May 2012
4 posts
5 tags
UIImage caching →
Last week I discovered that it was possible to load unbundled images using the iOS [UIImage imageNamed:] method: Interesting. I didn’t know that you can use [UIImage imageNamed:] (and its caching benefits) for non-bundled images: http://stackoverflow.com/a/2324544 I’ve since created a UIImage category that allows you to easily drop in the code into any project - available here on...
May 28th
5 tags
[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest...] for... →
A dirty hack, but it seems to work OK. Use at your own risk… ;)
May 17th
4 tags
Build fat static library (device + simulator)... →
Super-handy script.
May 8th
6 tags
Siri & Caller ID
I just filed a bug report with Apple: rdar://11385707 Siri should announce caller ID when connected to Bluetooth headset / audio device. I think this would be particularly useful while driving. I use the Jawbone Jambox in the car and I have to glance at the iPhone screen to see who’s calling when I receive an incoming call. Bonus points go for announcing caller ID for incoming text...
May 4th
March 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Paddy's Day Promo Codes (EirText)
Here are a few EirText promo codes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day… EirText for iOS Click on a code to redeem on your iPhone, iPod, iPad, or computer. KMFN97PX9YE3 J4T7TW7K3J93 AMMW4PJP63PJ Y949X6KJL6EY 7NWT3YXPEMX4 FTA6REAP49YR L3936EJ4KJL4 66XFFWAJFYF7 4APJ3EP94MTX KN9PHEM6PA3A EirText for Mac Click on a code to redeem on your Mac. PRYXJ6RYEKRF TMWTFNHK7YET ...
Mar 17th
4 tags
Quick Fix for LLVM Compiler Reachability.h... →
Handy!
Mar 14th
February 2012
1 post
6 tags
EirText Promo Codes
Here are a few promo codes for my messaging app, EirText. EirText is an app which allows you to send free or cheap text messages More info on EirText available here. EirText for iOS Click on a code to redeem on your iPhone, iPod, iPad, or computer. ALFJJERFL7JX FHLHLEJ6R4A7 MRF47W6XPKAP ALR6FTTJXR3L ALJPAN34RTNN EirText for Mac Click on a code to redeem on your Mac. 4LL3PX669NL7 ...
Feb 29th
January 2012
3 posts
6 tags
ASBlockTimer - Block-based NSTimer →
Jan 20th
112 notes
5 tags
A note on Objective-C singletons →
Jan 13th
76 notes
7 tags
iOS App Marketing - Quick Tips
Display ads - waste of money. The return on banner/text ads is very disappointing. Google has the best CTR. Facebook are well-targeted, but are expensive (if your app sells at less than €3, then it might not be worth your while). BuySellAds allow you to purchase ad-space on some popular blogs - the service itself is great, but sites I’ve advertised on didn’t give a good CTR. ...
Jan 12th
40 notes
December 2011
3 posts
11 tags
Stuff 'n Junk, 2011
Some cool things I discovered this year… MacBook Air (Mid 2011) For the past three years or so, I’d been working off a 15” MacBook Pro, and it was an absolute work-horse of a machine. With the introduction of Lion, and Xcode 4.x, the MBP started to become a little sluggish and couldn’t keep up with the demands of my daily development duties (alliteration FTW). I’d...
Dec 19th
7 notes
4 tags
Sale!
Both of my apps are on sale today for $0.99: Muud.io Muud.io is a music app for iPhone & iPod touch that makes playlists to suit your mood. EirText EirText Pro is an app for iPhone, iPod touch, & iPad, which allows you to send free or cheap text messages.
Dec 10th
18 notes
isaiah’s weblog: Cooked Bird →
yourhead: Path and Instagram have shown that the social app war is far from over. The blind spot of the successful social web platforms like Twitter and Facebook appears their late to the game, lackluster iOS experience. Even with the iPad 3 due out in a few months the iOS Facebook UI has only recently…
Dec 9th
8 notes
November 2011
5 posts
7 tags
Scripting EirText for Mac in Terminal
Using EirText for Mac’s command line / Terminal commands: All you need to do is launch EirText as usual and make sure that you have an account set up within the app. Make a note of your username and the network you’re using (e.g. O2.ie, VoIPCheap.com, etc). You can quit the app once you have an account ready for use. Here’s an example of how it works: ...
Nov 25th
378 notes
Learning the road of iOS development →
Nov 24th
2 notes
7 tags
Format String for the iPhone NSDateFormatter →
Nov 22nd
53 notes
7 tags
I want to get started building iOS apps...
If you’ve never coded before, have a look first at Visual Basic, then C++ or C#. You can get Microsoft’s tools online for free. Just do a Google for Visual Studio. There are loads of tutorials online for VB and C# - I’d recommend trying out the latter as it’s probably more relevant (C# can be used for Windows Phone programming). This also lets you try your hand at...
Nov 17th
44 notes
5 tags
Best Developer at The Appys!
Hello. If you’ve been reading about my win at The Appys (Best Developer, woo!) and Googled my name, you’ve probably been led here. This is my personal blog. My app development company, App Sandwich can be found at http://www.appsandwich.com and my latest app, Muud.io, is over at http://muud.io You can also get in touch directly via email or Twitter.
