Category: I-phone

Dear Dev Juice,

I’m part of a tiny company developing iOS apps. We’re about to develop our first Mac OS X app. There are many cool new features in MAC OS X Lion and we’d like to take advantage of these. However, this would mean only people on Lion could use our app… Do you think most people have upgraded to Lion? Or do you think we’d be ignoring a lot of potential users still on Snow Leopard?

Gareth

Dear Gareth

Lots of users have made the jump to Lion but lots more have not. Rather than jumping on the Lion bandwagon completely by providing a Lion-only application, consider conditional coding instead.

Conditional coding allows you to offer certain features only to Lion users while ensuring the application remains both 10.6 and 10.7 ready. This solution allows you to build your application for the greatest number of users.

Make sure you clarify in your marketing text that certain features are Lion-only so you don’t tick off either Apple or your user base.

Here are a few conditional coding hints.

• Check for properties using key/value coding. If valueForKey: returns nil, the property is not available in Snow Leopard.
• Check for classes using NSClassFromString(). Code around non-existent classes in Snow Leopard by disabling features or removing inappropriate options.
• Check for selector compliance using respondsToSelector:. When newer APIS are supported, objects will report that they respond to those selectors, letting you call them without crashing the program. You may generate compile-time warnings about unimplemented selectors unless you use work-arounds like performSelector:withObject:. If you really want to go hard core, you can build NSInvocation instances directly.

Happy Developing!

Dev Juice: Help me leverage Lion-only features originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are lots of crazy rumors flying around about the new iPhone announcement coming later on this year (or as soon as next month), but this is one of the more credible. The picture above comes from a site called UbreakIfix through our friends at Engadget, and purports to show a prototype for the iPhone called the N94. It’s a long story (which you can click through to read yourself), but essentially, the latest rumor says that this device is the latest testing version of what may become an “iPhone 4S,” a slightly cheaper version of the iPhone 4 set to be introduced right alongside the iPhone 5.

Of course, these are all still rumors, and Engadget admits the timing isn’t quite right on this one — this is apparently an “Engineering Verification Test” piece from last March, which makes it older than some of the other prototypes that have reportedly leaked out. It’s unknown whether this is the real thing or just another test unit.

But the wheels are clearly in motion on a new iPhone. And if the rumors play out as predicted later on next month, we might see not one but two new iPhones available for purchase.

iPhone prototype N94 leaked, possibly to be an iPhone 4S originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW,

So is this year that we see the MacBook touch? What do you think is going to debut this fall?

Your loving nephew,

Mark S.

Dear Mark,

Auntie is already deciding on specs for her MacBook touch, even though she recognizes how utterly remote the likelihood is of Apple going in that direction. She does not encourage you to hold your breath on that account.

That being said, Auntie envisions 11″ and 13″ models that work with and without a keypad/trackpad accessory. Because Auntie likes speculating.

She especially likes the idea of dual-mode boot to pick the OS, allowing the unit to flip between iPad and OS X. With Bootcamp, her MacBook touch might even run Linux and Windows — because she finds it particularly hilarious to think that the first successful touch Windows and touch Linux might be running on Apple hardware. Mind you, there’s already been a Linux-on-iPhone/Android-on-iPhone thing going on for a few years via planetbeing.

In Auntie’s dreams, this delicious technical concoction would have a starting price for 64 GB model around $999.

So why the touch? Why take a perfectly successful line of laptops and touch-ize them? Especially when no one wants to use vertical screens. Auntie isn’t thinking about the office; she’s dreaming of the road.

If you’ve ever spent long periods of time using LogMeIn/iTeleport/etc on the iPad, you’ll get the “why” of all this: because work does matter and while the iPad does cross the boundary between lightweight computing and serious work, it does so under protest. Moving OS X to a tablet form factor with Mac software running on it can be a big win for corporate computing. The iPad has proved how useful that is. OS X adds more power.

In the end, Auntie’s summary is this: Longshot, certainly. Realm of possibility, totally. Likelihood, don’t hold your breath.

But Auntie can dream, can’t she?

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Could we see a MacBook touch? originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Given the history between Adobe and Apple, this might be kind of surprising, but it happened anyway. Adobe has released an app for iPhone and iPad called CreatePDF that allows you to make and edit your own PDF files, right on iOS. The app can be used to open up any number of document formats, and then uses Adobe’s own conversion services to assemble them however you want into a full PDF document. The app can open everything from Word documents and Excel spreadsheets to images and OpenOffice documents, and converted PDFs can be sent off as email attachments, or even sent to other apps on the iOS device.

The app is available as a $9.99 universal download. It’s good to see this kind of thing available — it just means there’s even more functionality for iOS in terms of not just viewing documents, but also building and creating them while mobile.

