Amongst other things, these are my favorite milesstones for 2012.

• finally leaving the University of Applied Sciences for good
• starting fulltime at anfema
• pushing some of my projects to Github, the most interesting ones beeing NoMoreiTunes and Mnmlsm 2 my message style for Adium
• writing about my baking adventures
• learning more Objective-C, JavaScript and trying new things
• launching NinetyNine to the App Store
• starting a podcast named Bring it On

What a wonderful year.

So long.

It's been less then a week since NinetyNine finally made it to the iTunes AppStore. Whew, what a journey. In the last post I promised to reveal some details on the creation process so …

… Here we go

The app started with a rough sketch made in Xcode using Storyboards by a drunk Sven in a late December night. (That's what he told me!) The concept was set, it was quite entertaining, but it was missing a proper design so Sven decided to call me a few days later and I started Sketch and updated his rough idea into the UI you see today.

Since our timeframe was limited – we wanted to make it to the store before the Christmas block – I jumped in and helped Sven with coding, too. It was quite a nice experience to go back to Xcode and Objective-C after quite a long time.

I really enjoy some of the newer features that were introduced in iOS 6, so I thought this post might be a good place to tell you about them.

The launch screen transition

Since this is a game and the UI itself is quite minimal, the first impression when you launch it had to be a special thing.

The new(ish) animation blocks available in UIView make it very easy to create a chain of directed animations which allows me to work pretty similar to a keyframe based animation tool.

[UIView animateWithDuration:(NSTimeInterval) animations:^(void)animations completion:(BOOL finished)completion]

The transition starts with a dark background, fades to the final color and then moves the logo up with a slight bounce before it lands in it's final place. This behavior is used for many animations in the game and makes the motions more interesting.

Thanks to the blocks it's also pretty simple to implement, just animate to the anticpating value in the first block and use a second block in the completion block of the first to animate to the final value shortly after.

The buttons

The buttons used in the menu and in the game itself started out as simple rectangles. We tried quite a few hover states and I started playing with the available transforms and soon we found a match with a simple set of 3D transforms. It was quite static and didn't feel right when you touched the wrong side of the button, so Sven suggested using the touch point on the button to adjust the transforms.

It turned out to be quite simple. I just added a simple UILongPressGestureRecognizer to the button and used it's action to map the point inside the view to rewlative coordinates and used those as a scaling factor for the x and y coordinates of a simple perspective transformation.

The next step was to add a slight gradient to the buttons. Since we wanted to add basic theming support, I had to generate the gradient colors from a base value. In Sketch, I just used a gradient from black to white with soft light and a low opacity.

Which was exactly what I wanted to use in code only to get me lost in finding a way to do it. In the end I found the formula for Soft Lighting on Wikipedia and implemented it myself.

If anyone cares, the code looks like this:

// a is the bottom value, b is the top value
// call this function for the r,g,b channels.

CGFloat calculateSoftlight(CGFloat a, CGFloat b) {
    // via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blend_modes#Soft_Light
    CGFloat f;
    if ( b <= 0.5 ) {
        f = a - (1 - 2 * b) * a * (1 - a);
    } else {
        CGFloat g;
        if (a <= 0.25) {
            g = ((16 * a - 12) * a + 4) * a;
        } else {
            g = sqrt(a);
        }
        f = a + (2 * b - 1) * (g - a);
    }
    return f;
}

Upcoming features

We had some plans which didn't make it into the first release. Some of them are already implemented and just missing a proper interface, others didn't feel right or still need some work.

The first update will most likely add color themes and maybe also some new additional game modes.

To support theming, every color in the game comes from a singleton class which stores them and allows us to chose from a different set of colors on the fly. For now this makes it easier for us to create new themes, but it also gives us the option to provide a theme editor inside the game, which is quite unlikely to happen in NinetyNine, but it's still a nice concept.

Source Code

To color the icons inside the app on the fly we used MGImageUtilities from Matt Gemmell, which inspired me to follow his steps and release some parts of the code to the public. This will not happen right now, as we still have to pick a proper license and discuss on the how and when, but it's likely to happen soon after the next update is available.

Even more Shameless self-promotion

I plan to talk about the game in German in the next episode of Bring it on, the podcast I started with Daniel.

So long.

