Pi Cubed

Back in 2010, I gave a talk about the use of OpenGL shaders to accelerate image and video processing on mobile devices. The response from that talk was strong enough that two years later I started work on the open source framework GPUImage with the goal of making this kind of processing more accessible to developers. In an attempt to broaden the reach of this framework, today I'm introducing the completely-rewritten-in-Swift GPUImage 2 with support for Mac, iOS, and now Linux. This isn't just a port, it's a complete rewrite of the framework.

Read on for how GPUImage 2 differs from the previous iteration, and why I rebuilt it from scratch.

Pi Cubed Lite, the free version of Pi Cubed, has been updated to version 2.0. This new version is now available for download from the App Store. The new version brings many of the enhancements from Pi Cubed 2.0, such as a undo / redo support, unlimited saved calculations, a cleaner interface, and Retina display and iOS 4.0 support. This new version of Pi Cubed Lite does not have the iPad interface that the full version does, nor the built-in and custom equation library capabilities. Additionally, Pi Cubed Lite now serves iAds within the application and requires iOS 4.0 to run.

Version 2.01 of Pi Cubed is now on the App Store. The newly released version 2.0 had a bug where a specific type of equation was not being migrated properly to the new data model, leading to crashes on startup for some users when they upgraded. Thanks to David Kinney and the App Store review team's prioritizing of the bugfix review, I was able to push out this version fairly rapidly to deal with this issue. I apologize for the problems it caused and for somehow missing this during my extensive testing.

After an embarrassingly long time in development, version 2.0 of Pi Cubed is now on the App Store. The big new addition in this version is an iPad interface (free for paid users as part of a universal iPhone / iPad application), but this release also brings undo / redo throughout the application, a revamped user interface, and other tweaks.

Read on for more about this new version.

TheAppPodcast.com has posted a video review of Pi Cubed, which explores the features of the application from a layman's perspective. As a disclaimer, I commissioned the review, but the reviewer has been honest about other applications that he's looked at. It's worth viewing if you would like another perspective on the application.

Hot on the heels of the Pi Cubed Lite release is the 1.11 version of the full Pi Cubed. This version fixes some bugs in the 1.1 version that were pointed out by users and in iTunes reviews. Additionally, this is the first version of Pi Cubed to require iPhone OS 3.0, because I've started to integrate some 3.0-specific features. As usual, the updated version can be found on the App Store.

Read on for more details on this update.

Since its April release, Pi Cubed has been well-received. However, it is difficult to sell users on the value of a $9.99 visual math tool in the App Store without any means for them to try it out. Well, I'm happy to announce that the free Pi Cubed Lite is now available on the App Store.

Read on for the differences between this and the full version of Pi Cubed.

The good people at 148Apps.com have just posted a positive review of Pi Cubed. Honestly, using Emoji for a custom variable is not something that is part of my standard testing procedure.

Unfortunately, they did run into a couple of crashing bugs which I had not seen before, so I'll try to parse the crash logs and fix those issues. I'm also taking some of their user interface suggestions under advisement, and I'll see if I can incorporate improvements into the upcoming iPhone-OS-3.0-focused update.

Pi Cubed version 1.1 made it on the App Store today. This is a significant update, adding one of the major features that I had planned for the application: the ability to create your own custom equations and save those equations within your own equation library. It also adds support for plotting equations by handing them off to Grafly, if you have that application installed on your device.

Read on for more about the new features in this version.

Pi Cubed version 1.01 just arrived on the App Store yesterday. This is mainly a bugfix update, although a new editing capability has been added as well.

Read on for the specific updates in this version.