iPhone App Dev Project

Facebook Connect Coming to iPhone

Facebook will be releasing a Cocoa framework for the iPhone that will integrate with Facebook Connect, according to a TechCrunch report.

The framework is expected to be released sometime in the fall, and will take the form of an SDK that can be used by developers of iPhone applications. Facebook Connect allows applications to integrate the facebook platform and the identity of users into their own applications.

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Visual Bookshelf is the most impressive Facebook app I've used so far. I was amazed at how slick its inline editing of table data is and we need to get this slick.

How did they implement this? I'm guessing this is not standard FBML.

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The first step to getting our web content to work well on iPhones is to theme the web content through Drupal.

Most of our users won't have the iPhone Empower app installed the first time they visit Empowerment through iPhone Safari. Their web experience should be iPhone-themed from the beginning and installing Empower app should only improve the already slick experience.

Therefore we need to get the content navigable through a simple iphone module/theme.

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I got the first prototype version of the Empower iPhone app working with the help of jtbandes, a talented young man from freenode's #iphonedev channel.

The xcode project with source code produced so far is attached here, with SVN coming soon.

Here's a teaser screenshot of what the first hacked prototype looks like so far:

Many people are pointing out how iPhone is a potential Gameboy DS killer. My mind is buzzing with the possibilities presented by a game platform that combines serious application interface design with entertainment.

You get both wii-style gesturing and movements AND DS-style touchscreen gameplay WITHOUT needing a pesky stylus.

And you get things no other game platform has: Always-on high-speed internet and GPS tracking EVERWHERE YOU ACTUALLY GO WITH IT.

Imagine locationally connected gameplay, altearnate reality gaming, etc...

My mind is buzzing and I think the real-world Empowerment tools on the iPhone and Facebook will become married to simulated gameplay on both platforms using almost the same interface.

Twitter is a growing phenomenon for what amounts to mass public instant messaging.

Their upcoming iPhone interface is commented on here and it is relavent to our own design.

Empowerment for iPhone will be ubersimple.

I actually designed a handheld interface for Sling Technologies for their handheld parking enforcement devices based on Windows CE but I scrapped Windows' widgets in favor of large iPhone-style thumbable buttons, so my interface design was essentially an iPhone app.

I look forward to coming up with screenshots of what the iPhone UI will look like!

Ideas, anyone?

 I think iPhone apps could provide really powerful empowering augmented intelligence tools in the field. We use augmented intelligence tools every day: calendars, to-dos and sticky notes are all ways of augmenting our intelligence by reminding ourselves of things we've written down. Professionals such as doctors already use mobile apps to help them do their jobs by giving them quick access to their huge databases of medical information for things like medicine recognition and diagnosis. Apple is proposing a fitness system for the iPhone that helps you plan and execute exercises to meet your fitness goals. Instead of having an abstract wishy washy conception of what you ought to be doing in your head that you may or not follow, an augmented intelligence system gives you step-by-step suggestions to spur you onwards to next step after next step.

Empowerment for iPhone could do much more in my daily life than an EmpowerThyself web site that requires me to interrupt my day to use a computer. Let's just call it iPower for a second (I looked up other uses of iPower and there's a really cool iPower philosophy of activism being promoted through YouTube videos. I should learn more and contact them!). iPower could be with you throughout your day. You could use this to think of things to do and to get help doing things.

Any time you wanted to do something useful you could use iPower to see your mission list of things to do, skills to learn and tools to obtain. For example, I have some free time and I see I have a mission to learn to drive manual that requires a car and a teacher. I have both my car and my buddy Dave to teach me, so I begin that mission and I'm on my way to learning a new skill and accomplishing a goal.

When working on a mission you could use iPower to reference all your skills, ideas and tools to learn and review what you already learned to help you get things done. For example, I could review the Driving Manual skill to get some tips and watch some youtube videos so that I know about the basics before I start getting direct experience with my teacher in the car.

The implementation of an iPhone app could start simply by making a custom theme with a vastly simplified iPhone-style web app interface that would show just a single menu or info panel on the screen at a time with rapid sliding between screens.

Once we got the tools working reasonably well through the browser, it would be more powerful to develop a native iPower application. The native app would have the advantage of bein faster, using less battery power, and working when Internet access wasn't available, such as with an iPod Touch. It would sync back with EmpowerThyself.com all the changes the doer and the site made between syncing.

 
A newly published patent application reveals that Apple has been exploring the possibility of expanding their Nike + iPod sport kit into a full fledged fitness system.

The first segment of the interview process would poll the user on their fitness goals, desired activity level (moderate, advanced), fitness interests (such as jogging, pilates, and swimming), fitness goals (lose weight, firm and tone, and get back into shape), weight goals, desired workout schedule, and so forth.
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Once the interview process is completed, the computer-based application would create a profile of the user and a workout regiment based around their feedback on goals and fitness interests. For instance, a user interested in weight training would be provided a work out schedule broken down into warmup cardio exercises and a weight training session comprised of sets, reps and weight levels.

The iPod or iPhone would then guide the user through their training, with the possibility of adding additional hardware sensors to track progress.

—http://www.macrumors.com/2008/03/27/apple-digital-fitness-companion-system/