11 days is 8 days too long. If an app has a bug, or several bugs for that matter, every day of waiting means more negative reviews and bad attitudes from customers. Ultimately it affects not only the developers, but the app store as a whole. This sort of delay ends up lowering app star ratings and makes for crankier customers.

If this delayed process continues to grow longer and longer, in 9 more months, I assume the wait time will be at around 18 to 21 days from time of submission to approval. This is unacceptable in today’s market.

The review process needs to improve before too long, or it will begin to affect developers lives and peace of mind. 3 days time is the most it should ever be.

I have seen one app that recently released a new version, and a bug fix within 2 or 3 days. That app being Pinterest. Either Pinterest had 2 versions in the queue and set out to bug fix while one version was awaiting review, then submitted their bug fix a few days later, with 2 versions in the queue, or, they found the bugs after the first one went live, then submitted the fix and got near instant approval from Apple by bypassing all the other developers in the process.

If Pinterest can get bug fixes approved within 3 days, then Pinterest knows the solution to the elongated delays.

MySQL was previously installed in Snow Leopard with file ownership set to mysql:wheel, which worked fine in Snow Leopard. In Lion it failed to start.

In Terminal, run the following:

sudo chown -R mysql:mysql data

After running this, and starting up MySQL in the System Preferences panel, everything worked again.

Notice, that your “data” folder is the MySQL data folder where it stores the database files. My is located at “/usr/local/mysql-data/data” so that I don’t have to worry about upgrades and moving the folder. Your location may vary.

Hope this helps anyone else.

Step 1:
Download and install MacPorts 2.0.0 for Mac OS X Lion.

Step 2:
In Terminal, run the following commands. The first one may take a while to update the binaries as it compiles them.

sudo port upgrade outdated
sudo port uninstall inactive

Step 3:
Download and install MySQL 5 (currently at mysql-5.5.15-osx10.6-x86_64 as of this writing) for Mac OS X.

You may not need to install MySQL, though I chose to do so as I wanted to update to the 64bit System Preferences panel, since I was running an earlier version of MySQL 5 previously.

Step 4:
I also noticed that my /etc/php.ini file was moved to /etc.php.applesaved and no longer called any of my PHP extensions I had set.

In Terminal, run the following:

sudo cp /etc/php.ini.applesaved /etc/php.ini
sudo apachectl graceful

Step 5:
Continue on to my PHP extensions tutorial for Snow Leopard and begin with Step 5 if you don’t have ImageMagick installed, Step 6 if you do.

I have added an open source project to the GitHub.  The project, ReformatCode currently only supports reformatting JSON data to human readable format.  Though I hope in the future it can be extended to support CSS indentation structuring with intelligent parent – child relationship styles.   Formatting CSS can be a little complex if you want it to really show properly how the CSS works with other classes and what is a sub element or sub class of another.  So that would be a possible and welcome addition to the code base in the future if effort is put into it.

Download:

ReformatCode Project via GitHub

Usage:

Passing either a JSON object or string, will reformat the JSON to a human readable level.
Second param (optional) is an object of settings to override defaults.

Example:

ReformatCode.formatJSON({"key": {"sub_key": "sub_value"}}, {"indent": "spaces", "debug": true, "newline": "\r"});

Input:

{"key": {"sub_key": "sub_value"}

Ouput:

{
    "key": {
        "sub_key": "sub_value"
    }
}

I do love the ABC video player app, and the speed of the system.  Very responsive.  Love it so much.  It is the WiFi model, but I do intend to get a WiFi + 3G model later.  One for development and one for regular daily use.

Just wish I could find the Apress books in the iBookstore.  Even though I have the printed edition and the eBook editions from Apress, I still would like to be able to have an iBookstore version I could read on the iPad without having to load the PDF file from the MacBook to it.

The model I purchased was the 32GB unit, as the Best Buy store I was at was already out of the 64GB units at the time I had arrived in the line.  Purchasing this iPad kept me from buying a Nintendo Wii for the time being.

I also have the More iPhone 3 Development book by Apress.  Which I will read after I finish some of the shorter 200+ page books that I’ve also ordered from Apress on Amazon.  No Kindle for me though.  I do have the eBooks in PDF form from Apress and the printed copies of all the books from the Amazon store.  Just wish the iPad would be released sooner, so I can begin reading the books on it while I’m developing apps for it at the same time.  I do plan to get 2 iPads.  One for development, and one for regular daily use.

If I get time, I’ll include more tutorials on Apple Snow Leopard PHP extensions, as I’ve been asked in the different comments.  Though I’ve been spending most of my time writing software ideas and studying for the iPhone OS.

3 books down, many more to go.

I’ve already begun switching over to the iPad beta SDK environment while I study all the Cocoa Touch and Objective-C 2.0 reading and testing.  Though it be nice to be able to test on the production device, as it would be more entertaining.

Need to upgrade/replace my MacBook 13″ sometime soon too.  Would be nice to get a 27″ iMac with a second 27″ external display, or get a Mac Pro with 3 external monitors.  Need more screen space for programming and software development.  13″ MacBook screen and external 19″ screen doesn’t give enough space for development.  The iPad screen for the development simulator is too large to fit on the MacBook 13″ screen at full resolution.

So, it looks like the iPad device will cause me to want to purchase 2 or 3 more additional Apple products.  Apple sure knows how to sell to me.

So here is the real question.  Are you going to buy the Mac Tablet if it is released this year?  If so, how soon after it’s released?  If not, why not?  Pros, cons, etc… Let me know what your thoughts are.

Step 1:

Download IMAP source code. (2007e as of writing this). Without this, trying to compile the IMAP PHP extension will give you errors and will refuse to compile.

Unpack the imap-2007e.tar.gz file.

In Terminal:

sudo mv ~/Downloads/imap-2007e /usr/local/imap-2007
cd /usr/local/imap-2007
make osx
sudo cp c-client/c-client.a c-client/libc-client.a

Step 2:

Download PHP 5.3.0 source code for the php imap extension here. I already had a copy from my previous extension tutorial, so I just used that copy.

Unpack the file php-5.3.0.tar.gz. We will only need to use the code within the ext/imap directory. No need to compile all of PHP for this.

In Terminal:

cd ~/Downloads/php-5.3.0/ext/imap
phpize
./configure --with-imap==/usr/local/imap-2007 --with-kerberos --with-imap-ssl
make
sudo cp modules/imap.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Step 3:

Add in the extension location to the php.ini file.

In Terminal:

sudo pico /etc/php.ini

I placed the following after all the commented out lines for extensions:

extension=/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/imap.so

After you have placed that line in there, press Control-X to exit and save.

Step 4:

Restart Apache.

In Terminal:

sudo apachectl graceful

Now you should be able to see the imap extension installed in your stock Apple PHP.

Step 1:

Make sure you have XCode 3.2 for Snow Leopard installed, from the Snow Leopard install DVD.

Step 2:

Download MacPorts for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard here.

If you have previously installed MacPorts and installed software with it in Mac OS X 10.5, run this first to remove it, as it won’t work in Snow Leopard anymore.

In Terminal:

sudo rm -rf /opt/local \
/Applications/MacPorts \
/Applications/DarwinPorts \
/Library/Tcl/macports1.0 \
/Library/Tcl/darwinports1.0 \
/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.* \
/Library/StartupItems/DarwinPortsStartup \
/Library/Receipts/MacPorts*.pkg \
/Library/Receipts/DarwinPorts*.pkg \
~/.macports

Step 3:

Open the MacPorts-1.8.0-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg file, and install the MacPorts package file.

Step 4:

To hide the /opt folder from Finder view that is visible after installing MacPorts.

In Terminal:

sudo chflags hidden /opt

Step 5:

By default, MacPorts for Snow Leopard should use x86_64 arch instead of ppc/i386, so you shouldn’t have to worry much here.

This part most likely will take the longest of all things in the tutorial, as it requires a large group of individual packages. You can cook dinner, eat it, and you might still be waiting for this to complete after you’ve finished eating. It took about a half hour for it to complete on my MacBook.

In Terminal:

sudo port install imagemagick

Step 6:

Download imagick here.

Unpack the file imagick-2.3.0.tgz.

In Terminal:

cd ~/Downloads/imagick-2.3.0/imagick-2.3.0
phpize
./configure --with-imagick=/opt/local
make
cd modules
sudo cp imagick.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Step 7:

Download magickwand here.

Unpack the file MagickWandForPHP-1.0.8.tar.gz.

In Terminal:

cd ~/Downloads/MagickWandForPHP-1.0.8/
phpize
./configure --with-magickwand=/opt/local
make
cd modules
sudo cp magickwand.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Step 8:

Download xdebug here.

Unpack the file xdebug-2.0.5.tgz.

In Terminal:

cd ~/Downloads/xdebug-2.0.5/xdebug-2.0.5
phpize
./configure
make
cd modules
sudo cp xdebug.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Step 9:

In Terminal:

sudo port install libmemcached

When it completes, type this into Terminal:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.memcached.plist

Step 10:

Download memcached here.

Unpack the file memcached-1.0.0.tgz.

In Terminal:

cd ~/Downloads/memcached-1.0.0/memcached-1.0.0/
phpize
./configure --with-libmemcached-dir=/opt/local
make
cd modules
sudo cp memcached.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Step 11:

Download libmcrypt here.

Unpack the file libmcrypt-2.5.8.tar.bz2.

In Terminal:

cd ~/Downloads/libmcrypt-2.5.8/
./configure --disable-posix-threads --enable-static
make
sudo make install

Step 12:

Download PHP 5.3.0 source code for the mcrypt extension here.

Unpack the file php-5.3.0.tar.gz. We will only need to use the code within the ext/mcrypt directory. No need to compile all of PHP for this.

In Terminal:

cd ~/Downloads/php-5.3.0/ext/mcrypt
phpize
./configure
make
cd modules
sudo cp mcrypt.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Step 13:

In Terminal:

cd /etc
sudo cp php.ini.default php.ini
sudo pico php.ini

Search for:

display_errors

Set this to:

display_errors = On

Search for:

html_errors

Set this to:

html_errors = On

I placed the following after all the commented out lines for extensions:

;;;;;;
extension=/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/mcrypt.so
extension=/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/magickwand.so
extension=/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/imagick.so
extension=/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/memcached.so
zend_extension=/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/xdebug.so
xdebug.default_enable = On
xdebug.collect_params = 4
xdebug.trace_format = 1
xdebug.show_local_vars = On
xdebug.dump_globals = On
xdebug.show_exception_trace = On
xdebug.collect_assignments = 1
;;;;;;

Set your default timezone. I’ll show mine as an example.

date.timezone = America/New_York

Set your mysql default port.

mysql.default_port = 3306

Press Control-X to exit, it will ask if you want to save changes, so press Y for Yes, and press Enter save and exit completely.

Step 14:

Restart Apache.

In Terminal:

sudo apachectl graceful

That should do it, as this is the exact steps I took to install all of these just now. And everything worked for me just as typed.

Hope this helps you out.

Enjoy.

Snow Leopard comes bundled with Apache 2.2.11, PHP 5.3.0, and SVN 1.6.2.

I upgraded my MySQL install from 5.0.77 to 5.1.37 and then moved my data folder to another location to help keep things sane using the /etc/my.cnf file.

I installed the Xcode from the Snow Leopard CD and downloaded the iPhone SDK 3.1 Beta 3 for Snow Leopard.  Slightly different interface, but I welcome the changes.

So now, instead of using external packages for SVN and PHP (Entropy), now I’m using the prepackaged bundled software.  I did have to reconfigure my svn connection in Apache as it got toasted in the upgrade to Snow Leopard.  It wasn’t a problem though as it was only a few lines.

Now I can sleep good, I hope.

Plan to upgrade to the new iPhone when it’s released, so that I can use my first generation iPhone as the debugging/testing phone and the other for real day to day things.

I do like the cell shading look, and that might be my ultimate style I go with.  If you have skills with designs in these aspects, I would love to hear from you.