today something very short and simple. There are two ways to hide your status bar within your iPhone app:

1. Programmatically

   ...
   //use this whereever you want
   [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:YES
                                      animated:NO];
   ...

2. Configuration of your Info.plist (seen in SDK 3.1.2)
   Just add a new line to your "your project name"-Info.plist file and select "Status bar is initially hidden" like in the picture below.
   

Thats pretty all! Have fun,
Andreas

1. Create a custom view with a transparent background.
2. Add controls and/or images to the custom view as you like.
3. Get a new instance of the UIImagePickerController (picker).
4. Set the source type of the picker to video source.
5. Hide unneccesary controls of the picker.
6. Make the video image full-size (if you wish to).
7. Set your custom overlay and present the picker.

To prove that it is really so simple, I worked out an example for you, which adds a small image and a button to the custom overlay and shows this overlay on the image picker. In my example I didn’t add any functionality to keep it simple and straightforward.

First of all I subclassed UIView for my own custom Overlay view called OverlayView. In this custom overlay I simply added a small image and a button which will sketch the possibility of scanning a marked region within the video preview.

@implementation OverlayView
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
        //clear the background color of the overlay
        self.opaque = NO;
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
 
        //load an image to show in the overlay
        UIImage *searcher = [UIImage imageNamed:@"searcher.png"];
        UIImageView *searcherView = [[UIImageView alloc] 
                            initWithImage:searcher];
        searcherView.frame = CGRectMake(30, 100, 260, 200);
        [self addSubview:searcherView];
        [searcherView release];
 
        //add a simple button to the overview
        //with no functionality at the moment
        UIButton *button = [UIButton 
                            buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
        [button setTitle:@"Scan Now" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
        button.frame = CGRectMake(0, 430, 320, 40);
        [self addSubview:button];
    }
    return self;
}
...
@end

All I have to do now is to create a UIImagePickerController instance and customize all specific properties of it to show the overlay view on the video preview. This is very simple and the following code should be very easy to understand.

//create an overlay view instance
OverlayView *overlay = [[OverlayView alloc]
        initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGTH)];
 
//create a new image picker instance
UIImagePickerController *picker = 
                [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
//set source to video!
picker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera;
//hide all controls
picker.showsCameraControls = NO;
picker.navigationBarHidden = YES;
picker.toolbarHidden = YES;
//make the video preview full size
picker.wantsFullScreenLayout = YES;
picker.cameraViewTransform =
CGAffineTransformScale(picker.cameraViewTransform,
            CAMERA_TRANSFORM_X,
            CAMERA_TRANSFORM_Y);
//set our custom overlay view
picker.cameraOverlayView = overlay;
 
//show picker
[self presentModalViewController:picker animated:YES];

The only things missing are my defines for the constants I am using, but I don’t wanna keep them away from you:

//transform values for full screen support
#define CAMERA_TRANSFORM_X 1
#define CAMERA_TRANSFORM_Y 1.12412
//iphone screen dimensions
#define SCREEN_WIDTH  320
#define SCREEN_HEIGTH 480

After all we get something like this:

So, thats pretty all. Of course you have to add much more to get some functionality within your overlay, but this example was just a demonstration how easy it is to create your custom video preview overlay view.

Cheers,
Andreas

Things we’ll install:

• Xcode
• MacPorts
  • Git
  • Ruby
  • SQLite3
  • ImageMagick
• PostgreSQL
• TextMate
• Phusion Passenger
• SSH Keys

Xcode Tools

Install XCode Tools from your MacOS Install Disc’s “Optional Installs” Folder:

Or, if you don’t have your Mac OS Install disc handy, you can download the latest version of Xcode Tools from Apple Developer Connection (free Registration required).

MacPorts

Get the latest version from the MacPorts site. Download the disk image for your version of Mac OS X and install MacPorts.

After the installation is complete, open a Terminal and make sure that the port command is available by reloading /etc/profile:

. /etc/profile

Update your ports database using

sudo port selfupdate

Then, install all the necessary ports:

sudo port install git-core +svn ruby rb-rubygems sqlite3 ImageMagick

PostgreSQL

While MacPorts is building and installing packages, download PostgreSQL for Mac and start the ‘PostgreSQL for Mac’ installer in the ‘Server’ directory.

After installing PostgreSQL Server, add a database role for your user account:

sudo -u postgres /Library/PostgreSQL8/bin/createuser

Enter your Mac OS X system user name as role name, and make it a superuser.

TextMate

Download and install the latest version from the TextMate site.

