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So it has been a long weekend. Both figuratively and literally. We had Friday and Monday off from school and today (Tuesday) us Seniors decided it would be a good day for a Senior Cut Day. I have been using these days off to get Corripio back up and running. While none of us have cracked Apple’s code for getting their high-res artwork yet, I have been adding alternate artwork sources to Corripio. So far I have Coveralia integrated into the app. Coming very shortly are Walmart, Buy, and Wikipedia. I have it so that you can choose which sources you want to search for artwork and in what order (priority). Also I have added a preference for prompting the user if he/she wants to use or skip the artwork that is found. I’m holding back the tag fixing features for the next release so I can concentrate on getting the artwork squared away. I am also planning on adding some Core Image features to the app so that one could fix colors on a album before they place them on a song if they do so choose. For the record I am not giving up on iTMS artwork, just adding these new ones so that Corripio actually does something.

Example artwork from new sources:

Coveralia:
A Night At The Opera
Magical Mystery Tour
Back to Bedlam

Buy.com:
A Night At The Opera
Magical Mystery Tour
Back to Bedlam

Walmart:
A Night At The Opera
Magical Mystery Tour
Back to Bedlam

Wikipedia:
A Night At The Opera
Magical Mystery Tour
Back to Bedlam

On top of Apple changing their artwork downloading, today my server’s fan died & was causing the server to overheat and shut off. In the process of fixing the fan the processor came undone and made a whole slew of problems. However now its back up and running. I can now get back to working on Corripio.

In regards to Corripio, We are still working on figuring out how to find and get artwork from different sources while we figure out how the iTMS now works with images & permissions. Some of the sources we are working on figuring out are Walmart, Buy, & Cocoanuts. If you have any ideas or code that might help, please let us know.

Apple is doing something with the way it handles artwork on the iTunes Music Store. Because albums that use to work and ones that I would test Corripio on suddenly stopped working. Lets just hope they are working on things and that our free ride is not over. I will look into what is up. So if you are experiencing difficulties with getting artwork, it probably has to do with this sudden change.

Update #1:
After some testing I have found that some artwork will be downloaded with my application and when I try to put the image link that worked for the app in Safari I get the Error message.
Some people on Digg have posted the new scheme in which Apple does this. Each artwork has a unique key for it. For example Old Link is now New Link.  So we’ll all see what we can do.

Update #2:
I am working on implementing a backup artwork DB to Corripio (i.e Walmart (500x500)). I am planing on releasing the next version early next week. Furthermore the new version will have some tag fixing/fetching features in the release. We are also readying an alpha release for Windows. To stay up-to-date check the site regularly.

So while looking around the web for some photos of the Apple Store opening we were at I came across this one on Yahoo! News. I’m the one in the maroon.

Shot of Article

Versions:
iPod (Right Click, Save As..)
HD (720p)
HD (1080i)

Quicktime 7 Required

Well today Greg, Dale and I went to the Apple Store Opening on 5th Ave. No U2 or any music, however we got more than that. We all got to meet Mr. Apple himself Steve Jobs. Here is a quick clip of our shaking hands. Im first and seen on film, then Greg meets him then lastly Dale exchanges greetings.

I will post more video and pictures tomorrow. It was a night I will never forget!

Here are some sites I go for insider information regarding Cocoa. Whether it be for help with a particular method or learning how to become a small developer, these sites are worth their weight in gold.

Cocoa Help & Tutorials:
Mac Dev Center
Cocoa Dev
Cocoa Dev Central
Cocoa Builder

Cocoa Blogs:
rentzsch.com
blakeseely.com
TextMate Blog
Japser’s Blog
Wil Shipley’s Blog
Rouge Amoeba Weblog
factoryjoe.com
Adium Blog

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Corripio is my first attempt at Cocoa / Mac development as well application development in general. Before Corripio, the only real program that I made was a 2D stroller for AP Computer Science class in Java.  I hate the Java languge, but that rant is for another article. For this article I am going to summarize what I have noticed when beginning a project on the Macintosh platform....

Starting
Starting is often the hardest thing to do, for one must figure out what platform to develop for, what language to use, and most importantly, what to create.
Determining the platform to develop for was easy in my case.  Firstly, I love Macs, and secondly because I am a High School student who is concerned with the all-important cool-factor, being a Mac developer is significantly cooler than being an introverted, nerdy Linux developer. While there is nothing wrong with being a nerd, for I am one myself, the Mac community is much more attractive than others. Podcasts like Cocoa Radio and Blogs like Read the rest of this entry