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iView: iPhone in Nature

By Hal Goldstein

iView: iPhone in Nature

My wife and I are most fortunate to own and share 33 acres of rural Iowa forest with birds, trees, plants, grasses, insects, fish, reptiles, small mammals, and deer. Admittedly, staring at my iPhone when walking in our woods is not a good look. Yet, worlds have opened thanks to apps that let me name trees, identify birds, diagnose plant health, and plot our newly created paths.

Do you have an idea for an app but lack the programming knowledge to begin building it? In this weekly blog series, How to Unleash Your Inner App Developer, I will take you, the non-programmer, step by step through the process of creating apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Join me each week on this adventure, and you will experience how much fun turning your ideas into reality can be! This is Part 16 of the series. If you are just getting started now, check out the beginning of the series here. (This post has been updated to Swift 1.2, iOS 8, and Xcode 6.3.)

In my previous blog post, you learned how to add Core Data to a project and design entities in a data model. In this post, you will learn how to generate entity classes from the entities in a data model and use them within your app. You can get the latest version of the iAppsReview project at this link.

What it is: ZipGrade ($1.99 2 months/$6.99 1 year subscription), an automated multiple choice grading app for teachers on the go.
 
Pros to using ZipGrade: 
 
  • Scores are returned instantaneously as the student waits.
  • You can see how your entire class did on a test from the Item Analysis screen. 
  • You can import students and classes and then export them to many online grading sites.
  • Backed up to the cloud.
  • You have

Do you have an idea for an app but lack the programming knowledge to begin building it? In this weekly blog series, How to Unleash Your Inner App Developer, I will take you, the non-programmer, step-by-step through the process of creating apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Join me each week on this adventure, and you will experience how much fun turning your ideas into reality can be! This is Part 15 of the series. If you are just getting started now, check out the beginning of the series here. (This post has been updated to Swift 1.2, iOS 8, and Xcode 6.3).

In my previous post in this series, I discussed some of the basics of Core Data, the technology that allows you to store and retrieve information on an iOS device. You learned about entity data models, databases, and how you can improve on Apple's default Core Data implementation. 

Losing an iDevice is not something any of us plan to do—but it happens. The easiest way to keep track of your device is to turn on the Find My iPhone feature. Hopefully you'll never need it, but if you do, it's a lifesaver! And using Find My iPhone in conjunction with Family Sharing means you can find any family member's lost iDevice. Here are some reasons that you'll want to use Find My iPhone to see the location of your devices and family members:

How to Open Private Tabs in Safari

Apple knows you may have good reason not to want your iPhone or iPad to track what you're doing while browsing the web in Safari. For some time, iOS has had Private Browsing Mode, in which no record is kept of which websites you've visited, your search history, or your AutoFill information. Here's how to use Private Browsing in Safari on iPhone.

Take out the trash, do your chores, don't forget about your sister's dance recital... these are all things I'm sure we find ourselves saying to our children often. Reminders help keep everyone in the family on schedule without you and your spouse having to remember it all! Here’s how to setup a reminder for the family.

There have been a couple of times now that I’ve been startled out of a deep sleep by my iPhone emitting a high pitched screeching sound. The sound was to make me aware of an AMBER (child abduction) Alert. 

I think AMBER Alerts are a great thing and help save lives, but what annoyed me was that the alert was from a city almost 300 miles away from me. Was it really relevant to me?

Most of the time the alerts are pinged off of cell towers and are specific to the area. I’m not sure why I received this particular alert, but it made me consider turning it off.

Welcome to Game Centered. Usually our Game Centered column focuses on iOS gaming apps, however this time we're taking a slightly different tack and focusing on iOS gaming gear, specifically exceptional headphones for iOS gaming. This roundup has been a long time coming. Over my years writing for iPhone Life magazine I've gotten hip to many great headphones, but only a handful would I consider optimal for the iOS gaming environment, as many factors go into making a pair of headphones optimal for the core gamer. The headphones featured here all fit that bill and address the fact that more and more core gamers are looking to their iOS devices to provide their gaming fix. It's rare that I come across reviews or roundups that focus on great gaming gear solely for the iOS gamer, and this aims to do just that. So if you are an avid, core gamer who loves playing on iOS, this one's for you!

You can imagine the consternation felt by owners of a new $500 stainless steel Apple Watch when they notice scratches on the casing. According to a report on 9To5Mac, while it does indeed appear that this model is easily scratched, it can also be easily fixed. The article says that such scratching is actually common for stainless steel items and that the scratches can be removed via buffing. A video shows how it's done and gives a good before-and-after comparison of a scratched watch appearing like new again.

Do you have an idea for an app but lack the programming knowledge to begin building it? In this weekly blog series, How to Unleash Your Inner App Developer, I will take you, the non-programmer, step-by-step through the process of creating apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Join me each week on this adventure, and you will experience how much fun turning your ideas into reality can be! This is Part 14 of the series. If you are just getting started now, check out the beginning of the series here. (This post has been updated to Swift 1.2, iOS 8, and Xcode 6.3)

Core Data is the technology that allows you to store and retrieve information on an iOS device. Although it is an advanced technology often difficult to grasp, my goal in this post is to simplify Core Data so it can be easily used by beginners.

As anyone who has used to Siri to make calls, search the web, or send messages knows, Siri doesn't always understand what you say. This can be followed by increasing frustration levels if Siri fails over and over to understand your voice corrections. But when Siri gets it wrong, you don't have to repeat yourself. Instead, you can edit your query via typing.

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