Chomer Speaks

To all you bright programmers out there, getting the SDK working probably seemed to be cake. Not for me. Apple made things confusing. But I’m finally getting somewhere!

Getting the first app example working (which I downloaded off of Apple’s site) was an uphill struggle. I was trying to get the  Kalimba Finger Piano working on my iPhone. Downloading the right licence files, putting them in the right places. Not to mention the fact that when ordering the SDK it took me to the Apple store to purchase it and promised a delivery within 5 business days, and that I’d need to be at the ship address to sign for it… Buzzz! Wrong!

I have now downloaded and got running on my iPhone several of the examples that Apple provides. These examples look like they will help me understand how to do different things that I need to understand in order to accomplish my desired goal: A simple game that I have in mind.

Pete from Trails In The Sand: thankyou for your help.

I’ve got a binder set up where I’m keeping all my To-do lists, activity logs, and misc notes for my game. I’m trying to give structure to this thing. I dearly hope this won’t end up being another unfinished project. I’m hoping that the simplicity of the game I want to write will help me in this regards.

The next thing I’m planning to do is assemble one of Pete’s projects and get it working. I think this is the next natural step in progression. It’s one thing to get working a project where all the files have been pre-added, and everything is pre-configured and get it working, it’s another thing to take the piece-parts and do that yourself.

After that, I’m really going to start digging into the code. My to-do list is much more detailed but I think you get the idea.

Tip: When selecting an item in Provisioning, it means more than highlighting it. It means checking the checkbox on the item. This little issue had me wasting probably 2-3 hours of time trying different things.

I got the go-ahead from Apple Development to be in the Beta program for developing for the iPhone. I clicked on the appropriate link, filled in the proper info, whipped out the old credit card, validated everything, read everything and am now waiting to receive my package!

I was pleased to see that I wasn’t just simply given a URL to download stuff from, but that they were going to send me a package containing the goodies I’m looking for. I will have to sign for the package.

I signed up I believe Sunday evening. So I am waiting expectantly for my delivery. I will be able to finally try stuff on my actual phone. How cool is that?

UPDATED.

I have managed to get a sample  iPhone app compiled and running in the iPhone simulator that they provide. The app is an African thumb piano. It is a very imaginative use of the iPhone. It would be much nicer running on my iPhone rather than a simulator!

There are some really neat and creative sample programs in the iPhone SDK now, some of them besides being good sampls to look at as far as their code are concerned are apps that I’d actually like to have on my iPhone for my own use! I like the idea of the program that turns your iPhone into a level you can use to make sure that your pictures are straight! Cool.

I’ve spent a bit of time looking over the African Finger Thumb Piano code. I’m still trying to follow where the “start” of the code is. To be honest though, I’ve not spent allot of time looking into this lately.

My id for logging in to Apple’s developer web site is different than the id I normally log in to my MacBook with. I was wondering if this was the reason that I could not download the items I subscribed to in the Help program in XCode.

So, I created a user on my MacBook with the same user name and signed in as that and fired up XCode. Next, I brought up the Help, subscribed to the items  that I wanted, and, bingo! Those items loaded!

When I tried to compile to the actual iPhone device (as opposed to the simulator), I still get an error… though it is a different error  now.

Rats! I went to try it again and I get yet another error: “No Device is Connected” This is in spite of the fact that I can bring up iTunes and it shows that it is connected!

Oh, and in the Organizer, it shows my iPhone. Go figure! It is all too clear that I am still missing some of the pieces of the puzzle.

Actually, its been up for a while now. And, after about 4 attempts, I was able to download the iPhone SDK!

There is allot here to digest. I’ve never programmed in Objective-C before. It is a bit overwhelming.

Note: I submitted a request for the $99 license key. Looks like I’ll have to wait for a response from Apple. Based on the load their site received from would-be iPhone developers, I might be waiting for awhile!

Due to a frantic, graspy rush to get their greasy hands on the iPhone SDK, the Apple Developer web site not only is slow, now instead of just error messages, the whole server is down. I guess that’s a good problem.

