Bonjour

Not too many iPhone apps take advantage of Apple's Bonjour local network discovery protocol. VLC streamer does a nice job of showcasing the possibilities with Bonjour. Paired with a streamer helper, it makes the iPhone/iTouch pretty powerful in accessing contents on a PC or laptop. I tried it with an MBP which sets up an ah-hoc wifi a million times easier than any winbox and seeing the mpb contents listed on the iTouch was pretty cool. Doing video streaming is a tall order, so that part of the app is not ready for prime time. But it won't be long.

Adobe AIR Layer

Acrobat is essentially a layer for viewing pdf files and the browser is a layer for html content and flash is a layer for animation. Much like the other layers for their respective content type, Adobe AIR makes application content available seamlessly to several platforms (Win/Mac/Linux) after an intial install of the foundation software. AIR applications can also be published to iOS and Android. AIR restricts apps much like how browser restricts web apps, Acrobat restricts pdf apps, and Apple restricts iPhone apps. While web apps can be HTML5-extended (browser layer upgrade) for offline functionality, AIR can do the same plus desktop presense and some native integration. Adobe has a marketplace for AIR apps to expand user base. Some settop and DVR appliances have shown the appeal of previous layers for viewing pdf, flv, and media content. The AIR layer may allow future appliances to easily offer app experience like iPad without reinventing the OS.

Links

Building an iPhone Appcast by email

Here is a short video showing the ENTIRE process of building, downloading, and saving an appcast to your iPhone from your iPhone. The appcast is
- launched from a home screen icon
- can be launched offline
- supports touch gestures


You can then distribute that appcast by sending or posting that url like I'm doing now. http://appcastofl.appspot.com/ac-load?load=Abm-123 You should click on this using an iPhone to get the full effect.

I have other sample appcasts that does more:
- perform predefined calculations and operations
- save results and input to sqlite database
- retrieve results and input from sqlite database
- interactive quizzes
- sync local db with cloud when online
- receive push notification
- interact with calendar and addressbook
- works on android and iPhone with same file

Sqlite db max size

In Safari/iPhone, sqlite databases are allocated 5MB by default. When usage goes up, Safari prompts user to confirm reallocating to 10MB. The next level is 25MB. If there is more than one db for a domain, all the max size settings are the same, even after increasing allocation. I have tried about 50 databases in one domain (easy to do with js object instantiation) now increased to 25MB. If each db was allocated 25MB, that would be 1.2GB total. I think the 25MB max is for the whole domain. That's why all databases say 25MB even empty one showing 20KB used.

AJAX Schizophrenia on iPhone

I have encountered a weird ajax javascript behavior on HTML5/iPhone/safari. It succeeds when the code is included inline in the body of the script tag, but fails to retrieve data when the same code is referenced using src. The failure is in returning empty string in the ajax xhr responseText with OK status.

This is apparently a symptom of cache-manifest sync-ing restrictions along with iPhones inaccurate communication indication. The client never communicated with the server even though the network spinner indicated otherwise. The iPhone client was talking to itself like Norman Bates and reporting responses instead of errors. The faulty wiring was caused by cache-manifest behavior that blocked communication with the server.

App-by-email and images coming soon

I have completed POC on App-by-email and images features. That means users can create an iPhone Appcast by simply sending the contents in an email. Images can also be incorporated (and cached) in appcast designs.

Appcasts including more HTML5 features

I've been doing more development on the appcast engine to include more HTML 5 features. Most recent work include:
- circular gesture for scrolling
- simple sqlite app framework
- backward compatibility with older iOS versions
- offline addition of pages and appcasts