Carpé Cocoa

Using WPA WiFi Networks With the Nintendo DSi

May 26

Posted by Frank in Computers | No Comments

The Nintendo DSi has support for WiFi networks, including WPA. Most personal WPA networks use a passphrase instead of the hexadecimal keys used in older WEP setups. The WPA standard supports passphrases of 8 to 63 printable ASCII characters, which are converted to a 64 digit hexadecimal number using a hash of the passphrase and the SSID (see more at WikiPedia).

Unfortunately, the DSi does not allow you to enter a passphrase, you have to enter the 64 digit hexadecimal key. If your router doesn’t show the key (mine doesn’t), you can calculate it using the WPA PSK Generator from the authors of Wireshark (a great network analysis tool).

If you have access to a Linux system with the wpa_supplicant tools installed, you can do this at the command line using:

wpa_passphrase ssid passphrase

Tags: DSi, Nintendo, Nintendo DSi, WiFi, WPA

iPhone Application Packaging

May 24

Posted by Frank in Programming, iPhone Development | 4 Comments

When developing for the iPhone it’s often necessary to build the application in a form that can be easily installed by collaborators and testers. For ease of installation, the app should be distributed as a .ipa (iPhone Application) file. Unfortunately, XCode does not include a way to do this, so I wrote a bash script to automate the process.

Additionally, in any build that leaves the developer’s desk it is especially important to include version information so that bug reports can be traced back to the correct version of the source, and to ensure that any distributed version can be located in the version control system. I use git for source control (installed with MacPorts), though the script should be easily adaptible to CVS or SVN.

The goals for this script were:

Automatically tag the project with a unique build number before each build.
Build all supported configurations with a single command. Sometimes compiler errors or warnings are only revealed with certain preprocessor flags or optimization settings.
Ensure any build created for distribution is cleanly committed to version control and tagged.
Name tags so that they can be easily correlated to user-visible version information.

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Tags: automation, iPhone, iPhone Development, XCode

Balsamiq Mockups

May 21

Posted by Frank in Programming, iPhone Development | 5 Comments

I’ve heard good things about Balsamiq Mockups so I thought I’d give it a try. The desktop version is currently just $79, and installs in moments from the Mockups site. The app is based on Adobe Air, so if you don’t have Air installed already, you’ll need to do that first. Mockups runs on OS X, Windows, and Linux. There is also a web version. This review uses the OS X desktop version. You can try out the desktop version for free, but to save or export designs you’ll need a license key.

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Tags: iPhone Development

WWDC Parties/Events – WWDC 2009

May 21

Posted by Frank in Events, Linux, iPhone Development | 7 Comments

June 4 Update: Added Loopt Mixer and Developer/Artist Meetup. Thanks LooptChris and Steve Weller!

There are a number of events going on around WWDC this year. Brandon Kwaselow has the most comprehensive list I’ve seen so far, it even includes Three Wolf Tuesday!

WWDC Parties/events – WWDC 2009 – Brandon “Quazie” Kwaselow’s Blog.

Google Calendar with the events:

First App Submission

May 20

Posted by Frank in iPhone, iPhone Development | 2 Comments

I just submitted AppMobi’s first product to the App Store.

We were looking for a fairly simple app to use as a learning experience. After toying with a few ideas, we ended up settling on a puzzle game that my son and I initially wrote during “take your kid to work day.” What started as a simple slide puzzle grew a number of features including tile spinning, image importing, picture taking, and more. Here’s the description from the app store:

SpinSlide is an enhanced iPhone version of the little plastic “15 sliding tiles” puzzle. The object of the game is to get the tiles in 1-15 order by sliding them, using the one open tile space.

But SpinSlide adds a whole new dimension to the simple “15″ puzzle …

Unlike the classic game, SpinSlide pieces also rotate when shuffled. Finding their correct orientation is easy when the tiles are numbered, but SpinSlide lets you create challenging picture puzzles from our provided library, from your camera roll, and even by taking a photo.

To start, choose a puzzle, then shake your iPhone or Touch to jumble the pieces. Simply move the tiles with your finger. You can move a row of tiles by sliding the end tile.

To rotate a tile, tap and hold on the tile and it will “zoom” under your finger. Rotate your finger clockwise or counterclockwise and the tile will rotate as well. Let go and the tile will drop back into the puzzle. You can also rotate the piece after it zooms by touching the screen with another finger and moving the finger the way you want it to rotate.

Since most games are played during limited spare time, SpinSlide lets you determine how hard you want the puzzle to be. A simple numbered puzzle takes 3-5 minutes to solve, and one of our un-numbered hard puzzles can take as long as 20 minutes for the skilled player.

There are a ton of “me-too” slider puzzle games in the App Store, some priced higher than SpinSlide. SpinSlide brings the sliding tile puzzle to a whole new level with features like spinning tiles, built-in puzzles from easy to extremely hard, and the ability to use your own photos and drawings for puzzles. You’ll find SpinSlide to be an app that you enjoy playing over and over again whenever you have a few minutes to entertain yourself with a brain exercising puzzle.

And some screenshots: