tapadoo

When developing for mobile, its important that you are able to support all “in the wild” versions of operating systems and hardware you are targeting.
Here at tapadoo, all iPhone projects are tested on iPod Touch, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. We’re also updating our style guidelines for developers, and henceforth all supplied graphics will be required in standard and double-size to support the fancy new screens of iPhone 4.
Older hardware is slower, so testing on these is essential to ensure that our clients’ apps still give the best user experience possible.
We also now have to consider iPad, and the new possibilities it raises with extra screen real estate.

Phew. Luckily, we’re stocked up well to support all this; we took a serious delivery this morning. Check out the testing pool.

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You’re reading the tapadoo blog. Did you know that as well as publishing our own applications, we offer iPhone development services and consultancy? If you have an idea, project or something you think we can help you with, please get in touch through our contact page.

iPhone development company WLTM iOS developers for mutual friendship, maybe more. We have a healthy pipeline and are looking for people who share our interest in all things Apple. Our ideal candidate would have some if not all of the following:

• Proven track record in releasing iOS applications
• Have at least gained certification at beginner of special ops in modern warfare 2
• Keen eye for detail
• Have never used the phrase “Its good enough, lets ship it as is”
• Be in a possession of a full clean, collection of Apple stuff

Or…if you’re the best iOS developer you know, we want to hear from you.

Get in touch with Dermot. If you don’t know how, you’ve stumbled at the first hurdle.

I’ll be speaking at the dot conf next week. I’ve done a number of speaking engagements; Usually about iPhone development, and our experiences of becoming an iPhone developer.

Somebody tweeted this to me today

What can I say..Immortalised in Lego.… Now we’ve made it.

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You’re reading the tapadoo blog. Did you know that as well as publishing our own applications, we offer iPhone development services and consultancy? If you have an idea, project or something you think we can help you with, please get in touch through our contact page.

A few weeks back, as the work continued to mount, we realised it was time to expand again. We put out a tweet looking for an intern, and were delighted that Steven Troughton-Smith expressed an interest.

For those of you who within the iPhone development community, Steven needs no introduction. For the rest of you, let me explain.

Steven has garnered plenty of attention for his accomplishments as an iPhone developer. He’s been featured on RTE News during the iPhone Gold Rush of ‘08, and more recently for his app “Grace”, an iPhone app which helps Autistic children communicate.

Engadget have also been interested in his work on jailbroken devices, while Gizmodo also broke the story of how Steve hacked the palm pre.

Phew! Hopefully, we’ll be able to channel all this enthusiasm!

I’m sure you’ll join me in welcoming Steven to the team at Tapadoo

Flat iPhone buttons as offered in Interface builder suck. They don’t look nice.

There’s the option of using Three20 to get good looking buttons. Its an option, but frankly, it feels a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. You end up with a large addition to your code, just for nice buttons. OK, you could go to the trouble of stripping out what you don’t need, but that again is more work.

All iPhone developers know about UIGlassButton – Its an undocumented API for making nice looking buttons, that exists only on the simulator and not on the iPhone itself. Why couldn’t we just have that for iPhone OS? I dunno, but its not there.

At some point in the past, I came across a nice snippet of code that used undocumented techniques for creating a glass button, and then saving the image to disk. This could then be used as a background to a “custom button”, producing the nice glass buttons I’ve been looking for. I think it was schwa on twitter; Nice. Full credit where it’s due.

So, building upon this, I’ve thrown together a simple single-screen app for creating the images for glass buttons using that technique. Basically, it allows you set the RGB values, and the size. Hitting “Save” writes the pngs to the application’s documents directory.
Now, you’ll have two png files, which you can use as images in custom buttons. Hey presto. Very simple UIGlassButtons.
Here’s a screen shot:

Full source is available on github. Comments welcome.

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You’re reading the tapadoo blog. Did you know that as well as publishing our own applications, we offer iPhone development services and consultancy? If you have an idea, project or something you think we can help you with, please get in touch through our contact page.

