iphone

Sep
23

Timy for iPhone Sneak Preview

Posted by Alain at 9:41 pm

So here’s is one of the iPhone projects I haven been working on. After the success of  the Timy AIR Application, we decided to build mobile versions. The Android version is already available in the Android Market and the iPhone version is waiting to be approved.

But, if you can’t wait here is the Sneak Preview:

I hope you enjoyed it. It’s going to be free and if you want to know when it’s available, follow @timybe on Twitter or checkout the website at timy.be.

UPDATE: Timy for iPhone is available in the App Store. Download it here.

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Sep
19

My Favorite iPhone Games

Posted by Alain at 10:02 pm

And now for something completely different :)

Besides developing for iOS Devices, I am also a big user of Apps and Games myself. And there are a lot of cool games available on the App Store. I would like to share with you a list of my favorite games. Feel free to add your own favorite games in the comments.

Carcassone

This happens to be one of my favorite board games. And I really love the way the developers ported the board game mechanics to the iPhone game. I guess it would work even better on an iPad.


Get it at carcassonneapp.com

Fruit Ninja

Fruit Ninja is pretty cool. It’s perfect to lossen up your fingers while cutting through fruit that’s been shot in the air. It’s also fun and easy to play for young children. Also the iPad version with 1on1 mode looks pretty nice. And it’s with Ninjas so that’s a plus!


Get it at fruitninja.com

Chuck Gnome

Shooting Gnome to Ogres, Egyptian Gods, … is fun. It’s a simple concept, but not that easy to play. I love how the details are worked out very good. Sweet graphics and sounds.


Get it at chuckgnome.com

Angry Birds

One of the most addictive games so far. I love the gameplay, the cool sounds and funny graphics. Sometimes frustrating if I can’t finish the level fast enough. But still one of my favorites, and also available on other mobile platforms.


Get it here

The Incident

And last but not least a very recent game that has very retro-style look. I love the pixel look and it is one of the games that really uses physics and the accelerometer to it’s best.


Get it here

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Sep
19

What I have been working on

Posted by Alain at 1:59 pm

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something on this blog. As I am mostly active on Twitter and my new Tumblr blog with inspirational stuff. But what have I been doing lately?

Silverlight 4

I worked part time on a Silverlight 4 / RIA Services project for a big company in the Netherlands. It was an interesting project where I worked together with the company’s Microsoft Architect to setup an architecture for the application that we were building. My task was working on the Silverlight side of the project and setting up MVVM. I also was involved in creating the behavior and appearance of the application.

So what did I learn from this project:

  • Silverlight 4 is a mature platform to build applications with.
  • Working with beta’s can be annoying. We had to create workaround solutions for certain cases, and after the final product was released we could throw away some of our code. The good news was that the issue was resolved.
  • Model View ViewModel is absolutely necessary when you build these kind of applications.
  • RIA Services works great out-of-the-box, but if you have complex business logic that does a bit more then simple CRUD operations it becomes complex. So Microsoft: Business Applications != Simple CRUD Applications
  • A Silverlight Developer in a small team has to know about UI code and DB code. Which is not the ideal world.

iPhone SDK

On the other hand I have been working on the native iPhone version of Timy (you know the Desktop app I released a couple of years ago, built with Adobe AIR) and I am currently working on another iPhone project.

Although I played around with code already a little bit, this was my first real attempt to build a real application for iPhone. I also can’t take all the credit because my colleague Bart (who created Timy for Android, already available here) did a lot of the behind the scenes code like connecting to the Basecamp API and parsing the XML. The application has been submitted to the App Store and it’s now in the hands of the Apple Reviewers.

So what did I get out of these projects:

  • With a background of programming in C# and ActionScript the syntax of Objective-C took a while to get used to. It is all kinda backwards.
  • Not having something like a Garbage Collector and working with Pointers caused a lot of headaches and EXC_BAD_ACCESS errors. And these are pretty darn difficult to diagnose.
  • There are also great Open Source Libraries available. We used ASIHTTPRequest for connecting to the Basecamp API and MBProgressHUD for showing loading data in the UI.
  • Creating the Certificates and Provisioning Profiles is not that straight forward. Apple has documented this very well, but if something is wrong it’s difficult to find exactly what it is.
  • Playing with Animations, Multi Touch and Audio is not that hard to do and pretty fun!
  • I want to do more of this!

Well that was it for my status update. Expect a more elaborate post when the applications will actually be available in the App Store.

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Apr
13

Downgrade from iPhone OS 4.0 beta to v3.1.3

Posted by Alain at 10:36 am

After the announcements about Apple iPhone OS 4.0, I immediately went to the Apple Developer site and downloaded the beta version. I never installed a beta version of the iPhone OS before so I thought that it would be stable enough for daily use. But it turns out that if you have only one iPhone (like most of us) then I would not advice you to install it yet.

This is what I encountered during the last couple of days:

  • Because I own 3G, I missed the key feature of Multi-Tasking. And with no multi-tasking what’s left?
  • Folders: they work but for me they don’t add something I was missing. It’s also a bit difficult to darag and drop apps in and out folders.
  • Mail: Nice new feature. Now I can read both my mailboxes from one list. This one actually is very nice.
  • I could not test iBooks, iAd, Game Center.
  • Some applications didn’t work correct anymore. One of the apps I use a lot and cannot miss is TomTom, but it became very unstable. I also encountered minor issues with other apps, but most of them worked.
  • The reason why I really wanted to downgrade was that I had to reboot/reset my iPhone more in the last couple of days, then since I owned it.

And (being new to installing beta firmware) I found out that you could not easily revert back to the current 3.1.3 version of the OS. After a bit of “Googling” and experimenting, finally these blog posts helped me out :

This worked for me, so I hope it works for you too. I now have a stable phone again :)

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Jan
09

Awesome iPhone app: Hipstamatic

Posted by Alain at 5:01 pm

I wanted to share my experience with a must have iPhone app, Hipstamatic.

The Hipstamatic for iPhone is an application that brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras from the past.

Hipstamatic was a short-run plastic camera developed in the 1980′s by two art school dropouts in Wisconsin, USA. It was never mass produced because the makers died in a tragic accident. You can read more about this in the Wikipedia Article and the Great Hipstamatic 100 Tribute page.

It is definitely one of the best designed applications in the AppStore. It actually feels like you are using a real analog camera. This app also has a very good implementation of the In App Purchase. The camera comes equipped with a couple of lenses, films and one flash. But you can buy other available lenses, films and flashes to create your unique photographs. At the time of writing the app is only 1,59 €, so that’s a no-brainer. Buy this app and and get amazed with the user experience and the awesome photographs.

I have been playing around with the application and you can find my pictures on Flickr. There is already a great community growing on Flickr. Check out all the pictures tagged with Hipstamatic.

Checkout how it works in this video:

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Dec
27

The cyclist iPhone app: PedalBrain

Posted by Alain at 11:58 am

I haven’t been riding my bike a lot lately. Mainly because it’s winter now, but also because of the fact that I want to spend as much time as possible with my son. But maybe this can get me back on my bike in the spring time.

I have tried several GPS tracking devices when riding my bike: GPSKit, Trails, GPSies and RunKeeper. Especially the last one is a great app, but they are still initially created for runners or hikers.

Today however I discovered the existence of the PedalBrain iPhone app. It looks very nice, has integration with ANT+ enabled devices and I immediately fell for the Carbon Fiber mount that can be mounted on the steerer tube. An yeah, it’s still a prototype but I would definitively buy it. Off course it also has a website where you can analyze your workouts. This is how they describe the product:

Pedal Brain can be thought of as three integrated products. First, it’s an iPod and iPhone ANT+ accessory. Second, it’s a complete training log. Third, it’s a coaching platform.

If you want to find out more about this promising looking app check out their website.

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Oct
13

My favourite iPhone apps

Posted by Alain at 9:53 pm

app_storeIt’s been almost a year since I wrote my first blog post about my favourite applications on the iPhone. During that time I have installed and uninstalled lots of applications. I’d like to share again a short list of the apps I use the most.

Camera Tools:

  • ToyCamera: this application changes your iPhone into a toy camera. The app is loaded with cool effects and after buying this app I almost never use the normal camera again. Check out some of the pictures I took with ToyCamera here.
  • TiltShift Generator: this application was created by the same developer that built ToyCamera. It allows you to create miniature retro pictures. There is also a free Adobe AIR application available if you want to run it on the desktop.
  • Camera Genius: this app adds useful functionality like a big button, zoom, … A good addition to the standard Camera functionality.
  • Comic Touch: this is the iPhone version of the Comic Life desktop application. With Comic Touch you can add those funny text balloons to your photo’s.

Social Networking:

  • Tweetie 2: I have been using Tweetie since it was released on the iPhone, and Tweetie 2 is even better. I also tested Twitterific and TweetDeck, both free Twitter clients. But Tweetie is stil worth the price.
  • Flickr: finally Flickr has come to the iPhone. Now I can upload my photo’s taken with ToyCamera directly to my Flickr account. I have used some other tools before but Flickr for iPhone has a slick design and is has all the features that you would expect.