TextMate Bundles

To make sure that the bundle installation runs smoothly, make sure that the Bundles directory exists on your machine:

mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles

Install Bundles for Git, Ruby on Rails, RSpec, Cucmber, Webrat, Sass and Haml:

git clone git://github.com/timcharper/git-tmbundle.git ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/Git.tmbundle
git clone git://github.com/drnic/ruby-on-rails-tmbundle.git ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/Ruby\ on\ Rails.tmbundle
git clone git://github.com/dchelimsky/rspec-tmbundle.git ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/RSpec.tmbundle
git clone git://github.com/bmabey/cucumber-tmbundle.git ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/Cucumber.tmbundle
git clone git://github.com/bmabey/webrat-tmbundle.git ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/Webrat.tmbundle
git clone git://github.com/aussiegeek/ruby-sass-tmbundle.git ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/Ruby\ Sass.tmbundle
git clone git://github.com/canadadrugs/ruby-haml-tmbundle.git ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/Ruby\ Haml.tmbundle

You can also install my TextMate bundle containing commands to restart Passenger, reformat Ruby code and update all your bundles via Git:

git clone git://github.com/inz/inz-tmbundle.git ~/Library/Application\ Support/TextMate/Bundles/inz.tmbundle

Finally, tell TextMate to reload all bundles:

osascript -e 'tell app "TextMate" to reload bundles'

Rubygems

Make sure you have the latest version of Rubygems:

sudo gem update --system

SQLite3

SQLite3 needs some special attention to install properly.

To install SQLite3 on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard:

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install sqlite3-ruby -- --with-sqlite3-dir=/opt/local

If you are using Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, install like so:

sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby -- --with-sqlite3-dir=/opt/local

PostgreSQL

The PostgreSQL gem will also not install without special treatment, install it using this command:

sudo env PATH=/Library/PostgreSQL8/bin:$PATH gem install pg

Rails and all the Rest

The other gems necessary for your development setup will happily install without any further issues:

sudo gem install rails haml rspec rspec-rails cucumber capistrano capistrano-ext

Phusion Passenger and Passenger PrefPane

To keep your development environment one step closer to your deployment setup, you can use Phusion Passenger for development. And with the Passenger PrefPane you even get a pretty interface for that!

Install passenger:

sudo gem install passenger

Then, install the Apache module using

sudo passenger-install-apache2-module

After the installation of the module, follow the directions and load the passenger module in your /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.

To make future updates a little easier you can create a config file in /etc/apache2/other, and it will be loaded automatically.

mate /etc/apache2/other/passenger.conf

and copy the directives from the Passenger installation into the file.

Or, if you like the command line, you can also add the file like so:

sudo sh -c "cat >/etc/apache2/other/passenger.conf <<EOT
LoadModule passenger_module /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.5/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
PassengerRoot /opt/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.5
PassengerRuby /opt/local/bin/ruby
EOT"

The command above can then be reused whenever you update the passenger gem, replacing the updated version number.

Passenger PrefPane

To simplify development using passenger you can download and install the Passenger PrefPane. It will automatically add the necessary directives to the Apache configuration, so you should be able to use Passenger right away.

SSH Keys

If you’re developing and/or deploying web applications, chances are you need a pair of SSH keys for public key-based login to your servers.

Generate a pair of keys using:

ssh-keygen

Install the keys into the default location and follow the instructions.

To use the key to log in to your servers, copy it to the clipboard using:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | pbcopy

Then, log in to your servers and append the key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys for every account you want to log in with.

If you have a set of SSH keys backed up from previous installations, you can of course use these as well. Just be sure to set the correct permissions on the copied files (be sure to use your Mac OS username in the command below):

chown -R inz:staff ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

If you’ve followed the instructions you should now have a Mac fully set up for all your Rails development needs.

Let me know in the comments what worked for you what did not, so I can keep this guide up to date.

Thanks, have fun
C.

There are two ways to solve this problem:

1. Create a new UIView – lets call the view V – set the background image of V and embed a UITableView – lets call it TV – within V. Now set the background color of TV to [UIColor clearColor] and do so for all UITableViewCells. Everything seems to work well but you have to handle some tasks (regarding the UITableView) on your own now like deselcting the currently selected UITableViewCell when returning from a prior pushed view.
2. The second approach requires less effort but creates a not so pretty side-effect. You can simply create a new UIView, set its background image and send this view to the back of the UITableView. If you do so the background image scrolls with the UITableView. So this solution should only be used if you do not have to many cells, i.e. to create a simple menu screen in a grouped style within your app.

