I envision this as a place for me to write about topics other than code- most likely tech, LEGOs, and the iOS programming community; i.e. things I wish to write about, but which I don’t feel belong on markpospesel.com.
Month: November 2012
Want $100 off early bird registration for Renaissance?
Then I’ve got a discount code for you: use “mpospese” (my Twitter and ADN handle), or just use this direct link. The code is good through the end of November and gets you into Renaissance for just $500.
Did I mention that there’s going to be a live concert by The Smule Band? These are the guys behind Ocarina, Leaf Trombone, Magic Piano, and several other apps that turn iOS devices into musical instruments. Ocarina holds a special place in my heart because using it for the first time was sort of a watershed moment for me in my career as a developer. I had already been programming for mobile devices for 9 years at that point, but had never seen anything as creative as Ocarina – a device that transformed a phone into a multi-touch wind instrument (you blow past or into the microphone)! I was already tinkering with the iPhone SDK at that point, but that was when I knew that I really, really wanted to focus on the iPhone platform. Anyway, as you can tell I’m super excited to see them perform and hope to be able to chat with their team afterward.
The rest of the speaker lineup (myself included) is incredibly diverse and covers pretty much all the aspects of creating apps and running a business of creating apps in today’s market. It’s a great time to be a developer, designer, or businessperson (or all three), and I plan on learning everything I can that week, especially in the areas that typically fall outside of my comfort zone.
Renaissance
The Art And Science Of Apps
Tim Burks and Bill Dudney are collaborating to put on a new conference for App Makers early next year in San Francisco: Renaissance. The conference aims to be (roughly) equal parts design, business, and technology. This is a 3-day single track conference, so you don’t have to miss anything. The entire speaker roster has yet to be announced, but already includes folks like Daniel Pasco, Rob Rhyne, Brent Simmons, James Dempsey, Chris Clark, and Matt Drance.
I am proud to announce that I will be presenting a session on animation (the technical half) in conjunction with Phil Letourneau of Black Pixel (the design half). I’m really excited about the session format (50/50 design/technology).
Early bird tickets are available through the end of November. Even better, for $200 more you can get a combo Renaissance / CocoaConf ticket that is good for Renaissance plus any 2013 CocoaConf conference. There are four confirmed dates/cities for next Spring (Chicago, DC, San Jose, and Dallas) with more planned for the Fall.
Personally I think this conference is going to be epic. If you’re an indie, startup, or small company iOS App Maker, you’ll especially want to be there. The main sessions look great and cover a wide variety of topics, and I’m certain all the informal breakout sessions and after hours conversations will be fantastic.
Update: Use code “mpospese” to register by November 30 and receive an extra $100 off the early bird price!
CocoaConf PDX wrap-up / Raleigh preview
Last weekend I attended CocoaConf PDX in Portland, OR. Dave Klein really upped his game with keynotes from Daniel Pasco and Brent Simmons, and speakers such as James Dempsey and Collin Donnell. The event was sold out (the second one to do so I believe, the other being Chicago), so there was a good crowd of about 100 developers on hand. As always it’s a great vibe with so many people eager to learn and share.
Recap
I presented talks on matrix transformations and collection views. This was the 4th time I’ve given my matrix transformation talk, “Enter The Matrix: Reloaded“, and I feel like it’s really starting to hit its stride. I revamped it in August to include a lot more information about flipping and folding animations as well as some general graphics performance tips. Apparently it was voted the 2nd favorite session of the conference, losing out by a single vote to Jonathan Penn‘s UIAutomation talk. I consider that a great compliment because Jonathan is a fantastic speaker and his automation talk is really a lot of fun (no, really!) and gets the crowd cheering by the end. The slides are available here and the code is on GitHub.
My second talk, “Introducing Collection Views”, was a new talk. I sought to cover the basics of collection views, layouts, and attributes while also covering the more advanced topics of custom layouts and animations and providing specific tips borne from personal (sometimes painful) experience. The talk is accompanied by a sample app that displays a single collection view with five different layouts. The slides are here and the code is on GitHub.
Next
I will be presenting at CocoaConf RTP in Raleigh, NC at the end of this month. Tickets are still available and it looks to be another great conference. Bill Dudney will be there (including an all-day graphics tutorial) – need I say more?
I will be presenting the same two talks for Raleigh. I’m looking forward to the additional polish and reworking I can bring to the collection views talk for its second rendition.
Title: Introducing Collection Views
Abstract: UICollectionView, introduced in the iOS 6 SDK, is Apple’s new class for visualizing data in a grid or really any format other than a vertical list. We’ll cover the basics and then explore the intricacies of UICollectionViewLayout, UICollectionViewFlowLayout and related classes. Along the way we’ll learn how to make both horizontal and vertical grids, cover flow, iPhoto-like stacks, and other custom layouts. Apple has provided yet another tool that makes it easier and faster for you to provide rich experiences for your users – come learn how to hit the ground running with UICollectionView. Plenty of source code will accompany the talk.
Title: Enter The Matrix: Reloaded
Abstract: Matrix transformations can make your user interfaces come to life: translate, scale, and rotate. Each on its own is relatively simple and straightforward. Yet many developers are daunted when 2 or more operations need to be combined. What if you need to rotate or zoom about an off-center (or even off-screen) point? How do you combine multiple transformations into a single animation? How do you make advanced, polished 3D animations such as folding and flipping views? Learn everything you need to know to get started with complex matrix transformations in CoreGraphics and CoreAnimation and take an in-depth look at folding and flipping animations. We’ll also cover related topics such as anti-aliasing, avoiding off-screen render passes, shadows, and rendering retina images. Tons of demos and full open-source source code provided.
I hope to see you in Raleigh at the end of the month – it’s going to be a good time!