Is it possible to create an app for the mac (and iphone afterwards) that does something when it detects that the focus is on a certain object in the screen?
Meaning, the program runs in the background, and when it detects that the focus (or cursor) is on an edit box, it will run something.
Hopefully I made myself clear!
Thanks!
You can do this on the mac by using the Accessibility Framework.
Note that users will have to manually enable assistive devices and you will not be able to distribute your app on the Mac App Store due to Apple's soon-to-be-implemented sandboxing restriction.
On iOS, you can detect focus to certain but not all elements using specialized delegate methods such as textViewDidBeginEditing:. That said, as users use taps to navigate iOS apps most of the time, simple tap handling seems like a much better approach.
On the iPhone, you can only detect focus within your own app, there's no way to observe other apps from the background.
On the Mac, as 0x90 noted, the closest you'll get are the Accessibility APIs. The UIElementInspector sample code may help you to get started.
Is it possible for me to programmatically access a smartphone's sensors (e.g. accelerometer, compass, etc. on an Android or iPhone device) through a browser webpage and JavaScript? I know that the W3C Devices standard can allow access to the camera.
HTML5 is likely to contain a sensor API. Until this is fully standardized, vendors provide their own APIs such as Apple does for mobile Safari.
There's no need for full blown solutions like PhoneGap or similar if it is Ok for you to restrict yourself to a specific vendor/device. If not, frameworks like PhoneGap provide you with a unified, device independent API.
You should be aware of the Performance constraints that apply to Javascript applications running inside the browser of a mobile device. Depending on your type of application and the amount of processing you intend to do on the sensor data, you are better off writing a native application
See https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/iPad/#documentation/SafariDOMAdditions/Reference/DeviceMotionEventClassRef/DeviceMotionEvent/DeviceMotionEvent.html for some reference documentation.
The answer is both "yes" and "no". Each phone manufacturer/OS combination behaves as it sees fit here - for example, the GPS on an iPhone can be accessed, but the compass not:
accessing iPhone compass with JavaScript
You can use something like PhoneGap to do this, I believe.
Check out this chapter called "Controlling the iPhone with JavaScript" from the book Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
This demo considers the iPhone movements on the three axis using the event.accelerationIncludingGravity object:
http://www.omiod.com/iphone/acceleration-demo.php
So far Safari on iPhone is the first to implement it, but I see Android filling this gap very soon.
I'm new to mac/iOS development. I'm thinking of to develop a UI less application by using existing Apps/Libraries.
I want to know whether following things will be possible to make or not, it will be great if someone provides me some insight.
Here are my questions:
Is it possible to show/hook additional buttons on existing contacts
-> contacts view (some additional buttons under FaceTime button)?
Is it possible to route some messages to SMS inbox? where the user
feels like he received/sent the real SMS?
In short: no.
In somewhat longer: iOS applications run in a sandbox that rather severely limits their ability to interact with the outside world. This is for the purpose of protecting the user's security and experience using the device. It MIGHT be possible to accomplish both of those things if you were running on a jailbroken device and using non-public APIS (though frankly I doubt you'd be able to add buttons to the existing contacts list by any means at all). But such an app couldn't be sold in Apple's app store.
Today, the focus of a cell phone's capabilities is drifting away from plain making a phone call.
And somehow, this shows in the API's too. Therefor I'm wondering: if I want to write an app that e.g. pitches up, records, scrambles... an incoming call - you know, the voice on the other side -, what aspect of the API should I use?
I looked into Android, into Windows Phone, iPhone... (briefly), but had no luck. Is this just unintended usage?
This is also not possible with Windows Phone 7. There were, however, API methods for interacting with incoming and outgoing calls and texts in Windows Mobile.
The reason this is not possible in Windows Phone 7 comes down to a deliberate decision around data security and the aim that apps on the phone shouldn't be able to do something without the user specifically knowing about it. This prevents, amongst other things, malicious apps having information about or access to potentially sensitive data.
This is not possible in Android, except maybe via firmware modifications.
There’s no way to do that with the iPhone SDK. It may be possible through jailbreaking, but I’m not familiar enough with it to speak on it.
Given the limited accessibility of in-call audio but ready access to microphone/speaker and data on current smartphones, would probably be easiest to do this as part of a VOIP calling application.
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.