Posts Tagged ‘iPad’

Learning XCode iPad Development

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

I have a confession to make – I bought a copy of iPad Application Development for Dummies. I’ve worked through the first worked example, and honestly, it was a pretty good intro. The resulting App itself is not something anyone would buy (or even download for free, although, who knows…) from the App store, but it was a good intro to the basics.

Before getting into the larger worked example in the second half of the book, however, I have gotten a little distracted by ambitions of wanting to make the whole thing more Agile… so off I went looking for information on Unit Testing, Test Driven Development, and Automated Documentation Generation.

Turns out Unit Testing is built into XCode. I have found a few articles to help me with configuring my first unit test… so far so good. I also found one article on Test Driven Development, but I haven’t gotten to try that one yet.

As far as automated documentation generation goes, Doxygen turns out to provide pretty much everything I could wish for on that front, and seems to do a very nice job of it. There are various output options for the documentation. I’m using HTML for now – as a newbie to Objective-C and XCode, this automated documentation generation is proving quite useful in finding my way around.

Anyway, I shall continue being a Dummy for now, and will work through the rest of the book. Beyond that, I have my eye on a book by Deitel & Deitel (& Deitel) – iPhone for Programmers – An App Driven Approach). I remember enjoying their book on Java during my time at University, so I expect I would enjoy this book also, and they have a good approach to learning, which certainly goes beyond the Dummies paradigm.

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It’s Been Awhile…

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

It’s been awhile since I posted an honest-to-goodness Blog post here. Sorry about that. I toyed with having my Twitter updates post as Blog entries… well, there’s obviously a reason why Tweets are Tweets and Blogs are Blogs… so, that feature has now been mercifully laid to rest.

I just thought it was updating on two recent discoveries / developments:

TinaIsOverIt – Icarus’ burned wings…

I came across a new Blog by a colleague of mine – TinaIsOverIt. Tina’s reflections mirror a lot of my own thinking on work-life-balance, purpose and productivity, which is all the more pertinent as Tina represents Gen Y, while I myself sit happily (and tiredly) in the Gen X bracket.

Like Icarus, there is a huge temptation to put life (people, family, enjoyment and fulfilment) on hold to soar early to giddy heights in our careers and finances, only to find our wings have melted in the sun, as we plummet to disaster. It is a common temptation to us all, and one to be overcome on the path to establishing a truly meaningful and purposeful life. I continue myself to strive for the 40 hour work week (the “4 hour work week” sounds great, but not within my grasp just yet I think), to let weekends be weekends, and to be willing to pay the price if my commitment is seen to be below that of others. I think in the end, I’ll be able to look back and say that I committed myself to the right things, in the right balance… I like to see my kids and wife each evening, and I count it a blessing that I am usually able to do so.

Anyway – Tina writes honestly and well, and I think you’ll find some encouragement there if you are also struggling with some of these issues.

MacBook and iPad Programming

The second item on my list, and in keeping with my balance between personal productivity and Techie-Geek interests, is a note that I have recently purchased my first ever MacBook (which I am currently using to write this article). So why have I gone down this path? Well, as a means to an end really – I want to get into programming iPad apps, and there is really only one platform on which you can effectively do this, and that is (of course) the Mac OsX platform. So far I have just been rote-learning, following through a book on the topic. I hope soon, however, tho begin construction on one or more of the first apps of my own. I’ll hopefully provide updates here on how that is going on a bit more regular basis. Oh – I don’t currently actually own an iPad, that’s another interim goal I’ll have to achieve somewhere in the not too distant future…

Apple's new iPad

OfficePod – New Meaning to “Work from Home”

Oh yes, in case I haven’t already mentioned this here, I have come across a product which I think would look great in my back yard, especially with my Mac, and a Nespresso coffee machine in it…. the OfficePod. I can see this marvellous structure reducing my daily commute to about 30 seconds… I just need to sell the first 100,000 or so iPad apps, and that should then be workable ;-)

OfficePod - an office in the garden?

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iPhone OS 4.0 announced

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Steve Jobs today announced iPhone OS v4.0. You can find a summary of the inclusions here: http://bit.ly/cX1sxW Among a few major announcements (multi-tasking support), were some arguably less central, but nonetheless very interesting details, such as support for Bluetooth keyboards – something I have personally been wanting to see for a long time.

Another small detail with a big impact on some users, is the inclusion of a character count in the SMS app – something which can make a big difference to those paying a per message fee.

All in all, it’s sounding like a useful upgrade.

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Tablets, iPads, Couriers etc etc

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Like a lot of (Geekish) people, I was keenly awaiting the launch of the i-[insert favourite name fo the latest slate-like Apple device]. Then the iPad (strike one just for the name) was announced and demonstrated. While many media pundits seemed to be happy to re-hash the Apple press-release material (category-defining, magical, game-changing), many actual users of precursor devices seeemed to breathe a collective sigh of disappointment at the Apple offering.

Does the world need a 10″ iPod touch? Quite possibly not. No, no even with the 3G option. My 3G iPad-mini (aka iPhone 3Gs) seems to fill most of that niche quite nicely.

What is my personal ideal device in this area? Well, I’d have to say I believe I have seen a demo video of it, and it is called the Microsoft Courier - a twin 7″ screen “Booklet” form factor device with custom user interface (possibly sitting on top of a version of Windows 7). The “demo video” may be pure animation – the product may yest prove to be vapourware, but Microsoft claims otherwise.

The reason I think the Courier is revolutionary, and on-the-money – at least from my perspective, is that it works the way people do – something Apple usually excels in, but seems to have under-delivered on this time around.

I have been a long time user of the Franklin Covey planning system in paper form. I keep my notes, schedule, to-do, calendar and many other things (photos, misssion statement etc) in that binder.

A year or two ago, however, I experimented with using a Fujitsu p1610 Lifebook touchscreen tablet PC as an alternative. The thing that made this even slightly feasible – Microsoft OneNote. For those that use OneNote, they will tell you there literally is no other comparable product on the market. It is the closest product I have seen to a “works the way people do” product in electronic form.

If Microsoft have taken the lessons learned from OneNote, and created an integrated hardware and software device around those lessons, then that is a product I would be interested in checking out.

My hope is that it would not be too heavily locked down and specialised. I would want it to also be able to edit Office documents, and run Freemind mindmapping software (and other useful Windows utilities) without a complete rewrite of the applications.

And the price point? Well, I would find it hard to believe it achievable, but I think this was one place where Apple did get it right. A US$500 starting price seems about right if the device is to usurp the ubiquitous Netbook, and keep the iPad at bay.

Now, I wonder if Mr Balmer might like to send me a demo model to check out? I’d be only too happy to provide constructive feedback ;)

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