StyleMac.com » Events

StyleMac 2.0

B. Terhechte — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:25:06 +0000

Back in 2005, when StyleMac started, we had high expectations. We wanted to create a Weblog that was primary based on the topics of Apple / Mac OS X, Design and Software Development / Unix. Touching all subjects that someone interested in creative work might find interesting. As StyleMac started to grow, however, it became ever more clear, that continuing on said ideals was impossible next to a day-job as StyleMac has always just been a evening project. And since the Site couldn’t hardly pay our rent, we decided to cut the time we spent in the site. From that point onward, StyleMac has seen ups and downs – mostly downs. With little content having been added since the inital first 5 months.
Now, almost 4 years after going life, StyleMac will change. Instead of trying to offer news on above topics, it will lead as the hub for all the Mac and iPhone applications we developed over the years. So the StyleMac News Blog will transform into StyleMac – Joyful Apple Software.
In addition to that, there’ll be interesting tidbits on Cocoa, Apple, Unix or Software Development. But always only then, if we encounter it in one of our projects.
Wrapping it all up: StyleMac is Dead, long live StyleMac. From now on this site will function as the information hub for our Software Developments. And since we needed something to celebrate this event, we rewrote our Safarilicious Software from the ground up, and released it just as well today:

Safarilicious 1.0
Rewritten from the ground up, universal binary, Leopard compatible, way better UI and lots of new features. Enjoy!

And a major update for OweMe is also in the works.

PS: You’ll notice that the links for our products will lead to subdomains of www.terhech.de. That’s an unfortunate side-effect of the previous state of the old StyleMac but will be resolved soon.

Thanks for your patience,
Benedikt Terhechte

OweMe – Money Lending Manager for iPhone

B. Terhechte — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:04:53 +0000

So after a small hiatus the first serious StyleMac iPhone application is out. OweMe, the Money Lending Manager has been created with a lot of attention to detail and based on a specific problem: I often experienced the situation that I lend someone a small amount of money (say $5) and forgot about it later on. On the other hand it just as often happened that I lend money from someone and forgot about it too – until I got a disappointed or even enraged call.
That’s where OweMe comes in. A slick and easy to use interface helps in quickly jotting down all these small amounts of money one owes or lends from time to time.

I’ve been testing the application for about 4 weeks now as I wanted to make sure it works as advertised before I submit it to the App Store. And I’ve already used it a dozen times. It really, really helps me in keeping track of all the small amounts of money I tend to get or give. I wouldn’t want to miss it on my iPhone.
Features:

Clean, simple and FAST UI, optimized for the task at hand featuring
seperate lists for Credit and Debit values
Add notes, names and due dates
Use the iPhones location info to gain additional information on the whereabouts of an entry
Secure your data with an optional access code
Set detailed options like sort order or currenc
Select between different wallpapers
…and more

You can find more information on the OweMe Website. The direct iTunes App Store entry can be found here.

iPhone Experiment One: Happiness

B. Terhechte — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:42:24 +0000

Back in March last year, when the first version of the iPhone SDK beta appeared, I downloaded it, installed it, and hid myself in my room for a whole weekend in order to dig into it. Back then it wasn’t possible to applications test on the iPhone itself (except for those lucky few, who were allowed to join the Developer Program), and given the reports of differences between the real device and the simulator I decided against continuing iPhone development until I could test on the device itself.

Some months ago I finally got into the iPhone Developer Program and started developing applications again. Since I’m most of the time rather busy with my job, university stuff and other things I couldn’t really invest too many ressources into this.

However, I finished my first application recently and got it into the App Store: Happiness.
Here’s the description:

Need a mood change? Are you in a sad or bad mood and need an uplift? Something happy, comforting, delightful? This is where happiness comes in. This app will change your mood within a few seconds.
The basic idea has been verified in many scientific studies. If we see a smile, if we hear leughter, and if we experience a relaxing situation, then this will lead to more happiness and joy.

Happiness creates a happy mood through comforting pictures and the relaxing sound of many a laugh.

It was a very interesting and fun project. I learned a lot along the way and even managed to bring in some of the things I learned at the university (mood management theory).

In case you’re interested, feel free to visit the details page or head directly for the App Store Entry.

Steve Jobs: Still Alive

BradHall — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:27:04 +0000

Most big newspaper organizations have obituaries written in advance for almost every celebrity, whether or not that person is close to death. This is done so that if a celebrity does die unexpectedly, they can rush in, fill in a few details, and publish the obituary within minutes.

Of course, when people are involved, accidents do happen. Yesterday around 4:30PM EST, Bloomberg accidentally published their most recent obituary for Steve Jobs. Presumably, the obituary went live accidentally while the writer did touch-ups.

Steve Jobs, who had been battling pancreatic cancer over the past several years, is not dead yet.

Open Tech for sale

BradHall — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:58:03 +0000

I just recieved an email from Open Tech’s Vice President of online sales and PR that states the following sentence as the sole line in the email:

“Open Tech is For sale. This includes all trade secrets and brand equity. Thank you for tour time.”

For those who have not followed the Open Tech story, they are/were a company that created a line of computers able to install and run Mac OS X.

Apple filed lawsuit after lawsuit trying to drive the small company under. It seems the house that Steve built finally dealt the crushing blow.

Gridlock Economy

BradHall — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:48:57 +0000

I recently recieved a copy of Gridlock Economy by Michael Heller. The premise of the book is that too much ownership hurts more than it helps. The core example given in the book is that of a possible cure for cancer or Alzheimers.

A drug company wants to make and test a drug, but the owners of the 50 components of the drug want insane amounts of money to allow the research to continue. The drug, if successful, would naturally be a tremendous public good and earn the drug company and the patent holders piles of cash.

Heller calls instances such as this “big inches” – named after a Quaker Oats promotion that granted 21 million deeds of one square inch of land in the Yukon to many, many boys, girls, and anyone else who bought a box of their cereal.

When I started reading it, I expected a very “dry” reading, “just the facts.” But Heller’s writing style was more fluid, I loved his anecdotes use of concepts everyone can relate to (such as airline delays).

He goes on to give examples of how some of the gridlock can be unlocked. I do not want to go too much into the brunt of the subject matter, but this book is excellent and you will learn something without realizing it.

I fully recommend this book even if you’re not into economics.

http://www.gridlockeconomy.com

iPhone 2, MobileMe launch

BradHall — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:10:52 +0000

Apple’s much anticipated iPhone 2 was released in the US today. As previously reported, the phone is on a 3G network and is half the price of the original iPhone. The iPhone 2 firmware is also available to download from Apple to install on the original iPhone for via the Apps Store. The firmware will.

In related news, Apple’s new MobileMe service went live on July 10th. MobileMe, which replaces .Mac offers email, calendar, and other services.

Firefox 3 plans to set world record

BradHall — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:34:36 +0000

Tomorrow, June 17, 2008, the Mozilla Foundation aims to release Firefox 3 for download.

Nearly one and a half million people around the world have pledged on their website (link below) to download Firefox 3 as part of Mozilla Foundation’s attempt to get into the Guiness Book of World Records for most software downloads in a 24 hour period.

Firefox currently is in the #2 spot as far as Internet browsers go. Over the years it has steadily creeped up on the #1 title holder, Internet Explorer.

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/

WWDC Keynote Update

BradHall — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:53:25 +0000

Today is the first day of the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California. With over 5,000 people in attendance, this is one of the largest WWDC’s yet.

The House That Steve Built has some exciting announcements that have been coming seemingly every minute. Among the highlights are for the first half of the day are:

- Not only is iPhone 2.0 in beta with over 4,000 people in the beta program, but that there will be three parts to the SDK: Enterprise, SDK, as well as new features for the end users.

- Several demos from SEGA, Apple, eBay, Pangea Software, MIMVista, among others.

- SEGA shows off a video of Super Monkey Ball, which will be a launch title in the new App Store for $9.99 USD.

- MIMVista shows off a program designed to help medical students study and learn various parts of the body with almost realistic images.

- Steve anounces new iPhone 2.0 features, including contact search, support for Microsoft Office documents, and support for Asian languages. The iPhone is set to be released July 11th.

- Mobile.Me is the replacement for .mac, current .mac subscribers will be automatically updated to the new service. A 60-day trial of Mobile.Me will be included with the iPhone 2.0.

- The new iPhone will be thiner, sexier, include support for a 3G network, Enterprise support, more affordable, available in more countries, and have advanced GPS support.

- Target price for an 8GB iPhone 2.0 will be $199, a savings of $200 over the current price of the iPhone.

- Later in the day, Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard was announced, but would feature no new features, only improvements over older ones.

WWDC 08 LiveBlog

B. Terhechte — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:09:41 +0000

So we arrived and are waiting in line. The queue is rather long and we’re not sure if we managed to catch a good position for the Keynote. That is, a position that prevents us from having to enter one of the overflow rooms. There’re definately lots of people here.

One of the lab areas in the lab room still had it’s label coverted. That may be a cue by that there’ll be something new which enforces a new lab in order to understand it.

More news as we continue our approaching the main floor.