I can let my WatchKit app interact with the iPhone app using WCSession but this doesn't seem to work over LTE. How can I make that work? Does Apple provide anything for this?
I need to communicate with the app about once per minute.
I found this on Google: https://developer.android.com/wear/images/wear_cloud_node.png from https://developer.android.com/training/wearables/data-layer/index.html
Something like this would be nice but doesn't look as instant as WCSession
The WatchConnectivity framework, which contains WCSession uses Bluetooth for communication between an iPhone and an Apple Watch, so it cannot be used for obvious reasons if you'd want to use a watch on LTE.
Currently, there is no direct method for what you are trying to achieve and probably there won't be one in the foreseeable future. The point of the LTE Apple Watch is so that you can access the internet even when your phone is not with you. However, in this situation it wouldn't really make sense to synchronise your data between the two devices until they are physically located close to each other.
You have to upload the data you want to synchronise to a server, from which the iPhone can download it, but I really would advise against this, since it seems to be a waste of resources (both battery capacity and data).
In an iPhone iOS4 app containing an existing SQLite database (i.e. there at compile time), how secure is the data in the SQLite database?
For example, is it worth encrypting an SQLite database (using the sqlite3_key(...) method sold under license)?
It is secured until the iPhone is jailbreaked. After jailbreak one can go to your database and can copy it to his desktop and then can see your data. So I think if you have very important data then you should encrypt your database
First question you have to answer is how valuable is your data? That somewhat determines how much time a hacker is willing to spend trying to get at it. Security is a complex subject and you could spend days researching IOS security. It depends heavily on the IOS version, with IOS 4 being the first release that has a decent chance of being really secure. First off nothing is secure unless your device is locked. Also, your database is NOT encrypted even if the device is locked unless you set data protection flags in your code. Sandbox doesn't help you here at all really, except to protect one apps data from another. A hacker with your device will jailbreak it and install an SSH server and at that point can pretty much do whatever they want, including brute-force passcode breaking attempts. If an IOS 4 device was locked with a decent passcode and you set data protection on your database, you are probably ok with counting on the IOS hardware encryption. But can you depend on users to set a decent passcode? The default simple passcode is only 4 digits - not that great. And will they all be IOS 4+ users? If not, you'll need your own encryption on the database. Just don't store the key anywhere, cuz hackers will find it. And while you are considering security in your coding, consider that hackers can also decompile and run a modified version of your app.
AFAIK data are physically encrypted on iOS 4.x devices. Add to that the fact that application are sandboxed, it's a fairly secure system.
For the sake of coding itself, I know that I don't need to buy iPhone as there's pretty good emulator.
However, as I will develop iPhone apps for clients (will not have direct contacts to clients) via freelancers sites, do you think that I might get rejected (not chosen) by the contractor because I don't have iPhone at home?
Do contractors accept this way of working:
I develop the app, test it in the emulator and send it to them
They test it in iPhone and send me the list of the bugs
I fix the bugs and send them the app back
They find new bugs and...
Yes, or at least an iPod Touch.
To clarify:
Yes. You really need one. Debugging the kind of errors that cause it not to open on the device at all, for example, can be mind-numbingly tedious if you don't have the device handy.
For most purposes, of course, an iPod Touch should do just fine, but the crux of the matter is that the testers can only test what they see; only the developer can actually test crucial stuff, most of the time.
So to repeat. Yes, you'll need a device. A thousand times yes.
Your client may have something of an issue paying money for software that was never tested on actual hardware. No matter how good an emulator is, you should always try the software on the real machine your program will be running on. The emulator will simulate the way the API responds etc, but you could be blindsided by things such as interference from other running applications, subtle timing bugs, interaction between different versions of the firmware or hardware, etc.
In short, I don't think there is a legal reason you have to test on a real iPhone, but from a Q/C point of view, I think there is no question you need the real hardware to run it on.
Paying customers generally dislike being treated as a beta tester.
I don't think that you won't get the clients - but I do think its a terrible idea not to have a device to test on.
There are many things that won't work properly in the simulator. For instance you can't simulate a camera function, you can't simulate GPS (properly - it always sets you at the apple HQ), you can't simulate sound recording, or test with a real contact address book or a real set up. You can't test whether there is an internet connection or if there are any iphone specific bugs.
