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In this tutorial Dr. Burton explains how to connect to a remote database through php, convert the data to JSON and pass to a mobile app using Corona SDK. The data is then saved to a local SQLite database. You can see the full tutorial and code listing at www.burtonsmediagroup.com
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iconutil -c icns “$@”
Preparing High-Res Icon Files with Automator originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Question by Joel: Should i learn objective c before I get into cocos2d?
I am new to programming and everything that has to do with game development. I was thinking on first getting a book to learn objective c as a language, and then proceed into the game development. So is this a good idea, or i can go into book without learning objective c?
Best answer:
Answer by Kubz
No, you need basic C.
Add your own answer in the comments!
At the start of 2012, Apple customers and employees were emerging from the initial mourning period for founder and chairman Steve Jobs. Twelve months later, with the first full post-Jobs year in the books, Apple is (mostly) on track with some remarkable successes and only one or two noticeable calamities.
Here’s my highly idiosyncratic list of pleasant surprises from the year that was. You can browse my colleagues’ lists here.
Best Free Upgrade: Hulu Plus on Apple TV. There’s nothing better than getting new tricks out of an old dog, and with July’s unexpected addition of Hulu Plus to the Apple TV, I found new delight in my little black hockey puck. The other subscription, purchase and streaming services on the Apple TV are all worthwhile, but I was already a Hulu Plus subscriber. I’d jumped through several hoops to get VGA and audio from my MacBook into my TV for those instances when I wanted to screen a Hulu show in larger format; it was enough of a pain to discourage me from getting the most out of my subscription.
Hulu’s ad-supplemented service might not be a perfect all-you-can-eat TV option, but it certainly makes cord-cutting a more appealing possibility. Having it on the Apple TV gives Apple’s “hobby” more credibility as a true living room reformer. Whether or not the hypothetical “Apple television” debuts in 2013, the current offering (including the March hardware upgrade to 1080p) has some legs.
Honorable mention: We had to wander through the wilderness for a few months — quite literally, in some cases — before finding our way to a better navigation and mapping solution on iPhone. Not everyone rejected Apple’s new Maps app. But for those who had issues, the problems were real and really annoying. Never mind the 3D views, Siri integration and free, fast turn-by-turn directions that we’d been waiting years to get; if point A to point B ends you at point nowhere, that’s no good.
Thanks to the introduction of Google’s new app in December, we have something close to the best of both worlds. An improving, imperfect on-board solution that’s still offering next-gen functionality as the underlying POI database catches up; plus another free, sleek and easy Google-powered app that’s delivering more (TBT navigation! Voice!) than the old app ever did.
Best Hardware Milestone: MacBook Pro with Retina display. Six months in, and some days I’m still not sure I made the right choice in going for the Retina 15″ MBP over a fully souped-up MacBook Air. But then I spend a week away from my desktop, absorbed in the so-sharp-it-might-cut-you screen of the MBP and the remarkable performance of the all-solid-state architecture, and the extra weight in my backpack doesn’t bother me so much.
Apple’s great leap forward in portable displays comes with a steep sticker price, and there are still a few rough edges with naïve screenshot tools and key un-Retinized apps that show up as blocky as refugees from MacPaint Mountain. (I’m looking at you, ScreenSteps 2.) But Apple’s willingness to push the envelope on HiDPI display technology — and customers’ comfort level with buying in — once again puts the company’s portable computing offerings at the top of the heap.
Honorable mention: No word yet from Thor’s lawyers, but the mobile-to-Mac revamp of Apple’s peripheral connectivity with Thunderbolt and Lightning has caused less pain than I expected and delivered more benefits than I hoped. The pace of Thunderbolt peripheral releases has sped up from a stall to a modest trot, and Mac support for the fast USB 3 standard has also helped ease the aggravation of dealing with dongles and adapters for legacy FireWire gear. On the iOS side, the Lightning connector delivers more mechanical reliability while maintaining solid compatibility with docks, clocks and chargers via the 30-pin adapter lineup. Of course, the Lightning adapter wouldn’t have anything to connect to without the handsome iPhone 5, fourth-gen iPad and iPad mini.
Worst Surprise: For anyone who was hoping to cash in on resale of an iPad 3rd generation, it’s got to be the “early” introduction of the Lightning-equipped fourth gen iPad. You live and you learn.
Best OS Overhauls: iOS 6 and Mountain Lion. Neither of Apple’s big OS releases this year escaped criticism and controversy. iOS 6 faced the aforementioned Maps migraines, and Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper app security and Facebook integration. But the benefits of the new systems outweigh the drawbacks. Mountain Lion’s on-board Dictation support, Notification Center and baked-in AirPlay mirroring helped make 2012 easier than 2011. iOS 6′s panorama photos, improved Siri, Passbook, expanded Open In menu, the indispensable Guided Access and even Maps brought the mobile platform forward.
Honorable mention: This was the year the Mac App Store came into its own as a valid, vibrant channel for Mac software. Many of my favorite Mac apps have found a home on the MAS; several more, unfortunately, have backed off the store as the sandboxing restrictions proved too challenging or detrimental to core functionality. Here’s hoping that the 2013 MAS delivers some of the flexibility these apps need to thrive.
Favorite Mac Apps: It took too long (really, way too long) for Cultured Code’s Things to deliver cloud synchronization of tasks — but now that it’s here as part of Things 2, it’s made my daily routine a lot easier. All my iOS devices and my Mac have the same to-do list instantaneously, with no fuss. (Yes, I could get some of the same mileage out of iCloud and Reminders, but I need more categorization and tagging options in my crazy register of things that are overdue.) Likewise, the newly streamlined BusyCal 2 delivers a solid and reliable calendar for anyone who needs more than Apple’s Calendar or Microsoft’s Outlook can supply.
Honorable mention: The dead simple screenshare/remote meeting tool join.me, from the fine folks at LogMeIn, works great on the Mac and surprisingly well on the iPad. It’s so much easier than most meeting tools, it’s almost unfair. Bonus points for the feature that lets you hand off control and sharing to one of your attendees, then reclaim the mouse for your own; as a last-ditch, low-fi remote support tool (when Messages screensharing and Back to my Mac falls down) it’s a delight.
Favorite iOS Apps: I never imagined that a third-party “killer app” would revitalize an iOS baked-in feature, but I stand corrected. Loren Brichter’s Letterpress is that app, and it’s singlehandedly made Game Center cool again. I was also excited to see the official Khan Academy iPad app make its debut, for all your math video needs.
Readdle’s Calendars app is a must-have for anyone wrangling multiple Google calendars and reasonably priced at $6.99; I’ve dinged Readdle in the past for some questionable UI choices in its apps, but Calendars is clean and clever.
Finally, for maintaining my inner serenity (to say nothing of my multiple time-zone sleep patterns), I depend on the library of Andrew Johnson relaxation apps. You can get a taste of Johnson’s gravelly Scottish tones in the free Relaxing Holidays app, or browse his entire hypnotherapy catalog on the App Store and in the audiobooks section. (Bonus points for one of the best app names of all time, if you imagine it being shouted by an angry spouse as you head out to the pub.)
Favorite Accessories: Speaking of behavior modification, the Fitbit activity tracker has given me insight into my sleep and fitness level in 2012 (spoiler alert: it’s not so good), and the motivation to step it up in 2013. Fitbit’s Ultra pedometer, my model, has been discontinued in favor of the One tracker; the new unit adds direct wireless sync to Bluetooth 4.0 iOS devices.
Since I do quite a bit of flying, the automatic noise cancellation in the Fanny Wang 3000 Series headphones makes a big difference in podcast and music listening onboard. The FW ‘phones are somewhat oversize for everyday use, but in noisy environments they’re exactly what the ear doctor ordered.
Also in the road warrior category, I spent a lot of 2012 looking for the perfect iPad keyboard/case combo. I may not have found the ideal fit, but until I do the Adonit writer keyboard and case has made my iPad a more effective writing tool. The keyboard is leagues better than the cheap Bluetooth options from some other vendors (ahem, Boxwave) and the easy-clip frame lets me quickly transition from convertible to standalone iPad use.
Best Raging Against The Dying Of The Light: Macworld | iWorld. When Apple made its last official appearance at Macworld Expo in early 2009, the conventional wisdom was that the tradeshow and conference would not survive much longer without the imprimatur of the mother company.
So much for the conventional wisdom, I suppose. While smaller and scrappier, the show continues to draw an audience of eager Mac and iOS fans, developers and creative pros. For last year’s event, Paul Kent and his team at IDG rebranded the show as Macworld | iWorld, acknowledging the shifting platform emphasis toward mobile while making the show’s name much harder to print correctly. The upcoming fourth post-Apple edition will be kicking off on January 31 and running through February 2. TUAW will be there, and after a one-year hiatus, so will I — and I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there, too.
TUAW Best of 2012 Personal Picks: Michael Rose originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Previously, in our iOS Programming 101 series, we showed you how to customize the appearance of the Tab Bar. In this tutorial, we’ll continue to talk about UI customization and cover how to use Appearance API to make the Navigation Bar more beautiful.
Here are what you’ll learn in this tutorial:
As usual, we’re going to illustrate the concept by converting a plain navigation bar to one with customized graphics. However, to help you focus on learning the customization, we’ve prepared the Xcode project for you to start with. Before proceeding, first download the Xcode project here (note: the project is created using Xcode 4.5).
If you build and run the project, you’ll get an app with simple navigation UI. Now we’ll work together to style the navigation bar, customize the bar buttons and assign our own background image for the view.
Demo App – Custom Navigation Bar
First, we would like to change the background of view controller with our own image. If you open the Xcode project, you’ll see a set of images that we’ve added for you. To set the background image, open the “RecipeViewController.m” and add the following line of code to the end of “viewDidLoad” method:
| 1 | self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage : [UIImage imageNamed : @ "common_bg" ] ]; |
Apparently, you can use the “backgroundColor” property of the view to change the background color. What you may not know is that you can also use the same property to set the background image. The trick is to create a UIColor object using the “colorWithPatternImage”. During drawing, the image in the pattern color is tiled as necessary to cover the view area.
After the change, compile and run the app. It should like this:
Customizing the Background of View Area
Prior to iOS 5, developers can only change the style of navigation bar through a handful of properties. But the problem is the change only applies to the navigation bar of a specific view. From iOS 5 and onwards, the SDK allows developers to style the navigation bar by using Appearance API. You can easily customize the appearance of navigation bars throughout the app using the appearance proxy ([UINavigationBar appearance]).
Open “AppDelegate.m” and add the following in the “application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions” method:
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | - ( BOOL )application : (UIApplication * )application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions : ( NSDictionary * )launchOptions { UIImage *navBackgroundImage = [UIImage imageNamed : @ "navbar_bg" ]; [ [UINavigationBar appearance ] setBackgroundImage :navBackgroundImage forBarMetrics :UIBarMetricsDefault ]; return YES; } |
The first line of code creates the UIImage object with our own background image of navigation bar. Then we use the appearance proxy to assign the image.
Next, we’ll change the font style of the title text. You can customize the text style by using the “titleTextAttributes” properties of the navigation bar. You can specify the font, text color, text shadow color, and text shadow offset for the title in the text attributes dictionary, using the following text attribute keys:
In the “application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions” method of AppDelegate.m, add the following code:
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 | [ [UINavigationBar appearance ] setTitleTextAttributes : [ NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys : [UIColor colorWithRed : 245.0 / 255.0 green : 245.0 / 255.0 blue : 245.0 / 255.0 alpha : 1.0 ], UITextAttributeTextColor, [UIColor colorWithRed : 0.0 green : 0.0 blue : 0.0 alpha : 0.8 ],UITextAttributeTextShadowColor, [ NSValue valueWithUIOffset :UIOffsetMake ( 0, 1 ) ], UITextAttributeTextShadowOffset, [UIFont fontWithName : @ "HelveticaNeue-CondensedBlack" size : 21.0 ], UITextAttributeFont, nil ] ]; |
The above code alters the text style of navigation bar title. We use the HelveticaNeue-CondensedBlack as the font type, set the color to white and add a shadow to the text.
Now compile and run the app again. This is what the customized navigation bar looks like:
Navigation Bar with customized background and text style
Lastly, we’re going to change the appearance of back button, as well as, other navigation bar buttons (i.e. UIBarButtonItem). Again, open “AppDelegate.m” and add the following code in the “application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions” method:
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | // Change the appearance of back button UIImage *backButtonImage = [ [UIImage imageNamed : @ "button_back" ] resizableImageWithCapInsets :UIEdgeInsetsMake ( 0, 13, 0, 6 ) ]; [ [UIBarButtonItem appearance ] setBackButtonBackgroundImage :backButtonImage forState :UIControlStateNormal barMetrics :UIBarMetricsDefault ]; // Change the appearance of other navigation button UIImage *barButtonImage = [ [UIImage imageNamed : @ "button_normal" ] resizableImageWithCapInsets :UIEdgeInsetsMake ( 0, 6, 0, 6 ) ]; [ [UIBarButtonItem appearance ] setBackgroundImage :barButtonImage forState :UIControlStateNormal barMetrics :UIBarMetricsDefault ]; |
We first create the UIImage objects using our own images (i.e. button_back.png and button_normal.png) and then set the image object as the background image of the UIBarButtonItem. But what’s the resizableImageWithCapInsets: method for? The buttons in navigation bar are not in fixed size. It’ll be automatically resized depending on the text length of the button. For round rectangular button, you probably don’t want to stretch the button in all directions. So we use the resizableImageWithCapInsets: method to add cap insets to the image. During resizing of the image, areas covered by a cap are not resized. The below illustration will give you a better idea about the cap inset:
resizableImageWithCapInsets illustrated
We define the cap inset using the UIEdgeInset structure. The UIEdgeInsets is structure that specifies float values for each cap inset: top, left, bottom and right areas of an image. For instance, line 1 of the above code instructs iOS that the left 13 pixels and the right 6 pixels of the back button image are not scaled or resized.
After making the code change, compile and run the app again. You should now have the custom back and edit buttons.
Navigation Bar with customized UIBarButtonItems
Hope you enjoy this tutorial! For your reference, you can download the final Xcode project here. The appearance proxy gives iOS developers a much easier way to customize the UI controls. You should utilize it to make your app more attractive. In later tutorials, we’ll show you how to style other UI components such as UITableView in iOS app.
As always, leave us comment if you have any questions about the tutorial.
ENDERDRACHEN REITEN: www.youtube.com Tutorial Playlist: www.youtube.com Zum Let’s Play: www.youtube.com Fast Minecraft Piston Elevator: www.youtube.com Letztes Tutorial – Schnellster Aufzug: www.youtube.com FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com TWITTER: twitter.com Mein Texturenpack: Mix von MeineKraft von Honeyball (Downloadlink auf Kanal) Fragen?: www.youtube.com Hintergrundmusik: KsTBeats (Creative Commons) www.youtube.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5
This week’s Caturday model is Capties, who loves the toasty hum of a 2009 Mac mini underneath the hindquarters. Reader Ethel B. notes that her husband doesn’t think cat pressure is good for the mini, but she convinced him to snap this photo before gently removing Capties to a neutral location.
If you’ve got a Caturday nominee to share, let us know via our feedback page. For security reasons we can’t accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link.
Photo used with permission.
Caturday holiday edition: Cold weather, warm seat originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 29 Dec 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
How to use rotation and scale operations at the same time! www.anscamobile.com. Source for this and other samples is now at http
As you celebrate this holiday season with a game of Angry Birds Star Wars on that new iPad mini, take a moment to consider the workers in China who are about to forego their traditional two-week Chinese New Year break. According to United Daily, at least two of Apple’s suppliers in the country are planning to run their production lines right through the holiday to meet Chinese demand for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. will run at least some of its lines, while Flexium Interconnect, which makes Apple’s printed circuit boards, is keeping its factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province open with the help of students.
While it appears that iPhone 5 supply has finally met demand in the US, the iPad mini continues to be hard to find here despite ship times from Apple’s online store shrinking to one week earlier this month.
[Via Apple Insider]
Production lines running through Chinese New Year to meet iPad mini demand originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Hiya! I just made this and it is really yummy. 
If the iOS’ clock capabilities are too bland for your tastes, then you just might appreciate Radio Alarm Clock. This app is an all-in-one featuring a sleep timer, a shake-to-snooze option and has an old-timey antique display, among other features. It will also alert you that it’s time to wake up with nature sounds, radio stations or various other sounds of your choosing.
Can this flashy timepiece get you ready to take on the world in the morning? Find out more about it after the jump.
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No one likes to hear an alarm going off. It usually means that a dream is being interrupted and that it’s time for the inevitable start of the workday. But if there’s a way for the experience of waking up to become more pleasant and more effective, we’re all for it. What Radio Alarm Clock contributes to this cause is option after option that will ease sleepers into bright-eyed and bushy-tailed morning people.
Radio Alarm Clock’s normal view (left) and alarm-setting screen (right).
For example, when you initially start setting up an alarm, one of the choices you’re given is how the sound begins. The Sound Fade In can take place 30 seconds to 5 minutes after your alarm goes off. What happens is that instead of your alarm blaring at peak volume, it will progressively get louder over the time established. You may wake up a little later, but you will also have the sound introduced more subtly.
You can have the alarm blare, though, if that is your preference. In fact, you are able to set the alarm volume so that it doesn’t exceed certain decibel levels and totally freak you out.
Two different views of when the alarm goes off.
You can also control whether or not the alarm will go off with a vibration. Much like the noise level controls, it’s up to you whether you want your iPhone shaking and rattling on your nightstand.
If waking up is really a problem in the morning, selecting to have the alarm turn off by shaking it might be the forceful way to get the process started. Just determine how many shakes you want the iPhone to take before shutting off the alarm or going into snooze mode.
Radio Alarm Clock boasts that it can broadcast more than 50,000 radio stations from around the globe. These stations can be listened to while you’re utilizing the sleep timer and can be the first thing you hear when your alarm goes off.
One perk that comes with having this many radio stations is that you are able to continue listening to them after your alarm goes off. The tuner option turns Radio Alarm Clock into an equivalent of iHeartRadio, OneTuner, TuneIn or the other streaming apps out there — well, except maybe those such as Pandora, Songza and Spotify.
Radio Alarm Clock scans for a station (left) chosen from its lists (right).
If you can’t find a station, Radio Alarm Clock says that you can add it by typing in the URL. A few attempts made during this write-up found that promise didn’t really prove true, though maybe there are specific links required. (The ones used were the general URLs for the stations.)
Stations can be searched by country and within the USA you can search by state. There are also rankings for the top 100 stations and a direct link to a list of SHOUTcast stations. Add anything you find in your quest for musical happiness to your favorites for future listening or for alarm and sleep timer purposes. Speaking of that …
If you need some sounds to soothe you into a slumber, Radio Alarm Clock features a sleep timer. This handy functionality will play sounds as you are trying to fall asleep. The nocturnal noise can be one of the nature sounds provided in the app, a radio station, MP3 files found on your phone or you can record your own nighttime soundtrack.
How long the sleep timer will be needed will vary from person to person. Thankfully, you can set your sleep timer for as short as one minute or as long as 23 hours and 59 minutes.
Change the length of your sleep timer.
An additional decision that comes with the sleep timer is whether or not the sound you’re listening to stops or fades out. Choosing to have it end will abruptly cut the volume when the clock runs out on the sleep timer.
The fading option will soften the sounds and music anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes before the timer is to shut off, easing the transition from to a soft noise-filled to a noise-free zone.
Radio Alarm Clock consolidates features found on your iPhone and from a few free apps into an all-in-one resource to manage your sleep schedule. For the most part, things work as they’re supposed to. The alarms go off. The radio usually plays and plays for as long as you want it to and at the noise level that you set for it. The biggest perk was the sleep timer, mainly because this reviewer hasn’t come across other apps that control sound in this fashion.
What was a little disappointing was how difficult it was to add stations not found in the already-extensive list. It’s not clear what URLs the app is looking for specifically, so it makes it a challenge to upload a station you love for alarm purposes. The alarm seems to also selectively decide when it’s going to play sounds or not, especially when the phone is in silent mode. Yes an alarm will go off, but it may be a vibrating one rather than sounds, or you may get lucky and get both.
You can probably stick with the music and alarm options found in the iOS, but the merging of the two in the sleep timer makes the purchase worth it if you need something to help you fall asleep.
