We will miss you Steve..!

Flash CS5: Native iPhone Application Development

The new support for iPhone applications in the Flash Platform tooling will not allow iPhone users to browse web content built with Flash technology on iPhone, but it may allow developers to repackage existing web content as applications for iPhone if they choose to do so.Flash Player uses a just-in-time compiler and virtual machine within a browser plug-in to play back content on websites. Those technologies are not allowed on the iPhone at this time, so a Flash Player for iPhone is not being made available today. Flash Professional CS5 will enable developers to build applications for iPhone that are installed as native applications. Users will be able to access the apps after downloading them from Apple’s App Store and installing them on iPhone or iPod touch. Developers can deliver applications built with Flash Platform tooling just like any other iPhone application. This will require the developer to be a member of the iPhone Developer Program and follow the program guidelines. iPhone applications built with Flash Platform tools are compiled into standard, native iPhone executables, just like any other iPhone applicatio. Applications can be built targeting iPhone OS 3.0 and later.

Update: Apple has bowled out Adobe’s effort to get iPhone application development on Flash platform with introduction of new clause in its iPhone SDK 4.0 license agreement which makes developing iPhone application using tools other than from Apple as illegal. Check more details about whats new in iPhone SDK 4.0 and its implications at http://www.macoscoders.com/2010/04/09/new-features-in-iphone-os-4-0/

What is Push Notification and How does it work?

Let’s say you’re running a 3rd party IM (instant message) client on iPhone 2.0. When you exit the app, you no longer know if you’re receiving more messages. (Sure, there are work around over SMS and Email, but the app itself is dead to you).

With Apple’s Push Notification Service on iPhone OS 3.0, anytime someone sends you a new IM, an alert can be sent from the IM  developer’s servers (yes, they’ll have to keep a session open for you on their end), to Apple’s Push Notification Service (APNS) servers.

Apple’s PNS server will have a persistent TCP/IP connection to your iPhone . Once Apple PNS gets the alert from the developer server, APNS will “PUSH” it out to your iPhone 3.0.

Apple PNS currently supports 3 kinds of alerts: badges with a number (like Mail uses to show you unread messages), custom sounds (like a beep or bell or anything already built into the app by the developer), or modal message boxes (like the kind that pop up to tell you your battery is at 20%).

Apple isn’t making any promises on up-time for the service, and any new service will have delays and downtime.

What APNS doesn’t solve, however, is the lack of good notifications on the iPhone, and applications that require multitasking for something other than notification (i.e. streaming internet radio apps).

Imagine if 10 apps try to push out 10 alerts at the same time, how will Apple manage those on your device? Will you have to “cancel” or “accept” 50 modal message dialogs, or be hit by a cacophony of 30 random sounds? We don’t know yet, but hopefully Apple will address this.

Generate APNS SSL Certificate

To get started with APNS we need to generate an certificate unique to each applications which will support APNS. We need to log into our iPhone developer portal with “Team Agent” access.  Only users with “Team Agent” access can do the below mentioned process. The iPhone developer portal with “Team Agent ” has a detailed steps to generate an APNS certificate. You should be able to see the screen shown below in the portal to start creating your APNS certificate. Follow the steps mentioned below:-

Fig 1: APNS Development Certificate

(1) You need to create an App ID without .* in the iPhone developer Portal. An App ID without .* means its unique and works only for a single application

(2) Generate a certificate signing request from your Mac’s keychain (You should be an Team Agent to have access to the wizard shown in Figure 1) as shown in figure 2 and save to disk

(3) Upload the CertificateSigningRequest.certSigningRequest to the Program Portal

(4) Wait for the generation of cert (about 1 min). Download the certificate (aps_developer_identity.cer) from the Program Portal

(5) Keep (or rename them if you want) these 2 files (steps 2 and 4) in a safe place. You might need the CertificateSigningRequest.certSigningRequest file to request a production cert in the future or renew it again.

(6) Suppose you have imported the aps_developer_identity.cer to the keychain. Then you have to export these new cert and the private key of this cert (not the public key) and saved as .p12 files.

(7) Then you use these commands to generate the cert and key in Mac’s Terminal for PEM format (Privacy Enhanced Mail Security Certificate)

openssl pkcs12 -clcerts -nokeys -out cert.pem -in cert.p12
openssl pkcs12 -nocerts -out key.pem -in key.p12


(8) The cert.pem and key.pem files will be used by your own program communicating with APNS.

