UIImage imageNamed is nice that it caches, but w/o being able to control when it clears the cache, it can be trouble.

However, as this example (below) shows, there’s an easy way to avoid the imageNamed cache, create your own references and clear it when you’d like.

via imageNamed is evil « Under The Bridge.

[myTableView setBackgroundView:nil];

via UITableView backgroundColor always gray on iPad – Stack Overflow.

I ran into this problem where the view backgrounds were always gray. Confusing!

As the post stats, try one of these:

[myTableView setBackgroundView:nil];
[myTableView setBackgroundView:[[[UIView alloc] init] autorelease];

I tried the first - ignoring the warnings as a test - and it worked. This is for an internal/prototype app so I'll wait to see if I get in trouble before heeding the warnings.   

Living on the EDGE!

VIDEO: Apple to make iPhone announcement Tuesday – News – Daily Campus – Southern Methodist University.

Some video including me being interviewed on the upcoming (now past) announcement of the iPhone 4S.

Can’t create iPad XIB with Xcode 4 – Stack Overflow.

A helpful post about how to do something that was quite easy in Xcode 3…

 

 

Mac 101: Capture your signature using OS X Lion’s Preview app | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Lion’s version of Preview comes with a built-in signature scanner that makes signing documents far simpler. In the Annotations toolbar you now have an option to create a signature from your Mac’s built-in iSight camera. All you need to do is use black ink to sign a piece of white paper, align your signature toward the camera using the onscreen guides, and take a snapshot of the signature. (I haven’t used my real signature here, obviously.)

As it states, I never tried it w/ previous versions so I can’t compare. But having a quick way to sign PDFs will be very helpful!

A friend sent this to me and it sounds great – I’ll have to try it. If you do, let me know what you think…

If you add two breakpoints, you should be able to debug these exceptions. To do this, go to Run | Show | Breakpoints and create two global breakpoints (I do them globally because they are so useful in all my applications). The first should be named “objc_exception_throw” and its location should be “libobjc.A.dylib”. The second should be “-[NSException raise]” and its location should be “CoreFoundation”.

Now, if you start debugging your application with breakpoints enabled, it should break on the throw of these exceptions. You should then be able to see the chain of events that led to the exception within the debugger.

via Stack trace or more info on unhandled exception in Xcode/iPhone – Stack Overflow.

It’s quite clear from the Apple documentation that this is possible. As is their wont, they have pages and pages of documentation saying what is possible, but not a single piece of code. And in this case, there is one crucial piece of info missing from their documentation.

via Anna Callahan » Blog Archive » Duck and Resume: a little love from the iPhone music player.

Great post about how to have music fade some, but not completely, when playing another audio file.

Dev Juice: How do I autocomplete in Xcode 4? | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Creating your own custom snippets and naming them with shortcuts is just as easy. Select text in the Xcode code editor. Click and hold for a second in the selection and then drag it over to the library. It appears at the end of the library list and is named My Code Snippet by default.

I use a lot of completions, but I probably need to start making some of my own. It takes time to save time.

I do it every time! The beta of the new iOS comes out, I update to it and regret it. Every time.

Every time I do it, I can’t remember the reason I regret it and so I do it again the next time. I need to write it down… here?

[UPDATE: I also always forget that the betas expire... and never at the right time. Like a smoke alarm beeping in the night.]

So I updated to iOS 5 the other day. Regret. Actually, this time it probably wasn’t as bad as usual…

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Updated App Store Review Guidelines by Apple…

The app approval process is in place to ensure that applications are reliable, perform as expected, and are free of explicit and offensive material. We review every app on the App Store based on a set of technical, content, and design criteria. This review criteria is now available to you in the App Store Review Guidelines. These guidelines are designed to help you prepare your iOS and Mac OS X apps for the approval process.

via App Store Review Guidelines – App Store Resource Center.

you have to select the device in the schemes menu in the top left where you used to select between simulator/device. it won’t let you archive a build for simulator.

via xcode4 – Xcode 4 – “Archive” is greyed out? – Stack Overflow.

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This is a useful tutorial on how to draw to a UIImageView.

via [Tutorial] Drawing to the screen. – iFans – iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch Fans forums.

I made some changes to the code (not to say you need to): I…

• subclass UIImageView
• change drawImage.image to self.image
• added to init: self.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
• made the double-tap-to-clear a setting and added a similar setting for double-tap-to-erase
• double-tap-to-erase uses CGContextSetBlendMode(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(), kCGBlendModeClear); – works like an eraser (otherwise use CGContextSetBlendMode(UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(), kCGBlendModeColor);)
• added UIColor and float setter for draw color and alpha (alpha sets self.alpha – works better than setting the stroke alpha)
• use [strokeColor setStroke]; to set the stroke color
• extracted out the context drawing into a method and call it w/ whatever the end point is (either currentPoint or lastPoint)

The result is a UIImageView subclass that takes a color and alpha and optionally either clears all or toggles erase mode w/ a double tap.

