EuroApp 1.0 free on the App Store

EuroApp 1.0 is my new iPhone / iPod touch app for cap­turing Euro banknotes on the fly.

It is the mobile front-end for the Euro­bill­tracker.com com­munity website. You can attach your own personal meta-data (location, date, comment) on a unique Euro banknote and follow it when  the money flow lets it  surface again in the purse of another Euro bill tracker. You will then have encountered a hit. In the meantime you can view your collection progress in some statistics charts and leaderboards, or you may compete with your friends for the most Game Center achievements.

There is no previous membership at Eurobilltracker.com needed, you can do that on demand from within the app.

I think it is a really handsome app, but that I let you to decide for yourself – you can load the app for free from the App Store!

You can find the website of the EuroApp at euro-app.com if you wish to learn more about Euro bill tracking or the app!

FAQs: EuroApp for the iPhone – follow your Euros across the world!

1. Where can I leave feedback?

Post a reply on this blog post or fill out  this simple question­naire.

“Tip of the Day” Reference App for Mac OS X

I am happy to announce that “Tip of the Day” is my first App published on the Mac App Store!

It is a simple app which presents useful tips how you can make your day work even more successfully with your Mac. It is suitable for occasional users, beginners as well as experienced users. The tips are described in a short sentence presented in a single utility window which can be made to appear every time your computer starts up.

The list of tips includes useful keyboard shortcuts, mouse actions, included apps and add-ons and many more. The list will be constantly expanded and updated.

I priced Tip of the Day € 0.79 ($ 0.99). There are promotional codes available for give-away which I will send out according to the first in first served principle. Please apply here in the comments.

Converting UTF-8 Text to C/ C++ wide char­ac­ter strings

When browsing the C++ Standard Library for how to convert UTF-8 text to C wide character text wchar_t[] and vice versa one will be surprised to find that for such a common problem there is no built-in solution available. It seems one has to resort to the services of the operating system and write non-portable code; e.g. for the Objective-C runtime:

NSString* intrnl = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:path 
                                             encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding 
                                                error:&e];
std::wstring wideTxt((wchar_t*)[[intrnl dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF32StringEncoding] bytes]
                     , [asData length] / sizeof(wchar_t));

Surprisingly a web search too does not reveal many light-weight and elegant alternatives. Either they require two separate copies of the same text in UTF-8 and Unicode like UtfConverter, they work just in one direction as utf8::ostream does, or like Poco::UnicodeConverter they stop at UTF-16 which is the wide character encoding on Windows.

When using the Boost C++ libraries however, UTF-8 conversion can be performed by just adding a single line of code after creating your input or output streams while relying on a thoroughly tested code-base.

Regrettably the conversion code is not header-only and thus requires at least one Boost library (e.g. serialization) to be built on your platform. If you think that this is an overkill, you can just grab the libs/detail/utf8_codecvt_facet.cpp file and add it to your compilation items of your target. This is what this post is about.

I found that with Boost 1.44 the original Hello World example published by Paul Dixon did not work as advertised: The linker kept complaining about the missing vtable of the utf8_codecvt_facet object which I found is caused by a missing definition of one of its methods. I guess that this on the other hand was the effect of non-matching namespaces in the header and implementation files. Since it got away when I removed all namespace macros in the original files as follows:

main.cpp:

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <locale>
#include <string>

#if defined LINK_BOOST_SERIALIZATION_LIB
#include <boost/archive/detail/utf8_codecvt_facet.hpp>
#endif 
#include "utf8_codecvt_facet.hpp"
using namespace std;
int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) 
{
   wifstream inFile("utf8.txt");
#if defined LINK_BOOST_SERIALIZATION_LIB
   inFile.imbue(std::locale(std::locale(), new boost::archive::detail::utf8_codecvt_facet));
#endif
   inFile.imbue(std::locale(std::locale(), new boost::utf8_codecvt_facet));
   wstring wideString;
   inFile >> wideString;
   cout << "widestring.length()" << wideString.length() << endl;
   wstring line;
   while getline(inFile, line)	{
      wcout << line;
   }
   return 0;
}

utf8_codecvt_facet.hpp:

utf8_codecvt_facet.cpp:

Boost C++ Libraries with iOS

Implementation of frequent programming tasks beyond the Standard C++ Library such as asynchronous I/O, threading, serialization, date and time, smart pointers, delegate functions etc. – while being compatible to the STL – is the power of the Boost C++ Library. In your iOS projects it enables you to write truly platform independent C++ code which relies on a high performance, industry-strenght basis.

