In a previous post I covered the widely held myth that is Android screen size fragmentation from a developer perspective. Consider it required reading before you proceed.

Today famed Apple blogger John Gruber, posted his thoughts on what the iPhone 6 could look like when it launches. He suggests that both the rumoured 4.7″ and 5.5″ models might exist, and takes a guess at their screen resolutions:

– 4.7-inch display: 1334 × 750, 326 PPI @2x

– 5.5-inch display: 2208 × 1242, 461 PPI @3x

John Gruber, Daring Fireball, Conjecture Regarding Larger iPhone Displays

The whole post is worth a read, so off you go. I was interested in taking the same 1x (or 1pt/1dp as it’s also known) diagram we drew for Android, and redrawing that for iOS in light of this post. It would look like this:

Remember our Android one looked like this:

This comes from these 4 screen sizes:

• 320×480 @1x iPhone 4
• 320×536 @1x iPhone 5
• 375×667 @1x iPhone 6, 4.7″
• 414×736 @1x iPhone 6, 5.5″

What does this mean in practice? It means iOS developers will now have to do more work than their Android counterparts in order to support the increased variation in iOS screens. The best tools for that exist in iOS 8, which also makes it likely a lot of apps will go iOS 8 only to avoid the manual layout pain. It’s not all bad news though, this might actually result in better large screen iOS apps vs their Android counterparts. This is because on the 5.5″ iPhone there would be more content being shown, rather than everything just being bigger.

All of the above is based on rumours though, so we all have to wait until September to see what actually happens.

“That’s good to know, but what did Rusty think of them?”
“Rusty?”
“Yeah”
“He said he’d happily hire them”
“Well that’s all I need to know, that guy really doesn’t abide fools”

Do you ever hear something about yourself, that makes you realise there’s a part of you, that you didn’t even know existed? The above is a conversation I overheard almost a decade ago now when two people were discussing whether or not to hire a recent applicant. The Rusty was me, but I don’t abide fools? What does that even mean? That one overheard conversation made me aware of just how many things in my life I hold up to a critical light, and discard when they don’t hold up to careful examination.

I was raised as a fundamentalist Christian by my mother from a young age. As I grew up I became really involved in the Church. Eventually I became a youth leader, organising events for hundreds of young people, giving regular sermons from the platform, I became everything expected of a young man in that organisation. Then came the day they asked me to take on the role of ‘Area Leader’. That day made me stop, and examine everything I believed in. I know it sounds funny in hindsight, but I hadn’t ever taken the time to think it through before that. What I believed was true, because it was true. Everything I heard in the Church was true, because everyone else affirmed it to be true. Well it was, until I spent time critically examining everything I believed in. Like a house made of cards, it all collapsed, unceremoniously and silently to the floor. This, as far as I was concerned, left me with only one thing I could do. I explained to everyone that I no longer believed, and wished them well with their endeavours. Being a fundamentalist church 99% of them immediately stopped talking to me, but that is a story for another day.

I’m not here to keep telling you my life story, and in truth I have no regrets. I met some great people and to this day I have no fear whatsoever of public speaking, since I did that from a young age. I share the above story because as much as I hate to admit it, a lot of people treat Apple and Google like their own personal churches. They think their company is better than all others, that whatever they do should be viewed in a different light to everything else. They have common wisdoms and sayings that they repeat over, and over, and over again. They surround themselves in a virtual echo-chamber of like minded attendees and repeat the sayings of Gruber, Nickinson et al. And should you dare to challenge them on those beliefs? You get the same reaction I did when I explained to my former church friends why I’d become an atheist. I’m not going to stretch this analogy to breaking point, it is just an analogy after all. I don’t recall hearing of anyone praying to Marco to watch over them while they sleep. My point is simply that from time to time, it helps to stand back and consider things a bit more objectively. Perhaps we all view life through various lenses and being aware of at least some of them, could be a good thing.

I recently went to Google I/O, I switched to using an Android phone and I’m wearing an Android Wear watch. I talk about all of those things not because I’ve had some miraculous conversion to the church of Google, but simply because I find them interesting. When I write about my experience, it’s not to convert you. I honestly don’t give a damn what phone you have in your pocket or which laptop you use. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I, like most geeks, am one of those people that try to steal glances at people’s phones when they pull them out in public. What’s on her home screen? Does he have a weird case? Is that a crack? OMG not a screen protector, WHY would you do that to a screen?!

