How to create bubble that Looks like in Siri's UI - iphone

I was looking out for the ways to create a UI bubble that looks like in Siri's UI.
I have previously created a iOS chat like UI in which I used the image and then played with its
stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:topCapHeight:
But, my take on this is, they are drawing the bubble using Quartz. But, as we all know it is a significant usage of the processor every time we do it.
Any suggestions?
Image Here

Try using this same tutorial but add those graphical look. You can easily make that in photoshop. If you are a good programmer than ask a friend who is UI designer (I hate photoshop can't even get line straight....lol, So I always ask my friends who knows photoshop to make something like this)
This tutorial is Great!!!
http://mobiforge.com/developing/story/sms-bubble-ui-iphone-apps
Good luck!

Related

Create iphone interface from psd

For every developer arrives the day to improve the user interface experience because apps are evalutated mainly from the ui carefulness.
So, i've took a look around the websites and I found some psd where to start to desing my apps.
My question is: How to transform a psd prototype to a well-working app?
I don't unserstand how a mockup can help a developer to build a ui...
Can someone make me some clear the situation?
Well, I'd be careful to make a distinction between the graphics an app uses and the actual User Interface. Certainly the graphics are part of the UI, but the UI is soooo much more than that. Depending on how it is done, photoshop mock ups can be simple graphics you can use for your interface to complexes 'scenes' describing how the app functions. In the latter case, the mock-up can be useful for UI design, in the former case it just gives you pretty images to use (which can certainly be useful).
But to more directly answer your question, most people take 'slices' (individual pieces) of the photoshop image and export them as .png images (or .jpg). If the .psd file doesn't already have the images 'sliced', look up 'photoshop image slicing' on Google. You can then import them into Xcode and use them as background images for the controls you want to use. Especially since iOS 5.0, images can be used for a lot of controls. Also, you'll probably want to make sure you make the image resizable with proper UIEdgeInsets. This will allow the image to resize without pixilation by setting an area that can be tiled within the image.

Nice looking UIButton

I'm trying to make a nice looking UIButton. I'm not exactly sure what I mean by that, but something nicer than just a plain white looking rounded corner button with blue font. I can't seem to find anything online, so can anyone help? I want to do it all by programming (no XIB) and I am not an artist so I can't draw any custom images or anything like that.
Back in May of last year, Jeff LaMarche (of iPhone dev shop Martian Craft and co-author of several iPhone development books) put out a suite called GradientButtons that makes it easy to implement pretty, shiny, colorful buttons. I've used it in several projects and it's quite nice.
Here is a tutorial on how to make a shhiny button all in code, no image needed!
Tutorial on gradients at CocoaWithLove
http://tapadoo.com/2010/tired-of-trying-to-create-nice-buttons-for-your-iphone-app-try-this/
I ran into the above link when I was searching for a similar resource. Did the job
The Apple UI guidelines would suggest I think that you use the standard button unless you have good reason not to.

Is there a View Controller to show thumbnails like the Photos app?

I am looking to replicate the image gallery view that shows thumbnails, like in the photos app on the iPhone.
Is there a view controller or any examples that anyone can provide to replicate this?
There isn't one provided by Apple. I would recommend looking at Three20. It has a few things with look a lot like the Photos app.
Another option is AQGridView.
Take a look at the video of Session 104 from the WWDC 2010. It's basically a 40 minute tutorial on how to do the photo app.
Bear in mind that allowing users to zoom will greatly increase the space required. If you use CATiledLayers, that is, which, depending on your desired zoom level, you should consider doing.
Oh, and there is source code ;)
What they don't tell you is how they did their tiling. I found that you can
a) download ready-made tiles from the server with the app or with a content update (you can use ImageMagick's crop tileWidthXtileHeight - e.g. crop 100x100 - to do the tiling). This has the disadvantage of large downloads.
b) download ready-made tiles from the server as needed (may lead to lags in your app, but then MKMapView does it quite nicely, doesn't it?)
c) tile on the phone as needed (here you can also consider caching the results, although that will likely mean you have to check space left on the device)
I've recently given enormego's PhotoViewer a try. It's easy to use, and it's much more focused than the Three20 project. (Which I also use and like a lot.)

Text Editor like Pages iPad App

I want to implement a functionality similar to found in Pages app..i.e. text floating around images, image zooming etc.. I have been struggling with this part of my application but no success yet. Would be grateful if someone provides me with some pointers in this regard , like 'Which UIControl should I use?','Help in thinking logic' etc..
Thanx in advance.
Sounds like a fun app to develop.
Some Pointers:
Immediately off the bat, I would say look into creating your own Controls for the floating objects.
I would suggest tackling a smaller project, or maybe a few small to medium size projects. p
Try making a few apps with WinForms or WPF. Also look into XSL:FO.
Immediately off the bat, I would say look into creating your own Controls.
There was a WWDC session that talked about iOS text. I don't think it's violating NDA to say this is going to be a very hard project. No, make that very, very, very hard.
You will probably need to do all UI yourself, and use Core Text for rendering of the text. (But I believe you need to draw selection, etc.) And do the layout yourself.

What's the best way to skin my iPhone app (similar to how the Notes app is skinned)?

If you look at the Notes app on the iPad, you can see it uses all native iPhone controls, but they're "skinned" to look like a pad of paper. What's the best way to implement something similar to that? Could I use interface builder and simply change the background image for each of the controls, including the TableViews?
Thanks in advance for all your help! I'm going to continue researching this question right now.
This article from Dr Touch will probably come in handy: Stuff you learn from reverse engineering Notes.app
It's a little more complicated than that. My suggestion is manifold:
Hire a real designer to make the artwork.
Subclass whatever controls you want to skin, and handle this business directly in drawRect:. Interface Builder will not help you in this instance.
Consider drawing your controls programmatically instead of using images; a really cool thing would be to cache the programmatic drawings so that they only have to be performed once.
Best of luck!