Adobe releases a PDF creator for iOS originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Antivirus on a Mac might be a touchy subject, but if you’d like the reassurance of a virus scanner that’s not intrusive and can be called on-demand, then the free ClamXav is a great choice.

While you may or may not need a virus scanner on a Mac, there’s no harm in having one that you can run as and when, perhaps if you’re sending a file to a Windows using colleague for instance. Just because a potentially infected file goes totally unnoticed on your Mac, doesn’t mean it’s not going to wreak havoc on your poor unsuspecting friend’s Windows box.

ClamXav is the Mac GUI variant of the open source ClamAV project, and has recently entered the Mac App Store, making it even easier to get on-demand protection. Thanks to the ClamAV antivirus engine, ClamXav will detect both Mac and Windows threats and remove them quickly and easily. You get a Services menu option, which allows you to scan files as and when, be it that PDF you just downloaded or your entire disc. You can define file exclusions and even save your favorite scan locations for frequent scanning tasks. Virus definition updates are of course free, and you can get ClamXav to update when you first start the program or on a set schedule.

While ClamXav may not be the fastest scanner on the block, it’s free, gets the job done, and most importantly, won’t bog your system down. If you ever share files with Windows users, or just want to make sure you’re not going to fall foul of a Mac malware uprising if it ever comes into being, then ClamXav is a great occasional use scanner.

Daily Mac App: ClamXav originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a image sent in to MacRumors, iCloud support may be coming to Snow Leopard users. As you can see in the screenshot above, the .Mac preference pane in a previous OS X’s System Preferences reads: “You will no longer be able to sync with this machine because you’ve upgraded to iCloud. iCloud requires a computer running Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.9 or later for Contacts, Calendars, and Bookmarks.”

This message appeared in OS X 10.4 Tiger after a developer updated his MobileMe account to an iCloud account. The notice appears to be the first indication that OS X 10.6.9 is in the works. Presumably it will only include minor bug fixes and provide limited iCloud support for Snow Leopard. Currently Apple states that iCloud will require OS X 10.7, but that is presumably for the more advanced Documents, iTunes Match, Photo Stream, and Backups features. It’s reasonable to assume Apple isn’t going to lock non-Lion users out of their @me.com email addresses.

Rumor: iCloud support coming in Snow Leopard 10.6.9 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here.

Daily Update for August 29, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s nothing more frightening to a network administrator than to have a potential security hole that can open a network to attacks from outside. Unfortunately, the latest incarnation of Mac OS X — Lion — reportedly has a major security issue related to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

LDAP servers often contain sensitive enterprise data, so a successful attack on one of the servers is a bonanza to hackers. For some reason, Macs running Lion that use LDAP to authenticate users to shared resources work just fine for the initial login. After that point, Lion users can use any password and still log in.

Macs running older versions of OS X, Windows PCs, and Linux machines authenticate properly on the same LDAP servers, but the Lion machines exhibit the bad behavior. There are no security problems with Macs running Lion and logging into networks that use protocols other than LDAP.

This issue may create concern in the minds of network administrators who are being pressured to add more Macs to their networks. A researcher at iSec Partners, Alex Stamos, recently noted that large corporate customers should think twice before deploying large numbers of Macs in enterprises. Speaking at the Black Hat security conference earlier this month, Stamos mentioned that iSec Partners had figured out an easy way to steal hundreds of passwords from enterprise servers by connecting a Mac to the network.

Network admins who think that Macs may be an open gate to their data are not going to be amenable to connecting the devices to their enterprise networks.

OS X Lion accepts any LDAP password, creates enterprise network nightmare originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung today announced they are entering mobile messaging market. Like Facebook Messages, which hopes to kill off text messaging for good, Samsung’s ChatOn is a cross-platform messaging service for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Samsung’s own Bada OS that offers users the ability to send text, pictures, and video across devices. With the release of iOS 5, Apple will unveil the similar iMessages, a mobile messaging system that allows users to text message other iOS devices for free.

While I love that traditional text messaging is being hunted down and prepared for slaughter we are going to have a huge problem on our hands as more and more tech companies join in the mobile messaging game. That problem is called fragmentation. iMessages is great because it lets you text anyone with an iOS device — even an iPod touch — for free. But iMessages only works for iOS devices. Facebook Messenger is great because it’s cross platform and 750 million people use Facebook, but I don’t want to have to add everyone at my work as a Facebook friend just so I can text them. Samsung’s ChatOn seems like as reasonable go-between, but again, it’s yet another service that everyone is going to have to sign up for to make it viable.

While we all have grown tired of traditional text messaging because the phone companies wildly overcharge people for text packages, at least the system works. Can you imagine what’s going to happen as more tech companies join the mobile messaging band wagon? Texting becomes too complicated. Where before it could be done by anyone to anyone on any phone, now you need to double check with people what service they use, download the appropriate apps, and then find out if that person uses a username, phone number, or email address as their mobile messaging handle.

It seems everyone wants to be your messaging service. But no one wants to be interoperable. And until that happens, traditional text messaging is going nowhere and will continue to be a colossal rip-off. But I would rather use a system that over-charges than have to keep five different apps on my phone just to text everyone I know.

Update: As a few readers rightly pointed out iMessages do in fact work as a “layer” on top of regular text messaging. However, iMessage is not a replacement for universal texting services as free iMessages and the Messages app are only available on iOS.

Samsung getting in the mobile messaging business with ChatOn originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stem Innovation, the same company that brought iOS device owners the TimeCommand alarm dock and accompanying Stem:Command software, now has a new product out that looks like a winner. The iZON Remote Room Monitor (US$129.95) is a Wi-Fi connected, app-based video camera that can be used to keep an eye on a child in another room or a house on the other side of the planet.

As with the TimeCommand, setup of the iZON appears to be drop-dead simple. The company recommends using an 802.11n Wi-Fi network, and the tiny cylindrical camera (which weighs only .74 oz) takes less than 10 minutes to set up. Compare that to the hours it took for me to set up a Foscam Wi-Fi camera — I had to use Windows running under VMWare — and the extra $40 or so for the iZON looks like a great investment.

In addition to connecting to your local Wi-Fi network, the iZON also connects to the Stem servers for video monitoring over EDGE, 3G and remote Wi-Fi networks for up to 5 minutes per session. It’s possible to set up motion sensitivity with the camera so that you receive an alert through push notification whenever something within the field of view moves.

There’s also an audio monitor built into the camera, and the same alerts can be enabled when an audio level is exceeded. The video stream is encrypted for your protection, but can be recorded in 30-second bursts to a free private YouTube account.

The iZON camera is available at Apple Stores and some Best Buy locations, or can be ordered directly from Stem Innovation. TUAW will have a full review of the iZON in the near future.

Stem Innovation’s iZON Remote Room Monitor is Apple friendly, easy to set up originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IGG Software, makers of the popular iBank financial software for Mac, has announced that 100% of sales revenue from their apps generated on Monday, August 29 will be donated to Vermont’s relief programs for those affected by the flooding resulting from Hurricane Irene. Furthermore, IGG will double the total amount of sales with a matching contribution.

In a press release [PDF] IGG states: “IGG Software, Inc. has been Vermont-based since shortly after its founding in 2003. The majority of its employees are also located in towns throughout Vermont, many of which were hit by devastating flash floods that destroyed homes, roads and bridges. Some of IGG’s team members were affected personally with significant property damage and, in one case, an emergency evacuation.”

IGG Software makes the popular iBank 4 (US$59.99) and iBiz 4 ($39.99) apps for OS X. Users can buy the apps either through the Mac App Store or IGG’s online store. All revenue will be donated no matter which store the apps are bought through.

Buy iBank today and help Vermont flooding relief efforts originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Galaxy Tab 10.1’s Australian launch has been pushed back again due to litigation from Apple, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Samsung had originally intended to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia on August 11, but just a week before the launch Apple succeeded in getting a injunction against sales of the device. Apple said the device infringed on multiple iPad patents.

After the first injunction, Samsung said the Tab would go on sale by the end of August after the company modifies it to address complaints from Apple. Now however, it looks like the Tab won’t go on sale in Australia until at least September 30th.

The reason for this second delay is because Samsung showed a modified Tab to Apple to address Apple’s complaints, but Apple was still not satisfied with the modified version saying that while the device “had reduced functionality” it “will still infringe” on Apple’s patents.

Apple has until the end of the week to cite exactly which patents the modified Tab still infringes on and until September 5th to issue a more comprehensive statement of the facts. Samsung then has until September 16 to answers Apple’s new claims. A formal hearing then begins on September 26th, which according to the Sydney Morning Herald, could see “top executives and inventors from both Apple and Samsung” appearing in person or over video conference to explain their patents.

Apple gets injunction: Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch delayed again in Australia originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the days since the resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple, Inc., we’ve seen an amazing outpouring of love for the man and his legacy. But none of those tributes has had quite the impact of marathon runner Joseph Tame accomplished with an iPhone (actually two), the Runkeeper app and service, and his own two legs.

