Tutorials – Page 5825 – Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

iPhone Game Friday: RPG Games

Another Friday is upon us and we can all look forward to another weekend (unless you’re working of course!). For those of you with some spare time to try out a new game, Game Friday this week brings another top five roundup of the best Role Playing games for the iPhone.

In the article this week, we take a look at the fabulous Chaos Rings and Dungeon Hunter, among others. Like always, if you have a game you want reviewed, please let us know!

Chaos Rings

Square Enix are makes of arguably the best RPG ever in the Final Fantasy series and they have now brought their talents to a brand new game just for the iPhone/iPod. In Chaos Rings you must take part in a fighting tournament called the Ark Arena, controlling both a male and female character against other pairs of fighters.

As you progress through the game you uncover more details about your characters’ pasts and each pair of characters have their own storyline twists, leading to a unique experience each time you play through Chaos Rings. The graphics are some of the best on the iPhone and, as should be expected from Square Enix, there are hundreds of hours of gameplay to get through. Don’t be put off by the high price tag, this is a bargain!

Price: $12.99
Developer: Square Enix
Download: App Store

Undercroft

For those of you who love classic looking RPGs, look no further than Undercroft. You control a group of adventurers who must take on a mysterious evil that has risen from a graveyard. Each character has unique abilities that will help you take on over 60 types of enemies and you head towards the graveyard to confront your fate.

Twenty hours of gameplay may seem short for an RPG but there is a lot of replay value and plenty of side quests to take on. Although the graphics look simple, there is a lot of depth and you can try out the free demo for free.

Price: $4.99
Developer: Rake in Grass
Download: App Store

Dungeon Hunter

Coming from Gameloft, perhaps the most seasoned of iPhone developers, Dungeon Hunter is almost guaranteed to be a hit and, thankfully, it is. Creating your own character, you take them on an epic quest through a fantasy world, fighting many mythical beasts as you complete quests and missions across the kingdom of Gothicus.

There is plenty to do and the game looks fantastic, as do most of Gameloft’s titles. It does, unfortunately, hit problems with the lack of a decent save feature, only being able to save your progress when you reach certain milestones. This does let the game down, meaning you’ve got to invest in long stints in order to progress through the missions, but for RPG fans it is still a good buy.

Price: $4.99
Developer: Gameloft
Download: App Store

Tap Farm

A slightly different RPG is that of Tap Farm, part strategy game, part role playing game. You play a farmer who must decide what to grow in order to harvest, make money and build up your estate.The more you grow, the more you can sell and the more money you can make.

It’s a simple game executed well and you can visit your real-life neighbours to see how their farms have developed. However, while the base app is free, there are a number of upgrades that cost really money and this could put some people off. It costs nothing to try though, and you may find you want to pay for more.

Price: Free
Developer: Streetview Labs
Download: App Store

Watson: The Beginning

A Japanese adaptation of an English classic is sure to raise eyebrows, especially as all my screenshots below are in Japanese. However, please be assured that this game has been translated to English! So, to the game… You play as Watson who has been accompanying Holmes on a trip to the country.

When Holmes is taken ill it is up to you to solve the case as Watson and so you must explore the crime scene, talk to suspects and suggest clues to characters. The manga graphics are beautiful, the controls are simple and it is a challenging game to complete. More episodes are in development and early reviews suggest this will be a winner.

Price: $2.99
Developer: a-games
Download: App Store

What Have You Been Playing?

We always appreciate your feedback and suggestions for other games so please let us know what you have been playing in the comments below.

Adding Local Weather Conditions To Your App (Part 1/2: Implementing CoreLocation)

Knowing the latitude and longitude of your users can open up all kinds of possibilities in your apps. In an upcoming post, we’ll be discussing how you can use your user’s location to determine their local weather conditions and forecast. But for now, we’re going to focus on Part 1 of this two part tutorial: CoreLocation.

Apple’s done a great job of abstracting GPS, Cellular Triangulation, and Wifi Access Point location lookups into CoreLocation; making it extremely easy to determine the approximate location of your user regardless of their device and network connectivity. Additionally, Apple’s new iPhone Simulator finally supports CoreLocation as well. This significantly eases the process of testing your location code.

The first thing you’ll need to do is add the CoreLocation framework to your project. This is pretty straightforward. Command-Click on ‘Frameworks’ -> Add -> Existing Frameworks

Select ‘CoreLocation.framework’ and click ‘add’.

The class below implements the LocationManager delegate methods required to get the user’s location. You can just as easily implement the LocationManagerDelegate protocol in your AppDelegate or elsewhere in your App. Though I’ve found that having this class makes it super easy to drop in location support into new projects instead of having to cut/paste delegate methods (ugly). Anyway. Take a look:

//
//  LocationGetter.h
//  CoreLocationExample
//
//  Created by Matt on 9/3/10.
//  Copyright 2009 iCodeBlog. All rights reserved.
//
 
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <CoreLocation/CoreLocation.h>
 
@protocol LocationGetterDelegate <NSObject>
@required
- (void) newPhysicalLocation:(CLLocation *)location;
@end
 
@interface LocationGetter : NSObject <CLLocationManagerDelegate> { 
    CLLocationManager *locationManager;
    id delegate;
}
 
- (void)startUpdates;
 
@property (nonatomic, retain) CLLocationManager *locationManager;
@property(nonatomic , retain) id delegate;
@end

Notice that we’re defining our own protocol with a method that takes the new CLLocation as a parameter. We’ll be implementing that delegate method in a minute. Now for the class

 
//  LocationGetter.m
//  CoreLocationExample
//
//  Created by Matt on 9/3/10.
//  Copyright 2009 iCodeBlog. All rights reserved.
//
 
#import "LocationGetter.h"
#import <CoreLocation/CoreLocation.h>
 
@implementation LocationGetter
 
@synthesize locationManager, delegate;
BOOL didUpdate = NO;
 
- (void)startUpdates
{
    NSLog(@"Starting Location Updates");
 
    if (locationManager == nil)
        locationManager = [[CLLocationManager alloc] init];
 
    locationManager.delegate = self;
 
    // locationManager.distanceFilter = 1000;  // update is triggered after device travels this far (meters)
 
    // Alternatively you can use kCLLocationAccuracyHundredMeters or kCLLocationAccuracyHundredMeters, though higher accuracy takes longer to resolve
    locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyKilometer;  
    [locationManager startUpdatingLocation];    
}
 
- (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manager didFailWithError:(NSError *)error
{
    UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Error" message:@"Your location could not be determined." delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
    [alert show];
    [alert release];      
}
 
// Delegate method from the CLLocationManagerDelegate protocol.
- (void)locationManager:(CLLocationManager *)manage didUpdateToLocation:(CLLocation *)newLocation fromLocation:(CLLocation *)oldLocation
{
    if (didUpdate)
        return;
 
    didUpdate = YES;
    // Disable future updates to save power.
    [locationManager stopUpdatingLocation];
 
    // let our delegate know we're done
    [delegate newPhysicalLocation:newLocation];
}
 
- (void)dealloc
{
    [locationManager release];
 
    [super dealloc];
}
 
@end

CoreLocation gives you a few options for the accuracy of the user’s location. The more accurate the measurement, typically the longer it takes LocationManager to call it’s delegate method didUpdateToLocation. It’s just something to keep in mind when deciding what level of accuracy to use.

Next we need to actually invoke this code and start getting location updates. I usually do this in my AppDelegate’s didFinishLaunchingWithOptions, though you could also do it in viewDidLoad somewhere if you didn’t need to know the user’s location on app startup.

 - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {    
 
    UIActivityIndicatorView *spinner = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleWhiteLarge];
	spinner.center = CGPointMake(self.viewController.view.frame.size.width / 2, self.viewController.view.frame.size.height / 2);    
    [spinner startAnimating];
 
    [viewController.view addSubview:spinner];
 
    // get our physical location
    LocationGetter *locationGetter = [[LocationGetter alloc] init];
    locationGetter.delegate = self;
    [locationGetter startUpdates]; 	
 
    // Add the view controller's view to the window and display.
    [window addSubview:viewController.view];
    [window makeKeyAndVisible];
 
    return YES;
}

Notice that I’ve set locationGetter’s delegate to self. So in your .h, make sure to add LocationGetterDelegate to the interface.

//
//  CoreLocationExampleAppDelegate.h
//  CoreLocationExample
//
//  Created by Matt Tuzzolo on 9/3/10.
//  Copyright iCodeBlog 2010. All rights reserved.
//
 
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "LocationGetter.h"
 
@class CoreLocationExampleViewController;
 
@interface CoreLocationExampleAppDelegate : NSObject <UIApplicationDelegate, LocationGetterDelegate> {
    UIWindow *window;
    CoreLocationExampleViewController *viewController;
    CLLocation *lastKnownLocation;
}
 
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIWindow *window;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet CoreLocationExampleViewController *viewController;
@property (nonatomic, retain) CLLocation *lastKnownLocation;
 
@end

I’ve also added a CLLocation *lastKnownLocation that we’ll use in our delegate method (which comes next):

 
# pragma mark -
# pragma mark LocationGetter Delegate Methods
 
- (void)newPhysicalLocation:(CLLocation *)location {
 
    // Store for later use
    self.lastKnownLocation = location;
 
    // Remove spinner from view
    for (UIView *v in [self.viewController.view subviews])
    {
        if ([v class] == [UIActivityIndicatorView class])
        {
            [v removeFromSuperview];
            break;
        }
    }
 
    // Alert user
    UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Location Found" message:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Found physical location.  %f %f", self.lastKnownLocation.coordinate.latitude, self.lastKnownLocation.coordinate.longitude] delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
    [alert show];
    [alert release];  
 
    // ... continue with initialization of your app
}

This last piece takes care of storing the location, removing the spinner, and firing off an alert. If this was your code, you’d probably want to re-enable any UI elements that you’ve disabled and let the user start using your app.

For those of you who don’t know me yet, my name is Matt Tuzzolo (@matt_tuzzolo). This is my first iCodeBlog post; with many more to come.

Here’s the Example Project for this post. Enjoy!

The Best of the Business Blogs, August 2010

At the start of every month, we’ll be rounding up the best posts from the business network of blogs and directing you to them. Here’s the best of business in August, including articles from WorkAwesome, the Netsetter, and FreelanceSwitch.

The Netsetter

An Effective Marketing Plan: Getting Started

Neil Tortorella: A well-conceived and properly implemented marketing plan is the foundation for your business’ success. You might be the best at what you do, but if nobody knows about you and your offerings, and why they’re of value, then that shingle you hung up is going to come tumbling down.

Just How Popular are List Posts?

Collis Ta’eed: Magazines have always known the power of a good list. Look at the covers on your local newsstand and you’ll see plenty of “5 tips to shed your winter pounds” or “10 ways to save on your home loan” type headlines. This style of content just works, and if you’re a blogger, you’d be wise to pay attention.

Does More Posts = More Traffic?

Collis Ta’eed: Yesterday in a post discussing the popularity of list-style posts in blogging, a commenter asked me to look at the frequency of post types in relation to the traffic they bring. Following this comment I put together some statistics and ended up wondering a slightly different question, does having more blog posts mean you end up with more traffic?

How to Search Engine Optimize WordPress

Abhijeet Mukherjee: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to making your website easily accessible to search engines, and helping them understand and read the content so that they can rank it high up in their index.

How to Get Started as a Web Entrepreneur

Collis Ta’eed: In the last four years of building up Envato I’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot about growing and building web companies. So I decided to put some of my learnings into a presentation I gave at WebDU 2010 earlier this year.

WorkAwesome

Making Ideas Happen with Scott Belsky: Book Review and Interview

Scott Belsky has been making ideas happen for some time now, whether it be at Behance, through the annual 99% Conference or with the creation of tools like the Action Method. He’s now made a book happen as well. Peter North not only does a review, but conducts an interview with the author in this article.

Why I Stick to Pen and Paper for Goals and Tasks

While some people are right at home electronic organizers and smartphone apps, others find technology either daunting – or even inconvenient – resulting in a slowdown in productivity. Ana Da Silva discusses why she sticks to the tried, tested and true productivity tools known as pen and paper.

Should You Switch to a Health Savings Account?

Health care has been one of the hot-button issues in the United States over the past year, and there’s a lot to consider when choosing how to manage your (and your family’s) health. Bob Bessette offers his own insights as to whether or not you should go with a Health Savings Account – and why he did just that.

28 Creative PowerPoint and Keynote Presentation Designs

Powerpoint and Keynotes can be boring. In fact, they often turn out that way. We’ve collected some of the best presentations on the web to help you make sure that yours don’t.

7 Reasons to Switch to the Dvorak Keyboard Layout

Ever wished you could increase your typing speed? Wondering why you end up pecking at the keyboard instead of churning out words at a decent pace? It might not be you that’s the issue – it could be the QWERTY keyboard layout that’s holding you back. Red Tani offers seven reasons why you should switch to the Dvorak layout in this piece that has drawn a lot of comments…both for and against the notion.

FreelanceSwitch

What to Do When a Client Kills a Project

So, there you are, working away on a project, and oh, is it a good one. You’re having fun, the client’s loving your work, and then…

…the whole thing comes to a screeching halt

How I Learned to Stop Worrying, Love My Job — And Leave It

Ever wonder how your fellow freelancers ended up where they are today? What goes through your head when you realize you’re not happy in your traditional career? Cassie McDaniel tells her own inspirational and surprising story on how she made the jump from full-time employee to freelancer.

Real Home Offices from FreelanceSwitch Readers

Forget the pristine glass surfaces and spotless, useless office set-ups. We take a look at home office photos submitted by fellow FreelanceSwitch readers–find some real world inspiration for your own home office!