There is that pent up desire out there. Something for Apple to brag about! 

I kept refreshing this page on iLounge.com to get the latest updates on what was being said at the Town Hall meeting Apple was giving on the iPhone SDK. It sounds pretty good! To get it, you need to go to http://developer.apple.com/. 

The funny thing is, that after I read about this and went to that site, the web server was grinding to a halt. It seems as if every developer and their brother is trying to get in and download the thing!

Note that if you want to actually use any new spiffy app you write on your iPhone (or any other iPhone for that matter) you have to pay a $99 charge to Apple. This will get you a unique license id will be embedded in your apps. This way, if any apps cause problems, they know who to look for, and they can turn downloading off for that license. I think I’ll try the Apple developer site later after the dust settles!

What month and year is it? Duh! It’s February 2008 of course! And what be that you scurvy dogs? Arrrrr! It is the month when the new iPhone SDK is supposed to come out!

In the high seas of mobile development this is a much anticipated event. I’ve been Googling allot lately looking for news. I keep asking, “When?”

More buzz is stirring up on the net lately.

Consider this story: iPhone SDK Release Around the Corner. It’s getting close. American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu wonders if it will increase sales of the iPhone. I think so. Killer apps are what sells hardware. An SDK will dramatically increase the chances of excited developers out there creating a killer app for the iPhone.

Unstrung is asking “Where is it?” I think Apple is smart here… Secrecy, waiting til the last possible moment. It is both annoying and clever at the same time. Everyone’s talking about it, guessing about it, their brains are reaching out for any scrap of information. Apple has our attention (us developers least-ways).

Could the much coveted SDK be coming out next Tuesday? Chris Finn of MacFormat thinks so. You can see his thought processes on TechRadar.com.

Whenever Apple decides to release that durned SDK won’t be too soon!

Well, I spent several hours working on that tutorial I keep talking about. Time flew fast. I said I was 90% done didn’t I… I think I was wrong!

I did alot of work on the tutorial last night… we’re up to 14 steps. Don’t worry! I am doing one step per page and I’m breaking the process down into very small steps that are easy to digest. So, there are alot of pages. There are alot of screen shots. There are two completed videos that are embedded into the tutorial.

There is one video that has been mostly edited but needs some music I think added to it and some titles. This mostly finished video is pretty short and shows taking the AVI file created via the whole process shown and importing it into Windows Moviemaker.

As far as the actual pages of the tutorial (there are 15 so far … if you include the introduction) go, I am at the point of describing the settings that need to be made when the user is ready to save that AVI file.

Let me see… how many pages left… maybe?

• One to show the overall save video dialog box and picking Microsoft AVI from the dropdown list. …And telling the user to click the options button…
• One to show the user how to change the width and height settings to something Moviemaker can handle.
• One showing how the tool being used converts the HD video clip into an AVI file.
• One showing the closing up of the tools that were used for the conversion.
• A page showing opening of Windows MovieMaker and adding the AVI file to a video “collection.”
• A wrapup page that talks about:
  • The problem with the size of AVI files.
  • The problem with how Moviemaker plays files from the disk.
  • How converting the whole thing into a Windows Media File and editing from that does not work.
  • Why most of the tutorial video footage was editing in iMovie not MovieMaker.
  • Outtakes. —- chances are I will release the tutorial before this part is complete. This is for a little bit of fun.

 That is six new pages that I still have to make yet… whew! In addition I want to create the navigation link thing to add to each of these pages to make it easy to navigate around in this tutorial, so,….. I have some work to do still!

I’m revising the completion amount to 75%.  Hopefully this is more realistic. I plan on working on it tonight again.

Cheers!

Well I got home last night and tried using Kyte.tv. I had the same problems as before. But fortunately I let other people know and I got a solution to my problem:

• In Safari, clear the cache.
• Close Safari.
• Shut down the computer.
• Start up the computer.

Stuff started working again. Thanks again for all the help!