Two Million Visitors

StickyAnnouncements

Dear Friends,

today is a very special day for me and the iOS Dev Diary. Since I’ve launched this site in 2012, over two million visitors have come to check it out and find solutions to puzzles this challenging hobby has presented to all of us.

TWO MILLION VISITORS!

That’s a phenomenal amount of people for me, and I’m thrilled that my site has helped so many interested and like-minded folks on this planet.

Keep in mind, this site is a personal note pad on all things iOS, meant as a thinking aid for myself rather than visitors. I’ve started it so that I don’t forget the solutions to intricate puzzles I found answers to. It was never meant to be anything along the lines of “presentable” or “understandable for others”.

Sometimes the best things happen when you don’t really try. This site is certainly proof of that.

To take a look at all the articles I’ve written here over the years, check out the Table of Contents. It’ll tell you that at the time of writing, there are over 400 articles to explore, featuring a total 135,000 words. That’s the equivalent of THREE WHOLE BOOKS.

I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s been coming over, and for those who continue to drop by, so I’ve prepared a few surprises for ya’ll’s enjoyment:

Continue reading →

What’s New in iOS 12.2

iOS Development

Taken straight from the all too fleeting Update Dialogue:

iOS 12.2 provides support for Apple News+, adds the ability for Siri to play videos from your iOS device to Apple TV, and includes four new Animoji. This update also includes bug fixes and improvements.

Apple News+

  • Apple News+ is a new subscription service that extends the Apple News experience with hundreds of magazines and top newspapers
  • Our editors handpick top articles and magazine issues, and you also get personalized recommendations on the topics most interesting to you
  • Automatic downloads make it easy to read magazine issues offline
  • Apple News is now available in Canada, with a free experience that includes handpicked Top Stories, a personalized Today feed, and support for both English and French
  • Apple News+ is available in the U.S. and in Canada, with dozens of additional Canadian magazines

Siri

  • Ask Siri on your iPhone or iPad to play any video, show, movie, sports game, or channel on Apple TV. For example, “Hey Siri, play Free Solo on my TV”

Animoji

  • Four new Animoji—owl, boar, giraffe and shark—are included for iPhone X and later, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) and iPad Pro 11-inch

AirPlay

  • Dedicated TV controls in Control Center and on the Lock Screen give you quick access to TV controls
  • AirPlay multitasking for video allows you to browse other apps, as well as play other short form audio and video files locally on your device without interrupting AirPlay
  • AirPlay destinations are now grouped by content type making it faster for you to find what device you want to play to

Apple Pay

  • Apple Pay Cash customers can now transfer money to their bank accounts instantly using their Visa debit cards
  • Wallet app now conveniently displays Apple Pay credit and debit transactions right below the card

Screen Time

  • Downtime can be configured with a different schedule for each day of the week
  • A new toggle enables easily turning app limits on or off temporarily

Safari

  • Website sign-in now occurs automatically after filling credentials with Password AutoFill
  • Warnings now appear when loading unencrypted webpages
  • Removes support for the expired Do Not Track standard to prevent potential use as a fingerprinting variable; Intelligent Tracking Prevention now protects against cross-site tracking by default
  • Smart Search Field queries can now be modified by tapping the arrow icon next to search suggestions

Apple Music

  • The Browse tab shows more editorial highlights on a single page making it easier to discover new music, playlists, and more

AirPods

  • Support for new AirPods (2nd generation)

This update also includes other improvements and bug fixes. This update:

  • Supports Air Quality Index in Maps for US, UK, and India
  • Includes information in Settings on how much time remains on your device’s warranty period
  • Supports real-time text (RTT) for phone calls made through a nearby iPhone on iPad and iPod Touch
  • Displays a “5G E” icon for iPhone 8 and later, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) or iPad Pro 11-inch indicating that users are in an area where AT&T’s 5G Evolution network is available
  • Improves quality of audio recordings in Messages
  • Improves stability and performance of Apple TV Remote on iOS
  • Fixes an issue that prevented some missed calls from appearing in Notification Center
  • Addresses an issue where a badge notification could appear on Settings even though no action is needed
  • Addresses an issue in Settings > General > iPhone Storage where the storage size of some large apps, the System category, and the Other category in the storage bar graph could be incorrect
  • Fixes an issue that could cause Voice Memos to automatically play back recordings after connecting to a car Bluetooth device
  • Resolves an issue that could cause Voice Memos to temporarily prevent renaming a recording

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

What’s New in iOS 12.0.1

iOS Development, ,

Lew from Unbox Therapy says iOS 12.0.1 fixes that spurious random non-charging issue, appropriately dubbed ChargeGate. I’m glad the issue has been fixed, although Apple does not officially acknowledge that there even was a problem.

