Might be i am using a wrong title but i will try to explain here what i want.
In iOS i need to implement a functionality to get notify if the user is using their iOS device.
My app will be running in background using location services and i need to find out if the the user is using their device. It is doable as i have looked into this application which is sending notifications in background to the drivers who is suing their devices while driving.
https://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/cellcontrol/id661169580?l=en&mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=2
So i need similar kind of functionality to find out if a user is using iOS device or not. If anyone of you can suggest me any approach then it would be great for me to start.
Thank you!
Note: I have tried to find out touch events in background but that is not possible as i have done some research on this.
You won't be able to receive touch events when the app is in background using public API's. However, you can do that with the help of mobileSubstrate library ( http://iphonedevwiki.net/index.php/MobileSubstrate - The MobileHooker component is the one that would be used). by hooking your process to the OS. As an example, the display recorder app in Cydia tracks global gestures while recording the screen. This will be a cydia tweak and you will need to jailbreak your device to do all that.
Coming to your specific use-case, the example app you cited should be using one of the exceptions for background applications mentioned in https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneosprogrammingguide/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow.html (see the section - "Implementing Long-Running Background Tasks"), probably the one to receive updates from external accessories.
I am building a web-based tool for internal purposes for my company that runs on an ipod touch. It's working fine, but there are a few quirks such as not being able to auto-focus on a text field when a page loads without the user actually tapping the screen (I can "focus" the field, but the keyboard is not active). Additionally, I cannot programmatically trigger sounds to play (I am using the jPlayer library). What it seems to come down to is this:
Is there some way I can trick the browser on an ipod touch 4 to thinking the user has actually tapped a specific div on the screen? If I can do that, I can solve every other issue. Since this is for internal purposes, I am free to make any modifications needed. However, I need to able to do keep the "app" code in HTML5 and JavaScript for a myriad of reasons. Perhaps an app with a modification to safari to allow this, then I can run my site in that app?
Perhaps an app with a modification to safari to allow this, then I can run my site in that app?
Yes, you could write a really simple app with just a UIWebView in which you display your HTML5 based app. If you need extra things such as back button etc. you would have to implement that (it's also not very difficult). The UIWebView should behave mostly exactly like Safari, so it should be a de facto "app with a modification to safari".
You could then give the right element focus and call
[webView becomeFirstResponder];
The sounds could also be played programmatically by simply requesting the appropriate URL.
I think with this setup the additional effort in terms of coding beyond your existing web based tool is minimal. However, this assumes you have Xcode, know some basic Objective-C and are familiar with the procedures of ad hoc or company distribution of "real" apps.
You can try to use a timed event
What are the typical mistakes an iPhone developer unaware of accessibility makes that renders their app unusable by customers with common impairments?
What are the first and easiest steps to take when making an iPhone app accessible to the vision impaired (etc.)?
How do I make sure Voice Over says or does something appropriate for all my programmatically created UIButtons, UISliders, etc.?
See the following link from Apple on accessibility on iOS.
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/iPhoneAccessibility/Accessibility_on_iPhone/Accessibility_on_iPhone.html
I strongly suggest using voiceover to test your application after you've used the developer tools to check it's accessibility. I'm a blind iPod touch user and find that VoiceOver has a very low entry barrior, unlike windows screen reading software that requires you to memorize a bunch of keystrokes and realize that your application may be presented in an entirely different way to the user then you expect.
is it possible and how to implement forbiden exit from application on iphone/ipad?
we have an application that must permanently work on ipad device. user should not have any way to exit from application. could you advise how to implement this functionality?
By jailbreaking it and installing custom software that enables you to do that.
Or putting a lot of tape over all the buttons.
Anyways, you can't do this with a standard app on a standard device. Just think about it - would be a pretty annoying thing for apps to do, wouldn't it?
Apple's own human interface design guidelines would forbid this. Your app can't encroach on the abilities of the OS that transcend your own application's responsibilities. The whole point is to have a consistent experience for the device and if you're modifying something as fundamental as switching apps, you're violating that principle.
If you can't exit the app, you're essentially turning your device into a single purpose unit. How do you expect to get back to the app list if you disable fast app switching and the home button?
Whatever solution you find would not be approved by the app store.
You should look at whether the current multitasking features can help chip away at your reasoning for needing the app to always run in the foreground.
If you are talking about an enterprise app locally distributed, you might be able to do this, though probably not.
The best idea would be to physically break or block the hardware button.
Or issue alerts to the device every 10 seconds making the thing effectively unusable when outside the application (you can ignore incoming notifications for you in-app).
Why do you have this requirement?
There is no way to implement this functionality. You cannot do it.
You can't do it, But if you jailbreak and configure the "Home-Button" settings you can :)
Btw, If you do it, the only way to quit will be a shutdown... And to shut down every time would be kinda annoying...
iPhone OS 3.0 is being announced and previewed next week (March 17).
We all know the feature set users want. Copy/paste, MMS, Flash on iPhone, etc.
We'll see about those.
What I'm interested in what does the development community feel the SDK is missing, in need of, to make programming for the platform easier and more productive.
A more complete Interface Builder with support for custom palettes and all sorts of goodies like that.
Better control over the keyboard.
Better unit testing support. (Unit testing can be done, but only on the simulator, and it's very awkward to set up.)
Push notifications. Please.
A more accurate simulator, i.e. one with a more accurate set of frameworks.
The ability to easily build views like the Mail compose window.
For that matter, an in-application compose window.
A better way for apps to share data locally than by invoking URLs.
Access to the calendar, notes, mail (possibly read-only), and bookmarks (again, read-only) databases. Maybe even limited access to the iPod database—even just the ability to read song metadata and access and change the playing song would be helpful.
Some sort of middle ground between UILabel and UIWebView that allows for formatted text without a huge hassle.
More built-in toolbar icons.
The return of the "glass" button style that was in the beta SDK.
A few useful internal views, like UIProgressHUD, exposed.
And last but not least...
A pony.
An easy Javascript bookmarklet installation method for Mobile Safari. (OpenRadar: 1, 2)
UIWebView needs more of UIScrollView's properties and methods, such as contentOffset.
More configurability on some of the built-in behaviors and views, e.g. the button text on UITableViewCell's "Delete" button, or the styles and text of UIAlertSheet/UIAlertView buttons. (Some of these can be done today with undocumented calls, but I'd rather not rely on those.)
More flexibility from UINavigationController, such as the ability to push/pop views that selectively don't display the navigation bar but using the same animations and stack, or more customizability over the navigation bar button labels and behaviors.
The ability to restrict interface orientation per UIViewController, not just accept/reject changes via shouldAutorotate. E.g. I want my main content view to be autorotatable, but I want my navigation hierarchy and settings screens to always display in portrait, even if the content view was rotated to landscape.
libxml and its handy DOM XML parser instead of the SAX-based NSXMLParser.
libcurl w/SSL, or more options and functionality for NSURLConnection.
Ability to check whether a URL scheme is registered. This could be used for apps to detect whether other specific apps are installed, and enable functionality selectively, e.g. when Instapaper detects Tweetie is installed, it can offer a "Post with Tweetie" button. (Disclaimer: That was a plug. I make Instapaper.)
I'm sure I'll think of more, but overall, I'm very happy developing for the iPhone. I'm amazed at the quality and sophistication of the iPhone OS, the SDK, and the development tools given how incredibly young they all are.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned garbage collection yet. Objective-C 2.0 on the Mac supports optional garbage collection. I don't really see any reason it wouldn't work just fine on the iPhone as well and it would eliminate much of the tedium of having to explicitly release objects all over the place.
What I'm hoping most for is to allow iPhones to talk to each other either via Bluetooth or some other means. Granted, they can talk via Bonjour if they are on the same Wi-Fi network, but that's just not convenient enough in 2009. If I'm out with a friend and want to play a multi-player game we first have to find a Starbucks or whatever the heck to get on the same Wi-Fi network. Also, think of the ridiculous amount of social apps you could have if iPhones could talk to each other without needing Wi-Fi. Exchange business cards, flirt with the cute girl over there, etc.
