Blancer.com Tutorials and projects – Page 59228 – Freelance Projects, Design and Programming Tutorials

Apple stock opens about 5% down, but most analysts remain calm

At the opening bell this morning, AAPL was down 5%, erasing about US$15 billion dollars of the company’s market value. As of this writing, Apple is trading at $336. It’s not time to get out on the ledges, however, as many experts think an expected blow-out earnings call later today could erase the losses.

Of course, the stock value picture is always most interesting over the long run, and will also be impacted by how long Steve Jobs is out on medical leave. Many investors are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see the results of the earnings call, and some are predicting Apple will announce a 50% increase in quarterly sales this afternoon. Other analysts expect lower earnings and revenue.

Apple made the announcement about the medical leave yesterday on a US holiday when American markets were closed. When Jobs announced his previous leave, the stock lost about 8% in two days. Last Friday, Apple stock was at a 52 week high of $348 per share.

Apple stock opens about 5% down, but most analysts remain calm originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More rumored details on The Daily

The long-rumored iPad magazine, The Daily, is a big leap into the tablet market for News Corp. Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp, has reportedly hired 100 journalists to work on this daily newspaper for the iPad and is working closely with Apple on this project. Expected to be introduced this week by Murdoch and Steve Jobs, the app launch has been delayed into next month as kinks with the subscription-based service are reportedly worked out. According to new information from Advertising Age, the iPad-based newspaper will be available as an App Store subscription costing ~~99-cents a day~~ 99-cents a week. A two-week trial will be available for iPad owners who prefer to try before they buy.

AdAge also suggests the rumored newspaper will feature a multi-story front page with a magazine-style layout for other content. The Daily will support multi-touch gestures that let you rotate, zoom and swipe through the content. Though working closely with Apple, News Corp. will not be using iAds within the newspaper application. News Corp. has tapped New York-based Medialets to mange the ads and resulting metrics for this daily digital newspaper. Ads may be sold at a flat rate to businesses.

The Daily reportedly has the sponsorship of big name companies like Verizon Wireless, Land Rover, Macy’s, Pepsi Max and Virgin America. Not only sponsors, each company will reportedly promote the newspaper by offering incentives meant to entice customers to download and subscribe to the app. Verizon Wireless, which currently sells the iPad, could bundle a limited-time subscription with each iPad purchase, while Virgin America could offer frequent flyer miles for those that download the app.

Apple reportedly has a short-term exclusive deal to carry the daily newspaper on its popular iPad tablet. Over time, the app will be ported to other tablet platforms including Android, webOS and the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Update: AdAge has corrected the rumored pricing of The Daily from 99-cents a day to the much more reasonable 99-cents per week.

[via AppleInsider, 9to5 Mac]

More rumored details on The Daily originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask TUAW video edition: Uninstalling Mac apps

ask tuaw video Hey everyone, Ask TUAW has gone video to help you with all those questions you send in. Today we help Donna, who asks about removing installed apps from her Mac. Remember, you can leave us questions in the comments! The video is on the next page.

Mentioned in this video:

Adobe uninstaller (included in CS installations), but you can also try the CS5 Cleaner Tool if you’re having issues with the Creative Suite.
AppZapper

Also, check out our Mac 101 on uninstalling (a couple of years old now) and how to uninstall System Preference panes.

Continue reading Ask TUAW video edition: Uninstalling Mac apps

Ask TUAW video edition: Uninstalling Mac apps originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Q1 2011 earnings call today at 2:00 p.m. PST/5:00 p.m. EST

You can check the full Apple press release after the break but today’s earnings call promises to be interesting on two fronts. First, for the past several years Apple has reported stellar sales in practically ever category, losing ground somewhat in the portable music player front to an extent, but showing steady growth in Mac sales and explosive growth in iPhone and iPad sales. We think the trend will continue.