14 Resources for Free and Premium Fonts

You can’t deny that typography is important in design. You could have the most beautiful illustrations in the world, but if you use a font like Jokerman, your entire design will look iffy. Use these tools and resources below to help you find the perfect font for your next project.

When to NOT Invest in Your Freelance Career

There’s no shortage of opportunities to invest in freelancing, whether it’s in coaching, e-courses, college courses, books and e-books, or even retreats for entrepreneurs. But not all freelancers are good candidates for these products and opportunities, and not all times are the right time to invest. Here’s when not to spend your hard-earned cash on career development.

6 Web-Based Project Management Tools

When your business starts to grow, there will come a time to hire staff, freelancers, and/or virtual assistants to assist with your day-to-day operations. Whatever your circumstances, having the ability and tools to manage your projects effectively will be an important factor in the success of your business.

When I think of “traditional” project management tools, thoughts of Gantt charts and highly detailed project schedules come to mind. But today’s web-based project management software tools are capable of offering much more than these traditional methods of monitoring projects.

Web-based project management software means that members of your team can access the tools and interact with other project members online. They are often a “software as a service,” which includes hosting of the project management tool for your business. I recently reviewed a slew of web-based project management tools in search of one that would meet my business requirements. The tools reviewed consisted of both paid and open source options.

Purposes

If you are searching for a suitable project management option, I would recommend firstly identifying your business requirements, as each tool offers features that are suitable for different purposes. Some common uses for project management software include:

Managing Resources – If your company hires staff, freelancers, or virtual assistants, a project management tool will help your business to manage its resources more efficiently. If your business has multiple staff performing similar tasks, a web-based tool can effectively distribute the same message to a group. It can remove the need to repeat the same messages to your staff multiple times by email. And with the ability to view each other’s comments, staff can learn from one another.
Project Task Management – These tools should help your business to manage different projects and to track the tasks and time spent on individual projects.
Collaboration – These tools often have a collaborative element and therefore team members can interact and communicate easily with each other. This approach is useful for generating ideas and brainstorming, for problem solving, and to communicate the status of projects so that the handover of tasks between members can be completed. Collaboration through project management tools can also extend to dealing with clients and suppliers.

Other Issues

Other issues to consider when selecting an appropriate project management tool:

Initial costs – Both paid and open source options are available. Find a solution that fits your budget.
Ongoing costs – Some options have an initial outlay to purchase the software, followed by a regular monthly fee.
Scaling – As your business grows in terms of team members and possibly the number of projects being undertaken, it may need to upgrade its project management software tool to increase data storage, and allow access to more features.
Other “Nice to Have” Tools – Your business may have a feature in mind that it would like in a project management software tool. For example, an online whiteboard would be useful for brainstorming ideas with others or to work together to solve a problem.
Support – Assess the technical support provided. This may be via a forum or help desk facility. Having access to an active forum run by the developers is useful for solving technical issues as you learn the new project management software tool.

Project Management Tools

Here is a run-down on some popular project management software tools for managing online projects and for coordinating virtual teams.

Basecamp

Basecamp by 37signals is one of the most popular tools for managing projects online. Projects can be managed through a shared dashboard, complete with the ability to upload and share files, send messages, document milestones, create to-do lists, and track time spent on projects.

One of the benefits of Basecamp is its friendly user interface. It can also be synced with other 37signals tools like Highrise (for managing your contacts), Backpack (for organizing your business), or Campfire (for chatting with group members).

Basecamp is a good option for those looking for a friendly project management interface and collaborative elements.

RescueTime

Rescue Time has the ability to track your time and that of other team members, with no data entry (a time saving in itself!) through a tracking application installed onto your computers.

It’s well suited for those with a focus on time management and for companies who want to improve the productivity of staff and help reduce distractions. It provides detailed graphs to show trends in work productivity.

Due to its automatic tracking, Rescue Time is especially good for managing outsourced staff without being overtly intrusive.

Clocking IT

Clocking IT is an open source project management software tool. It has a moderately friendly interface and is useful for creating to-do lists, for creating multiple projects, and for assigning different levels of access to users. It offers collaboration features like Wiki, chat, and forums, and is available in multiple languages.

Clocking IT is a good option for those on a budget and who need the usual project management functions.

Vtiger

Vtiger is an open source solution focused on customer relationship management (CRM). It can help your business to manage the activities of your sales team (e.g., management of accounts, leads, and sales). Users can also opt for the paid Vtiger CRM on Demand, which stores your data on Amazon secure servers.

Vtiger is suited to those who need a CRM to manage their customer sales function and team.

