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I was thinking about Darby today and came across these words which I read out at his funeral five years ago. First in Warlpiri, then in English (edited).

Nyurru-wiyirna yanurnu Yurntumu-kurra-ju.

Nyanungu-rla nyanu ngajukujurlu yungu yirdiji Japanangka.

Ngularnaju, pina-yanurnu.

Ngajuku nyanungu-ju ngamarni-lpajulu nyinaja.

Tarrnga-jukurna nyinaja.

Wangkajalpa — nyanunguju yimi ngarrarnu, panu-jarlu yirrarnu ngajuku.

Pinangkalpa ngulaju yangka kuja-ka nyinami yapa nyiya-kanti-kantiki pina.  Yangka kuja-ka milya-pinyi kuruwarri panu, manu kuja-ka yunparni purlapa pinangku.

Pina-pina-manu-ju ngulaju yangka kuja kalu-jana yangka ngajuku — Yapa-kurlangu Warlpiri-ji, yimi-ji, Jukurrpa-ju, Nguru-ju manu wirlinyi-ji.

Ngulaju yangka yapa nyanungu-nyayirni milya-pinyi ka kuruwarri manu nyiya-kanti-kanti ngurrju-maninjaku rdirriny-parluju founding member and artist — Warlukurlangu-rla.

Nyanungu-ju purlka nyinajalpa town-rla — yirraru nguru-ku, Yuendumu-ku, yilkajirri-ki

Ngajulu missi-mani karna ngamarni

Wapirra-rlu promisi-ki wangkaja. Nyanunguju kapu live-jarrija Wapirra-kurlangu-rla.

Wapirrarlu ka mardarni jalangurlu. Ngaka karlipa nyanyi jinta-jarrami Wapirra-kurlangurla.

Yirrirlirl-kanjarra-yani yangka rdiily-jarrimi jaru nyanungu-ku English-ji.

***

I met Jampijinpa about 16 years ago.  He gave me a skin name and told me I could come back anytime.  So, I did.  About four years later, I sat down with him again.

He told me I should buy a Toyota and come out to live at Yuendumu and record some of his stories.  So I did that, too.

Thinking back to that time, I had no idea that this man would have such an impact on me.

He taught me many things.  He told me lots of stories.  And he tried to teach me Warlpiri.

We went on lots of trips in the Toyota in Warlpiri country and further afield.  We went to the places in his stories.  I didn’t always understand what he was telling me, but I think he wanted me to know how the places he talked about were the places we were travelling through, and to make some connections to be able to tell his story.

Jampijinpa told me he wanted to make a book.  And not knowing what that meant, I agreed, and I’ve been trying to do that ever since.

The problem has been that Jampijinpa’s story was so much bigger than I first realised. Many people have helped me along the way, especially Thomas Rice and Paddy Stewart, and some of the other people who are here today.

Jampjinpa wanted people in Yuendumu to hear these stories. His enthusiasm extended to the suggestion of driving around the community playing them on a loudspeaker attached to the roof of my car. While I haven’t done that, I have attempted to put the material together in a way that will be a record for Warlpiri people, but also accessible to an audience beyond this community.

I think it is indicative of Jampijinpa’s character that so many people’s stories are interwoven with his.  His generosity of spirit, respect and enthusiasm for life were infectious and he made friends easily, with both Yapa and Kardiya.

My experience travelling with him is that he was well known in the Aboriginal community in Central Australia.  In researching his life story, I came across many White­fellas who not only knew Jampijinpa, but felt very close to him.

Jampijinpa was a stockman, a head drover man, a prospector, a cameleer, an explorer and adventurer, a traveller, a gardener, a cook, a butcher, and a mail man.

Jampjinpa was a teacher always ready to learn something new, a leader who encouraged parti­cipation and discovery, and an older man who had the enthusiasm and spirit of someone much younger.

He was a talented linguist who spoke several languages with an amazing ability to recall obscure Warlpiri words.  He was sought after in the Warlpiri community for his extensive knowledge and under­standing of Warlpiri Jukurrpa and flora and fauna.  He was Francis Kelly’s inspiration for Bush Mechanics.  He was a gifted storyteller concerned with narrative, place and character.  He was a leader and founding member of this Baptist Church.  He was a hunter, a craftsman and a spear thrower.  He was an artist who saw painting as a way to document and maintain Jukurrpa, but also as an outlet for his creative expression.  And he was a strong advocate for the maintenance of Warlpiri Law and Culture.

Jampijinpa spoke to me of the burden of being old.  Of seeing, not only the people he grew up with pass away — his brothers and sisters and friends — but those younger than him — his nieces and nephews.  It was a cause of great sadness for him.  He said, they were walking a different road.

The last few years were hard on Jampijinpa.  While the staff at Hetti Perkins looked after him as best they could, he missed being out in his country.  I think in the end he hung on for his 100 year birthday celeb­ration.  He received letters of acknow­ledgement from the Queen, the Prime Minister and the Governor General.  His old friend Ted Egan presided over the ceremony and spoke on behalf of the Northern Territory.  Over 100 of his friends and family joined to acknowledge him.  While it was a gathering to celebrate his life, it was also an oppor­tunity to say goodbye, as he passed away the following day.

I think Jampijinpa would want me to say that while his body will rest here in his country, his spirit is now in a better place.

Jampijinpa spoke of Wapirra making him a promise, putting a cross on his chest, and sustaining him throughout his long life. I believe that promise is now fulfilled and he is reunited with his countrymen in that other walya, that place with green grass that he used to talk about.

I will miss this old man.

Jampijinpa used to stand in the front here and pray that Wapirra would make it good for everyone here.  Let us today thank Wapirra for making it good for Darby Jampijinpa.

I wrote this for a Rock Magazine article a few years ago about climbing in Central Australia.

Dave climbing the second pitch

Viewed from a distance, the wedge-shaped Karinyarra massif resembles the sinking Titanic. The scree slopes like the waves beating against the boat, and the cliffline like the broken hull. Racking up to climb on the prow of this great ship, we liked these romantic images. They kept our mind off the fact it was 200m of towering choss. Definitely not the next Arapiles, but an impressive mountain in a proud position in the middle of the desert.

Several years ago I made my first enquiries about climbing this remote Central Australian peak. Japaljarri, a Warlpiri man and Aboriginal Owner for the site, told me many people had negotiated the long scramble to the summit from the western side. In the old days, men had climbed to sing love songs from a stone platform on the summit. He had not heard of anyone attempting to climb the eastern face. Why would I want to do that? ‘Too dangerous’, he said. I showed him some back issues of Rock and laid out some of my gear. Convinced of my ability and somewhat amused at my enthusiasm, he granted me permission to attempt the climb.

Before leaving, Jangala, a young man, told us about the strong ‘love magic’ associated with Karinyarra and warned that if we climb it, any shirts we wore would possess this love magic! We now had all the inspiration we needed for the long walk in. After walking for miles over sandhills and through mulga scrub, passing through a pack of camels, we reached the base of the cliff in the afternoon and climbed two pitches before retreating in darkness.

A month later, Dave and I stood at the base of the prow. At that point, it is almost possible to look down both sides of the mountain. On a clear day we could have seen Yuendumu and Papunya in the distance. We paused to reflect. It was October, and it was hot.

We discovered we had left all but two litres of water behind with the cached pack on the walk in. But, the day had already got off to a bad start. Having left the sunscreen at home, we had found some red ochre in the car to cover our white bodies from the sun. We were also a little concerned about that love magic. So, it was with some irony that we had taken off our shirts and painted ourselves for battle with the elements.

The mountain rises 550m above the plain; and the cliffline begins about half-way up. So, the exposure from the first pitch was fantastic. With the wind blowing hard, we imagined ourselves climbing on the prow of that great ship. We were surprised to find sections of solid sandstone. The second pitch was partic­ularly good and involved a traverse into a crack that was clean enough to accept protection we felt reasonably happy with. However, on the third pitch Dave had to take a diagonal route to lessen the risk of taking me out with the inevitable falling rocks. We sat at the base of the fourth pitch looking up at a mass of delicately perched refridgerator-sized boulders of conglomerate sandstone. While not technically difficult, it looked very fragile and almost devoid of anything other than token pro.

We sat for a while, looking out over the plain to the north. The white explorer, Colonel Warburton travelled through here in 1872 and, in the typical style of conquering hero, renamed the mountain ‘Central Mt Wedge’, because he thought it resembled a slice of cheese. Sitting halfway up the cliff, it certainly did, though well past its use-by date. Ironically, most Warlpiri today refer to Karinyarra as ‘Mt Wedge’. We consoled ourselves with the fact that Warburton had not actually climbed the mountain, marking in his diary: ‘The hill was too formidable for me to ascend’.

I stretched the rope through a series of large boulders on a ledge and continued delicately up through very loose country. I was relieved when Dave and the rope arrived intact and he continued on a somewhat contrived attempt to find an inter­esting path through the choss. A scramble to the summit followed where unusual weather conditions obscured our view. Having run out of water halfway up the cliff, with youthful fervour we celebrated the climb with two small bottles of Baileys.

We had planned to make the long walk off the back of the mountain. However, I managed to convince Dave it would be quicker and more inter­esting if we abseiled down the large cleft that split the southern face. After three 50m abseils we pulled up 8m off the ground with nowhere to go. Feeling quite dehydrated, Dave soloed a difficult traverse and convinced me to follow.

Walking down the slope to retrieve our pack, we could just make out the car in the distance. I sighted a line to it, hoping we would reach it before dark. Excited by the prospect of reaching water, we walked to where we expected the pack to be. Somewhat confused and increasingly dehydrated, we realised we had been mistaken. With the light fading, I put the climbing gear down and climbed a large boulder from which I could see the pack across several gullies lying next to a rock. I moved quickly, arriving to find nothing. In my haste, I had left the climbing gear behind. We had now lost all our gear except for the rope Dave carried.

Feeling quite foolish, I called out to Dave. We spent 10 minutes finding each other in the dark. We were both very dehydrated and obviously lacked the required acumen to continue the search. I was beginning to get dizzy and my lips were cracked. We decided to head to the car.

We walked for what seemed hours, through mulga scrub and rocky spinifex, using the dark outline of the mountain in the distance as a reference point. Frustrated and unable to find the car and concerned I would soon blackout from dehyd­ration, we stopped. I lay on a pile of rocks and fell asleep using the rope as a pillow. When the moon rose some time later, we discovered we were lying on the track the car had made through the spinifex!

Two weeks later, I returned and soon located the equipment. It concerned me how the dehyd­ration and effort of climbing had distorted our ability to locate the gear. Even with experience and preparation, things can very easily go wrong climbing in remote areas. I also don’t recommend celeb­rating climbs with bottles of Baileys before descending.

Sometime later, I remembered Jangala’s warning about that love magic. It seems to have had little effect on me. Sadly, however, Dave got bitten and seldom frequents the cliffs of his childhood, preferring instead the horizontal adventures of adult life.

I have climbed Karinyarra a number of times since. On one occasion, my partner and I reached the summit to find an open case of flashing electrical equipment. As we sat and contem­plated what it was and how it got in such a remote location, a helicopter moved towards us and eventually landed nearby. A slightly disheveled man ran to the case, completely ignoring our attempts at commu­nication, before returning to the helicopter and literally, flying off into the sunset. We never did find out what that was all about.

I met Scott Duncan at Yuendumu in 2000 when he came out to shoot a short film on the local painters for the NBC Olympics coverage and I was working at the local art centre.

Yuendumu is pretty much in the centre of Australia on land belonging to the Warlpiri and Anmatjerre people.

Scott came out to shoot a short film on the local painters for the NBC Olympics coverage and I was working at the local art centre.

I’d never seen so much film equipment in Yuendumu before. I think there were about 35 cases of gear! The drive out to Yuendumu was pretty rough back then and Scott’s crew had a bit of an accident on the drive out, so when they arrived they were all pretty dusty and fit right in.

The light in Central Australia can be pretty special and when you travel the desert country with Warlpiri people it comes alive with the stories they tell. Scott got that right away. I remember him talking about how ‘juicy’ the sunsets are out here, and all the ‘epic’ shots he was going to get… I’d later come to really appreciate and learn from Scott’s unique approach to capturing the world around him as he engages with it.

At the time, I was working on a book about one of the local elders and after Scott’s visit I was inspired to buy a Nikon F100 and explore some of the things he had taught me about photo­graphy. I travelled to China and shot way too many rolls of Kodak, Fuji and Agfa film (remember them?) around the Tibetan border trying to see what each could do. As I was in Sydney during the Olympics working on a doco, Scott gave me a whole lot more cool film to play with.

I found myself shooting everything on this retro Kodak slide film Scott had put me onto and cross-processing it. It made the clouds blow out crazy, gave this beautiful blue gritty look to dark skin, and bled purple  or orange on silhouettes. I ended up buying bulk rolls of the stuff and still have some cooking in the fridge in Yuendumu. Now that I’ve gone digital all I have is this Photoshop action… it’s not the same, you know.

Anyway, back to the film Scott shot… I was really impressed by what he managed to capture in only a few days and the sensitive way he dealt with people and presented the film. Everyone in Yuendumu loved it and we still watch it!

I think meeting Scott and getting to share that first visit with him in Yuendumu really opened my eyes to what was possible creatively with photo­graphy and encouraged me to take the book project I was working on to another level.

To see some Yuendumu paintings, visit www.warlu.com

To see Scott’s work, visit www.scottduncanfilms.com, and to read about his adventures visit www.scottduncanfilms.blogspot.com.

Now it’s time to watch Scott’s film. Keep an eye out for the awesome shot of the southern sky captured on a time lapse camera that sat out in the bush carefully watched over by scrub bullocks.

I stumbled across this today. I wrote it about 8 or 9 years ago and thought I’d post it.

Gutting a snake on the Yininti-walku-walku trip

After returning from a funeral in Melbourne of a Whitefella who used to live in the community I was greeted by two Nampijinpa ladies.  They wanted to talk to me and I offered them a cup of tea and we sat on the grass outside.  We each sat looking in a different direction. We talked for a little while about my trip and the insig­ni­ficant details of travelling 3000 ks in a Toyota.  It soon became clear that the ladies wanted to discuss the funeral.

I did not realise the affect this persons death had had on the community.  One of the ladies, who people had begun calling my ‘mother’ after her only son died, took my hand in hers and told me that if I should ever feel like that man — if I should ever stay away from Yuendumu and feel sad or alone — I should know that I had family here in Yuendumu.  I looked at the other lady who smiled in agreement.  Not knowing what to say, I replied ‘Yuwayi’.  I had already told her that it had been good to see my family down south.  But, that man had family down south and he was still sad.  I told those two ladies that I was not sad.  People used to call that man Wajampa, which is Warlpiri for sad.

When the ladies left I started thinking about how I had become close to some of the people at Yuendumu. I remembered back to the time when I was just a youngfella standing on the cracked pavement of a basketball court with kids going through boxes of coloured jumpers looking for their favourite number.  I umpired short offensive games dominated by little kids that launched the ball off their shoulders with both hands and somehow managed to get it through the hoop.  After the kids games, the young men would come to play on their court.  I collected the jumpers and whistles and threw a ball over to them.  We didn’t really know each other at that time, the forty or so young blokes on the other side of the court and me, the whitefella who didn’t know much Warlpiri and was about the same age as a few of the older players.  For the first time in my life I was challenged with the feeling of being very much out of my depth and knowing I was being watched.  I didn’t understand what was being said, or what was going on; even the body language was different.

It’s hard now to remember exactly why I had trouble under­standing these blokes —  now that they seem more familiar and I know their names and we have lived together.  But, I do remember feeling very isolated, intrusive, and self conscious.  I don’t feel so much like that now.  I’ve lived here long enough to have seen older kids become young men, and young men become fathers.

There are all these other stories that are part of my experience at Yuendumu:

Driving into Yulara with a truck covered in red dust stuck to diesel, the result of a leaking fuel tank.  People covered in red ochre walking from the truck to buy cigarettes, leaving smudges of colour wherever they went on the white washed walls of the resort.  Sitting waiting for the fuel line to be fixed wondering if the tourists who were watching us realised that the desert had just got into town and would soon pass them by.  Then driving out of town and picking up the old men who were sitting under a tree.

Being at the side of a man who just passed away. Sitting with other men my age as a brother and son of the deceased.  Sitting confused and crying with women as they walked behind us, embracing us one by one.  Going to the clinic and lifting his body into a black bag. Putting the bag into the back of a car of a man we had just met, a man we did not know.  Sometime later, driving through the scrub looking for a gravesite with the backhoe following.  Watching the hole being dug, thinking that it’s a crappy place to end up, in a hole in the ground, even if it is just your body.  Then celeb­rating the man’s life, speaking some words to his family and friends, laying across the coffin and finally dropping a handful of sand before decorating the place with plastic flowers and a white cross.  Eating sausages at the church when we arrived back at Yuendumu, wondering if the image of a man is stronger in our minds when we don’t remember him in photo­graphs, as we took some of each other.

Creeping up on a sandhill way out west at Yininti-walku-walku with an old man, two young­fellas and two friends.  Looking suspi­ciously at a area of water on the salt lake that Japanangka said is where the Warnayarra lives.  Listening to his stories of when he walked there as a child while I made spinifex resin on the head of a shovel under a large desert oak.  Desperately pulling things out of the back of the Toyota when we thought the goanna we had just caught set off the emergency beacon.  Then getting bogged in a claypan with rain coming in, a long way from the nearest road.

Travelling to a group of low lying hills to the south of Mt Theo with an old man and his family.  Digging out a soakage that the old man had drunk from with his family as a child.  Collecting the water in a green Sprite bottle.  Keeping that water for four years before finally giving it to the old man’s grandson who was yet to visit the site of his own country.

There are many other stories.  Stories that I think about now and then.  They make me laugh, make me think, make me sad, but ultimately, make my life richer for having been a part of them.

My exper­iences at Yuendumu have revolved around relationships built with people within the community.  A constant daily occurrence; inter­action was not a choice. I was forced to commu­nicate, to understand and seek to be understood, and to cross barriers.  This has been difficult and one of the biggest challenges of my life; to be uncom­fortable, develop a greater sense of family, have the patience to sit and listen to old people, and have the humour and humility to (like them) learn another language and attempt to use it.  I have learnt to allow language to break down barriers; to laugh at mistakes and enjoy drinking really strong, milky sweet tea.

Bouncing along a dusty track out bush I learnt to accept country music as a legitimate genre.  I even considered barracking for Collingwood.  I discovered the currency of boomerangs, blankets, kangaroos and firewood.  I spent most of my 20s at Yuendumu; I feel like I grew into a man there, and I did not do it on my own.  Maybe one day I’ll be that old man sitting on a bed, keeping myself company by closing my eyes and recalling these stories.

This is a quick look at the more popular third-party programs and frameworks for making mobile apps (mostly iPhone and iPad).

PHONEGAP

Of all the ways to make apps, PhoneGap is one of the easiest, especially if you already have a web developer skill set and want to deploy cross-platform. PhoneGap is supported by Nitobi, is free and open source and apps are built with HTML, CSS and Javascript with APIs that access specific features of a mobile device, including geolocation, accel­er­ometer and vibration.

The documentation is improving and PhoneGap has an active google group. It works well with JQuery, JQTouch, iUi and Sencha Touch, too.

‘Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and Javascript’ written by Jonathan Stark is a great book to get started with. It has a chapter on PhoneGap and Jonathan’s writing style and examples are straight­forward and easy to follow. You can see a sample chapter here. He also recently released an Android version of the book available from O’Reilly Media.

It can be a little confusing to get PhoneGap downloaded and installed for some users, but it’s definitely worth taking the time to install it properly as an Xcode template file. Just follow the Getting Started Guides.

Devices: iPhone, iPad, Android, Palm, Symbian and Blackberry.

Pricing: Free and open source.

Support: A wiki and google group and tutorials are available.

SENCHA TOUCH

A relatively new product from the developers of Ext JS, Sencha Touch builds upon JQTouch and adds in a custom library of icons and graphics with resolution independence. Apps are built with HTM5L, CSS3 and JS libraries, including great animations and custom themes using SASS. It currently outputs to iPhone, iPad and Android. You can include audio and video, and use local storage for offline data.

ST projects are deployed to mobile devices using PhoneGap.

Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android.

Pricing: $99 for the most basic license with no support, $379 for a basic license and standard support, $1795 for a 5-user license and Premium support. Support packages can also be purchased separately. Support works on a ticketing system with credits.

Support: Documentation and example projects are included in the download and help is also available via the Sencha forums, tutorials, Sencha blog and with the support packages.

APPCELERATOR

With 1000+ APIs, Appcel­erator from Titanium is gaining in popularity. Titanium Mobile apps can be built with HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python, Ruby, and PHP and easily packaged and deployed to iPhone, iPad and Android from the Titanium Developer desktop application.

Pricing: The Community license of Appcel­erator is free and open source with premium support, additional training and pre-releases available to Profes­sional ($199/month) and Enterprise ($699/month) users.

Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android.

Support: Documentation, developer centre, community forum, google group, tutorials and examples are available via the website (although some of the tutorials are only available to paid users).

CORONA

No your favourite beer hasn’t branched out into mobile frameworks… yet! Corona from Ansca Mobile claims to be the easiest way for Flash designers to start making iPhone apps (well at least before the Flash exporter for iPhone) as it shares some simil­arities to Action­script 2.0. The guys who created it used to work at Adobe and it uses the Lua scripting language, the same one that all those World of Warcraft plug-ins are written in.

Pricing: 30 day free trial. $249 for a one year membership. Corona Game Edition is $349/year and includes all Corona features as well an integrated physics engine amongst other additions.

Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android.

Support: Documentation includes 500+ APIs, tutorials, sample code, reference portal and community forums.

RHOMOBILE

rhoMobile is a Ruby-based solution to making apps utilising web skills. They claim to be ‘the only smartphone app framework which has support for all smart­phones’. RhoHub is a hosted devel­opment envir­onment that is built on top of Rhodes and RhoSync. Apps are written in HTML and Ruby via a web browser.

Pricing: According to their website, Rhodes is ‘Free and open sourced under the MIT License. Those companies requiring commercial grade support can purchase a Commercial License for $1,000′.