The question of Steve’s health will no doubt be looming and will be a topic of conversation during the question and answer session at the end of the call. Yesterday’s announcement sent Apple’s stock tumbling in overseas markets and today, as of this writing, we’re seeing AAPL down around 4%. That’s actually not too bad considering the chatter about Steve being the sole visionary for the company. In terms of kneejerk market reactions, it could be much worse.

We’ll post the results and a wrap-up of the call later today. You can listen to the call here starting at 2 PM Pacific or 5 PM Eastern.

Continue reading Apple Q1 2011 earnings call today at 2:00 p.m. PST/5:00 p.m. EST

Apple Q1 2011 earnings call today at 2:00 p.m. PST/5:00 p.m. EST originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apptivate 2.0 adds keystroke sequence shortcuts

There are a plethora of “launcher” apps out there. I’ve used LaunchBar ($35) since it was released for NeXTStep; other folks seem fond of Alfred (free, with additional powerpack for £12, or about US$20), Butler ($20), Keyboard Maestro ($36) or Google Quick Search Box (free). The venerable but now mostly-dead QuickSilver (cue moment of silence followed by someone yelling out “I’m not dead yet”) is being kept alive by a band of merry coders who hope to revive it. Heck, even FastScripts and OS X’s own Spotlight can serve as launchers.

I come not to replace your favorite launcher, but to supplement it, with an incredibly handy $3 app called Apptivate.

Read on for details

Continue reading Apptivate 2.0 adds keystroke sequence shortcuts

Apptivate 2.0 adds keystroke sequence shortcuts originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D: Two gimmicky and unfocused e-book apps

Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D are two US$1.99 interactive children’s books from Bacciz Apps. I’m sorry to say that they’re also not very good. They are complicated, inconsistent, and neither provides a satisfying story. Both titles use elements often seen before in other interactive children’s books, but this time they are used seemingly at random. I don’t believe children will enjoy either of these apps; instead, kids will likely become confused and frustrated at the “everything but the kitchen sink” design approach and the total inconsistency of the implementation.

The first problem cropped up when I tried to navigate the settings screens. There are seven options: Display Text, Hide Text After Narration, Disable Interaction During Narration, Auto Page Turn, Page Turn Swipe, and volume controls for Narration, Sound FX and Music. Each app lets you choose between three songs to play in the background. I can easily see getting rid of at least half of these options.

Tapping on a dog displayed at the top of each page displays even more options. These include Home, 3D mode, Sound, which is a duplication of the settings screen, Share — which lets you post to email, Twitter, Facebook, send feedback to Bacciz, and a request to rate the app in the iTunes store. There is also an “I Can Read” option, a duplicate of the title page that gives you the option of eliminating the narration until you tap on the text box, but it doesn’t give you the option to “Read it Myself” — that option shows up on the title screen. One positive thing about this mode is you’ll see thumbnails that you can swipe to go to any page. However, the text boxes that the app reads to you if you choose “Read to Me” are further complicated by arrows on both sides of the text boxes that make them appear or vanish.

Continue reading Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D: Two gimmicky and unfocused e-book apps

Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D: Two gimmicky and unfocused e-book apps originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW’s Daily App: Hunters’ Moon

Hunters’ Moon is more of an experience than anything. It’s a very beautiful app in a lot of ways, and it does have some game elements, but really it’s a chance to sit and enjoy a piece of software that evokes a mood and an atmosphere. It was more or less inspired by a talk given by Brandon Boyer at last year’s IndieCade conference; I did go to that show, but I didn’t see Boyer’s talk, unfortunately.

Hunters’ Moon is a great example of how personal and how simply beautiful video games can be. As the app’s description says, it’s “an interactive illustration and a drawing that shares an idea through game mechanics. It is best heard with headphones and played patiently.”

We get so caught up in the give and take of the business of software and the functionality of what we download and use that sometimes we neglect to see how powerful just sitting and enjoying these games can be. Give Hunters’ Moon a try if that sounds intriguing. This iPad-only game is US$1.99 on the App Store.