ActiveCollab

ActiveCollab is another popular project management and collaboration tool suited to both small businesses and corporates. One feature of ActiveCollab that appeals is the ability to set up the software on your own server. This feature will allow your business to have greater control over its activities.

ActiveCollab provides good documentation on using the software from the perspective of a user, administrator, or developer. It also has an Invoice module as part of its tool.

ActiveCollab is a solid solution for those who want to have greater control over their project management software.

CentralDesktop

Central Desktop has all the essential features of a web-based project management tool – the ability to manage projects, share online documents, and tools for team work (e.g., create Wikis, blogs, and forums).

For an additional monthly fee, it also provides a service to host online web meetings and conferences.

Plans range from a free option up to an enterprise solution. Date storage is limited for the free plan or low monthly plans.

CentralDesktop would be a good project management choice for businesses who want extra features like online web meetings.

Summary

There is an extensive range of project management software tools available on the market, each with its own particular range of benefits and features. Work out the requirements for your online business first, and you will be better placed to decide on which particular software suits your own needs. Keep in mind that as your business grows, it can always upgrade your project management software to suit its changing business requirements.

MacTastik Weekly #74

Embedding this MacTastik strip elsewhere? Please provide a link back to this post and to NCWinters.com

Testing Out Gmail’s Priority Inbox

I was super-psyched when the new Priority Inbox showed up in my Gmail account earlier this week. I typically get 100+ emails on an average weekday, so even with filters and other sorting techniques, it’s hard to stay on top of my inbox.

Might Priority Inbox be the answer?

Time will tell. So far, it assumes that frequency implies importance, and that’s not necessarily the case for me. Sure, I like getting Google Alerts and Groupons daily, but those messages aren’t nearly as important as the less frequent ones from clients and editors. I’ve been marking a lot of emails as “important” (or not), so hopefully that does the trick.

I’ll report back in a week once I’ve had a chance to test drive Priority Inbox a bit more. In the meantime, let us know in the comments if you’ve tried it out yet. What are your initial impressions?

Parallels Desktop 6 appears on store shelves

No official announcement from the virtualization mavens at Parallels, but it appears that the next version of the company’s Mac app for Windows virtual machines is already popping up at retail. Sharp-eyed reader Matthew Fern snapped this shot of Parallels Desktop 6 already on sale at Fry’s Electronics in Roseville, CA.

We’ve got a call into the Parallels press office to find out about upgrade options and actual yes-we-admit-it release info, but chances are we’ll have to wait until after the Labor Day holiday to get the final word.

Thanks Matt!

TUAW Parallels Desktop 6 appears on store shelves originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Found Footage: WNBC anchor shows Earl via iPad

Nobody ever claimed that the iPad was weatherproof, but that didn’t stop news anchor Chuck Scarborough from taking his tablet out to the seashore. Reader Michael Neumann saw the veteran NYC broadcaster using his iPad to show weather radar during Hurricane Earl’s race up the US east coast. He could have saved money on that case, though.

Chuck’s app of choice looks to be the Weather Channel’s iPad offering, but we’ve seen lots of TV-centric solutions for the magical and revolutionary gadget. If you have a favorite clip or featured appearance of the iPad on the tube, drop a link in the comments below.

Thanks Michael!

TUAW Found Footage: WNBC anchor shows Earl via iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking forward to AirPlay

As you may have heard, Apple had some sort of event on Wednesday. In amongst the Big News like iPods and iOSs and iTunes and ~~iTVs~~ Apple TVs, Steve Jobs briefly mentioned AirPlay, a replacement for the AirTunes music streaming system used in the Airport Express multi-purpose device. I’ve built my home audio solutions around AirTunes, so this was, for me, the most interesting thing Apple announced. Details on how the system will actually work are rather thin so far but TUAW has been sleuthing around to try and figure out what we can.

First, the best bit. Jobs showed an iPad (running the forthcoming 4.2 version of iOS) being fired up, pressing a few buttons, and streaming its output to a big screen TV via an Apple TV. This addresses my number one complaint: a friend comes to my house, I show them the Airport Express system, I show them the Remote app so they can use their iPhone to control my iTunes… and they ask me why they can’t also stream their own music directly from their device. Sure, this is going to be tough on battery life, but it’s not like I’m short of chargers. They want to listen to their own music and if you could see inside my iTunes you’d know why. And now they will be able to!

I was briefly concerned that this jazzy new functionality would not work with my existing Airport Express devices. Fortunately, Apple’s sneak peak at iOS 4.2 confirms that an Airport Express will be able to receive a stream from any iOS 4.2 device, so more good news there too.

