Native Or Web? Bizness Apps Adds HTML5 Platform To Let SMBs Create Their Own Apps — For Both

09/02/2011 Posted by whatios

Bizness Apps, the startup that gives small businesses the tools to quickly and easily build mobile apps, launched in October 2010 and has been growing like gangbusters, reaching over 1,000 applications, 10 languages, and over 20 countries in less than 9 months. It also recently partnered with WuFoo to give SMBS the ability to create and seamlessly add contact forms, online surveys, and invitations to their apps. The startup also has an interesting founding story that provides some useful lessons for your entrepreneurs. Check out our April coverage here.

Bizness Apps’s value proposition is simple: The startup wants to make mobile apps affordable, customizable, and simple to make for the small business owner. Thus, the startup offers a DIY iPhone, iPad, and Android app platform that enables SMBs to create, edit, and manage mobile apps without any programming experience required. You start with a template, customize them to suit your business, and then Bizness Apps makes them native apps and distributes them on iTunes and the Android Marketplace.

The startup is not without competitors in this space, as iSites, SwebApps and Mobile Roadie are targeting a similar endpoint. But Bizness Apps has a real advantage in the fact that it’s product is easy to use, designed well, yet remains affordable. The price for using either their iOS or Android platform is $39, while those that want to create both Android and iOS apps pay $59. This affordability is very appealing to small businesses looking to take advantage of mobile business without having to fork over thousands of dollars to do so.

Native apps are great and all, you might say, but what about this supposed HTML5 revolution? Where my web apps at? Nothwithstanding the fact that there’s been a hot debate over whether app developers should go for HTML5 or native apps (as evidenced by MG’s post on the subject back in February), Bizness Apps Founder and CEO Andrew Gazdecki said that he thinks the best approach is to make a bet on mobile as a whole — not one or the other.

That’s why the startup is today announcing the launch of an HTML5 version of their DIY mobile app platform for small businesses. With this new web functionality, users of the service are now able to create nearly identical mobile experiences for every mobile platform including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and so on — they can go native or HTML5, or both. For an extra $10 a month.

As part of the HTML5 platform launch, Bizness Apps has built a QR code-enabled mobile marketing template to provide SMBs with a simple and affordable way to market their mobile apps to their customers. The template image, as seen above, is automatically created (with the ability to print) with one click from inside the HTML5 platform.

The idea here, Gazdecki says, is to help direct a business’ customers to the appropriate app based on what type of mobile device they’re using. For example, if a user has an Android phone, they would scan the Android themed QR code to be directed to the business’ Android app.

Availability on native and HTML5 is another important piece to the puzzle in building a platform agnostic app development tool for SMBs, and with its affordability, and new mobile marketing capabilities, Bizness Apps has become an exciting platform and looks well-positioned to weather the native vs. web apps debate.

The startup is offering a coupon code for 25 free apps for TC readers, which you can check out by signing up here. The coupon code is “techcrunch”.

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Categories: iOS development, News

What is ASIHTTPRequest?

08/11/2011 Posted by whatios

What is ASIHTTPRequest?

ASIHTTPRequest is an easy to use wrapper around the CFNetwork API that makes some of the more tedious aspects of communicating with web servers easier. It is written in Objective-C and works in both Mac OS X and iPhone applications.

It is suitable performing basic HTTP requests and interacting with REST-based services (GET / POST / PUT / DELETE). The included ASIFormDataRequest subclass makes it easy to submit POST data and files usingmultipart/form-data.

Features

  • A straightforward interface for submitting data to and fetching data from webservers
  • Download data to memory or directly to a file on disk
  • The ability to submit files on local drives as part of POST data, compatible with the HTML file input mechanism
  • Easy access to request and response HTTP headers
  • Progress delegates (NSProgressIndicators and UIProgressViews) to show information about download AND upload progress
  • Auto-magic management of upload and download progress indicators for operation queues
  • Basic, Digest and NTLM authentication support, credentials are automatically for the duration of a session, and can be stored for later in the Keychain.
  • Cookie support
  • NEW! Requests can continue to run when your app moves to the background (iOS 4+)
  • GZIP support for response data AND request bodies
  • The included ASIDownloadCache class lets requests transparently cache responses, and allow requests for cached data to succeed even when there is no network available!
  • NEW! ASIWebPageRequest - download complete webpages, including external resources like images and stylesheets. Pages of any size can be indefinitely cached, and displayed in a UIWebview / WebView even when you have no network connection.
  • Easy to use support for Amazon S3 - no need to fiddle around signing requests yourself!
  • Full support for Rackspace Cloud Files, contributed by Mike Mayo of Rackspace.
  • NEW! Client certificates support
  • Supports manual and auto-detected proxies, authenticating proxies, and PAC file auto-configuration. The built-in login dialog lets your iPhone application work transparently with authenticating proxies without any additional effort.
  • Bandwidth throttling support
  • Support for persistent connections
  • Supports synchronous & asynchronous requests
  • Get notifications about changes in your request state via delegation or NEW! blocks (Mac OS X 10.6, iOS 4 and above)
  • Comes with a broad range of unit tests

ASIHTTPRequest comes with a example applications for Mac and iPhone that demonstrate some of the features.

ASIHTTPRequest is partly based on code from Apple’s ImageClient code samples, so if it doesn’t meet your needs, take a look at their CFNetwork examples for more.

ASIHTTPRequest is compatible with Mac OS 10.5 or later, and iOS 3.0 or later.

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Categories: iOS development

Chilkat SSH / SFTP Objective-C Library for IOS / MAC OS X

08/09/2011 Posted by whatios

Downloads:

Chilkat IOS (IPhone) Objective-C Libraries

Chilkat Cocoa/Objective-C Libraries

Documentation: SSH · SFTP

Objective-C Examples: SSH · SFTP

Purchase · License

The SSH / SFTP Objective-C library provides two classes: A client-side SSH2 implementation for executing commands and shell sessions on Unix/Windows SSH servers, and an SFTP implementation for file transfer and remote file management over SSH.

SSH Features · SFTP Features · SSH Key Creation/Conversion

Features Common to all Chilkat Components

  • New-version upgrades always free, forever.
  • Identical API in C#, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, VB6, ASP, FoxPro, Delphi, C, MFC, etc.
  • Single license covers all programming languages/platforms.
  • Royalty-free redistribution.
  • Unlimited 1-year phone and email support

SSH Features

  • Implements the SSH2 protocol.
  • Remote shell over SSH.
  • Execute commands over SSH channel.
  • SOCKS4 and SOCKS5 proxy support.
  • Supports IPV6.
  • HTTP proxy support.
  • Automomous SSH Tunneling in a background thread.
  • SSH Tunnel (port-forwarding) in foreground thread.
  • Manage multiple open channels simultaneously.
  • Asynchronous operation — start commands/shell and retrieve responses separately.
  • Supports both password and public-key authentication.
  • Supports keyboard interactive authentication.
  • Execute multiple commands over multiple channels simultaneously.
  • Initiate key re-exchange.
  • Transparently handles server key re-exchanges.
  • Explicit control over bi-directional channels with ability to send CLOSE and EOF.
  • Request PTY for terminal emulation.
  • Set environment variables.
  • Send signals to remote shell or command.
  • Set TTY mode.
  • Supports custom channels.
  • Automatic conversion of text output from remote system’s charset to Unicode-based strings.
  • SSH tunneling (tunneling) for IMAP, SMTP, POP3 integrated directly in Chilkat IMAP and Email components.
  • Progress monitoring and abort capability

SFTP Features

  • Upload and download files.
  • Resume (restart) uploads and downloads.
  • Download directory listings w/ easy access to file information.
  • Copy files and data directly from/to variables
  • Supports all versions of SFTP servers (v3, v4, v5, v6, etc.)
  • Supports both password and public-key authentication.
  • Supports 64-bit file sizes.
  • Allows for multiple files or directories to be open simultaneously.
  • Create remote directories.
  • Delete and rename remote files and directories.
  • Get/set file last-modified, create, and last-access date/times.
  • Get/set file permissions and attributes.
  • Get/set file owner and group.
  • Event callbacks for progress monitoring and abort.
  • Resolve relative paths to absolute paths via “REALPATH”.
  • Copy local file attributes and date/times to remote file.
  • Provides full control of whether symbolic links are resolved (i.e. followed)

SSH Key Creation/Conversion Features

  • Generate new DSA keys.
  • Generate new RSA keys.
  • Import/export private keys in OpenSSH format (encrypted or unencrypted).
  • Import/export private keys in PuTTY format (encrypted or unencrypted).
  • Import/export public keys in OpenSSH format.
  • Import/export public keys in RFC 4716 format.
  • Import/export keys in XML format.
  • Generate fingerprint for key.
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Categories: iOS development

What New in XCode4

08/05/2011 Posted by whatios

Xcode is the complete toolset for building Mac OS X and iOS applications — and with Xcode 4, the tools have been redesigned to be faster, easier to use, and more helpful than ever before. The Xcode IDE understands your project’s every detail, identifies mistakes in both syntax and logic, and will even fix your code for you. Quite simply, Xcode 4 will help you write better code.

Xcode 4 has a brand new user interface, built upon proven technologies that Apple itself uses to build Mac OS X and iOS, and that have produced over a quarter million Mac OS X and iOS apps.

Single Window

As an experienced Xcode user, the first thing you will notice about Xcode 4 is that the many windows used to perform the development tasks you work on every day have been consolidated into a single window. The Xcode 4 work area has several unique UI elements that make it easy to work on many different tasks, even multiple projects, without cluttering your work area. Your editor is always front and center.

Navigators

On the left side is a collection of navigators, including the list of files in your project, sorted symbols, a central search interface, issue tracking, debugging data with compressible stack traces, active and inactive breakpoints, and a persistent collection of logs. The unified navigator UI provides live filtering of content and search results, so you can focus on your current task.

Jump Bar

At the top of every editor pane is a path bar showing the relative location of your current file. Click any location in the path to immediately jump to any other file at that level. This is the Jump Bar, and it is so efficient you may wish to dedicate your entire desktop to source code, quickly jumping from file to file.

Interface Builder is Built-in

In Xcode 4, Interface Builder has been completely integrated within the Xcode IDE — there is no separate application.

Selecting an interface file (.nib/.xib) in your project will open the IB editor within Xcode. Opening the right-hand Utility area will show the full complement of interface inspectors, as well as the library of controls and UI objects. Drag a control from the library, and drop onto the canvas, to layout your Mac OS X or iOS application.

The best part: you can drag connections directly from the UI design to the source code. Xcode 4’s new split editor layout makes it easy to wire up your actions and outlets simply by dragging a connection to existing code — one gesture and you’re done. Don’t yet have the code ready to connect? Xcode will create a new outlet or action for you, just drag to an empty space in your source file and Xcode will generate the code.

Assistant

Whether writing code, or designing an interface, no change happens in isolation. Even the smallest edit can have a cascading effect throughout your project. You often need to see more than just your current file; you need to see related documents as well.

With the new Xcode Assistant, the two-pane editor layout in Xcode 4 becomes dramatically more powerful. When you turn on Assistant, the IDE will anticipate which other files you need to see, as you work. Editing a new derived class? The Assistant will show you the code for the class you are inheriting. Writing new implementation code? The Assistant will automatically show you the corresponding header. When designing an interface, the Assistant will show you the appropriate controller, making drag-and-drop code connections extremely simple. Data model designing will bring up the classes that back your models — all automatically.

Completely Supports: C, Objective-C, C++

Apple LLVM Compiler 2.0

Apple LLVM is the next-generation compiler technology powering Xcode 4. Based on the vibrant open source LLVM.org project led by Apple engineers, the Apple LLVM compiler is modern thinking, tuned for iPhone, iPad, and the multi-core Mac.

Apple LLVM is fast. It compiles code twice as quickly as GCC, yet produces applications that also run faster. The compiler was built from the ground up as a set of highly optimized libraries, easy to extend, easy to optimize, and designed for today’s modern chip architectures. In Xcode 4, the full Apple LLVM compiler stack — from the front end parser, to the back end code optimizer — has great support for C, Objective-C, and C++.

Syntax highlighting, code completion, and every other index-driven feature is handled by the LLVM parser. If the compiler knows about a symbol, so does the Xcode IDE. C, C++, and Objective-C are all accurately understood at editing time, exactly as they are when building.

Fix-it and Live Issues

The Apple LLVM engine is constantly working in the background to understand your code. In the editor, the new Live Issues feature uses that understanding to alert you to coding mistakes as you type. Just like a word processor highlights spelling errors, Xcode 4 highlights common coding mistakes, without the need to click ‘build’ first.

Fix the problem automatically

Beyond just reporting errors, the IDE is intelligent enough to fix the problem for you. In many cases Xcode will not only report an error, it will present a solution as well. Click the error to see the available Fit-its, such as correcting an assignment to a comparison, repairing a misspelled symbol, or appending a missing semicolon. A single keyboard shortcut will instantly have the error repaired, and let you continue coding.

 

Fix-it is a great as-you-type companion to the rigorous testing performed by the Analyze feature. The Xcode static analyzer will walk through thousands of potential code paths, looking for places where code, while valid, would behave in unexpected ways, such memory allocation mistakes, never-hit case statements, or improperly constructed loops.

Together, Fix-it and the Xcode Analyze feature will find bugs long before your users.

Version Editor

The new Version editor in Xcode 4 makes it easy to see any two versions of your source code, side by side, in a live editor. More importantly, the Version editor is a new way to think of source control management in an IDE, because the comparison view is also a timeline. Drag the slider in the middle and you travel back in time through your project, comparing any two versions.

The Version editor can also show you a detailed log of past events, and track blame for past check-ins. Complex SCM commands are managed for you behind the scenes. It is even possible to manage multiple projects within a single Xcode 4 workspace, one project managed in Subversion, the other in Git, all updated automatically.

New Debugger

Xcode 4 introduces LLDB, a brand new debugging engine contributed by Apple to the LLVM.org open source project. Like LLVM, the new LLDB engine is designed from the ground up to consume much less memory, and be a rocket when it comes to performance.

