First gen iPad and iPhone 3GS frequently outsell newer Android devices

A new report claims that the original iPad and the iPhone 3GS often outsell newer Android devices.

“Interestingly, our April checks indicated continued strong demand for the iPhone 3GS at AT&T and iPad 1 at Verizon, as these older generation products with reduced prices often outsold new Android products,” Walkley wrote in a note to investors on Monday. “We believe this highlights Apple’s significant competitive advantage, and these older products help Apple offer a tiered pricing strategy at key channels.”

Check out AppleInsider’s article for more information.

Contest: Daillly offering 20 codes to get 10,000 Coins for Gamebox+

Daillly currently has a special on 10,000 coins for the Gamebox+ app and have given us 20 promo codes to giveaway to our readers. So if you would like to win one of these codes please read on.

No more zillion-in-one apps that charge you upfront only to discover being full of crappy stuff AFTER you paid for the download.

Our (+) stands for only those fun, colorful (and sometimes weird) games in the pack. We keep pushing to deliver better and better games for you to play and you pay when you like.


How to win:

To win a code simply tweet the following: Win 10,000 coins for Gamebox+ from Daillly and Mobile Orchard. http://mobileorchard.com. Once you have tweeted leave a link to your tweet in the comments of this post.

Winners will be selected at 2:00 PM CDT today, so if you want to win don’t delay.

If you don’t want to wait you can get Gamebox+ on iTunes and get 10,000 coins for the special price of $2.00 at Daillly.

 

Tutorial: Game Center Basics – Leaderboards And Achievements

Recently I posted about a Game Center tutorial demonstrating the usage of Game Center to create a simple multiplayer game.  I’ve also been notified about another tutorial, this time somewhat different, explaining several different aspects of using Game Center in a step by step manner.

The tutorial is from Jeroen van Rijn and demonstrates the entire process of using game center from the very beginning including how to set up everything in your Apple developer account to use game center in a very clear step by step manner.

You can find the tutorial here:
Game Center Basics Part 1
Game Center Basics Part 2

If you’re getting stuck with the basics of Game Center this tutorial could prove very helpful.  Also, if you didn’t notice I posted about an open source library for creating stylized achievement alerts here.

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

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Tutorial: Using The QLPreviewController For Viewing Documents

The QLPreviewController API included in the iOS SDK allows you to provide users the ability to view many different document types such as .XLS files, Word document files, and PDF files.

John Muchow has created an example application demonstrating the use of QLPreviewController. Using the example you can view several different document types, and even print (using a wireless printer.)

You can find John’s example along with a short tutorial explaining the basics of implementing the QLPreviewController here:
Preview Documents Tutorial And Example

How to add viewing for different document formats is something I see searched for frequently on this site, and this example should prove helpful if you have wanted to add this viewing capability into an app.

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

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Open Source: Appirater Library For More User Ratings

It is clear that app ratings have a huge effect on your iOS app sales and downloads.  Prompting users to rate your app is one way to do this, but it can be annoying, or totally ignored by your users.

Appirater is an open source project that allows you to easily create a prompting for user ratings after a specified amount or after a specific event, and this can occur after each upgrade.  This is extremely useful for getting positive ratings, as those who use your app for awhile are much more likely to give your app a good rating, and these longer term users are much less likely to be upset at being prompted to rate.

Appirater has been around for quite awhile, and the developer has done a great job of keeping the project up to date.

You can find the Github and instructions for Appirater here:
https://github.com/arashpayan/appirater

A great library for those looking to give their apps a bit of a mrketing boost with more ratings.

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

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How to select component from UIPickerView and display the next screen

This is the UIPickerView example. In this example we will see how to select any name from singlecomponentpicker and display the next screen. So let see how it will work.

Step 1: Open a Xcode, Create a View base application. Give the application name ”SingleComponentPicker”.

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: We need to add one UIViewController class in the project. So select the project -> New File -> Cocoa Touch -> ViewController subclass and give the class name “AnotherView”.

