As of August 1, 2015 I am no longer part of MartianCraft.

It is time to move on to the next chapter.

What is Next?

Long term I have some ideas that will take a bit of time to put into place. In the short time I am eager to help as many teams as possible through short term contracting, consulting and workshops. I really do enjoy helping teams get the most out of their persistence and networking layers.

Therefore…

Effective immediately, I am available for short term and possibly long term contract work.

While I can assist with any form of iOS or OS X development, my area of expertise is in networking and persistence; specifically Core Data.

If you are not familiar with my experience, here are a few highlights:

• Wrote “The Book” on Core Data.
• Taught at universities around the United States
• Spoken at nearly every Apple related tech conference around the world
• Provided workshops on persistence, Core Data and Networking at many conferences and large corporations in and around the United States.
• Developed some of the most complex applications ever conceived for the iOS platform

What are the options?

I am looking for short term projects unless it is truly amazing, cutting edge, and never done before. I am looking to help your team provide a better experience for your users.

We can accomplish this either through a monthly, weekly, daily contract or through a workshop. The details of which we can discuss in detail. I am available to travel and can work on site for short periods of time.

Are you struggling with your persistence or networking layer?

Are you having performance issues that you are unable to isolate?

Would you like a fresh set of eyes on your project to get an idea of where things are?

Contact me; we can discuss the options.

When: November 2-4, 2011
Where: Los Angeles, CA

[Schedule and Additional Information](http://www.mactech.com/conference/about)

The speaker line up for MacTech this year is amazing. I am quite honored to be sharing the stage with such a group of people.

## What is MacTech Conference? ##

MacTech Conference is a 3-day, immersive, technical conference specifically designed for Apple developers, IT Pros, and Enterprise. “The whole idea of MacTech Conference is to allow members of the Apple community to meet and exchange ideas,” said Edward Marczak, Conference Chair and Executive Editor of MacTech Magazine. “This will be spurred on by presentations from some of the best and well-known experts in the community.”

MacTech Conference will have two separate tracks: one focused on programming / development, and the other on IT/Enterprise. Sessions will focus on both desktop and mobile, with appropriate levels of attention paid to the Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod.

When: September 11-14, 2011
Where: Denver, Colorado

[Schedule and Additional Information](http://360idev.com/)

I am very pleased to announce that I will be speaking at this year’s 360 iDev conference in Denver, Colorado. Previously it was a foregone conclusion that I would be attending this conference since it was so close to my home. However, now that I am living in California, that is no longer the case.

However, I am happy to say that I will be attending this year despite a change in my home address. The speaker line up at 360 iDev keeps getting better each year and I am happy to be a part of this [great lineup](http://360idev.com/speakers).

If you are on the fence about going to this conference then please take my advice; GO.

Not only is the speaker line up great but Denver has a great walking downtown and the after session events should be just as entertaining as the speakers themselves.

I look forward to seeing you there.

When: September 5-7, 2011
Where: Brighton, UK

[Schedule and Additional Information](http://updateconf.com/)

I am very pleased to announce that I will be speaking in Brighton at the Update conference starting on September 5, 2011. The Update conference is a bit different than the normal “developer” conference that I attend and speak at. Instead of just or primarily focusing on the developer; a great deal of focus is put upon the user and the user experience. If you have been in attendance for any of Aral Balkan’s talks then you know very well what his focus is.

In addition to speaking at the conference I will be giving **two** one day workshops on Core Data. The first workshop will be an introduction to Core Data. I hesitate to call this a beginner workshop because *you*, the attendees, will be directing the workshop. If everyone wants to start at step one then we will. However throughout the day you will be setting the pace of what we learn and discuss. This format has worked very well in the past and the last time we did a workshop like this the day ended with some pretty advanced discussions.

The second session is labelled advanced and will be starting off with the assuming that we all know and understand the principals behind Core Data. In this session we will deep dive into some of the more complex areas of Core Data. Again, I have a list of topics but you, the attendees, drive the session. Therefore it is intentionally open ended so that you can come with your questions and problems and we can discuss them together. I plan on wrapping up the second workshop with some real world examples of edge cases and situations I have run into and how they were solved.

I invite you to join me in Brighton this September to attend Update 2011. I expect it to be a great time.

This is a short introductory article to welcome a new application to Zarra Studios.

We are involved in a lot of contract work and frequently our clients will give us video files. These files can be demos, mock ups, advertisements, etc.

As a developer on the move, I like to keep these with me and on my iPad so that I can review them whenever I want.

Of course, Client A does not want Client B to be able to accidentally see their files. Lawsuits happen that way.

To make this even more fun, everyone wants to borrow your iPad. Everyone wants to touch it and play with it. This increases the risk of the videos getting into the wrong hands.

From this, SecurVid was born.

## Features ##

SecurVid is designed to put videos behind a password lock. The videos are kept encrypted on disk and are not backed up to your computer that you sync your iPad with. This means that it is not designed to be a storage system for your videos but a protection for videos you need access to but don’t want everyone who borrows your iPad to see.

SecurVid has a lossy way to reset its password in case you forget it. Enter the wrong password three times and it will offer to reset for you. However that reset comes at a price; it will first delete all of your videos before offering to reset the password.

Once you are into SecurVid you can watch the videos you have already loaded naturally. You can also add more videos via iTunes as well as from any other application that is configured with file sharing. Therefore if a client emails you a video you can tap and press on the video file in mail on your iPad and load it into SecurVid.

Likewise you can export videos from SecurVid either for emailing or for loading into another application. You can even mark a video as “unprotected” and allow iTunes to see it next time you plug in your iPad.

## The Future ##

This is the 1.0 release of SecurVid and has the core features that I/we needed in the application. However it is just the beginning for this application. As the application matures we will be adding additional features and continuing to release updates.

## Cost ##

Because the 1.0 has only the core set of features we are offering it at an introductory price of $4.99. That price will remain until the next set of features are added. When that occurs we will increase the price up to the next appropriate level. However if you bought the 1.0 you will get these upgrades for free.

SecurVid HD is available on the App Store now.

Just finished with the iPhone Dev Con 2010 in San Diego and it was a very pleasant conference to go to. The organizers definitely have a nice balance and treated the speakers well. I enjoyed the trip and I hope that everyone who attended my sessions got something out of them.

As I promised in the sessions, here are the slides and sample code.

* [NSFetchedResultsController](http://cimgf.s3.amazonaws.com/NSFRC_iPhoneDevCon10.pdf)
* [Importing and Exporting Efficiently](http://cimgf.s3.amazonaws.com/Import_Export_iPhoneDevCon10.pdf)
* [Importing Example Code](http://cimgf.s3.amazonaws.com/Import_Example.zip)

And the ZSContextWatcher is located in our [open source git hub project](git://github.com/ZarraStudios/ZDS_Shared.git).

Thank you to all of the attendees for having me and I look forward to seeing everyone at the next conference.

I remember when C4 started, the first year was a huge amount of excitement. There were going to be people at that conference, speaking at that conference, that were legends in the Mac community. The idea of being able to hear them share the secrets to their success was simply invaluable.

I regret missing that first C4 conference.

In December of this year is another opportunity for that first. The guys who put together the 360 iPhone conferences are taking the plunge and putting together a Mac conference this December. Who is going to be there?

**That is the really cool part!**

They are doing a [call for papers *right now*](http://www.360macdev.com/call-for-papers/). You can be a part of the first experience of this brand new conference. You can help make it great and make it a must attend conference.

I have submitted my paper to speak and I know I will be attending even if I do not speak.

Will I see you there? I hope that I do.

Announcing PhotoGrab for iPad! I wrote this little utility app that allows you to browse your iPhoto library shares across your wifi network and download and save either a hi-res version of your photos or a version resized especially for display on iPad. It features multi-download as well as a slideshow mode. Just share your photos from within your iPhoto preferences sharing tab and you will be able to access your photos across the network from your iPad.

I wrote the app because I don’t sync my iPad with the computer where we store all of our photos, but from time to time I like to grab a photo from the iPhoto library without having to sync.

I just submitted a new point release that fixes a few crashers and other bugs to the App Store, but go ahead and take a look at this one and let me know what you think.

Free Promo Codes!

Just for the readers of this site! If you’re interested in the app, send an email to promocodes at cimgf dot com with the subject line PhotoGrab Promo Codes. I will send an email containing a promo code to the first 50 I receive (since the Apple only issues 50 of them per version). Be patient with me as I will be responding manually as I receive the messages. It will be first come, first served. Otherwise, check it out in the App Store. Promo codes are only valid in the US App Store.

Update on Promo Codes

I have received a lot of email requests for promo codes and will be sending them to the first 50 by the end of the day today (06/23/2010). If you do not receive a code by the end of the day, you were not in the first batch. When the next release hits the App Store, I will have another 50 at my disposal and will send those to the next group. Thanks for your interest.

I am happy to confirm that I will be at WWDC this year in San Francisco. I am making this trip a little tighter, time-wise than I have in the past so I will be arriving on Sunday, June 7th and leaving on June 13th.

I normally post my nighttime plans on twitter (@mzarra) so if you are interested in having a chat then that is the best way to track me down. I will also be tweeting which sessions I am going to throughout the day.

I look forward to seeing everyone there, it should be very interesting as always.

A lot of hard work has gone into this book already and I see it becoming the definitive text on the subject of Core Data. The release date is slated for March 30, 2009, but it’s great to see it in beta. If you want to pick up the beta in PDF, it is available now from Pragmatic here: Core Data: Apple’s API for Persisting Data under Mac OS X.

While new Cocoa programmers will find it a great help to getting started quickly with Core Data, the book also covers some really interesting and advanced topics such as data versioning and migration, Spotlight/Quick Look integration, Sync Services, and multi-threading. You can really see Marcus’ command of the subject shine in these chapters which are already available in the beta.

Give Marcus some feedback on the book as it progresses. It’s going to be a great reference for any Cocoa Developer looking to harness the power of Core Data.

$21.00 for the beta PDF
$41.35 for the beta PDF plus hard copy when it’s released in March.

Mad props to Marcus. Congratulations!