TUAW’s Daily App: Hunters’ Moon originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 3G is Now Unlocked for Life, on Baseband 06.15.00

Any iPhone 3G, with baseband 06.15.00, is now unlocked for life. Since iPhone 3G won’t be getting any firmware update starting iOS 4.3, your iPhone 3G will remain unlocked for life. MuscleNerd also confirmed this in a tweet:

“Because there’s no 4.3 beta for iPhone3G, it’s effectively unlocked for life via the 06.15 ultrasn0w unlock”

Note: This is applicable to all those iPhone 3G owner who have updated their iPhone 3G to Baseband 06.15.00. (How to: Check iPhone Baseband version)

No future firmware update is a bad news for iPhone 3G baseband 06.15.00 users, because most of them are experiencing GPS issues. The Dev Team is aware of the GPS problem, and currently working on a way to downgrade iPhone 3GS 06.15.00 Baseband with iOS 4.3 firmware.

How many of you have an iPhone 3G or 3GS with baseband 06.15.00 and are experiencing GPS issues? Go wild in the comments section below…

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OneNote for iPhone and iPod Touch Hits the App Store

Microsoft has just released OneNote for iPhone and iPod Touch. You can download OneNote app for iPhone and iPod Touch from the link below. For those not familiar, OneNote planner and note taking software.

OneNote Description

Microsoft OneNote Mobile is the easy-to-use, powerful note-taking application for all of your ideas, brought to you by Microsoft Office. OneNote Mobile lets you create and view notes and lists whenever you need them. Sync your notes with free Windows Live online storage and access them from virtually anywhere using your phone, PC, or almost any web browser.

With OneNote Mobile, you can:

Create flexible notes that can include text, pictures, bullets, and checkboxes
Check To Do items off on the go
Save time with quick access to your most recent notes
Work with confidence—OneNote Mobile automatically syncs your notes with Windows Live in the background
Organize your notes into sections or create new notebooks using OneNote 2010 or OneNote Web App and access them from your iPhone

OneNote for iPhone Requirements

iPhone or iPod touch must have iOS 4.2 or higher
A free Windows Live ID is required to use OneNote Mobile —use an existing one or let OneNote Mobile help you sign up
Web functionality uses the free OneNote Web App available on Windows Live, which requires a supported web browser
OneNote Mobile opens notebooks created in Microsoft OneNote 2010 or the OneNote Web App
Customizing section colors requires Microsoft OneNote 2010

You can access your notes online at http://office.live.com.

Download OneNote for iPhone and iPod Touch

OneNote for iPhone and iPod Touch will be free for a limited time, Microsoft said. You can download OneNote for iPhone and iPod Touch from the App Store. [App Store Link]

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Turn Your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch into an AirPlay Receiver with AirView

AirView turns your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch into an AirPlay Receiver for your other iOS devices. So, with AirView, you can watch an AirPlay stream on your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch coming from another iDevice. Kind of like an AppleTV in your iPad.
airview airplay receiver

AirView Description

Use this application to watch AirPlay video streams from another iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad running iOS 4.2) on the same local network, or from iTunes.

How to

Just launch AirView
Then tap the AirPlay icon on the YouTube media player from another iPhone for example
The video should start playing on AirView.

Note: AirView must be running on a device in order to show up as receiver on a local network.

This works with videos played in iTunes on a Mac or PC too. Photos are not supported yet.

AirView is a neat little app for iDevices that may not last very long in the App Store. Go grab it now!

Download AirView

You can download AirView for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch from the App Store for free. [iTunes Link]

via [Macstories]

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14-year-old an inspiration to aspiring app developers everywhere

Alex Britton is a 9th grader who loves to create iPhone apps. He started out with an app called Whoopee Cusion (no longer available) and has went on to create some cool apps like Chalk and Doodle Zombies.