(9) If you want to remove the passphase of private key in key.pem, do this

openssl rsa -in key.pem -out key.unencrypted.pem

Then combine the certificate and key

cat cert.pem key.unencrypted.pem > ck.pem


But please set the file permission of this unencrypted key by using chmod 400 and is only readable by root in a sever configuration.

(10) The testing APNS is at ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195

Fig 2: Request Certificate From Keychain Access

(11) For the source codes to push payload message to the APNS, you can find them in the Developer Forum. This is the one that I used, for php. Run this (after obtaining the device token from the testing device and with iPhone Client program setup)
php -f apns.php "My Message" 2

or if you put this php script and the ck.pem in a local web server, you can use this to test
http://127.0.0.1/apns/apns.php?message=Hello%20from%20macoscoders&badge=2&sound=received5.caf

apns.php




<?php

$deviceToken = '02da851dXXXXXXXXb4f2b5bfXXXXXXXXce198270XXXXXXXX0d3dac72bc87cd60'; // masked for security reason

// Passphrase for the private key (ck.pem file)

// $pass = '';

// Get the parameters from http get or from command line

$message = $_GET['message'] or $message = $argv[1] or $message = 'Message received from javacom';

$badge = (int)$_GET['badge'] or $badge = (int)$argv[2];

$sound = $_GET['sound'] or $sound = $argv[3];

// Construct the notification payload

$body = array();

$body['aps'] = array('alert' => $message);

if ($badge)

$body['aps']['badge'] = $badge;

if ($sound)

$body['aps']['sound'] = $sound;

/* End of Configurable Items */

$ctx = stream_context_create();

stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'local_cert', 'ck.pem');

// assume the private key passphase was removed.

// stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'passphrase', $pass);

$fp = stream_socket_client('ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195', $err, $errstr, 60, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT, $ctx);

if (!$fp) {

print "Failed to connect $err $errstrn";

return;

}

else {

print "Connection OKn";

}

$payload = json_encode($body);

$msg = chr(0) . pack("n",32) . pack('H*', str_replace(' ', '', $deviceToken)) . pack("n",strlen($payload)) . $payload;

print "sending message :" . $payload . "n";

fwrite($fp, $msg);

fclose($fp);

?>

(12) For iPhone Client Program, you need to edit the bundle identifier to the App ID that you created and imported the new provisioning profile for that APP ID to the XCode and iPhone. Then implement the following methods in AppDelegate to Build & Go

AppDelegate.m




- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {

NSLog(@"Registering Remote Notications");

// For beta 2

// [[UIApplication sharedApplication] registerForRemoteNotifications];

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] registerForRemoteNotificationTypes:(UIRemoteNotificationTypeBadge | UIRemoteNotificationTypeSound)]; // For beta 3

// other codes here

}

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {

NSLog(@"%@",[[[launchOptions objectForKey:@"UIApplicationLaunchOptionsRemoteNotificationKey"] objectForKey:@"aps"] objectForKey:@"alert"]);

return YES;

}

- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:(NSData *)deviceToken {

NSLog(@"deviceToken: %@", deviceToken);

}

- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError:(NSError *)error {

NSLog(@"Error in registration. Error: %@", error);

}

(13) Additional tips

- The feedback service is currently unavailable.
- Send your messages to gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195 during the beta period.
- Devices must be set up as new iPhones in iTunes in order to generate device tokens. Restoring from backup is not currently supported.
-Make sure the audio file received5.caf is included in your application resource.


(13a) Registering an App ID for Apple Push Notification service

1. In the App ID section of the Program Portal, locate the App ID you wish to use with the Apple Push Notification service. Only App IDs with a specific bundle ID can be used with the APNs. You cannot use a “wild-card” application ID. You must see “Available” under the Apple Push Notification service column to register this App ID and configure a certificate for this App ID.

2. Click the ‘Configure’ link next to your desired App ID.

3. In the Configure App ID page, check the Enable Push Notification Services box and click the Configure button. Clicking this button launches the APNs Assistant, which guides you through the next series of steps that create your App ID specific Client SSL certificate.

