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Showing posts from 2016

Solved: Ionic ENOENT Invalid device state error when using sudo on Mac

I was trying to launch a sample app on the newly released Ionic 2 Release Canditate . When I ran the command sudo ionic run ios --emulator , I encountered an error similar to this one which I shorted for display here: An error was encountered processing the command (domain=com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimError, code=163): Invalid device state Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/Users/.../Library/Logs/CoreSimulator/.../system.log' After searching the internet for solutions, I was able to overcome the error by taking the following steps: Install the latest update to Xcode. Run xcode-select --install to make sure that Xcode command line tools is installed (as recommended by Mike Hartington on the Ionic Github page .) Run sudo chown -R username /Users/username to update my permissions which makes it so that I don't have to run sudo when running ionic commands (as recommended by  Zac Vineyard on his blog .) Run ionic run ios --emulator (this time

Choosing the Right Mobile Development Framework

When choosing a mobile development you first need to decide what your goals are in the long run. There are two ends of the spectrum. The first being 100% cross-platform code sharing, with the second being native feel and performance. Xcode is Apple's recommended IDE for app iOS development.  It uses Objective C or Swift as the programming language. Using these will get you a fast, native app without any loss of performance. When using Objective-C, your resulting binary will be smaller than if you use Swift . Android Studio is Google's recommended IDE for developing on Android. It is currently a customized build of Intelli-J, but previously it was a customized bundle of Eclipse with extra plugins. These tools use Java as the programming language. Visual Studio is Microsoft's recommended IDE for developing Windows Phone apps. Developers can use C# or Visual Bascis.net to build apps. The three IDE's mentioned above each have their pros and their cons.

Compared: Xamarin vs Xcode - iOS App Size and Startup Speed

In  Xamarin  I created a  Single View App  targeted for iOS and Android with a Shared Library. I changed the scheme to Release and removed the button click logic from ViewController.cs since Xcode's doesn't start with any button click logic. I confirmed that debugging was not enabled by putting a breakpoint in the ViewDidLoad() event, and it never hit that breakpoint. The deployment target was set to iOS 9.2. In  Xamarin  I created a  Xamarin.Forms App  targeted for iOS and Android with a Shared Library. I changed the scheme to Release. I confirmed that debugging was not enabled by putting a breakpoint in the App() method, and it never hit that breakpoint. The deployment target was set to iOS 9.2. In Xcode I created a Single View App using Swift targeting Universal devices. I opened the Run scheme, changed it to use the Build Configuration of Release and unchecked Debug Executable. Under Options I unchecked Core Location, XPC Services, View Debugging, and Queue Debugging.

Solved: Splash Screen for Xamarin.Forms Android Project

When launching a Xamarin.Forms apps for Android it starts out on a regular Activity while it prepares and launches the Forms activity. This delay is not very pretty and displays a regular android activity for maybe 2 seconds (on my Galaxy S6) before launching the intended Xamarin.Forms screen. While it is probably not possible to speed up the load, there is something you can do about the look of the app while the Forms activity is loading: and that is to display a splash screen. First I thought I could just add my own class, call SetContentLayout and be on my way, but even the process of loading a layout has a delay. It isn't two seconds like when loading a Xamarin Forms activity, but there is still a noticeable delay. What you really need, as Thomas Burkhart  and Chris Stewart recommend is a splash screen. Xamarin has sample code for implementing a splash screen in a Xamarin.Android project. This example code takes a graphic and stretches it across the whole splash screen.

Introducing Sensory Sand App for Android

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I am pleased to announce the release of my latest app: Sensory Sand. It is a relaxing sensory sand game using gravity and physics. The app has multi-touch support for dropping multiple streams of sand. Move the obstacles to make your own patterns to watch as the sand falls. It is currently available for Android. The iPhone version is in the works. Download Now for Android Preview Video

Announcing Cost Per Square Metre Calculator for iPhone

I am pleased to announce the release of my latest app for iPhone: Cost Per Square Metre Calculator . This app helps real estate agents and home buyers quickly and easily calculate the cost per square metre of a house. Download it today for free on your iPhone!