Handstream

Quick post on the quirkiness of the Apple SDK and the apparent lack of a checkbox control. Apple do provide button controls with 4 states that can be used for deciding logic and state. I came across a very neat solution which uses the image object itself to make the decisions based on the current image of the control and not the various button states, which seem to involve a lot of work to achieve the same. Here's the code: - -(IBAction)setFixedCategory:(id)sender{ NSLog(@"%s",__FUNCTION__); bgImageOn = [UIImage imageNamed:@"tickedBox.png"]; bgImageOff = [UIImage imageNamed:@"tickBoxEmpty.png"]; UIButton *buttonClicked = (UIButton *)sender; UIImage *imageOfClicked = [buttonClicked imageForState:UIControlStateNormal]; if (imageOfClicked == bgImageOff) { [self setButtonFlags: [NSNumber numberWithInt:[sender tag]] : [NSNumber numberWithInt:1] ]; [buttonClicked setImage:bgImageO...

I remember the company Dragon from way back in the '90's. They produced voice recognition software called Naturally Speaking that I played with on my trusty 286 desktop. Well they have kept up with the times and have produced a FREE iPhone app that records a voice speaking into an Apple device and interprets it into editable text that can be copied and pasted elsewhere on the device. I had this app when it was just available in the U.S App Store but now it's available here in the U.K. It uses a clever system that uploads your recording to a server which does the heavy computer crunching and returns to you the spoken word. It could be useful in a driving situation for something,  lets say, tweeting on the M4 (legally) or an alternative to Apple's native app, Voice Memos. Also with Apple's very strong support for disadvantaged people, namely  Accessibility , this app overlaps that initiative very nicely, maybe becoming something that could grow to be dependably vi...

I have spent a few weeks wrestling Apple's class implementation of Google Maps in the SDK. Most of the stuff is quite easy to understand but I had a memory leak problem. I substituted my code with an Apple example code project and was still getting the leaks. It appears that MKMapKit places the imagery from Google into the applications cache and using the MapView class ends up with massive cryptic memory leaks of varying size and error responses. Along with the fun of fixing memory leaks it tends to car-crash an app if you thought you cleaned all the leaks up but one was lurking, waiting for the fifteenth press of the map button. To fix this frustrating problem add this snippet of code in your app's appdelegate. - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions{     //memory clearance     NSURLCache *sharedCache = [[NSURLCache alloc]initWithMemoryCapacity:0 diskCapacity:0 diskPath:nil]; ...

The reason for my poor blogging history is simple. I have been overwhelmed by the whole app developer scene. So much so, that I have put my money where my mouth is and left my safe, secure full-time employment to freelance as a developer. The last few months have been a crash course in Objective C, the language of all things app like. I have secured a few contracts for apps which, until released, I'd prefer to keep private and the reason I am able to spend a few minutes writing this blog is, the main app I have been working on has been submitted to Apple for scrutiny and should hopefully be available for purchase shortly. I have been called mad, reckless and ill informed. I have been called worse plus, I can't think of any other job that I am capable of doing where I get to play with toys all day and get paid handsomely. Explaining to people that you write applications for devices carries a certain amount of mystique and interest, far more that building websites. So - I...

This weekend I decided to try out the latest software for the iPhone version 4.0 beta. Available only to registered and paid up members of the Apple developers program. As part of the program I am not allowed to discuss details other than to say it's better than v3.1.3 and look forward to the full release. Most of the apps on the phone worked correctly. The two that failed, Sky's Sports app (mentioned below) and the second one isn't an app as such, it's a configuration profile that allows me to use my iPhone (and my unlimited data plan) as my internet connection. Very handy for times when I just need to quickly connect my laptop up to the internet but can't find an open network to do so. Unfortunately tethering is not present in the beta release. This is not a fault of the beta, as Apple make clear, the release is not for a production environment. This means in English, don't install this beta on anything other than a dedicated test phone and if you ignore the...

Another app I have come across which allows you to stream live television to your Apple device is TVCatchup iPhone . It's technically not an app as such, but a web page based system that, after a very quick and simple signup process, you can select and view from the Freeview channels they currently have available. The channels seem to be from the UK Freeview region. When selected, the program stream opens the Quicktime player on the iPhone and streams steadily over both Wi-Fi and surprisingly over 3G. This system works very well indeed and I can highly recommend it. I now walk down the street keeping up to date with programmes I would have missed as I forgot to set them to be recorded. The other thing worth mentioning is the system trumps the BBC's iPlayer system as the streams are in realtime and not 'Catch-up' which usually are not available to be viewed for about two hours after the programme is broadcast. I'm looking forward to the World Cup football tou...

When I first started this blog, it was dedicated to bringing streaming content to mobile devices. Back in the day the platform was Windows Mobile and the majority of the content was from the BBC. I learned how to hack together a URL to get their shows playing on a device. Things have changed quite a lot now. I no longer use my windows device outside of the house. I have both an Android and an iPhone to play with, and the internet has grown up and become all sophisticated. Keeping within the spirit of what I originally planned here, I want to continue to inform of the ways I have discovered streaming. The first one is a payed subscription Application from Sky. Sky are a huge global media company who in the UK have all the TV rights to most of the top sporting events. They own the rights to live football content and charge a premium to householders, venues and just about anybody who wants to watch a live football game. The app is call Mobile TV and after subscribing for £6 per m...

I have to admit I have always been a bit of a cynic generally. Never one to follow trend and usually the one arguing against something for the sake of arguing. Part devils advocate, part fighting for the underdog. Apple used to annoy me as their product owners seemed to have an air of eliteness which got my goat. This all changed recently with the purchase of a Macbook Pro. I began to understand why the majority of the people I admired technically used OS-X as their development environment of choice and it had nothing to do with the 'coolness' perceived around what they used. It just works and I 'get it' now. In the mobile world I loathed iPhone users and their evangelical preaching. I had an Android Google G1 and as a developer knew it is technically superior but voicing my theory was pointless as the iPhone's interface made any argument seem hollow. I bit the bullet and purchased an iPhone 3GS, firstly to keep my hobbyist development cross platform, and secon...

In my quest to write software and make millions I have come across some software that takes the grunt work out of building apps for Android and the iPhone. Appcelerator have created Titanium which wraps all the confusing stuff up and lets you manipulate it using HTML, Javascript and CSS coding. It also can build your code to desktop apps quite similar to Adobe's AIR technology. The IDE is very smart and the clever bit is it compiles your code to native code for the two target platforms. I have had a little play and it does what it says it can do on the side of the tin. Definitely worth checking out if you fancy building some mobile apps