Honestly I’m just tired of people who identify with one and only one company. While you’re talking to them, they are too busy figuring out how to counter what you’re saying to listen. Please stop. Companies aren’t churches, they aren’t sports teams. If I use a Google phone and an Apple laptop there’s no contradiction there. Technology is absolutely amazing. Sometimes I feel like most people I meet are so busy taking sides that they aren’t stopping to appreciate the innovation and wonder being delivered by so many companies today. Taking snarky pot shots at products is so easy, heck even I do it occasionally. Stopping to actually marvel and enjoy them, well that’s much harder.

I tried to convey some of this on the latest episode of Pragmatic. I mostly failed, but if you’re out of podcasts, go listen: http://pca.st/Zwvi.

I just read the most interesting post I’ve read all year. It was two sentences long. Allow me to share it with you:

It looks like Motorola’s designers tried to draw as much attention as they could to the 360’s stupid flat-tire display shape.

The only way this could get funnier would be if it doesn’t even ship until after Apple announces their wrist wearable thing next month.

– John Gruber, Daring Fireball, 8th August 2014

Now most people think this is interesting because it reveals ‘secretly’ or ‘accidentally’ that Apple’s wearable is coming next month. That’s not the interesting part at all, it’s stated blatantly and purposefully in the post. And that kids, is the interesting part. Ponder that last sentence for a few minutes, if you will. Consider how and why it got posted to Daring Fireball.

Swift (-taylor) is the exciting new language Apple debuted at WWDC in 2014. It took pretty much all of us in the developer community by surprise. We’re now in August, 5 beta builds into Xcode and I feel like I’ve started to form an opinion about the language itself.

First the good parts:

• It looks a million times cleaner than Objective-C code
• I won’t miss the [square brackets]
• It’s much nicer to read
• It has a lot of modern ideas and influences that make it a joy to write
• It’s apparently fast, and only getting faster

And that’s where, for me, it ends. You see Apple sold me on the promise that this would solve my number one gripe about Objective-C: memory management issues. I had assumed my number two gripe, proper stack traces on crashes, was joining us for the ride. If you want to feel some of the pain that comes with Objective-C development, feel free to peruse this crash, from an older version of Pocket Casts:

Thread 0 Crashed:
0   libsystem_kernel.dylib               0x000000019a38e58c __pthread_kill + 8
1   libsystem_pthread.dylib              0x000000019a41116c pthread_kill + 100
2   libsystem_c.dylib                    0x000000019a322808 abort + 108
3   libsystem_malloc.dylib               0x000000019a3c85c4 nanozone_error + 292
4   libsystem_malloc.dylib               0x000000019a3c8778 _nano_malloc_check_clear + 432
5   libsystem_malloc.dylib               0x000000019a3c725c nano_malloc + 40
6   libsystem_malloc.dylib               0x000000019a3b8368 malloc_zone_malloc + 92
7   CoreFoundation                       0x000000018d68fd70 _CFRuntimeCreateInstance + 268
8   CoreGraphics                         0x000000018d81c9dc CGTypeCreateInstance + 56
9   CoreGraphics                         0x000000018d8262ec create_provider + 52
10  CoreGraphics                         0x000000018d826284 CGDataProviderCreateDirect + 52
11  CoreGraphics                         0x000000018d826228 CGDataProviderCreateWithCFData + 88
12  CoreGraphics                         0x000000018d8261a4 CGDataProviderCreateWithCopyOfData + 364
13  CoreGraphics                         0x000000018d825ee8 CGBitmapContextCreateImage + 84
14  UIKit                                0x000000019076d038 _UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext + 196
15  UIKit                                0x000000019076f830 -[UIImageView _setImageViewContents:] + 1244
16  UIKit                                0x000000019076ede0 +[UIView(Animation) performWithoutAnimation:] + 84
17  UIKit                                0x000000019076e748 -[UIImageView setImage:] + 836
18  UIKit                                0x0000000190b128b8 -[UIButton _updateImageView] + 128
19  UIKit                                0x00000001907b7e2c -[UIButton layoutSubviews] + 100
20  UIKit                                0x000000019075afe0 -[UIView(CALayerDelegate) layoutSublayersOfLayer:] + 344
21  QuartzCore                           0x000000019034c258 -[CALayer layoutSublayers] + 180
22  QuartzCore                           0x0000000190346e20 CA::Layer::layout_if_needed(CA::Transaction*) + 296
23  QuartzCore                           0x0000000190346cd8 CA::Layer::layout_and_display_if_needed(CA::Transaction*) + 28
24  QuartzCore                           0x0000000190346560 CA::Context::commit_transaction(CA::Transaction*) + 276
25  QuartzCore                           0x0000000190346304 CA::Transaction::commit() + 420
26  QuartzCore                           0x000000019033fc38 CA::Transaction::observer_callback(__CFRunLoopObserver*, unsigned long, void*) + 76
27  CoreFoundation                       0x000000018d757858 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER_CALLBACK_FUNCTION__ + 28
28  CoreFoundation                       0x000000018d754ae0 __CFRunLoopDoObservers + 368
29  CoreFoundation                       0x000000018d754e6c __CFRunLoopRun + 760
30  CoreFoundation                       0x000000018d695dd0 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 448
31  GraphicsServices                     0x000000019337dc0c GSEventRunModal + 164
32  UIKit                                0x00000001907c6fc4 UIApplicationMain + 1152
33  podcasts                             0x000000010004e9b4 _mh_execute_header (main.m:14)
34  libdyld.dylib                        0x000000019a293aa0 start + 0