On the other side of the coin there are loads of things that will work in the iphone simulator that won't work on the device itself. For instance NSXML and such won't work on an iphone, but WILL work in the simulator.
If you can get hold of one of the new ipod touches they do pretty much most things you will need, and you don't have to get into a data plan or anything. I would suggest AT LEAST getting one of those. You can't make apps if you can't test them properly.
Other things:
In app purchases - #Stephen Darlington
Whenever working for clients, the clients do not pay you for having an iphone or not... or being able to test it on a actual iPhone. The clients pay you for the product you deliver. They expect it to work on the device.
My recommendation is to get yourself an iPhone 3, 3gs and 4 if you want the best results. But, if money is a object here... try developing minor projects which are reliable in the simulator. AND ask friends/family which do have iPhones to test it for you on their device. Its better to ask mates to do this, then ask the client, this way you have a better comunication with your client, your client has more faith in you and... well lets face it, it is the developers responsibility to deliver quality code. Right?
There are some tests you cannot perform in the emulator.
And I am not sure contractors will like this ping-pong test approach (somebody will get tired after couple passes).
You can get an old second-gen iPod touch at a very good price since there are many people who would like to get rid of it. And Apple advices to test apps on older hardware to achieve the best performance. So you'd better get something 'hard' to play with.
Another aspect is performance. The simulator (running on a powerful Mac) will be much faster than a device. This was a huge difference with the original first iPhone.
As an alternative to the iPod: look for a cheap original iPhone on eBay or so. But remember that this will not run iOS4.
I know there are emulators, but is this good enough? If someone is serious about iPhone development, do they absolutely need an iPhone?
Just my personal opinion: if you're serious it means that you're committed to quality of your product. If you're committed to quality there is no way to deliver a product without actually launching it on the target platform :)
As noted in other posts you'll have tough time testing the multi-touch screen and other aspects of the hardware on your emulator.
Don't forget that most types of iPhone apps also work on the iPod Touch, which is a one time cost and no monthly fees. Even network apps work if the iPod Touch is connected to WiFi.
During development of my first iPhone app, I wrote code that worked fine on the iPhone Simulator, but which did not work on the device. So I would say "Yes, you definitely need to test on an actual device."
The simulator is not an emulator. It is not running the actual iPhone OS; it is running a set of Mac OS X libraries that are very similar, but not identical, to iPhone OS. The simulator is great for debugging and saving time during the code-and-test cycle, so you will use it a lot more than the device, but a device is indispensible.
You really do need to touch-and-feel your app on a real device. A UI that works great while pointing and clicking with a mouse might be terrible when used with thumbs and fingers. If there is any text entry, you need to feel how painful it is to type using the onscreen keyboard, to determine whether it makes sense to provide alternative data-entry methods.
There are also significant performance differences between the simulator and actual devices. You need to test with the oldest (slowest) device you want to support to verify it is not too slow, doesn't run out of memory, etc.
As others have suggested, an iPod Touch is also sufficient, so the cost of a device isn't huge. Also, try to find beta testers with a variety of different models.
Necessary: How the app handles in your hands is critical to something like the iPhone. you cannot tell how it will feel to use when plastered straight in front of you in the emulator on a big screen.
If you cannot hold it you won't be getting the true user experience.
If you need to learn Obj-C, go with the emulator for a while until you learn the ropes and save the expense for later. But yes, eventually you will need an iPhone for final testing. How long you can wait will depend on the features that your app uses, If all you are doing is button presses, you can wait a long time. If you are dragging, using location services, etc., you'll need a device earlier in the development cycle.
Are you trying to convince yourself or your boss? ;-)
I'd say you need one. Emulation of such a new device can only go wrong. Plus don't forget the tactile aspects.
The iPod touch is a reasonable substitute provided you are not using:
GPS, BlueTouch or Camera - the iPod touch doesn't have these
Cellular network - although the iPod touch has WiFi, the latency of a cellular network is way way higher than that of a wifi network. If you are doing anything like designing a custom protocol for your application, you will want to check real-world performance - and if you do this too late in the development cycle, you will be in for an unpleasant surprise.
Whether you develop on the iPod touch or on the iPhone, you absolutely must have a device. This is not optional! The simulator is good, but it is not perfect, and there is no substitute for having a device which correctly indicates performance, screen resolution, brightness, form factor and all the other factors that you will need to consider in your application.
If you buy an iPod touch, you will probably end up getting an iPhone too. I'd just go straight for the iPhone. That way you can use it as your main phone, and get a real feel for how the platform behaves and what an application needs to do to make it great.
Kind-of "yes".
Just download iPhone SDK (it's easy and free) and check out the emulator that is in there. You'll see whether that suits your needs or not. The emulator is not indicative of real hardware performance, there's no touch input, some quirks might be different, some things can not work, etc.
The iPhone Simulator makes it easy to test your applications using the power and convenience of your desktop or laptop computer. Although, your development computer may not simulate complicated touch events, such as multifinger touches, the Simulator lets you perform pinches. To perform a pinch, hold Option while tapping on the Simulator screen.
I'd say it depends on the kind of application you are developing. For a successful iPhone app, one which is properly integrated on the system, you are going to need to be able to test your tactile interface. That's hardly accomplished with the Emulator.
So, my answer is Yes, you do need an iPhone to develop iPhone apps. Fortunately, if you cannot afford one, an iPod Touch (200 bucks) is a very competent replacement. The underlying hardware is pretty much the same.
Necessary. If you plan to develop a successful product it needs to be one the end users (not just the developers) find easy to use.
The best way to do that would be to load your app on an iPhone then take it to various people and ask them to use it while you watch them to see if they experience any issues.
Users can get mighty creative in trying to do things a developer never intended - just ask any support tech.
Unless you're app is going to sell for less then $500 total it's a relatively small investment to build a quality app.
If you are serious about development, an iPhone (or iPod touch) is a must. However, the official SDK comes with a very complete "iPhone simulator". This will allow you getting a feel for Objective C and the entire development workflow. The SDK requires Leopard.
You don't need a Mac for this. You can use OSX86 on your PC, either installed on and booted from disk or through VmWare.
It works. In fact, you can even synch the iPhone through Leopard running in vmWare.
Now, testing on a real iPhone is a necessity because of performance, memory usage etc. Also you need it for the entire authentification procedure, getting the keys etc. (if you want to sell your stuff on the Appstore), testing this really requires an iPhone.
If you buy an iPod touch, you will
probably end up getting an iPhone too.
I'd just go straight for the iPhone.
That way you can use it as your main
phone, and get a real feel for how the
platform behaves and what an
application needs to do to make it
great.
I absolutely agree with this.
If you are seriously developing an iPhone application - for fun or for profit - you will have to run it on a real iPhone to test out compatibility and usability at some point. Since you going to have to get one at some point, you may as well get one now. Don't go for half measures. An iPod Touch may be [significantly] cheaper to start with, but will be money wasted when you go and get your iPhone. (Of course, if you are planning an app that runs on the iPhone as well as the iPod Touch, then you MUST test it on both. You cannot assume that if it is good on one it must be good on the other).
Also, by having an iPhone from day one, you can familiarize yourself with its user interface, its norms and the common metaphors the apps use. That will heavily feed into your own application design process, and make sure that your app looks, feels, and works like a first class iPhone citizen.
From experience developing on other mobile platforms, once you get to a certain point, it really is best to have a physical device to test on. If this is something that you would also be using yourself, if it much easier to get some real world type of testing by using the application out and about.
I also think it helps one to understand the platform better by having the device or devices you are targeting with your app,
if you are going to develop native apps for the iphone, I would say get an iphone or ipod touch to target. emulators are good, but eventually you will need to target the real thing. if you are developing web specific content there are lots of things you can do without it (there are some great dev videos free from apples dev site which will only cost you a sign up) but eventually I would think you would still want to test with the real deal
Get a cheap used iPod touch, develop, get money, buy an iPhone 5.
I'm a nokia dev now, I'm thinking of going to iPhone, Actually I have the Mac to work, just the device itself ;)
I've tried iPhoney and compared to my iPhone (Mark 1) it's not the same, it's close - but not close enough to rely on if the interface is of importance to you.
You absolutely need the real device. The performance difference between the simulator and the actual iPhone/iPod Touch hardware is huge. Code that will run nice and fast in the simulator can easily turn out to be too slow to be usable on the real thing. Also the API provided by the simulator is not 100% identical to the real thing, so code that works fine in the sim, may not work on the device. The only way to know for sure is to test often on the actual device.
As others have mentioned, the iPod touch works well as a development device. So if you don't need any of the features of the iPhone, it's a good, cheaper, alternative.