Mercedes is taking an all-together different tact, and they are equipping their salesforce with iPads and custom applications this summer trying to make it easier, simpler, and quicker to get folks roaming around looking at the cars and converting them into folks driving cars off the lot. Armed with iPads loaded with Mercedes Benz Advantage, 40 dealers around the U.S. will prototype the idea and see if it floats. This isn’t their first time tripping through the Tulips of the world of Apple apps. Back in October of last year, Mercedes dropped their financial app to the iPhone, which has been downloaded 130,000 times, and boasts some $3.6 million in payments, and 5,00 transactions according to Mercedes. If their last app is any indication, the sticking point here will be how well the salesforce can integrate the new device into their pitch, and how well they use it. If the guy trying to sell you on this new $50,000 sled is fumbling about the iPad trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B, then I can totally see them blowing the deal. Mercedes is looking for their new device to get people into and out of the driver seat more quickly, by using the device for lease returns as well.

If you happen to be in Kuala Lumpur in the near future, be sure to plod on over to the MHkiosks for Malaysia Airlines and play with an iPad adopted version of their MHmobile app. As with MHmobile, you can check-in, book your flight, and check departure times from the kiosks. There’s some pics and video over at engadget, if you are so inclined.

Malaysia Airlines isn’t the only way you can get some iPad action while jet-setting, JetStar is piloting an iPad rental program starting last month that will get passengers the ability to get a device loaded up with movies, books, and games for as little as $10. The service is expected to be rolled out internationally later this year also gives you the add-on of WiFi at another $10. This is a pretty good deal if you ask me, $20 bucks for an iPad and WiFi? I can think of few ways I would rather spend my time trapped in a flying metal tube.

With built-in WiFi, 3g and Bluetooth, the iPad is well equipped to handle tasks that the average technogeek (like myself) wouldn’t usually ask of it. The Medical Industry could be the first industry to have big gains, especially since they have been proponents of tablets and laptops for a long time already. There are already a solid variety of apps available to Doctors and Nurses for the iPhone, and the larger format of the iPad would only lend itself to a more comprehensive selection. The easy targets here are patient information retrieval and recording, although you could have prescription databases that include pictures of the pills, along with all of the other information on screen at the same time. Lengthy patient surveys could be streamlined into the database rather than having to be recorded from paper forms, x-rays, ultrasounds and test results could be viewed real-time allowing doctors to more clearly explain test results.

Surveys and questionnaires are good places to go nuts too. With apps like those from exZact Data Collection, an iPhone (and soon an iPad) is turned into mobile data collection device, with custom form building tools. There is also always a simple online form too, and by using HTML 5, you can get the device to recognize field types to bring up specific keyboards for number, name, or email fields to speed data entry. This would be great for large events like the X Games. Sponsors could show up to events sporting iPads to collect data for email lists and contest entries, which could ultimately allow remote selection of contest winners, and they could be notified on the spot.

That’s just the start of it. Sure you could do this with a laptop, netbook, and other tablets like the HP Slate, it’s just not the same, and here’s why. The iPad isn’t a computer, unlike the Slate which will run Windows 7. It isn’t susceptible to the same problems that a computer is. It boots faster than my netbook by at least twice, and I’ve never had mine freeze, crash, or anything else that I have experienced with all of my other computers. This is also a negative though. The iPad OS is a closed application system and you either have to develop using Apple’s SDK, or run a web form of some kind. It’s not perfect, but it’s a solid device with a boat-load of potential.

These are just a couple of ideas and industries that could use the device, there are a lot more, and it will be very interesting as this device, and the tablet market matures, to see how businesses take advantage of a new tool.

Developing iPhone Apps is a tricky thing. Getting the Provisioning and Distribution certificates and code signing can be a Lovecraftian experience, as evidenced by a few simple Google searches on the subject. The first snag I ran into this time was not having a valid developer certificate, and the certificate I had was not registering properly in my keychain. I followed the directions on the dev portal, but still no dice. The catch is your certificate must either be generating for that specific machine, or copied out of Keychain Access, and imported into a new computer. That was my issue. I had rebuilt my laptop, and moved everything to my new iMac and had NOT backed up the key from my laptop.

If you move your development to a new machine you need to use the same key. Export and save your keys from Keychain Access when you are issued them to save yourself a lot of hassle. Read more of the Apple Developer Portal about managing your digital identities.

Crap! The fix was pretty simple though, I revoked my certificate and requested a new one, and poof! I could get my apps back onto my devices. I also needed a whole new set of provisioning profiles too, once that was done I was back in testing business.

So after that hurtle, I was back into the development groove and needed to hit the next step of building and submitting the new version through Connect. I kept running into the Project Settings recognizing the Distribution Profile, but the Target Info would not find a matching certificate, and I received code signing errors. This part is one of the bits a lot of people miss, there are two settings windows where you have to set the Code Signing Identity. My issue with FIB-U-LATOR turned out to be something I wouldn’t have guessed, and something I didn’t know about until today. When you update your App, you have to use the same App ID you used when you first uploaded it.

Be sure to keep your AppIDs in the developer portal so you can update your apps. I don’t know of any way you can re-create an App ID if it’s deleted. It seems to be a common conception to use a wild card App ID for distribution, rather than a unique one for every app. The only caveat here is in-app purchase will not work with wild card IDs.

Good thing I didn’t delete it while I was screwing around trying to get my keys and certificates working. Once I had that down, I opened the Organizer Window and removed all of the other distribution profiles, and loaded up the correct one. Cleaned all targets, restarted Xcode and made a new build. This time it uploaded without error.

I’m still working on getting my newest app ready for AdHoc distribution so I can send out for some friends to test for me, I ran a build off last night but I’m suspect it isn’t going to work.

I’m convinced the reason that Apple has made this so unbelievably convoluted is so that in the end, when you finally get it right, there is this huge rush of euphoric relief. In essence, they’re just trying to spread happiness and joy…..

Apple seems to have put a lot of time and thought into the refinement of both of these tools over the years, and after the work that I have done, it appears to have paid off. Granted, all I have accomplished so far is very simplistic tutorial oriented work to get me into a new language and development application, but I was off and running very quickly, something I distinctly remember not being the case when I first dove into Flash, and to some extent, Dreamweaver.

It makes me wonder if there is some equivalent on the Windows side that I am unaware of. I mean, I have used Visual Studio, Visual Studio Express, and Blend and they are nowhere near as refined as Xcode. Blend has some very nice features, some in fact that I wish Flash had, but overall all of these tools have one thing in common; inconsistent quality.

Anyway, I really can’t prattle on too much more about how great the Apple Developer Tools are since I have probably only spent about 20 hours or so in them, but I am really impressed so far – and it makes me eager to spend more time developing apps for the various Apple platforms.

There has been a lot of play about his health in the media, and how Apple would survive if he were to leave permanently. Much noise was made, the stock fell, then rose, then it… well you get the idea. I admire what he has encouraged the company to do, and the direction that he has pushed Apple and pulled an Iacoca with them – but after all that he is just a man. Apple will survive without Steve, and what I think matters more than all of this, is that Steve survives all of this. I love my iPod and my Mac lappy, but who cares about Apple really? They didn’t save my life, my doc at UPMC did that when I got my transplant.

Any way, what I really wanted to say through all of this I hope Steve makes a full and speedy (as speedy as that can be) recovery if indeed he is need of a new Liver. God Bless Mr. Jobs.

All of this has nothing to do with the bands, the music, or the consumer; it is simply another way for a large corporation to illustrate that they can influence governments, other companies and organizations and continue to siphon money out of everyone's pockets. The RIAA sues people without computers, 12 year old kids and dead people, while claiming to represent the interests of the artists. With Apple firmly in the sites of this ship of fools, they have decided that the revenue from the 500 million or so downloads is not enough. It's pretty easy to do the math here too, .9 cents per song, times 500 million; so I guess 45 million bucks is just not enough money.

I know I have said this before, but the Recording Industry as a whole is making it virtually impossible for people to want to get songs legally. Every time they screw over another company or consumer, they push more people into the realm of downloading music via nefarious means. It's an endless cycle of incurably retarded behaviour that seems to have no end.

