Upgrading etc.

Sorry for the quiet week. Been suffering from the post-WWDC blues, a combination of being massively behind on my workload and massively tired.

I have updated several of my iPhone projects that don't work after upgrading to 3.0 so that they do, including a completely new version of the OpenGL ES Xcode template. The only problem is, I did all the udpating on a pre-release version of Xcode under Snow Leopard. I need to find some time to install the release version of SDK3 and "downgrade" the Xcode projects before I can post them without violating the NDA.

The next two installments of the OpenGL ES from the Ground Up series are, tentatively, drawing text and hit testing, although I may push those off and insert a OpenGL ES 2.0-specific posting in there first, because I know a lot of people are interested in the ES 2. stuff. Perhaps I'll write an introduction to shaders as my next one. In any case, I'm unlikely to get another OpenGL ES posting done until I've got a few more chapters under my belt, so probably two weeks or so.

In completely unrelated news, the inimitable Wil Shipley tweeted about an interesting blog post by somebody from the Microsoft camp today.

I can only assume this is the latest in their recent ham-fisted campaign to win back marketshare for their products. Other parts of it include a page of outright silly assertions labeled as "facts" and a $10,000 bribe to use IE8.

In this blog post, Guy Claperton insinuates that the twitterverse burst into flames over problems with the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade. Now, it may be a little immodest to say this, but I think I probably have my finger a little closer to the pulse of the iPhone community than a "freelance journalist" who specializes in small business who is on Microsoft's payroll, and I didn't witness anything close to a meltdown from the 3.0 rollout. There were a few complaints here and there, sure, but that's to be expected with a major OS upgrade, and make no mistake, this was a major upgrade, and it's been only one year since 2.0, so that's pretty impressive. How long did Vista take, again?

Guy then goes on to insinuate that Microsoft users are smarter because they don't upgrade immediately.

How's that again? Really? I don't think I've seen a more blatant form of apologism out of anybody ever, including Microsoft. Right, people didn't upgrade to Vista because they were responsible and cautious.

Bullshit.

People didn't upgrade to Vista because it was a huge flaming pile of dog shit, and instead of fixing it, Microsoft spent millions justifying and defending it, essentially telling their customers they were wrong in the process. Advertising can do a lot, but it can't force people to buy dog shit that is currently on fire. Corporations didn't upgrade to Vista because it was expensive, required hardware upgrades, in many cases also required software upgrades, and offered no compelling new features.

Guy writes off "twitter going crazy for a few hours" to the "fan mentality".

Wow. Yeah, Microsoft doesn't want fans. Seriously, do Microsoft bloggers believe the stuff they write, or are they given an agenda from Marketing and then have to craft something that fits it, like some eighth-grade homework assignment, only in hell?

The fact is, fans are an indication that a company is doing something right. Every company has their fan-boys (and girls) - people who love that company regardless of what they do. But a critical mass of true fans - people who love a company's products so much they wait in line for them - is what companies strive for. It's an indication of success, and there's just no way to spin that to make it look bad.

The 3.0 SDK offered some very neat and very desired new functionality. People wanted the upgrade. Plus, the upgrade was free except for iPod Touch users, for whom it cost a small amount (about $10, if I remember correctly). A few upgrade glitches does not a Vista make, and it's hard to imagine that iPhone OS 3.0 could be labelled anything other than a success.

In related news, I am NOT standing in line for a 3Gs today, as much as I'd like to be. I'm being responsible and waiting for my next royalty check before upgrading my phone. This has been a crazy month for finances, between WWDC, a problem with my wife's car that set us back well over $1k. Also, our clothes dryer blew, our dishwasher blew, and a huge silver maple in our backyard fell down. Because of the latter, we had to hire first an arborist to asses the situation, then a tree removal company to come remove the fallen tree from our neighbor's yard, and then to remove a few other standing trees that posed similar threat of falling. Plus, my wife is taking my daughters on a weeklong trip to Florida to celebrate their birthdays.

So, as you're playing with your new iPhone 3Gs with all its wonderful features, extra memory, and extra speed, please think of me sitting at my desk working with my first generation iPhone.

Posted in: iPhone 3GS,Update,WWDC