Today I have also mainly been thinking about putting stuff in the clouds.
Once I had upgraded the iPad to IOS 5 it seemed that it was now time to upgrade my Mac to Lion (Grr).
This was easy it took a visit to the App store a payment of 22 quid or so and a long download of a few hours. The install took about 30 mins and all seemed to go well until I opted to use the cloud to sync my calendar.
Our calendar has saved our lives over the years by reminding us to pay bills send birthday cards and remember to get an MOT for the car. However In my enthusiasm to embrace the cloud I said yes to one of the questions about syncing with the iCloud. Then horror.... we looked in the calendar and found 2 of everything.
Out first thought was to delete half the entries by hand. It took some time but eventually the calendar started to look like its old self. So all seemed good with the Lion and the Cloud.
Grr.. the next day we happened to open the calendar in the iPad only to find that all the entries had been deleted. It seems that we had deleted all the duplicate entries and these were the ones in the cloud.
Yawn.. Now we need to move calendar entries from "on my MAC" to the Cloud. I wonder if we will start to forget birthdays or Bills or MOTs. Sigh..
There probably was a better way to do this.
If I did it again I would opt out of cloud for iPad and Lion and continue to use iTunes to Sync for a while. I am sure the iCloud is the answer once we all get the hang of it.
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Wildlife adventures with Apple OS
Today I 'ave mainly been thinking about Lions and Clouds...
Time to plug in the iPad to get an update to IOS 5. All went well it backed up the Pad and then downloaded the update and then took about 30 minutes to decide there had been an error. At this time the Pad was still "busy" and iTunes had disconnected.
This is the first time I have had any problem with an Apple upgrade.
In order to stop the Pad I had to press and hold the start and power buttons for a few seconds.
Then to get iTunes to acknowledge the Pad I had to start the Pad holding down the start button. You get a connect to iTunes picture on the Pad.
The start button is the one on the front of the Pad. The power button is the one on the top of the Pad.
iTunes then spotted a problem and re-loaded IOS 5 and this time it worked.
Yippee!
Time to plug in the iPad to get an update to IOS 5. All went well it backed up the Pad and then downloaded the update and then took about 30 minutes to decide there had been an error. At this time the Pad was still "busy" and iTunes had disconnected.
This is the first time I have had any problem with an Apple upgrade.
In order to stop the Pad I had to press and hold the start and power buttons for a few seconds.
Then to get iTunes to acknowledge the Pad I had to start the Pad holding down the start button. You get a connect to iTunes picture on the Pad.
The start button is the one on the front of the Pad. The power button is the one on the top of the Pad.
iTunes then spotted a problem and re-loaded IOS 5 and this time it worked.
Yippee!
Friday, 24 June 2011
IOS 5 I already think it may help me...
Today I 'ave mainly been thinking that IOS 5 looks to have a couple of nice features that will help me with programming the iphone/pad. Follow this link to see what apple have put on offer.
Automatic Reference Counting sounds like it will prevent me from worrying about garbage collection in Objective-C programs. Hooray!
Storyboards sounds like a new way to define the structure of my iphone/pad app. I need a new way because I am having trouble deciding the current best way.
Automatic Reference Counting sounds like it will prevent me from worrying about garbage collection in Objective-C programs. Hooray!
Storyboards sounds like a new way to define the structure of my iphone/pad app. I need a new way because I am having trouble deciding the current best way.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
One way to make an iPad app and have an iPhone app that does the same thing
Today I 'av mainly been wondering if I can keep my iPad app in step with my iPhone app without copying the code by hand.
Then I had a great idea! Why not use my favorite language Python to help. The idea is to make an iPad App called 'ipad app1' and make the interface and write the code. Then make a iPhone app called 'iphone app1' make the interface (identical to the ipad except smaller) but write no code. Then use this small script to keep the 2 projects in step.
I have tested it on a tiny project now for something bigger...
Then I had a great idea! Why not use my favorite language Python to help. The idea is to make an iPad App called 'ipad app1' and make the interface and write the code. Then make a iPhone app called 'iphone app1' make the interface (identical to the ipad except smaller) but write no code. Then use this small script to keep the 2 projects in step.
I have tested it on a tiny project now for something bigger...
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Ok Two More Chances
Today I 'ave mainly been upgrading my code from XCode 3 to XCode 4. The one more chance before was for XCode 3.
Now I am a fully paid up IOS Developer I have a shiny new version of XCode. Sounds good, always exciting to get a new program to play with. However things have changed a bit so I have a bit of re-learning.
First impressions are good and I am liking the whole thing more.
Now I am a fully paid up IOS Developer I have a shiny new version of XCode. Sounds good, always exciting to get a new program to play with. However things have changed a bit so I have a bit of re-learning.
First impressions are good and I am liking the whole thing more.
Monday, 6 June 2011
Time to Give Xcode and Interface Builder one more Chance
Toady I 'ave mainly been making a minor breakthrough with my understanding of how to write simple iPad/iPhone apps. I wanted to be able to design a simple App that has Buttons and Labels using Interface Builder. Then get my Objective-C code in Xcode to respond to button clicks and update the Labels on the display. Not too much to ask?
I have spent some time reading a Book and browsing Apple Docs and watching uTube videos.
But still it was not obvious to me what had to be done in order to connect a button on the nice Interface Builder screen with a callback in my Xcode code. I had the same problem with Labels.
As you would expect, the answer turned out to be easy. Once you get into the Xcode/Interface Builder mindset.
I was expecting that on the Interface Builder Button screen I would click and get the Interface Builder to produce me some code to handle the button click. This is what I have seen in GUI builders before. This is NOT what happens. This is what took me by surprise.
Instead you go the the Interface Builder to design your screen by adding buttons and labels. This is good because you just concentrate on the design and layout of the screen. You do not worry about the code to make the application live.
When you are happy with your design, you go to the code and add Label objects and Button handlers to your code. In the code you do not say anything about how Buttons or Labels look on the screen (colour/size/position etc.). This is also good as you just concentrate on behavior. You simply write callback handlers for the buttons and update the text on the Label objects.
The last bit of the trick is to make the Labels visible to the Interface Builder by using the IBOutlet specifier and also make the Button callbacks visible by use of the IBAction specifier. Once you have declared the IBOutlet andIBActions it is then easy to connect the Buttons and Labels in the Interface Builder to callbacks and objects in the Objective-C.
The exact mechanics of this are easy and, if I get time I will try to produce a uTube video showing you how. (I have watched several uTube videos that left me confused.)
I now have a simple App that is ready to try out on a real iPad.. Its now a question of time...
I have spent some time reading a Book and browsing Apple Docs and watching uTube videos.
But still it was not obvious to me what had to be done in order to connect a button on the nice Interface Builder screen with a callback in my Xcode code. I had the same problem with Labels.
As you would expect, the answer turned out to be easy. Once you get into the Xcode/Interface Builder mindset.
I was expecting that on the Interface Builder Button screen I would click and get the Interface Builder to produce me some code to handle the button click. This is what I have seen in GUI builders before. This is NOT what happens. This is what took me by surprise.
Instead you go the the Interface Builder to design your screen by adding buttons and labels. This is good because you just concentrate on the design and layout of the screen. You do not worry about the code to make the application live.
When you are happy with your design, you go to the code and add Label objects and Button handlers to your code. In the code you do not say anything about how Buttons or Labels look on the screen (colour/size/position etc.). This is also good as you just concentrate on behavior. You simply write callback handlers for the buttons and update the text on the Label objects.
The last bit of the trick is to make the Labels visible to the Interface Builder by using the IBOutlet specifier and also make the Button callbacks visible by use of the IBAction specifier. Once you have declared the IBOutlet andIBActions it is then easy to connect the Buttons and Labels in the Interface Builder to callbacks and objects in the Objective-C.
The exact mechanics of this are easy and, if I get time I will try to produce a uTube video showing you how. (I have watched several uTube videos that left me confused.)
I now have a simple App that is ready to try out on a real iPad.. Its now a question of time...
Monday, 28 February 2011
A Recurring Dream
Today I 'ave mainly bean realising that I still have never written any useful software for any phone. Every time a family member or friend gets a new phone I start asking the same question: "How can I program this nice handheld XYZ device".
I have spent a little time with my favorite language Python on my old Nokia. I have struggled and ultimately failed to get to grips with Objectional-C for the iPhone (NOTE I may yet change my mind on this one see later posts). Now I am wondering if I can do a bit of Java for a Blackberry.
Initial searches reveal that I can do this on my Mac. All I need is Eclipse with theBlackberry O.S 6 extensions. However the downside seems to be that I have to do all my testing on my actual phone.
This would be alright but what happens when I write some code that runs amok and kills my phone.
It seems that you have to code the app in Java without a nasty Gui editor that hides what is really going on under some magic. So that suits me. I NEVER like "Visual Studio" gui builders. They are really annoying! I wont start on this here as it one of my favorite Soap Box topics.
So if I want to test my programs using a simulator I must go to the PC. So that's a downside.
More (including links to useful sites) later....
I have spent a little time with my favorite language Python on my old Nokia. I have struggled and ultimately failed to get to grips with Objectional-C for the iPhone (NOTE I may yet change my mind on this one see later posts). Now I am wondering if I can do a bit of Java for a Blackberry.
Initial searches reveal that I can do this on my Mac. All I need is Eclipse with theBlackberry O.S 6 extensions. However the downside seems to be that I have to do all my testing on my actual phone.
This would be alright but what happens when I write some code that runs amok and kills my phone.
It seems that you have to code the app in Java without a nasty Gui editor that hides what is really going on under some magic. So that suits me. I NEVER like "Visual Studio" gui builders. They are really annoying! I wont start on this here as it one of my favorite Soap Box topics.
So if I want to test my programs using a simulator I must go to the PC. So that's a downside.
More (including links to useful sites) later....
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Blackberry e-mail
Today (and for the last few days) I 'av mainly been messing about trying to get my new phone (a Blackberry Torch like this) to pick up e-mail like it is supposed to. It was easy enough to connect my e-mail accounts to the Blackberry but, sadly I found I hardly ever got the e-mails on my phone. They were still picked up OK on my laptop.
My first useful Google was here which says that Blackberry check POP e-mails every 15 minutes. Or 2 minutes if anything is sent or received.
After quite a bit more Googling about I discovered a page on the Blackberry site listing the features of several of the larger e-mail providers. here. The page contains a table with a list of features that integrate with Blackberry. The only one that got all ticks was Google Mail. It seems that Google Mail and Blackberry are so well integrated that e-mails sent and received are instant. That was what I was hoping for.
So I created myself a gmail account and set my active e-mails to redirect to my gmail account. Hey Presto it works a treat. I now just have my gmail account connected to my Blackberry. My e-mail addresses all stay the same which is a good thing!
My first useful Google was here which says that Blackberry check POP e-mails every 15 minutes. Or 2 minutes if anything is sent or received.
After quite a bit more Googling about I discovered a page on the Blackberry site listing the features of several of the larger e-mail providers. here. The page contains a table with a list of features that integrate with Blackberry. The only one that got all ticks was Google Mail. It seems that Google Mail and Blackberry are so well integrated that e-mails sent and received are instant. That was what I was hoping for.
So I created myself a gmail account and set my active e-mails to redirect to my gmail account. Hey Presto it works a treat. I now just have my gmail account connected to my Blackberry. My e-mail addresses all stay the same which is a good thing!
Friday, 7 January 2011
Good use for my old iMAC G4
Today I 'ave mainly been amazed as I loaded Ubuntu 10.04 LTS onto my old iMAC giving it a new life.
This is a picture of my first mac!
It was a trusty companion for a couple of years and after I upgraded it served several family members very well over the last 8 years. It finally came back to me last week. Before putting it in the loft I did a quick search on Google for things to do with old Macs. One suggestion was why not put Linux on.
So that's what I did. For some reason most of the posts I read suggested that Power PC support stopped at Ubuntu 7.0 but this turned out to be wrong. It seems to me that you can get all versions of Ubuntu for old Macs.
Look for ubuntu*desktop-power-pc.iso here.
Once downloaded its easy: burn and load (hold down alt when booting). You get a chance to try before you install with Live CD. This post is written on the 'New' Box!
This is a picture of my first mac!
It was a trusty companion for a couple of years and after I upgraded it served several family members very well over the last 8 years. It finally came back to me last week. Before putting it in the loft I did a quick search on Google for things to do with old Macs. One suggestion was why not put Linux on.
So that's what I did. For some reason most of the posts I read suggested that Power PC support stopped at Ubuntu 7.0 but this turned out to be wrong. It seems to me that you can get all versions of Ubuntu for old Macs.
Look for ubuntu*desktop-power-pc.iso here.
Once downloaded its easy: burn and load (hold down alt when booting). You get a chance to try before you install with Live CD. This post is written on the 'New' Box!
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