Andrew Hoyer | Custom mobile app development, and web, database, and social media solutions!

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App Review: WW2 Daily

Posted on March 12, 2013 by andrewhoyer

World War II spanned a period of six years, with notable events occurring every day. This app lets you see what was happening on today’s date during those years.

But that’s only the default behaviour. You can swipe from day to day to see a progression of events, select a specific day to view, search for events by name, and you can tap the Wikipedia icon for each event to see more information. A map pinpoints the location of the event as well, giving a nice location context to match the description.

Generally, it’s a solid and simple app that does what it does very well. On my wish list for this app: iPhone 5 full screen and iPad compatibility, and the ability to share to my Facebook timeline.

Check it out on iTunes: WW2 Daily

Tremor Tracker v0.2

Posted on December 20, 2012 by andrewhoyer

A couple of months ago, I launched Tremor Tracker to the App Store. It was something of a prototype — a side project that allowed me to play with some new technology. I got some good feedback on the app, and a lot of feature suggestions, so I decided to take it to the next level. The result: Tremor Tracker v0.2.

One major reason I pushed ahead with this version was the release of an update to the WhirlyGlobe library. The update allows for easier implementation, many new features, and some very nice improvements on the way objects can be plotted.

Here are a list of some of the improvements you’ll see:

Updated graphics throughout.
Tapping a quake point displays location, magnitude, and other relevant details.
Improved sync management to limit the amount of data downloaded.
See “info” page for ways to share Tremor Tracker!

Thank you to everyone who has downloaded this app, shared it with their friends, and provided me with feedback. I hope you’ll enjoy this version even more.

Missing “Personal Hotspot” on iOS devices

Posted on December 15, 2012 by andrewhoyer

Earlier today after a business meeting, I wanted to show someone a demo of an app I’m working on, but when I went to tether my iPad via “Personal Hotspot” on my iPhone 5, I couldn’t find the option! Where did it go? It was there the day before!

After some online searches and some attempted fixes, I figured out what was really wrong. The option wasn’t gone. It had just moved!

If you can’t find it, try opening the Settings app, then select General > Cellular, and you’ll probably see “Personal Hotspot”. Interestingly, when I activated it, it showed up again on the main menu. There must be some logic behind this, I just can’t figure out what it is.

It’s also interesting to note that this means the Settings area can be modified even without an upgrade to iOS, probably via changes triggered by Apple and your cellular provider.

Happy tethering!

Apple II Emulator

Posted on November 21, 2012 by andrewhoyer

Much of the programming I did as a kid growing up was on the Apple II series. I didn’t own one until years later, but my junior high school had a class full of them, and I got a pretty good foundation with the basic concepts. Best of all, I had fun doing it. The production of a very simplistic “Mario Brothers” game, including a hand drawn instruction manual, helped pave the way for me winning the “Outstanding Computer Student” trophy that year.

Sadly, electronic hardware does not always handle the passage of time well, and a couple of years ago, my Apple IIc stopped working. I still have it, in hopes of someday figuring out how to repair it. Apple’s designs that make it near impossible or at least very difficult to open their devices was the same back then as it is now.

The good news is that some people out there are working on clever ways to bring back the good old days. The link below is to a web-based Apple II simulator which looks and feels just like what you’d expect. It has a big list of games and programs you can run, and if you want to try your hand at Applesoft BASIC again, you can:

]10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD" ]20 GOTO 10 ]RUN

Have fun: Web-based Apple II emulator

New iOS App Launch: Tremor Tracker

Posted on October 26, 2012 by andrewhoyer

I recently launched a new app to the App Store called Tremor Tracker. It provides real-time earthquake data displayed on an interactive globe. Instead of focusing on the specifics of the data, it highlights the visual patterns of earthquake activity on a global level over the last hour, day, week, or month.

To read more and download the app, see the iTunes listing.

Rogers Device Reservation: Never Again

Posted on October 19, 2012 by andrewhoyer

When I decided to reserve an iPhone 5 with Rogers, it sounded like a great idea. Reserve now, and when your device is available, it will be shipped to the location of your choice for easy and convenient pick-up. It even came with an impressive guarantee: If your device doesn’t ship within two weeks, you get a $50 credit.

