Category: I-phone

Dear Aunt TUAW,

Got any good tips for keeping the white keys of the Apple keyboard clean? Having switched to a desktop setup, I’m no longer using the black keys of my MacBook and typing basically constantly trying to write my thesis is starting make the white keys of the external look a little grubby.

Do people just use household cleaners or does isopropanol or something similar work better?

Muchos gracias,

Your loving nephew,

Sam

Dear Sam,

Oh my, my, my. Auntie is going to answer as seriously as she can. And that includes her admonishment to wash your hands before touching expensive electronics.

Before getting to that however, she recommends that you get out a white sheet of typing paper. Or “printer paper” or “Xerox paper” as it now seems to be known among you youngsters. Place it on a table and invert your keyboard over it and gently tap the bottom of the keyboard or (if applicable) your laptop.

Just tap, tap, tap.

Start watching things fall out. Hair, dried sneezes, bits of dandruff — truly it’s horrifying what gets into our keyboards.

Auntie’s solution is to hit the liniment and pretend that gross stuff just isn’t there. If she can’t feel it while typing, then logically it doesn’t exist. There’s probably even a scientific theorem about that. The non-observation principle.

However, if you’re bound and determined to clean your keys, here are a few tips.

First, most keys on modern keyboards can be removed, and scrubbed individually. Some people even use the dishwasher for this with a small cage. You probably want to photograph your keyboard before de-keying it, the better to return each key to its proper home.

Second, melamine sponges (e.g. Mr. Clean in the US, but they probably have something equivalent there in the UK), are wonderful for re-bright-ifying white Apple products. Be careful at the top of your keys because they may scrape off existing letter names (all the better for Dvorak users). You can try using an eraser, if you’re willing to vacuum afterwards.

Third, never underestimate the power of good suction. A small handheld vacuum can de-yuck your keyboard like nothing else.

Finally, if you’re trying to remove items from surfaces, you can use simple rubbing alcohol or miniral spirits (like Goo Gone). Uncle Victor suggests that alcohol is probably your best bet as it won’t kill the paint but will loosen the grime.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me keep my keyboard clean and white originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has just released the iOS 5 Beta 5 for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad and iPod Touch 4G, 3G to registered iOS developers. If you’re a registered iOS developer you can download iOS 5…

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Will Russia be getting the iPhone 5?

Apple already approving app updates for iOS 5, which is scheduled to be released next month.

Apple says they would only release a cheaper iPhoneif it can dominate the market.

It has been confirmed by IDC, Apple is the global smartphone leader in Q2 2011.

iPhone 5 seen in the wild?

Welcome to the site, and to another best resources in iOS development listing the resources in digest form that have been added and featured in the last week listed ordered by popularity.

This week includes some excellent libraries, apps and some tutorials.  Most popular this week were some open source resources allowing you to easily use the iOS keychain, provide popup alerts to users, and read comic books.

Here are the resources:

Open Source: iOS Keychain Wrapper For Easily Securing User Data For Your App – Great library that allows you to secure user data by simply replacing calls to NSUserDefaults with calls to this library.

Open Source: Library For Easy Colorful Animated Information Popup Bubbles – Allows you to create colored UIPopover style bubbles with different animations to easily alert users with information.

Open Source: Beautiful Comic Book Reading App – A great comic book reader app that reads multiple comic book formats (CBR, CBZ, PDF) and looks fantastic.

Tutorial: Upload Videos With The Facebook Graph API – An easy to understand step by step tutorial that holds your hand through creating a simple app that uploads video directly to Facebook.

Tutorial: Dynamically Coloring Art In Cocos2D – Turn One Game Character Into Hundreds – Tutorial covering the useful sprite coloring features in Cocos2D and demonstrating how to use them to turn one game character (a bitizen) into many.

Open Source: UISwitch Replacement To Make Beautiful Custom Switches Easy – Library for beautiful looking rounded UISwitch replacements that can have different colors, and change in size to accomodate text within the switch.

Tutorial: A Colored Lens On A Black And White Background With Core Graphics – Tutorial demonstrating how to create multiple areas on the same screen with a different color palette using core graphics to create a color on black and white selector.

Tips: Xcode 4 – Hidden Features Uncovered – An excellent question and answer thread covering many excellent little known features in Xcode 4 that are great timesavers.

Open Source: Pre-compiled Curl, OpenSSL, Zlib, libEtPan, And GnuPG iOS Libraries – Open source project including precompiled versions of many different open source libraries, and a one touch build script if you’d rather build them yourself.

Open Source: Cross Platform iOS/Android 2D Game Framework Using The Squirrel Language – A full featured game framework that utilizes Squirrel – an object oriented scripting language designed to have all the positives of Lua without the negatives.

Thanks for reading, please bookmark and share this post!

©2011 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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If you have been using Xcode 4, then you know it’s a massive improvement over previous versions of Xcode.  That being said there are many features that are tough to even if you immerse yourself in Apple’s extensive documentation.

The other day while browsing through Stack Overflow I came across a very active question on Xcode 4 that explores many the little known features such as code snippets, marking code, and shortcut keys to bring up hidden features.  There are definitely a lot of small time savers in here that you will want to take note of.

I don’t often find my time browsing Stack Overflow to be very productive – but this thread is a gem.

You can find the question thread here (sorted by votes):
Hidden Features Of Xcode 4

If you haven’t seen this thead yet it is a must look if you want to get the most out Xcode 4.

Added to the Xcode 4 tutorial and guide page.

©2011 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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Not too long ago I mentioned a tutorial on using the iOS keychain to store usernames and passwords.

I received a submission earlier this week about an excellent open source project that very easily allows you to secure user data using the iOS keychain.  The project acts as a drop-in replacement for NSUserDefaults, and you simply replace your calls to NSUserDefaults, and NSUserDefaultsController to the wrapper.  Just some minor changes required.

Here’s what the developer Carl Brown of PDAgent had to say about the project:

I wrote a set of classes for OSX and iOS that implement accessing the Secure Keychain as if it was NSUserDefaults.  That way, developers who want to secure their App’s data, and who already know how to use NSUserDefaults (which I hope they all do), should be able to do so with a minimum of confusion.

It’s on github, and I’m releasing it under the MIT license.  Hopefully it will lower the barrier to people using the Keychain correctly.

You can find the Github project here:
https://github.com/carlbrown/PDKeychainBindingsController

Included within the project is an iOS example demonstrating how easy it is to use.  A definite time-saver if you want to secure user data using the keychain.

Thanks for the submission Carl!

©2011 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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In this example we will see how to ImageChange using button pressed. So let see how it will work in our application. My previous post you can find out from here KeyBoard example

Step 1: Open the Xcode, Create a new project using View Base application. Give the application “ImageChange”.

Step 2: Xcode automatically creates the directory structure and adds essential frameworks to it. You can explore the directory structure to check out the content of the directory.

Step 3: Open the ImageChangeViewController.h file and make the following changes in the file:

Step 4: Double click the ImageChangeViewController.xib file and open it to the Interface Builder. First drag the UIButton from library and place it to the view window. Select the Button and bring up Connection Inspector and drag Touch Up Inside to the File’s Owner icon and select MoveImage: action. Now save the .xib file and go back to the Xcode.

Step 5: In the ImageChangeViewController.m file make the following changes:

Step 6: Now compile and run the application in the Simulator.

You can Download SourceCode from here ImageChange

In the early days of the Mac, I used to love playing around with Bryce, which could generate very realistic scenery, which was my forte, or bizarre other worldly scenes straight out of science fiction flick.

Bryce is still around, along with high-end rendering programs such as Vue. These programs aren’t cheap. Bryce is $249.95 for the Pro version and Vue has versions from $99 to $995 but they have amazing features and power.

I’ve been playing with TerraRay 4, which currently is on sale for $4.99. It’s a great way to explore landscape creation on a budget. This app doesn’t create animations like its high-end cousins, but it has some easy-to-use tools that will let you create some stunning landscapes with not too much effort.

