March was a busy month for James Dempsey and the Breakpoints, with a brand new song and video (ripped from the headlines!) and Breakpoint Jams at CocoaConf Chicago and Washington DC.
Goto Fail
Goto Fail is inspired by actual code, the code that caused a big security issue in iOS and OS X earlier this year. Not that Apple has a monopoly on SSL issues in 2014 — The recent Heartbleed Bug only drives home the last verse in the song:
Don’t think your own code is some bug-free oasis, It’s probably screwed up in a couple of places.
Chicago has been the home of a few firsts for James Dempsey and the Breakpoints — the inaugural Breakpoint Jam in 2013 and the debut of a new song “Goto Fail” in 2014.
After debuting the new song ‘Goto Fail’ — the Breakpoint Jam continued with a set of older favorites. Photo: Solomon Klein
Jonathan Penn laying down some acoustic Chicago blues on Modelin’ Man. Photo: Solomon Klein
Ben Scheirman channeling ‘The Man in Black’ himself, Johnny Cash. Photo: Solomon Klein
Jonathan Penn and Ben Scheirman on guitar. Two Breakpoints — No Waiting. Photo: Solomon Klein
The anguish and despair of an almost-dropped iPhone Photo: Solomon Klein
Washington DC Breakpoint Jam
The spring tour rolled on to Washington DC, where we played our set, managing to avoid the world-famous DC gridlock and partisan bickering.
Most of the Chicago crew was also in DC, with Jonathan Penn on guitar and Daniel Steinberg on slide-advance keyboard.
Keynote speaker Mark Dalrymple (@borkware) of Big Nerd Ranch sat in on Modelin’ Man, bringing a trombone solo to the blues tune for the very first time in its long history.
After his keynote speech, Mark Dalrymple joins in the Breakpoint Jam on trombone Photo: Solomon Klein
Jonathan Penn on borrowed guitar. Photo: Solomon Klein
James Dempsey sings the new song ‘Goto Fail’. Photo: Solomon Klein
Daniel Steinberg keeps the slides in sync at the 2014 Washington DC Breakpoint Jam Photo: Solomon Klein
James sings Modelin’ Man with Jonathan Penn on guitar and Mark Dalrymple sits in on trombone. Photo: Solomon Klein
The fall tour of the Breakpoint Jam wrapped up at CocoaConf Atlanta with some memorable moments including some iPhone slide guitar and a newly-minted Breakpoint.
Amidst bursts of virtual fireworks, Daniel Steinberg (@dimsumthinking) of Dim Sum Thinking was formally inducted into the Breakpoints.
Daniel joins the fabled group after his stellar performances on slide-advance keyboard as a Conditional Breakpoint during jams across the country this past year. Congratulations Daniel, thank you and welcome!
A little blues with Modelin’ Man James Dempsey. Photo: Solomon Klein
Rusty Zarse sits in on the Atlanta Breakpoint Jam. Photo: Solomon Klein
Virtual fireworks celebrated Daniel Steinberg’s induction into the Breakpoints.
The multi-talented Jonathan Penn and his rock-n-roll shades. Photo: Solomon Klein
Brandon Alexander does the Mesa Boogie as he turns it up to 11.
Brandon Alexander (@balexander) of Black Pixel brought along his electric guitar and his Mesa Boogie to amp up the jam more than the usual acoustic performance.
The ever-versatile Jonathan Penn (@jonathanpenn) of Rubber City Wizards played guitar, sang backing vocals and played percussion on the cajón—all in his trademark rockstar glasses.
Also sitting in was Conditional Breakpoint Rusty Zarse (@levous) of LeVous and the Atlanta iOS Developers group. On The Liki Song, Rusty improvised a slide guitar, with his electric in his lap and the edge of his iPhone as the slide. Never have laser-chamfered edges sounded so good!
Keynote speaker and slide-advance keyboardist extraordinaire Daniel Steinberg. Photo: Solomon Klein
Rusty Zarse, James Dempsey, Jonathan Penn and Brandon Alexander rehearse for the Breakpoint Jam Photo: Solomon Klein
James lays it all out so that you‘ll understand. Photo: Solomon Klein
One of the most expensive guitar slides every made.
The performance in Atlanta was the final Breakpoint Jam for the year. We had a lot of fun and would like to thank everyone for the support. The jams will continue in the new year—we hope to see you at one! •
The evening was also a reunion of old friends with composer Tony Angeles dropping by to sing backing vocals as a Conditional Breakpoint. James and Tony sang together at Penn.
The fall tour rolls on to its last jam of the season this Friday night at CocoaConf Atlanta.
Thanks for all the support so far—we’ve been having fun and hope you have been too! •
Some of the most important points for developers to consider from the recent iPhone and iPad launch events are circled on these charts.
The charts show that the new A7 chip provides a significant boost in CPU and GPU performance.
But the charts show something else—the widest range in performance across supported devices of any iOS release, ever.
That giant difference in performance means it is more important than ever to test on lower-end hardware, to ensure the performance of your app is acceptable on older devices.
For iPhone apps, that means testing on an iPhone 4. Recent analytics data from Localytics pegs global iPhone 4 share at 20.2% of all iPhones—a significant number of active users. If you don’t already have one for testing, you can pick up a used iPhone 4 on eBay with prices in the $150 – $200 range.
For iPad apps, there are two varieties of low-end config— those with and without Retina displays.
The iPad 2 and original iPad mini both use the A5 chip and have non-Retina screen resolution. Both are also still part of the current iPad lineup, making it all the more important to make sure your app performs well on these devices.
The second variety is the iPad (3rd Generation). As the first iPad with a Retina display, this model provides the baseline of performance for Retina display iPads.
Localytics data from last year shows the 3rd Gen iPad with 31% share when it was discontinued. That equates to millions of units still in the hands of customers. If you need one for testing, used models are currently available on eBay for about $300 – $400.
With such a large spread in performance among devices that support iOS 7, testing on the lower end of the performance spectrum has never been more important. •
The iOS Device Summary organizes devices by processor, screen size and supported OS version.
The charts in this article are from Apple Special Events, September 2013 and October 2013.