We’ve had our heads down for a couple of months. This is because we’ve been working on a project we’re very excited about. Now that our initial release is out the door, we’re happy to give out some information about it.

That project is Firepit.

What is Firepit?
Firepit is

1. A web based framework
2. For bands going on tour…
3. ..which allows them to produce iPhone applications..
4. ..that are “virtual tour programmes”

We just got out the first Firepit release today: The App is “Ultravox – Return to Eden II“, and it is on release on the app store worldwide.

We’re delighted that Ultravox are on board. They’ve been an avid supporter of the project for some weeks, getting behind the idea, and supplying some great exclusive content. A quick look over Midge Ure’s Twitter stream shows he’s being doing some beta testing, and bigging up the app.

Hope y’all like it.

I’ve been itching to do this for some time. Work pressures have meant I haven’t been able to prioritise it. But, its easter, and I’ve tried to have some time at home with the family.

I’ve often mentioned where it all started for me; I wrote my first code on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, in 1984. Back then myself and friends used to code up “adventure” games written in Basic, and saved onto Cassette Tapes. We even toyed with Z80 assembler for a while.

Well, many years back, that machine gave up the ghost, but I knew it was not thrown out. So I asked my parents to have a look around the attic and give me back my beloved speccy.

A few weeks back, may dad arrived with said spectrum in hand. I was delighted to have it back, as I had this project in mind.

You see, I consider it an 80s design classic. From the grey rubber keyboard, designed to keep the price low enough to put computers in every home, to the rainbow across the front to signify the fact that it was a colour computer. (Sinclair’s earlier offerings, the ZX80 and ZX81 where monochrome affairs).

So…Here’s how I’ve turned my first computer into a “piece” which is going to get prominent placement in the tapadoo offices. I want a constant reminder of why I love writing code.

Firstly, I purchased a standard black frame from Ikea. This was not deep enough, but I’m lucky enough to have a brother who is a craft carpenter, running his own shop fitting company. I asked John to see what he could do, and he came back with a new, deeper frame build from the original.

From here, I needed a white backing, as the supplied backing was an ugly brown. I got a piece of mounting board from an art shop in Thomas St.; A steal at €2.99. I also needed something to hold the computer in place; The best I could find were “Sticky Dots”; I was unsure if they could work, but worth a try.
I was good to go

Here’s the steps I carried out

1. I cut the mounting board down to size, using the original backing as a template
2. Figuring I’d need a sturdy mounting, I glued the original backing to the white backing using Pritt-Stick and some standard Bostik glue. I placed my toolbox on top of them to add some pressure.
3. I placed the sticky dots on the original rubber feet on the computer. I considered taking off the rubber feet, so I could use plenty of dots around the base of the computer, but I wanted to leave the computer as intact as I could


Sticky Dots

4. I meaasured on the mounting board where the computer would be centred.


Marked Out

5. I then stuck the computer onto the mounting board
6. Next, I didn’t feel comfortable with the sticky dots, so I decided to add some support under the computer itself. A couple of screws put through the backing sorted this
7. I could then put the backing back into the frame, and using some small tacks, hold the back in place

Here, is a grainy, finished product

The only thing I’d add at this point, is I would like to add some lighting within the frame. I’m open to suggestions; If anyone has ideas, please leave me a comment!

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You’re reading the tapadoo blog. Did you know that as well as publishing our own applications, we offer iPhone development services and consultancy? If you have an idea, project or something you think we can help you with, please get in touch through our contact page.

