Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Tag: iPad

App Spotlight: SWTOR Tools

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On May 1, 2012

In App Spotlight

I found another app that I have been enjoying. This one is going to be for a pretty specific audience though. Obviously you will need to have an iPhone and/or iPad (I’m not sure if this is available for non-iOS devices) and you will need to be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. If you are neither of these then you probably won’t find this app very useful. If, on the other hand, you are a total iPad geek (*raises hand*) and you love playing SWTOR, then I highly recommend spending the $0.99 on this app! The app includes updated information on all companions, classes, skill calculators and datacrons.

The screens for classes and companions is purely informational. There is an overview and descriptions of each advanced class, so its kind of handy if you are still trying to decide what to roll or what advanced class to pick. The nice thing about the screens for the companions is that it is one of the few sources I have found that actually list the companions in the order in which you will receive them. Obviously it also briefly summarizes the information provided in the codex. It will show you armor type, primary skills and which gifts they prefer.

The skill calculator screen is probably the best part of this app, and the place where I can waste most of my time just goofing around. You will get to choose any of the advanced classes and construct your build just like you would do if you were at TORHead’s skill calculator. The best part is you can save the build to reference again later and you can save multiple builds for multiple characters.

A recent update has made the datacrons screen much more useful. This screen not only will show up what datacron (or matrix crystal) exists on each planet but, when you tap on an item in the list it will provide a text explanation of where to find the datacron. I do wish there were video links because trying to find the datacron using text descriptions is confusing. I think the part I like most about the datacrons screen is that you can load a saved character (from the skill calculation screen) and you can check off which datacron you have for each of your toons.

My iPad has always predominately been a business tool (and a testing guinea pig for my own apps) but this app has made it a handy gamer tool (well, at least for SWTOR). I would really like to see similar apps for other MMOs, like World of Warcraft (I don’t find the armory app appealing because I don’t always have my authenticator with me if I want to log in when I am away from my computer).

SWTOR Tools should be available for download from the iTunes App Store for $0.99.

Enjoy!

For Newbie iOS Developers

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On January 5, 2012

In Apple, Programming, Technology

After talking to a good friend of mine who had several questions for me on how one would get started developing iOS apps, I thought my advice was worth putting into a post. After all, I’m still a bit of a newbie iOS developer myself. So I thought I would share my experiences for other aspiring developers while all of the steps are still fresh in my mind.

The IDE

There are going to be some costs up front, especially if you don’t own a Mac. The IDE for developing iOS applications is Xcode and it can only run on a Mac. There are some projects out there that have tried to create a windows IDE but I haven’t seen anything that was successful and wasn’t a painful process to setup. You can try running a Virtual Machine and install OS X but you might run into some hardware complications. Honestly, if you are serious about developing iOS apps, go out and buy a Mac.

iOS Developer Program

Once you have a Mac to use for development the next thing you want to get is Xcode. You can download Xcode from the Mac app store and you can either pay $4.99 or you can sign up for the iOS Developer Program and download it for free. The iOS Developer Program is an annual subscription of $99 a year. Obviously you get more amenities other than Xcode for free. If you plan on distributing your app via the app store and/or you want to deploy an app to any iOS device (including your own) you will need to sign up for this. Xcode does come with an emulator so if you want to hold off until you are more comfortable, that’s what I would recommend, but bear in mind the emulator cannot test any email or Internet/Wi-Fi functionality.

If you want to develop apps for the Mac or Safari, they each have their own developer programs and will cost you another $99 a year for each.

Recommended Readings

I know that the Internet is an abyss of developer forums, tutorials and blogs which may, or may not have sufficient information to get you started developing iOS apps. I initially started out by searching for iOS tutorials and most of the advice people had was to go out and buy a book, so I bought two. Here are the two books I bought, which I highly recommend:

Subscribing to the iOS Developer Program also gives you access to developer resources such as videos, libraries and forums. You can also get code level assistance from Apple engineers (apple developer link).

The App Store

I thought I would finish with some things to keep in mind when you go to post your app to the app store. When you submit your app it first has to be reviewed and this process can take up to seven days, depending on the complexity of the app. You are responsible for setting the price of the app; you will receive 70% of the sales revenue, Apple will take 30%. There are no additional fees for posting free apps, credit cards, hosting or marketing.

That’s all I have for now, I hope you found this useful. If more tips come to mind, I will do a part two or something. Good luck!

Cheers!

Biggs On: The Tethering Conspiracy

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On April 4, 2011

In Apple, Biggs On, Technology

I was excited when I first heard about the personal hotspot feature in iOS 4.3. I knew that I was getting the wi-fi only version of the iPad and I thought the personal hotspot was the solution to limited wi-fi availability. Of course, as many of us predicted, AT&T said “not so fast!” and decided they would charge us an additional fee to use the personal hotspot.

As you probably know by now, that started a huge flame war on the Internet. Personally I think cell phone carriers deserve all the hate mail they are getting.

I can see no reason, from a technical perspective, why additional fees are necessary. I bought the phone, I’m paying for the data plan, why should it matter to AT&T how I use my data?!? AT&T has turned into the tethering Gestapo, seeking out and punishing all that are jail breaking their phones to avoid the service charge. The motive to charge this extra service fee is obviously driven by leveraging the growing tablet excitement to turn a profit. Greed is a powerful motivator.

I won’t be jail breaking anything, I enjoy my gadgets too much to risk getting branded by the Gestapo, but I will be supporting the effort to reduce it’s abuse by the cell phone companies.

**This post written and published from my iPad**

Biggs On: The iPad

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On July 7, 2010

In Biggs On

Over the holiday weekend we visited the mall and dispite my dissatisifaction with Apple, I still felt the technology calling me over to look. So, since I have absolutely no will power, we go to the Apple Store. I can honestly say that I stood there playing or watching my wife and our friends play with the iPad for probably a good hour, and after that time I feel I am qualified to say … I don’t see the big deal.

The iPad is basically an oversized, glorified iPod. I really don’t understand the attraction. It literally looks like a huge iPod Touch. I even listened in on a demonstration of the iPad by one of the Apple Store cronies and I still didn’t hear anything that made me soil my pants. I think I honestly would rather have a tablet PC then an iPad. Actually, I think the iPhone 4 is much more intreguing then the iPad (assuming you hold the iPhone 4 correctly … don’t want a dropped signal as a result of a misplaced pinky finger).

Now, in all fairness to new technology, I am open to hear what others think are the superior features about the iPad. Perhaps there is something about it that I am missing that makes this product so sought-after.

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