Make the contents of the entitlements plist file...

(from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5449487/iphone-entitlements-problem-with-xcode-4-for-ad-hoc-distribution)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <!--- Required entitlements (in most cases shouldn't be changed) --->
    <key>application-identifier</key>
    <string>$(AppIdentifierPrefix)$(CFBundleIdentifier)</string>
    <key>keychain-access-groups</key>
    <array>
        <string>$(AppIdentifierPrefix)$(CFBundleIdentifier)</string>
    </array>

    <!--- Custom entitlements below --->

</dict>
</plist>

via code signing – iPhone Entitlements problem with XCode 4 for Ad Hoc distribution – Stack Overflow.

This open-source application maps the information that your iPhone is recording about your movements. It doesn’t record anything itself, it only displays files that are already hidden on your computer.

via petewarden/iPhoneTracker @ GitHub.

Q&A with Vincent Laforet – Day 3 on Teradek @ NAB 2011 – live streaming video powered by Livestream.

Nice showcasing of the device and app using external accessory communication.

 

For the sharing, you’ll need to create accounts (or use existing accounts) for
facebook and twitter.

Facebook:
1. Create an account (unless you want to use an existing account):

2. Go to http://www.facebook.com/developers
3. Click on ‘set up a new app’
You’ll need to validate the account w/ a mobile number (it will text a confirmation code to that number)
4. Name it, agree to the terms.
5. Pass the human verification
6. Enter whatever details you want.
7. Copy and email me the api key and app secret

Twitter:
1. Create an account (unless you want to use an existing account):
2. Go to http://dev.twitter.com/apps/new
3. Enter the various details and be sure to set the callback url (ask me to send this to you)
Also, leave the ‘application type’ set to ‘Browser’
Set the access to ‘read and write’
4. Send me the consumer key or secret.

bit.ly:
If you want to use bit.ly to shorten the urls,…
1. go to http://bit.ly/account/register and sign up
2. go to http://bit.ly/a/your_api_key and get your api key
3. Send me your username and api key

It’s not what lala.com was, but it’s something…

Amazon announced Cloud Drive and Cloud Player for the web and Android, a new web-based service that lets you store your music and other files in the cloud and access them on the go. Streaming music is possible using a web-based player compatible with the Mac and PC as well as an Android application.

via Amazon launches ‘cloud locker’ music service.

 

 

I “broke down” and bought this a while back for a project. Every time I use it, I feel like I did something pretty smart…

A Better Finder Rename is the most complete renaming solution available on the market today. That’s why, since 1996, thousands of hobbyists, professionals and businesses alike depend on A Better Finder Rename to organize and maintain files.

via A Better Finder Rename 8: The Batch File Renamer for Mac OS X.

 

 

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Jen Gordon’s awesome designer starter kit is no longer “starter” – it’s full blown! And renamed to: Tapptics.

Tons of video tutorials, downloads, images, icons, etc.

Great for people trying to visualize their project, UI/UX people to design and developers to polish out their projects.

Stencils matching ‘iphone’ page 1 – Graffletopia.

Several OmniGraffle widget, icon, etc. downloads at Graffletopia.

.

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How to Hire an App Developer Primer (part 1) | 148Apps.biz.

Here’s the first in a series of posts I hope will analyze the relationship btwn client and developer. I deal w/ a lot of clients varying in size, concept, ideas, etc., etc. – I enjoy the variety and most clients have their concept developed to a different point in a different way.

These aren’t problems at all, but there’s no real set pattern for taking the idea, specifying the details and coming up w/a finite/defined blueprint to bid (otherwise, it pretty much needs to be an hourly project which usually neither side is very happy with).

The developer will want to see some specifications that you have defined for the app in order to give an accurate quote. He/she may offer suggestions on how to improve on your idea or alternate features, but this basic game plan is still needed. Once you and the developer agree on the look of the final product, there is a much better chance that your expectations will be met.

 

I ran into this today and fortunately found this solution pretty quick (below). Thanks Stack Overflow!

In iOS 4.2 when a user cancels the login to Game Center, after 3 attempts that error is returned. You can resolve the error by logging in using the Game Center app, then try your app again, you should see the welcome back message from Game Center in your app

via objective c – Game Center authentication error – Stack Overflow.

ITGO was featured in Men’s Running magazine in the UK. The site promotes the feature, but the content is only in the print magazine (or possibly in the membership area).

Here’s an image of the article…

Click to view full

As of 2010, other word processing programs can’t open a Pages file. However, Pages also embeds a PDF file in each document. PCs and Mac computers don’t need iWork to open the PDF file and access the text of a Pages document.

via How to Open .Pages Files Without iWork | eHow.com.

