Blancer.com Tutorials and projects
Freelance Projects, Design and Programming Tutorials
I need a very tiny “do nothing” Android app that have one single purpose only, which is to swiftly load hidden and stay active for a pre-configurable amount of milliseconds before it kills itself (unload). It should also be able to change the icon for this app in the app’s settings menu.
If you’ve not already jumped on the eBook bandwagon, there’s never been a better time to climb aboard. With apps like iBooks and Amazon’s Kindle app, getting eBooks onto your favorite Apple device couldn’t be easier — especially now that Amazon has updated its Kindle app to support Project Gutenberg eBooks in version 2.5.
Project Gutenberg “…is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today,” according to Project Gutenberg’s website.
This means that the Kindle app now has access to over 33,000 free and out-of-copyright eBooks. On top of that, the app also supports access to “millions” of eBooks through the Internet Archive and other online sources too. That’s way more than a lifetime’s worth of reading, for free!
What else is new in update 2.5?
iBooks users can access Project Gutenberg eBooks too. However, the process is slightly more laborious than that of the Kindle app’s (here’s a how-to guide). Plus, the Kindle app has a top free downloads chart as well as a paid one — something the iBookstore lacks.
The Kindle app is free on the iOS App Store and the Mac App Store. If you’re an avid eBook reader, why not share your favorite free or out-of-copyright eBooks in the comments below?
Kindle app now supports Project Gutenberg eBooks originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Boy Genius Report (BGR) suggests this morning that the personal hotspot feature described at yesterday’s Verizon announcement will be a part of iOS 4.3 and will work on iPhones of all stripes (pending carrier support and approval, of course). Citing “sources,” BGR says that users will be able to connect up to 5 devices over Wi-Fi to the iPhone’s cellular connection, just as Verizon customers will be able to do. If their sources are correct, we could see this as early as March.
Meanwhile, both iPhoneclub.nl (Google translation) and iPhoneHellas (Google translation) have suggested the same thing. Redmond Pie also chimes in with confirmation from a trusted source, posting a similar set of screenshots.
It’s that “pending carrier support” line that caught our attention. AT&T is said to be “evaluating” the feature as a possibility. Take that as you will, noting that worldwide support for iPhone tethering was firmly in place long before AT&T actually enabled the feature – and it came with a newly shrunken data plan.
Mobile Hotspot function rumored to come to all carriers with iOS 4.3 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Last week at CES 2011 we met up with Dave Howell, whose Avatron Software has delivered three apps to the App Store so far. Air Display and Air Sharing are already TUAW favorites, and Print Sharing is a relatively new app targeting one feature specifically: printing to a shared printer directly from your iPhone or iPod touch. Howell walked us through his three apps, then talked a little bit about the future roadmap of each and the rest of what Avatron is up to.
Air Display is still Avatron’s most popular app; two different engineers are working on it, with one working on solving connectivity problems, and the other ironing out performance issues. Avatron wants to make Air Display more useful even away from the computer it’s sharing a screen with, so the company is working on allowing users to zoom or scale the display even as they use it. Video out is also coming soon, so you’ll be able to send a shared display out to a TV or any other display.
Air Sharing’s main goal now is to add as many sharing services and document types as possible. The app lets you dive in and view documents from Dropbox and Box.net already, and Howell says Google Documents is next to come to the service. Print Sharing is a much more focused app, but Howell says it’s been popular, too. Print Sharing’s current goal is to support as many file types as it can; Howell said Print Sharing would get the same updates that the engineers working on Air Display will provide.
Continue reading Avatron’s Dave Howell on the future of Air Display, Air Sharing, and Print Sharing
Avatron’s Dave Howell on the future of Air Display, Air Sharing, and Print Sharing originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Accessory manufacturer Dexim had a whole booth full of charging products on display at CES, but two caught our eye while walking around the show floor. The first was the Frixbee induction charging setup above, which consists of an induction pad with room for two different devices and a case that goes on your iPhone 4. The case is pretty slim, though it takes up the iPhone’s dock connector while charging, so I’d have to remove it when going out. The induction pad has a magnet in it that will help center your device in the right spot. It’s the best implementation of induction (wireless) charging I’ve seen, though I’m still hoping for induction components as a built-in part of the iPhone, rather than relying on an addon case. The Frixbee will be sold for about US$80 and should be available around May.
The other cool product was the Visible G (for Green) charging cable. It’s a standard charging cable for iPhone with one difference: it lights up while charging. LED light moves along the cable, slowly when the phone is low on charge, and faster when it’s almost full. You can see from across the room how much charging your iPhone needs. The charger is “green” because it will cut off the power once your phone is fully charged; most chargers continue to pull juice out of the wall. The Visible G is due out in the first week of March for $39.95.