When Sven approached me with this great little idea for a rather simple yet entertaining iPhone game, I wasn't sure, but when I started playing his demo, I fell for it. Now I'm sitting here, waiting nerviously. My very first app is waiting for review in iTunes Connect. Sven had the idea, I did the design and we both wrote quite a few lines of code.

Maybe I'll write about the whole experience when our app is released, stay tuned. If you want to learn more follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. I even made a small teaser website.

So long.

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HiServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/cursors

So next time you need a cursor to explain a client where he has to click, try those. They look familiar and they work just great.

So long.

Since I hate digging to folders just to reach a folder I know, I decided to make a symbolic link to the folder into my home directory. You can do the same by entering the following command into Terminal.app:

ln -s ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents ~/iCloud

I hope this saves some trouble.

So long.

So long.

This guide is split into five simple steps.

1. Enabling PHP on Mac OS X
2. Enabling .htaccess files
3. Enabling Virtual Hosts
4. Configure Virtual Hosts
5. Control Apache

Before you start

You will have to run some commands on Terminal.app. I also recommend that you use a good code editor like TextMate which can be launched from the command line and override files with Administrator permissions. To browse hidden directories in the Finder.app you able to use the Go to folder-Command and enter the path there or use the Terminal.app and the open command.

We will edit three files:

• /etc/apache2/httpd.conf - contains the general Apache settings
• /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf - contains our virtual hosts
• /etc/hosts - for routing our development domains

Remember to make backups. Anfema is not responsible for any damage or anything that goes wrong. If you don't know what you are doing and don't want to risk something to learn new things, try this or simply hire us!

1. Enabling PHP on Apache for Mac OS X

Open httpd.conf, and look for this line:

#LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so 

Remove the # in front of that line to uncomment and enable it.

Look for

#
# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory
# is requested.
#
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html
</IfModule>

and add index.php after index.html.

2. Enabling .htaccess files

The .htaccess control files allow you to adjust the configuration of your Apache for a single directory and are often used to support url rewrites and other useful features. By default, the Apache in OS X is configured to ignore most of the settings in them, so you have to unlock those features first. Look into the httpd.conf and find this block - it's above the DirectoryIndex block you edited before.

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
</Directory>

Change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All.

Now look a bit further down the file, right below that block there is another directory rule:

<Directory "/Library/WebServer/Documents">
    ...

Change the AllowOverride in there to All, too.

Now you can use an .htaccess file in your upcoming virtual host to adjust settings a runtime and without restarting Apache.

3. Enabling Virtual Hosts

Still in httpd.conf look for the following line and as before remove that # in front of the line to enable it

# Virtual Hosts
#Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

If you want to use the Apache without enabling Apples Websharing (see Point 5), remember to move the Include directive you just edited. outside the block <IfDefine WEBSHARING_ON>, which means after </IfDefine> a few lines below.

Now open httpd-vhosts.conf. You will find two examples and some other configuration there. It's totally save to leave that stuff there, but if it gives you peace of mind, you can comment our every line except this one:

NameVirtualHost *:80

To allow virtual hosts outside /Library/WebServer/Documents/ or ~/Sites/, which can be handy if you want to use a repository on your other disk as the document directory for your virtual host, you have to add the following lines for every directory you want to use. You can use * as wildcard. This can be helpful, if you would want to allow something like this.

# Enable Repositories folder for every user on the system as possible document root location
<Directory "/Users/*/Repositories/">
    Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

You might add the following code at the end of the file to re-enable the default document root.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
    ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

4. Configuring Virtual Hosts

Every virtual host you want to add needs two steps. You need to add the virtual host configuration and you need to link the virtual host to a domain. I strongly suggest you use .dev instead of a regular tld so you can differentiate better between local and online projects.

First in httpd-vhosts.conf add the configuration for your virtual host.

# An amazing project
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "/Users/anfemademo/Repositories/amazingproject"
    ServerName amazingproject.dev
</VirtualHost>

Now your Apache recognizes your virtual host when you try to reach it under the ServerName/hostname amazingproject.dev

Now in /etc/hosts add the following line at the end to route any requests to amazingproject.dev to your localhost and therefore your Apache.

127.0.0.1 amazingproject.dev

Phew, that's it! Now you should have a proper configuration and it's time to start your Apache.

