onnati.net is Moving. Again.

Earlier this year, I moved onnati.net to MobileMe. Then Apple announced iCloud and that MobileMe’s domain-name feature would be removed. With iCloud’s release just around the corner, I need to move the website to a new host. I’ve bought the hosting, but the real work is in moving all of the website content over to the new host. As such, onnati.net will be down for a period of time this weekend while I get everything sorted out. Keep an eye on this blog or my Twitter account for updates.

No More Leopard

In my last post I said that AppTrap 1.x was going to continue working on Leopard. I will have to backpedal on that and drop support for Leopard. I have not received any feedback from any Leopard users. And since I have no Macs running Leopard I am unable to continue testing for that operating system.

AppTrap 1.1.7 will require at least Mac OS X 10.6.

AppTrap 1.1.7 Beta

I released the AppTrap 1.1.7 Beta yesterday. I’ve had some internal betas circulating with one of the localizers, so that’s why you’re seeing Beta 3 instead of Beta 1.

The reason this is a beta is because I’ve moved over to the new 10.6 SDK and I’ve changed some of the build settings around. I also inadvertently moved development over to Xcode 4, not knowing that it had dropped PowerPC support. Luckily, Xcode 4’s project files are backwards compatible with Xcode 3.2 (which has PPC support), so I’ve moved back to that. This beta is just to ensure that I didn’t screw anything up for Leopard users or PPC users. So, if you’re a PPC Leopard user, I’d love to hear your feedback. I really just want to make sure that it works as expected.

Although I don’t want to drop PPC support for AppTrap 1.x, I do plan on dropping it, along with 10.5 support, for 2.0.

If you want to download the beta, just go to the website.

AppTrap Will Continue

I just thought I’d reassure everybody that AppTrap is not discontinued. I am in the process of having of the domain transferred so that it is under my control. I am extremely sorry for this and will have an alternate, temporary download site up soon.

Update:
The site is up at an alternate location. I’m still working on getting the original domain name.

AppTrap 1.1.3

I introduced a really stupid bug with 1.1.2 where System Preferences would show a blank window if you were using either the French or Dutch localizations. That’s been fixed with 1.1.3. The bug was introduced due to negligence on my part.

I’m really sorry about this. I’m still working out the kinks in my bug-testing.

AppTrap 1.1

I am continuing the development of AppTrap, an open source uninstaller for Mac OS X. It runs in the background, so that when an application is put in the trash, AppTrap knows and asks the user if they also want to throw away the associated preference files.

AppTrap is simple from an implementation standpoint, which is important for me, considering that this is my first real application (a finished product that is meant for public release).

The code is available here. I’d be grateful for any tips*. It’s not that I don’t have any confidence, but that I’m in unexplored territory here. Oh, and the kqueue  stuff? Right over my head. I’ll have to learn how to work with them as time goes on.

Anyway, this is all new to me. I’m sure I’ll make mistakes, but I’ll try my best to keep them from happening. And when they do happen, I’ll try my best to keep the users unaffected.

I’ll be starting class soon, so that will put a damper on development, but I’m committed to making AppTrap the best uninstaller for Mac OS X. Even though an uninstaller really isn’t all that necessary. 🙂

*Specifically, help on how to make a 64 bit prefpane would be awesome. I’ve been running into my usual set of bizarre problems in that area.

Safari 4 Public Release

Overall I’m very pleased with Safari 4’s updated UI. The public beta’s tabs-on-top implementation is gone, where the tabs were in the titlebar. An interesting experiment, but one that ultimately proved that such a feature is really quite irritating. I would have liked to see it go the Chrome way, where the tab bar is between the titlebar and the toolbar, but this is fine.

Somet other things:

• I love the new tab button. It’s clicked vs unclicked state is very pleasing.
• The tabs still have that stacked feel to them.
• The Top Sites feature where you’re able to drag another website into your Top Sites while pinning it at the same time was broken in the public beta. It is now fixed. Finally.
• That reload button is still in the URL field. How annoying.
• I’m not entirely sure if this was possible with the public beta, but the Add Bookmark button that is attached to the URL field is only default behaviour. If you add the standalone Add Bookmark button to the toolbar from the Customize Toolbar sheet, the attached Add Bookmark button will be replaced with the standalone one. Then simply remove the standalone button. Yes, this is a very awkward workaround to just having an Add Bookmark-less URL field in the Customize Toolbar sheet.
• Yay, the hierarchical site structure contextual menu is back!
• A tab only shows its close button until you mouse over the tab. And they also have click-through. Blegh.

WWDC ’08: Before The Storm

 

Let’s see what it looks like tomorrow.

iPhone Rates

There’s been a lot of buzz in Canada over the recent announcement by Rogers that they finally have a deal worked out with Apple to officially bring the iPhone up here.

A fear that many have, including myself, is that Rogers’ data plans are going to continue to be terrible, or at best, not quite as bad as they used to be, but still pretty shitty.

But there is a glimmer of hope.

On May 27, the Government of Canada will be holding a wireless spectrum auction, where they will be selling off 105MHz of the 2GHz spectrum. Sixty percent of the wireless spectrum will be for all bidders, but the remaining 40% will be available only to new bidders, excluding the major wireless carriers Bell, Telus and Rogers. With that much of the spectrum available to this new carrier, they will effectively become the 4th national carrier.

The reason why Rogers’ data plans are so outrageously priced today is because they have no one else to worry about in the GSM network¹ world in Canada². A new wireless carrier that’s very likely to use GSM is going to actually give Rogers some competition.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s caused Rogers to jump the gun and make a good deal with Apple.

 

1: The type of cellular technology that Apple uses in the iPhone. [Wikipedia link] ↵

2: If anybody says that they’re a GSM carrier in Canada, they’re just buying minutes off of Rogers.  ↵

iOnMac Ep. 8

I’m only posting this because it’s been so long since our last episode that wasn’t silent.

Direct Link
iTunes Link