iPhone, Mac Mini, Mac OS X Leopard, Objective-C

The title is a mouthful. I get it. You don’t have to read it again if you don’t want to so don’t cry about it. Yeah I’m a keyword whore. That’s my journey, let me.

Moving right along… This week has been an insanely exciting and fun week for me.

• I got a Mac mini
• I got an iPhone
• I got Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.5)
• I got the iPhone SDK

Before you read any further

I’m obsessed with it.

It’s like christmas every day with the flick of my finger.

Just had to get that fanboy shout out — out… of the way? Please understand that I am in no way shape or form joking. I have wanted for some time to build integrated applications for mobile devices and the like. This could even be something as simple as a door lock that’s connected to the internet that responds via SMS text messages to my commands such as “unlock”, “lock”, “unlock in 15 minutes” etc or an iPhone application. Either way, the obsession has stuck in my mind and I’m running for it. If you don’t have an iPhone I suggest you buy one. I don’t even want you to friggin’ try it. You don’t need to. Take my word for it, it’s an incredible device that is in no way shape or form overrated. Anyone that owns an iPhone with semi-coherence to technology related devices will agree. If they don’t… Nevermind.

You get the picture.

I’ve used windows/linux my entire life. I’ve used a Mac a few times but never had much interest in diving deeper or “switching” to the “dark side” as my linux friends would say (some of them.)

I immediately had hundreds of ideas for iPhone applications. I had a little bit of a problem though, I have no idea how to program in Objective-C. I used to program in C++ but that was like 5 years ago. Yeah, let me just remember everything real quick. Neg.

I haven’t been writing that much and I feel like a lazy but trust me. I’ve been studying my face off to learn Objective-C and create my first iPhone app which will in turn allow me to make How to’s, down to earth explanations of object oriented programming, working sample code, and eventually a few iPhone applications.

I’m still stuck with the problem that, I’ll admit hurts, but I can’t do anything about it unless I read and study. I have several draft posts that I’ve been working on that are substantial and worth your reading, but I’m not sure if those will be up this week, or in the next week.

I plan on

• Learning Objective-C to the best of my ability as quickly as possible — and learning it right.
• Learning the Mac OS X operating system backwards and forwards.
• Creating my first iPhone application from scratch to do something wicked pisser (Cool)

The list goes on, I trust you see where my time is going. It frustrates me that I haven’t been able to update the blog with as much information as I’d like to, but I’d rather write meaty how to’s and useful postings rather than whore myself out and post nothing but wordpress theme and wordpress plugins articles like I had considered doing just to generate traffic. Nah, no thanks.

For the three of you that actually consistently read my blog, go make 900 friends read it. For the rest of you that are in the same boat as I am learning objective-c trying to create iPhone applications, hit me up and let’s collaborate.

I will be writing several articles one I have a solid foundation and a firm grasp on the entirety of iPhone development.

Drafts I’ve already begun writing definitions for consist of:

• Objective-C in a nutshell for the iPhone
• iPhone SDK — What you need and how to get it
• Creating your first iPhone application

There is a lot more but I just realized how dumb it is to list the titles of a draft but to assure myself that I don’t make that mistake again, I’m leaving it in this posting.

Point: I’m busy as hell learning all things Mac/iPhone/Objective-C so the blog might be stagnant and boring for a few weeks.

I will be coming back with a vengeance though and I’ll know Objective-C and you won’t. Put that in your juice box and suck it. Just kidding. I have an idea to write out what I’m learning as I do and explain it to you so that in turn I too can learn more efficiently by forcing myself to understand things that I might otherwise skip. In turn this creates a dynamic reference not only for you but for me as well.

Sexy time.
Bryan

How to remove apps and rearrange icons on your iPhone

The process is simple but it took me a second to figure it out.

1. Press your finger on any app and hold it until the apps being to shake and there are X’s placed over the top left of each app that you’ve installed (system apps aren’t able to be removed, they are able to be rearranged though.)
2. Push the X over an app to remove it.
3. Push and hold down on an app then drag it where you want it to rearrange it.

That’s it.

Enjoy
Bryan

My iPhone wishlist

As with any device, even the iPhone has things that I wish were handled a little bit differently. Some of these ideas are (Last updated: 12/1/2008)

My iPhone Wishlist

1. I can’t drag and drop to the music folder on my iPhone. Why?
   I have to create a playlist and sync it. Even when I sync it, it removes all of my music first and then transfers all the songs back over to my iPhone. This is kind of ridiculous.
2. I want gestures. I think it would be awesome to have certain movements on the touch screen that allow you to perform regular tasks such as “call last person” you’d move your finger up and to the left, or text recent contact up to the right, etc. They already have this for Firefox. I think it would be interesting to see on the iPhone.
3. Google Analytics iPhone App. I couldn’t find a free working Google Analytics App for the iPhone so I’m going to be forced to build one.
4. Basecamp iPhone App. I couldn’t find a free basecamp app. Maybe it’s difficult to build, maybe not. I’m going to be building this app as well.
5. RSS Reader iPhone App. I found a few but they sucked and didn’t have the kind of community involvement I liked. I want an RSS Reader that will recommend sites to read or multi-feeds from various sites and topics that are quality voted by the community so that I keep up with not only blogs I like, but the majority and the blogs “the cloud” follows as it were.
6. QuickBooks iPhone App. I didn’t find an app for this either so once again I will be forced to build it.
7. Import Contacts iPhone App. From Facebook, Myspace, Gmail, Msn, etc. I have already written a library that allows me to import contacts from these services –  I just couldn’t find one that would actually input them in my iPhone contacts. I don’t know if this is possible, but I’ll find out and make it if it is.
8. Active Tabs iPhone App. Find any guitar tab you want with a built in tuner — and auto scrolling. OMFG.
9. Grooveshark iPhone App. I can’t live without Grooveshark on my PC so why do I have to live without it on my iPhone? I don’t. However no apps exist yet, so I will create it.
10. Beer Run/Money From iPhone App. You’ve been in this situation. You’re with a group of friends and you go to make a beer run, to get food, to buy shit and 5 people want stuff and they all give you money. Who wants to write all of that crap down? This app would ideally keep track of who gave you what amount of $, and what they wanted. It would compare those items against a database and tell you whether or not that person gave you enough money, etc.
11. Instrument tuner iPhone App. I found a few guitar tuners in the app store but their reviews are horrible. A lot of people claim they don’t even work.
12. Multi-app support. I want the ability to run multiple apps at one time and call that my preset app. Like “Work” or “Brainstorming” or “Entertainment” so I have games and stuff in entertainment, Work I have important notes and ideas, Brainstorm I have thoughts like these etc.

These are just a few of my ideas. I’m going to be installing Mac OS X Tiger on my laptop along with the iPhone Developer SDK. Stay tuned because I will be writing a lot of iPhone related development articles very soon. I’m getting a mac mini to develop apps on. I am officially a mac user now. Ugh. They sucked me in.

Peace
Bryan

I switched to AT&T and I got an iPhone

I dropped my old phone in water by accident and it died.

It was an LG Rumor. I liked the phone for awhile but the sliding up and down to text got annoying along with several problems I don’t feel like listing. I grew a pair and got an iPhone. I was worried I was going to get addicted to it, I was right.

Although the updates have been few and far between lately (what with the holidays and all of the laziness that was this thanksgiving for me.) I got an iPhone and you can bet that I will be writing apps for it and tutorials on how to create apps.

What’s in the drafts folder?

• How to make a WordPress plugin
• More of my favorite WordPress themes
• Importing and Exporting contacts in Google/Yahoo/MSN

That’s just an idea of what’s coming.