Is it possible to detect call events in OSX? - iphone

There is a feature to receive phone calls on OSX (see official Apple support page). Is it possible to have some kind of daemon listen for this event and react on it? I assume that your iPhone and your Mac are connected to each other.

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Anyone using XMPP to implement Push Notifications on iOS?

I'm looking for any reference projects or key learning from anyone who has implemented XMPP/Jabber to successfully send notifications to iOS devices (iPhone/iPad).
I'm considering using an XMPP server (OpenFire specifically) to provide a single cross platform mobile push system. C2DM for android has a number of annoying requirements like users having Google accounts. This is what got me started looking at XMPP. I also need to support pushing to iOS devices. I know all about APNS, however I'm wondering if I could use the XMPP server for both Android and iOS platforms (and possibly more like Black Berry).
The things I feel might come up are:
iOS killing any persistent connection to the XMPP server. Will it
auto reconnect?
iOS preventing access to certain ports or protocols.
Anything to be aware of here?
Other gotchas one would only discover
by trying this?
Here you can find the answer to your first question:
when your app goes in background you (the client) close the connection
with the xmpp server. When your app comes back into foreground you
reopen the connection. If your server need to send messages to your
client, it must use push notifications. When the client receives the
notification can (it depends on the user action) go back to
foreground.
(source: iOS Backgrounding & XMPPFramework)

Communicating with Windows from an iPhone/iPod

I'm looking to work on an iOS app that would need to send/receive data back and forth between the iPhone/iPod and a service that is running on Windows. Communication-wise, I will be using sockets.
The Phone will send/receive data to/from a Windows service (NOT a web service)
Sockets will be used as a means for communication
The iPhone/iPod will be connected to WiFi using a static IP address
The iPhone/iPod is intended to be as thin client as possible
The intention is to have the Windows Service listen for events from iPhone/iPod. Example:
Input needs to be taken from a UITextField and saved as a string by pressing a button. On the button press, an event must be fired and sent to the Windows Service over WiFi, which will then receive the event, perform a "server-side" action, and send the response back to the iPhone/iPod.
I'm pretty new to iOS development still and I know this is some more advanced stuff, but any help or resources that would help to accomplish this, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks!
This is standard network stuff not related to which platform you're using. On iOS you can do either:
1) use berkley sockets (standard unix stuff).
2) use the Cocoa wrapper for sockets (NSSocketPort etc).
3) use a framework such as MKNetworkKit (here).
I would use option 3 myself :)
One thing in your favour is that Windows machines and iPads are both little-endian, so you don't have to worry about byte-swapping (which you won't anyway if you're just sending strings).
EDIT: For windows to discover your device, you will need either a configuration setup with the IP address details, or to use Apple's bonjour service, or some custom solution.

Detect Bluetooth answer/end-call button on iPhone

Is it possible to detect and respond to the answer/end-call button presses from an HFP Bluetooth device on iOS? Has anyone seen this? Where should I look for answers? I understand one could get access to lower level bluetooth if you register for the device manufacturer (MFI) program but I'm hoping I don't have to dive this deep. I also know that you can respond to AVRCP commands but I am not wanting to use this option. Can anyone help?
UIResponder has a -remoteControlReceivedWithEvent: method that you can use to receive events from external devices, possibly including Bluetooth headsets. From the docs:
Remote-control events originate as commands from external accessories, including headsets. An application responds to these commands by controlling audio or video media presented to the user. The receiving responder object should examine the subtype of event to determine the intended command—for example, play (UIEventSubtypeRemoteControlPlay)—and then proceed accordingly.
To allow delivery of remote-control events, you must call the beginReceivingRemoteControlEvents method of UIApplication; to turn off delivery of remote-control events, call endReceivingRemoteControlEvents.
It’s not clear whether the answer/end button on a headset is considered equivalent to the play/pause button on, say, the earbuds’ remote, but this might be worth a try.
Sadly, there are no available bluetooth public APIs for developers, so no way to get that access in the conventional means.
As of my research, some person received some event from their bleu-tooth devices via "remoteControlReceivedWithEvent" but not all of them! Some are receiving none! And very few are receiving all of them!
I also tried Core Bluetooth but it only supports LEB (Low Energy Bluetooth devices)!
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternetWeb/Conceptual/CoreBluetooth_concepts/CoreBluetoothOverview/CoreBluetoothOverview.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40013257-CH2-SW1
Also, some posts suggest it is possible to use Classic bleutooth instead of "Low Energy":
How to use bluetooth classic instead of le
But it has limitation as well (the post is taking about "MFi accessory"! MFi is it for "made for iphone" ?!?!?!)
from the post above:
"A non-LE Bluetooth device needs to be MFi-approved to be used with the External Accessory framework (it needs to use a specific Apple chip and a proprietary communication protocol). You won't be able to build applications to access this device unless it either uses the more open Bluetooth LE or has this chip in it for standard Bluetooth. There might be ways to do this via jailbreak, but pretty much everyone I know has moved over to Bluetooth LE." !
more post: Connecting to a Bluetooth device from iOS, no MFi
Regards.

