Wednesday, July 29, 2009

OAuthConsumer and Twitter

So it's been a while since I've posted anything here, and I apologize for that... I'll have part II of my last post here very soon. If you've attempted to develop any apps that utilize Twitter's API, you're probably familiar with the whole OAuth stuff. If you're developing your app for the Mac platform and have used the OAuthConsumer you might have noticed that your app broke (at least sending status updates) a couple days ago because of an unannounced security patch Twitter pushed out.

I spent many hours trying to figure out what was going on, and finally was able to fix the issue. Assuming you added a 'verifier' property to OAToken, a simple check for this property and excluding the oauth_verifier parameter from the oauthToken string in the prepare method in OAMutableURLRequest is all that is necessary. OAuthConsumer passed the oauth_verifier parameter when a token key existed (which is when status updates are sent among other requests). Even though this parameter was an empty string, accessing a user's protected resources with it present caused Twitter to complain.

so here is what I did...




NSString *oauthToken;

if ([token.key isEqualToString:@""])

oauthToken = @""; // not used on Request Token transactions

else if(token.verifier == nil || [token.verifier isEqualToString:@""])

oauthToken = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"oauth_token=\"%@\", ", [token.key URLEncodedString]];

else

oauthToken = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"oauth_token=\"%@\", oauth_verifier=\"%@\", ", [token.key URLEncodedString], [token.verifier URLEncodedString]];

NSString *oauthToken;

if ([token.key isEqualToString:@""])

oauthToken = @""; // not used on Request Token transactions

else if(token.verifier == nil || [token.verifier isEqualToString:@""])

oauthToken = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"oauth_token=\"%@\", ", [token.key URLEncodedString]];

else



oauthToken = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"oauth_token=\"%@\", oauth_verifier=\"%@\", ", [token.key URLEncodedString], [token.verifier URLEncodedString]];

Basically I added an else-if that set the oauthToken string without adding the oauth_verifier parameter. Hope this helps others!

Orignal From: OAuthConsumer and Twitter

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

How-To: Make a Conference Call on your iPhone

Merge Calls



You are one popular or busy person and simply speaking to one person on your iPhone at a time is not cutting it. So what do you....you move on to conference calling.

"So how do we conference call", you ask,  well I will show you...

  1. Phone CallMake a phone call with your iPhone as you usually do.

  2. Add CallWhen you call is successful, tap on "Add Call". When you do this, the iPhone will automatically put the caller on hold.

  3. Merge CallsNow tap "Merge Calls". Wholla! Now everyone can hear each other ( now is a good time for the insults of the first caller to end, lol.)


To add additional callers, repeat steps 1 and two and have a talk fest. Please note , most providers have limited the callers you can have on one line up to five callers ( I think it is to ensure you eat through those minutes on calling those people individually, just my opinion though, what do I know).

Note: Don't fret if for some reason you can't go through this tutorial and somehow can't get conference call to work. Depending on your carrier and service country, conference calling can be an optional service or may limit the number of calls you can merge.

Orignal From: How-To: Make a Conference Call on your iPhone

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

BlackBerry Troubleshoot: Losing Messages and Call Logs

Do you find your BlackBerry starting to mysteriously lose your messages (new and old) and even some of your calls from your call log? Well, this may not be so much a mystery, as it may be a BlackBerry "memory leak".

Now don't freak out, the good news is that this is totally not a big deal! I have detailed a solution below that maybe the fix, check it out!



This problem has to be solved in a two-part manner. The first being that you have to identify if you even have a memory leak by checking the actual amount of memory you have available on your device.

To do this:

  1. Open your BlackBerry.

  2. Go to "Options"

  3. Go to "Status".

  4. Hold "ALT+SHIFT+H"

  5. On the list, look for "File Free". If the first two numbers are greater than 13 (which means you have 13MB of available memory) you should be ok and no memory leaks should be going on.


If lower, we must move on to the second part, freeing up some memory.

Part 2: How to Free Up Memory on Your BlackBerry

There are numerous ways to free up memory on your BlackBerry and I will detail a few, the first providing the greatest result, deleting applications.

To delete apps from your BlackBerry check out this post :

http://www.simpleleapsoftware.com/blog/how-to-delete-apps-from-blackberry-311

Clear your BlackBerry browser history and cache:

  1. From your BlackBerry main menu, open your BlackBerry browser.

  2. Once your BlackBerry browser is open, press the BlackBerry menu button and select "Options".

  3. Now select "Cache Operations".

  4. Now press the "Clear History " button.

  5. Now select the "Clear Cookies" button.


You are now done.

Last, but not least...delete unused video (including the BlackBerry sample video) and photos from your BlackBerry. To do this:

  1. From your BlackBerry main screen, select "Options".

  2. Select "Advanced Options".

  3. Select "Applications".

  4. Highlight "BlackBerry Sample Video" and press the BlackBerry menu button and select "Delete".


Hope this all helps and you never lose a message or a call log again.

Until next time!

Ashli Norton of SimpleLeap Software


Orignal From: BlackBerry Troubleshoot: Losing Messages and Call Logs

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

How-To: Reset your iPhone Home Screen Icons

iphonesettings

Did someone use your phone and for some reason move around your icons? Have you download tons of apps and they are on every screen? Besides the option of reorganizing your app icons ,  you could simply reset them to the default iPhone & iPod settings.

"How do I reset my icons?" you excitedly ask ( well maybe not that excited, lol). Well all you to do is follow the steps below to simply and quickly restore your default icon positions.

Let us begin...

  1. From the iPhone home screen, tap on "Settings"

  2. On the setting screens, tap "General"

  3. Now tap "Reset".

  4. From the Reset menu, choose "Reset Home Screen Layout".

  5. Tap the "Reset Home Screen" button.


Wholla! Check out your home screen, you icons are now reset.

Orignal From: How-To: Reset your iPhone Home Screen Icons

Thursday, July 9, 2009

How-To: Send messages using your BlackBerry pin number

First things first...

What is a BlackBerry pin number?

Your BlackBerry pin number is a custom identification number that your BlackBerry was originally assigned that allows other users with your pin number to direct message you.

When I use my pin number to message other users is it free?

Yes, silly! This is why it is so great...this will be an amazing money saver over text messaging others and it's quicker than drafting an email.

So how do I send a BlackBerry pin number message and why?



You can send messages directly to a BlackBerry user's PIN rather than to the user's email address.  This is best for getting customer support directly from your service provider or contacting others when you have no direct connection aka ( no wireless or data connection).

Sending PIN messages on your BlackBerry is horribly simple to do, you just need another user's BlackBerry pin. You can only get this by asking the other user for it, this is not published anywhere (unless they do it themselves) to my knowledge.

Just follow the steps below to compose your first PIN message on your BlackBerry:

  1. Open your email composer.

  2. Compose a new message

  3. In the "To" field enter the user's pin number you wish to send a PIN message.

  4. Compose your message, and send it as usually would send an email message.


Want to find users that share their pin number and are open to convo...try the below groups!

  1. CrackBerry Pin Share Forum - http://forums.crackberry.com/f51/pin-number-share-245912/

  2. FaceBook Pin Share Group - http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4544408057


Ashli Norton of SimpleLeap Software

Orignal From: How-To: Send messages using your BlackBerry pin number