Looks very detailed right? So as an app developer you get that back, and now it’s your job to figure out why. The first thing you look for is your app’s line numbers, so you can follow the execution path. Our app executable is called ‘podcasts’ and we can see it’s in main.m, line 14. Now most Objective-C developers have already skipped ahead and know where this is going, but indulge me. Here’s line 14:

return UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, NSStringFromClass([SJAppDelegate class]));

Oh…it’s the line our app was launched from, and doesn’t really bare any resemblance to where the crash actually started from. What button did the user press? Which screen where they on? There’s no way to know. Now before you email me, I know exactly why it’s like that. I’ve put up with it for many years. Currently in Swift, those stack traces are even worse. I won’t post one until they actually release it to be fair to Apple…but why oh why when they were making a ‘modern’ programming language could they not solve this? I know, the Objective-C runtime is hailed by many the world over as being fast, and awesome. But it’s 2014, the things I actually care about are the problems Microsoft and Sun Microsystems solved, memory management and reliability. If it comes at the expense of a tiny amount of speed, I’ll happily take it. I can count the amount of times on no hands that my code was running slow, and it was the languages fault. That goes for Java, Objective-C, C#, C++, Ruby and so many other languages. Don’t get me wrong, I love more speed, but give me more reliability first.

Update: Someone on Twitter wanted to be clever and pick apart the actual stack trace I posted. It was an example kids. But here’s a more specific one:

Thread 0 Crashed:
0   libobjc.A.dylib                      0x3a6f7626 objc_msgSend + 6
1   CoreFoundation                       0x2ff14f01 __CFNOTIFICATIONCENTER_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER__ + 10
2   CoreFoundation                       0x2fe88d69 _CFXNotificationPost + 1718
3   Foundation                           0x30874cc5 -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] + 70
4   UIKit                                0x329e545f -[UIApplication _sendWillEnterForegroundCallbacks] + 152
5   UIKit                                0x3298a949 -[UIApplication _handleApplicationResumeEvent:] + 1146
6   UIKit                                0x327895f3 -[UIApplication handleEvent:withNewEvent:] + 1880
7   UIKit                                0x32788dd9 -[UIApplication sendEvent:] + 70
8   UIKit                                0x327ed3e5 _UIApplicationHandleEvent + 614
9   GraphicsServices                     0x34df6b55 _PurpleEventCallback + 606
10  GraphicsServices                     0x34df673f PurpleEventCallback + 32
11  CoreFoundation                       0x2ff1d807 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE1_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ + 32
12  CoreFoundation                       0x2ff1d7a3 __CFRunLoopDoSource1 + 344
13  CoreFoundation                       0x2ff1bf6f __CFRunLoopRun + 1404
14  CoreFoundation                       0x2fe86729 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 522
15  CoreFoundation                       0x2fe8650b CFRunLoopRunInMode + 104
16  GraphicsServices                     0x34df56d3 GSEventRunModal + 136
17  UIKit                                0x327e7871 UIApplicationMain + 1134
18  podcasts                             0x000851cf main (main.m:14)
19  libdyld.dylib                        0x3abebab7 start + 0

I know the cause of this. I forgot to call removeObserver somewhere. But where? Damned if I know unless I give every single one of my methods unique names. Pointers are fun. My point is, a language/framework/runtime combination that is modern, should remove that guesswork.

