Category Archives: Devs (Xcode)

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 5, Public Beta 3 Coming Tomorrow

Surprise! Just six days after releasing Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4, they release El Capitan Beta 5. It certainly wasn’t a typical release, as there was no new iOS 9, WatchOS 2, or Xcode 7 Betas. In fact, Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 5 isn’t even on Apple’s developer web site just yet, so I have no release notes to show you.

For public beta testers, this means that you will most likely get Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Public Beta 3 tomorrow. We’re getting later in the release cycle, so at this point, new builds can come at any time as it’s becoming more and more stable.

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Could C# be the one language to rule them all?

Being a developer, it is important to continue to learn about new languages as you are being asked to create solutions for multiple platforms.  The reason why we have so many languages is because on a hardware level each CPU uses a different assembly language to run their instructions.  Due to this fact not every language is able to run on every platform.  For this to work you would need to have multiple companies that are able to understand these CPU differences to write compilers for the same language.

Java_1

For a time, the language Java (which as owned by Sun Microsystems for a time until Oracle purchased the company) was set out to solve this problem.  From 1995 through the mid 2000’s it seemed like Java was supported on almost every computer and device.  That was until the iPhone come along with its first version of iOS in 2007.  It wasn’t unusual that a new device didn’t have support for Java on the initial release but then Apple announced that they will never support languages like Java (http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/9731).

The reason is because their terms of use do not allow developers to create apps that were written from interpreted code.   So that means you are only able to create apps that are written in a low level language like Objective-C which create compiled programs.  This was bad news for developers as there was one more language that we needed to learn.

The folks over at Google decided on using Java (although you can also use C++) to write your mobile apps for their Android operating system.  Meanwhile Microsoft relies on their .NET Framework to create Windows Mobile apps which includes the Visual Basic .NET and C# languages.

By now you see the problem.  If you wanted to write a mobile app for each of these platforms, you would need to learn three different language on three different frameworks.  Wouldn’t it be nice if someone created a new language and would allow programmers to create apps for all of these types of devices?  Well the short answer is no.

xkcd-standards

The solution to this problem has been solved for us already by the Mono group (http://www.mono-project.com/).  The Mono project was started back in 2004 as an open source project to port the .NET Framework to run on Linux and Mac.  This project was original independent from Microsoft but now it is being included in the latest version of its developer environment: Visual Studio 2015.

VS2K15_1

This is all possible because of Xamarin (http://xamarin.com/) which takes the ported version of the .NET Framework and uses it build apps that run on both Android and iOS devices.  However it isn’t perfect.  For instance, in order to create iOS apps in Visual Studio 2015 you are going to need to purchase a business account from Xamarin ($89/month) plus have access to a Mac.  This will then create the compiled programs that iOS will allow to run on its devices.

Also the version of the ADK (Android Development Kit) that is included with Visual Studio 2015 isn’t the latest version so you will need to manually go out and download and configure the latest version on your machine before you are able to create Android apps.  At any rate you will be prompted to log into Xamarin.  You can find more information about this here: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/features/xamarin-vs.aspx.

Not exactly plug in play, but it is still early days.  Hopefully, future versions of Visual Studio will allow developers access to a more “turn key” solution for creating mobile apps in a single programming language.

Hands On with Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4

On Tuesday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4. The next day, Apple released Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Public Beta 2. There isn’t a lot that’s new in this build; however, there are some really significant bug fixes that I’ll show in this video.

As we get closer to the public release of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, there will be more videos like this, showing off bug fixes rather than actual new features.

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Hands On with WatchOS 2 Beta 4

On Tuesday this week, Apple released WatchOS 2 Beta 4. There wasn’t a whole lot that was new; however, there was a hell of a lot that got fixed. As we get closer to the public release of WatchOS 2, iOS 9, and Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, there are going to be more and more videos like this, where there isn’t a lot of new features but there are bug fixes to show.

Have a look.

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WatchOS 2 Beta 4 is Now Available to Developers

Today, Apple released its normal round of betas, including iOs 9 Beta 4, Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4, Xcode 7 Beta 4, and of course, WatchOS 2 Beta 4.

WatchOS 2 Beta 4 is the only one of the above that isn’t available through a public program. You need to have a developer account. Well, or know someone with a developer account.

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Xcode 7 Beta 4 Now Available to Everyone

Today, Apple released their normal round of betas, including Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4, iOS 9 Beta 4, WatchOS 2 Beta 4, and of course, Xcode 7 Beta 4. If you’re on the public beta for El Capitan or iOS 9, you have to wait until tomorrow. If you want Xcode 7, that guy is open to the public, so you can grab it right now.

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Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4 Now Available to Developers

Today, Apple released their usual round of betas, including Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4, iOS 9 Beta 4, WatchOS 2 Beta 4, and Xcode 7 Beta 4. There is still no evidence of the Apple TV being supported anymore. Also, iOS 9 Beta 4 is the first one that has a build for the sixth generation iPod Touch.

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iOS 9 Beta 4 Now Available

Today, Apple seeded iOS 9 Beta 4 to developers. If you’re looking for the public beta, it will probably be available tomorrow. This came alongside WatchOS 2 Beta 4, Xcode 7 Beta 4, and Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 4. There is still no sign that the third generation Apple TV will continue to be supported, as there is still no beta and it hasn’t been updated since iOS 8.3.

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Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta 3 Walk Through

It took me a long time to install Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan beta 3. It didn’t go well. When I first installed the beta 3 update, it told me that I couldn’t create an Apple ID with that Mac anymore, even though I wasn’t trying to create an Apple ID. Then, I restored my MacBook Air to Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and upgraded to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan again; however, beta 2 didn’t show up, rendering me unable to upgrade to beta 3.

Then, I restored again and upgraded again. The Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan beta 2 update still didn’t show up, so I manually installed it. It took me a few days before I was actually able to install this build, only to find out that AirDrop still doesn’t work so I had to go back to Yosemite immediately after I made this video.

Despite the fact that there are few new features in this build, keep in mind that I did put a lot of work into it.

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