There are times when you have exceptions raised in Xcode, but it breaks at UIApplicationMain in main(), and without giving you clues on where the error comes from.

There is a way to show more helpful debugging info.

Basically you need to set a breakpoint at objc_exception_throw.

If you are using Xcode 4.2, you can do the following:

1. Go to Breakpoint Navigator pane (or press ⌘6)
2. Click on the add icon on the bottom left
3. Add symbolic breakpoint
4. Enter objc_exception_throw for Symbol

Yeah. Find and burn those terrible bugs!

The Home button got to be the most problematic hardware on the iPhone.

Recently, my iPhone 4 Home button started to respond slower. I either have to press multiple times, or press harder.. If you faced the same problem, you are not the only one.

Luckily, there is a fix for it! I tried the fix, and it did work help! Here is what you need to do:

You have probably heard about iOS 5 from the recent Apple’s WWDC keynote. It includes 200 new features – iMessage, Notification Center, twitter integration, Reminders, taking pictures with volume key, etc..

But you have to wait until Fall of 2011 to officially install iOS 5..

If you can’t wait, this is how you can update to iOS 5 beta.

Pre-requisite

There is only one, hard pre-requisite:

• You need to have your iPhone/iPad device activated with a iOS developer account

A iOS developer account can activate up to 100 devices for testing purposes. You can either spent $99 to register as an iOS developer, or find a developer willing to activate for you.

Then you have to:

• Install a UDID app on your iPhone/iPad, and use it to send your device info to the iOS developer. The developer will then add your device to his list.

Steps

The rest is easy.

1. Fulfill the pre-requisite first!
2. Register a free iOS developer so that you can download the beta (it’s free)
3. Download the iOS 5 BETA for your device (link)
4. Extract to get a IPSW
5. Download and install iTunes 10.5 BETA (link)
6. Connect your iPhone/iPad to your computer
7. Open iTunes
8. Press and hold the Option/alt key (Mac) or Shift key (Windows), and click Restore
9. Select the extracted IPSW
10. Restore!

Pitfalls

Some possible pitfalls:

• If you encountered this error during restore "this device isn’t eligible for the requested build”, try editing your host file.
• Still doesn’t work, try restarting in DFU mode.

It was recently revealed by 2 researchers that iPhone is secretly tracking where you go!

Download this Mac app, iPhone Tracker, which will read a file stored on your Mac when you sync your iPhone. Download it here, unzip and simply open the app to reveal.

It was kind of fun for me to see where I have been in the last 6 months. Basically everywhere in Singapore. Ah, but not Pulau Ubin.

App Store reviews play a very important role in a customer’s decision to download an app.

As such, it is very common for the developers to write “reviews” for themselves.

I was prompted to write this article when @mugunthkumar mentioned “the reviews looked like insider job”.

I took a look and is very sure it is fake reviews, generated by Singtel Idea Factory.

These are the characteristics of fake reviews that you will be able to identify with WheresApp SG:

• All ratings are 5 stars
• Number of reviews = number of ratings
• Reviews all on the same date and close to release date
• Suspicion reviews voted helpful
• Overdose of exclamation marks
• Same writing style eg. First letter uppercase, title style
• Mentioning functions similar to app description
• Reviewers have only reviewed that 1 app in their lifetime
• Reviewers gave a lousy 1 star review to competitor’s app

With those pointers in mind, you know not to trust the review when you encounter one. And not waste that $1.99.

All 5 stars, reviewed on same day (with no further reviews), lots of !!, title styles with “app”.

Reviewer only reviewed 1 app.

Reviewed gave M1’s My Movies (competitor to Singtel) a 1 star app (when the app averages 3.5 stars).

Disclaimer: As a developer myself, I admit I have written my own “reviews”, but mildly, and smartly.

This post is for iPhone developers who need to send pre-released apps to (beta) testers.

For a long time since iOS development began, whenever developers need to send a pre-released app, testers need to go through a tedious process to install – they have to download, drag app to iTunes on a PC/Mac (NOT iPhone), and sync over USB..

Now with iOS 4, wireless installation is possible, right from an iPhone!

This new process is much more convenient, or as convenient as installing from App Store. The result is that testers will be more glad to install and test your pre-released apps.

Jeffrey Sambells has a good post on how to create a little webpage that has links for testers to install the app. He even has a PHP script to conveniently skip some of the steps.

The post is helpful, but for myself, all I need is to a link that I can email to my testers. A link which they can simply click on and install the app wirelessly.

I am going to explain how I do it my way.

Step 1 – Build and Archive

In Xcode, Build and Archive your Ad Hoc target.

Under Organizer window, select the archive app and select Share > Distribute for Enterprise. You will see this (screenshot from paradeofrain):

For the URL field, enter a temporary URL first (we will change that in step 2). This URL is the link to the IPA file which you will upload.

Press OK. You will now have the IPA file (the app) and a PLIST file (an XML that describes the app and where the IPA is).

Step 2 – Upload to Dropbox

Firstly, upload the IPA file to your dropbox. I prefer dropbox, but you may use a web server if you like. After the file is uploaded, get the dropbox public link for the IPA file. eg. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1234/MyApp.ipa

Next, open the PLIST file and edit the url element. For example,

...
<key>url</key>
<string>http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1234/MyApp.ipa<string>
...

Upload the edited PLIST file to dropbox. Similarly, get the dropbox public link to the PLIST file. eg. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1234/MyApp.plist

Step 3 – Email Testers the Link

The secret to installing is this URI:

itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1234/MyApp.plist  

Created a HTML email with a hyperlink pointing to the above URI. For example:

<a href=”itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1234/MyApp.plist>Download App</a>

When a tester click on Download App from his iPhone, the installation will begin!

