Ravi Shankar – Page 35 – Tweaking Apps

XCode’s iOS Simulator for iPhone and iPad

March 2, 2013 By Ravi Shankar Leave a Comment

iOS Simulator in Xcode can be used for testing iOS apps before trying the apps on a live device. Listed below are the different settings and features on iOS Simulator.

Launching iOS Simulator

iOS Simulator can be launched by executing Program on Xcode

Run Program on Xcode : Keyboard Shortcut is Command + R, Menu is Product -> Run

The screenshot of IOS Simulator is shown below.

Another alternate way to launch the iOS Simulator is by using the menu option under

Xcode -> Open Developer Tool -> IOS Simulator

iOS SDK Version

IOS SDK version of iOS Simulator can be determined by clicking the Hardware menu -> Version

Deleting Apps and Settings

Reset Content and Settings option clears all the apps and settings from the simulator. For example if you have changed the app icon, the new icon will not be displayed unless you delete the app from the simulator and re-run the program.

You can also delete individual apps by clicking and holding the installed apps followed by clicking delete mark just like you do on any iOS device.

Choosing the device screen on Simulator

IOS Simulator allows users to choose different device screens such as iPad, iPad (Retina), iPhone, iPhone (Retina 3.5 inch) and iPhone (Retina 4 inch). You can choose the desired screen by navigating to Hardware menu option and selecting the Device.

It is always recommend to try out the apps on the different device simulator before releasing it on the App Store. For example if you are developing an app for the iPhone then you need to try out in all the 4 iPhone device simulator apart from testing your app on live device.

Taking App Screenshots using Simulator

IOS Simulator can be used for taking screenshots of your app for publishing app on the App Store. This is quite useful when you do not have all IOS devices but still want to see the screenshots of your app. The Screenshots can be taken by loading the app on the Simulator and clicking the File menu -> Save Screenshot. The screenshot will be saved to your desktop in .PNG file format.

IOS Simulator also provides option to copy the individual screen from the simulator using the option available as part of the Edit menu.

Other Hardware features

IOS Simulator has features that lets users to see the behaviour of the app on each action such as Rotating Screen to Left, Rotating the Screen to Right, Shake Gesture, Accessing the Home Screen, Locking the Device and also simulating low memory warning.

Simulate Locations

Location menu option under the Debug menu is quite useful for development of location based apps. This lets developers to simulate location required for testing their app.

iOS Simulator Screen Zooming

IOS Simulator screen size can be increased and decreased based on your need using Window -> Scale menu option.

How to set photos as screensaver on Windows 8

February 11, 2013 By Ravi Shankar 1 Comment

Windows 8 allows user to display photos in the system as screensaver using the option available as part of Windows Personalization.

Step 1: Click the Personalisation option under the Windows 8 settings.

You can also launch Personalisation window by right clicking on the desktop.

Step 2: In the Personalisation window, click the Screen Saver option available at the bottom of the window.

Step 3: In the Screen Saver Settings, set Photo Gallery for the Screen saver drop down.

If you want to customize the display of Photo Gallery then click the Settings button.

Using Photos Gallery Screen Saver Settings window, you can specify whether all photos and videos Photo Gallery or photos and videos from specified folder needs to be used. Also options are available to set the theme and and slide show speed for the display of screen saver.

Step 4: After making necessary changes, click the Save button to confirm and save the changes.

Photos as Screen Saver

Windows 8 users can specify Photos from specific folder for Screen Saver instead of Photos Gallery.

Using the Photos Screen Saver Settings, you can specify the folder containing the pictures and Speed of the Slide Show.

‘NSInvalidUnarchiveOperationException’, reason: ‘Could not instantiate class named MKMapView’

February 1, 2013 By Ravi Shankar 2 Comments

Problem :- Xcode project with MapView control displays the error “‘NSInvalidUnarchiveOperationException’, reason: ‘Could not instantiate class named MKMapView'”

Solution :- The ‘Could not instantiate class named MKMapView’ error is displayed when the Xcode project with MapView control on xib does not include the MapKit library as part of the Link Libraries.

Select the Xcode project and navigate to Build Phases.

Click the + sign under Link Binary with Libraries and select MapKit,framework from framework and libraries to add selection window.

Now running the project should not display the NSInvalidUnarchiveOperationException.

Objective-C – What are Categories?

January 29, 2013 By Ravi Shankar Leave a Comment

Categories in Objective-C are used for adding extra functionality to a class without accessing the source code of the class and without subclassing it. Let us see this with an example by adding an additional method to NSNumber that just writes the value of the NSNumber argument to NSLog.