Here is a snippet from the article:

When Apple’s iPad came out last spring, Alex anticipated that users would want shiny new apps for their shiny new tablets, and created Chalk — an app that simply allows users to draw on a virtual chalkboard with a virtual stick of chalk — which was listed as one of the top 100 selling apps for the device, and made it to the Apple Store‘s front page in April 2010.

With Chalk, it was mainly a hit because it was one of the first ones out there,” he said. “I try to do, like, three apps a season, and two or three games throughout the year.

I started off doing mostly games, but I think it’s easier to get noticed if you have a utility or a photo application,” he said. He recently launched Photo Booth Plus, an application that allows users to paste new or archived pictures from their iPhone’s photo library into a filmstrip background and upload them to Facebook and Twitter.

You can read the entire article from the Stamford Advocate here.

Timing is Everything: How to Get More iPhone App Sales from Day One

Guest writer Matthew Palmer is the founder of the website Marketing Your App, which offers iPhone developers resources and services to get new customers and profit from their apps. He is an experienced online marketer for the technology industry, having created successful marketing campaigns for companies such as IBM and Intel.

How is your new iPhone app like a Hollywood blockbuster? Just like the release of a new movie at your local theater, a large percentage of your app sales are likely to come as soon as it’s available to buy.

Think of the “opening weekend” of a movie, when people line up around the block to see it first. Those first few days after it’s available to the public are one of the most critical times for the success of a movie and your iPhone app. How can you get people pounding at the App Store doors waiting for your app to be released?

The answer to getting explosive sales from Day One is to start marketing your app before it’s available in the App Store. Yes, you’ll start spreading the word even before anyone can actually buy your app. You could even start before your app is finished.

This might sound backwards. In fact, many developers wait to start promoting their iPhone apps until they have been approved and are for sale in the App Store. However, it’s better to ramp up your marketing efforts earlier – even before your app is live.

Think back to that movie premiere, and all of the TV commercials, newspaper ads, and magazine interviews you saw before the movie ever arrived in theaters. You can do the exact same with your app: get your customers excited and start building buzz earlier so that when your app finally is available, they’ll buy it instantly.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late

Just imagine having eager customers waiting for your iPhone or iPad app to be released. From the very first day it’s available, you could start with a large spike in sales. Waiting until your app is for sale can cost you money in missed sales – but starting earlier can mean more potential customers hear about your app and are excited to buy it.

You are likely to find a burst of excitement and buzz around your brand new app because shoppers love to find the latest tools and toys. In addition, your new app can get added exposure by appearing in the App Store’s “new and noteworthy” section for your category and by appearing at the top of the list of apps when sorted by release date. These advantages give your app prime real estate and more visibility – meaning many more shoppers come to check out your app.

Better yet, this momentum can carry you through the coming days and weeks. It is important to get good ratings and reviews early because shoppers will look at how people are enjoying your app when they are deciding if they want to buy it, too. Customers will also be looking out for positive reviews from app blogs and review sites. By reaching out to them earlier, you can add quotes to your app description and use them to boost your sales.

3 Steps to Hit the Ground Running

To maximize your sales, start promoting your app even before people can buy it. You can start dropping hints about your app as you finish coding. You could offer a “sneak peak” of what your app will do to your social network (though you can’t yet share the actual app). Or, you can post updates to your blog as more and more great features are added to the finished product.

You can also work on marketing your app after you have submitted it to Apple for review and are waiting for approval. Use this downtime to your advantage, and start spreading the word. This is the perfect way to get a leg up on your competition, who may wait until their app is in the App Store to start marketing.

To help you get more sales from Day One, here are 3 steps to take while you are creating your app or while you are waiting for your app to be approved by Apple:

Reach out to app review sites and bloggers – Contact popular websites and blogs that review iPhone apps to let them know your app is coming. While they probably won’t write about you yet, it can help increase your chances they’ll publish a review of your app when it is available because they are more familiar with it.
Line up friendly customers to be ready for Day One – Seek out and notify previous customers, friends, and colleagues who are likely to love your app and give it high ratings. Make sure they’re ready to buy as soon as your app is available. The first few reviews that appear in the App Store are crucial because they will be seen by future shoppers who are deciding if they want to buy your app. Make sure they’re glowing reviews!
Let your customers, email list, and social network know what’s coming – Don’t wait until your app is released to get people excited about it (unless you’re trying to keep it a secret so competitors don’t copy you). Keep them updated on your progress, the great features you’re adding, and whip up some buzz and excitement even before it’s live. It takes time to build excitement, so start early and update them often.

When your app lands in the App Store, you want it to make a splash. Use these tips to begin spreading the word earlier than you might think – even before it can be bought. That way, when it is finally available for sale, you are truly making waves.

Learn iPhone And iPad Cocos2D Game Development Review

Cocos2D is an extremely popular iPhone game engine, and has an extensive community. There are many great tutorials available out there, so when I first saw that the Learn iPhone and iPad Cocos2D Game Development book was being written by Steffen itterheim I wasn’t sure exactly what value the book would contribute. I was glad to see that the book covered a lot of more advanced topics that are difficult to find the right answers for.

The book was created for those who already have a background in programming, and you will definitely need to have an understanding of Objective-C. That being said it starts out with some easier to understand examples and topics so even if you’re new to Cocos2D you shouldn’t have much of a problem jumping right in.

There is a really extensive number of examples available within the book. My favorites are:

– a game where you avoid falling obstacles by rotating the device
– a side scrolling shooter
– an isometric tile based map/movement/collisions demo (shown in video below — btw, the frame rate doesn’t do the example justice, it is much smoother than that, but it does show the beginnings of what could become a nice game).

The author, Steffen Itterheim also makes himself highly accessible to readers on his Learn Cocos2D blog, and on Twitter. So if you have any questions or issues on the book he is very easy to get in touch with.

Overall I rate the book 5/5 (I know I rate books pretty highly – that’s because I don’t read the bad ones =p). The book really leaves you with the feeling that you can create a good iOS game with Cocos2D, and the examples give you something concrete to work with. You can read further reviews on Amazon, I’m not sure about the issue that one reviewer had with the Kindle version as I was not viewing it on Kindle.

Tutorial: Cocos2D Example – Whack A Mole Game

Ray Wenderlich has released an excellent set of iOS tutorials on how to create a whack-a-mole game using the open source iPhone game engine Cocos2D. I really like tutorials myself in which you develop something that could be built on and with some more work turned into a real product, and it looks like that is what Ray is trying to encourage with these tutorials.

In the tutorials Ray covers a lot of ground. He shows how to adjust for the increased resolution of the retina display on iPhone, and the different aspect ratio used on the iPad. How to draw the background, including placing the holes which will overlay above the background and the moles being whacked. How to animate the different moles, and how to use a property list to define the animation frames. How to set up the game logic, and touch code for interacting with the moles. There’s quite a bit in there.

You can find the tutorials at:

How To Create A Mole Whacking Game with Cocos2D: Part 1/2
How To Create A Mole Whacking Game with Cocos2D: Part 2/2

For those that don’t know Ray has also been working on a Cocos2D book with Rod Strougo, the rough cut can be found here (you’ll need to pay to access the content, but you can see browse through the table of contents free). It is looking great so far.

New Category: Cocos2D Tutorials And Examples

How to show the “home” link on wp_nav_menu default fallback function

You just have to paste the following code into your theme functions.php file:

function my_page_menu_args($args) {
	$args['show_home'] = true;
	return $args;
}
add_filter('wp_page_menu_args', 'my_page_menu_args');

Thanks to Reza for this nice piece of code!

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How to show the “home” link on wp_nav_menu default fallback function

Author BlancerPosted on 2011/01/19Categories WordpressLeave a comment on How to show the “home” link on wp_nav_menu default fallback function

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