TUAW Looking forward to AirPlay originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 4.1 release may finally resolve your iPhone 3G woes

Good news, everyone! The software update that was “coming soon” to resolve iOS 4.0’s terrible performance on the iPhone 3G has gone “gold master” (GM) and should be available to the general public next week. I’ve had the opportunity to test this update out on my wife’s iPhone 3G, and I’m happy to report that it does indeed appear to resolve all the stuttering, crashing, and generalized slowness the iPhone 3G was suffering under even previous beta builds of iOS 4.1.

I tested her iPhone 3G out under the iOS 4.1 GM by doing things that would have brought her iPhone to a standstill before. First, I started a playlist in the iPod app and let it play in the background. Then I went into Safari, where she had four “tabs” open, and navigated to an image-heavy page.

Normally just loading such a page would have caused the background music from iPod.app to start stuttering, but even though I started scrolling back and forth through the page before all images finished loading, I couldn’t get Safari to freeze or iPod.app to stutter.

Next, I loaded up the Maps app and started navigating along an input route with music still playing in the background. This was a guaranteed way to bring her iPhone 3G to a screeching halt before, but no matter how much demand I placed on the iPhone, it took it like a champ. I tested Google Earth’s app as well, and it was far more responsive than I’ve ever seen it in iOS 4.

I’m not sure what under-the-hood changes Apple made to get iOS 4 running on the iPhone 3G at an acceptable speed (finally), but I did notice one thing: Spotlight Search on the iPhone 3G no longer searches through text messages. I verified this by comparing the Spotlight settings side-by-side with my iPhone 4; “Messages” was missing as an option on the iPhone 3G. On previous iOS 4 builds, one of the most popular suggestions for improving iPhone 3G performance was disabling Spotlight, so maybe that was the problem all along.

Your mileage certainly may vary, but for at least one iPhone 3G, iOS 4.1’s gold master release has finally made the phone just as responsive and useful as it was before iOS 4. And there was much rejoicing.

TUAW iOS 4.1 release may finally resolve your iPhone 3G woes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App review: Tichu card game ups the ante for digital trick taking

Normally, to get a game of Tichu going, you need to round up three friends. If you don’t have any card-playing friends who know Tichu, then maybe you have to tell them you’re going to have a Bridge party, then *bam!* you bust out the 56-card Tichu deck at the last minute. This sort of gamer subterfuge is a thing of the past, thanks to the brand-new Tichu app from Steve Blanding. Now, any number of players can enjoy the card game at any time: one person can play against three computer opponents or link up with other people on their iDevices (the $2.99 app is universal) and the computer will fill in any empty seats.

Why bother with all of this? Because Tichu is one of the best – and most well-regarded – card game around. The rules will be familiar enough to people who enjoy trick-taking games but it’s different enough to present a fresh challenge and is enjoyable every time. Keep reading to find out all about it.

Gallery: Tichu on the iPad

TUAW App review: Tichu card game ups the ante for digital trick taking originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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App Tracking – 10 Desktop, Web And iOS Based Tools For Tracking Sales And Users

There have been many tools for tracking app download, sales and reviews that have come and gone. Some time ago I wrote a couple of posts showing different tools that were available for app tracking. Since that time many new tools have come and gone, and since some users were still using and commenting on those pages I felt it was time to put things in a single list.

In this article I am going to list quality tools that are for Mac/Windows desktop, browser based and available in the app store for download. The tools on this list get data through iTunes Connect, or through a tracking code you install within your app. I decided not to list tools that simply organize data built from scraping the app store (as there are probably hundreds of those around now), but I did include some tools that use that data along with your iTunes Connect data to provide unique and useful data.

This list by no means displays every feature available within these tools, you’ll need to check them out for yourself. I also didn’t include any tools which were in closed beta.

In the list beside each tool I have listed the platforms, and where the data used by each tool comes from.

App Tracking Tools

(Alphabetical Order)

App Annie (Web Based – iTunes Connect/App Store) – Currently in open beta (so free atm) provides historical and daily data on worldwide app stores. Great for getting daily reports on competitor apps.

AppSalesGraph (Mac/Windows – iTunes Connect) – Open source (Python) tool that allows you to visually track app sales, reviews, and downloads on all your apps in the app store. Simple, but the stats look good.

AppStoreClerk (Mac – iTunes Connect) – Simple OS X app that downloads and displays iTunes connect data into tables. Source code provided.

AppViz (Mac – iTunes Connect) – Downloads and displays iTunes connect data in beautiful into great looking charts and tables. $29 for full version, free trial available.

Flurry Analytics (Web Based – Tracking Code) – Free analytics for tracking visitor data allowing you to see how many people are using your app, how often etc. Useful info, but you’ll want to use something else to see iTunes connect sales data.

