John
Open Source: Excellent Easy To Use iPhone Sliding View Control
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the excellent ViewDeck sliding view controller (which btw has undergone a number of updates). Thanks to the Path 2 and Facebook apps similar sliding views seem to be becoming very popular, and they definitely make for an excellent wa for users to switch between screens.
Recently I came across another excellent sliding view controller which is somewhat more lightweight, but mainly there are differences in usage, and a few small things in the implementation that make this control unique.
Tool: Open Source App For Easy (And Beautiful) Viewing Of The iOS SDK Documentation On iPhone And iPad
This app is just a great idea, and a very nice implementation allowing you to view the iOS documentation on your iOS device. Especially on the iPad.
The app is from Ole Zorn and is very easy to set up. Build it in Xcode to your device, and all the downloading of either iOS SDK or Mac OS X documentation is done right in the app.
Example: How To Update Apps By Downloading Modified Files From A Server
There are many reasons why you might want to update assets within an app at run time. This is often done within apps to provide announcements for new apps, or tweak small settings.
It can also be extremely helpful during development if you’ve got a larger app, and would like to make small changes.
There are of course limitations on what you can change in app if this is going to be an app on the app store (you can’t run code remotely).
Open Source: Great Block Based UIAlertSheet And UIActionSheet Replacement Library
The UIAlertSheet, and UIActionSheet API’s can be difficult and cumbersome to use – often requiring excessive amounts of source code with all the delegates, callbacks, and switches required.
Blocks can definitely make these components much easier to use, and there are a number of implementations out there. Recently I received a submission of a block based library, and I liked this one quite a bit – mainly because of the added button types, and the simple syntax for programming buttons.
Open Source: Slick Control For iOS That Makes An Interesting Progress Indicator
Some time ago I mentioned the excellent F3BarGauge component which is great for creating customizable bar gauge components.
Brad Benson the same developer of that component has created a control that uses core animation to create a swirling indicator and you can adjust the speed, another excellent component which can be used as an interesting progress indicator, or alert indicator – or both.
You can see the control in this video: