Convert your website or web app to iOS app

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 Leave a comment

I’ve been looking at web apps for iOS last weekend, as I was helping a friend with possibly porting his work as a native app. The solution provided by Apple is rather elegant, and very minimal in terms of work required. If your web app is HTML5 and CSS3 compliant, you’re good to go with about 15 minutes work. You’re able to have a web app run from the home screen of the iOS device, and appear to be native. The only flaw at this stage is that JavaScript is a bit laggy at times; this is primarily due to the fact that Apple has upgraded the JavaScript engine for Mobile Safari to the Nitro engine, while apps that run outside of Mobile Safari have not received access to the faster engine (read an unbiased explanation here). Anyways, what to do.

First, we need to hide the Safari components. We do this by adding the following inside the <head> tag of your normal web page/s:

<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />

Next, we need to hide the Status Bar. Again, by adding a single line to the <head> tag of your normal web page/s:

<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black" />

There are three options for colors you can use here:

  • default – the status bar appears normal
  • black – the status bar has a black background
  • black-translucent – the status bar is black and translucent

If set to default or black, the web content is displayed below the status bar.
If set to black-translucent, the web content is displayed on the entire screen, partially obscured by the status bar.
The default value is default.

Now, the icon for your app. Presumably, you will want to use the same image as for your favicon, so at least you have the artwork ready to go. It just needs a little tweaking, and we’re away. You’ll need an icon which measures 57×57. You have two options for this, apple-touch-icon and apple-touch-icon-precomposed, depending on how you want Apple to handle your icon. The first option tells iOS that you’ve given it a generic icon to which it will add the standard app icon effects (rounded corners, drop shadow, and reflective shine); the second option tells iOS that you are giving it a fully kitted out icon with no need for adjustment. Bear in mind that the icon will always be placed on a black background, and be overlaid with a round-cornered “stencil”; so any transparent elements to the image will appear as black in the final displayed version.

Once this icon is created, place it in PNG format in the root document folder called apple-touch-icon.png or apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png. This specifies the icon for the entire website (every page on the website). Now you can link to it with a single line to the <head> tag of your normal web page/s:

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/custom_icon.png"/>

or

<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/custom_icon_precomposed.png"/>

For more information, check out Apple’s Web App tools, and also their discussion of meta-tags in iOS.

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Testing WordPress app for iPad

Thursday, January 13th, 2011 Leave a comment

Just a quick test post to check if my iPad WordPress app is logged and rocking properly.

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my iPad app round-up

Friday, November 5th, 2010 Leave a comment

So, I’ve had my iPad for over a month now, and I felt it was time to review the apps I have on it now. I figure a month is enough time to settle into my usage patterns and have discarded apps that just didn’t do it for me afterall.

1: Social Networking –

I don’t run one app for all my social networking, some people prefer to but I have found it better to have apps that focus on one thing, and do what they do do well. For Twitter, I was originally using Twitterific, and had just upgraded to the paid version the day before Twitter released their own app. Since then I have been devoted to the official Twitter app which is clean, intuitive, and just pretty much perfect in my book.

For Facebook, I am still floating between two apps; Friendly and the official Facebook iPhone app. Both are pretty good, Friendly is more aesthetically pleasing due to being designed for the iPad form-factor, while the official FB app seems a little more intuitive and “like” Facebook itself (as you would expect).

I’m also running FourSquare on my iPad, as I don’t have an iPhone (still!!).

2: Utilities / Lifestyle -

I have quite a few utilities set up on my iPad, for news I am running the fantastic NYTimes app, the TVNZ News app, and the NZ Herald app. I also use GeekNews to pull all my geeky tech blogs together into one streamlined place. The Mashable! app is great for a quick check up on what is trending or popping up online currently.
I am currently using PrinterShare for printing directly from the iPad on my home network. This will hopefully change when iOS4 is released for iPad (rumors indicate late November 2010 maybe).
I also have Google Earth, the IMDb app, and a great tracking app – Parcel – which allows you to just put in your tracking code allocated to the delivery you are expecting. Saves having to visit different websites and remember your tracking numbers for different companies. Some other little gems are:
- Epicurious
- Wikipanion
- Evernote
- The WordPress app for blogging on the go
- Shazam
Then for a bit of creative fun, I have GrooveMaker and Drums! GrooveMaker lets you mix tracks, and even create your own tracks on the fly. Drums! is just that, a complete drum set on your iPad – in fact, it’s actually three complete drum sets, as you can choose between Standard, Groove, and Acoustic kits. The sound is true to life, so go get it.