Google Analytics (Web Based – Tracking Code) Not specifically for apps. You can view this in your desktop browser, unfortunately in an iOS device you’ll need to download an app such as Google Analyticator. Not specifically for apps, but can still provide useful data.

HeartBeatApp (Web Based – iTunes Connect) – Displays iTunes Connect in a beautiful web based interface. Includes information on crash reports.

Localytics (Web Based – Tracking Code) This is in the same vein as Flurry Analytics, has a free version that appears to have most of the features you would want, and a more extensive enterprise version.

MyAppSales (iOS) – A beautiful app for tracking your app sales data. This is not available in the app store and you will need to purchase and compile it yourself. Price 20 euros.

I can tell you though that AppFigures, and App Annie seem to have gained quite a following in the indie developer crowd so you may want to check those out. If you simply want iTunes Connect data in a better interface, I don’t think you can go wrong with HeartBeatApp. If you don’t want to use a web based tool AppViz is a beautiful app for the desktop, and MyAppSales for iOS. If you want visitor data, Flurry is quite popular. If you want something open source so you can figure out how to scrape the data AppStoreClerk or AppSalesGraph both provide source code.

If there is another tool that you like to use please post it in the comments below. Thanks!

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Developing A Simple iPhone App Programming Tutorial

Even with all the tutorials now available, getting started with iPhone development can be tough. There are just so many sticking points, and often it seems like even top-rated book authors will try to avoid dealing with those points.

I found this great tutorial that stands out from most, and what I really liked about it was that it gets into so many of the concepts that people just starting out have trouble with.

The tutorial is from Ray Wenderlich and covers the creation of a simple app, and some of what you will learn is:

– Interface builder basics
– Table Views
– View controller switching
– Using A UIImagePicker
– Adding Images

You can find the tutorial here:

How To Create A Simple iPhone App Tutorial

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How to Make a Product Box and Flash Drive Mock-up

In this tutorial you will learn how to make your own mock-up image of a flash drive and product box using the Rectangle Tool, Pen Tool, 3D Extrude & Bevel and various Gradients.

Continue reading “How to Make a Product Box and Flash Drive Mock-up”

Discover FL Studio 9

FL Studio (formerly “Fruityloops”) is a DAW by Image-Line currently only available for Windows. The program’s strength is its pattern-based philosophy which it inherited from its MIDI drum machine pedigree. The program has continued to evolve over the years, and now has features that rival other popular DAWs. The different editions of the program range in price from USD$49 to $499.

This article was previously published on the AudioJungle blog. We’ll be bringing you an article from the archives each week.

This is our fourteenth article in the series “Exploring Digital Audio Workstations”. If you’ve missed the earlier articles, you can find them here:

Now let’s have a look at FL Studio.

History and Background

Fruityloops had humble beginnings in 1998 as a MIDI-only drum editor. Version 1.0 of the program was never released. If you enjoy playing with old technology, you can still download the program from a link at the bottom of Image-Line’s FL Studio History page.

Over the eleven years since then features have been continually added until it became the fully functional virtual studio we know and love today. The change of names from “Fruityloops” to “FL Studio” reflects this change.

FL Studio is still centered around a pattern-based sequencer, and this emphasis gives the program a different workflow to other professional DAWs. I haven’t used the program extensively myself, but I have watched my kids play with Fruityloops for hours at a time. They seemed to enjoy the way it worked, and found it easy to create some (basic and repetitive) songs. If you’ve tried FL Studios, do you love or hate this different way of working?

FL Studio is produced by Image-Line, a Belgian company who focus on audio software. The program is currently only available for Microsoft Windows, and the latest version, FL Studio 9, was released just a couple of months ago. Most significantly, this version added multithreaded generators and effects. In a welcome move, they are starting to work on Mac versions of their software.

FL Studio’s Features

The FL Studio features page lists the following features across the various editions of the program:

Plugin support

Multi-out VSTi, Rewire & DXi softsynths
VST & DX effects
FPC: Fruity Pad Controller
FL Studio Generators & FX
Usable as multi-out VSTi client in hosts like Cubase
Usable as multi-out ReWire client in hosts like Sonar
Usable as multi-out DXi client in hosts like Sonar

Midi support

Use external midi keyboards & midi controllers
Import & export midi files
MIDI SysEx input and basic MMC functions

Audio support

Full audiotracks with WAV form display
Reads .WAV, .MP3, .SYN, .DS, .Speech files
Edison Wave Editor ($99 value) included
ASIO-in recording

Music creation

Step sequencer with integrated Piano keyboard
Pianoroll (allowing chords)
Full realtime recording & automation of all parameters
Internal controllers
Arpeggiator
Automatic slicer (that reads .REX files)
More than 15 generators (softsynths) included
Over 40 HQ FX (effects) included
Pattern (midi) clips in the playlist