Devices: The Rhodes framework supports devel­opment for iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry OS, Symbian, Android and BlackBerry.

Support: Documentation, tutorials, wiki and google group are available. Commercial grade support includes access to Rhomobile’s automated helpdesk management system.

MONOTOUCH

This one is for C# and .net programmers with bindings to native APIs. You can adapt your existing .net code for mobile projects.

Pricing: Licenses are sold on a yearly subscription model. $399 for personal, $999 for organ­isations and $3999 for a 5 developer license.

Devices: iPhone and iPad

Support: Documentation, forums, tutorials and wiki are available on the website.

GAMESALAD

GameSalad claims to be ‘Game creation for the rest of us’. True to this, it is a basic game creation tool that is easy to learn for those without a programming background. You can output to iPhone or iPad, but doesn’t currently support Universal apps and you have to build iPhone and iPad apps separately. Some users will find it limited — and it is still in beta — but is a good way to create basic 2D games and the community is very helpful and supportive.

UPDATE: GameSalad recently announced ‘GameSalad Direct’ which has caused quite a stir in their forums. GameSalad claim that GSD helps people get their apps to market quicker and cheaper, however it appears to involve Gamesalad selling your app for you and taking a percentage of your profits. Hard to see many developers being very happy with that.

Devices: iPhone or iPad.

Pricing: Like many of these third party solutions, GameSalad is free to download and only costs once you want to deploy your game to iPhone or iPad. The The basic Express license is $99. Pro pricing is quite a jump at $1999 and its advantages include the ability to remove the initial GameSalad loading graphic, iAd support, direct customer support and in-Game URL forwarding. Most users opt for the basic license.

Support: GameSalad has an active community forum, a growing reference library, some video and text tutorials, a blog and sample projects that users can adapt. Pro licensed users can obtain direct support from GameSalad.

UNITY 3D

A profes­sional and extensive package, Unity 3D is a complex and full-featured game devel­opment tool that now offers export to iPhone, iPad and Android plug-ins.

Pricing: Currently offering an early adopter discount for mobile devs, Unity Pro costs $1200 with add-ons for Android Pro ($1500), iPhone Basic ($300) and iPhone Pro ($1200). The base Unity program is free. iPhone Pro advantages include plug-in support for Obj-C, video support and the ability to remove the Unity loading graphic.

Devices: iPhone, iPad and Android.

Support: As you would expect, Unity 3D has an extensive library of tutorials and supporting documentation, resources and community.

IPHONE WAX

Wax is a Lua framework for building iPhone apps, although its current status is unclear.

Devices: iPhone

Support: Google group.

ADOBE FLASH

After Apple’s recent announcement, it appears that Adobe’s Packager for iPhone feature for CS5 will again be a solution for Flash developers wanting to port their projects to the iPhone.

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COCOS2D

Cocos2D is another game creation tool for the iPhone and iPad. While like GameSalad, it’s still in beta, it differs in that it is a cocoa-based library for Objective-C.

Pricing: Free and open source MIT license, but users are encouraged to donate to keep the project going.

Devices: iPhone and iPad

Support: A wiki, blog, forum and programming guide is available.

iTORQUE 2D

iTorque 2D uses the Torque Game Builder and provides a WYSIWYG interface that runs on Mac or PC.

iTorque 3D coming soon.

Pricing: $750–900

Devices: iPhone and iPad

Support: Documentation and forums, add-ons and examples.

Shiva 3D

Shiva 3D from Stonetrip is a Game Engine with devel­opment tools.

* * *

The following are objective-C add-ons or libraries.

THREE20

An open source iPhone devel­opment library for iOS Obj-C devs, Three20 is best known for its use in the Facebook iPhone app.

From the website: ‘If you’re building a native app that talks to web APIs or accesses images from the web, then Three20 will undoubtedly save you a lot of time. If you’re not doing any of that, then you’ll probably still find a lot of code within Three20 that you’ll find useful. And heck, it’s all licensed under the Apache 2.0 license anyway. Pick and choose at your pleasure.’

SENSIBLE COCOA

Sensible TableView is another cocoa library to streamline Obj-C development.

Pricing: Sensible TableView is offered at an intro­ductory price of $30 for a single developer license.

Devices: iPhone and iPad

Support: Full source code, documentation, samples and forum. 90 day standard support package with basic license.

DR TOUCH’S PARTS STORE

Oliver Drobnik offers Objective-C code components for sale from his website. Prices are reasonable (50–250 EUR).

Oliver discusses his project and links to other similar services in a blog post here.

* * *

I doubt this is an exhaustive list, so if you know of any other third-party frameworks for making iPhone or iPad apps, or any corrections to what is posted here, please share the info in the comments below!

You should also check out Apple’s Devel­opment Tools section of their website: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/

Disclaimer: this information was current at the time of posting. Obviously, the pricing and features referred to will change. This is intended as a guide only.

I’m looking forward to the future…

When no one makes any money from buying and selling .coms b/c no one really uses them anymore because apps are the new .coms and they’re available on any phone.

When we don’t need phone numbers.

When paper books are something special and digital stories only scroll or slide without the annoying fake page turns.

When something new becomes available and it’s not just in the US.

When data limits are irrelevant.

When I can download something — film. book, music, navigation, television — and I only have to pay for it once and use it wherever and whenever I want across a range of devices.

When I can make a TV show and my friends can choose to watch it in their living room.

When gigabytes become bits.

When computer screens are 1:1 with real life objects and no one under­stands what you mean by ‘it looks Jpeggy’.

When newspapers don’t use paper anymore.

When my friends don’t use bit torrents because it makes more sense to buy the content.

When ‘share’ doesn’t mean promoting links to your website in the hope that someone clicks on your banner ad.