Tame ran a half-marathon around the heart of Tokyo with a specific route in mind — one that approximated the shape of the Apple logo. The run took Tame about two hours, and the end result was the Runkeeper GPS plot seen above. In case you’re wondering, the bite out of the Apple is the Imperial Palace.

TUAW has featured Tame’s exploits before: he’s also the creator of a rig that allows him to carry four iPhones, an Android handset, and an iPad while running so that he can live stream his marathon runs. Tame told New Launches that the iPhone “really has changed my life here in Tokyo. It means I can go anywhere without getting lost, I have all my data with me at all times, I’m potentially in touch with thousands of friends and family members around the world at all times, and I have access to any information I might need to do what I need to do.”

Joseph Tame definitely knows how to say “Thank You, Steve Jobs” in style.

Runner’s 13-mile trip is a tribute to Steve Jobs originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A few weeks ago I wrote about tips while traveling with your iPad. Today I want to tell you about an app that might be useful for those traveling to other countries where they don’t speak the native language. Or, it might be useful once it gets fleshed out a little more. The idea behind Converse is great. It’s an app which allows you to IM a foreign speaker face to face using a split-screen dual keyboard layout.

Each user can select their language and type messages to the other. Those messages are then displayed on the receiver’s side of the iPad app, translated into their native tongue.

As I said, the idea is a good one, but the app as it is right now is somewhat limiting. For example users can only choose from seven languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch.

But what’s more frustrating is that the translations are almost word for word and don’t take syntax into account. That means your translated message might read like a two year old wrote it. Furthermore, the iPad app requires an Internet connection to work, which means if you’re standing on the side of the road in Porto desperately trying to find where the next train to Lisbon is, Converse is going to be no help in asking your question to someone who doesn’t speak the language. Another issue: Converse has no way of entering numbers, which are universal, so you have to spell them out and that takes more time to type (and due to the lack of syntax can add to some confusion).

I write about this app because I think if the developer flushes out some bugs, works on syntax, and integrating dictionaries into it so it doesn’t require an Internet connection, it’ll be a good one to have while traveling. Also, if the dev can find out a way to make it an iPhone app that would be great, though admittedly it might be hard to fit two keyboards on an iPhone’s screen at the same time and remain usable.

Converse is US$4.99 in the App Store.

Daily iPad app: Converse originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I think so. I’ve been testing Cobra iRadar, a hardware radar detector that connects via Bluetooth to your iPhone for up to date warnings of police radar, and speed/red light camera detection.

The system consist of a small radar receiver that attaches to your windshield, and a free app that pairs to the receiver and provides mapping, on screen warnings, and the ability to upload either false hits from burglar alarms or door openers, or real locations of cameras that may have just appeared and are not in the Cobra database.

I’m a conservative driver, and don’t tend to speed, but I do like the added feeling of security I get with the system running. In my test drives, the iRadar system found some sped cameras I wasn’t aware of. At one point, I was surprised it appeared to miss one that I knew about, but when I looked around the cameras had been taken down and likely moved somewhere else. +1 for iRadar.

The app doesn’t require the radar receiver, and the radar receiver doesn’t require the app. Used alone, the receiver will give you voice warnings of upcoming police radar, but unless it is paired with the app you won’t get warnings of traffic speed or red light cameras. You also won’t get warnings of new locations submitted by other users.

On the other hand, you can download the app and get updates of police cameras, but you won’t get radar warnings. The app is also used to set specific behavior of the radar detector, as there re only power/volume and mute controls on the receiver.

I’m told earlier versions of the iRadar app were a bit flaky, but the latest version available, released this month seemed to be stable. I saw one problem where I clicked a button and the system became unresponsive, but closing the app and re-opening fixed it and I haven’t seen the bug reappear.

The app has 2 modes. A map mode, derived from Google, that shows you any known speed or red light cameras, and user reported incidents. ON another screen it shows your actual speed, which is often more accurate than your car speedometer. It also shows you cars voltage, and gives a visual warning of any upcoming activity. The app can run in the background and you will be alerted. You can also use the iPhone at any time without losing any info from the app.

The Cobra iRadar unit is US $129.00 at retailers like Radio Shack and Best Buy. The price at Amazon is quite variable. I’ve seen it as high as $91.96 but I’ve seen it down to $84.00 as well.

Remember that radar detectors are illegal in Virginia, Washington D.C. and on military bases. Radar detectors are also illegal in all commercial vehicles over 10,000 pounds.

I think the Cobra iRadar works well, and actually is less expensive than comparably priced units that put all the electronics in the receiver. It’s probably not as good as some of the highest priced units, but it worked well and the marriage of the iPhone and the receiver worked very well.

Are iOS and a radar detector a good pair? A look at Cobra iRadar originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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