The app allows you to control lighting, the materials that make up the surface of your creations and can produce realistic skies and fog. It also allows you to import models in the popular 3ds file format. You can learn more at the developer website and see a video of the app in action. The app contains complete documentation.

I didn’t do anything too fancy, but was able to create some canyons with water and decent looking skies with ease. The only real downside is the final rendering speed. For a large scene it might take an hour to do all the detail and ray tracing. That’s just far too long for the size of file that is being output. One fairly simple render in TerraRay 4 took more than 30 minutes. Of course, it can be done in the background, and the final result looked fine, but this program really needs to be optimized for speed. The program only saves in .png format, which seems a bit shortsighted, and other file formats would be useful.

Check out the app at the developer’s website and see if it suits your needs. I also have some images in the gallery. I would say TerraRay 4 is powerful, inexpensive, but dog slow. Don’t expect it to be as good as the big boys, but it more than holds its own. I recommend this app if you are getting your feet wet with synthetic landscape generation. The app needs OS X 10.6 or greater, it functions fully under Lion, and is a 24 MB download.

Create your own worlds with TerraRay 4 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are plenty of ways to get audio from your Mac to your HiFi. AirPlay works great, if you have an AirPlay friendly system or an Apple TV.

If you want to do it on the cheap, check out WiFi2HiFi, which we’ve mentioned a couple times in the past. This US$3.99 app runs on your iPhone, and you also must download a free app for your Mac. For those readers who use Windows, there’s also an app from that platform.

Install the desktop app, then start the iOS app. The devices will pair over your WiFi network, and any audio coming from your Mac will get wirelessly routed to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. If your iOS is in a dock that connects to your music system you’re in business. Your iPhone is acting as a lining device to all the audio on your Mac.

Sure, there are other ways to do this, and if you have an iPhone, tying it up for this purpose might not be too great if you want to use your phone. On the other hand, it might be a good use for an older iPhone or iPod touch. There is about a 3 second delay in music, but buffering reduces any potential dropouts. The app has a visual indicator of the state of the buffered audio with colored lights.

Support is good, with an extensive FAQ both on the developer website and the iOS app.

In the course of my testing, as I was switching outputs around, I lost the stream but restarting the iOS app brought it back. Setup is easy, and if you want your music collection on your stereo system this is an inexpensive solution. The app runs on iOS 3.0 or greater, and supports the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Get audio from iOS to your HiFi easily and cheaply originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A report from mobile advertising firm Jumptap has been compiled into a handy map that shows which US states trend toward Android or iOS usage. By measuring ad click stats from the 83 million users on its network, Jumptap determined the areas of the country where more ads were being clicked on Android versus iOS versus BlackBerry.

As the map shows, most of the US west of the Mississippi trends toward Android, while most of the Midwestern and Northeast states are showing iOS dominance. New York, Maryland, and Virginia are hotbeds of BlackBerry activity, which isn’t at all surprising considering the preponderance of business and governmental users in those parts of the country. With RIM on the decline, it’ll be interesting to see how this map changes over the next couple years.

As GigaOm says, this map could be of use to advertisers who want to target more users in their area. If an advertiser’s state is ruled by Android according to Jumptap’s stats, it might want to target that platform more aggressively than iOS.

You know what survey result I really want to see? How many of these highly-prized ad clicks are served up by people tapping them accidentally when they’re just trying to scroll around a webpage? In my case, it’s roughly 100 percent.

US map shows which states trend toward iOS versus Android originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Fall’s iOS 5 release grows steadily nearer, the iOS 5 beta updates continue.

iOS 5 Beta 5 is now available for your downloading pleasure at the iOS developer site, along with the other expected items that continue to be synchronously updated to support the beta. Paid developer members can sign in with your developer credentials to gain access to this beta.

Because our own Mike Grothaus ran into trouble this last beta, let me remind you to register your device at the developer portal and prepare it for development before installing the new beta onto pre-beta equipment.

