That’s What I Wanted To Do… Sort of…

Whilst keeping track of one of many available liveblogs last night regarding the Apple keynote at the WWDC in San Francisco, something caught my attention. Actually almost everything I found interesting, but one thing in particular reminded me a lot of what I wanted to do for my fourth year university project.

One of the features touted when previewing iOS 6 was what I wanted to have done as an add on for my project. ‘Do Not Disturb’, a new feature for iOS 6 coming this autumn, basically mutes and sends calls straight to voicemail between certain user defined times of night. It will only let through those who you want to let through.

This is basically what I wanted to have done with an app as a companion to my project. I wanted it to basically turn on airplane mode after half an hour of being in the product and then it would turn airplane mode off when it was time to wake up. This was not possible with the API’s of the software developer kit so the idea was shelved.

However, this one would maybe be just as good as a companion. I know I’ll use it when the new operating system is ready to download.

One of the features of iOS 6 from http://www.apple.com/uk/ios/ios6/

#154 iPhone Tracker

I know I am a little late to the party with this, but when this first came into the public eye, my MacBook was unable to run this application.

What I am talking about is the iPhone Tracking (dare I say it, scandal?) where some researchers had been rummaging around in the iPhone backups located on the computer it is synced with and found a file which has locations from where the phone had been used. They had then created an application which visualised on a map where the user had been.

I tried to run this application on my MacBook 3 weeks ago, just when it emerged, but it was unable to run. I do not know why this is, and I am just going to guess that it was that it was on Leopard and it needed Snow Leopard to run. Now, 3 weeks later, and back home and reunited with my iMac, which is running Snow Leopard, I have been able to run this application. This is what the results were:

It clearly shows the main areas where I have used my phone. The centre of Scotland is where it has been used most and is where the points are most accurate. Towards to top left of the map, things start to go a little bit wrong. This is where, from what I gather from the people who created this application, the locations are out because of something to do with the phone mast (I might be wrong with this though), I haven’t been to where all the little dots are but I have been to some of them. The cluster of blobs around Inverness seem to be about right though, and there is a small cluster about Oban which again is true.

It isn’t the most interesting of applications but it appeals majorly to the geeky side of me.

#148 Little Planets

I like little planets I do.

By taking a regular panorama and turning it into a polar panorama, you get something that looks like a little planet. Having completely forgotten all about them, recently whilst stopping off in South Queensferry and not having my normal camera to play with, I recruited the use of my iPhone and some photography apps. One of which was 360 an app which automatically creates and stitches together a panorama. One of the options once it has been created is to make a polar one and here you go.

The output straight from the application was this:

But with a little quick tweaking in Photoshop, I got this:

And in case you were wondering, my last foray into little planets was a few years ago and here it is (made using a panorama on Uist):

#142 iPad to PS3

The other day I was thinking, as you do, and it came across me, why can’t you use an idevice such as an iPhone or iPad to control basic functions of a PS3? A bit of a random thought I know, but using one as a remote would give more functionality than a standard controller.

The way I see it would work (and I have googled to see if it has already been done and as far as I’m aware, it hasn’t), is that it would be in app form. It would be loaded up and connect via either bluetooth or wifi to the PlayStation. Almost acting as a secondary display, an XMB (cross media bar) would be displayed on the iPad screen, all the usual gestures would be usable and the functions could be used. It wouldn’t be able to be used to play games with, but it would make sense if it could be used to view images, play music or play video with good playback functionality.

Using the standard PS3 controller for media functions on a PS3 can get a bit confusing, and not many users would be willing to fork out for a specific media remote for it. The number of users who have iDevices is pretty much at 100 million at the moment, and the app would be available to all, and in my opinion, something which could be quite popular.

Here is something I quickly knocked up to show what I mean, even if it just looks as though it is a secondary screen…

#43 There’s An App For That, A Very Well Designed One Too

Again, this post is about something which I found online. I should really stop doing this as, well, it probably isn’t the best of things to be doing when I could be getting on with some sort of work.

How many of you out there have an iPod Touch or an iPhone? Well this post is probably most relevant to you then. A while ago, someone posted a link to this site on Twitter, can’t remember who it was so I am unable to give them credit for it, but nonetheless, it is a site dedicated to showcasing all of the, or what are considered to be the best produced and designed applications in the iTunes App Store.

app.itize.us has a mission statement which is as follows:

app.itize.us is a painstakingly curated presentation of the best produced and designed iPhone applications that are available for download via the App Store.

I agree with every word in that sentence, figuratively speaking of course.

A few weeks ago whilst on this site, browsing, I stumbled across what has to be my favourite game I have ever played on my iPhone or iPod Touch. Colorbind. Essentially, the aim of the game is to connect all the dots on the screen with the coloured strips of paper. It is an utterly gorgeous game which probably wouldn’t work very well on any other platform. It is a good way to let the time slip by. In a lecture, before going to bed, if you have nothing else constructive to do, or even if you should be doing something else.

There are 80 levels in total, ranging from simple one colour puzzles to more complicated 4 colour conundrums. Included is a tutorial, but the game seems very intuitive from the very start. I highly recommend this game, it is without a doubt the one of the best 59p’s I have ever spent. Slight update, I seem to have got the game when it was at its discounted price, it is currently £1.19, but it is still worth the little extra money.

The website for Colorbind is nonverbal.ch

Link directly to application in iTunes: Colorbind

If you own an iPod Touch or an iPhone, or if by the time you are reading this, an iPad, then I couldn’t urge you more to go to app.itize.us and find something which is considered to be wonderfully designed. On top of that I am going to say definitely buy Colorbind, well worth the money, even if you aren’t sure about buying it, there is also a lite version, but why waste time and install that when you could have the full one instead?