4. Download the Client SSL certificate file to your download location. Navigate to that location and double-click the certificate file (which has an extension of cer) to install it in your keychain.

5. When you are finished, click Done in the APNS Assistant.

6. Double-clicking the file launches Keychain Access. Make sure you install the certificate in your login keychain on the computer you are using for provider development. The APNs SSL certificate should be installed on your notification server.

7. When you finish these steps you are returned to the Configure App ID page of the iPhone Dev Center portal. The certificate should be badged with a green circle and the label “Enabled”.

8. To complete the APNs set-up process, you will need to create a new provisioning profile containing your APNs-enabled App ID.

UIPrerenderedIcon

If you would like to render your iPhone application icon without any sheen and bevel effects added by iPhone OS, then add the boolean value

UIPrerenderedIcon=YES

in your application’s info.plist. Adding this key will instruct iPhone OS not to add the additonal effect around the icon and leave it as it is. On the left is a screenshot of one of the application’s – BubbleWrap(marked in red square)available on the Apple App store which use UIPrerenderedIcon= YES.

 <key>UIPrerenderedIcon</key>
 <true/>

WWDC 2009

The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is the premier technical event for developers and IT professionals innovating with Apple platforms. Over 1,000 Apple engineers will be at Moscone West to present the latest Apple technologies and provide you with code-level guidance. You’ll learn how to harness the power of iPhone OS, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard in the most efficient and sophisticated way possible — saving you time and accelerating your development. Bring your MacBook and your imagination, and prepare to make your ideas happen.

The latest predictions come in a note to investors from Barclay’s Capital analyst Ben Reitzes, which was released ahead of Apple’s April 22 earnings report. Reitzes says that Apple has ramped up iPhone production in anticipation of high demand that will come after Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. However, Reitzes says that high demand only tells half the story and that Apple is getting ready to release more than one new iPhone model.

Reitzes believes that Apple will introduce two iPhones, according to Apple Insider. The first would be a lower-end iPhone with less storage and features. The low-end phone theory is supported by other analysts who believe the device would primarily be meant for the Chinese market, where Apple may have lined up a carrier.

Meanwhile, Reitzes predicts that a device designed with a video camera on the iPhone’s face and back will replace the current iPhone. The front camera would support video chat, while the regular iPhone camera would work as a video recorder to rival the Flip line of camcorders. This predicton is also supported by yesterday’s rumors that the new iPhone OS 3.0 has extended video editing support.

Reitzes also made the now obligatory prediction that Apple will be coming out with a tablety, netbooky-like thingy. Reitzes says to look for an Apple netbook-like device in the second half of this year. While many Apple fans might love to get their hands on an iPhone tablet, haven’t we had enough of the netbook prediction already? It just won’t die, even though Apple has disappointed on the netbook front time and again. Another prediction gaining ground among analysts is that a new device would be followed by further forays into the netbook market, all of which would be based on the iPhone OS and not OS X as previously thought.

So what to make of all these predictions? As always there’s no telling what Apple will do when the lights go up at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West this June. But it should be noted that Reitzes made similar predictions in November, and nothing ever came of it. Then again, if netbooks remain the bright spot for the computer industry, an iPhone-inspired tablet might just make sense. There’s only 76 days until we found out for sure. Until then, the guessing game continues.

For a bit of a sneak peek, according to reports getting around, the iPhone’s camera is going to take a step up to a 3.2 megapixel lens in the next gen handset.

The reports are stating that a company called OmniVision is the one who’s going to provide Apple with 3.2MP CMOS sensors for the handsets camera module. The same reports also talk about the same company making 5 megapixel sensors for Apple too. There’s no word on whether or not the camera will incorporate auto focus technology. We’ll just have to wait and see, so stay tuned.

Judging by checks with Apple suppliers, it appears the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker may be getting ready to introduce “a lower-cost version” of the popular iPhone.

Some call this device the iPhone nano.”, ” Whatever one calls it, we believe this device is on its way.”

“a new and smaller version of the iPod shuffle,” possibly in the middle of the first quarter and a cheaper MacBook notebook, although, “We do not believe this PC will qualify as a netbook.”

Don’t expect the products to be ready in time for a rollout at the upcoming MacWorld expo next week.

Officials at Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.