February 19, 2016 - No Comments!

Intro to tvOS for Apple TV

With the recent launch of the updated Apple TV it was about time to sit down and take a look. The launch of Apple TV and it's tvOS SDK (similar to iOS) will allow developers to build out their tvOS app using Javascript, TVML and Swift, and also add their apps to the Apple TV's own app store.

Read more

November 13, 2015 - No Comments!

Swift Text Transition Trick

A little trick I learnt today to change the text of a label with a crossfade...

let animation = CATransition()
animation.timingFunction = CAMediaTimingFunction(name: kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseOut)
animation.type = kCATransitionFade
animation.duration = 0.5
self.label.layer.addAnimation(animation, forKey: "kCATransitionFade")
self.label.text = "new copy"

March 12, 2014 - No Comments!

Play Background Music in Your IOS App

Something often overlooked is how your app integrates to the user's mobile experience. When listening to music and interacting with other apps, it can be a bad user experience for the user's audio experience to be cut off when your app has no use for a focused audio experience.

Here's a short code snippet to allow your user to play background music in your IOS App...

[[AVAudioSession sharedInstance] setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient error:nil];

February 25, 2014 - No Comments!

Open Game Center Preferences from within your IOS App

So we all know Game Center isn't ideal - if user's don't login at install time it can be hard to get them to login whilst within your app. Game Center is designed to stop presenting the Game Center login view after the user has dismissed it a few times. Short of giving the user clear instructions to login once this has occurred there isn't really any ideal solution to get your user to login once they have decided to do so.

Read more

November 29, 2013 - No Comments!

Excited About Beacons and Bluetooth Low Energy

Beacons and Bluetooth Low Energy

Since Apple introduced iBeacon as the WWDC conference as part of IOS7 it'd be fair to say that it may be slowly passing under the radar, but for me as a developer I feel this will be one of the most exciting products of recent years. Already there are a few front runners producing the hardware to utilise this technology and the case studies they have developed are very clear and focused in how they will help the end user.

Read more