Form a PURE programmers perspective, make XCode as helpful of an IDE as Eclipse or IntelliJ are in the Java world. There's so much time I waste on stupid stuff that the IDE could have found for me as I typed it.
I also don't understand why I can't color buttons without having to use images.
Better multitasking is absolutely key at this point. Android's got it, Palm's WebOS has it - both, it seems, in largely unrestricted and well-implemented fashion. Possibilities:
Push notifications with a good UI (message stack in addition to badging/sound/whatever - if they have to have an extra approval step so apps can't be obnoxious, so be it)
Multiple full processes (not possible with current OS, I realize, but then I've never seen a good explanation why the iPhone doesn't support virtual memory)
Smaller "background" versions of apps that can run in the background - no GUI and a significantly tighter memory constraint
A good mapping API. Let us access the Google Maps abstraction that the Maps application uses !
More Interface Builder goodness
Better simulator
Smart inbox. Incoming messages are routed to installed handlers based on type.
Synchronisation framework that simplifies syncing with desktop & Mobile Me.
Decent landscape support, without the multitude of bugs, especially for the camera picker. Better support for rotation and more control of it.
Access to EXIF data on images from the picker, so we can tell their location
Deeper access to the camera API, so that we are not rail-roaded into the standard photo taker / picker
Push notifications that can launch an application. (In lieu of full multi-tasking, which I don't think we'll get and which could be problematic.)
Better, more intuitive keyboard controls.
API for inter-application messaging.
Access to data from Calendar, iTunes, Mail, Notes and more (with user's permission)
A more accurate simulator, with, for example, ways to limit bandwidth, and use the Mac's camera to actually take a photo.
Phone-phone bluetooth for data exchange
Access to more of the views used by iPhone apps, e.g. the progress HUD, email "blobbing" mechanism for email addresses, thumbnail scrollers, HUD brought up in Photos app, and more.
Less sandboxing. It won't likely happen, but it would always be appreciated for an app to have slightly more power than they currently do (actual filesystem access, for example. even if it was read-only access, it would still allow for more interesting applications to exist).
EDIT: Also, access to the copy/paste API. But I hope that one is obvious to Apple.
My list:
More full-featured IB support as the Mac has
Inter-app Data transfer mechanism (could be C&P, but does not have to be)
Greatly improved camera API with deeper level of control and more flexibility
SDK access to bluetooth and more support for protocols
Real ObjectiveC framework around the address book like the Mac has today.
Warnings similar to the location warning when an app tries to access address book data.
I'm sure whatever they actually have prepared, there will be a few interesting twists.
Ability to send SMS messages without having to have launch the SMS client and have the user type the message.
Access to the raw camera data so that things can be done without having to take a picture and wait for it to save (like you can do with Android)
push notification so that you can launch tasks... would need to be user controllable.
A camera that can focus (I know... have to wait for the next iPhone for that... if they decide to put it in...)
A UIKit level drawing api.
We all know the feature set people want. Copy/Paste, MMS, Flash on iPhone, etc.
I would have thought those specific items were down the SO wish list (although it seems I'm wrong looking at the votes on this comment :-).
MMS is a pretty pointless app when you have eMail. Flash is not an OS issue - Flash could be delivered today.
I don't even want push notifications - they're just a patch, I want background apps. I also want fixes for all the broken APIs like Camera, video and landscape support. Support for CoreImage filters would be nice too but probably too much to wish for.
[[ABAddressBook sharedAddressBook] me] for being able to use the owner's Zip code, phone number, or whatever.
Ability to download files to local storage and sync them back to iTunes or your hard drive
Get EXIF data from photos
Pull all photos at once
Pull all contacts at once
Control screen brightness
Access to music in iPod section
Read access to email and text messages
Access to Safari cookies (so maybe I could make some kind of keep-me-logged-in app.)
fix table view in landscape mode
new camera API with direct access to the camera
distribution code signing automatically when uploading to the app store (instead of code signing in xcode)
ability to request more memory so users don't have to reboot their phones to get rid of background apps
A non-Mac based development envionment.