Release: WPhone 1.4.0: “Tada!” Edition

We were planning on releasing a WPhone 1.3.2 tonight. Then we figured the new Plugin Management feature and some of the backend improvements called for a 1.4.0 release instead.

Moving forward is fun!

On a related note, I though the following was just brilliant: We got our first confirmed post from a BlackBerry. What’s so interesting about this? Well, Sergio, the author, embarked on a 4×4 expedition to Morocco (and its desert) last Friday, and will be using WPhone to blog for his family and friends back home.

Thanks a lot of for your quick support. I want to post for my family and friends in my recent blog http://www.sergiorico.com with my blackberry traveling into Morocco (from this friday)… probably nothing is going to work… least wphone!! Great extension!!

Lucky him.

First Day at Plank, aka Sponge Monday

What a great first day!

The sponge analogy explains itself when you take in consideration the amount of information you’re exposed to on your first day in a new company. Dataset acquired, time to parse.

One sure thing is that I lucked out, because this team sure knows how to make someone feel right at home. Can’t wait to be productive, so I can carry my own weight. And then some.

Like good old Stimpy would say: happy happy, joy joy.

Last Day at McGill. Counting the Minutes until Monday.

Yesterday was my last day as McGill University‘s Web System Architect.

It’s always sad to leave a team you’ve so enjoyed working with for five (long/short) years, but how could I refuse taking on the role of technology director for the dynamic Plank Design?

As Doug, a teammate on the WPhone project, would so elegantly put it: *grin*.

And as Buzz would, since one analogy is never enough (…): to infinity, and beyond!

Apple's New iPhone Developer Center

I’ve just been through most of Apple’s new iPhone Developer Center (ADC membership required), and I find they’ve done a very nice job of aggregating all the info we’ve so far had to dig for, whether through Apple’s own information channels or the countless tidbits published by third parties scattered around the web.

As I’ve voiced through the iPhoneWebDev list earlier tonight, it is great to have one consolidated and dedicated resource to live by in keeping up with the momentum Apple’s mobile devices are reaching.

On the other hand, I would urge the development community to focus on the term guidelines, and not overly fall into design patterns that would ultimately lock them in (just think MSIE/ActiveX). As Apple itself notes, emphasis should be put on accepted standards, which in term allows for greater code and experience portability.

The web is always evolving, and as it does, so will Safari. You’ll want to keep informed of the evolving standards emanating from WHATWG and W3C standards bodies.

Even though the WebKit/WebCore combination is increasingly becoming the mobile industry’s dream team, with examples such as Nokia’s S60WebKit browser and maybe [hopefully] even the yet-to-be-released consumer version of the OpenMoko platform, let’s not dismiss other platforms such as Opera Mini and Mozilla’s revived mobile efforts.

I, on my end, am indeed pretty hyped that our own WPhone app scores very high when it comes to adherence with Apple’s published guidelines, but I’m just as excited by the fact that it in fact support close to any web-capable mobile device released in the last 3-5 years. Unobtrusive Javascript, how I love you so.

This said, now we also want to make the same rich experience available to the Apple user base to the scores of other fun tools and toys that are starting to and will surely flood the market over the next three to five years.

As I often say: fun times ahead! :o)

Release: WPhone 1.3.1: the Moment of Truth Edition

My team and I released version 1.3.1 of WPhone. This will be the version which will be judged in the little challenge we got involved in/with. Matt, at Automattic, will judge the entries with what is released by October 22nd, so we’re all eager to know how we did.

And now, let the wait and nail biting begin (00:16 in Montreal)… ;)