How can I create a small Mac app that receives data over the WiFi network from an iOS app?

What I need is to have a simple screen in this Mac app that just prints a string as the iPhone is transmitting strings through the WiFi network.
This string is simply a string value from a slider being adjusted up and down by the user on the iPhone. The data will be sent to the Mac app and then the Mac app will receive this signal from the WiFi network and simply print the values.
This is a constant connection. I'm not trying to sync once. I'm trying to listen to the iPhone device from the Mac to see if the iPhone is sending any more strings as the user slides the UISlider up and down from the iPhone app.
How can I create the client side? Do I need to use Bonjour or something?
In my answer to this question, I provide a link to a sample application that has a Mac component and an iPhone one. These components communicate between one another over a WiFi network, with changes in a label on one being reflected in the other. This is done using Bonjour discovery and the standard networking APIs.
With simple modifications, this could be used to send the continuous updates you need for your particular case.
Use the CFNetwork framework, you can use bonjour for discovery and then handle a persistent connection through native sockets for passing data back and forth.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Networking/Conceptual/CFNetwork/Introduction/Introduction.html
Here is an excellent tutorial to get started, its for iOS but CFNetwork is available in OS X too.
http://mobileorchard.com/tutorial-networking-and-bonjour-on-iphone/

iPhone interaction between PC app and iPhone app using USB

I know since the 3.0 SDK we can use accessories, so my question is simple, what is the process to make an iPhone app and PC (or Mac) app interact, using the USB ?
I don't ask you any code, but just the paths and the keys for making that work.
Have I to access the iPhone disk through SSH and work with files ?
Or can I send data from the iPhone app and intercept (get) it on the PC app (and send data from PC to iPhone) ?
Thanks, and if this question is stupid, just tell me, I didn't find on Dev Center (I don't really know what I have to looking for...) !
Edit : I read some news from Microids, they will synchronize PC and iPhone games (i.g here), and somewhere (I can't find it again) they say connecting the iPhone on the USB, so I think this is possible
USB access on the phone is only supported via the External Accessory Framework. You cannot hook the iPhone up to arbitrary USB devices, the devices actually have to support the EA protocol. You can get more details about it via the Made for iPhone program.
Other than that there is no USB access available on to applications.
You want the External Accessory Framework. Having said that, I'm not sure that Apple's intention was for you to communicate with an application on a PC/Mac. It's really for talking to accessories such as iPod docks, remote controls, etc. Apple may not allow an application that talks to a PC in this manner in the App Store.
You might be interested in ssh_relay (earlier called iphone_tunnel).
There is a /System/Library/Lockdown/Services.plist on your iPhone and you can start any such services via AMDeviceStartService and then communicate with it.
The ssh_relay demonstrates how to do that by having a simple port forwarder as a service on the iPhone site and the client application on your PC, so you can forward any local iPhone port to your PC. This is not exactly what you wants here (it is handy in the case you have already another service running on the iPhone which communicates via simple TCP and you want to access that; for example SSH) but based on this example, it should be straight-forward to have any communication between the service (in Services.plist) and your PC.