Unfortunately no pre-built binaries of the several compilation-needed components of boost exist. Furthermore the build process is abound with complier switches, linker switches and path variables. The threesome of Apple’s iPhone and Simulator SDKs, GNU’s g++ and Boost’s bjam results in a scary hell. E.g. you will have to learn that with Darwin not always the scientist is meant.

To the rescue Pete Goodliffe has created an excellent script to build a framework for use with the iPhone. It works like charm: Within a 1-2 hours you’ll have roughly 47MBytes of arm7, arm6 and i386 libraries and all that remains is to add the framework itself to your project’s direct dependencies in XCode and specify the path to the framework in the “Framework Search Path” settings.

Finally you can concentrate on the things you want: E.g. if you feel the NSArray syntax is too bloated for your algebra, use boost::array instead. It comes with serialization as well:

#include <boost/array.hpp>
#include <boost/serialization/array.hpp>
#include <boost/archive/text_oarchive.hpp>
#include <boost/archive/text_iarchive.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <boost/foreach.hpp>
boost::array<int, 7> dataArray;
std::ifstream inputFile("data.txt");
boost::archive::text_iarchive inputArchive(inputFile);
inputArchive >> dataArray;
int median = dataArray[3];
BOOST_FOREACH(int value, dataArray)
{
   NSLog(@"%d", value);
}

ISO Country Names and Codes for the Programmer

While implementing a table with country names in my Euro App, I found a very valuable resource which helps every programmer who faces this problem. Be it ActionScript, HTML, Javascript, (Objective-)C – as in my case – you name it -, the online service opencountrycodes­.appspot.com provides the current list of country names in the right format!

You can fetch the latest list from within your app/website every time by HTTP request or, as I did, grab the file and bundle it with your product! Given, of course, you are complying to the ISO 3166 Standard which Eurobilltracker.com apparently does.

Well, one could download a xml-file from iso.org too, but its country names are set ugly in capitalized letters – and your clients won’t like that!

Beta-Testers Wanted for Euro­bill­tra­cker App

THE BETA PROGRAM IS NOW CLOSED!

Attention all Euro-banknote collectors, I began building an iPhone / iPod touch App for easy mobile banknote tracking!

Eurobilltracker (EBT) is an international non-profit volunteer team dedicated to tracking Euro notes around the world. Each user enters the serial numbers and location information for each note they obtain into EuroBillTracker.

In order to address the needs of the EBT users I would like to get permanent feedback from the community during the development process. I figured that a Beta program would be a nice way to let everybody (not really everybody, Apple demands that it can not be more than 100) know what it is going to be and account for a lot of the testing which otherwise I would have to do myself.

If you are interested you can simply apply for the Beta Program by either

• fiddling around iTunes to find your device UDID (auf deutsch hier) and then send it in an E-mail to platoswelt-beta@yahoo.de , or more com­for­tably
• e-mail everything I need out of an UDID App (I recommend the free UDIDSend) from your mobile device to the same E-mail ad­dress platoswelt-beta@yahoo.de .

Please note that the devices will need to have a software (OS) version of 3.0 or higher and may not be iPads.
Update (16th June 2011): Due to lacking time I won’t support iOS version 3 – like on the iPhone 1 – for now. Your iOS device is required to run at least an iOS firmware of version 4.0.

I expect distributing the first Beta end of November, but can not pro­mise since our customers have priority.
Update (16th June 2011): As the second Beta is out now I expect the final version to be ready mid July 2011.

Häufig gestellte Fragen zur iPad-App ge­hör­losen­zen­tra­le.ch

Hier finden Sie die Antworten auf häufig gestellten Fragen zur iPad-App ge­hör­lo­sen­zen­tra­le.ch.

Bitte geben Sie Hinweise und Anmerkungen zur App oder melden Sie technische Fehler über dieses Formular!

1. Ich habe ein “jailbreak”-iPad und empfange keine Push-­Be­nach­richti­gung bei Rückruf!
2. Ich habe ein originales über iTunes aktiviertes iPad, aber empfange keine Push-­Be­nach­richti­gung bei Rückruf!
3. Ich finde meine Frage hier nicht.

1. Ich habe ein “jailbreak” iPad und empfange keine Push-Be­nach­richti­gung bei Rückruf!

Das Vorgehen ist analog wie bei der iPhone-App. Siehe HIER.

2. Ich habe ein originales über iTunes aktiviertes iPhone, aber empfange keine Push-Benachrichtigung bei Rückruf!

Das Vorgehen ist analog wie bei der iPhone-App. Siehe HIER.

3. Ich finde meine Frage hier nicht.

Bitte stellen Sie Ihre Frage in diesem Formular.

Update soon: FoundMe 1.3 As A Multi-tasking App

I am happy to announce that there will be a terrific update which brings continuous location measurement for FoundMe. You will be able to set FoundMe to continue to run in the background after you quit the app to uninterruptedly report the position of your iPhone. You then can monitor its location on the Internet via the FoundMe Online Portal.

