Create your first Apple Watch App in Xcode

I had to upload to the latest Xcode for this to work.

Then you go to the main project settings window, click the + and add a new Apple Watch app, and mark all views (including glances).

Then add a label to the storyboard so you can see something output.

Then run the app, in simulator you can see the Apple Watch, by going to hardware > Apple Watch.

To run on your phone, you choose the WatchKit app schema to run, and choose your phone. The latest xcode will fix any signing and provisioning profile issues. If it does not, close Xcode and load it again, especially if it says that the Watch is not paired.

That's it, first Apple Watch App working.

Migrating AWS EC2 WordPress install to micro instance issues

After migrating my AWS (Amazon Web Services) EC2 instance from small to micro - in order to stop getting charged for it. I found all the urls were pointing to the old domain.

On the face of it, this looks like a Linux hostname issue, and I spent a while setting up the ssh access to the box and searching for the hostname or server name - what I found turned out to the be private hostname / ip address, and therefore wasn't causing the issue.

I suddenly had a brain wave that maybe it was stored in the DB.

I then found I could login to the DB using the 'mysql --user=username --password=password' command. This allowed me to login.

I then found the schema for wordpress; https://codex.wordpress.org/images/9/97/WP3.8-ERD.png

Which I made a guess that it was the wp_options table.

I then did select * from wp_options, and put the result in a text editor and searched for the old domain name, and there it was under the option_name 'home' and 'siteurl'.

So I then used the following two command to update those values;

mysql> select * from wp_options where option_name = 'siteurl';
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| option_id | option_name | option_value      | autoload |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------+-----------+
|         1      | siteurl       | ***URL**              | yes          |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------+-----------+

update wp_options set option_value='http://newdomainame/wordpress' where option_name='home'

update wp_options set option_value='http://newdomainname/wordpress' where option_name='siteurl'

And ran a commit for luck, and it all started working again.

Designing Your Future with the Connected Car

The company Frog Design are currently hosting a session on "Designing Your Future with the Connected Car".

It was good to meet the leads from Frog; Cobbie and Michael.

The introduction circled around the goals of the session; exploring User Centred Design, and the Connected Car.

What is the connected car?

It's predicted by Telefonica that by 2010, 90% of all new car sales will be for connected cars.

What are connected cars;

- Wirelessly connected
- GPS
- Sensors
- HCI / HMI changes
- Wearables
- BIG data
- Machine Learning
- AR

Apple's Car Play, Google's offering and lots of other tech companies are trying to get into the in vehicle space. And lot's of car companies are trying for the self driving car.

User Centred Design

The session then focussed around the human element of cars - that everyone has a car story and interactions with cars are an emotional experience.

What are the needs / issues we are trying to solve with technology?

A process they follow is;

1) User research
2) Synthesis and brain storming
3) Storyboarding the best concept(s)
4) Illustrating the idea with a photo prototype
5) Pitching the idea

Idea in and around the connected car

Makes lives safer
- Proximity sensing
- Object identification and response / avoidance
- V2V comms

Show us the way
- Nav-D project on the road
- Search a map
- AR overlay on road / ghost car

Save Time
- Sync device e.g. nest
- Self parking
- Self driving cars

Make life richer
- In car comms
- Ride sharing
- Spaces / places to connect e.g. CES Mercedes swivel chairs

Help us explore
- Podcasting
- Exploration tools / road trips
- Contextual interfaces

Knowing us
- Personality & name for the car
- Driver (and passenger) emotion monitoring
- Health monitoring / biometrics
- Awareness and AI e..g Google car that looks 'adorable'.

Some of the Tech involved

Business tech creation weekend

This weekend I did plenty of tech delivery;

 

1) Added article to Kevsweb on friends new website http://www.kevingordon.org.uk/articles/prittlewell-ringing-centre.html

2) Rebuilt the following website as a responsive design http://www.mrchhoystuktuk.com meaning it looks good and works well on mobile and tablet, as well as desktop

3) Built to further responsive proof of concepts

4) Built an augmented reality business card

5) And lot's of app development planning

New website design business

As a new year's resolution I have decided to start up a web design business; http://www.digitaltechnologylabs.com

Sevices offered include web design and build.
Bespoke software built
App development
Augmented Reality expertise
On-line marketing
Social media setup

Wish me luck

How well did I predict the iPhone 6?

Want I wanted  to see;

• Larger form factor & bigger screen - check
• Better camera - check
• Faster wireless mobile / cellular data capability - check
• Enhancements to Siri - check
• Better battery life - check
• Faster processor / more memory / better graphics - check
• Additional multitasking functionality / dual screen functionality - check
• More reliable / robust / less buggy / lower failure rate - ?
• Beautiful new design - check
• Smart bezel to have some interactivity with the bezel of the device with the screen - nope
• Larger choice in colour? - nope
• Better quality speakers / higher volume capability - ?
• Reversible USB / Lighting connection - yep
• Enhancements to the iBeacons technology / reliability / frequency reading capability - ?
• NFC capability to enable the digital wallet in your phone - nope

Not bad, most of my predictions were correct!

iPhone 6 predictions

Want I'd like to see;

• Larger form factor & bigger screen
• Better camera
• Faster wireless mobile / cellular data capability
• Enhancements to Siri
• Better battery life
• Faster processor / more memory / better graphics
• Additional multitasking functionality / dual screen functionality
• More reliable / robust / less buggy / lower failure rate
• Beautiful new design
• Smart bezel to have some interactivity with the bezel of the device with the screen
• Larger choice in colour?
• Better quality speakers / higher volume capability
• Reversible USB / Lighting connection
• Enhancements to the iBeacons technology / reliability / frequency reading capability
• NFC capability to enable the digital wallet in your phone

Let's see how many of the items I get right!