Am looking into developing an iPhone native app using Titanium Developer
Since this is still in beta, I am wondering if there are any better options and/or if its a good idea using such software to develop native apps (which are not games; not graphic intensive)
If you don't want to wait, you can do what a lot of us did: develop apps in Cocoa Touch. It works perfectly well for games as well as non-graphic intensive apps.
The similar and more mature PhoneGap framework has been used in a number of iPhone apps and Apple only seems to object if the application autoupdates.
That being said, I wouldn't recommend using web frameworks unless your application is really simple--you will get a much better experience from a native application (on both Android and iPhone)
My company uses Titanium and it's working fine so far. It's also a pleasure to develop iPhone app using javascript and co. I'd recomend you give it a try, it's really simple to set up and start coding.
Some reading up: http://boldr.net/iphone-app-with-titanium-mobile/
Related
I'm aiming to do an app like Badoo:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/meet-new-people-chat-socialize/id351331194?mt=8
Basically it involves chatting with people and GPS geo-location.
Question is - I have two options:
A. Have this developed in native XCode for iOS
OR
B. Have this developed in HTML5 + PhoneGap
Assuming either route is with an experienced developer, how much time does B save over route A in terms of getting a viable product out?
Performance， speed, and UI are all important for this, so obviously native is ideal... but how much time would PhoneGap save in getting it out?
Thanks so much！
Have this developed in PhoneGap, as you can target multiple platforms. And also phonegap also supports geo location functionality. so its a win win with phonegap.
if you are going to target ONE platform, do the Xcode route. if you are going to target android and ios together, then please Phonegap.
I'm a fan of native development even if you are deploying to multiple platforms.
However, the main point is if you have skills in html/css/javascript and potentially want to support multiple platforms then by all means go with PhoneGap.
If you have skills in iOS development then go native and reconsider what to do if you want to support other platforms later.
IMO, once you've developed an application in one language, then the amount of effort required to do another version in Android, PhoneGap, or whatever is greatly reduced. If you know the target platform well it is painting by numbers.
If you are building for iPhone/iPad (JUST IOS), then xcode will be your best friend and it will be much faster to develop in xcode in that case, as documentation and sites like this one (stack over flow) have many code snippets around and it will make your life easier. And not to mention that storyboards are also excellent in making your User interface. If you take the xcode route, it will still take you roughly the same amount of time as phonegap.
HOWEVER, if you want to make the SAME app for iphone and android, then phonegap will save you 50% project time, and this only applies when you are talking about one app for both android and iphone
Just out of curiosity, where do your skills lie in? ios or html/css?
Me and my friends are starting app development. We have created 2 apps now, and have 3 more in the works. We're looking for a development tool or environment that will allow us to build games that works on all the major handsets. We're using Flash at the moment for cross-platform, but are there any better and more powerful options?
Or would it be best to write the code in one language, then convert it line by line to the others? How do the creators of games like Angry Birds do it?
Thanks.
There are many options:
PhoneGap
SAP Sybase Unwired Platform
Appcelerator Titanium
RhoMobile
Kony
Out of all these mentioned tools i will recommend PhoneGap.
Also PhoneGap and Corona
My friends are using this for making games , and am a designer so not much into programming of that. But still as far my friends say this is good for most of the applications, though there are very few things which cant be implemented.
My friends have created a utility app and a game tic tac to using this.
For developing games i would recommend Corona.
For a native feel and look i would recommend Titanium
For fast and simple development and using html/js i would recommend Phonegap
You should also check out Worklight from IBM. You can easily download the fully functional development tool from their developerworks Web site. The only restriction is that you can't use what you write for a production version. Their tutorials are great and escort you comfortably through the short learning curve.
I'm a Titanium Developer, I find this framework great because it gives me the chance to develop cross browser mobile with Javascript. This is a big advantage for people that have Web Developing background like me. If you are gonna develop basic cross browser application und you will do it quick (and if you have javascript know-how), then appcelerator is good for you!