For those guys, implementing the second solution, the following code would be helpful. Put it i.e. in your - (void) viewDidLoad; method or further initialization of your view controller.

//clear background color of uitableview
self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
 
//create new uiview with a background image
UIImage *backgroundImage = [UIImage imageWithContentsOfFile:
				[[NSBundle mainBundle] 
				pathForResource:@"your_background" 
				ofType:@"png"]];
UIImageView *backgroundView = [[UIImageView alloc] 
				initWithImage:backgroundImage];
 
//adjust the frame for the case of navigation or tabbars
backgroundView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 460);
 
//add background view and send it to the back
[self.view addSubview:backgroundView];
[self.view sendSubviewToBack:backgroundView];
 
[backgroundView release];

One more thing I should not forget to mention is that iPhone SDK Documentation recommends not to use transparent images, table views or cells. This kind of stuff consumes a lot of resources, so use it wisely and only when necessary (I know, for a pretty user interface it is often indispensable ).

That’s all folks,
Andreas

• Provide a number of images that reflect your indicator animation.
• Create a new UIImageView instance and set images and animation duration.
• Position your custom activity indicator within your current view.

To demonstrate the whole process I quickly created some images (I am sure you will style them better than me) which will serve for our animation.

.. I think you got it … creates

So the images are prepared and now we can go to the next step and create the animation of our custom activity indicator somewhere i.e. in your current view controller. The code you need should look like the following.

//Create the first status image and the indicator view
UIImage *statusImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"status1.png"];
UIImageView *activityImageView = [[UIImageView alloc] 
				initWithImage:statusImage];
 
 
//Add more images which will be used for the animation
activityImageView.animationImages = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
			[UIImage imageNamed:@"status1.png"],
			[UIImage imageNamed:@"status2.png"],
			[UIImage imageNamed:@"status3.png"],
			[UIImage imageNamed:@"status4.png"],
			[UIImage imageNamed:@"status5.png"],
			[UIImage imageNamed:@"status6.png"],
			[UIImage imageNamed:@"status7.png"],
			[UIImage imageNamed:@"status8.png"],
			nil];
 
 
//Set the duration of the animation (play with it
//until it looks nice for you)
activityImageView.animationDuration = 0.8;
 
 
//Position the activity image view somewhere in 
//the middle of your current view
activityImageView.frame = CGRectMake(
			self.view.frame.size.width/2
				-statusImage.size.width/2, 
			self.view.frame.size.height/2
				-statusImage.size.height/2, 
			statusImage.size.width, 
			statusImage.size.height);
 
//Start the animation
[activityImageView startAnimating];
 
 
//Add your custom activity indicator to your current view
[self.view addSubview:activityImageView];

As I mentioned within a code annotation, try to play arround with the duration of the animation so it fits for you. Basically thats all you have to do. For more information look at the documentation of UIImageView. There you will find some more useful methods like stopAnimating or isAnimating and you are also able to add images for an animation if the view is highlighted with the property highlightedAnimationImages.

So far thats all I wanna say and I hope it will help you somehow or other,
Andreas

• Create a UIImageView containing your image.
• Create the animation with its properties.
• Set the animation for the specific layer containing your image.

In words of code you will have to do something like the following:

//Get the image and create the image view
//You also can use an image view created with Interface Builder
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"yourfavouriteimage.png"];
UIImageView *imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:image];
 
 
//Add the image view to your main view
//(This is optional if it was created with Interface Builder)
...
 
 
//Create an animation with pulsating effect
CABasicAnimation *theAnimation;
 
//within the animation we will adjust the "opacity" 
//value of the layer
theAnimation=[CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"opacity"];
//animation lasts 0.4 seconds
theAnimation.duration=0.4;	
//and it repeats forever
theAnimation.repeatCount= 1e100f;
//we want a reverse animation
theAnimation.autoreverses=YES;	
//justify the opacity as you like (1=fully visible, 0=unvisible)
theAnimation.fromValue=[NSNumber numberWithFloat:1.0]; 
theAnimation.toValue=[NSNumber numberWithFloat:0.1];
 
//Assign the animation to your UIImage layer and the 
//animation will start immediately
[imageView.layer addAnimation:theAnimation 
                 forKey:@"animateOpacity"];

Thats all folks and have fun,

Andreas

Currently the Jolein App is only available in german language but further language support is planned. While the Jolein platform is used for efficient staff coordination, resource and qualification managment and service scheduling the associated Jolein App supports following tasks: Overview of staff and easy communication with them Task managment Messaging service Overview of own companies Easy staff coordination and service planning Conflict managment …

Over here are some more pictures of the App to get a better imagination for the user interface and the App’s capabilities. On the first screen you can see how a new task for a given employee is created and on the second screen a duty roaster is illustrated for a given company and day.

