Bill Clementson's Blog

Blog Posts

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 03:24:19 GMT

It's been exactly a year since my last post and I get the occasional email asking me if I plan to resume blogging anytime soon. I stopped blogging because I was no longer enjoying it as much as I used to and I have no immediate plans to resume blogging again. If you're looking for a particular post of mine, it's probably listed in my last Best Posts summary.

Back from vacation

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:28:02 GMT

I just got back from a 2-week vacation, so I've been busy catching up on things.

Xcode Requirement for iPhone OS 3.0.1

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:20:15 GMT

I've just updated my iPhone OS to 3.0.1 (it's a security upgrade to fix the iPhone SMS vulnerability that was recently announced) and found that I could no longer build/install development apps on my iPhone. A bit of searching uncovered this Apple advisory:
http://adcdownload.apple.com/iphone/iphone_sdk_3.0__final/iphone_os_3.0.1_advisory.pdf

So, if you plan to install iPhone OS 3.0.1 on an iPhone that you use for iPhone app development, you'll need to follow the instructions in the advisory. Note that the terminal command that is described in the advisory is one long line, not 2 lines.

HebrewBible App Store Rankings

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:39:03 GMT

I use a variety of different tools to measure how my HebrewBible iPhone App is doing. With the latest 2.0 version of the app, it has now moved into the top 100 of the "Reference" app category in both the USA and France (the top markets for the app). The following MajicRank graph illustrates the current rankings:

Woohoo!

Update-2009-07-28: After 1 week, the app's performance in both the USA and France has improved even more and I've broken into the top 100 for another "Big Eight" country - Canada!:

Woohoo, Woohoo!

New Version of Hebrew Bible iPhone App Available

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 01:47:07 GMT

Today, Apple approved Version 2.0 of my Hebrew Bible iPhone application. In addition to providing 8 different versions of the Hebrew Bible (which can either be read online with no content stored on the iPhone or cached locally for off-network reading) and Hebrew word lookup/lexicon, this version includes links to over 200 Wikipedia articles and provides Google Maps of over 1,000 locations.

Apple made me change the rating of the app to "17+" to indicate that there are "Frequent/Intense" types of "Mature/Suggestive Themes". Their reasoning for this was:

"Our review indicates that the application content is not consistent with the current rating. HebrewBible allows unfiltered access to wikipedia.org, where content with mature or suggestive themes can be accessed."

Come on guys, you've got to be kidding - give me a break! Hmm, a rating of "17+" seems to boost sales of certain movies - maybe I can expect a sudden spike in downloads now! ;-)

Good thing I got my iPhone 3GS last week

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:00:25 GMT

It looks like Rogers is all sold out of all models of the iPhone 3GS throughout Canada. Good thing I got mine last week - I've been really pleased by how much better the user experience is with the 3GS over my old iPhone 3G. The features I find most compelling are:

Speed: The increase in processor speed (600MHz CPU as opposed to the 412MHz iPhone 3G) and RAM (256 MB vs 128MB on the iPhone 3G) make a HUGE difference.
Oleophobic Screen: The yucky fingerprint-covered screen of the iPhone 3G is now a thing of the past. The new iPhone's screen coating is the secret and it makes a big difference in the visual appeal of the display.
Video and Camera: The video camera was a nice additon; however, the camera has improved significantly as well. The camera is now 3 megapixels (vs 2 megapixels in the 3G) and both video and camera have geotagging, autofocus, and tap-to-focus functionality. I rarely used the camera on the 3G because of the poor picture quality but I can see myself using the 3GS camera a lot.
Magnetometer: This is most visible in the new Compass app that comes with the 3GS. However, the more useful application of the direction-awareness provided by the magnetometer is in the Maps app. If you press the "location" icon in the bottom-left of the Maps app, it displays your current location (as it did with the iPhone 3G). However, if you press it a second time, the map reorients itself to the direction you're facing and the blue location dot displays a "flashlight" to illustrate the direction you're heading. Very useful when you're in an unfamiliar neighborhood!

New iPhone + New Apple Developer Provisioning Profile

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:54:27 GMT

Yesterday, I took some time off from the nice weather and gardening tasks to go out and get a new iPhone 3GS. First off, let me say that the speed difference is really great! I've only played around with a few of the new features (such as the video camera and compass), but the speed increase is a huge plus. Today, I got around to creating a new developer profile for my new iPhone 3GS. My old iPhone was having some problems a few months ago and Apple replaced it, so I remembered the hassles I had then setting up a new provisioning profile for the replacement device (this seems to be a common iPhone developer complaint). I had similar problems this time with the 3GS, so I've decided to note down all the things that I did to get it setup properly. Hopefully, this will help someone else (or, at least, it might remind me of the necessary steps the next time I have to do it!). Not all these steps may be necessary (and it's probably a lot easier if you're just adding a device to an existing profile rather than replacing a provisioning profile); however, I wanted to make sure I knew all the steps this time and it's what worked for me!

When you upgrade to a new device, you need to do the following:

In Apple's iPhone Developer Program Program Portal:

Create a new provisioning profile for the device
Set up a new device profile
Download the new provisioning profile to the Desktop

On the Mac:

Delete the old provisioning profile from ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/
Drag the new provisioning profile from the Desktop into ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/

In the Organizer window in Xcode:

Click on the device (in the left-hand pane)
Drag the new provisioning profile into the "Provisioning" box
Click on the "Provisioning Profiles" (in the left-hand pane)
Double-click on the new profile name (in the top pane) - it should appear in the "Included Devices" bottom pane with an "Installed" status
Close the Organizer window
Press the Xcode/Empty Caches... menu option
Close Xcode

On the Mac and iPhone:

Power off both the Mac and the iPhone
Power on both the Mac and the iPhone
Attach the iPhone to the Mac

For each project you previously built with the old provisioning profile:

Right-click on the [projectname].xcodeproj file and select "Show Package Contents"
Make a backup copy of the project.pbxproj file
Use a text editor (I used Emacs) to edit the project.pbxproj file:
1. Delete any lines that have the key CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY
2. Delete any lines that have the key PROVISIONING_PROFILE
3. Delete any lines that have the key "CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY[sdk=iphoneos*]"
4. Delete any lines that have the key "PROVISIONING_PROFILE[sdk=iphoneos*]"

In Xcode, for each project you previously built with the old provisioning profile:

Open the project
Press the Build/Clean All Targets menu option
Press the Project/Edit Project Settings menu option
On the Build tab under "All Configurations", chage the "Code Signing Identity" value to iPhone Developer
On the Xcode dropdown menu, select to build on the Device
Press the Build/Build and Run menu option (the application should build and load on the device)

That's what worked for me. If anyone has an easier/alternative approach, let me know and I'll publish relevant comments in updates to this post.