One of the big questions I come across when dealing with clients is the question of iPhone penetration in Ireland. Clients want to know the type of reach their app idea may get, and this is a valid question.
We’ve tried getting this a number of times, but it is a commercially sensitive figure; We’ve good relations with O2, as they engage with Irish iPhone developers, but its the one thing they won’t budge on. Actually, the question is a source of amusement at this stage; We joke about getting the figure; we know they don’t necessarily want to give it out. In that regard, it reminds me of asking questions of Apple employees couched in the future tense. Its fun, but don’t expect an answer.
But the today, there’s another organisation who have access to empirical data from their ad network. So today, I give you the figure that we now believe to be the figure. Bear in mind, its a point in time figure

There are 250,000 iPhones in Ireland

At least, that’s according to the article on silicon republic.

That’s only a starter statistic though. Take a look at actual app sales figures. Who are selling apps? Well, you could look at this article which gives Gartner’s take on it.

Or…I’ll save you the bother and give you the management overview from the bottom of the article:

Wow.

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You’re reading the tapadoo blog. Did you know that as well as publishing our own applications, we offer iPhone development services and consultancy? If you have an idea, project or something you think we can help you with, please get in touch through our contact page.

I’m stoked about this. This morning, I’m welcoming Adam McCarthy into tapadoo. I’d already known Adam though twitter as the guy who was giving Mac keyboard shortcut advice, and later got to meet him an XCake meeting. I was delighted when he responded to my tweet looking for iPhone developers.
You may know him as @adamkmccarthy

Adam has written iPhone apps when working for Apple and Google, and is now bringing this experience to bear at tapadoo.

When not writing iPhone apps, tinkering with his mac, and babysitting the mac mini Adam is a keen sailor who has steered some very famous boats indeed. He also races mountain bikes, and is a staunch Munster supporter.

Adam is a Cork man, so I for one am looking forward to the O2 jersey meeting the Vodafone Jersey in the Summer!
Do join me in wishing Adam all the best for his new role.
Dermot.

I see lots of people thinking of great ideas for the iPad. I agree with pretty much all of them. Anywhere where there’s a person carrying a handheld device, or indeed a notepad an pen, could be a potential application. Here’s a few examples

• Waiter taking orders at a table
• UPS Delivery guy
• Gas man coming to take a reading
• Charity worker – getting sign-ups but also using the multimedia capabilities to show where the donations are going to good work

etc. etc.

Right now, there are three ways to distribute iPhone apps:

1. The App Store – This is designed for general purpose apps that anyone may want to use
2. Enterprise Distribution – This is designed for “in house” only apps. This is where a company wants to supply apps for their staff use only, and not put them on the app store.
3. Ad Hoc Distribution – This is where a developer can distribute the apps privately to a group of people. It is primarily aimed at developers who want to get real-world feedback before really releasing the app through 1 or 2 above

When we consider that some of the app ideas (e.g. the waiter concept) is really an “in house” app. But each of the distribution mechanisms has its drawbacks:

• You may not want to put it in the app store, because it only works with your restaurant management system.
• You’ll not qualify for Enterprise distribution, because Apple restricts this to companies of 500 employees or more
• You could use ad-hoc, but this does take a fair bit of management for the developer. The developer needs to know each and every device id that the app will be installed on (and has a limit of 100 slots per year; which cannot be re-used during the year).

None of these are insurmountable, but they are niggles. Basically, there isn’t a simple way to distribute “private” apps. This is by design; It is a commercial decision by Apple. If there was a way, people would use it to bypass the app store (to avoid the apple cut), so its unlikely to change.

One thing it could lead to is an explosion of “new” software as a service offerings. Consider the “menu ordering” SAAS system; The restaurant signs up online, and enters their menu details. The Menu Ordering App is sold through the app store, and the restaurant simply enters their restaurant id and password when they use the app for the first time. This could work, but its a big education job to explain SAAS to restaurant owners.

I think all of those who want to put iPads into their businesses will find the distribution options confusing and consider it a hinderance.

That’s a challenge for us developers.

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You’re reading the tapadoo blog. Did you know that as well as publishing our own applications, we offer iPhone development services and consultancy? If you have an idea, project or something you think we can help you with, please get in touch through our contact page.