Automation

Pattern-based event automation
Envelope automation of all parameters in playlist

Mixer & FX rack

99 Insert & 4 Send Tracks with 8 FX channels each
Post FX Parametric EQ, Volume, Pan, VU meter
Full FX (re)routing

Updates & Online features

Lifetime Free updates
Download more than 2GB of HQ samples on SampleFusion
Watch dozens of online Video Tutorials
Exchange songs & tips with users & developers in our forums

Output support

Directsound
Multi-out ASIO
Midi out
Render to .WAV (16bit, 24bit or 32bit)
Render to .MP3 (32kbit up to 320kbit)
Render to .OGG (32kbit up to 450kbit)
Render separate ‘stems’ for each mixer track

Generators/Softsynths/FX

FL versions of SimSynth Live, DX-10, DrumSynth, WASP, WASP XT, SynthMaker Player
Delay, Delay Bank, Equo, Flangus, Love Philter, Vocoder, Parametric EQ & EQ2, Multiband Compressor, Spectroman, Stereo Enhancer, Wave Candy, Wave Shaper, Soundgoodizer
FL SynthMaker Full, Slicex, Vocodex
3xOsc, Sampler, BooBass, Beepmap, Plucked, Fruit Kick, Chrome ,FPC, WaveTraveller, Dashboard, KB Controller,Fruity Vibrator, Midi Out, FL Slayer, FL Keys, Granuliser
DirectWave Player
Maximus, Hardcore, VideoPlayer, Sytrus, Soundfont player, DirectWave Sampler
Deckadance, Poizone, Toxic Biohazard, Morphine, Gross Beat, Ogun, Sawer

Included content

+1900 presets using 600 wav files
Generic Sample CD
$49 Virtual Cash card

But Image-Line don’t just want you learning about the features from a boring list. They make a fully-functional demo version of FL Studio available for download, though the link doesn’t seem to be working a the time of writing.

Moving away from software features, some unique aspects of the software are that it comes with free software upgrades for life, and has some very affordable editions.

User Comments

What do FL Studio users think of the product? Here are some comments by users and reviewers that I found around the Net. I’d love to hear from you in the comments too.

“FL Studio offers a tremendous value for what you get. Comparable products cost nearly twice as much. FL Studio’s quirky sound generators and interoperability make it a great addition to any studio. Be warned, though: several versions of FL Studio are available, so more features are included as the price goes up.” (CNET Staff)
“This is a very high quality professional studio for music production. It does not take a lot of space compared to other programs like Cubase. It works faster and has a easy and intuitive feel to it which accelerates learning. Other programs seem to be very hard to learn. Free unlimited updates rock!” (michalkun)
“i dont mind FL’s look i just wish that the vsti thing was set up like cubases and other daws are. i dont want a vst to be set on a certain channel i want it to be in its own host so you can set the channels accordingly. now for the library i think that their best synth is morphine (i actually use it) and for the drums and stuff it doesnt even matter cause i dont even use i never use any daw stock sounds (besides reason). Reason is supposed to have good sounds out the box because it doesnt allow any 3rd party synthisizers or vsts to work within it. so yeah pretty much fix that vsti thing and it will be ok in my book.” (Cheta)
“Fruity Loops has long proven that not all music making apps have to look the same way. FL is quirky and different. Its editing interface is built as much around step sequencers and pattern sequencing as the conventional, mixer and audio-tape-derived views. But perhaps some of its real draw is that it packs, in its mid-level-and-higher packages, it’s packed with fascinating and unusual sonic toys. FL 9 looks to continue that tradition. And because it’s FL, if you’ve ever bought FL, you get a free lifetime upgrade to this version. (Seriously, if you’re pirating FL, stop. You have absolutely no excuse.)” (Peter Kirn, Create Digital Music.com)
“With a newly-designed, graphically-driven interface, customizable workflows and workspaces and intuitive MIDI mapping features, quickly recording and editing or composing and sequencing MIDI files is a facile process, far removed from the rough-hewn, guesswork that typified MIDI software programs and applications nary a decade ago. With 255 ports available for MIDI data, as well as automated features like MIDI “Master Sync” and stops/starts-on-a-dime synchronization features, performing MIDI-related tasks is virtually a plug-and-play affair for the initial recording process, while its composition, sequencing and editing features streamline the other processes to take loops, parts or entire projects from scraps, bits and loose threads to ergonomically-sealed quilts.” (TopTenREVIEWS)

Have you used FL Studio? Do you love it or hate it? What are your favorite features? Let us know in the comments.