3: Web Dev –

A few free web-dev helpers tucked on the iPad too. I’ve got JsAnywhere and three great apps from Interactive Blasphemy. JavaScript Anywhere is a JavaScript tool which enables you to edit your JS script, adjust the CSS, and then view the results in an HTML page. You can email the results to yourself. From Interactive Blasphemy I have robots.txt, which is just that, a robots.txt generator; Password, which generates passwords of random characters of length and complexity specified; and RGB/HSB/Hex, which enables you to create that perfect shade for you web job, and also then suggests good matching and contrasting colors.

4: Games -

Yep, the main reason most people have an iPad. I am personally a big fan of the logic/strategy games. I’ll list them all, then comment on a few of them, with more in-depth reviews being added, along with links to the iTunes store, later on:
- iFighter – essentially the classic fighter game 1945 remade for the iPad
- Harbor Master
- FlightControl HD
- Canabalt
- Gravity Hook
- Angry Birds
- Angry Birds (Halloween Special)
- Cut the Rope
- Pocket Frogs
- Plants vs Zombies
- Fruit Ninja HD
- Steve Young Football
- Build-A-Lot 2
- Blue Block
- Crazy Traffic: Crashed XL
- Train Conductor 2: U.S.A.
- No, Human
- Trainyard
- UFO On Tape
- Railway
- Chicktionary
- NOM
- Fish Eat Fish
- Dismount
- GearedHD
- Air Hockey
- TicTacDojo
- Little Metal Ball
- Soosiz HD
- Physics HD
- Gravity HD
- Tilt to Live HD
- NinJump
- Red Bull RC
- Asymmetry
- 8Bit Rebellion (the Linkin Park game)

Surprisingly enough, I have found my usage of the iPad to be alot different than I planned for. I have found the games an easy way to take a 5 minute break when I need to, but have found that I actually now tend to jump on Twitter or a news site when I want a 5 minute chill out. I am still just working with iBooks as my book-reader and PDF-reader of choice. Primarily because I have no need of the flasher features of the other readers out there. Overall, I have to say that the iPad is proving itself to be very worthwhile as a tool; and I keep finding new ways for it to excel and prove it’s worth.

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easy links to iTunes content

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 Leave a comment

Just a quick post to highlight the funky little tool on the iTunes website for automajickally [sic] generating links to specific apps with the iTunes store. The appropriately named iTunes Link Maker is able to be targeted by Country, Media Type, or Genre/Category; as well as being able to be searched by name.

It has been out for a while, and is not guaranteed by Apple at all. In fact, they go so far as to state

The Link Maker tool is provided by Apple as an accommodation only. Apple assumes no responsibility for your use of any links, and makes no representation regarding their accuracy or performance.

amongst other parts of the disclaimer. But, hey, it’s easier than trying to figure it out and do it yourself. Right??

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iPhone4 not in NZ yet afterall??

Friday, July 30th, 2010 1 Comment

So, from the looks of things, the iPhone4 is not to be revealed to New Zealand shores today (Friday) afterall! At around 4pm today, the Vodafone iPhone landing page stopped being a “register your interest” page, and instead returned to being a 3G[S] information page. Meanwhile, the Apple NZ store iPhone page is still showing a “coming soon” message for the iPhone4.  The New Zealand Herald is reporting that the iPhone4 launch is off, as are Twitter reports (@SparkyNZ, @AhmadNZ) and other tech blogs.

Dreams are that Vodafone NZ could have done something like Vodafone Australia did, and actually do a launch worth being there for. A, well, dreams are free, eh??

I was all set and keen to be grabbing one in the AM, but it looks like my nearly move to almost fan-boi has been stymied by Apple themselves this time.

More news as it comes to hand.

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my new spectacles

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 4 Comments

Still crook, but had to venture out briefly to pick up my new spectacles. Here they are:

Image0013                    Image0017

I am looking a bit grim, as I’m still stuffed up and not really able to talk at all.

I did walk into the shop next door to the optometrist and glance at the iPad as I was running early. I do like it, but I am not inspired to desperately grab one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking it. I would definitely love to have one to play with, but for me it is definitely a luxury bit of tech, not an essential. Guess I’m still not a fan-boi yet. iPhone4 has me interested still though.

Ah well, back to bed now.

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quick update – what I’ve been up to

Thursday, April 1st, 2010 Leave a comment

Well, obviously, I’ve been knocking out quite a few tutorials over the past week or so, but not so much about moi. Basically, I’ve been working hard and prepping for interviews. A couple of promising leads ahead, with possible offers due in from a few options in the next week or two. I have some opinions about which I want, or don’t; but I’m waiting for paper before I decide.

Last weekend, as I posted, I was down in Napier for the wedding of my good friends Hamish and Julie. It was a great day, and the weather held absolutely perfect for all of Saturday. I’m yet to post photos to facebook, but I will this weekend as soon as I get some decent internet time. My blogging recently has been in offline mode, with updating when connected.