Step 4: Open the SingleComponentPickerViewController.h file and add UIPickerViewDataSouce and UIPickerViewDelegate protocal, import AnotherView class, UIPickerView and NSArray class and one buttonPressed method:. So make the following changes in the file:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@class AnotherView;

@interface SingleComponentPickerViewController : UIViewController
 <UIPickerViewDataSource , UIPickerViewDelegate>
 {
       
     AnotherView *anotherView;
     IBOutlet UIPickerView *singlePicker;
        NSArray *pickerData;
}

@property(nonatomic , retain) UIPickerView *singlePicker;
@property(nonatomic , retain) NSArray *pickerData;

(IBAction)buttonPressed;

@end

Step 5: Double click .xib file and open it to interface Builder. Add a picker and a button to te View,and  then make the necessary connections. Control drag File’s Owner to the picker view,and select singlePicker outlet. Then single click the picker, bring up connection inspector, you’ll see that the first two items are DataSource and Delegate. Drag from the circle next to DataSource to the File’s Owner icon. Do it once again, and connect Delegate to File’s Owner icon. Next drag a Round Rect Button to the view, double-click it, give it a title of Select. Connect to Touch Up Inside to File’s Owner  and select buttonPressed action. Save the nib, and go back to Xcode.

Step 6: Now open the SingleComponentPickerViewController.m file and make the following changes in the file:

#import "SingleComponentPickerViewController.h"
#import "AnotherView.h"

@implementation SingleComponentPickerViewController
@synthesize singlePicker;
@synthesize pickerData;

// The designated initializer. Override to perform setup that is required before the view is loaded.
(id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil {
    if (self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil]) {
        // Custom initialization
    }
    return self;
}

(IBAction)buttonPressed
{
       
   
    anotherView = [[AnotherView alloc]
                   initWithNibName:@"AnotherView"
                   bundle:nil];
    [self.view addSubview:anotherView.view];
   
    }

// Implement viewDidLoad to do additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
(void)viewDidLoad {
        NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"Luke",@"Leia",@"Han",@"Chewbacca",@"Artoo",
                                          @"Threepio",@"lando",nil];
        self.pickerData = array;
        [array release];
    [super viewDidLoad];
}

// Override to allow orientations other than the default portrait orientation.
(BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
    // Return YES for supported orientations
    return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait);
}

(void)didReceiveMemoryWarning {
        // Releases the view if it doesn’t have a superview.
    [super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
       
        // Release any cached data, images, etc that aren’t in use.
}

(void)viewDidUnload {
        // Release any retained subviews of the main view.
        // e.g. self.myOutlet = nil;
}

(void)dealloc {
        [singlePicker release];
        [pickerData release];
    [super dealloc];
}

#pragma mark Picker data source methods
(NSInteger)numberOfComponentsInPickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView
{
        return 1;
}

(NSInteger)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView
numberOfRowsInComponent:(NSInteger)component
{
        return [pickerData count];
}

#pragma mark Picker delegate method
(NSString *)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView
                        titleForRow:(NSInteger)row
                   forComponent:(NSInteger)component
    {
           return[pickerData objectAtIndex:row];
        }
@end

Step 7: Open the AnotherView.h file and added UIButton class and BackButton method and import SingleComponentViewController class now make the following changes in the file.

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@class SingleComponentPickerViewController;

@interface AnotherView : UIViewController {
   
    SingleComponentPickerViewController *singleComponentView;

    UIButton *backButton;
   
}

 @property (nonatomic, retain) UIButton *backButton;

(IBAction)backButton :(id)sender;

@end

Step 8: Double click the AnotherView.xib file and open it to the Interface Builder. First drag the label and Button from the library and place it to the View window. Select the label and bring up attribute inspector and change the label name “Another View”, select the button and bring up connection inspector and drag Touch Up Inside to the File’s Owner icon and select BackButton: method. Now save it close it and go back to the Xcode.

Step 9: Open the AnotherView.m file and make the following changes:

#import "AnotherView.h"
#import "SingleComponentPickerViewController.h"

@implementation AnotherView

@synthesize backButton;

(id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
    self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
    if (self) {
        // Custom initialization
    }
    return self;
}

(void)dealloc
{
    [super dealloc];
}

(void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
    // Releases the view if it doesn’t have a superview.
    [super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
   
    // Release any cached data, images, etc that aren’t in use.
}

(IBAction)backButton :(id)sender

{
    singleComponentView = [[SingleComponentPickerViewController alloc]
                      initWithNibName:@"SingleComponentPickerViewController"bundle:nil];
   
    [self.view addSubview:singleComponentView.view];
    [singleComponentView.view release];}

#pragma mark – View lifecycle

(void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view from its nib.
}

(void)viewDidUnload
{
    [super viewDidUnload];
    // Release any retained subviews of the main view.
    // e.g. self.myOutlet = nil;
}

(BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
    // Return YES for supported orientations
    return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait);
}

@end

Step 10: Now compile and run the application in the Simulator.

You can Download SourceCode from here SingleComponentPicker

Microsoft may be about to buy Skype

If you were hoping Skype’s busted UI and security vulnerabilities would get major improvements in the future, this latest news might kill that hope. According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is in talks to buy Skype for nearly US$8 billion.