Nov 6th
19 notes
October 2011
4 posts
5 tags
A little bit of cross-promotion...
If you haven’t yet heard about my new app, Muud.io, here’s a little bit about it: Muud.io is a music app for iPhone & iPod touch that can recommend playlists, based on a given mood. Simply pick a mood, and we’ll build a playlist for you, using the music you love. You can view a demo video (desktop-only for now) and screenshots over at the Muud.io site. Muud.io is...
Oct 19th
18 notes
4 tags
Wanted: Search and in-app purchase APIs for iTunes...
UPDATE: Apple have marked this feature enhancement as a duplicate of 7040203 Filed as Radar # 10286028 Currently, apps have to jump into the iTunes Store app on iOS when prompting the user to purchase songs & video. The user taps a “Buy in iTunes” button in the third-party app. This jumps into the iTunes app. The user must then tap the Buy button in iTunes and then enter their...
Oct 14th
103 notes
5 tags
Muud.io - Embarrassing Baby Photos
I found these Muud.io prototype screenshots while migrating to my new MacBook Air. The main focus, starting out, was to prove that the back-end tech could work. I’d built a very basic client app, which plugged into a Rails instance running on my Mac. As you can see, the “Build Playlist” feature was a little more complicated than it is now, and there was no way to save your...
Oct 11th
8 notes
1 tag
Thank You
Without Steve’s inventions, my industry would not exist. Without his inspiration, I would not have found a career that I love. I wake up every morning excited by what the day might bring. I am incredibly lucky, and I have Steve to thank for that.
Oct 6th
September 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Sep 19th
225 notes
6 tags
Wordpress Phishing Hack
If you’re running a Wordpress install, keep an eye on your themes folder and its subfolders. There’s a nasty hack going around that allows a hacker to upload phishing-related files to your server. They then use your site as part of a phishing scam to collect bank details from unsuspecting users. Judging by where these files reside, I’m guessing that they’re using an...
Sep 12th
13 notes
August 2011
3 posts
7 tags
Keychain access as simple as NSUserDefaults →
I can’t remember exactly where I found this link, but it’s a great project.
Aug 18th
13 notes
1 tag
isaiah’s weblog: I love beach balls and pinwheels →
yourhead: Xcode: Oh hai! How are you doing today? Me: I just relaunched you because you crashed. Again. So, you know, kind of shitty. Xcode: Oh well, here are the last 20 windows that you had open about 45 minutes ago. Me: I don’t really need those open any more. Just do a clean build of the code,…
Aug 17th
17 notes
12 tags
Using PhoneView during iOS Development →
If you’re debugging an iOS app on-device, and need to access data that you’re storing somewhere within the app’s home directory, just fire up PhoneView and click on the Apps section. Easy!
Aug 10th
5 notes
June 2011
1 post
5 tags
Regarding iMessage, EirText, and the future of...
If you’ve been following Apple news recently, it’s likely that you’ve heard the announcement that, as part of iOS 5, Apple will be introducing their own free iOS-to-iOS messaging service, called iMessage.  iMessage is integrated directly into the Messages app on iPhone, and is also available on the iPad and iPod touch.  If you’re an EirText user, this service may sound...
Jun 20th
4 notes
May 2011
1 post
7 tags
TODO: GTD
Three things I dislike intensely are clutter, complexity, and repetition. Even more so when they’re present in software. One of the hardest aspects of developing software (or any product for that matter), is to keep the product simple and to focus on a core set of goals. It sounds easy, but in practice it’s very, very difficult. Up until recently, one category of applications which I...
May 25th
6 notes
April 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Xcode 4 Not Symbolicating Crash Logs? →
Thanks to @luibh_ie for this one!
Apr 18th
4 notes
5 tags
Using EirText Outside of Ireland
via @jamesbritton on Twitter: what is selling point for EirText users outside Ireland? I get asked this quite a bit, so I figured I’d post my answer here (especially since it’d take a lot more than 140 characters to answer). There are a number of reasons users outside of Ireland are downloading EirText. The two most common scenarios are: 1. EirText is integrated with a large...
Apr 7th
1 note
March 2011
2 posts
elienbecque asked: Hi Vinny,
I read your post n "clickable promos" because the term is in a description for a job I'm applying for; but what is, exactly, a "clickable promo"?? Pardon my ignorance.
Thank you! I can also be reached at elienbecque@gmail.com

Best,
EB
Mar 9th
7 tags
Shows.app →
Shows is a cool little app for iOS, which lets you keep track of upcoming shows from your favourite artists. The app scans your iPod library and then connects to a web-based service to download the gig dates. Shows also uses push notifications to alert you when your favourite artist(s) announce dates in your area.
Mar 6th
February 2011
6 posts
6 tags
Regular problem with XML & JSON Converters →
Feb 22nd
26 notes
8 tags
[Reblogged] 2010/2011 Wishlist
Re-posting this from the old blog, dated 25th May, 2010. It’s great to see so many items on the list becoming a reality. Still waiting for iTunes.com though… The recent Google I/O event got me thinking about features that Apple could be working on for iPhone OS and their other platforms. I thought it would be interesting compile a list of few of my most wanted features here and see...
Feb 19th
8 tags
EirText Mac App Store Stats
Prior to releasing EirText for Mac v2.0 on the Mac App Store, the app was sold via Paypal on my website. So far, the app has only been on sale for a week, but using the App Store as the sole method of distribution* has been the right decision in this particular case. To give you a frame of reference, EirText for Mac v1.x was on sale for approximately 18 months. Prior to the App Store, I had to...
Feb 15th
3 notes
5 tags
iOS Training Course →
CompuB are teaming up with Big Nerd Ranch to provide a week-long iOS development course in Dublin.
Feb 15th
1 note
8 tags
EirText on the Mac App Store →
Feb 10th
2 notes
13 tags
iOS: Debugging Web Services
Some useful tools & tips for debugging iOS apps which connect to web services: Debugging in the iPhone Simulator Wireshark - free, open source app. Charles Web Debugging Proxy - paid app, with free trial. Supports SSL connections. Debugging On-Device Paros Proxy - free, open source app. In Paros, go to Tools -> Options… select the Local Proxy option. Enter your Mac’s IP...
Feb 3rd
1 note
January 2011
2 posts
8 tags
Apple TV (v2) Display Issues [Updated]
Update: It looks like this issue will be resolved in the iOS 4.3 update. Currently, beta 2 has an option to change the HDMI mode. Switching the mode to RGB High prevents the display issue from occurring. Over the holidays, I was lucky enough to receive a Sony Bravia KDL-32EX401 TV as a gift. I’m finally able ditch my old Bush HDTV, with it’s wacky array of non-HDMI ports. This has...
Jan 16th
3 notes
4 tags
Jan 1st
384 notes
December 2010
3 posts
8 tags
Old Apple TV -> iTunes Media Server
Since purchasing the new Apple TV, my old grey Apple TV has been collecting dust on a shelf in my office. With the new model retailing for $99 / €119, there’s not much point in trying to sell it (especially with the lack of updates for it). Currently, I’m streaming my media to the new ATV from iTunes on my MacBook Pro. All of the content is on a network drive, so the only reason for...
Dec 13th
1 note
7 tags
Interview with Yours Truly →
Discussing apps, development, and mobile platforms.
Dec 10th
1 note
9 tags
PromoLinks - Clickable Promo Code Links
Seeing as Apple have finally enabled worldwide use of App Store Promo Codes, I figured that it was high time I put together an OS X app that generated clickable links from those codes. When listing promo codes on the web, simply linking to https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/freeProductCodeWizard?code=YOURCODEHERE will automatically redeem that code in iTunes when a user clicks...
Dec 10th
1 note
November 2010
15 posts
5 tags
AirPrint Links
Collecting some useful AirPrint links for reference: Enable AirPrint on Mac. Enable AirPrint on Windows. Create PDFs using AirPrint & DropBox.
Nov 30th
4 tags
JSON: Handy debugging tools
If you’ve worked on, or are currently working on, an app that parses JSON, these tools might be of interest to you when debugging JSON responses: JSON Pretty Printing Demo /via @steemcb Online JSON Viewer /via @cfdan And, of course, if you’re developing a JSON-based app on iOS and you’re not using TouchJSON, well shame on you… ;) [Update] Some other suggestions from...
Nov 26th
1 note
6 tags
Huawei E5830 - Unlocking, etc
I bought one of these “MiFi” devices a while back and it’s a great little device. It’s getting a bit old now and there are newer models, but I’m sure there are still a lot of them floating about. I originally purchased mine on eBay as an unlocked model, but they can easily be unlocked for any network using the software over at DC-unlocker. The default firmware that...
Nov 23rd
1 note
7 tags
Marco.org: Supporting older versions of iOS while... →
marco: If you wanted your iPhone or iPad app to work with older versions of the OS, or if you wanted to make a universal app that ran on both iPhone and iPad, you need to ensure that the code never tries to call a method or instantiate an object that doesn’t exist on its OS.
Nov 22nd
57 notes
10 tags
Ripping DVDs for Apple TV
As mentioned previously, I use an Elgato Turbo.264 HD stick to quickly encode movies for use with my Apple TV. I’m now in the process of looking into ripping all of my DVD content into H.264, so that I can also watch it on the Apple TV. My current DVD player is an Xbox 360 and the fan noise on that thing is incredibly loud. Besides, it’s nice to have all of my content in the one...
Nov 22nd
4 notes
8 tags
Bug Report #8692813 →
iTunes Store - Lack of Closed Captioned Titles Summary: Little to no movies / TV shows available on the iTunes Store offer subtitles or closed captioning for the hard of hearing. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Enable subtitles and closed captioning on the Apple TV. 2. Rent / purchase a movie / TV show. Expected Results: Movie / TV show plays with closed captioning / subtitles. Actual Results: ...
Nov 21st
1 note