If Apple is forced to absorb this rate increase, and shuts down iTunes I don't know what I will ultimately do. I have hundreds of albums that I have purchased through iTunes. What I do know is that if Apple actually kills iTunes, they will not be able to pass it off and divert blame and all of the associated rage that will follow that decision. Steve jobs is heralded as being a shrewd and intelligent businessman, so I would suspect that this is just chest pounding since a move like that could quite easily send Apple into an unrecoverable downward spiral, alienating potential buyers as well destroying relationships with their core group of zealots.

I'm sure this isn't then end of it, but this war on music isn't doing anything but making it harder for good musicians to get folks to buy their music.

Where it works

I particularly enjoy how it handles the various sounds emanating from my machine. Having the ability to control audio levels from every device connected to it, as well as individual applications is a bonus. This keeps me from being blasted out of my chair while wearing headphones when someone logs in on Google Talk or Messenger.

I would say it is just as fast as my XP desktop too. With a 4 gb thumbdrive installed as RAM Boost, the machine sails right through large Photoshop files and plays all of my favorite games (except one, Halo 2). If the rumors about SP 1 having a performance and memory management gain, Vista will be quite fast. All of the built-in tools I have used perform well, and there seems to be genuine improvements within the operating system itself. I have run into many fewer inherent glitches within the OS; in fact I can’t really think of any. All of my USB devices hook right up and are easily accessible, save one – my Western Digital 500 gb drive. Every now and again it falls off the world and I have to unplug it and turn it off to get it back; something it has never done on XP.

The majority of the applications I use work just fine under Vista as well. WS-FTP hates Vista, and will not run. I initially had trouble with the entire Adobe CS3 suite on an install of Vista Business Ultimate, as well as Flex Builder 2 not working. Those are the only ones I have had trouble with though.

Where it fails

Driver compatibility. Probably 80% or more of the trouble, headaches, and unplanned rebuilds have been due to drivers that flat-out do not work in Vista. I recently made the rookie mistake of updating my audio device drivers through Windows Update – boy that was just dumb. Even though device manager said the device was "working properly", I had no sound. So I rolled back the drivers, and then had to unplug the plugs and rearrange them to get the 5.1 surround to function again. I had to do this originally too, when I first installed it so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise….

I still have no RAID support, but that’s more on ASUS than Microsoft.

Then we come to Halo 2. WTF!? Microsoft sells this game under their own moniker and it hardly works right. Half the time I would get an error message that some Halo app was running and the game would need to be reinstalled; and the other half would work fine 80% of the time or just randomly quit. The I tried to use a LIVE account and hehehe… yeah right. What a joke. Halo dies every time I try and login in to any real or fictional account. After installing the latest patch, the game doesn’t run at all. Way to go guys!

The biggest disappointment is how many incompatibilities in general there are, and when it comes right down to it there is enough blame to go around. It’ snot completely fair to blame Microsoft because every Tom, Dick and Harry is incapable of writing solid drivers for their new OS. Especially an OS so plagued with set-backs and postponed releases; it’s hard to believe that all of these other guys didn’t have adequate time and resources to get their code solid before release time. What lands squarely in their lap is when their own products don’t act right, and fail. Halo is one example, Office 2007 is another. I have fought with Office 2007 and Visual Studio in particular throughout my recent life as a developer. Both products are top notch unless you have trouble. My advice? Clean install. Period. Don’t ever upgrade anything.

All of this garbage combined has led me down the path of deciding if I really want to switch to the Mac platform entirely. I so very seldom have problems on my laptop it’s almost non-existent. The stopping point is the price, but what I guess I have to decide is Microsoft and Windows worth the trouble?

:: side note ::
Maybe your Vista woes are actually nVidia’s fault?

The common-sophomoric designs of the PC world have left me wanting (except for Alien Ware), alas, shall I become immersed in the world of Steve Jobs and abandon Mr Gates? Nope. Can’t stomach the price. I’d rather get me 21″ LCD monitor & a new computer – thank you very much.

I still need.. or is want? A new computer. My sons computer (and he’s only 2.5) is almost as powerful as mine, and that just will not due.