Utility like iFinBox and iExplorer for OS X - objective-c

I want to make a Utility app like iFunBox and iExplorer for Mac OS X where i can retrieve information and files of connected device and display it.
Though i have good experience in iPhone Development, I have never developed anything for mac.Can anybody provide me good starting point from where i can start.
Thanks

There isn't a public API from Apple for working directly with iOS devices. There are open source solutions like libimobiledevice if you want to make an iFunBox style application.

Related

Utilizing resources of separate apps on OS X

Is it possible to write software on the mac that will launch other separate applications, tell them what to do, etc etc? What language would best suite doing this? (Assuming it's Mac specific).
I'm fairly new to Mac programming, though I have a strong background in iOS. I've seen multiple companies in the past write a script that will cross-compile source code, basically you run your app from the Terminal and it floats around your OS, grabbing what it needs to compile and spits out an Xcode, Eclipse and Unity-ready versions of your source code. I'm familiar with iOS, and how it crashes the second you try to use another apps resources. That is what leads me to the original question:
Is it possible to write software on the mac that will launch other separate applications, tell them what to do, etc etc? Specifically tasks like launch Safari, take a screenshot, launch disk utility, launch mail, email screenshot. I know that OS X allows you to play around a bit more than iOS, but the question is how much.
It's still rather up to what each app will let you do, rather than just being able to do anything, but take a look at OS X's scripting/automation abilities. Primarily this is accessed through AppleScript, but there's now a JavaScript frontend as well (new to Yosemite).
If you're looking at building a native application that takes advantage of other applications, the same scripting abilities can also be reached via the Scripting Bridge from Cocoa (Objective-C/Swift).

New to Ipad, familiar with SQL, how to get started

I have been a SQL writer using MS Access some years ago and have been given an IPad upon my retirement. I want to create simple database driven apps using SQL. I have downloaded SQL Lite editor from the Apps Store but it seems to have a big chunk of something missing.
Question. Do I need to have an Apple computer as a workstation and then copy to the iPad, or can I use my Windows 7 PC as the authoring tool.
Where do I find the tools for creating the graphics to enhance database search results?
Do I need to use C or C++ to create the application, as I never got around to learning it.
Odd questions I know, but google searches seem to leave me totally in the dark on this topic, yet I geel that most app's seem to revolve around some database manipulation. Would be helpful if I could find a series fo links somehwere.
best regards
Kaela
Hi
In order to develop native applications to ios devices you need the XCode environment and knowledge in objective c, its a bit odd and there are examples.
for that you will need a mac or run the mac os on a virtual box.
You can also create a non native app such as webapp using HTML5 and js and then import it to the XCode using Phonegap.
By using this method you will be able to create apps for many devices such as android and more and all you will have to do is to import your HTML5 and js into the supporting environment.
Just to warn you about these kind of apps, app store allows only native apps and its better to make native app because it will pass every inspection they make.
Thanks
yes, to develop on Apple's engine, you have to had an Apple computer. However, you can mount a virtual machine running OS X, but it's illegal and very complicated (but doable).
The "bible" for mac developers is here : http://developer.apple.com/.
It's recommanded to write your application in Objective C.

AirPlay API for Mac OS X

Is there currently any API (public or private) that will allow a 3rd party Mac OS X application to stream audio to AirPlay receivers? Airfoil by Rogue Amoeba Software seems to be able to do this, same goes for Erica Sadun's AirFlick, but I was unable to find any source code that would demonstrate how to do this. Any pointers are appreciated!
Here is an open source ruby implementation. It's pretty straight forward. https://github.com/elcuervo/airplay
It turns out AirPlay audio streaming is possible as of OS X 10.8 using public APIs, but wasn't really documented anywhere. Joris Kluivers wrote a great blog post on how to get it going.
There are a couple of open-source RAOP players available; I haven't tried them, so I don't know if Apple has broken them since they were written.
Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) has added AirPlay support in the sound settings. The user can choose to send the local sound output to an AirPlay device. However, I don't think that you have access to any API within your app.
There are some libraries available to implement AirPlay, but know that Apple will reject your app if you try to publish it on the App Store. At least, that's what happened to me.
I wrote a node.js module to support AirPlay. Even if you don't use node, you can just pipe your audio data through stdin.
https://github.com/lperrin/node_airtunes/
I don't think it's available. At least not in versions prior to 10.7.
I'm guessing that Airfoil uses something like DVD John did a while ago when he cracked the Airport Express key payload. He released the code (C#) you should be able to find it but it's pretty cryptic.
I'm not aware of what AirFlick uses but you could always try pinging Erica, she usually shares her stuff.
Someone recently managed to obtain the AirPlay private key which allows you to have your program listed in the AirPlay menus on devices on your network.
You can read about it here. There is also an open source project linked from that page.
http://mafipulation.org/blagoblig/2011/04/08#shairport
Be aware that obviously any application you create will never be approved by apple and the private key could potentially be changed in a firmware/software update.

