A question came up over the weekend as to download an image off the internet and add it to a UIImage object on the iPhone. The answer is to create an NSData object that grabs the contents of the URL and then initialize the image with that data, as such

Are you driven to distraction by noise? Software solutions promise to help you concentrate, and maybe even lift your mood, by generating ambient noises that mask what bothers you. I've been using one, with pretty good success.

When it comes to the iPhone, phone function comes first. Incoming calls, SMS, and USSD (unstructured supplementary service data, including account balance notifications for prepaid plans) messages will supersede your application. You can program around this by watching for core telephony events and shutting down key processes as needed. The iPhone's core telephony system sends out distributed notifications to warn about these status changes.

Some days I feel sorry for Apple employees. As their market share has grown, their base has changed. I've been in the Apple store four times this week (three times more than I wanted to be there) and the feeling in there has definitely changed in the past year. It must be hard for the store employees to hear the signal over the noise.

Seems like a lot of people can't find the iPod touch January Upgrade. Here's where to find it.

Here's my weekly summary of freeware, Open Source, and free web services for the Mac: TextWrangler 2.3, Pownce out of private beta, Kaltura video collaboration service, and FixMyMovie web service.

I installed Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac over the weekend and ran into a couple of issues. Even though I was aware of the ID 502 installation issue, I was still surprised by what I saw (though I shouldn't have been). I'm still debating whether to sync my Windows Mobile smartphone with Entourage 2008. Mark/Space provided some interesting information about Missing Sync for Windows Mobile.

If you value your data, you must have a reliable backup strategy in place, because, sooner or later, you will lose data. It's "when," not "if." With Time Machine, Apple has included backup software with Mac OS X 10.5 that is both easy to use and reliable, so there is no more excuse for not backing up your data. How 'bout sharing some best practices for personal backups, then.

Is the iPod touch destined to be the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, as Apple management is starting to chat up? Or just the Newton revisited? This article ponders the possibilities.

Last week I attended the Java Mobile and Embedded Developer Days in Santa Clara. I'd gone because I produce their community podcasts (http://mobileandmebedded.org). I like the people but was unprepared for how interesting the content was.