As much as people hate Java, and to some extent I’m in that camp too, here’s an equivalent crash from our Android app:

java.lang.NullPointerException
	at au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts.PodcastDialog.addToPodcastLibrary(PodcastDialog.java:465)
	at au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts.PodcastDialog.subscribeToPodcast(PodcastDialog.java:257)
	at au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts.PodcastDialog.access$400(PodcastDialog.java:48)
	at au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts.PodcastDialog$2.onClick(PodcastDialog.java:201)
	at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:4438)
	at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:18422)
	at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:733)
	at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
	at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
	at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5001)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
	at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:785)
	at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:601)
	at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Yes I know, ha ha Null Pointer, Java, LOL. But that’s an exact line number friends. What did the user do? They tapped the subscribe button. Which page where they on? The Podcast Dialog. Zero ambiguity. Guess how many of our Android crashes we get that for? 100%. In iOS we’d be lucky if even 30% of our crashes had stack traces we can line up to actual things we can then reproduce. So most iOS crashes today involve me becoming House MD and poking the code for hours, only to figure out that like always, it’s never Lupus.

I haven’t even covered the crashes I’ve seen where Objective-C was sending a message to the wrong object, a classic sign that the object you thought you had has been released and you’re now talking to something completely different. I’m assuming that Swift, running on the same runtime, with the same compiler, is going to have that exact same issue. I also haven’t gone into how the entire Cocoa/Cocoa Touch API is built for Objective-C and is still at times awkward to interact with in Swift. That one at least feels like mostly a transitional issue. So count me disappointed until the day Apple announce a new runtime that actually gets rid of memory related crashes, and gives us accurate stack traces. Until that day, old man Rusty is just going to keep yelling “get off my lawn, kiddo’s”.

So you read Apple’s press release, and you’re confused. Don’t worry kids, Rusty used to work in enterprise, allow him to translate it for you.

CUPERTINO, California and ARMONK, New York—July 15, 2014—Apple® and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an exclusive partnership that teams the market-leading strengths of each company to transform enterprise mobility through a new class of business apps—bringing IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone® and iPad®.

We’re working with IBM on business stuff.

The landmark partnership aims to redefine the way work will get done, address key industry mobility challenges and spark true mobile-led business change—grounded in four core capabilities:

• a new class of more than 100 industry-specific enterprise solutions including native apps, developed exclusively from the ground up, for iPhone and iPad;

• unique IBM cloud services optimized for iOS, including device management, security, analytics and mobile integration;

• new AppleCare® service and support offering tailored to the needs of the enterprise;  and

• new packaged offerings from IBM for device activation, supply and management.

For some reason we’ve written a detailed summary of something we’re about to go over below. We hear that’s how it’s done in ‘Enterprise’. In other news IBM makes some terrible apps, but enterprises love hand holding more than fat kids love candy. We’re going to offer them hand holding through IBM.

The new IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions will be built in an exclusive collaboration that draws on the distinct strengths of each company: IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities, with the power of more than 100,000 IBM industry and domain consultants and software developers behind it, fused with Apple’s legendary consumer experience, hardware and software integration and developer platform. The combination will create apps that can transform specific aspects of how businesses and employees work using iPhone and iPad, allowing companies to achieve new levels of efficiency, effectiveness and customer satisfaction—faster and easier than ever before.

Yeah we don’t know what this means either, but it sounds pretty sweet right? I mean ‘fused’, ‘big data’, ‘consultants’ and ‘analytics’ all in one paragraph. If you don’t need to take a cold shower after reading that, you’re just not hooked up right. Enterprise Speak is so turn-key that we just can’t stop leveraging the synergy. Dre wanted to turn that into a rap, but we told him to stay the hell away from our transformative enterprise solutions.

As part of the exclusive IBM MobileFirst for iOS agreement, IBM will also sell iPhones and iPads with the industry-specific solutions to business clients worldwide.

IBM gets to sell our hardware to enterprise and we’ll even let them install their bloatware on it.

“iPhone and iPad are the best mobile devices in the world and have transformed the way people work with over 98 percent of the Fortune 500 and over 92 percent of the Global 500 using iOS devices in their business today,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “For the first time ever we’re putting IBM’s renowned big data analytics at iOS users’ fingertips, which opens up a large market opportunity for Apple. This is a radical step for enterprise and something that only Apple and IBM can deliver.”