The site linked above has a few steps to access a pdf version of a pages doc if you don’t have Pages. Basically change the extension to zip, unzip it and there’s a pdf in the QuickLook dir. So great!

SSToolkit makes life easier. It is made up of various view controllers, views, and categories that I use in all of my apps. Feel free to fork the repo and make it better.

If you’re using this in your project, I’d love to hear about it! Send me an email and let me know which pieces you’re using and such.

Several categories are included and used throughout SSToolkit.

via samsoffes/sstoolkit – GitHub.

[UPDATE: Jen Gordon's "starter" kit is now "full blown" - details here: Tapptics]

Check out this designer start kit for mobile design:

Mobile Design Starter Kit v1.0 by Jen Gordon.

I intend to get it for myself for both learning and using in design. Design isn’t easy (especially for a developer).

The set includes leather theme, icons, badges, arrows, background textures, etc. see full list here

It’s produced by Jen Gordon who seems really skilled and open to contact for questions and such.

If you have it or get it, let me know what you think.

I’m a big fan of 360iDev…

 

 

WHEN: Late Summer 2011

WHERE: Denver, CO

How Much? $599 (That includes hands-on Pre-Conference training Sunday, and 3 days of awesome content) of course, the “Faithful” ticket is available now for just $299!

When it comes to 360|iDev it’s important to know the following.

What to bring: You, your laptop, ideas

What you’ll leave with: New friends, business contacts, inspiration, and more knowledge than you’ll get anywhere else (40+ Sessions, delivered by over 30 speakers). Probably a book or two as well.

via 360|iDev the Premier iPhone developer conference in the world!.

According to Appsfire, owners of iOS devices typically spend only 10 percent of their time in a mobile browser, inclusive of Web apps. This is in stark contrast to the figure of 50 percent of time spent in native apps, not including the default mail app and other typical telephony apps (mostly pre-installed apps, but also including Skype).

via On iOS Devices, Native Apps Trump Web Apps (Infographic).

 

 

Presenting, Appirater – Arash Payan | Blog.

The Appstore is better than before (when users were prompted to rate apps when they deleted them), but it’s still dominated by negative reviews.

Appirater is a good option to fight against that since it prompts users to rate the app based on use of the app (e.g., it prompts users to rate the app after they’ve used it for a while).

Setting it up is pretty easy… get the code from https://github.com/arashpayan/appirater/ and then…

1. Add the Appirater code into your project
2. Add the CFNetwork and SystemConfiguration frameworks to your project
3. Call [Appirater appLaunched:YES] at the end of your app delegate’s application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method.
4. Call [Appirater appEnteredForeground:YES] in your app delegate’s applicationWillEnterForeground: method.
5. (OPTIONAL) Call [Appirater userDidSignificantEvent:YES] when the user does something ‘significant’ in the app.
6. Finally, set the APPIRATER_APP_ID in Appirater.h to your Apple provided software id.

Client app, ITGO, featured on The Independent…

 

 

Top apps drop prices for New Year’s: Interval Trainer GO, Runkeeper Pro – Health & Families, Life & Style – The Independent.

I found this helpful “recipe” for setting up automatic build versioning in Xcode…

Dealing with build and version numbers in applications whether for Desktop MacOSX or iPhone applications always seems like a bit of a black art, here’s the short version of how to set up a consistent and maintainable system for dealing with version numbers in Xcode.

via Recipe: Automatic Version Number, Build Number & Build Date Handling | MacIndie.

I did a couple things differently – mainly I just didn’t set up the “Versioning System” setting (let me know if you know of problems w/ doing this):

• Add a “Versioning System” item, and set its value to “apple-generic”

I didn’t want to have to run agvtool next-version whenever I needed to update my Bundle version. I’ve used that on other projects and it’s just kinda a pain to have to run a command line command to update it. Too easy to forget, etc.

I ran it w/o that setting and logged out the settings when the app runs like this:

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
   [super viewWillAppear:animated];

   NSString *appVersionNumber = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBundleVersion"];
   NSString *buildNumber = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] valueForKey:@"CFBuildNumber"];
   NSString *buildDateString = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:@"CFBuildDate"];

   NSLog(@"%@ %@ %@", appVersionNumber, buildNumber, buildDateString);
}

The output looked like this:

[Session started at 2011-01-18 10:52:15 -0600.]
2011-01-18 10:52:16.423 BuildNumber[33096:207] 1.0 28 Tue Jan 18 10:45:26 CST 2011

 

 

I roll my own for most URL/HTTP communication, but I hadn’t messed w/ multipart image posts in a while. I found the class I wrote a while back (based on this) but wanted to try ASIHTTPRequest. Their doco is well put together and it’s fairly easy to implement…

To send POST data in a manner compatible with web page forms, use the included ASIFormDataRequest subclass. Data is posted in ‘application/x-www-form-urlencoded’ format, or ‘multipart/form-data’ format when uploading binary data or files. Data in files is read as needed from disk, so POSTing large files is OK, as long as your web server is setup to handle them.

via ASIHTTPRequest example code – All-Seeing Interactive.

In doing research for a project, Ray Wenderlich told me about the particle designer…

 

 

Create stunning visual effects for your latest game by customizing every aspect of your particle emitters.

via Particle Designer.

myspace-iphone-sdk – Project Hosting on Google Code.

I’m trying to incorporate the MySpace api into an app. Not easy.

On the HowToUse page, the login/logout example tells you where to add the key, secret and callbak url.

Also, I’m including it in a project which also has Twitter and that uses OAuth. So I include the MySpace project using the library route, but it started getting a weird error trying to call URLEncodedString on NSString in MSURLCode.m. It’s a method added to NSString via a category.

So I put the actual call from the URLEncodedString method from the category in MSURLCoder.m, recompiled the library and then it worked.

The API SDK isn’t complete and in the Upcoming entry, it states from May, 2010:

Changes MySpace iPhone team is working on

1. XML support: This will be transparent to most users expect for lower level sdk developers.
2. Exposure of more and more APIs e.g. Activities, Notifications etc

Also, they state:

IMPORTANT: when including the framework bundle created by this target, you MUST change the “File Type” property of the framework from “wrapper.framework” to “wrapper.framework.static”

See image below.

If anyone has used this api (or another MySpace API SDK) w/ success, please let me know.

I just watched on hulu the iPhone app episode of The Big Bang Theory – pretty funny stuff. But I kept hoping they’d talk more about the app and show the whiteboard more.

Read more about the episode and the consultant they used:
iPhone Apps on The Big Bang Theory « Ironwolf.

RoadLoans.com iPhone app

Worked on this nicely laid out app for a client recently.

Check out the app here.

 

 

GREAT post – Twitter API OAuth tutorial at iCodeBlog:

via Dealing with the Twitter Oauth-Apocalypse | iCodeBlog.

Surprisingly there are not a lot of options for Objective-C Twitter libraries. In fact there are exactly two options: MGTwitterEngine and Canary (which is actually a “full-fledged client”). The choice looks clear, use MGTwitterEngine or deal with XML directly (yuck!).

MGTwitterEngine does not implement the entire Twitter API but it does implement the most important things like updating status, retrieving your friend’s timeline, etc. For my current uses, that’s all I need.

via Compiling MGTwitterEngine for the iPhone using Xcode » wonderful world of programming.

Apple – Support – Discussions – Iphone : TARGET_OS_IPHONE not in my static library target
TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR

facebook/facebook-ios-sdk – GitHub.

I’m checking out this SDK for Facebook integration for an app.

In starting it up, it launched Safari to do the authorization, but then got an error when trying to go back to the app (though I setup the appid as it directed).

I found this post in the issues and tried changing the line in Facebook.m as it mentions. It worked, but not if I have the facebook app on my device.

I set them both to NO…

[self authorizeWithFBAppAuth:NO safariAuth:NO];

… and it brought up the Facebook auth page and remained in the app (as opposed to launching the fb app).

UPDATE: The URL schema needs to be fb[appid] where the full [appid] is replaced like fb123123123 or similar.

ChorePiggy owner interviewed by KLTV (video on top right).

So Penny Googled, “how to make an iPhone app”. She came across a developer and drew her idea out on paper. “Every step of the way, he’d send me something to approve, and I’d say, yes or no, let’s change this,” said Penny.

Mac 101: Backup basics with Time Machine and more
by Steven Sande

In this edition of Mac 101, I’ll take you through the basics of setting up your Time Machine backup to a local hard drive, explain the power of cloning apps, and tell you why off-site backups are a good idea.

Free Developer Books from Apple
(via tuaw)

According to a tip from our old friend Nik Fletcher at Realmac Software, Apple has recently put a number of Apple Developer Publications books into the iBookstore for free. This makes it simple to grab these books, which range from “The Objective-C Programming Language” to “iOS Application Programming Guide,” for reading on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

 

Announcing the winners of the AppifyWP WordPress theme!.

Corey from AppifyWP graciously offered a few licenses of his great WordPress theme to our readers. He has selected the winners:

@albertgrala
@bearc0025
@AppleNTech
@tjreo
@GFCTheme

The winner of the unlimited license is:

@Stoicjustice83

Congrats to the winners and thanks again to Corey for providing this giveaway.

 

 

Ok, multitasking on the iPhone is great, but it may not run all the time in the background, then what can it do? Well there is a very short list of what your app can do. Here it is:

1. VOIP connections
2. Play audio
3. React to navigation changes

 

 

iOS Advanced Programming: Understanding iOS 4 Multitasking.