Devjuice Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

DevJuice: iOS/Android PortKit translates visual metaphors

by Erica Sadun (Jun 18th, 2013)

The clever folk over at Kintek have posted a handy system-to-system guide for anyone working in the mobile development space. This metaphor overview quickly references how items like buttons, switches, one-of-n selection and other common interface items are expressed by default in the target ...

DevJuice: The easy way to set up an OS X Mavericks test environment

by Steven Sande (Jun 13th, 2013)

OK, this is going to be a "duh" moment for most Mac developers, but apparently there are some people who are having issues with setting up a test environment in which to run OS X Mavericks. I have to admit that I was one of those who first started asking if anyone was having success running the ...

DevJuice: Is your app watching you?

by Erica Sadun (Jun 8th, 2013)

The PRISM project is hitting the news just now, with the Director of National Intelligence issuing statements, and people talking about what privacy means in a free society. This morning, our backchannel discussion about PRISM drifted to the topic of user privacy in apps. Specifically, we've ...

DevJuice: Reveal enables you to inspect, modify and debug iOS apps

by Erica Sadun (Jun 6th, 2013)

Reveal, now in public beta, was originally created to enable its developers to debug client applications. Over time, they found that the tool became so useful on its own that it deserved to be productized. Developer Sean Woodhouse tells TUAW, "We built Reveal to help us debug applications for our ...

DevJuice: 10.8.4 and the iOS Simulator

by Erica Sadun (Jun 5th, 2013)

TUAW reader Peter Johnson of Soluble Apps writes, "I, and a few other developers on my Facebook group, have noticed that, since yesterday's OSX update, every other run on the simulator is crashing on start. It appears to work fine when compiling and running on hardware. I thought it could be ...

DevJuice: A real-world lesson in why you must test on-device

by Erica Sadun (Jun 3rd, 2013)

Dave Caolo's daughter has been working hard on a school report regarding the Everglades National Park. So he downloaded a nice-looking iPad app on the subject for her. Swiping around it looked great. And then he tapped on a video. This is what happened. In the TUAW back channel, we scratched ...

DevJuice: Forage offers SQLite query GUI for devs

by Erica Sadun (May 29th, 2013)

The OS X Forage (US$9.99) app provides a simple query and editing interface for SQLite databases. This app targets developers who use pre-built databases for iOS, OS X and Web deployment. It enables them to test and refine queries as well as to edit table data, and do so outside of the command ...

DevJuice: Spark Inspector offers real time iOS interface inpection

by Erica Sadun (May 18th, 2013)

Spark Inspector (US$39.99 single-license) offers an exciting new development tool. Targeting devs looking to refine their user interfaces, it enables you to interactively tweak view properties like frames and layers. The app centers around an Interface Builder-like experience, with ...

DevJuice: Apple's ObjC-JavaScript Bridge

by Erica Sadun (May 17th, 2013)

In a new post at his Steamclock Software blog, Nigel Brooke writes how Apple has added new Objective-C-to-Javascript bridging to WebKit: "This new API supports straightforward embedding of the JavaScriptCore interpreter into native Objective-C projects, including reading and writing variables ...

DevJuice: Does WWDC need a lottery system?

by Erica Sadun (Apr 25th, 2013)

WWDC sold out in just minutes this year. As iOS developer Josh Avant put it, "Next year, tickets are going to sell out before they even go on sale." Many developers were greeted by server errors, failed purchases and the "Sorry, tickets are sold out" banner. Others, like Daniel Jalkut of ...

DevJuice: Better Objective-C associated objects

by Erica Sadun (Apr 10th, 2013)

iOS/OS X internals guru Gwynne Raskind tipped me off to a much better way of creating associated object keys. Until now, I've been doing this: static const char nametag_key; return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, (void *) &nametag_key); Turns out there's a much easier and better way. ...

DevJuice: Three useful Xcode tricks

by Erica Sadun (Apr 8th, 2013)

Some Xcode challenges seem to crop up repeatedly. Today, I thought I'd share a few solutions that you might find helpful to integrate into your workflow. Challenge: When you move an Xcode project to a new folder, all your file references die. Solution: Avoid those red "can't find" file ...

DevJuice: Provisioning portal redesigned, allows deletion of some App IDs

by Erica Sadun (Apr 7th, 2013)

We've been hearing from various delighted developers this weekend responding to Apple's redesigned provisioning portal. And yes, you can now delete many (not all) App IDs from the portal. The newer the ID, the more likely it seems to be that you'll be able to select it, configure its ...

DevJuice: WebCode premieres, generates JavaScript+Canvas

by Erica Sadun (Apr 4th, 2013)

As I've been working on a new book on iOS Quartz Drawing, I've been using PixelCut's PaintCode app pretty heavily. Today, a new PixelCut tool just hit the Mac App Store. WebCode (US$49.99) generates JavaScript+Canvas, CSS+HTML or SVG code on your behalf. If you've used PaintCode, WebCode will ...

DevJuice: Preview of Fasten dev utility

by Erica Sadun (Mar 31st, 2013)

Today, I got a peek at a little utility that converts iTunes URLs to more readable App Store versions. From developer Moshe Berman, Fasten automates the process Apple described in QA 1633. I found the app easy to use and a great timesaver. Berman tells me that it's in the review queue as I ...