That’s it!

Update: The app encountered glitches with many stations not being able to play. App is taken down until this is fixed.

SG Radio is (finally) released! It took a long 2 months before it is finally approved by Apple.

There were some hiccups due to our first design that looked too much like Apple’s iPod, and so we had to redesign, and redesign.. More details on how SG Radio was rejected by Apple in a later post.

Now, let’s look at what the app does!

Simply put, SG Radio plays radio from SG!

It is like MeRadio, Radio 91.3 and  Radio 100.3 combined, but with slicker interface, yet packed with better features! We highlight 3 features below:

15 Radio Stations

This is the only iPhone app that plays ALL 15 Singapore radio stations, from BOTH Media Corp’s and SPH’s!

Specifically, SG Radio supports:

✔ FM 913 – Today’s Best Music
✔ FM 938 – Live
✔ FM 987 – Only the hits
✔ FM 950 – Class 95
✔ FM 905 – Gold 90.5
✔ FM 995 – Lush
✔ FM 924 – Symphony
✔ FM 958 – 城市频道
✔ FM 972 – 最爱频道
✔ FM 933 – 醉心频道
✔ FM 897 – Ria
✔ FM 942 – Warna
✔ FM 968 – ஒலி
✔ FM 963 – Expat Radio
✔ FM 1003 – 資訊娛樂台

Rewind and Forward

This is a feature that only we support!

Missed something that your deejay said? Don’t worry! With SG Radio, you can rewind, and listen again and again! (Note: Rewind is a locked feature, while pause and forward is free)

You can also pause a radio station while you pick up a call, or attending to some other business, and SG Radio will buffer whatever you are missing! When you un-pause, you will be able to listen from the point you paused, missing not a single thing!

We love this and hope you like it!

Currently Playing Songs

Showing the currently playing song from a radio station is nothing fantastic.

But we have done it better. We show you ALL songs that all 15 radio stations are currently playing in 1 place! Now you can switch over to a station easily when you see your favorite song playing.

We love this too and hope you like it!

Download now, its FREE

We believe this is a must have app for radio fans, so please download it now from App Store!

Listen, enjoy, have fun (:

SG Toto has been updated to version 2, after a long 1 year!

The last update (version 1.0.8) was 1 year ago, and it was just a minor fix. In fact, nothing much has changed since it was released 2 years ago, in Nov 2008.

What’s New?

The fundamental changes are similar to version 2 of SG 4D. And if you are interested in the technical aspects, you can read here.

Specifically, these are what’s new for SG Toto:

Faster results, more details

You now get results faster, approximately at 6.33pm when the numbers are drawn!

You also will get push notification once all numbers are drawn (locked feature).

Furthermore, the app now provides the winning tickets information. Now you know where the lucky outlets are! And under More > Outlets, you can easily find the outlets and how to go there!

Past Results 24 years back

We know you are interested to know what is the result 1 year ago, 2 years ago, on your birthday, Michael Jackson’s birthday, … or 24 years ago!

As such, we provide you the entire history of Toto.

Number Analysis

To help you further in the game, we are providing more thorough number analysis!

This is a much sought after feature, and we will provide more different kind of analytics in the future.

For now, there are 3 analysis that you can perform:

1. Check what numbers are not drawn in the last X draws. This is similar to what Singapore Pools provides, but with no restrictions on the number of draws to analyze on.
2. Frequency Table shows you how many times a number has been drawn, sorted from highest frequency to lowest. With that, you know what are the hot numbers to buy! Again, unlike what Singapore Pools provides, the app gives you the freedom to analyze X draws. Furthermore, the app has data since 1986, while Singapore Pools only provide since 1997.
3. Search your favorite number and know when they last came out in a draw.

Next Jackpot

Okay, version 1 had this too.

But version 2 is cooler as I have my custom wallpaper blessing me :)

Outlets, Push Notifications, Wallpaper

You can now find the outlets near you, get Push Notifications when results arrived, and set your lucky wallpaper!

Retina Display & Icon

Lastly, we have updated the graphics and they now looks sharper and prettier for your iPhone 4.

And the new icon for version 2.

One of the UI component that I like in Android is the Toast Notification. It is subtle, non-intrusive and fades away automatically. You simply call:

Toast.makeText(context, “Hello Toaster (:”, 5).show();

iPhone does not have an equivalent. It does have an Alert, but that is too intrusive.

As such, I created my own Toaster class. It was first used in SG 4D, 2 years ago, to show “No new results..” when user refreshed and there is no new results. That very first version was hastily created, with images used for the grey background.

2 years later, I improved my library. One of which is this Toaster class. I removed the images, and created the round radius programmatically.

It is a very simple class, which I wrote within minutes. I am open sourcing JDToaster and hosting it in github public repos.

How to use JDToaster

1. Download the source form https://github.com/samwize/JDToaster

2. Copy JDToasterView.h and JDToasterView.m to your project

3. To show a Toast, simply call

[JDToasterView showToasterWithMessage:@"Hello Toaster (:" forDuration:5];

You will get something similar to this:

That’s it!

Juzz4 is an iPhone app I have developed with KAI Square which connects and streams from IP cameras.

There are many awesome features from the app, and these are few that I particularly like:

• MJPEG streaming
• Multiple JPEG snapshot streaming
• Stream up to 16 camera feeds at once
• Supports pan, zoom, landscape mode, copy, save, email, and more!

You may download here, but note that the app requires a Juzz4Security account to use. To find out more, you can go to juzz4.com. For others, here are some screenshots: