I recently bought an iPod Shuffle 3G (3rd Generation) from the Apple Store to use while in the gym (I did try my iPhone 3GS first but after accidentally throwing it 6 feet in the air, I felt that it was better left in the gym locker).

I had wanted a shuffle for a while but the cost per GB seemed a bit steep. So when the 3G was released with a price reduction to £45 for the 4GB version, I jumped at the chance. Finally I wouldn’t have to listen to endless loops of Cascada and Dizzy Rascal on the jukebox! The main feature of the 3G Shuffle is the lack of volume/play controls on the device. All controls are now on a little switch on the earbud cable. They have a proprietary chip that make the player incompatible with regular earbuds. I know Apple earbuds aren’t the best but my iPhone ones work fine for me so it wasn’t a big issue.

On opening, it is a thing of beauty, simple and elegant, as you come to expect from Apple. I painstakingly created my “Gym Workout” playlist and copied it onto the shuffle. Off I went to the gym and everything was great. For the first hour that is. Then I noticed that the annoying computer voice kept interrupting my and telling my what playlist I was listening to. Again and again. It even interrupted itself! Then, the sound controls stopped working and eventually the main play/pause button stopped working. So off I went to see my local Apple Expert and he was happy to give me a new set of earbuds. The next day I took my new earbuds to the gym and within 20 minutes, they too had failed.

It seems pretty clear that the chip inside the earbuds doesn’t like moisture and is not well protected, which is not a good thing when the primary use of the player is for listening to music while exercising. A quick look around the Internet and its clear that I am not the only one with this problem. To make things worse, because of the proprietary earbud chips, there aren’t a lot of options. There are some accessories on the Apple Store that allow you to use regular earbuds such as the Scosche tapLINE extension lead and tapStick but they are relatively expensive and when added to a new set of earphones are more expensive that the Shuffle itself! I haven’t tested these yet so I don’t know if they are resistant to moisture.

It says a lot about a product when you have to spend more than the original cost to make it suitable for its task. I am afraid I have to give the iPod Shuffle 3G a big fat “F minus” and recommend anyone looking for an mp3 player for exercise to avoid it like the plague. Sort it out Apple!!

Its been a while since I added a Howto on here. Hope you find it useful.

The Bullet 3D Physics engine is shipped with the Oolong 3D Engine for iPhone. However, if you just want to use the physics engine in your iPhone app, the following steps should help you to integrate it into your project:

1. Download Bullet. I got it as part of the Oolong Engine source from Google Code.
2. Open Xcode Preferences, select Source Trees and add one with Setting Name “BULLET_ROOT” and Display Name “Bullet”. Give it the full path to your Bullet folder.
3. In your Xcode project, CTRL+Click on Classes folder and select Add Group. Give it the name “Bullet”. Then CTRL+Click the Bullet group and select Get Info. Set the Path Type combo box to  ”Relative to Bullet”. The Full Path should show the full directory path for the Bullet folder.
4. Select Project/Edit Project Settings from the Xcode menu. Search for “header search paths” in the Build tab and add the full path to your Bullet src. Make sure to check the Recursive checkbox. You will need to do this for Debug and Release build configurations.
5. In your source code, include the relevant bullet header e.g.
   
#include "btBulletDynamicsCommon.h"

   will include everything you need for rigid body dynamics.
6. Check out the Oolong samples to see how to use the physics engine or head over to the Bullet website for more resources.

Hopefully, I haven’t missed anything out but let me know if you spot something incorrect or can’t get it to work.

Update: 21/07/09: One step I forgot to mention was that Bullet is written in C++. You iPhone application class files will default to Objective-C and so won’t be able to compile. You need to CTRL+Click the class file referrencing the btBulletDynamicsCommon.h header file, select Get Info and change its file type to be Objective-C++. That should allow it to compile properly.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference takes place from 8-12 June in San Francisco. I am heading over as part of a 30 strong InvestNI delegation for my first Apple conference since converting from the Dark Side last year. Its going to be pretty intense with tons of information on iPhone and Mac application development! So with the miserable, wet and cold May we are experiencing at the moment, I thought I’d cheer myself up with a nice picture of the Golden Gate Bridge:

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San Francisco is probably my favourite city. This will be my 3rd trip there (last time was my honeymoon in 2006) and I can’t wait to see it again! I’ll post some more pictures over the next few weeks…

At the start of the month, I wrote about the launch of Sony’s sexy new eBook Reader. I managed to get my hands on one of these for 5 minutes while in the US last week.

Its very slim and light, while still sturdy. Great for throwing into a bag when travelling. The display was really clear and very readable. The non-backlit display meant that it was very similar to reading a real book with very little strain on the eyes. There is no scrolling, so if you zoom in, it repaginates the book. There were 3 levels of zoom, the middle one I found to be the most readable. The only minor issue was the response lag, taking a second or two to respond to a page turn or go back to the menu. Its a slow transition too, with a fading effect from the previous page to the next. Though, once you are used to it, it doesn’t cause any major problems. I heard rumours that colour displays are not that far away, which would be a major bonus, especially for reading non-fiction books such as text books.

For my 2 cents, these things are going to have as big an impact as mp3 players did a few years back, maybe not this Christmas but definitely in the next year or two. The question is, are Apple going to get in on the act?

From the BBC Editor Blog:

I have restrained myself to such an extent that I have not uttered a single word about the new iPhone in the last 36 hours, on TV, on radio or online. So, while I’m here, wasn’t it just a little disappointing? Still no video, the camera stays at the original 2mp, and no ability to cut and paste. And isn’t the price cut proof enough that Apple misjudged the European market, and needed to kick-start sales?

I couldn’t have put it better myself.