Welcome to Distant Suns
Posted by admin | Filed under Uncategorized
Welcome to the new Distant Suns website. If you are new to Distant Suns, check out the About section. If you’re looking for high quality iPhone software for the whole family, click any of the icons on the right. If you have any bug reports (er “unanticipated features”), first check the FAQ as they may already be there with a solution. Otherwise check the bugs column below.
Yet another iPhone programming “101″ article
Posted by proxima | Filed under Essay
Okay, okay, so why yet another column on beginning iPhone programming when the net is gravid with similar articles?
Well, when I was asked to start a semi-irregular column by the kind folks at www.iPhonenes.com the general topic would be from an app author’s point of view. So I really need to start at the very beginning (from which I understand is a very good place to start).
Distant Suns/Grand Tour docs posted
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
Over the past few days, I’ve received a few requests to provide printable versions of my documentation for offline reference. So they are now available via the Downloads page.
Distant Suns: Now a Staff Favorite
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
Distant Suns 2 has now made it as a “Staff Favorite” in the Appstore. This is the second time, the first being only about 3 or 4 days after release in October, 08.
Landscape bug in DS 2.1.1 (fixed)
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
Yup, found out too late that landscape wasn’t working on DS 2.1.1 for some folks. I think I found the problem, so should hopefully get a fix out in the next couple of days.
UPDATE: Distant Suns 2.1.2 was released by Apple on 2/18/10 which fixes this.
Is this Apple’s real “tablet”?
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
I can’t tell you how I got these photos, but they come from a “trusted source” who claims that these could be of the much rumored “tablet” that Apple will introduce tomorrow.
First off, sorry for the poor quality of the photos. But they obviously are of some new device in the Apple labs. The size is said to be about 8 1/2 x 11 inches. The screen seems to be flush with the left and right edges, while it leaves a little room for the round on/off button along the bottom.
The little object on top is rumored to be a pocket-sized version of the big device. We don’t know if this is just a prototype, but some think it might be the 4G iPhone.
Distant Suns 2.1
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
Apple just approved Distant Suns 2.1 for sale. I did receive one note reporting an installation oddity, but he said a relaunching the app cleared it up. I am investigating though.
This just in: (imagine teletypes in the background). If you experience an exit on startup, what is happening is this: I only recently learned that the iPhone has a watchdog timer that limits the amount of time it takes for an app to load. If it goes too long (15 or 20 secs) the iPhone will kill it. The timer is disabled via the dev system, so I rarely came across it. On first use, Distant Suns will fetch the sun’s image that is displayed with the sun’s data. That can be just enough to push it over the line. Relaunching it, it knows not to get a new sun image for a while, and it’s happy.
Grand Tour Status
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
Grand Tour-3D has been temporarily removed from sale pending some design issues that have cropped up. I hope to have it back up shortly.
Top-10 Improvements Apple should make in the App Store in 2010
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
In 1987, Steve Jobs introduced to the world the wonderful and somewhat puzzling NeXT “Cube.” It was designed as the computer for the college student who could also afford a $6000 machine with no floppy drive. For all of the ridicule and head scratching the machine provoked, it pioneered a number of great technologies. Perhaps the most well known of these powers every Mac and iPhone now being made today: OS-X. Read the rest of this entry »
Grand Tour 1.3 bug
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
A few folks have mentioned that the latest release of Grand Tour (1.3) crashes sometimes when trying to open up the preferences.
Well, (pause to scratch head), it works on my 3 ipods and iPhone 3GS, with 3 different OS releases, and two rounds of testing in the Apple labs.
Anyway, I did find one suspicious line of code last night and hope to have a fix posted in the next day or two. Hang tight.
Grand Tour 1.3 released
Posted by proxima | Filed under Uncategorized
Grand Tour 1.3 was released to the Appstore today. Apple’s either hired 822 more reviewers or greased the skids some other way, but I submitted the update on Saturday. For only 2 days. Some guys are reporting having their apps approved within the day.
Grand Tour 1.3 includes some new texturemaps, for Mercury, Iapetus, Mimas and one other weird little moon I don’t remember. It also adds momentum swipes to make it feel more dynamic.
Distant Suns is primarily produced by a group of one, Mike Smithwick, the original author and designer,under the informal name of "First Light Software".
Mike is available for contract work in C/C++/Java, focussing primarily in the 3D arena but can also handle server side jobs, SDK and tool development,
and much much more!