Dexim’s Frixbee and Visible G chargers on display at CES 2011 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Appular released Push Panic last November, and it got somewhat lost in the midst of big iOS releases. At its core it’s a Tetris-style falling block game, though it has elements of the old Same Game, too. Blocks fall from the top of the screen, and you have to tap and target same-colored blocks to delete as many as possible before the screen fills up. The action goes from simple to frenzied, and four different modes have you race to delete a certain number of blocks, chase scores and combos, or try to delete as many blocks as possible within a time limit.
Push Panic version 1.1.1 is quite polished, with complete integration on both Game Center and OpenFeint for achievements and leaderboards. It also has an excellent soundtrack. Appular has told TUAW the app is free to download today, so don’t miss this chance to pick it up and play for free.
TUAW’s Daily App: Push Panic originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
As we’ve done for a few years now, TUAW will be in force at Macworld. And as we did last year, we’ll have a booth on the show floor. Stop by booth #1012 and say hello, because we’ll be livestreaming from the show during the three-day exposition.
This year we’re doing something special for our readers, and with the help of IDG we’re offering a $15 Expo-only pass or 10% off the price of the conference registration. Just follow this link to register and you’re set!
What are you looking forward to at Macworld 2011? Let us know in the comments below.
Get ready for Macworld and save on Expo passes or conference registration with TUAW originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
If there’s one thing I learned at CES, it’s that cases are largely a matter of taste. Almost all of them will protect your iDevice, so it’s really a matter of which one you think looks and works best. But the iChair is a nice case. The back comes in two parts and is polycarbonate with a rubber coating, so it’s nice and sturdy without being bulky. Each case comes with both a black top and a colored top (blue or white), with a screen protector, dust cloth, and a squeegee board.
The stand is pretty strong, too. The iPad version can rotate around in a few different positions and has an extra tab for typing, while the iPhone version just clicks out; both versions can stand up the device in either landscape or portrait. The iPad version is US$49, while the iPhone version is $34. Shipping is free until “We’ll see,” Sedey says. It was great to talk to him and his family (his wife and brother-in-law were manning the booth with another friend) in the midst of all the chaos on the CES floor.
The iChair combines a case with a stand for iPhone and iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
In what could only loosely be called a formal announcement, The Mac Observer is reporting that TiVo took to the Twitter airwaves today to let us know that the TiVo-branded iPad app should be out before the end of January 2011. Back in November 2010 was the first time we had heard about an upcoming TiVo app, and a video posted on its Facebook page finally gives us a glimpse into its capabilities. Users can browse their program guide, schedule recordings, remotely control the TiVo box, and check out cast and crew information for any show — all without interrupting whatever is on the TV itself. The app even offers the ability to schedule recordings on your TiVo when you are away from home.
With DISH releasing its iPad app just last month and DIRECTV offering its own app compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, it’s no surprise that TiVo is out with its own version. I prefer the TiVo DVR over the ones offered by cable or satellite companies, so once the app is released we’ll be sure to get our hands on it and give it a solid run-through.
Click Read More to watch the promo video for the TiVo iPad app.
[via The Mac Observer]
Continue reading TiVo says iPad app due by end of January
TiVo says iPad app due by end of January originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
It works fairly well so far. There were a few software bugs while we demoed the device, but I was told those would be ironed out by release. The whole idea is interesting, because the keyboard doesn’t have its own screen or even a battery. Instead, everything comes from the iPhone. Gear4’s rep said the device would have been over US$200 if the iPhone hadn’t been utilized to do most of the work. Instead, the Pocket Loops keyboard is due in a few months for a retail price of $69.99.
Gear4’s Pocket Loops keyboard creates music with your iPhone or iPod touch originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sony announced its official Playstation app was coming to iOS last month, and now it has landed in the App Store. The PlayStation App hooks into Sony’s PlayStation network by requiring you to login using your network ID. The gaming-oriented application lets you follow your friends, find the games they own and read their status updates. You can also monitor the trophies that you have earned and keep track of current happenings via the PlayStation blog. While the PlayStation app lets you digest gaming-related information and browse your friends’ info, it does not let you play actual games.
Version 1.0 of the app is free and can be downloaded from the App Store. The app will launch initially in select countries such as France, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands with expansion to other countries expected soon. It is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running iOS 4.0 or later.
[Via Macstories]
Official Playstation app for iPhone now available in select countries originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
As one of our last appointments on the floor of CES, we went out to a meeting room way back in the back of the South Hall to talk to Tom Murray, Senior Vice President of Market Development for Tom Tom, one of the leading companies selling navigation devices and software. We’ve covered Tom Tom and its products many times here on TUAW before, so it was great to finally sit down with the company and talk about their business.
