G. But fortunately it is.

MAC OS X and Open Source

I come from a Linux background. Now I have used Linux in and out being a KDE developer I know the wow factor that is associated with Linux. Until now, I thought nothing can compare Linux. But after meeting Mac OS X. My Opinion changed a little bit. I know it is a commercial platform attached to hardware and all that. But core of the Mac OS is Open Source. I can easily port my existing Linux code to Mac OS X easily. 

Here is why I love and hate MAC OS X.

Love:

1. Mac OS X's XNU Kernel: The fact the XNU (Although it reads as X is NOT UNIX) combines the beauty of BSD Kernel and MACH kernel together. Its ability to switch between 32bit and 64bit capability on the fly awesome.
2. Mac OS X's Universal Binary: In other systems such as Linux or Windows. When you cannot run an 64 bit application on a 32 bit system. Although you can run a 32bit application on 64bit computer but it needs to be passed thorugh emulator. yes its true. Mac handles this problem very elegantely. In this you can generate a Universal binary that will basically contain four version of you application, inside single binary file. 1) Intel 32 bit 2) Intel 64 bit 3) PowerPC 32bit 4) PowerPC 64bit. This way application will be always native on a large number of platforms
3. Xcode: I had always dreamt of using a great IDE with my favorite Linux libraries, but most of the times I need to settle with nano or pico. Kdevelop was also good enough for an IDE. And QTCreator was next to awesome C++ IDE. But nothing came as a full Ide. Then I met xcode. Where I've found the best IDE for all the open source libraries and fantastic GDB front end.
4. Cocoa and other Core APIS: I would simply say it as Aladin's Genie.

Game Piracy & Industry Mentality

Gaming Piracy & Industry Mentality

Last night I was not quite surprised to note that Gears of War 2 was available via torrents. I am not going to talk about how this will impact the industry on whole. I have something else to say. Remember the latest blockbuster game, that broke the sales record of books, dvd & movies combined. Yes I am talking about Grand Theft Auto 4. I remember the opening line from one of its promo, "I killed people, smuggled people, sold people perhaps here things will be different. Stealing or Robbing cars is an important aspect of that game. If you dont know how to steal a car in the game you wont able to play it forward. Not that I am criticising the game, I love the game. All I am saying is the game portrays stealing. So how it is this going to affect the game being stolen itself.

The more people indulge in such kind of games (& movies), they think that stealing is not a big deal. And whole feeling of stealing something makes up to some kind of pride. Kind of pride that stars of Oceans 11 (&12,13) have at the end of the movie. If you have got a chance to look inside the .nfo (Release Information File). There will be lines like "We were the first one to make this available", "This Release works perfectly, and screw xxx this release". There is a competition out there for stealing and giving you the best of stolen release.

Gears of War, a game which has a long list of die hard fans. Fans who will do anything to play this game. and the eagerly awaited sequel Game released on newsnet 2 weeks before. How they will resist this? May be true fans will buy the Game any way. I have seen many have downloaded newsnet release of the game and purchased it as well. Whatever is the reason. Because 50 % of the fun lies in Multiplayer. Or they want games like this to be made in future as well.

Industry have to think about that. What is the moral they are spreading (to make more money) and how they are coming back to them. Every body does illegal stuff these days without thinking on long impact or even thinking that this is wrong. When in mid 90's every body was using Netscape Browser, Microsoft threatens OEM manufacturers that if they carry Netscape browser, they will loose Windows license and hence Microsoft made Netscape out of business.

Developing for XBOX 360 with XNA Game Studios

I have already said that Microsoft Development tools are always top notch in the industry. With XNA creators club you it is very easy to program for XBOX 360. But it comes at a price. So here is the good news. Free XNA membership is available to all who apply for Dream-Build-Play 2008 challenge. Submit your game and get 4 month premium membership for free.

What is this XNA:
Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed run time environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates computer game development and management. XNA attempts to free game designers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code"] and bring different aspects of game production into a single system. It make use of dominating DirectX technologies.

See MSDN India: http://msdn.microsoft.com/hi-in/xna/default(en-us).aspx

XNA Creators Club

Steps to do that:
1. Register yourself at http://creators.xna.com, associate it with your gamertag.
2. Register yourself for dreamplay contest at http://www.dreambuildplay.com/. At the end of the registration you will be provided with a key.
3. Login to http://creators.xna.com
4. Click on Home>Membership, At the bottom of the page click at Creators Club Premium Membership.
5. Select Redeem code, and enter the code that has been provided to you. If it doesnt work. I guess it is not available in your country. Try it with the gamertag registered in US
6. Download XNA game studio at http://creators.xna.com/en-US/downloads. For this you will need:
*Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (Commercial) or Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition (Free)
*dotnet framework 2.0
All the necessary downloads are provided there.
7. Connect XBOX 360 and your PC at on same subnet (means connected to the same router).

On Xbox360
8. Start XBOX 360
9. Go to Game Store section of the Dashboard
10. Go to All Games
11. Scroll to the bottom of the list you will find an entry called XNA Creators Club. Go inside it.
12. Download Game Studio Connect and Game Studio Launcher
13. After the downloads are finished, got to games section of the dashboard.
14. You will find a new Category called XNA Creators Club.
15. Launch XNA Game Studio Connect. Wait until it gives you a 20 character key. Make a note of it. Keep XBOX running.

On Development machine
16. Open All Programs> Microsoft XNA Game Studio 2.0> XNA Game Studio Device Center
17. Click Add Device. Enter a name for the device. Then enter the connection key that you have noted down in step 15.
18. If firewall prompts you for connection say yes. If it doesnt work I would suggest to disable the firewall.

Good, you are all set and done. Download few samples from http://creators.xna.com and try running on your xbox 360. Personally I love the marblets game. Download it at http://creators.xna.com/en-us/starterkit/marblets.

And yes be it touch with the XNA guys http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/default.aspx

Enough playing games. Time to build a few. Take the pride of playing your own games. If Randhir can do this you too can do this.


Screenshots:

Downloading XNA Software from dashboard

Reduced: 32% of original size [ 1600 x 900 ] - Click to view full image

Reduced: 32% of original size [ 1600 x 900 ] - Click to view full image

Adding XBOX in XNA Game Studio

Reduced: 69% of original size [ 733 x 499 ] - Click to view full image