On the surface of it this seems a mystifying move by Microsoft. eBay owned Skype once upon a time, but the VoIP service regularly lost money for eBay, and Skype’s long-term debt is in excess of half a billion dollars. However, this could be a potential coup for Microsoft’s mobile OS; if Skype gets directly integrated into Windows Phone 7, that will definitely complicate the mobile landscape.

If the deal goes through, it probably doesn’t mean the end of Skype for the Mac or iOS. In fact, with Microsoft’s greater resources behind it, Skype’s service may even improve. Either way, I hope this gives Apple a much-needed kick in the pants to improve FaceTime, because if Microsoft does indeed wind up owning Skype, I don’t want to have to rely on it as my sole source of 3G-enabled video chat anymore.

Microsoft may be about to buy Skype originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NPD: Mobile accounts for half of digital game downloads

NPD has released a report that cites mobile games as a big driver for digital downloads overall. Digital game consumption has been growing in leaps and bounds lately, and according to the latest report, nearly half of all of those digital game downloads come from mobile game platforms, of which, we already know, the iOS platform makes up a huge part.

Of course, iOS and the App Store can’t be given credit for all of the digital game download trend — while the App Store certainly has its share of popularity, there are other platforms, such as Xbox Live, Steam and Nintendo’s WiiWare and DSiWare, that are also driving game downloads forward. But Apple’s App Store is still the mobile standard, and given that many people downloading apps are people who don’t necessarily own other consoles or may not have downloaded apps before, iTunes is one avenue for the growing trend of purchasing games and other software.

[via ME]

NPD: Mobile accounts for half of digital game downloads originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HomeElephant app connecting neighbors worldwide

We’ve written about hyperlocal apps before — apps such Patch, which enable users to see what’s going on in their city or town, no matter how small it might be. Now there’s an app that allows users to go even more local — call it hyper-hyperlocal if you will. HomeElephant is a service and app that allows you to connect with your neighbors on a social level.

I know, why not just get off your butt and walk next door to see what the Joneses are doing, right? HomeElephant isn’t meant to subvert regular social interaction, rather its primary purpose is to create a private social network for your neighborhood that allows residents to share relevant information. Users can create alerts, schedule neighborhood events or even ask others if anyone has a lawnmower they can borrow this weekend.

HomeElephant can be really handy when you’re away on vacation. Say you’re out of town when a bad storm hits; you could quickly get reports from your neighbors to see if there’s any major damage to the neighborhood or any service outages of any kind. This kind of information might not readily be available from traditional, larger news sources. HomeElephant is free to join and is currently in neighborhoods in 38 countries around the world. You can download the free universal iOS app here.

[via CBS8]

HomeElephant app connecting neighbors worldwide originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BillMinder releases iPad app, adds new features

We took a look at BillMinder 3 for the iPhone a few months back, and the folks at Return7 let us know they were working on an iPad version. That app is now available for US$4.99 and can sync with the iPhone version, which is $1.99.

BillMinder for iPad includes the features found on the iPhone version, but it has a couple of specific extras, such as a calculator, export to CSV and due-date adjustments, the latter two which will also be part of the iPhone version. BillMinder can now send payments to PocketMoney, an iOS finance app that’s been a TUAW favorite in the past.

BillMinder releases iPad app, adds new features originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple releases iOS 4.3.3 WebKit source, but stretches the spirit of the LGPL

Remember when Google said it wouldn’t release the source code to Android 3.0 (“Honeycomb”) because it “wasn’t ready“? Remember the snarky remarks from Apple bloggers about how it was rushed to market and the definition of “open”? And the hopefully thoughtful piece I wrote about what this might mean about what happens next?

Now imagine if it was Apple stalling on releasing source code that it had promised the open-source community. Surprise! It was.

Brian Proffitt wrote a post for IT World, published earlier today, detailing how Apple is refusing to meet its obligations by failing to promptly release the source code to the latest version of WebKit, which makes up most of the guts of the Safari web browser in both mobile and non-mobile flavors. While competent interpretations may differ, most FOSS folk agree that the LGPL license involved requires a simultaneous release of binary and source code.

Eerily, just as Proffitt brought light to bear on the issue, Apple’s opensource site released the source for projects included in iOS 4.3.3 (thanks to reader Jan for the heads-up). This code release, while certainly welcome, comes 60 days after iOS 4.3 first became available for download from Apple’s consumer-facing servers; this timeline cannot possibly be reconciled with any reasonable definition of ‘simultaneous,’ unless Apple is in possession of a TARDIS.

