swift

A Swift Tutorial for Google Maps SDK

Working with maps in iOS consists of an entire programming chapter, as there are tons of things that a developer can do with them. From just presenting a location on a map to drawing a journey’s route with intermediate positions, or even exploiting a map’s possibilities in a completely different way, dealing with all these…
Developing iBeacons Apps with Swift

Since the introduction of iBeacons with iOS 7 by Apple, a lot of things have been said and written about. iBeacon technology consist of a revolutionary way to keep track of the position of a device indoors and use location services, similarly to the GPS outdoors, and it’s based on the signal transmitted through Bluetooth…
Building a Text to Speech App Using AVSpeechSynthesizer

iOS is an operating system with many possibilities, allowing to create from really simple to super-advanced applications. There are times where applications have to be multi-featured, providing elegant solutions that exceed the limits of the common places, and lead to a superb user experience. Also, there are numerous technologies one could exploit, and in this…
Documenting Your Objective-C and Swift Code in Xcode with HeaderDoc and Doxygen

During the development of an application there are various steps involved in the whole process. Some of them are the definition of its specifications, the creation of graphics, the implementation, and the testing phase following the implementation. Writing the code maybe consists of the most important part, as this brings the application to life, but…
Building a Chat App in Swift Using Multipeer Connectivity Framework

When programming in iOS, there are certain aspects of the SDK that pull the developers’ attention and interest a lot more than others, and one of them is the Multipeer Connectivity framework. As you know, the MPC framework is not new in iOS 8, instead it was first-introduced in the seventh (7th) version of it,…
A Beginner’s Guide to Animated Custom Segues in iOS 8

When the fifth version of iOS (iOS 5) was released to the public, it introduced a brand new, revolutionary approach to the way the interface of an application was designed. That was the use of storyboards, and it was meant to change the existing designing philosophy from the ground up. Before iOS 5, each view…
Creating Interactive Local Notifications in iOS 8

Notifications are the way of an application to communicate with users, especially when it’s not running in the foreground. A notification, as its name implies, is used to *notify* a user either about an event, or just to remind something important. In fact, notifications are extremely useful in reminding applications, but they’re also quite handy…
Working with iOS 8 Handoff Part 2: Using Continuation Streams

In my last tutorial we met for first time the Handoff capability that was introduced in iOS 8.0. With it, an activity that is started in one iOS device can be continued to another from the point that was left off. Also, an activity can be continued on a Mac too, as long as the…
Working with Handoff in iOS 8

I am going to start this tutorial with the following wonderful scenario: Imagine that you are working with an application in your Mac, and then you decide to continue in your iPad while lying on your couch in your living room. After a while, you’re leaving home, but you keep working on the same application…
Working with Localization in iOS 8 and Xcode 6

One of the greatest concerns of all developers is whether their applications will be accepted and used by a big audience. It’s a fact that the bigger that audience is, the more sales or downloads will be achieved, resulting to applications that sit at the top of the rankings and of course, applications that make…