Tech talk by Zeio

Adding a custom image button as an accessory view in MonoTouch

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:00:02 +0100

When adding a custom image view to a UITableRowCell in MonoTouch you must instantiate the object within the context of each row, not pass this in as a reference.

The image can be static and external to the row creation, but the holding class must be created within the GetCell or equivalent method call.

Check out this snippet on PasteBin to see a super short way of creating a custom image button on the AccessoryView.

http://pastebin.com/YnpF235e

Interview with Miguel de Icaza: Xamarin, Attachmate Layoffs, Future of Mono

Sat, 28 May 2011 09:08:13 +0100

Interview with Miguel de Icaza: Xamarin, Attachmate Layoffs, Future of Mono

Out with MonoTouch & MonoDroid, in with Xamarin

Tue, 17 May 2011 00:01:34 +0100

Out with MonoTouch & MonoDroid, in with Xamarin:

The future is uncertain for MonoTouch and MonoDroid. Miguel de Icaza published a post (linked above) on his blog outlining what has gone down at Novell post Attachmate take over. Mono for iOS and Mono for Android development teams have all been fired, or laid off it has transpired!

We have been trying to spin Mono off from Novell for more than a year now. Everyone agreed that Mono would have a brighter future as an independent company, so a plan was prepared last year.

To make a long story short, the plan to spin off was not executed. Instead on Monday May 2nd, the Canadian and American teams were laid off; Europe, Brazil and Japan followed a few days later. These layoffs included all the MonoTouch and MonoDroid engineers and other key Mono developers. Although Attachmate allowed us to go home that day, we opted to provide technical support to our users until our last day at Novell, which was Friday last week.

Now, two weeks later, we have a plan in place, which includes both angel funding for keeping the team together, as well as a couple of engineering contracts that will help us stay together as a team while we ship our revenue generating products.

So what about existing MonoTouch and MonoDroid customers? Attachmate are at the time of writing this failing to comment publicly or even acknowledge the split. Well the answer is that Xamarin will be building new tools to develop for .NET on mono mobile.

The new versions of .NET for the iPhone and Android will be source compatible with MonoTouch and Mono for Android. Like those versions, they will be commercial products, built on top of the open core Mono.

Currently there are many unhappy and worried MonoTouch developers out there and they all want answers from Attachmate. Quite rightly so!

Solution for missing Adb in Titanium Developer Profile

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:20:14 +0000

Solution for missing Adb in Titanium Developer Profile

DataContractSerializer vs XMLSerializer in .NET 3.0

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:29:09 +0000

DataContractSerializer vs XMLSerializer in .NET 3.0:

Great article for those wanting to work with WCF, mono and .net for mobile apps or any app for that matter.

Amazon Web Services Offers Free Cloud Access

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:21:49 +0000

Amazon Web Services Offers Free Cloud Access

UK networks finally start to roll out Android 2.1

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:22:48 +0100

UK networks finally start to roll out Android 2.1:

It has been months of agonising wait for many UK HTC/Android owners, stuck on Android 1.5 with not much info coming out of the network support channels other than “Next month with any luck.” According to the linked article over at Pocket Lint, it is now being rolled out.

Many owners have resulted to rooting and unlocking their devices in order to install 3rd party builds of 2.1, this shouldnt have to be the way.

We would like to see the network operators being a little more pro-active in supporting their valued smarterphone customers!

Orange UK confirm release date for iPhone

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:49:12 +0000

Its official, Orange UK are going to release the iPhone with two handsets (3G & 3GS) on the 10th November 2009. This marks the end of a two year deal with O2, the contract prices look similar but Orange are undercutting O2 which is fantastic news for consumers! This article has all the details (via BBC News).

iPhone coming to Orange UK

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:39:36 +0100

Finally, the nice guys at Apple are letting another UK operator at their shiny mobile device. According to a recent press release, the iPhone will be available later on in 2009. This article has more info.