Apple’s sluggish code drop, in a couple of ways, is notably worse than Google’s seemingly similar reticence.

Continue reading Apple releases iOS 4.3.3 WebKit source, but stretches the spirit of the LGPL

Apple releases iOS 4.3.3 WebKit source, but stretches the spirit of the LGPL originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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doubleTwist adds AirPlay hooks to Android

I remember doubleTwist as an iTunes alternative from back in the day, but it’s apparently morphed into an Android application and promises to bring many of the standard iTunes and iPod music features to the Android platform. Now the app has added yet another trick to its arsenal: doubleTwist now features support for AirPlay so that users can stream music, videos or photos from an Android phone to an Apple TV or any other AirPlay compatible devices. The app itself is free on the Android marketplace, but you’ll need the AirSync add-on, which sells for US$4.99.

Of course, those of us running just iOS devices don’t have to worry about hooking AirPlay up (that’s kind of what it’s for), but if you have an Android phone and want to sync your media across devices, doubleTwist is happy to help. Engadget also points out that another Android app called Twonky Mobile also offers AirPlay integration, though it doesn’t have the rest of doubleTwist’s robust feature set.

doubleTwist adds AirPlay hooks to Android originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga hires team behind cocos2d

Zynga has picked up yet another relatively big-name iOS developer. After acquiring Wonderland, Area/Code and Newtoy earlier this year, the social gaming giant has now acquired the team behind the iOS physics engine cocos2d. That engine is used by all kinds of developers, and while Zynga has hired Ricardo Quesada and Rolando Abarca on as developers to use the engine with its own iOS titles, all indications are that the cocos2d community will remain open and available to all, just as the core engine code will stay open source.

Zynga continues to build one heck of an iOS development division. What exactly are they building? That’s still a mystery, though presumably Zynga will use its leverage in the social gaming space to push more ports of its popular games and a few new titles as well. We’ll have to see what comes of this development, even while it’s hard to believe Zynga’s buyout spree isn’t quite over yet.

Zynga hires team behind cocos2d originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad 2 would have bested 1990s-era supercomputers

If you want to know which supercomputer is the fastest in the world, you check the Top 500 list. The keeper of that list is Dr. Jack Dongarra, who teaches at the University of Tennessee.

Dongarra is one of the authors of the Linpack computing benchmark, introduced way back in 1979. With this benchmark, supercomputing sites can rate computers’ relative performance at solving a set of linear equations.

Dongarra’s group has ported Linpack to the iPad 2 to see how fast it really is, according to the New York Times. Tests on the iPad 2 have so far only been run on a single core of the A5 processor, but Dongarra estimates that a dual-core Linpack run will yield performance of between 1.5 and 1.65 gigaflops — that’s up to 1.65 billion floating-point operations per second. That raw performance means that the iPad 2 would have remained on the list of the world’s speediest supercomputers until about 1994.

The single-processor tests of the iPad 2 matched the Linpack results of the four-processor version of the Cray 2 supercomputer (pictured). Back in 1985, the eight-processor version of the Cray 2 was the fastest computer in the world.

Yeah, the iPad 2 is a 21st century device, but its comparable benchmarks to supercomputers of the past are still pretty impressive when you consider it’s thinner than a notebook and is cooled by plain old air. Most of the old supercomputers it rivaled required specialized cooling, custom-built enclosures and raised flooring. Just think: in 20 years or less, the power of today’s fastest supercomputer could be in an iPhone.

Of course, if you want to build a supercomputer out of Apple hardware, it’s easier to start with the bigger ones.

Thanks to Brian for the tip.

iPad 2 would have bested 1990s-era supercomputers originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft announces Windows Azure Toolkit for iOS

Microsoft has released a developer’s Windows Azure toolkit for iOS. The toolkit contains resources which make it easy for iOS developers to use Azure, the cloud-based building and hosting platform that allows developers to create apps and host them on Microsoft’s datacenters.

The iOS toolkit includes a compiled Objective-C library for services like push notifications, authN/authZs, and storage, as well as full source code for the objective-C library. Interested developers can download the toolkit through github here.

The goal of the iOS Azure toolkit (Microsoft is also planning an Android toolkit) is to “make it easier to target Windows Azure by offering native libraries for non-Microsoft platforms,” according to Microsoft. Let’s see how that works out for them.

[via MacStories]

Microsoft announces Windows Azure Toolkit for iOS originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 09 May 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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