My Books
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New Twitter account
Read More »I have started a new Twitter account so that I can provide rapid support to users of my apps. Please contact me @trozware if you have any questions, suggestions, bug reports or would just like to chat.
I will also be using this account to promote my new Learning Swift series.
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Possible issues with Icon Builder & Watch icons
Read More »It has come to my attention that there are two possible issues with Icon Builder 3.0.1 when using icons created for an Apple Watch app. Once of them is something I can fix and the other appears to be a bug in Xcode 7.2
Update: Version 3.2 of Icon Builder is now available in the Mac App Store. This removes the alpha channel from icons for a watch app.
The first problem is that iTines Connect now requires that the icons for an Apple Watch app include no alpha channel. This is becoming an increasing trend with it first having applied to the large icon file you upload directly to iTunes Connect, then to screen shots. I expect it to extend to iOS app icons soon, but hopefully Mac app icons can continue to include transparency.
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Man Reader 1.5
Read More »Man Reader has been updated to version 1.5 with a major improvement in the way it looks for available man pages.
Man Reader 1.5 is now available through the Mac App Store.
Change Log:
- Much improved searching for available man pages.
- Sand-boxed version now works just as well as the non-sand-boxed.
The main feature of this version is that it solves the previous problems with the App Store version and sand-boxing. This was restricting the number of man pages listed in Man Reader so I had to release a non-sand-boxed version of the app to allow for full functionality.
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Using 19th Hole on the Apple Watch
Read More »19th Hole for iPhone and Apple Watch version 3 is now available through the iTunes App Store. This version is a complete re-write to accommodate the changes in iOS 9 and watchOS2.
The major changes are to do with the way the iPhone and the Watch communicate. In watchOS1, all the brains of the app had to live in the iPhone, meaning that every single interaction on the Watch had to be referred back to the iPhone for processing and the result sent back to the Watch for display. This lead to communications delays and breakdowns which caused third-party apps to work sluggishly or not at all. In watchOS2, the brains of the watch part of the app can now operate inside the watch, greatly reducing the number of communications needed. As well as that, Apple has now provided us with multiple ways of getting data to and from the Watch which again improves performance and reliability.
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Dice Pass for Mac
Read More »We live in a world of passwords and passphrases and there is a constant struggle between having a secure and a memorable password. As a result, many of us re-use passwords even though we know this is a bad idea.
XKCD had a wonderful comic that illustrated the theory of using a passphrase composed of words that are easy to remember but with a combination that made the passphrase very hard to guess. However even when deciding to use a passphrase like this, it is not easy for us humans to avoid using words that have meaning for us, particularly when it is something we really need to remember.