When digital content is available to all people at a price that is relative and not based on the US dollar.

When telecom­mu­nication becomes simply commu­nication and is a basic right and not only for the rich and educated.

When advertising exists in an opt-out user-pays system.

When I can learn about a new tech service that is available in the US and not have to wait 12 months for it to be available in Australia.

When the Twitter fail whale is a distant memory.

When we don’t have to spend 15 mins trying to understand the latest Facebook change and how it affects our privacy settings and explain it to our friends who have children.

When fear just doesn’t work as an election platform because everyone watches programs like the Gruen Transfer.

When I don’t have to explain what cross-platform is.

When we can stop discussing technology and start to take it for granted and remember that it’s just something we use to commu­nicate, tell stories, make our lives better, learn about the world, respond to crises, and find other like minded people.

It’s an encouraging thought to think that that future is possible.

New AppBook ‘Animalia for iPad’ based on the much loved children’s book by Graeme Base is now available on the iTunes store.

‘New and Noteworthy’ iPad app in the US and Canada. Feature tiles in Australia and New Zealand.

September 2010: #2 iPad app in Australia. #1 in iPad Books in the US, Canada and Australia. Top 10 iPad Book in 19 countries. Top 100 in 50 countries.

‘Animalia’ for iPhone and iPod Touch also now available.

For more information, visit www.appbooks.com

Sandy Cull invited me to post some stuff related to what I’m doing on her Australian Book Designer’s blog. I thought I’d post an excerpt here.

My current passion is working on creating AppBooks for the iPad, and — as they come on the market — other ‘tablet’ devices running OS like Android, in the belief that the future is an inevitable one in which digital books outsell printed books.

Lately, I’ve been looking at cross-platform solutions for AppBooks with audio, video and/or animation enhancements.

‘Darby’

A few years ago, Sandy Cull designed my book ‘Darby’ — she did an amazing job — you can see a couple of examples of the design here.

It’s been a bit of a challenge. One of the issues with converting a physical book to digital and supporting two orient­ations is deciding whether to crop full page images for both orient­ations or decide on one for full screen and the other to display as a smaller image with white or black space either side.

For example, if a book was full screen in portrait mode, then in landscape you could choose to centre the portrait image leaving ‘white space’ either side. I may not do this with my own book — as I can make the creative decisions about its presentation — however when presented with adapting someone else’s book design, I see this as a potential solution that maintains the integrity of the photos and without having lengthy discussions with the original designer, author or photo­grapher. Unless you just support one orientation.

I’m fascinated to see how the publishing and book design industry is going to develop to embrace digital books. I’m also excited about how authors, illus­trators and storytellers are going to approach a hybrid future where books, video, audio and websites are all formats that are available as storytelling mediums of enter­tainment, study, manuals, ‘cookbooks’, ‘novels’ and biographies… the stuff that we know as books now.

The book publishing industry is in transition — we’ve already seen it happen with music, photo­graphy and a number of other indus­tries - it’s an adaptation to a new medium — an extra one — in our continued desire to consume, learn, engage and contribute to the age old tradition of telling, sharing and enjoying stories.

Something has been bugging me lately. It seems that in our enthusiasm for digital books we have forgotten that actually reading them is important. Even Apple seem to have forgotten this when they made iBooks for the iPad.

I was disap­pointed to find that iBooks only give us a choice of 5 fonts, despite presenting books in a way that can only be for reading.

Digital books are failing us. Why? Because they are inheriting their style and presentation from websites.

When I was on dial up and it took a long time to load a single page of a website, I preferred that the images were heavily compressed and didn’t care what font the text was in, just that I could read it right away. But now that I have 3G and spend hours on the internet each day, I am much more demanding. I want the images to be clean, the page to be well laid out, the text easy to read. I want even more from a digital book that resides on my iPhone or iPad.

While it’s nice to look at the pictures, if it’s a ‘reading book’ most of my time is spent looking at the text. But it is so easy for app developers to spend too much time on customising their UI and not enough time on choosing their fonts, tweaking their css, or thinking about the reader.

We can’t get away with this for much longer.

As readers get more familiar with and accepting of digital devices and reading books on them, they will become more demanding. I’m one of those people. I don’t like reading iBooks.

One of the things I love about old books is the fonts they use. But if the digital version of the book is presented in Verdana, much of that appeal is lost.

My favourite books are Cookbooks, and I don’t even like cooking. But when I see the care with which these books are designed and the length to which pre-press companies like Splitting Image go to in order to preserve the integrity of the design and images and present them in the highest quality, I appreciate that the book itself is a work of art that has passed through many hands before I hold it.

I don’t need a digital version to be reproduced in a ‘print font’ or have a beautiful lacquered cover, but I don’t want to be distracted by thinking that the person who designed it has not taken care with their layout and font selection.

Ok, at the moment there are only 109 font styles available on the iPad and about half that on the iPhone. But iBooks only offer us five?

I think the reason there is not more discussion about this yet is that we generally view digital books as an extension of the web. We have low expect­ations. We’re still caught up with the fact that it’s available to us wherever we are, so we’re prepared to accept a lesser product. When material was presented on the internet we learnt to accept bad layouts, difficult to read text, crappy images and a limited colour palette. And we view digital books as an extension of the web at the moment.

But now we have devices that are more defined. AppBook developers don’t need to build their present­ations worrying how that colour will look on a PC running IE or if that font will be on a user’s computer. They also don’t have to worry about file size to the same extent. But the care that is taken in the production of quality books — typesetting, colour proofing, page layout — is generally glossed over in the production of digital books.