For more information visit the Jolein platform or view the App description within the Apple App Store.

NOTE: this is not a general solution and might not work on every phone or future version of the DKs, but it is still a great way for any prototyping purposes

Unfortunately the SDK currently only supports a small set of the Bluetooth stack. As we wanted to integrate some of our hardware gadgets (over SPP/RFCOMM) with our Dev Phone 1, we needed to digg a little deeper. So here is what you want to do to get it working.

1) Follow the great article by Stephan, to get all the necessary libraries in place. His Bluescan app also provides a good starting point both for SDK and NDK integration.

2) Adapt the NDK specific code to talk to your device.

First allocate a socket

s = socket(PF_BLUETOOTH, SOCK_STREAM, BTPROTO_RFCOMM);

Next you need to set who to connect to

struct sockaddr_rc addr1 = { 0 };
char dest[18] = "00:06:66:02:9D:39"; //Device ID of your Bluetooth device
addr1.rc_family = AF_BLUETOOTH;
addr1.rc_channel = (uint8_t) 1;
str2ba( dest, &addr1.rc_bdaddr );

Now you can connect to the device

status = connect(s, (struct sockaddr *)&addr1, sizeof(addr1));

Thats pretty much it, you can start sending and receiving stuff with

if( status >= 0 ) {
  __android_log_write(ANDROID_LOG_INFO,"SPP_COMM","Successfully connected");
 
  status = write(s, "L1\r\n", 4);
 
  sleep(1);
 
  len1 = recv(s,buf,sizeof(buf),0);
  if(len1 > 0) 
    __android_log_write(ANDROID_LOG_INFO,"SPP_COMM",buf);
  else
    __android_log_write(ANDROID_LOG_ERROR,"SPP_COMM","Nothing was received from the device");
}

HTH
Enjoy
J.

1. Include log.h in your source files

#include <android/log.h>

2. Be sure to add llog to your LOCAL_LDLIBS in the Android.mk file of your NDK code

LOCAL_LDLIBS := -llog

Now you are ready to log to logcat from you NDK code, simply via

__android_log_write(ANDROID_LOG_ERROR,"Tag","Message");

Further loglevels are

typedef enum android_LogPriority {
    ANDROID_LOG_UNKNOWN = 0,
    ANDROID_LOG_DEFAULT,    /* only for SetMinPriority() */
    ANDROID_LOG_VERBOSE,
    ANDROID_LOG_DEBUG,
    ANDROID_LOG_INFO,
    ANDROID_LOG_WARN,
    ANDROID_LOG_ERROR,
    ANDROID_LOG_FATAL,
    ANDROID_LOG_SILENT,     /* only for SetMinPriority(); must be last */
} android_LogPriority;

all the other stuff you can look up under

 build/platforms/android-1.5/common/include/android/log.h

HTH

Enjoy
J.

If you don’t provide enough information to your users, that your iPhone app needs a valid internet connection or your back-end-service is currently not available, Apple may reject your iPhone App.

You will find several examples how to achieve that at the web. The following code I found several times at stackoverflow.com could be very useful for you:

 
- (void) someMethod {
    const char *host_name = "blackwhale.at";
    if( [self checkConnection:host_name] ) {
        //everything is ok
    }
    else {
        //notify your users
    }
}
 
/**
 * checkConnection:
 * Check if the given host is reachable with the 
 * current network settings
 */
- (BOOL) checkConnection:(const char*) host_name {
    BOOL _isDataSourceAvailable = NO;
    Boolean success;    
 
    //Creates a reachability reference to the specified 
    //network host or node name.
    SCNetworkReachabilityRef reachability = 
            SCNetworkReachabilityCreateWithName(NULL, host_name);
 
    //Determines if the specified network target is reachable 
    //using the current network configuration.
    SCNetworkReachabilityFlags flags;
    success = SCNetworkReachabilityGetFlags(reachability, &flags);
    _isDataSourceAvailable = success && 
                (flags & kSCNetworkFlagsReachable) &&
                !(flags & kSCNetworkFlagsConnectionRequired);
 
    CFRelease(reachability);
 
    return _isDataSourceAvailable;
}