Finally got me an iPod touch
A couple weeks ago, the extremely nice folks at the Scrabble club decided to show their appreciation for me as a director by getting me $200 in gift cards toward an iPod touch! I was flabbergasted. That was such a nice thing to do. I've been wanting an iPod touch basically forever, but had a hard time justifying the cost. With a $200 discount, I could resist no longer.
Yesterday, I did some research and found that Amazon had the 32GB model for $369, while the Apple Store is selling it for $399. I determined to try to get the best of both worlds (a cheaper iPod without having to wait for shipping), so I walked into the Apple Store and asked a manager if they could match Amazon's price. He thought about it for a minute, verified Amazon's price by checking one of the gajillion MacBooks in the store, and finally agreed that they could match it. I had planned for him to say no, but I was glad I didn't have to thank him for his time and walk out the door.
Long story short, I love the thing and I haven't even downloaded any apps yet. That's not entirely true; I downloaded Carina Software's SkyGazer and SkyVoyager apps when they were free on July 20 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Other than that, though, I've just been watching video podcasts and dinking around with Wi-Fi. And it's freaking awesome.
Of course, before I even bought the thing, my thoughts turned to how I could get Zyzzyva on it. Sadly, it appears that iPhone apps needs to be written in Objective C, and I don't think much of the existing Zyzzyva code (C++, heavily reliant on the Qt framework) will be able to make the transition directly. On the plus side, I like learning new things, and I think creating an iPhone app (even a pared-down version of Zyzzyva) will be a fun experience. My first goal will be to write "Hello World", my second goal will be to get simple word check functionality, and my next goal will probably be to get a little Zyzzyva search app working. No quizzes, no definitions, no anything fancy. That'll be a good start. With my hectic life, I expect it will take a while.
One thing that makes me somewhat nervous, though, is stories like this one: Ninjawords: iPhone Dictionary, Censored by Apple. It would majorly suck to put much effort into a word app for the iPhone, only to have it rejected by Apple because it contains words that Apple considers "offensive". I'm interested to see how this story develops, as it seems to have direct implications for Zyzzyva.
Yesterday, I did some research and found that Amazon had the 32GB model for $369, while the Apple Store is selling it for $399. I determined to try to get the best of both worlds (a cheaper iPod without having to wait for shipping), so I walked into the Apple Store and asked a manager if they could match Amazon's price. He thought about it for a minute, verified Amazon's price by checking one of the gajillion MacBooks in the store, and finally agreed that they could match it. I had planned for him to say no, but I was glad I didn't have to thank him for his time and walk out the door.
Long story short, I love the thing and I haven't even downloaded any apps yet. That's not entirely true; I downloaded Carina Software's SkyGazer and SkyVoyager apps when they were free on July 20 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Other than that, though, I've just been watching video podcasts and dinking around with Wi-Fi. And it's freaking awesome.
Of course, before I even bought the thing, my thoughts turned to how I could get Zyzzyva on it. Sadly, it appears that iPhone apps needs to be written in Objective C, and I don't think much of the existing Zyzzyva code (C++, heavily reliant on the Qt framework) will be able to make the transition directly. On the plus side, I like learning new things, and I think creating an iPhone app (even a pared-down version of Zyzzyva) will be a fun experience. My first goal will be to write "Hello World", my second goal will be to get simple word check functionality, and my next goal will probably be to get a little Zyzzyva search app working. No quizzes, no definitions, no anything fancy. That'll be a good start. With my hectic life, I expect it will take a while.
One thing that makes me somewhat nervous, though, is stories like this one: Ninjawords: iPhone Dictionary, Censored by Apple. It would majorly suck to put much effort into a word app for the iPhone, only to have it rejected by Apple because it contains words that Apple considers "offensive". I'm interested to see how this story develops, as it seems to have direct implications for Zyzzyva.