The same skills are needed in the design of digital books. The tools are different, the media is more malleable (consider device orientation changes), but the basic principles are the same. We read books. A digital book should be beautifully presented. It is something of value that someone has taken the time to craft, in the same way it is for a printed book. But it doesn’t quite feel the same does it? We view them differently.

If I write a book and publish it on the internet or on a mobile device, am I a published author when anyone can put a book up on Amazon for Kindle? We still legitimise authors by whether or not they’re ‘published’ in hard copy. We’re in the ‘in-between’ space right now. But it won’t be long before more respected authors choose to only publish their works (especially shorter titles) in digital format. We have already seen examples of authors/artists/story-tellers who have discovered that the idea they want to commu­nicate doesn’t really work in printed form and is best produced digitally.

Artists and story-tellers have the oppor­tunity to commu­nicate their ideas in this new creative format. But there are two types of AppBooks. Those that feel like they have are considered in their presentation and are a memorable experience (sometimes because of a creative or gimmicky use of the technology, but sometimes simply because the developer has selected the appro­priate elements to use and resisted too many ‘bells and whistles’); and those that have just been ‘slapped together’.

Where is the middle ground? AppBooks seem to be all or nothing. A funky 3D animation of a recreation of a physical book that overpowers the text, or a boring, lifeless white rectangle of html. A morphing of video, music and text to commu­nicate a concept or a simple default-themed thrown together ascii text file.

With the iPad, we work within the confines of a defined size, a lit screen and a large black border. We also have to deal with users for whom the digital book is just one of many on a faux digital bookshelf, or an AppBook represented by a small rounded square icon amongst other brightly coloured icons. We contend with a short attention span. The reader does not select the work from the shelf and go and sit in a chair with it alone. They hold a device — sitting on the couch, riding the bus, waiting for a dentist appointment — and that device holds an entire library of competing books, games, emails, and other apps.

So, when I stop — decide that I don’t want to check my email, fling angry birds at green blobs, take photos, look up my stocks or app surf the pages of my mobile device — and want to read a book, I’d really like that AppBook to be designed in a way that encouraged me to read it and engage with the author’s ideas, as much as possible. If I start to lose interest — despite the engaging story of its writer — because I’m thinking about how the font is out of style, the size is wrong or the menu keeps popping up and suggesting I check out the video section… I’m distracted and no longer interested in engaging with the story.

Just a few of the challenges we face when making AppBooks.

As today was the first day for iPad pre-orders in the US and there is quite a buzz about it, I thought it timely to make my first blog post and share some thoughts on iPad books.

A book is a book is a book

Not anymore!

A few days ago Mobclix data revealed there were some 27,000 AppBooks (Book Applic­ations) on the iTunes App Store. Signi­ficantly, they now outnumber games as the largest App category.

Here is a pic from their website:

These are iPhone Apps. What will happen when the iPad releases?

We will see even more AppBooks. Or will we?

AppBooks and the iBookstore

There has been some discussion in the last few days about the possibility of Apple removing some AppBooks once the iPad and iBookstore releases. This began with Jason Kincaid’s TechCrunch post ‘Will books be the next to go in Apple’s App Store purge?’. The concern is largely based on the recent (somewhat unanti­cipated) removal of the majority of ‘sexy’ apps from the store.

Why would Apple do this?

Besides the obvious problem of store clutter, Apple will want to encourage users to frequent the iBookstore. They will also want to encourage publishers to join the iBookstore instead of looking for AppBook solutions. However, with so many Appbooks on the store already, it is hard to see Apple removing them. While there was been a mixed response to the removal of the ‘sexy’ apps, it’s hard to see how there would be much customer support for the removal of AppBooks, even the most basic eReader versions. However, Kincaid also reported on TechCrunch about a crack down on ‘cookie cutter’ applic­ations — multiple versions of apps built on a single template. Given Apple’s unpre­dict­ability when it comes to managing the iTunes store, it is hard to predict how this will play out.

What are iBooks anyway?

iBooks purchased in the iBookstore on the iBooks app will resemble books. Everything I’ve seen suggests that Apple will encourage this (at least in the beginning). Matt Gemmell made a post about this on his Blog a few days ago referring to the ‘psychology of touch’ and the iBookstore, the ‘predilection towards realness on the iPad’, and the mimicking of real objects like a bookshelf to evoke familiar and pleasant memories of real life exper­iences. If you haven’t read it, it’s a great post about iPad App design.

Why have Apple done this? While I think it has to do with making users feel more comfortable with reading iBooks, it also has a lot to do with encouraging publishers to make the transition to embracing digital versions of their books.

The problem for Publishers

Publishers like books. Many of the people who work at publishing companies are passionate about books. They love the look and feel and smell of them; the way the pages sound as you turn them. They judge a book not only by its cover (or content), but also it’s weight, dimensions, paper quality, printing and importantly — it’s unique design.

Each printed version of a book is unique.

There is also the possibility that within a single print run of a book, two copies might be slightly different to each other. Even though it’s made by a machine, there is something appealing about this. Printed books can also be signed by authors, gifted to friends, have multiple editions and be sold and displayed in a variety of shop windows. There is also the ability to borrow them from a library, be upset (or pleasantly surprised) by another reader’s notes in a book’s margins, and they can be used to fill shelves that decorate a room.

It’s hard to let go of printed books.

In comparison, a digital version of a book is like every other digital book. It is a less personal experience to read one. There is no ‘book’, just a digital repro­duction of text and pictures. My copy on my iPad will be exactly like your copy on your iPad. Now I’m feeling a bit nostalgic for tradi­tional printed books. But then, it’s been a while since I bought one.

My most recent purchase was Seth Godin’s ‘Linchpin’. I actually wanted to buy a printed copy of this book, but it wasn’t available in Australia yet. As I was walking out of the book shop, I searched the Kindle online store and found it, purchased it and downloaded it onto my iPhone. Despite the difficulty I have with reading it on the iPhone, I’m not going to buy a printed copy of this book.

