Sync multiple Google calendars with iPhone calendar

After you set your google account on your iPhone the default setting is you will only get to see your default Google calendar in your iPhone Calendar. This is the reason I decided to use GooCal app (mentioned in an earlier blog post- http://drerimix.blogspot.com/2011/06/great-iphone-apps.html) because I have several calendars in Google, my own and shared calendars, and I wanted to see them all in my iPhone and be able to add new ones as and when needed etc.

Today I found out I can set my iPhone calendar to sync all my Google calendars perfectly which made very happy as I like iPhone calendar better than any calendar app I've seen.

To set multiple google calendars to sync with your iPhone browse to www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect. If you're not already logged in google, login using your google account and tick the calendars you want to be synced with your iPhone. Kaboom! Job done.

Some great free iPhone apps

I've been doing a research for apps I can install on iPhone 4 before ordering one.I’ve had my iPhone for couple of weeks so I could try those apps that I could not try on the iPod and find some new ones in the process. This is the list of free apps I have installed and find quite useful:

GooCal (Google Calendar™ sync) By

MonoTouch - use C# and .NET to create iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch applications

I was totally surprised when I stumbled upon MonoTouch today. Even more so when I read that it has been out for quite some time.

Basically: "MonoTouch allows developers to create C# and .NET based applications that run on Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices, while taking advantage of the iPhone APIs and reusing both code and libraries that have been built for .NET, as well as existing skills."

If you were developing using C#  and .NET like I was for the last 8 years then you'll be very happy with this news. Of course you will still need a Mac with Intel processor but you'd need that with Xcode too.


However, my enthusiasm faded immediately when I saw the prices:

	Professional	Enterprise	Enterprise 5	Student
Develop iPhone/iPod Touch applications
Ad-hoc distribution
Commercial Use
Apple AppStore distribution
Enterprise distribution
License expiration	Never	Never	Never	Never
Product updates	1 Year	1 Year	1 Year	1 Year
License Ownership	1 Named User	1 Seat	5 Seats	1 Seat
Price (USD)	$399	$999	$3,999	$99

I will try the demo but more likely I'll stick to Objective-C for now... at least until I can see how it goes taking one project from start to finish. I'm saying for now, but knowing me, by the time I'm rolling out apps I'll be used to Objectice-C and Xcode so I will not want to make a change.

Got my iPhone 4 (finally)

Ever since iPhone first came out I've been thinking about getting one, but could never justify the price. Everything that I could do in iPhone, I could do in my Nokia phone (which costs less than half of what iPhone costs).

Well, Nokia got old, scratched and broken so the time came to get a new phone. And this time I went with the trend and got an iPhone 4. I'm hopping it will replace my camera and flip so I don't have to bring them when I go out and about. Also no need for my iPod touch any more. I can put all my music in the iPhone and my kindle books too.

So yeah, I installed a bunch of useful apps and I think I barely scratched the surface. It is mind-blowing how many apps are in the App store.

I'm planing to do a run-down of all apps I find useful in a week or two. Hopefully I will soon write my own app to go in that list too. The biggest problem will be to develop something new, because anything you can think of, it's there... and it is usually free.

Developing Objective-C on Windows PC

As I'm using Windows PC most of the day I wanted to look into finding a way to try and learn Objective-C while on Windows PC. I just managed to compile and run my first "Hello World!" code so thought might be useful to make a note how I got there.

I thought I'll be able to find something I can plug-in to Visual Studio to be able to write and compile Objective-C but couldn't. Searching the internet I found a Mac forum where number of people asked the question - how to code Objective-C in Windows PC? The answer was short (Apple style) - Go to www.gnustep.org!

So visited GNUstep site and found GNUstep installer for Windows: www.gnustep.org/experience/Windows.html. From this page I downloaded and installed in order (as advised in the page):

GNUstep MSYS System	Required	0.28.1	-	MSYS/MinGW System
GNUstep Core	Required	0.28.0	-	GNUstep Core
GNUstep Devel	Optional	1.3.0	-	Developer Tools

The installation procedure created a program group in the Start/All Programs menu called GNUstep and in there I found Shell application which simulates Unix console.

I used Notepad to create a simple Objective-C file:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

    int main (int argc, const char * argv[])

    {

        NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];

        NSLog(@"Hello World!");

        [pool drain];

        return 0;

    }

and saved the file with ".m" extension. When I tried to compile it the first time it failed to find the file so I moved it under C:\GNUstep\msys\1.0\home\dreriMIX folder which was created by the installer.

I ran the command

gcc `gnustep-config --objc-flags` -L /GNUstep/System/Library/Libraries objC1.m -lgnustep-base -lobjc

and that created an application called a.exe which when I run (use ./a in the console) I get:

2011-06-08 11:27:14.354 a[20272] Hello World!

Success!

Starting to develop for iPhone

I've been thinking for a while that it would be great to develop some little mini-apps for my iPhone/iPod. I'm a total Apple n00b but finally, I decided to bite the bullet and look into it.

First of all I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that I need to use Objective-C. I used to love programming on C some 20 years ago.

Then I looked in what I need:

1. Mac computer, going to use MacBook.
2. Sign up as to become registered iPhone developer... done in 2 minutes.
3. Download the software development kit - got Xcode 3.2.6... long download...
4. Then I realise that I have Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) so had to upgrade to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.x) in order to use this version of Xcode.. oh well, ordered from Amazon Mac OS X version 10.6.3 Snow Leopard.
5. Got some books:
   Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) by Stephen G. Kochan
   Learn Objective-C on the Mac (Learn Series) by Mark Dalrymple, Scott Knaster
   Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by Dave Mark, Jeff LaMarche 
6. Bookmarked some links:
   iOS Dev Center
   Objective C Programming Language (Apple site)
   iDeveloper TV

So I'm ready to go. AppleWorld, here I come!