Perhaps the most interesting thing Murray told me last week was that the company doesn’t see the iPhone (and other smartphone devices) as competitors to its portable navigation device (PND) business. Instead, Murray sees Apple’s platform and others like it as “complementary” to the traditional GPS devices that Tom Tom makes and sells. Murray did admit that the rise of smartphones has “had an impact on our core PND category,” but given that Tom Tom has found success with a number of regional apps on the iOS Store, Murray says that “the iPhone has been accretive to our business.”
The biggest device for Tom Tom at the show was the Go 2505m Live unit. It will arrive in April, and will bring a number of improvements, including a service called HD Traffic, which not only pulls in information on roads all over the US generated by Tom Tom’s own devices, but connects to “partner vehicles” like delivery and fleet vehicles to convey real-time information and accurate routing as you drive around. That service isn’t on the iPhone app yet (in the US, anyway — it is up and running in Europe, we were told), but Murray says it would be “reasonable to assume” that kind of information will eventually find its way into the company’s iPhone app.
Continue reading Tom Tom: Smartphones and nav devices are complementary
Tom Tom: Smartphones and nav devices are complementary originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sure, Apple’s Fifth Avenue retail store may be New York City’s fifth most-photographed location, but Brooklynites need their Apple fix too — and it seems that Apple wants to be sure to take care of them. While not confirmed yet as of this writing, The New York Observer reports that Apple is looking at putting its fifth sixth NYC store near the proposed Atlantic Yards arena, a mixed-use commercial and residential development and future home to the New Jersey Nets basketball team in the Prospect Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn.
According to the report, Apple has been in discussions with developer Forest City Ratner about moving into a retail slot, with an anonymous source saying that “they’re focusing on the arena area right now, but there’s no space. But it’s the only place in Brooklyn that’s super visible, close to trains and about as close as you can get to a 24-hour community in the borough.”
Apple currently has over 300 retail stores, but continues to open new locations both in the United States and abroad in places like Paris and Australia. With retail store sales still climbing, we can probably expect to see many more stores popping up in unrepresented corners of the world.
[Corrected to note that the Staten Island store is officially a New York City store, meaning NYC already has five stores.]
Apple hoping to open Brooklyn store in Atlantic Yards development originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Breaking onto the list of the top 50 companies with approved patents in a year for the first time ever, Apple was awarded 563 patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its inventions in 2010, double the 289 approvals from 2009. AppleInsider reports that IFI Claims Patent Services has listed Apple as No. 46 on the list for the year, with most of its approvals coming from patent applications which were filed five or six years ago.
While 563 patents is nothing to sneeze at, Apple would still need another 5,334 patent awards to surpass the 2010 first place finisher, IBM. Microsoft, Apple’s biggest competitor in the OS market, came in third place with 3,094 patent approvals.
While the end of 2010 saw Apple awarded several patents for different multi-touch devices, just last week Apple was granted a storm of new patents with approvals for multi-touch gestures on electronic documents, an advanced set-top box, a design patent for the Cinema Display, two iChat patents, and for something called “solidifying amorphous alloy” — i.e., liquid metal.. If the current rate of approvals keeps up at that pace, Apple should have no problem ranking even higher on next year’s IFI Claims Patent Services list.
[via AppleInsider]
Apple awarded 563 patents in 2010, double that of 2009 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
BodyMedia had quite a presence at CES last week, with one of their employees running around town and even jumping out of planes to show off the company’s new product, the BodyMedia FIT Armband BW. I stopped by their booth to talk to company founder Ivo Stivoric about the product, and how it connects up to an iPhone app to help you monitor not only your body’s activity level, but even steps taken and calories burned.
The band itself is nicely designed, just a little device that straps around your upper arm comfortably. It’s designed to be worn as much as possibly — Stivoric said that some users just wear it during workouts, but many wear it more often than that. It’s got a three-axis accelerometer on board, as well as equipment for monitoring your body’s skin temperature and conductivity, as well as a few other measures of health and activity.
The “BW” in the product’s name marks the fact that it’s Bluetooth-enabled. That means it can hook directly up to the company’s free app, which it will do after being paired whenever the two are in proximity. What you get is a solid record of your body’s activity throughout the day, and by inputting your calorie intake and even sleep records into the app, BodyMedia can help you work steadily toward your own fitness goals.
Continue reading BodyMedia introduces the Armband BW at CES, body monitoring for iPhone
BodyMedia introduces the Armband BW at CES, body monitoring for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments