iOS & Android Development

Make your mark on Google with Handwrite for Mobile and Tablet Search Unlike searching on a desktop or laptop computer, when you're searching on a touch-screen mobile device it’s often inconvenient to type. So we strive to give you a variety of ways to interact with Google, be it by speaking your queries, getting results before you finish typing, or searching by image. Now there’s a new way for you to interact with Google: Handwrite for web search on mobile phones and tablets.  Google

This month’s publication discussed the incredible progress of the Apple App Store from launch four years ago through June 2012. Although volumes and especially revenues have increased, the competition has grown much more fierce as well. In terms of volume the height of downloads per app was in June 2010. However, new markets in other countries have grown significantly over the past two years and are now among some of the largest markets, e.g. China, which is already the second largest country in terms of free downloads. Moreover, the revenue more than tripled in the past two years mainly due to the success of free applications that feature in-app purchases. Games and applications in the Newsstand category are highly successful in monetizing via in-app purchases. Distimo (see publication of June)

Analytics für mobilen App-Traffic ermöglicht durchgängige Messungen entlang des Weges von Kunden innerhalb einer mobilen App. Dazu werden Messwerte in allen Phasen des Kundenkontakts gesammelt – zum Beispiel Akquisitionsmesswerte wie neue/aktive Nutzer, Interaktionsmesswerte wie Besucherfluss, Kundentreue oder App-Abstürze sowie Ergebnismesswerte wie Ziel-Conversions und In-App-Käufe. So hilft Analytics Mobilentwicklern und Marketingexperten, erfolgreichere Apps zu erstellen und bessere Nutzererfahrungen zu schaffen. Die Funktion wird nun Schritt für Schritt eingeführt und gegen Ende des Sommers für alle Nutzer verfügbar sein. Google Analytics Mobile App Analysis

Some really nice caveats described in a funny way! e.g. Yoda Conditions Using if(constant == variable) instead of if(variable == constant), like if(4 == foo). Because it's like saying "if blue is the sky" or "if tall is the man". ROFL Coding Horror

Einer aktuellen Studie zufolge, ist Werbung auf den iOS-Geräten, sprich iPhone, iPad und iPod touch am wirkungsvollsten. Vor allem das iPad generiert viele Werbeklicks und lockt somit potentielle Kunden. Macerkopf

Besitzer eines iPads geben durchschnittlich 20 Prozent mehr pro Einkauf aus, als die Nutzer anderer mobilen Endgeräte. Dies ist das Ergebnis einer Analyse von Transaktionen des Zahlungsanbieters Adyen. ECIN

Das iGills SE-35 von Amphibian Labs ist keine normale wasserdichte Hülle für das iPhone, sondern soll Apples Smartphone mit Zusatzsensoren in einen Tauchcomputer verwandeln, der in bis zu 40 Meter Wassertiefe verwendet werden kann. Golem

Motivation Apple Developer:  About Unit Testing Logic Tests Apple Developer:  Setting Up Unit-Testing in a Project Download convert OCUnit command line output to JUnit XML: OCUnit2JUnit  and put it in your project Setup Freestyle project in Jenkins Add Execute shell step: chmod +x ./ pathtoscript /ocunit2junit.rb xcodebuild -target  myTarget  -configuration  myConfig  -sdk iphonesimulator clean build |  ./ pathtoscript /ocunit2junit.rb Add post build action Publish JUnit Test Results with location: test-reports/*.xml Application Tests Apple Developer:  Setting Up Unit-Testing in a Project Download the patched  RunPlatformUnitTests script and put in your project Open the Build Phases  -  Run Script setting and change script path to  "${PROJECT_DIR}/ pathtoscript /RunPlatformUnitTests" Download convert OCUnit command line output to JUnit XML:  OCUnit2JUnit  and put it in your proj...

There is a known issue when using the performTaskOnHost API in a UI Automation script. If the task being performed with the API outputs excessively (say, thousands of lines of text) to standard out or standard error, the task may deadlock until the timeout is reached, at which point it will throw a javascript exception. The lock() and unlock() functions of UIATarget have been replaced with the lockForDuration( ) function. Starting in iOS 5 beta 2, you can now trigger the execution of an UI Automation script on an iOS device from the host terminal by using the instruments tool. The command is: instruments -w device id -t template application When using the cli instruments for UI Automation you can now target the default Automation Template and pass the script and results path into the tool as environment variable options. For example: instruments -w device_id -t /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Library/Instruments/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.bundle/Contents/...

A vulnerability has been discovered in iOS 5.1 and earlier related to validating in-app purchase receipts by connecting to the App Store server directly from an iOS device. An attacker can alter the DNS table to redirect these requests to a server controlled by the attacker. Using a certificate authority controlled by the attacker and installed on the device by the user, the attacker can issue a SSL certificate that fraudulently identifies the attacker’s server as an App Store server. When this fraudulent server is asked to validate an invalid receipt, it responds as if the receipt were valid. iOS 6 will address this vulnerability. If your app follows the best practices described below then it is not affected by this attack. iOS Developer Library In-App-Klau jetzt auch im Mac App Store ( Heise )

Apple has begun adding a new field to its in-app purchase receipts entitled ‘unique_identifier’. The addition of the field was reported by Macrumors, but contrary to its article, it does not appear to contain a Unique Device Identifier (UDID), something that Apple has been instructing developers to move away from. The Next Web

1. Better user session management: In the past, managing auths, user sessions and tokens was hard. We've spent a lot of time working to make these takes easier for you. This release introduces FBSession, which manages, stores and refreshes user tokens with default behaviors you can override. It uses the block metaphor to notify your app when a user's token changes state. 2. Ready-to-Use Native UI Views: This SDK release includes a variety of pre-built user interface (UI) components for common functions. You can quickly drop them into your apps instead of building each one from scratch or using dialogs. This gives you a fast, native and consistent way to build common features. 3. Modern Objective-C language features support: With Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), you no longer have to spend as much time on memory management. Support for blocks means that it’s now more straightforward to handle sessions and calls to asynchronous Facebook APIs. This, along with inclusion o...

Wie lange eine iOS Version im Beta-Status verbleibt hat Will Hains in einem übersichtlichen Zeitstrahl visualisiert. Will Hains

As a native Mac client, Collections lets you access your Google Docs with unparalled speed. Simply launch the app and you're off to the races – browse and edit your documents and even read a cached version offline. Collections

What are the best technologies to use for behavior-driven development on the iPhone? And what are some open source example projects that demonstrate sound use of these technologies? Here are some options: iOS Tests/Specs TDD/BDD and Integration & Acceptance Testing Which Automated iOS Testing Tool to Use Zucchini

Why MKNetworkKit? MKNetworkKit is inspired by the other two popular network frameworks ASIHTTPRequest and AFNetworking. Mostly ASI, to some extent, AFNetworking. I've been an unofficial "evangelist" of ASIHTTPRequest till the plug was pulled. Marrying the feature set from both, MKNetworkKit throws in a bunch of new features like Single queue for the whole app Auto queue sizing Auto caching and restoring Performs exactly one operation for similar requests Background completion Full ARC support cURL-able debug lines. MKNetworkKit's goal was to make it as feature rich as ASIHTTPRequest yet simple and elegant to use like AFNetworking MKNetworkKit

The web scripting capabilities of WebKit permit you to access Objective-C properties and call Objective-C methods from the JavaScript scripting environment. An important but not necessarily obvious fact about this bridge is that it does not allow any JavaScript script to access Objective-C. You cannot access Objective-C properties and methods from a web browser unless a custom plug-in has been installed. The bridge is intended for people using custom plug-ins and JavaScript environments enclosed within WebKit objects (for example, a WebView). Bad news though: Not (yet) available in iOS, Mac OS only... Apple Developer

A quick talk I gave at the Lyon Android User Group. It covered some useful tips and tricks to create smooth and responsive applications. SpeakerDeck

OCMock is an Objective-C implementation of mock objects. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of mock objects please visit mockobjects.com which has more details and discussions about this approach to testing software. This implementation fully utilises the dynamic nature of Objective-C. It creates mock objects on the fly and uses the trampoline pattern so that you can define expectations and stubs using the same syntax that you use to call methods. No strings, no @selector, just method invocations like this: [[myMockObject expect] doSomethingWithObject:someObject]; OCMock.org How to have fun with OCMock

A Matcher Framework for Objective-C/Cocoa. Adds some nice syntactic sugar for writing assertions. Expecta

Last night, within minutes of Apple approving the Instapaper 4.2.3 update, I was deluged by support email and Twitter messages from customers saying that it crashed immediately on launch, even with a clean install. Lots of anxiety and research led me to the problem: a seemingly corrupt update being distributed by the App Store in many or possibly all regions. Marco.org Seems to be fixed

@implementation MyClass static NSArray *thePlanets; + (void)initialize {   if (self == [MyClass class]) {     thePlanets = @[       @"Mercury", @"Venus", @"Earth",       @"Mars", @"Jupiter", @"Saturn",       @"Uranus", @"Neptune"     ];   } } NSObject Class Reference

"It’s my expectation that in three to five years it will actually look unusual and awkward when we view someone holding an object in their hand and looking down at it." Wired