Well, two weeks has come and gone. Yeah, the queue is going down, but I have a ways to go yet. It could still be a few weeks before I get my hands on an iPhone 5. Looking back, I see now that the only benefit is convenience, and it is probably not at all in Rogers’ best interest to get the customer a device quickly now that they have your $40 reservation fee.

Lesson learned. Next time I want an iPhone, I’m going to take the morning off and make an early visit to the Apple Store. I’ll pick up my device in a trendy location while sipping a coffee from Starbucks. Ahh.

Sorry Rogers, this is the first and last time. Your mobile service is good, but I just can’t count on you for devices anymore.

iOS Pong Starter

Posted on June 6, 2012 by andrewhoyer

I added a new open source project to GitHub which is a simple Pong implementation for the iPad. It focuses on using a timer, gesture recognizers, and basic animation without using any extra frameworks or libraries.

It’s a good learning tool, and could be a great place to start adding new functionality for your own custom game.

Check it out at: https://github.com/andrewhoyer/iOS-pong-starter

Getting UNIXTIME in Objective-C

Posted on May 30, 2012 by andrewhoyer

I recently needed to get the UNIXTIME for one of my apps, and found a couple of pages that showed how. I boiled it down to a single command:

int unixtime = [[NSNumber numberWithDouble: [[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970]] integerValue];

timeIntervalSince1970 returns an NSTimeInterval that needs to be converted to a double, and then to an integer to remove everything after the decimal point.

App Review: Wasabi

Posted on December 1, 2011 by andrewhoyer

Overview

As soon as mobile devices became “smart”, they immediately became the natural place for keeping such things as TO DO lists. By now, if you search the App Store, you will find pages of apps that handle TO DO lists, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve tried a few out and may still be searching for that perfect app.

Recently I scooped up a promo code for Wasabi, an app by a developer I follow on Twitter, @JivaDeVoe. I am always trying to scout out projects people are working on, and in this case, it was an app I had a really good use for.

So, what is Wasabi? Let’s just say it’s a task tracker that allows you to organize and prioritize your tasks by project, goal, or location, and includes some really great features that make it the best app I’ve used to date.

Here And Now

So here’s how it works. Everything revolves around tasks, and those tasks can be tagged, or assigned, to any Project or Goal you have created. Tasks can even be tagged for multiple projects or goals, meaning that everything works together and there’s less duplication.

Once you have your tasks, projects, and goals in place, it’s time to work. You have planned to work on your Marketing today, so you set that project as your focus. Immediately, that projects shows up on your main page, “Here and Now”, as the Focus, and the “Next Task” shows the first item in the list for that project.

Here and Now!

With this setup, tasks and projects take on a priority arrangement as opposed to a deadline based setup. There is nowhere to set a deadline — just place the highest priority items at the top of the list, and work your way down! If you really need tasks that are assigned to a date or are recurring tasks, do what I do — put them into another app that specializes in those sorts of things. After using Wasabi for a while, I really like the detachment from dates and times, and hope it never goes that direction.

Places

Everything so far is great, but this next bit of functionality is what really made this app stand out for me. Not only can you tag a task to a project or goal, but also a location!

Setting up a location.

The possibilities for this are endless. If your project requires you to take specific actions at home and at work, tag them accordingly. Do you need to pick something up when you’re at the mall? Set up the location, create a task, and tag it to the location.

Wasabi tracks where you are, and when you’re near one of your locations, it delivers a notification reminding you of the tasks that need to be done there. I’m impressed.

Summary

If you’re struggling to find an app that organizes your tasks properly, take a close look at this app. It really takes the best aspects of a TO DO app and implements them well, and at the same time cutting the features that really aren’t necessary. Adding the location based tags is just icing on the cake.

It’s an app that has taken its place on the first screen of my iPhone, and you can’t say much better than that.

Download It

Wasabi is available on the iTunes App Store, here.