weimenglee
Latest Articles by weimenglee
Using Objective-C and Swift together in iOS Apps
December 2, 2014, by weimenglee
As an addendum to our previous article about the role of Swift in iOS app development, we now take a look at how Swift and Objective-C can be used together in iOS apps. Despite Apple’s intention to replace the Objective-C language using Swift, it is not practical in the short term simply due to the fact that developers are deeply entrenched in Objective-C. Rather than force Swift down the developer’s throat, Apple has made it easy to allow Objective-C to interoperate with Swift... Read More
Why Swift Flies for iOS Developers
October 30, 2014, by weimenglee
Now that the dust has settled somewhat on Swift, the new language on the block for developing iOS and OSX applications, we take a look at its impact and improvements over its predecessor, Objective-C. Apple claims Swift to be a modern, safe, and powerful language for developing for iOS and OSX. Just how powerful is Swift compared to the venerable Objective-C? And how does it make developing applications easier and safer?... Read More
Getting Started with Pebble Development
July 2, 2014, by weimenglee
Pebble is a smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation. It is one of the most successful Kickstarter projects to-date and has received significant successes with consumers. The Pebble watch itself comes with a black-and-white e-paper display, and includes several sensors such as magnetometer, ambient light sensor, and an accelerometer... Read More
Using Background Fetch in iOS
February 4, 2014, by weimenglee
In iOS, except for some special cases, an application is not allowed to run in the background. While certainly a serious restriction for some types of application, this feature is designed to conserve battery power. Imagine apps continuing to run in the background without reins, and it is easy to see how the entire system might slow down and deplete the battery within a few hours... Read More
Developing with Google Maps v2 for Android
August 7, 2013, by weimenglee
In one of my previous articles, I talked about embedding Google Maps in Android applications. Much has changed as Google went about revamping a lot of existing APIs in Android. In version 1 of Google Maps for Android, Google used the MapView to display map data. In version 2, the MapView is deprecated; instead, you have to use a MapFragment... Read More
Consuming JSON services in Android apps
December 19, 2012, by weimenglee
Unless you are writing a Hello World Android application, chances are your application would need to connect to the outside world to fetch some data, such as live currency exchange rates, weather information, records from databases, etc. One of the easiest ways for your application to connect to the outside world is to use web services. For the past few years, XML web services have dominated the arena for web services, as XML was touted as the ubiquitous medium for data exchange. However, using XML as the medium for your data payload suffers from the following problems:... Read More
Displaying Status Bar Notifications in Android
September 20, 2011, by weimenglee
Developers of Android are no doubt familiar with the Toast class, which displays a little pop-up containing whatever message you want to display to the user. However, the Toast pop-up will automatically dismiss itself after a while, making it useful as a tool to provide timely feedback to the user (such as informing the user that a file has been saved successfully), but not a really good tool to use for some asynchronous action (such as telling the user that an incoming SMS message has arrived)... Read More
Importing & Exporting Documents in iOS
August 9, 2011, by weimenglee
One of the common tasks that an iOS developer has to do is to import or export documents from his iOS application. For example, suppose you are developing a document reader and you want to allow the user to import documents into your application so that it can be read offline. Also, your reader might also support the exporting of documents so that other applications can make use of the document. In this article, I will walk you through the different techniques you can employ to allow documents to be imported or exported from your iOS application. Creating the Project... Read More
Preserving User Preferences in Android Applications
July 25, 2011, by weimenglee
Often you need to store personalized information for each user of your application. For example, your application may require users to logon to a secure server for authentication. In this case, the user needs to supply his credentials, such as a login name and a password. The first time the user uses your application this information will be entered by the user, but subsequently it would be useful for your application to “remember” this information somewhere so that it can save the user the trouble of entering the same information every time he uses your application... Read More
Web Access in Windows Phone 7 Apps
January 7, 2011, by weimenglee
In previous articles, I have shown how easy it is to get started in Windows Phone 7 programming using Visual Studio 2010 and the Windows Phone Developer Tools. In this third installment of the series, I will continue the exploration of Windows Phone development. This time I will focus on one key development topic: Web access. Unless you are writing a Hello World application, chances are that your application will need to connect to the outside world... Read More
