I Wrote My 1st iPhone App

[nickbaer]

Not that I have the luxury of time or anything, but today, I wrote my first iPhone/iPad App!

For the past 2 weeks here in Berlin, I've wanted to go out at night, sort of, but web pages by newspapers and travel guides are lame on phones, and their maps are not interactive with the GPS current location.

So I spent half the day - except for the trip to dinner - writing an iPhone App that has my list of places to go, on the realtime map with my current location.

Not easy. Fortunately, I've written COBOL and BASIC since 1972, PHP since 2005, and dinged with java and xml a little in certain contexts with my fronted and backend websites, that I was able to wade through the upside down and backwards instructions.

Now I need to do the really hard work, and build my spreadsheet of places to go.

Anyone here with suggestions for their towns/nearby towns, would be appreciated. Gay bars, gay sex clubs. I'm doing this for Europe first.

But I can for other major country groups - US, CA, South Am, Africa, MidEast, East, Asia, Malaysia, Aus, Russia... The Penguins in Antarctica are already good to go.

Last night I did find one gay strip bar to go to, but I stopped 10 feet short of the front door because the cig smoke was overwhelming. Kind of disappointing.

But not overly disappointed. I think i came home and wrote a script or did a blog posting.

[RobertChandler]

Wow, Nick. Writing an iPhone app is pretty cool. Wish I could do it
Smokey clubs can be pretty awful, but I may have heaved it for all that foreskin!

[x0pa]

did you just write using Xcode sdk or did you use a different language interpreter to get ur app to run? or is it like a web app inside an app

[pocoloco]

Wow, that's awesome.

www.gayguide.eu has very good and updated info on clubs / bars / shops / saunas / etc...

[nickbaer]

I used buzztouch.com . But, I may try to make the final version without a 3rd party intermediary.

They have a non-GUI method for building Apps, which is a real headache. OK for a first time try, but bigger things would not be pleasant.

[nickbaer]

This is what it looks like:




Database driven. Local spreadsheet, .csv uploaded to SQL, PHP script crunches, combining static JSON script code text, with the variable data (Country, City, Category, Location address) from the SQL table.

Now I need to get certification from Apple, so I can put it on my own iPhone and test the map capabilities - starting with get directions.

I love maps.

[nickbaer]

The App data file exists on my own web server, so the user does not need to update the App from the App store every 5 minutes that I add a place.

[camera123]

Not that I have the luxury of time or anything, but today, I wrote my first iPhone/iPad App!

For the past 2 weeks here in Berlin, I've wanted to go out at night, sort of, but web pages by newspapers and travel guides are lame on phones, and their maps are not interactive with the GPS current location.

So I spent half the day - except for the trip to dinner - writing an iPhone App that has my list of places to go, on the realtime map with my current location.

Not easy. Fortunately, I've written COBOL and BASIC since 1972, PHP since 2005, and dinged with java and xml a little in certain contexts with my fronted and backend websites, that I was able to wade through the upside down and backwards instructions.

Now I need to do the really hard work, and build my spreadsheet of places to go.

Anyone here with suggestions for their towns/nearby towns, would be appreciated. Gay bars, gay sex clubs. I'm doing this for Europe first.

But I can for other major country groups - US, CA, South Am, Africa, MidEast, East, Asia, Malaysia, Aus, Russia... The Penguins in Antarctica are already good to go.

Last night I did find one gay strip bar to go to, but I stopped 10 feet short of the front door because the cig smoke was overwhelming. Kind of disappointing.

But not overly disappointed. I think i came home and wrote a script or did a blog posting.

The Apple iPhone is becoming a full-fledged development platform. It's reliance on desktopclass operating system software is allowing it to become the most powerful mobile platform available.
Here is how you can get in on the action, even if you have never written a line of code before! First,
you need an Apple computer with an Intel processor and Mac OS X Leopard. I'm sure that Apple
would be happy to help you with this step. We're going to jump right into making a program, but first
we need to define a few terms.

[nickbaer]

3 days to create the data to make this if() statement work!

[nickbaer]

Has anyone run across sales pitches from companies that have written map based social networking Apps e.g. GayDar, Grinder?

I'd like to meet a couple of them.

[nickbaer]

This weekend, I got the Android version of my App running!

I know it's been 6 months since I made the iPhone App, but I came to the UK, shot with 8 UK models, and made some new video DVDs, and rode out the tense US election, while consumers did, too, by spending their money on campaign contributions!

Everyone probably knows that I am a die-hard Apple user, but there's far more (various) Android hardware devices out there, and Android Apps do not need to go through the rigid channels to be able to be used by consumers on those dozens of Android devices, that iOS Apps are put thru by Apple for their iPhone/iPad hardware devices.

There's 2 important parts to my App: 1) the menu structure and features, and 2) the data!, the addresses of local gay bars, saunas and cinemas throughout the UK and Europe. Businesses open and close, some building addresses change names.

Next will be US, Canada, Central America, South America, Asia, Australia, and the countries in between Asia and Australia. Not sure about South Africa, or Mid East other than Israel.

it's all about travel areas and Visas. US and Canada are separate Visas, so I would keep them separate. Same for all the other travel areas that I just mentioned as separate. Between Visas, and the logistics of how much geography one can cover, as a local resident, or as a tourist from another country.

Next, an Android App that streams my videos! Since my content is too tame for the big flashy mobile providers, I'll just write my own.

I know how now!

[nickbaer]

I want to update this thread, for those of you who might be considering doing Apps with your site(s).

I wrote the App (above) for my use. I bought the $99 Apple iOS Developer membership (annual!) so that I could put my App on my iPhone (and/or iPad). Unlike Android Apps, with Apple you can't just put an App on your own phone/tablet by yourself. You need a Developer membership key, and follow a specific procedure to plug your phone/table into a Mac and then upload the file.

An iOS Developer certificate allows you to put the iOS App on co-worker's devices, BUT that also assumes a cord connection.

If the App has the slightest hint of being "adult", you're not going to get approved for the Apple App Store. There is a lengthy application approval process for Apple iOS Apps, and many (most?) don't get approved on the first, or even few, tries. It has to have a useful purpose, it has to conform to programming standards, the icons have to be close to rigid standards, right down to the type of border on the icons. No adult type content or click-throughs.

Android Apps can be put on your own phone/tablet. Getting it on the various Android marketplace sites is not as hard as Apple's iOS App Store, but again there is a threat of removal for adult content...

iOS Apps need to be built in a clunky, non-GUI software called XCode. Android Apps are built similarly in Eclipse. Neither is easy to install, configure or run. Online Tutorials are often based on frequently updated old versions.


I would suggest to anyone thinking of doing an App: First build the "App" as an html5 webpage. See if what you want to do, can be done, and really needs to be done, as an App - as a webpage first.

Think of an App - that colorful icon on your phone or tablet - as a "bookmark" to a webpage. Do you really need to spend extra time and money building an App, in a clunky non-GUI software, then going thru a ridiculous approval process, when a little html5 does the same thing in a web browser?

You won't know until you prototype it as a webpage.

Then there's the matter of updating the App. With a webpage, you upload a new .html (.php/java) page and the viewer sees the new page milliseconds later. With an App, the worst case scenario is that the user needs to download a new version of the App, the almost worst case scenario is that you upload new data for the old App to read, but the user's App on his phone/tablet, doesn't want to go get the new data.

I've had this happen inconsistently - and forcing it to "refresh" means deleting the App and re-installing it, something you don't want your users to have to do.

I wrote my Map App (above) with data from Europe and the UK. Worked great, as I traveled in Berlin and a dozen different cities in the UK. Refreshing the App and its data was hard, and inconsistent. I wrote most of the App myself, after studying the concept, and getting some basic framework from an App (self-) Service Bureau. I found the Service Bureau to be a bit of a scam - putting on a bit of a dog and pony show to attract paying members, but most of what they offered in terms of tutorials were silly, and what they offered in terms of service and support was, well, nothing.

While it might be cute to say you have an App, but try a webpage prototype first.

[nickbaer]

I received an e-mail over the weekend that adds further reinforcement to my advice that there's nothing but trouble for adult business services wanting to pursue an App.

Hey Romeos,

Tough news. We received a call from Apple on Friday afternoon. As you
may know, they don't allow sexually explicit images in apps for iPhone
and iPad. We've always complied by blocking pictures rated XXX from
appearing in app profiles, but apparently that's not enough for them.
Surprisingly they now say they aren't willing to accept even soft core
pictures, and if all nudity is not scrubbed from our app in the next 48
hours it will be taken down. You guys are just too sexy for the censors
of Silicon Valley!

As a result we immediately also had to block soft core pictures from
appearing on the Apple iOS app. This is frustrating, but please don't
flame us in the reviews! We would love to show everything, but Apple just
doesn't allow it. Our hands are tied.

These changes have no impact for our Android app. Soft-core photos will
continue to appear there. One alternative that allows you to view all
photos on a mobile device is to use our mobile browser version at
touch.planetromeo.com.

We will continue to support and update our iOS app. We know how annoying
it is to see all those "TOO HOT" messages and we will fix it so that they
no longer appear in our upcoming update around Easter. We hope for your
understanding. It's not easy taking on Goliath.

Thank you.
The PlanetRomeo team.

Again, if you have an idea for an App, with any Adult purpose, write it as html/css first. Apple won't approve an Adult App, and Android could block it later.

If your idea can be done as an App, it can be done as an html webpage.

e.g. If you have an idea for an App, because you think only Apps do location-based Friend finding, then you haven't been keeping up with html5, and its geo-location features. http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_geolocation.asp

[nickbaer]

While I haven't gone back to work on updating the Gay Sights Map App since I returned to the US, nor tackled any other (new) App...

I did conquer a fun project!

You know how when you're at Target, or UPS or FedEX is at your door, and you sign for your credit card purchase, or package, on the little screen with a blunt "pen"?

I learned how to do that for iPad or iPhone, or Android!

You create a web page, and where you want the person to "sign" his/her signature, you place a <div>...

The java in the <div> records the drawing, and I save it to a SQL table.

Then I recall the saved code from SQL, and new java draws it on the screen so I can see it, incorporated with the text the signature goes with!

e.g. a Model Release!

Traveling on the road, and maintaining printed forms was always a pain. Now, it's paperless. All stored in SQL.

sigsample.jpg

Not my real signature, for those thinking of making a quick buck on Ebay!

[nickbaer]

Like every other coding adventure, the hard part was reading the instructions.

Once I picked-and-choosed from conflicting instruction "examples", it worked!

Capturing the Signature, Saving the Signature, Regenerating the Signature, and putting the text and regenerated Signature together into a doc.

The science is understandable, basic X & Y Geometry. But beyond that, it is just fun to marvel at how someone could turn a piece of my iPad screen into an Input device.

(The signature <div> can also be used with a mouse on a desktop. but the real use will be on a tablet or smartphone.)