I started working on the iPhone mini-server today in earnest. I had to clear up a bunch of issues with an out-of-date SVN repo, but it’s all cleaned up and ready for me to finish it up. I’m still planning on releasing a tarball of the source and patches, if there’s demand for binaries I can probably do that as well. Onto what needs doing…
I’ve basically hashed out all of the AJAX and site layout, as well as about half of the REST interface. I just need to write methods to generate the HTML for the skill selection and skill editing pages. Once that’s done I’ll need to do some QA with Firebug and my phone. Then it’s out to the tubes.
It should be noted that just like the mini-server, if you forward the port it’s listening on, anyone on the Internet can connect to a modified version of EVEMon’s built-in (and somewhat sketchy) HTTP server. Eventually I may get around to writing a web-based authentication system, but let’s keep the base functionality pegged for next week and see how that goes.
It’s been a bit… I just noticed the comments, so I figured I should take some time to bring this up to date. I’m planning on hosting compiled binaries of the EVEMon software with iPhone support. I suppose I’ll also make patches available for anyone who keeps an updated copy of the SVN repo. The software is feature-complete but still needs more testing and polish. I’m taking a trip out of state at the end of this week, so I would imagine a release in early August. If you have a feature suggestion or question about the app, let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to incorporate it / answer you.
My project to get EVEMon working on the iPhone is starting to wrap up. I’ve finished the layout and graphical stuff, got plans and skills to display, and now you can change a skill’s planned level. I’m still thinking about new plan creation / plan management / skill browser implementation, but that may or may not make it into the first release. Here’s a new screenshot [ed: image dead, sorry] for your viewing pleasure.
Last night I decided to bridge the gap between the iPhone and everyone’s favorite EVE skill manager, EVEMon. For now I’m not sure how this will be released, but I’ve modified EVEMon itself and added a server (based somewhat on the IGB service that EVEMon has had for quite a while) that will listen for requests from any web browser. It serves up a simple iPhone-formatted page that lets you check your plans, skills, and other character information, all using AJAX. I haven’t finalized the layout or stylesheet, so expect the look to change over the next few days. That said, here’s a screenshot of it in action. Here’s another screenshot of the EVEMon settings dialog, where you activate the server. More news soon…
I’ve been working with fPhoto on and off in the past week and it’s getting pretty close to release. Currently all of the Flickr stuff works and the site is doing everything with AJAX. The image rotation works, so I just have to finish up the other editing tools and I’ll shove it onto the tubes for everyone. Look for it next week, maybe?
After unlocking my iPhone, one of the first things I wanted to do was copy the mp3 ringtones I had put on my old phone onto the new one. Unfortunately, iTunes isn’t exactly down with syncing mp3 ringtones. You need to import them as a .m4r, which is actually just a .m4a with a different extension, but none of my music is in AAC. I obviously wanted to do this as a batch conversion, but all of the batch audio conversion apps online are shareware shitshows. I ended up just writing this utility in about 10 minutes, and it actually just batchifies a command-line AAC encoder. First, you’ll need all of your ringtones in WAV format. I use Audacity to cut my music down into ringtone-length pieces, so I export the segments as WAVs in order to preserve quality. Simply give Ringtoner a directory with your WAVs and watch it go. The first song will take a bit to start encoding, as iTunes needs to launch before it can begin. Because the command-line app I’m using actually opens the iTunes interface and plays back part of the song after it’s done encoding, I recommend waiting until Ringtoner says it’s finished before trying to use iTunes. Don’t be alarmed if iTunes only plays back a few seconds of your ringtones; this is totally expected and doesn’t represent the length of the output .m4r. When Ringtoner is done, simply drag all of your new .m4r files (they’re created in the same directory that you specified) into iTunes and they’ll show up as new ringtones. Enjoy!
Download Ringtoner
NOTE: All credit for the encoder itself is given to Otto42. You can find the encoder
here.
One project I’ve been working on recently is fPhoto. It’s a web-based application designed to let iPhone users perform basic image editing tasks on their photos. I can’t say when it’ll be released, but I’ve been working on it for the past week, and it’s definitely starting to shape up. Because you can’t upload files from Mobile Safari, I needed a way to get photos to the site. The solution, while not quite as elegant as it could be, gets the job done. Using iFlickr or a similar app, you can upload your photos to your Flickr account. Then you can navigate to the fPhoto site in Safari, and it shows you the last 20 images you’ve uploaded. Select one, and it’s ready for editing. The preliminary release should contain controls for cropping, scaling, and minor image tweaking. Then you can re-upload the image to Flickr (you can overwrite the old one, but only if you have a pro account) and grab it anywhere. Release details forthcoming…
Shortly after the iPhone was released, there has been a free toolchain available that lets developers make their own iPhone apps. There are several guides available on settings this toolchain up, but they aren’t very comprehensive, and most of them are written for people running on OSX. I’m writing this for anyone with a Linux box who wants to write iPhone apps. Click thru to read the entire guide.
Continue reading ‘The iPhone Toolchain for Linux’
Alright my desktop has been fixed for quite a while now… One stick of RAM either became unseated on its own or was holding a charge and needed to be flushed of power. Either way, I have my code back, and HardSub 1.5 is finally getting worked on. It should be done by the end of the week. Also, I have a new project that I’ll put a longer post together to unveil in the near future. I’m installing Visual Studio 2008 on my home machines as we speak.