“Ringtone” by Wierd Al YankovichA video tribute to...

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:18:30 +0100

“Ringtone” by Wierd Al Yankovich
A video tribute to days working at an aggregator, customers beware!

Set the initial zoom on Android via meta viewport

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:34:00 +0100

In order to set the initial page zoom level and also disable the user controlled zoom for Android phones, you must use code similar to the following html fragment:

<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width; initial-scale=1.3; minimum-scale=1.3; maximum-scale=1.3;”/>

This is very similar to the iPhone:

<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;”/>

You must specify all three, min and max scale alone doesn’t work. We have found that a zoom of 1.2 or more is ideal for the default Android font size. This was tested on a T-Mobile G1, but should work fine on other devices.

How to factory reset your T-Mobile G1

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:12:53 +0100

How to factory reset your T-Mobile G1:

A few people have asked about how to do this so we have posted a link up here. Sometimes your G1 can become so choked up its the only way to get her back to full speed.

Nokia 900 previewed Nokia are releaseing videos and details of...

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:15:00 +0100

Nokia 900 previewed

Nokia are releaseing videos and details of their new smartphone, the Nokia 900. It looks pretty similar to the N97 with a slide out hard keyboard. However it has received a nice visual design and full software makeover.

Zeio notes: The great smartphone arms race is really hotting up. If the battery life is up to it, this could be a real contender for the iPhone crown.

Finally, a cap for roaming data

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:46:00 +0000

EU telecoms chiefs backed plans to finally reduce data yesterday. This is fantastic news for the mobile web and application market, interestingly the cap is for 1 euro per megabyte (50 euro cap) which still gives operators rather large profit margins on data. It is a step in the right direction and should be coming into force Q1 2009.

We would love to see 1 euro per gigabyte but this is definitely a long way off. For full details please visit the full article on the BBC.

Zeio notes: Use roaming operator data for vital tasks like checking emails, syncing calendar, sending IM. Turn graphics off. If heavy operations required, most bars have Wi-Fi why not use it?

One of the coolest entries we saw that didnt make it through the...

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:14:00 +0100

One of the coolest entries we saw that didnt make it through the recent round of Android Developer Challenge is named Enkin. It allows overlay of points of interest on top of an Android handset built in camera view:

“Enkin” introduces a new handheld navigation concept. It displays location-based content in a unique way that bridges the gap between reality and classic map-like representations. It combines GPS, orientation sensors, 3D graphics, live video, several web services, and a novel user interface into an intuitive and light navigation system for mobile devices.

The project is being persued by Google themselves and more information can be found on their blog.

Zeio notes: Watch out for this app bundled with future Android handsets!

Google Android and Nokia Series 60: m.ultimate

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:34:00 +0100

Google Android and Nokia Series 60: m.ultimate:

Whilst the eagerly awaited Android devices are soon to be available (HTC from what we can tell), analysts are already predicting that the mobile operators may team up with Google to create the ultimate mobile operating system. If this is Series 60 it will mean instant market share of a very large number of devices.

Zeio notes: iPhone 3G, with Android is still going to be our favourite match.

A fine collection of free icons for use in web based products

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:21:00 +0100

A fine collection of free icons for use in web based products:

A selection of pretty neat icons for use in any web based project [via Smashing Magazine].

A very happy (snow-covered!) Easter from everyone at Zeio UK....

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:17:00 +0000

A very happy (snow-covered!) Easter from everyone at Zeio UK. Take 5 to marvel at this wintery scene from the HQ in Cambridge, England.

Playboy is maintained in Braille, amazing! From a set available...

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:16:00 +0000

Playboy is maintained in Braille, amazing! From a set available at Wired Magazine

January blues

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:26:00 +0000

Rainy Mondays, don’t you just hate them? Well yes we certainly do, so in order to combat the blues we have created the Zeio blog. The future place for all news, reviews and general mobile technology buzz. Enjoy!