Create Project

Create a new Command Line Tool project for the example by providing the required details and selecting Type as Foundation.

Add Objective-C Category

Right click on the project, select New File then choose template for your new file as Objective-C category.

Provide the name for your Category and select Category On as NSNumber (The class for which we are adding the additional method)

Write Implementation

Two new files NSNumber+PrintNumber.h and NSNumber+PrintNumber.m files will be added to your project. Define the new method for NSNumber in the header file as shown below.

@interface NSNumber (PrintNumber)

-(void) printNumber: (NSNumber *) num;

@end

where printNumber is the new method that takes num of type NSNumber as the argument.

In the implementation file (NSNumber+PrintNumber.m ), add the code that write the value number to NSLog.

-(void) printNumber: (NSNumber *) num

{

NSLog(@” The number value is %@”, num);

}

Using Categories

Now in main.m file make a call to the new method of NSNumber after importing the “NSNumber+PrintNumber.h” as shown below.

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

#import “NSNumber+PrintNumber.h”

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])

{

@autoreleasepool {

// insert code here…

NSLog(@”Hello, World!”);

NSNumber *num = [[NSNumber alloc ] initWithInt:25];

[num printNumber:num];

}

return 0;

}

The call to [num printNumber:num] will write the value to the console.

– Categories have access to instance variable of the original class but cannot have its own instance variable.

– Categories on parent class will be available for all its subclass as well.

– Using Categories you can override another method in the class.

–

Turn off Pop-up blocker on Google Nexus 7

January 28, 2013 By Ravi Shankar 1 Comment

This is a short article on the steps required to turn off pop-up blocker in Google Chrome installed on Google Nexus 7. By default the pop up blocker is enabled in Google Chrome. But if you are frequently accessing websites that display popups that you need to have access to then you can turn off pop blocker using the Settings available as part of Google Chrome.

Step 1: Launch Google Chrome on Google Nexus 7

Step 2: Access the Chrome Settings by tapping option available at the top right hand corner.

Step 3: In the Google Chrome settings screen, tap the Content settings option under Advanced section.

Step 4: Now to turn off the pop up blocker, un mark the checkbox with label as Block pop-ups to allow pop-ups from websites.

How to insert horizontal line in Word

January 7, 2013 By Ravi Shankar 5 Comments

Listed below are the steps required for inserting horizontal line in Word 2013.

Step 1: Open the document where you want to add horizontal line in Word 2013.

Step 2: Position mouse cursor at the point of insertion.

Step 3: Navigate to the Paragraph section in the Home menu.

Step 4: Click the Border menu option and select Horizontal line from drop down menu list.

This should insert a horizontal line at the current cursor position as shown below.

How to transfer contacts from Nokia 3310 to Android Phone

November 28, 2012 By Ravi Shankar 2 Comments

This tutorial provides the step by step instruction for transferring all the contacts from old Nokia phones such as Nokia 3310 to any Android powered Smartphones.

Step 1: Download Nokia PC Suite for older models from the below link

http://www.nokia.com/in-en/support/product/nokia-pc-suite/

Step 2: Launch the PC suite after downloading and installing on your PC.

Step 3: Connect Nokia phone to your PC and the phone should get listed under the Connected Devices as shown below.

Step 4: Clicking the Contacts icon would list all your contacts from the Nokia Phone.

Step 5: Now select All contacts and click the File menu and select Export option from the menu list.

Step 6: Enter a name for the contacts export file and save it in csv format.

Step 7: Now logon on to your Gmail account and select Contacts from the Gmail drop down list.

Step 8: In the Contacts section, click the More drop down and select Import from the drop down list.

Step 9: Now choose the csv file containing the contacts details from your Nokia Phone and click the Import button.

Step 10: Contacts from Nokia Phone will now be available in your Google Contacts list.

Step 11: In your Android Phone, access the Google Account settings and tap Sync Contacts.

This would starting synchronizing the contacts from Google Accounts to your Android Phone.

del.icio.us Tags: Google,Contacts,Transfer,Import Contacts,Export Contacts,Android Phone

How to install latest updates of Office 2013

August 2, 2012 By Ravi Shankar 4 Comments

In this tutorial we are going to see the steps required for installing the latest updates of Office 2013.

Step 1: Launch any one of the Office 2013 applications like Outlook 2013 or Word 2013 etc..

Step 2: Click the File menu then navigate to Office Account option.

Step 3: In the Office Account screen, navigate to the Product Information section. Then click the arrow pointing downwards under Update Options.

Step 4: Select Apply updates from the Update Options drop down list.

Step 5: If any updates are available then the following Office updates screen will be displayed. Click the Yes button to continue with the installation.