But what if I wanted to buy a children’s book that was actually available in the book shop? Would I first check to see if there was an iPhone or iPad version first, expecting perhaps if there was it might have some cool inter­active features? I think this expectation presents a potential problem for publishers.

Besides some premium and flagship titles, the majority of digital books will have to fit into a template in order to justify the cost of putting out niche titles into the digital arena to sell in the long tail of the internet. It’s hard to imagine Penguin giving the full treatment of their current iPad examples to all their titles. It’s just not economical.

That said, it’s going to be inter­esting. I hope the iBookstore ePub format allows for a more inter­esting and enter­taining experience for the user than simply kindle books in colour. Of course, we’re expecting features like contextual pop-up UI for menus and the ability to make notes. But it’s hard to know what the average iBook will be like until we see more titles.

In the meantime, AppBooks seem so much better. Or are they just different?

AppBooks: what do users want in a digital ‘book’

There is a tendency for ‘rich media’ books on the iPhone to be huge in size. Do I want to watch lots of videos when I’m buying a book? Do I need them to be embedded in the app or as I likely only access this content once (if at all), would I prefer them to be accessed via an external web link if it meant the app download wasn’t nearly 1GB?

Take Bunny Munro by Nick Cave for iPhone:

That’s 894mb

Or if you want to download the free (smaller 78mb) sample version, click here.

Now take into account the iPad’s larger screen size. Everything is bigger, including file sizes. We’re going to want to see those photos and videos in full screen. You couldn’t get many of these kind of AppBooks on a 16GB iPad.

It is for this reason, that I think a lot of AppBooks will link to online content. But, they will still have the content. It will just only be accessible with an internet connection. Why? The extra content and features help to market the AppBook. And if it’s possible, we (authors, publishers, developers) want to put it in… which reminds me of how hard Apple reps have hammered resisting ‘feature creep’ to developers.

Maybe I just want a book on my iPad so I can read it?

That sounds like an iBook.

But when I’m buying Bunny Munro by Nick Cave, I’m not really buying a book. I know that. I didn’t want to just buy the book. I want the videos and all the bells and whistles. But if I’m buying Seth Godin’s book, do I want a video interview with the author as well? That could be cool, but I really just want to read the book. Give me a link to his website and I can go there and watch it. Or I’m pretty sure I can find something on google. However, I can see ‘rich media’ AppBooks aimed at a younger audience. Many of whom might want to use their iPod touches and wi-fi iPads on the school bus and share the content with their friends.

This is just one reason why I think we will see more and more AppBooks on the iPad. They provide a user experience beyond the current ePub standard. They will push the boundaries of what we consider ‘books’, to be surprising, unique and convenient portals of information about a particular topic. Perhaps the app is based on a book, but the actual experience is more like going to a website where you can read text, watch videos, listen to music, perhaps even play games and interact with a community of other interested users… all centred around the theme/idea/content of the App (book) and reliant upon internet connectivity.

The problem with AppBooks

Unless it’s Stanza or one of the other generic eReader apps, individual AppBooks lack a consistency of UI and features. When I read my second book in iBooks, I will be familiar with the UI and able to focus on the content. While developers follow Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines to produce AppBooks, there is a degree of flexibility with the choices they can make about their UI. I know that when I’m faced with the decision between accessing content via a familiar interface or something different (even if it is ‘better’ or has more features) I’ll usually choose the familiar because it’s the information or the content that I am most interested in.

The other issue is one which Kincaid pointed out in his TechCrunch article — ‘the issue of App Store clutter’. He provides the example of 25 different versions of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, all with different prices and UI.

The future of AppBooks is unclear. While the absence of the iBookstore in all ITunes stores outside the US may delay any changes by Apple, I expect there to be some regulation of AppBooks in the not too distant future.

The problem with iBooks (or is that just reading books on the iPad?)

Let’s face it, some of us think books are boring now. We just want to look at the pictures. And we’re a bit disap­pointed when they don’t move. And anyone who has ever tried to read a book in a desktop browser will tell you how easy it is to convince yourself to tab over and check your email or Facebook. I think there is a similar issue for eReader devices like the iPad. I know even if I buy the more standard iBook version of a book I want to read, there will still be the temptation to hit that black button and start up the latest Firemint game. Would a more engaging AppBook version of the same book keep me interested?

OR

The problem for developers

As an Australian developer without access to the iBookstore (or more information about the ePub formats that will be used), what choice is there but to make AppBooks? It’s frustrating to have so little information about the iBookstore while feeling uncertain about the viability of ‘iBookstore-like’ AppBooks in the future. Publishers have lots of questions and developers don’t have many consistent and reliable answers for them. Independent developers are trying to predict the future and put the pieces together.

It remains to be seen whether Apple will open up the iBookstore for small publishers and self-published authors, let alone developers. At this stage, all we can do is apply for the iBookstore program and continue to produce AppBooks.

Other thoughts

I dread the advertising that we are poten­tially going to get on some AppBooks in the future. Forget about banner ads, how about auto-playing video ads while you’re trying to read? If you’ve tried to watch a news story or television program online lately, you’ve probably realised we’re already in training to accept them.

Personally, when I want to actually read a book, I don’t want to watch a video or engage with much more than the text. I’d appreciate a link to a website if I get bored or am looking for more. I will go there and watch the videos if I want to. But then I don’t really want to read every book. Sometimes i just want to look at the pictures… Maybe I don’t know what I want in a book anymore?

What do you want?

These are just some of my thoughts. I would love to hear your AppBook vs iBook predictions. Please feel free share them in the comments below.