Looking forward to Easter weekend, with some gardening and chores, but mainly chilling out and relaxing; as well as ongoing interview prep and reading. Also attempting to keep my various languages active, so I’ll probably focus on XML and C# over the weekend. Clash of the Titans is out today, so I may make it to the cinema for that also.

No-one’s announced iPad availability in New Zealand yet either, so it’s just a waiting game here. At least none of the telcos have announced a bundled deal yet either, which is great as that’ll just destroy half the point of it. Still hoping Apple sells it directly un-contracted, so we can actually use it as intended.

Anyway, no major developments in my life this week, just the ongoing job hunt really. I’ve got a couple more PHP tutorials to post, and then I’ll deal to a few others in various languages.

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Apple store outage

Sunday, March 28th, 2010 Leave a comment

The Apple Store has been down for quite a few hours today/tonight. Twitter reports are just that it is down, with no actual reasons yet. All Apple is saying is what is on the site, which is just a “We’ll be back soon” logo. Apparently they’re updating the store, but it wouldn’t normally be expected to be done at such a peak usage time.

Being one week before the iPad release, we can only conjecture that they are reformatting the store for iPad apps and content. I’m not going to bother guessing, because we’ll all be able to see what is what very soon I’m sure.

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time keeps on ticking

Friday, March 19th, 2010 Leave a comment

Official announcement time (dun dun dun), I am now officially single. Naomi and I have parted ways, and are no longer the proverbial item (tears, sniffs, sobs). All very mature, we’re still friends, but that’s enough of the gossip.

Some intriguing legal activities afoot, with Viacom suing YouTube for breach of copyright. Fair enough you say, if it’s Viacom’s property it’s Viacom’s property. However, in the filings by YouTube, it has been revealed that Viacom uploaded much of the contents which they are claiming breach of copyright over; and even explicitly did not request the removal of user uploaded content. Viacom actually paid multiple marketing companies to upload professionally fuzzied content from internet cafes and other anonymous IP addresses to get their product out there. So confusing was the whole thing, that Viacom would often ask for the removal of contents, only to have to sheepishly come back to YouTube cap-in-hand because it was uploaded to one of their “special” accounts. The fact that these accounts were made using false email addresses and information, makes me wonder if YouTube should be counter suing for breach of their conditions of use.

[update – YouTube co-founder Steve Chen once warned fellow co-founder Jawed Karim to stop posting pirated videos on their website (via NZ Herald website)]

Related to that, I’ve also set up my own YouTube channel which is available here. Nothing flash as yet, just all my favorites, but I’ll have to make some vids and post them in the near future. The wedding of my great mate Hamish next weekend could well be the first!

Other cool things recently are:

  • my discovery of the inverse graphing calculator – you enter what you want the graph to say, and it generates the equation to make it so
  • the re-release of the Commodore name on a keyboard PC – don’t know if it’ll amount to much, as it is just a licensing of the name, but still could be worth a look
  • I got myself an Apple wireless keyboard and Mighty Mouse combo for $99 – sweet and cheap, also going to be perfect for hooking up with my iPad when they release and I grab one.
  • The awesome of America’s Next Top Model failures… – this one is fabulous dahling!!

I’ll end this post with a great clip from Antiques Roadshow in the US. Sometimes it is just fantastic to watch other people have their day (or even their week/year/life) made unexpectedly, even if they are very serene in their “excitement”:

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iPhone SDK news, and why I may own a Mac soon

Saturday, March 13th, 2010 Leave a comment

Some more apple news floating around these days…other than the imminent US release of the iPad on April 3rd, it’s now been discovered that the latest iPhone SDK appears to be preparing to allow third-party multitasking!! [engadget.com link] (although my thoughts is that if the iPhone OS is also for the iPad, then Apple may be having multi-tasking accessible on the iPad and not the iPhone… you heard it here first), and then DARPA has announced that they are looking for expressions of interest developing apps and an App Store for Android and the iPhone OS. The apps can be for battlefield, humanitarian, and disaster recovery missions, including command and control, mission planning, surveillance, reconnaissance, and language translation. And they’re even planning to bring their own cell-towers with them to create a "secure mobile tactical network … compatible with commercial smartphones." [engadget again]

I’ve been scoping out Mac prices with the imminent coming of the iPad. While I’m still not desperate for an iPhone (“sacrilege” I hear some of you scream), the form factor and potential for the iPad has me a little more excited. Still a while away on the release of iPad here in good ol’ NZ, which is good ‘cause it’ll give me time to put some more thought into it.

Having been sick most of this week, I haven’t really done any dev/coding work or posted. Then again, I haven’t done anything worth posting either.

I do like the new HP ad campaign though, with NZ’s own Rhys Darby kicking it with Dr Dre.

 

And to end, I’d like to point out that I have managed to not post a single thing about the Oscars this year!!

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