The update will be available on all devices with the new iOS 4 firmware which support multitasking. Among the range of iPhones that includes the 3GS and the iPhone 4.

The measurements will be performed in a battery-friendly way, meaning the GPS will be turned on just for a few seconds each time your device’ cell radio starts using a new cell tower for communication. This ensures that the tracking consumes just a very small amount of energy from your battery. On the other hand this means that the more time has elapsed after the last measurement the location reported will be more uncertain within the extend of current cell tower cover area.

The last tests will be finished soon. Taking into account the time Apple needs for approval I expect update to be available in early July 2010.

Häufig gestellte Fragen zur iPhone-App ge­hör­losen­zen­tra­le.ch

Hier finden Sie die Antworten auf häufig gestellten Fragen zur iPhone / iPod touch – App der gehörlosenzentrale.ch.

Bitte melden Sie technische Fehler der App über dieses Formular!

1. Ich habe ein “jailbreak” iPhone und empfange keine Push-Benachrichtigung bei Rückruf!
2. Ich habe ein originales über iTunes aktiviertes iPhone, aber empfange keine Push-Benachrichtigung bei Rückruf!
3. Ich finde meine Frage hier nicht.

1. Ich habe ein “jailbreak” iPhone und empfange keine Push-Benachrichtigung bei Rückruf!

Die gehörlosenzentrale.ch-iPhone-App unterstützt nur nicht-modifizierte Geräte mit offizieller Firmware (iPhone OS 3.0 aufwärts) von Apple. Diese Standardisierung hat erst die ökonomische Entwicklung der App ermöglicht. Vom Nutzer individualisierte Softwareumgebungen erfordern – analog zu exotischen Betriebssystemen auf anderer Hardware – eine Neuentwicklung der App mit entsprechenden Kosten.

Bitte ziehen Sie andere Online-Quellen zu Rat. An dieser Stelle nur ein Zitat eines iTunes-Kommentares zu ipushit:

“Push-Benachrichtigungen funktionieren nicht auf jailbroken / unlocked iphones. Da hilft auch kein pushfix aus dem cydia store! Das macht’s nur noch schlimmer. googelt mal jailbreak,iPhone,pushfix! Die einzige Möglichkeit, Push- Benachrichtigungen auch auf iphones mit Jailbreak zum Laufen zu bringen: das jailbroken iphone wiederherstellen – mit irgendeiner einer gültigen SIM von Timo Beil (T-Mobile Anm. hinzugefügt) über iTunes aktivieren -

DANACH das iPhone jail breaken und im pwnage-tool die Aktivierung (Hacktivierung) AUSSCHALTEN !!! – wer braucht, kann jetzt noch das unlock durchführen. voila, push funktioniert jetzt auch auf dem 3G mit OS 3.1.2 mit jailbreak und unlock im e-plus Netz. Das wichtige ist die einmalige Aktivierung mit einer t – mobile Karte.

Dabei wird dem iPhone über Apple eine einmalige ID zugeteilt, die Apple dann zur Zustellung von Push Notifications braucht. Beim Hacktivieren durch das Pwnagetool Cydia Store werden zufällige ID’s vergeben, die nicht bei Apple registrien werden – die Push-Benachrichtigungen enden dann irgendwo im Nirwana oder einfach bei wildfremden leuten auf dem iPhone.”

2. Ich habe ein originales über iTunes aktiviertes iPhone, aber empfange keine Push-Benachrichtigung bei Rückruf!

Stellen Sie sicher, dass Sie eine stabile Internetverbindung haben. Kontrollieren Sie die Einstellungen Ihres iPhones.

Eine Anleitung in englischer Sprache finden Sie z.B. hier.

Alternativ starten Sie auf Ihrem iPhone Einstellungen und tippen auf das Benachrichtigungs-Menü. Stellen Sie sicher, dass die Einstellungen für Töne und Alarm für die gehörlosenzentrale.ch-App aktiviert sind. Nach Aktivierung dieser Einstellungen MÜSSEN sie den Flugmodus des iPhones für 30 Sekunden einschalten und danach wieder ausschalten.
Versuchen Sie jetzt in der gehörlosenzentrale.ch-App unter Einstellungen die Push-Benachrichtigungen wieder zu aktivieren. Sollte das nicht erfolgreich sein und Sie über WiFi in das Internet verbunden sein, folgen Sie den weiteren Schritten in der oben genannten Anleitung auf englischer Sprache.

3. Ich finde meine Frage hier nicht.

Bitte stellen Sie Ihre Frage in diesem Formular.