These look like impressive numbers, but really very few enterprises take mobile seriously yet. We’re hoping IBM can use their one and only expertise, sales, to convince them otherwise. After all they make some of the worst software in the world and businesses pay them BILLIONS! We need more BILLIONS!

“Mobility—combined with the phenomena of data and cloud—is transforming business and our industry in historic ways, allowing people to re-imagine work, industries and professions,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and CEO. “This alliance with Apple will build on our momentum in bringing these innovations to our clients globally, and leverages IBM’s leadership in analytics, cloud, software and services. We are delighted to be teaming with Apple, whose innovations have transformed our lives in ways we take for granted, but can’t imagine living without. Our alliance will bring the same kind of transformation to the way people work, industries operate and companies perform.”

Give us a break, we had to let someone from IBM have their say too. We have no idea what this means either. It has ‘leverage’ in it though, which is enterprise for ‘awesome’.

Apple and IBM’s shared vision for this partnership is to put in the hands of business professionals everywhere the unique capabilities of iPads and iPhones with a company’s knowledge, data, analytics and workflows. Specifically, the two companies are working together to deliver the essential elements of enterprise mobile solutions:

How good is enterprise speak? Am I right guys?

– Mobile solutions that transform business: The companies will collaborate to build IBM MobileFirst for iOS Solutions—a new class of “made-for-business apps” targeting specific industry issues or opportunities in retail, healthcare, banking, travel and transportation, telecommunications and insurance, among others, that will become available starting this fall and into 2015.

We’re making an app store for grown ups.

– Mobile platform: The IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS will deliver the services required for an end-to-end enterprise capability, from analytics, workflow and cloud storage, to fleet-scale device management, security and integration. Enhanced mobile management includes a private app catalog, data and transaction security services, and productivity suite for all IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions. In addition to on-premise software solutions, all these services will be available on Bluemix—IBM’s development platform on the IBM Cloud Marketplace.

Yeah we took this from an IBM email, again we have no idea what it actually means. We do know that ‘fleet-scale’ is also enterprise for ‘awesome’ though.

– Mobile service and support: AppleCare for Enterprise will provide IT departments and end users with 24/7 assistance from Apple’s award-winning customer support group, with on-site service delivered by IBM.

Enterprises have huge cash piles that they want to spend, so we’re going to give them fancy AppleCare that we charge 100x more for. Even better we’re handing this off to IBM so we don’t even have to do it. That’s synergy kids.

– Packaged service offerings: IBM is introducing IBM MobileFirst Supply and Management for device supply, activation and management services for iPhone and iPad, with leasing options.

Businesses love to lease stuff, again, synergy = money. Also how many times have we said MobileFirst? We believe the enterprise requirement is 10.

Announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June and available later this year, Apple’s iOS 8 is the biggest release since the launch of the App Store℠, giving users incredible new features and developers the tools to create amazing new apps. For enterprise, iOS 8 builds on the new IT model for a mobilized workforce by improving the way users are informed of how their devices are configured, managed or restricted, with expanded security, management and productivity features.

Wait I think we forgot the enterprise speak in this paragraph, it almost makes sense. We’re relying on most businesses not to make it this far in the press release.

Apple designs Macs, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

IBM’s 5,000 mobile experts have been at the forefront of mobile enterprise innovation. IBM has secured more than 4,300 patents in mobile, social and security, that have been incorporated into IBM MobileFirst solutions that enable enterprise clients to radically streamline and accelerate mobile adoption, help organizations engage more people and capture new markets.

IBM has made a dozen acquisitions in security in the past decade, has more than 6,000 security researchers and developers in its 25 security labs worldwide that work on developing enterprise-class solutions.

IBM has also established the world’s deepest portfolio in Big Data and Analytics consulting and technology expertise based on experiences drawn from more than 40,000 data and analytics client engagements. This analytics portfolio spans research and development, solutions, software and hardware, and includes more than 15,000 analytics consultants, 4,000 analytics patents, 6,000 industry solution business partners, and 400 IBM mathematicians who are helping clients use big data to transform their organizations.

IBM! BIG DATA! SECURITY! ANALYTICS! ENTERPRISE-CLASS! CONSULTING! BUSINESS PARTNERS! INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS! MARKETS! Eddy bet me that we couldn’t win at enterprise word bingo. Boy does he have egg on his face now. Also you can’t take a press release seriously that doesn’t tell you fancy numbers about companies. It would be like introducing The King as ‘hey, here comes your leader dude, pay attention’.