5. Controlling Apache

Until Mac OS X Lion (10.7) Apple included Web Sharing in the System Preferences, which gave you a basic interface for starting and stopping the server. This feature was removed from Mountain Lion (10.8), so you will have to use the Terminal command. Use sudo apachectl -k <command> with <command> being start, stop or restart.

Now that you have startet your Apache, you can open your browser and surf to http://amazingproject.dev. If everything worked out, you should see your project running. You should type in the whole thing, including the http:// part, as some browsers ignore your hosts file for the url-autocompletion.

If it doesn't work, check Console.app for any Apache or other errors and check the three files we edited for typos.

Bonus

You should check out Homebrew, which is an excellent package manager for Mac OS X and makes it super easy to install additional server tools like MySQL.

Happy coding.

While I'm typing this, Dominik is cooking his amazing peanut curry and baking naan, which will be the start for our celebrations for the 4th of July.

I finally managed to upload a few more pictures, though I still have to go through 4000 more, there are now two new albums on Flickr: First Weekend, First week & WWDC and Second Weekend.

Tomorrow will be our last day here in San Francisco. We've been here long enough that our appartment already feels like home and the trip to Las Vegas felt like a short vacation from our "regular place". I'm still looking forward to be back home again, mostly because the weather here is quite cold compared to Germany.

So long.

Yesterday we went to the farmers market at the ferry building and made our way to the infamous tourist place known as Pier 39. After a few sea lions, the Golden Gate bridge in the fog and a quick peak at Alcatraz we turned back to the city, got new cards for our phones (at&t turned out to be a way better choice than T-Mobile) and went home, where Daniel was waiting.

He took my girlfriend to the airport to rent a car (there was a chance that she would get cheaper rates with her business card which didn’t work out). They got an freakingly awesome Ford Mustang!

Today went to the Westfield-Mall (or Nordstrom? It's the same building.) and after a few ours of browsing I got myself a new sweater from Hollisters.

Back home, we prepared a BBQ, but since the other guys came home quite late and it already started to get colder again, we stayed inside. Kudos to Dominik for the perfect steaks!

So long.

For reasons.

So long.

Please note: These pictures were taken by @stefale, @breakthesystem, @dfelber and myself.

So long.

Today, the WWDC 2012 came to an end. After the last sessions, we finally took our time to attend the lunch talk. For this last one, Apple invited famous director and screenwriter J. J. Abrams to talk about his company Bad Robot and his story.

It was a really inspiring talk which can be summed up like this: Do bold moves & do things that give you a good feeling.

Of course his words were a bit better, but I'm not good at remembering exact quotes. However I was really impressed by the fact, that he seemed like a pretty cool guy, much more down to earth than one would expect from a famous director.

Overall, this was a great ending for a week packed with amazing new things. I really want to thank my boss, Markus Reimer for making this trip possible.

Now it's time for another three weeks in San Francisco and an awesome vacation. I can't wait for Monday when my girlfriend will finally arrive here, too.

So long.

Day 4: The big official WWDC bash

After a busy day of interesting sessions we grabbed our fancy green wristbands, went home to get some fresh clothes and went straight back to the Yerba Buena Gardens which are next to the big cinema right across the street of Moscone Center to get in line for the WWDC Bash. Apple provided drinks and food and they invited a band called Neon Trees to play live on stage. I haven't heard of them before, but there life performance was pretty great.

If you look closely at the photo, you can see what goes wrong when you put a rock band in front of 5000 nerds. The photo doesn't make it that obvious, but simply everyone was just standing around. Most of them put their phone in the air, but it didn't look like they were having a lot of fun. So we made our way to the front and started the party! Yeah, me. I didn't see that coming. We danced and jumped until our feet hurt, but at the end it was really worth it as at least all the people around us started joining in the dancing and the band seemed really happy too. I tried to catch a few moments on video, but that didn't wok out that well. More dancing, less filming turned out to be the best decision.

Later that night we went to a pub called the Chieftain, where I hoped to meet that Louie Mantia guy and some fellow designers who seemed to have vanished long before we arrived there, which was kind of a bummer. But then I met two coders from taptaptap and many other guys.

It was a great night and really showed a different side of the people at the conference.

So long.

We spent half of the day at Moscone, listening to interesting sessions on many new features in iOS 6 and how to use them for our upcoming projects. Again, most of the information is confidential, but it's quite easy to sum everything up in the following way: Apple makes it even easier to create great things than it was already.