The beta is, as always, released under the terms of Apple’s NDA. For that reason, enhancements, APIs and features are not listed within this post.

TUAW’s iOS 5 coverage — researched and written by our non-NDA staffers — is available here.

Happy developing everyone! Thanks, everyone who tipped us.

iOS 5 beta 5 now available originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When the MacDefender malware made the rounds a few months ago, it sparked a frenzy of pundits claiming OS X’s free ride in the malware scene was over (and as our research shows, they were wrong. Again). At the same time, we all wondered who was behind MacDefender in the first place.

After a recent raid in Russia, it appears that question may have been answered. Russian law enforcement raided the offices of ChronoPay, and according to Ars Technica, the police found “mountains of evidence” that ChronoPay was providing tech support for MacDefender’s bogus antivirus software. ChronoPay had earlier denied any involvement with MacDefender, but the evidence linking them to the malware program seems convincing.

Like many pieces of malware for Windows, MacDefender worked by exploiting user fears of virus infection. A popup message would claim a user’s Mac had been infected by a virus that only MacDefender could remove, and users who installed the software would be pestered for credit card info to purchase the software. Once users entered said info, the party behind MacDefender would then run up fraudulent charges.

ChronoPay’s CEO has been arrested, but Ars notes that this doesn’t end the threat of MacDefender or other bits of malware. Meanwhile, although the predicted “explosion” of malware for the Mac still hasn’t happened, it’s still a good idea to remain vigilant against malware like MacDefender.

Russian raid suggests tie between MacDefender and ChronoPay originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Temple Run is an exemplary “pick up and play” game which will take you back to the days of Pitfall or (for you younger cats) Mirror’s Edge or Canabalt. Like those running games, your job is to just keep running. But in Temple Run you’re running through a maze of pathways in the ruins of an ancient temple somewhere — a setting not unlike the first Indiana Jones, really. The great graphics and solid gameplay make this one a fun, simple game to play anytime.

As you can see below, the interaction is straightforward. As you’re running your job is to swipe left/right to turn onto the paths, and up/down to jump or slide over and under obstacles. Things getting progressively faster, so you’ll find those twitch muscles warming up fast. There are some other surprises, like powerups and a few environments as well. Take a look at the short demo below to get a taste of what Temple Run has to offer. Note that this was an early version of the game (taped in June 2011) and the YouTube demo video shows a bit more polish on the game.

Video App Demo: Temple Run originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I can’t believe it. August is here which means the summer is just about over and the back to school season is almost upon us. So go buy your books, sharpen your pencils and grab these five iOS apps to help you start off the school year on the right foot:

Grades 2 (Free)

Grades 2 is an app that will help you reach your target GPA. It’ll let you input your classes, their assignments and your scores as the semester progresses. If you input a target grade, the app will tell you what you need to score on your assignments to reach your goal.

iHomework ($1.99)

iHomework is the ultimate organizer for students. It lets you keep track of courses, teacher information, assignments, grades and more. It has a built-in calendar and reminder system. It also works on your iPhone or iPad and has a Mac app so you can sync your information across all three devices.

Snoozerr ($0.99)

Snoozerr is an audio recording app that you can use to record lectures. It also integrates with the iPhone camera and lets you snap a photo during a lecture. The app will timestamp the photo so you can sync the visual content with the audio and get all parts of the lecture.

AroundMe (Free)

AroundMe is a GPS app that shows you points of interests like gas stations and banks around you. It’s perfect for the first-year college student who’s venturing out for the first time to a new location.

Guinness Pub Finder (Free)

Last but not least is the Guinness Pub finder app. One of the joys of upper-class college living is the ability to go out and have a good meal with a cold beer at a local pub. The pub finder app lets you find a local tavern that sells the hearty stout. It also lets you rate the establishment and receive tips on drinking a proper mug of Guinness. A 99-cent in-app purchase will add a trivia-based game or a gallery of Guinness images.

Five Apps For Back To School originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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