How to access device settings on a Sony Ericsson mobile phone?

Edited on April 29th, content changed
Hello everyone,
I recently bought a Sony Ericsson mobile phone and I would like to add a missing feature myself. In fact I cannot actually disable Internet connection in an easy way when roaming, which cost me a lot of money last time I moved away ... So I would like to develop a little application that would just replace the actual Internet configuration with a fake configuration to avoid auto-connections.
So what I would like to know is how can I access programmatically to my phone settings? I know that Sony Ericsson provides a SDK to run Java applications on its customised JVM. So what I am actually looking for is to know if they extended the J2ME functionality to fit their devices requirements.
This is not well documented so I am asking this question with the hope that someone here already had experience with development targeted for Sony Ericsson devices.
Thanks.
NB: This is a Sony Ericsson Elm which is based on the Sony Ericsson OS with SE Java Platform 8.5.
Edit: I accepted QuickRecipesOnSymbianOS answer as it gave me a clue on the only feature that could have helped me, but which is unfornatunately missing. The Sony Ericsson Java Platform is the only API I could use to develop real programs on my phone. But the JP-8.5 does not implement the JSR-307 package which could help me in managing APN. Thanks everyone for your help.
Well, I hope you got the great Vivaz phone, not the Satio.
In order to learn about Symbian OS C++, first go to the Foundation website.
Relevant plug: the latest introduction to Symbian OS C++ in book form is Quick Recipes on Symbian OS
For now, you won't find a better way than Symbian OS C++ to manipulate your handset access points.
JavaME simply doesn't have the correct APIs for this, at least not until JSR-307 is implemented.
I believe Qt isn't integrated quite tightly enough just yet either but that should change soon enough. Keep an eye on it.
Extending the Symbian Python runtime to do what you want would require some Symbian OS C++ anyway.
Yes you will need to use Symbian C++ to modify the CommDB, which holds the list of connections. It is quite painful to work with it directly, but there are some utility classes that can help you out. Take a look at CApSelect, CApDataHandler and CApAccessPointItem, all in the developer library.
And yes, these will work on all modern Symbian handsets, independent of brand.
Note: My answer below assumed it was about a symbian device. Since it was actually a J2me device none of the below applies
The easiest way to achieve what you want to do is probably to just remove all the "destinations" when you want to prevent auto connections. Otherwise the device will test each destination in turn until it finds one that works.
You can also set up your destinations so that they are not allowed to be used automatically. This setting must be done individually for each destination.
You can also group your destinations and set one of the groups to the default. If you set the default to an empty group you should not get any automatic connections.
Note that I have not tested any of these methods myself. When I roam I turn off automatic updates in the apps that use them. Some apps can even detect when you are roaming and avoid auto connects.
There are S60 apps available that improves the connection management of vanilla S60, but I do not know if any of them can help you with your problem.
If you are dead set on doing the programming yourself you have to use the C++ SDK for Symbian S60 available from Forum Nokia. Java ME does not allow you to manipulate the destinations of the device.
The Elm device should have (I haven't verified this) the access point API originally designed by Nokia. Not sure whether you can use it for the purpose you want though. The J2me developer guidelines available from developer.sonyericsson.com should have all the information you need.

How do you sync a Core-Data application between a Mac and a iPhone?

Just wondering what code I would need to do this?
There's no CoreData for the iPhone (yet), so there's no way to use the same code in your iPhone and Mac app. You could write your own wrapper around sqlite that will run on both. The Omni group has an open source version of this (under a modified MIT license) which would probably be a good starting point.
In addition, there's no built in way to sync data, so you'll have to come up with a way to do that as well. Many apps run a server on the phone/mac and sync via that server. It generally requires that your phone is connected to the same wifi network as the mac.
Core Data does not exist on the iPhone, so you'll need to use something else for the iPhone portion at least. In fact, if you want to share a significant amount of code between the iPhone and Mac apps, you'll probably want to avoid Core Data altogether.