It's been a little while since the last update, but version 2.1 of Molecules just went live on the App Store. 2.1 adds full support for the new Retina iPad, and has an enhanced rendering engine to support the detail on that newer device. I've also improved the contrast slightly on newer devices.

I'd like to introduce a new open source framework that I've written, called GPUImage. The GPUImage framework is a BSD-licensed iOS library (for which the source code can be found on Github) that lets you apply GPU-accelerated filters and other effects to images, live camera video, and movies. In comparison to Core Image (part of iOS 5.0), GPUImage allows you to write your own custom filters, supports deployment to iOS 4.0, and has a slightly simpler interface. However, it currently lacks some of the more advanced features of Core Image, such as facial detection.

Last week, Apple unveiled two new education-related products: iBooks textbooks and the new iTunes U courses. While both interest me, I was particularly fascinated by the new iTunes U courses and how they bundle information together. I converted my existing Advanced iPhone Development iTunes U class into a full course (which you can subscribe to for free) a few days ago. I wanted to write about what I learned in the process of doing this.

Yet another update for Molecules is now live on the App Store, this time version 2.02. The focus of this update is performance, and the new version greatly improves the speed of the new rendering engine. The 3-D models are now rendered at 3-6 times the speed that they were in the previous version, which should make previously choppy framerates on the iPad 1 much smoother. If you're interested in how this significant optimization was achieved, check out my question about it on Stack Overflow. Thanks go out to Tommy and Pivot for pointing me in the right direction on this.