Tools:

  • Dropbox: if you are a DropBox user then this is a must have app. You can view all documents, photo’s and files that are in your DropBox account. I use DropBox to sync files between my Mac and PC and it works like perfect.
  • Analytics: with this app you can view your Google Analytics charts directly on your iPhone. It’s a nice add-on for keeping up to date with your stats, but it doesn’t beat the real thing.
  • WordPress: useful app for WordPress users especially for approving comments.
  • Convertbot: I like this app especially for the nice touch interface. But more importantly it’s a useful tool for converting units, bytes, currencies, …
  • GPSies: free GPS tracking tool with an online community. Useful for tracking your runs, hikes and bike trips. And it is free!

Games:

  • Flight Control: this is one of the applications that uses Touch at it’s best. It is a very addictive game and I also like the general look and feel of the app. Definitely a must have game.
  • Ancient Frog: very beautiful application where you need to manipulate a frog and lead it to the fly. The physics of the frog are very nice, but it is a difficult game.
  • Balloonimals: If you have kids this app is very funny. It uses the iPhone to the max. You need to blow up the balloons, shake the phone and touch the animals until they finally blow up. Very funny indeed.

That’s my shortlist, I hope you like it. Also check out my previous posts about the iPhone here:

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Oct
07

Slider, a mobile version of Flex

Posted by Alain at 10:02 am

Another interesting announcement was made yesterday at MAX 2009. Next to the fact that you can develop iPhone apps with Flash Pro CS5, it is not recommended to use the Flex framework for building these applications. The official statement says:

While it is possible to create iPhone content using the desktop Flex Framework, we do not recommend it. The Flex framework is currently optimized for execution in a desktop environment. The performance, UI, and interaction models have not been optimized for mobile devices.

Adobe is working on a mobile Flex Framework, which should be better suited for iPhone development.

The framework is called Slider and it sounds very interesting, because if you have the standard controls and theming at you disposal for building for example an iPhone app, it’s going to make your life a lot easier when building an app.

Some facts about Slider:

  • Slider is a mobile-optimized version of the Flex framework that will make it easy for developers to build Flex applications that run across mobile devices.
  • It is based on the Flex 4 codebase, so it’s not a step back.
  • An early mobile branch of the Flex framework is expected to be available in 2010.
  • The first version will be optimized to run on high-end smartphones, and will initially target standalone application environments such as Adobe AIR. Does this also mean the iPhone apps? Let’s hope so.
  • You will be able to use Flash Builder to create Slider apps.
  • The difference with Flash Lite is that Flash Lite is a smaller, lighter-weight runtime created to run on low-end phones, and Slider is a mobile version of the Flex framework designed for building applications.
  • For a complete overview of the Slider framework check out this whitepaper.

Also check out this video about Flex for Mobile Devices by Ely Greenfield and Greg Burch:

Exciting times :)

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Oct
06

Building iPhone apps with Flash Pro CS5

Posted by Alain at 9:46 pm

Yesterday in the MAX 2009 Keynote Adobe did not announce a Flash Player for iPhone, but there was some surprising news. They made it possible to build applications for iPhone using the Flash Platform and Tools. More concrete: with Flash Professional CS5 you can export/publish your swf file to a native iPhone application.

It is definitely good news because for a production company, this makes it a lot easier to offer a unified solution. We can now reuse code and assets to build applications for the web and different mobile devices. Cool thing is that also AIR 2.0 features are available for the iPhone. This means you can use multi-touch, file api, sockets network and all the other existing AIR features. But you can’t use PixelBender, remote SWF files. And yes no AS2 anymore, so that’s a good thing.

I am very eager start playing with it, and after seeing this video it all looks very interesting indeed. Now let’s hope that Apple doesn’t close the door on this.

If you want to know how it works check out this recorded session from Adobe MAX 2009:

Everything you need to know can be found on http://adobe.com/go/iphone

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Jun
28

Enable iPhone 3.0 Internet Tethering

Posted by Alain at 10:39 pm

Internet TetheringAfter the upgrading to iPhone OS 3.0 I haven’t been able to try out the new Internet Tethering feature of the iPhone. This can be very useful when you don’t have a Wifi connection available, and still need the internet. Turns out that enabling this feature was not that easy to do.

After some searching I found a blog post on Frank.be that describes how you can enable it. He created a custom IPCC file for Proxims users that contains the settings to enable tethering. Read more about it on his site, the explanation is pretty straight forward. Just make sure you select the option (alt) button while clicking the restore button, otherwise you will restore your complete iPhone. It worked for me.

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