How-To

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 12 of the series. If you're 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.)

One of the best software development books of all time is Steve McConnell's Code Complete. Whether you are a seasoned software developer or a brand new programmer, regardless of the platform or language in which you write code, I highly recommend checking out this book. It will change your way of thinking and vastly improve the quality of the code you write.

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 fun turning your ideas into reality can be! This is Part 11 of the series. If you're 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)

Now that you have some of the basics of Swift programming under your belt, it's time to dive into some deeper coding territory. To get the latest version of iAppsReview, select this link. 

In my reporting on iPhone and iPad news, I constantly rely on a range of Apple-related websites. But rather than having to visit each one individually, I gather all their news feeds into a single web page, using the personalization feature of My Yahoo. At a glance I can see all the latest Apple news. These news feeds from websites are called RSS feeds. ("RSS" stands for "rich site summary," though some people say it stands for "really simple syndication.") There are RSS apps you can download that let you gather these news feeds. But you can also subscribe to news feeds in Safari.

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 fun turning your ideas into reality can be! This is Part 10 of the series. If you're 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, you learned the basic mechanics of calling methods on an object. There's very little you can do in Swift, the language of iOS development, without calling methods. In this post, we're going to put into practice what you have learned about calling methods and integrate social media into the iAppsReview app we've been working on in this blog. I'm also going to introduce a new Cocoa Touch Framework concept known as collections. You can get the latest version of iAppsReview from this link.

How to Use Call Waiting in FaceTime

Can you get incoming calls while on FaceTime? Yes! With FaceTime call waiting, accepting incoming calls and putting your FaceTime call on hold is easy. When someone calls you while you’re on a FaceTime call, you have two options: End & Accept or Decline. If the calls are both FaceTime Audio (FaceTime without video) or one is a regular phone call, you'll be able to Hold & Accept. This fast tip will show you how to answer calls and place calls on hold using FaceTime call waiting, so let's dive in.

The Flyover feature of Apple's Maps, as you likely know, gives you a 3D view of a city. A list of these cities can be found on the website Flyover Cities. In iOS 8 Apple added a fun new feature called Flyover Tour that takes you on a 3D tour of the city's major landmarks. The Flyover Tour of New York City includes the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Central Park, and more. Only some of the Flyover cities have a Flyover Tour. They include New York City, San Francisco, London, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Sydney.

Anytime you see a link in Safari or Mail, you can tap and hold it to reveal options beyond simply opening the new page. I constantly use this feature when I'm looking at the news in my personalized Yahoo page. If I see a news story I want to read, I tap and hold the link so that the page opens in a separate tab. That way I can quickly go back to the original Yahoo page without having to use the back arrow and waiting for the page to reload. The options in Safari also included adding the linked page to your Reading List. Tapping and holding a link in Mail also gives you the option of adding the page to your reading list as well as opening the page in Safari. Finally, the options include copying the link so you can paste it elsewhere.

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 fun turning your ideas into reality can be! This is Part 9 of the series. If you're 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, I taught you how to write your very first line of code. In the process, I touched on the concept of calling methods in Swift. In this post, we're going to take a closer look at the important concept of calling methods, and we will also work on converting the prototype iAppsReview into a fully-functional app.

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