"iPad" entries

Multipeer Connectivity on iOS 8 with Swift

Discover, connect, and transmit data between devices.

portable_handsetMultipeer Connectivity is a means of identifying and connecting services together, and allows for very easy passing back and forth of data with minimal setup. If you are thinking that this seems similar to Bonjour, you are correct; however, Bonjour is for service discovery, not connection or transmission. Multipeer Connectivity handles everything in one neat package.

Multipeer Connectivity is comprised of a few different components, but it works by having applications advertise their services asking if anyone is available to connect. The service browser listens for these advertisements and can request to create a connection between the devices. If the connection is accepted, a session is created with every one inside the session being represented by a peer object.

To demonstrate how this works, we’ll make a simple chat application using Swift, Apple’s new language.

Read more…

Making the Leap to iOS 7

What to look out for when updating your code

As a bewildered Dorothy says in the movie The Wizard of Oz, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” When you open your iOS 6 project in Xcode 5 and run it in the iOS 7 simulator, you’ll know instantly that things have changed:

notInKansas

 

 

[contextly_sidebar id=”e027d3655ea50711dd31b81666c293d7″]Gone is the colored status bar background; the status bar is always transparent, and all apps are full-screen apps, underlapping the status bar. A button has no rounded rect bezel, unless you draw it yourself as the button’s background. Many interface objects are drawn differently, with different dimensions. The subtle bar gradient is gone; colors are flat, unless you draw a gradient background yourself.

Read more…

A marriage of data and caregivers gives Dr. Atul Gawande hope for health care

How transparency, real-time feedback, and lessons from the police can improve health outcomes.

Dr. Atul GawandeDr. Atul Gawande (@Atul_Gawande) has been a bard in the health care world, straddling medicine, academia and the humanities as a practicing surgeon, medical school professor, best-selling author and staff writer at the New Yorker magazine. His long-form narratives and books have helped illuminate complex systems and wicked problems to a broad audience.

One recent feature that continues to resonate for those who wish to apply data to the public good is Gawande’s New Yorker piece “The Hot Spotters,” where Gawande considered whether health data could help lower medical costs by giving the neediest patients better care. That story brings home the challenges of providing health care in a city, from cultural change to gathering data to applying it.

This summer, after meeting Gawande at the 2012 Health DataPalooza, I interviewed him about hot spotting, predictive analytics, networked transparency, health data, feedback loops and the problems that technology won’t solve. Our interview, lightly edited for content and clarity, follows.

Read more…

Why I haven't caught ereader fever

Platform lock-in and questionable longevity make the iPad a better investment than an ereader.

Ereaders may have their place now, but shifts toward the web and HTML5 make the iPad a wiser and more enduring choice for digital reading.

Developer Week in Review: The new iPad and the big meh

It's iPad evolution rather than revolution, increasing patent penalties for Android, and Raspberry Pi is served.

Apple unveils pretty much what it was expected to unveil, and decides to treat Android as a cash cow rather than an enemy. Meanwhile, the Raspberry Pi is finally out, so let the hacking begin.

Four short links: 20 February 2012

Four short links: 20 February 2012

Bad Licensing, Learn to Code Again, Facebook Data, and iPad Security

  1. University Copyright FailThis week, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto signed a deal with the licensing group Access Copyright that includes: provisions defining e-mailing hyperlinks as equivalent to photocopying a document; a flat fee of $27.50 for each full-time equivalent student; and, surveillance of academic staff email. (via Fabiana Kubke)
  2. Peanutty — I’m not sure it’s perfect yet, but it does the best job I’ve seen of motivating people by connecting code with curiosity. Most of the other “learn to code” systems are big on bite-sized increments of knowledge but short on motivation unless you, for some reason, want to “learn to code”.
  3. Why Facebook’s Data Will Change Our World (Pete Warden) — You just can’t resist Facebook data can you? Like a dog returning to its own vomit. Great list of reasons why Facebook’s data is scary interesting.
  4. Digital Exams on the iPad — how to lock down an iPad for use in an exam. Love the explanation of how the security-paranoid mind works in action: both evil and methodical at the same time.

About the Emerging Battles Over Textbooks: Options from Apple to Open Initiatives

Two dramatically opposed announcements from Apple and the state of California put the textbook publishing industry on notice recently that it could be facing rapid disruption. But open textbooks can't be created and altered as easily as open source software.

Kindle Fire: Three pros, five cons

The good: Form factor and content. The bad: Lock in, auto updates and the Silk browser.

Joe Wikert says the Kindle Fire gets good marks for form factor and meeting basic consumer needs, but its lock in, auto updates and lack of a killer app are detriments.

Commerce Weekly: Report criticizes "feeble" mobile strategies of posh retailers

Some high-end brands are neglecting mobile, new Google Wallet phones, and PayPal's happy surprise.

A survey finds high-end brands are neglecting their mobile strategies. Also, Sprint rolls out two new Google Wallet phones, and PayPal's mobile volume beats its own guesses. (Commerce Weekly is produced as part of a partnership between O'Reilly and PayPal.)

Commerce Weekly: Report criticizes “feeble” mobile strategies of posh retailers

Some high-end brands are neglecting mobile, new Google Wallet phones, and PayPal's happy surprise.

A survey finds high-end brands are neglecting their mobile strategies. Also, Sprint rolls out two new Google Wallet phones, and PayPal's mobile volume beats its own guesses. (Commerce Weekly is produced as part of a partnership between O'Reilly and PayPal.)