atomic14

Raspberry Pi BTLE Device

Just wrapped up the first iOSCon hackathon and had a blast tinkering with my Raspberry Pi, turning it into a full-fledged Bluetooth device in sync with an iPhone app. Used node for setting up and Bleno for creating Bluetooth low energy peripherals. Penned down each step for you to replicate, right from writing strings on my LCD to reading temperatures and getting notified of IR remote button clicks. Ran it on an app store or GitHub test application. Also, explored the Core Bluetooth framework for iOS app creation, for reading and writing data to the Raspberry Pi. Let's keep creating...

18 May 2014

Raspberry Pi iBeacon

In today's blog post, I successfully turned my Raspberry Pi into an iBeacon using a Bluetooth dongle and following an Adafruit tutorial. I had to go under the hood a bit to make sure my dongle was recognized, but after adding some udev rules, it was good to go. Then, with a string of terminal commands, I was able to set it up as an iBeacon broadcasting a specific UUID. Testing it out with a basic iOS app, I was able to detect the signal strength from the beacon! While it wasn't the flashiest project, it was definitely satisfying to...

13 May 2014

Raspberry pi Infrared Receiver

In this fun tech adventure, I successfully managed to sync my infrared receiver to my Raspberry Pi. This involved correctly wiring up my IR sensor, installing and setting up LIRC, and creating a new lirc config file. I explained each step in detail and shared my major milestones, which included seeing a list of pulses when the remote was pointed at the receiver. Now my Raspberry Pi is fully controlled by my remote.

13 May 2014

Connecting up the MCP23S17 and HD44780U based LCD

Ever wondered how to hook up an LCD display with your Raspberry Pi without using up all your GPIO pins? With the right tools, such as the MCP23S17 and wiringPi, you can effortlessly keep your I2C, UART, and SPI functionalities free for other worthwhile endeavors. This blog post truly proves that the GPIO is quite flexible with the I2C or SPI pins and setting up the MCP23S17 is as simple as connecting the pins. And with support for 5v LCD modules, I can assure you that this setup is definitely lit!

11 May 2014

Raspberry Pi temperature sensor

In just a bit of time, I managed to successfully get my temperature sensor, the DS18B20, up and running on my new Raspberry Pi. My starter kit even included a ready made circuit board for the sensor, making wiring a no-brainer. After following the setup instructions and inputting a few commands, voilà, my temperature readouts were coming in loud and clear. Ready to tinker around and perhaps even move the connection pin if needed.

06 May 2014

Version 2 of SudokuGrab released

We've updated SudokuGrab with some major enhancements including iCloud syncing for your puzzles and support for iPads. There are a few bugs we're aware of and we're actively working to fix them in the coming weeks, with a new version already submitted to the app store.

06 May 2014

Mutiple Devices and User Defaults

In this blog, we're diving into the details of setting up and using iCloud's NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore to help persist settings in the new universal app version of Sudoku Grab. We'll look at how to enable cloud syncing for your app, handle updates from iCloud, and persist changes, allowing us to keep user settings consistent across devices. Note, this storage method is meant for small amounts of data with particular quotas - so keep an eye on your usage. For hands-on experience, there's a simple demo project on GitHub ready for you to experiment with!

14 February 2014

Updating Sudoku Grab

Currently, I am revitalizing Sudoku Grab, my first app ever, published in 2009. The plan involves updating the code, upgrading to ARC, simplifying the menu system, accommodating iOS7, and supporting 4-inch display sizes. Future updates may include iCloud syncing features for universal access to puzzles. This endeavor also gives me an excuse to switch to an iPhone5s!

09 February 2014

Grunt Liquibase Plugin

After putting in some work, I've successfully figured out how to create a real grunt plugin. I've discovered that a node module is essentially a node application with a package.json, and with this understanding, setting up became simple. My new plugin can be found at the given link and has straightforward usage. Once installed, the plugin may be activated in your Gruntfile. The plugin's full mechanisms can be found at the mentioned link or at the git project page.

07 February 2014

Grunt and Liquibase

Exploring node.js and its associated tools, I've been intrigued by Grunt, dubbed as 'The JavaScript Task Runner'. Amid building a project, I wanted to integrate Liquibase - a useful database schema management tool we used in developing Vollow.me. Despite the lack of a Grunt plugin or a Node module for Liquibase, I've managed to get it operational with Grunt using grunt-shell. The next step is to package Liquibase into a formal Grunt task and streamline database settings loading.

06 February 2014

iOScon 2014

Stoked to let you know I'm part of the team organising the first ever iOScon 2014 with SkillsMatter! Be quick and snag an early bird ticket for a mere £95! Jam-packed with the brightest minds in iOS development and design, this is your golden chance to keep ahead of the curve, explore new techniques, collaborate and grasp new technologies. Don't miss out on the unique iOS hacking weekend!

05 February 2014

Welcome to Jekyll!

Just switched the blog to github pages and jekyll. A new journey begins!

16 January 2014

Reading barcodes in iOS7

In iOS7, a previously unannounced feature allows the ability to read barcodes. Incorporating a new output for AVCapture known as AVCaptureMetadataOutput, supported formats for 1D and 2D barcodes can be read. Demonstrating the ease of use, a simple code snippet is provided to showcase how to apply this feature. Additionally, a demo project is shared for those keen to explore its functionality.

01 October 2013

Sorry for the long silence...

Haven't been around for a while, folks! Been keeping busy with a startup and working on a server-side project for www.vollow.me. Time to dust off those old Java and database abilities! Soon, I'll be getting my hands on building the app to go with the website. Keep your eyes peeled for some insightful iPhone-related posts coming your way!

09 June 2013

Cropping the results from UIImagePickerController

Wrestled with UIImagePickerControllerCropRect today for cropping images. Some of the codes out there were ridiculously long winded, so I took a stab at whittling it down myself. Safely arrived at a streamlined solution that dealt with the size of image, the crop rect and graphics context. Also worked in a neat bit on image orientation. Law of parsimony victorious!

14 July 2012

GameKit and GameCenter

Had a blast at iOSDevUK - a fantastic conference that was not only filled with intriguing talks, but also offered me the opportunity to present my own talk. I discussed making real time multiplayer games using GameKit and GameCenter. The slides and notes from my talk are available for download if you're interested!

12 July 2012

Tanks! will soon be removed from the US app store

Well, it's game over for my creation, Tanks!, in the US app store. You won't believe this but Atari's claiming it treads too closely to their copyright. Kinda feels like they think they hold the exclusive rights to all tank-driving games. I'm not buying their claim one bit but, when the game's bringing in less than a buck a day, who can afford legal bills, right?

27 October 2011

Messing around with the XBOX Kinect

During my recent trip to Scotland, I teamed up with my friend, Rob, to integrate Kinect with my game, Aliens Invade. We worked with OpenNI and NITE for person tracking and pose detection after the initial hurdles with raw depth data. The game now requires the player to physically run left or right to dodge bullets, and fire by waving their hands. It not only works well but adds a lot of fun to the classic space invaders game!

23 August 2011