iPad Application Design » Matt Legend Gemmell I held a 6-hour workshop at NSConference in both the UK and USA recently, focusing on software design and user experience. Predictably, an extremely popular topic was the iPad, and how to approach the design of iPad applications. I gave a 90-minute presentation on the subject to start each workshop, and I want to share some of my observations here. Please note: this is about the user interface conventions and considerations which apply to creating software for the iPad platform (and touch-screen tablet devices in general). As I watched the iPad introduction keynote, there was one thing above all which struck me: That’s iWork (Keynote, Pages and Numbers) for iPad. It’s not just a big iPhone The iPad may be a larger version of the iPhone in terms of the hardware and operating system, but treating it as the same device would be foolish. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, he did so in a very specific way: The iPad is in the middle, between the iPhone and the Mac. The Missing Link Two Hands
100 Incredibly Useful & Free iPad Apps If you just dropped a few hundred dollars on an iPad, you might not have much left in your budget to fill it up with apps. Fortunately, app developers have already stepped up and created a huge collection of completely free iPad apps. Below you’ll find over 100 free iPad apps to help you get started. If you like this roundup, it’s definitely worth taking a look at our all-new roundup of The Top 100 iPad Apps, in addition to our collections of 100 free iPhone apps, and 100 free Mac apps, both of which contain some brilliant software that doesn’t cost a dime! Utilities Air Video Free – Watch your videos anywhere! Alarm Clock with Tunes Free – A state-of-the-art Digital LCD Alarm Clock for your iPad with built-in Alarm Sounds & Buzzer. Big Calculator Free – Big Calculator Free was designed to take full advantage of the iPad screen offering a large display and a paper tape to keep track of your calculations. Color RGB – Need to figure out what color you need for a project? Business Finance
How to Build an iPhone App in 6 Easy Steps - CBS MoneyWatch.com Last Updated Apr 5, 2011 11:35 AM EDT This post has been updated. See the slideshow here. The message: If a Dallas-based middle-schooler can create an iPhone app, so can you. Find your niche: You might imagine the vast riches you could earn by making the next "World of Warcraft" for mobile devices. Download the new CBS MoneyWatch app Hodges, for example, was constantly measuring her height in the doorway, marking her progress from toddler to tall. Research the competition: Once you come up with a great idea, you need to figure out if you're the 57th person to come to the same conclusion. There's nothing stopping you from creating and selling an application that's similar to what's already out there, of course. Lay it out: Not only does your application have to be serviceable, it needs to look good. How do you find a good and reasonably priced app developer? Price your product: You're doing this for both fun and profit, right?
Deploying iPhone Apps to Real Devices In our previous article on getting started with iPhone development, you learnt how to use the iPhone SDK provided by Apple to develop your first iPhone application. For testing purposes, you used the iPhone Simulator, provided as part of the iPhone SDK. While the iPhone Simulator is a very handy tool that allows you to test your iPhone applications without needing a real device, nothing beats testing on a real device. This is especially true when you are ready to roll out your applications to the world - you must ensure that it works correctly on real devices. A repeated criticism from iPhone app developers comes from the difficulty they find in deploying their application to a real iPhone or iPod Touch. Sign up for the iPhone Developer Program The first step towards testing your applications on a real device is to sign up for the iPhone Developer Program at Start your Xcode Figure 1 Obtaining the identifier for your iPhone/iPod Touch Summary
Best iPad Apps of 2011 It’s been another great year for the iPad, and for iPad apps. There are now over 170,000 iPad apps available in the App Store (as at 12/21/11). And as Apple’s TV ads for the iPad so nicely illustrate, there are now iPad apps for just about anything you care to do with your favorite tablet device. Great iPad apps play a huge part in making the iPad such a massive success and the leader in the tablet arena. Just as I did in 2010, I’ve tried out scores of iPad apps this year – and once again some are mediocre, some are poor, and happily many are outstanding. Best iPad App of 2011 The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Our review Price: $4.99 iTunes link Best iPad Weather App Weather HD *: A repeat selection. Price: $0.99 iTunes link Best iPad Notes and Text Editor Apps iA Writer *: A clean and elegant app that is superb for focusing on writing. Price: $1.99 Our review iTunes link Plain Text: Very simple and clean paper-like interface that’s very comfortable to write in. Price: Free iTunes link iTunes link
How To Create Your First iPhone Application - Smashing Coding Update: 01/10/2012: The original version of this article by Jen Gordon was published in August 2009. It was thoroughly revised and updated by the author and published in September 2012. Update: 01/10/2012: The original version of this article by Jen Gordon was published in August 2009. It was thoroughly revised and updated by the author in September 2012. — Editorial Team Since the iTunes App Store launched in 2008, over 500,000 apps have been approved by Apple, and thousands more app ideas are scrawled on napkins across the world every day. Be sure to check out our previous articles: The good news is anyone can make an iPhone app, it’s just a matter of knowing the series of actions you need to take to make it happen. More after jump! What Is Your Goal? The first thing to look at when embarking on any product development or entrepreneurial venture is your goals for the project. Let’s look at an example. Here are some examples of project goals: What Are Your Expectations? Where Do I Begin?
iOS Debugging Magic Technical Note TN2239 iOS contains a number of 'secret' debugging facilities, including environment variables, preferences, routines callable from GDB, and so on. This technote describes these facilities. If you're developing for iOS, you should look through this list to see if you're missing out on something that will make your life easier. Introduction All Apple systems include debugging facilities added by Apple engineering teams to help develop and debug specific subsystems. Many of the details covered in this technote vary from platform to platform and release to release. This technote was written with reference to iOS 4.1. In addition to this technical issue of binary compatibility, keep in mind that iOS applications must comply with various legal agreements and the App Store Review Guidelines. This technote covers advanced debugging techniques. GDB is the system's primary debugging tool. This technote does not cover performance debugging. Basics Enabling Debugging Facilities Notes:
10 Apps For Inquiry Learning This post will show 10 apps or ways that iPads and iPods become powerful learning tools in an inquiry-based learning environment, tied to sound research by a leading education network, the Galileo Network. They offer up a rubric to determine how well a lesson aligns with the inquiry learning process. According to the rubric, there are 8 dimensions of inquiry: AuthenticityAcademic RigorAssessmentBeyond the SchoolUse of Digital TechnologiesActive ExplorationConnecting with ExpertsElaborated Communication The iPad can easily support any of these dimensions, and I want to share 1o ways that it might do it best. Authenticity 1) Popplet (4.99 or Free) Using popplet students can create media based brain storms and mind maps, organized by colour and size, connected with lines. 2) Blogging (Free) (Blogger+, WordPress, and others) I believe writing is one of the most academically rigorous things that students can do. Active Exploration Beyond The School, Organizational and Self Management Skills
Andromo | Make Android Apps for Free. No coding required. iPad GUI PSD Design Template Now that Apple has officially released the iPad we want to start designing for it. While Apple’s interface builder is great, it doesn’t really allow us to create custom UI elements on the fly. We decided to take a page from our iPhone GUI PSD and create one for the iPad. The PSD was constructed using vectors, so it’s fully editable and scalable. You’ll notice there are a few new UI elements as compared to the iPhone interface. The workable screen design is formatted to 768 x 1024 so anything you design in the Photoshop file can easily be brought over to the SDK. It’s 1.0 so I’m sure we’ll notice missing elements as we begin to use it. If you like it or use it, help us out by retweeting it.