I have an application (actually a game) that I'm close to starting work on for iOS and the web, however I'd like to DRY up my code bases as much as possible so that I don't have to maintain so many aspects for platform portability. So essentially my two requirements are to run on iOS and the web, but I wouldn't mind it if I could also deploy it for Android as well.
What options exist?
If possible, which I am doubting at the moment, I have considered using Cappuccino (http://cappuccino.org/) to build out the app and then utilize NimbleKit for iOS compilation. Any ideas if this is possible?
What would work better if anything? Are there any frameworks in particular that would scale across platforms and mobile devices well + allow it to easily run on the web?
Also, Flash comes to mind, would that perhaps be best if developed properly such that it will compile over and not utilize non-compatible iOS functions?
The recently released monkey development framework deploys to both iOS and Flash:
http://www.monkeycoder.co.nz/
It's so new that I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it has a great pedigree: the creator made Blitz3D and BlitzMax before, and those were great game development tools.
That said, I would strongly recommend a combo like Corona for iOS and Flash for web, so that you're using optimal tools for each platform.
Check out Unity 3D. Works for iOs, Android, Web, Mac, and Pc. Not free for the mobile platforms, but it's worth a try.
You should try Titanium (it's free). You can use javascript and HTML5 to build your game and it can be compiled for iOS and Android. Since you will be using web standards to code, your application can be deployed for the web with few (or no) modifications.
You can use this project as a start point.
Where could someone get the code or guidelines to create a universal pedometer app for various phones?
or would you have to create a different app for each phone?
or could you just create an app for android & iphone?
How would a coder go about doing the task? where to look for help?
Titanium Mobile is a cross-platform dev environment that lets you write apps in javascript that are then compiled into native apps for iPhone/iPad and Android. I haven't used it myself, but I've heard that it does not completely suck. I do not know whether it supports the accelerometers in these devices (which would be necessary for a pedometer app), but it probably does.
However, since you'd have to learn a bunch of new stuff just to use Titanium, it might make more sense to just pick a platform and spend your time learning to program it natively (Android has more marketshare now - maybe - so I'd recommend just learning that; Android is much easier to work with than iPhone).
Titanium Mobile does support Accelerometer.
For iPhone, there is an offical library in the framework that will detect steps, but it will only work from iOS7.
Look here: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreMotion.framework
Please be aware there are restrictions for what kind of Apps can run in the background on an iPhone.
A friend of mine told me that some frameworks (PhoneGap and/or QuickConnect) can transform my HTML/JS/CSS code to an iOS App.
Personally, I hate this kind of frameworks because when you get a bug, it's very hard to debug. But, on the other hand, as i'm starting learning iOS programming, I find Objective-C hard to learn.
Did anyone tried these tools? What are their limits? What about performances?
Thank you,
Regards.
These frameworks are handy if you are coming from web development world. Since they allow you to develop using HTML/CSS/Js you'll be able to get going quite rapidly.
Even though they offer more interaction with the native capabilities of the device (contacts, camera, accelerometer, etc.) than pure web development (using Sencha Touch or jQuery Mobile for example) they are still more limited than a native application.
Webkit
Most of these solution are focused on devices using a WebKit based browser for the rendering. Which is used by many of the main mobile OS :
Symbian, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Bada, etc.
Main exception being Windows Phone which uses Internet Explorer
Cross-platform
Their goal is to enable cross-platform development ever by wrapping your web development into a native app (PhoneGap, Titanium) or by "translating" to the appropriate language for the targeted device (RhoMobile Rhodes, MoSync).
iPhone specific
Aiming several platforms implies that some phone specific features might not be so easily supported. And the UI won't look as native since it's targeting different OS. So if you are only aiming iOS4 you could maybe try some of the more specific solutions such as:
iWebKit
Ansca Corona
Performances
For standard apps you should'nt notice much difference. But if you are planning to develop games some of these frameworks are probably not the best solution. Corona claims to be appropriate...
Caution
If you plan to develop a commercial application beware of Apple's policy.
Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine
Many applications using these tools/frameworks are still accepted but there is nothing official.
Edit: As stated by Rydell the policy has changed since September 9.