Because some of the features just blew us away, we were pretty pumped and started fooling around with some code for the first application that will be released by anfema under our own name. I can't say anything more about it, but it will be a useful little app for developers who have an iPad and use agile development processes (or at least try to). It's a great little side project so far.

Note: we changed our mind since Wednesday, so instead of using features only available in iOS 6, we try to make it work on iOS 5, too. So the app will be available earlier.

So long.

The first two days of the WWDC 2012 are over and the experience is quite unique so far. Let's get started.

In this post

• Day 1: Great Keynote & Food & stuff.
• Day 2: Sessions are great, meeting people is even better.

Day 1: The Keynote

Monday we got up really early to make it into the big Keynote, which opens the conference. And we made it! The line was all around Moscone West and we already thought we had to get into the overflow rooms, but we were under the last 50 people to get in the big conference room to see the presentation live on stage.

I wont talk about the details, as most of the stuff is already discussed pretty much everywhere. If you have no clue what's going on, consider watching the official stream from Apple. The new Retina MacBook Pro is a quite interesting device and the display is gorgeous, but I wish they would have made the same design available for the non-retina models as well.

The upcoming updates to OS X and iOS sound interesting and some of the features are really useful, as far as I can tell from the betas, which of course are under NDA, so I won't go into the details there either.

After the Keynote (and another presentation) we went in the city to grab some lunch. I was able to convince my colleagues to visit the Osha, a thai restaurant in the Financial District which is somewhat close to the convention center, and I ate there before last time and the food was as good as I remembered it to be.

Stuffed and happy we rolled back to the conference to see the Apple Design Awards. I really hope that I make an app that gets at least nominated for that price. The winners deserve all their praise, but I'm kinda puzzled that Deus Ex 3 was nominated alongside a lot of indie applications. Maybe Apple should seperate games and applications in some way.

Day 2: The first sessions

Today the sessions under NDA started with some amazing new features which will make coding for iOS even better than ever before. We really can't wait to use those in our applications. I met @ConnorCimowsky (who currently is an intern at Apple) and we talked about random stuff while grabbing some free lunch. I really look forward meeting more people from my Twitter timeline the next few days.

More sessions after lunch, one of them about workflows in Xcode, which was really interesting and showed that there is much more in that application we use all day than you know about.

Since it was already quite late and we wanted to grab a bite before we go to the famous "Stump the experts" panel, I lead the team to a small place called Louies Bar & Grill, where we had some tasty and kinda "American Style" food.

After the Stump Daniel and I went to the Push.io party, but it wasn't quite to my taste, so I went home to finally write this post.

Now it's time for some more wireframes and design for our upcoming application, as all of us are really excited about the new stuff we learned.

So long.

Many kilometers and 24 hours later, we finally arrived at our apartment. Where do I start? Our landlord? Helpful and friendly. The whole place? Cute, stunning and it feels like home already.

After a relaxed sleep in our gorgous beds, we started our day with a big breakfast (thanks, Daniel) and now we're leaving to discover the city.

So long.

So long.

This time not only to visit old friends and colleagues, but to be a part of the small team that will represent anfema at the WWDC. Like the last time I will try to blog about the whole trip in this blog, altough some articles will be posted at our company's blog and I'll only link them over here.

Don't forget to contact me if you want to meet me and my friends: @breakthesystem, @dfelber, @stefale, @missnaseweis & Lucy

So long.

After only a few weeks of waiting, I finally recieved my iPhone case from Grove.

I had quite a few things to protect my iPhone 4 over time. Starting with the Apple Bumper, iPod socks and a sleeve by Hardgraft.

The Grove is quite different from what I had before.

Pros

• Real bamboo
• Custom made. The engravings look great and you can get your own illustrations engraved.
• Wraps the whole iPhone
• Lightweight
• Delicious smell (wood & lime, great combination)
• Feels great in your hand

Cons

• It's made of wood, which basically means it protects your iPhone from exactly one drop, which will then most likely destroy the case.
• long waiting until you get your case

Since I haven't dropped my iPhone (yet), I think it's a really sweet case and well worth its price and the waiting. I'm really impressed by the quality of the whole thing and looking forward to their iPad case which will hopefully arrive in time when I visit San Francisco.

So long.