From the Upgrade Dialogue:

iOS 12.0.1 brings performance improvements and exciting new features to iPhone and iPad.

  • Photos introduces new features to help you rediscover and share the photos in your library
  • Memoji—a new, more customizable Animoji—make Messages more expressive and fun.
  • Screen Time helps you and your family understand and make the most of the time spent on devices
  • Siri Shortcuts deliver a faster way to get things done with the ability for any app to work with Siri
  • augmented reality becomes even more engaging with the ability for developers to create shared AR experiences
  • and new privacy features help protect you from being tracked on the web.

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:

ChargeGate: What’s going on with wired charging on iPhone XS?

Opinion,

Lew from Unbox Therapy posted a slightly shocking video a couple of days ago in which he examines what appears to be a random charging issue on the new iPhone XS models (both max and… well “non-max”). He’s appropriately dubbed it ChargeGate.

The issue was brought to the worlds attention by an Apple Forum Thread, in which user xMASTIFFSx observed that when his iPhone XS is in sleep mode (blank screen), it refuses to charge from a wired connection to a charger. However, if he wakes the phone up, then sometimes it starts to charge – at other times it does not.

Soon after the thread started, over hundred other iPhone XS users have responded that they had a similar problem. That’s never good when technology does that. We coders are used to boolean states. Random Booleans are not something we’re good at.

So Lew took out his 8 iPhones XS versions and put them all to the test. Watch the above video to see his staggering findings: MOST of the new iPhone models seem to behave in this strange way, refusing to charge when in sleep mode. But even when woken up, not all models start charging immediately. Some freeze, some start charging 10 minutes later, some never charge at all.

We can only assume at this time that Apple thoroughly tested the wireless charging option (which appears to work fine, whether the iPhone is asleep or awake), but it perhaps already hatching plans of removing that godforsaken final port on the “best iPhone ever” in the next iteration. Let’s be honest: why should they fix something if they could just REMOVE it instead? That plan worked so well with removing both the headphone jack and the home button.

This problem may or may not be related to Apple’s latest “software innovation” in iOS 12, in which a phone must be unlocked to start charging when connected to a Mac. Why they’ve implemented this ridiculous check is anyone’s guess. Security? Stupidity? We’ll never find out.

How’s your new iPhone XS doing? Does it start charging when you plug that lighting connector in?

Continue reading →

iPhone XS and XR: It’s like New Coke all over again

Opinion

I’m a little concerned about the recent iPhone releases. In particular, I’m not sure I like where this “experimental” Face ID thing is going.

Here’s my gripe: as of September 2018, we no longer have a choice about Face ID. At least last year, when the original iPhone X came out, we had a choice whether to adopt this new gimmick or not. The iPhone 8 still had “the button”.

But with this year’s release of Xclusive iPhone Xtravaganza (see what I did there?), I cannot help but think back at a time when Coca Cola decided to change their original loved-by-so-many default flavour with the release of New Coke. A mistake never to be made again. By any major brand.

Unless you’re Apple of course.

The issue I’m having with Face ID is not so much Face ID itself. It’s the fact that Apple have decided it’s the only way to operate my iPhone going forward. I’d like to make that decision myself – and quite frankly, I’m not ready to use it yet. I would like a button to unlock my phone. I’m the customer. I should be able to make that decision.

But I can’t. Because Apple have decided that I no longer need that button.

Continue reading →

What’s New in iOS 12

iOS Development,

Straight from the Update Dialogue that we can’t view anymore as soon as we hit “update”:

iOS 12 brings performance improvements and exciting new features to iPhone and iPad. Photos introduces new features to help you rediscover and share the photos in your library, Memoji—a new, more customizable Animoji—make Messages more expressive and fun, Screen Time helps you and your family understand and make the most of the time spent on devices, Siri Shortcuts deliver a faster way to get things done with the ability for any app to work with Siri, augmented reality becomes even more engaging with the ability for developers to create shared AR experiences, and new privacy features help protect you from being tracked on the web.

This update introduces new features and improvements to [the following areas]:

Continue reading →

How to assign a variable inside a block in Objective-C

iOS Development, macOS Development

I recently tried to assign a value to a variable I had declared from inside a block. Apple’s frameworks make frequent use of blocks, and as such, I didn’t see anything wrong with this code:

Xcode 9 begged to differ though, telling me that the “Variable is not assignable (missing __block type specifier)“.

Stumped, I had a look around the web, where I found this StackOverflow article that explained it. My mistake was that when I declared the variable above the block. I had no idea this was necessary, but apparently it is.

All we need to do is add “__block” in front of the variable at the time we declare it (more or less precisely what Xcode was trying to say). The error message disappears when we amend the code like this:

Easy – if you know how 🙂