The new LLDB debugging engine is the perfect fit for the new Xcode 4 debugging interface. When your app is running, the navigator will show a stack trace you can expand or compress to show or hide stack frames as you debug. As you step through, you can even lock onto a single thread then click “continue” and follow that specific thread of execution. Multicore debugging in Xcode 4 is now as easy as multicore coding with blocks and Grand Central Dispatch.

Instruments for Xcode 4

Instruments has a streamlined interface, complete with the new Jump Bar, and stack compression from Xcode 4’s UI. Using Xcode4’s new launch schemes, it is easier than ever to create a robust test harness to run your app in Instruments. That includes launching Instruments in “deferred mode”, keeping the data collection UI off screen and saving system resources for running and metering your application.

New data collection instruments are also available, including OpenGL ES for tracking iPhone graphics performance, new memory allocation monitoring that can find unintended memory growth, Time Profiler on iOS for collecting samples with very low overhead, and complete System Trace for insight into how all system processes interact.

Instruments covers even more ground, has even lower overhead, and is more useful than ever before.

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Categories: News

Xcode 4–How to add Framework into project?

08/05/2011 Posted by whatios

Apple releases new Xcode 4 GM, it changes a lot of work flow we used to work on Xcode3.

How to add Framework into project?

  1. In the project navigator, select your project
  2. Select your target
  3. Select the ‘Build Phases’ tab
  4. Open ‘Link Binaries With Libraries’ expander
  5. Click the ‘+’ button
  6. Select your framework
  7. (optional) Drag and drop the added framework to the ‘Frameworks’ group
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Categories: iOS development

IOS game engine – cocos2d download

08/04/2011 Posted by whatios

Stable version

Download: cocos2d-iphone-1.0.1.tar.gz

Release Notes: v1.0.1 release notes

Bleeding edge version

Use this command to anonymously check out the latest project source code:

$ git clone git://github.com/cocos2d/cocos2d-iphone.git
$ cd cocos2d-iphone
$ git checkout develop

Download older versions

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Categories: iOS development

LevelSVG 3.1 released

08/04/2011 Posted by whatios

LevelSVG v3.1 (2011-05-02) has just been released.
Highlights:
  • Added Wireframe view

Full Changelog:

 

  • [NEW] Levels: Added runtime option to view object’s wireframe from Settings
  • [FIX] All: code doesn’t generates warnings with implicit convertions to 32-bit
  • [FIX] MovingPlatform: Register movement on onEnterTransitionDidFinish.
  • [FIX] Xcode: Compiles without warnings in Xcode 4
  • [3RD] cocos2d: updated to v1.0-rc2
  • [3RD] FontLabel: updated to latest stable version
You can download the manual from here:

If you have bought LevelSVG, you should have received an email with the download link. If you have not yet received it, please let me know and I’ll be happy to send it to you. Thanks.

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Categories: News

cocos2d is ios game engine

08/04/2011 Posted by whatios

cocos2d for iPhone is a framework for building 2D games, demos, and other graphical/interactive applications. It is based on the cocos2d design: it uses the same concepts, but instead of using python it uses objective-c.

cocos2d for iPhone is:

  • Easy to use: it uses a familiar API, and comes with lots of examples
  • Fast: it uses the OpenGL ES best practices and optimized data structures
  • Flexible: it is easy to extend, easy to integrate with 3rd party libraries
  • Free: is open source, compatible both with closed and open source games
  • Community supported: cocos2d has an active, big and friendly community (forum, IRC)
  • AppStore approved: More than 2500 AppStore games already use it, including many best seller games.

cocos2d for iPhone supports: iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad.

cocos2d for iPhone is being developed by the cocos2d for iPhone community, being Ricardo Quesada (the Sapus Media owner) the cocos2d for iPhone founder and lead developer.

For further information about cocos2d for iPhone, please visit: http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/

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Categories: iOS development

What is IOS?

08/03/2011 Posted by whatios

iOS (known as iPhone OS before June 2010) is Apple’s mobile operating system.

IPhone4

Originally developed for the iPhone, it has since been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV. Apple doesn’t license iOS for installation on third-party hardware. As of May 31, 2011, Apple’s App Store contains more than 500,000 iOS applications,[2] which have collectively been downloaded more than 15 billion times. In the last quarter of 2010, it had a 26% share of the smartphone operating system market in terms of units sold, behind Google’s Android and Nokia’s Symbian.[3] As of May 2010, it accounted for 59% of mobile web consumption—not including the iPad—in North America.[4]

The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. The response to user input is immediate and provides a fluid interface. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system and its multitouch interface. Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or rotating it in three dimensions (one common result is switching from portrait to landscape mode).

iOS is derived from Mac OS X, with which it shares the Darwin foundation, and is therefore a Unix-like operating system by nature.

In iOS, there are four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The current version of the operating system (4.3.5) uses roughly 660 megabytes of the device’s storage, varying for each model

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