TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – These days I develop more iOS apps than desktop applications. And I face some difficulty in creating iTunes Connect screenshots. Shown here below is a picture with a hand holding an iPhone. And it’s quite difficult to fit a rectangular picture into a non-rectangular area in green. If you use Adobe Photoshop, it might not be that difficult. If you use Adobe Fireworks, … Well, Fireworks is the last application you should use for this task. What else could I use? How about Fit Perspective? Right, Fit Perspective is the desktop application that I submitted to Mac App Store a few minutes ago.

Tom Bluewater

Tom Bluewater (from Masked Man or Woman)

Making this type of application might not be so difficult. But the question that I initially had is how I let the user set four corners over a picture efficiently. Really, software is all about saving user’s valuable time. What else is more important? It’s not about how beautiful it looks superficially, compromising user efficiency like Big A belives in, I believe. So it took me a while to come up with somewhat a creative way. I can definitely tell you that I won’t have to use Adobe Photoshop or Fireworks for non-rectangular distortion any more. In other words, I’ve developed this application just in order to make my work more efficient.

Fit Perspective is a desktop application that lets you fit a rectangular picture into a non-rectangular area over another. It won’t just rotate a picture. It’s designed such that the user manually moves four numbered-markers with their mouse to so that the application can be distorted accordingly. Also, the user can apply the same marker positions in order to distort multiple images at a time.
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TOKYO (MacHouse) – A few years ago, I developed a desktop application called goSplash. This application lets the user create a picture of a ray of beams. I admit that it’s not very easy to use since you cannot precisely control the number of beams. After switching to Swift, I’ve had a better idea in developing a similar app. A new desktop application that I submitted to Mac App Store a few hours ago is called RayBeams.

Tom Bluewater

Tom Bluewater

RayBeams is a simple desktop application that lets the user create a picture with a ray of beams. A resulting picture is a composite of a solid-color background image with a ray of beams originating from the center. The user can control the number of beams (4 to 1,000). So select two colors with the number of beams, and just click on the Save to Disk toolbar button. That’s it.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – About a week ago, I introduced an analog clock app called aClocks for iOS. So now what!? You’ve guessed it right. A new desktop application that I submitted to Mac App Store minutes ago is called aClocks Desktop.

Tom Bluewater

Tom Bluewater

aClocks Desktop is a desktop version of an existing iOS app that lets you run multiple analog clocks at a time. Just as the iOS version does, aClocks Desktop covers more than 200 cities around the globe. aClocks observes day light saving time and Japanese holidays. If you have a clock that is under the day light saving time, then a clock will have a graphic notation at the top-left corner.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – When you use several images in an Xcode project, you might probably create an array to store those file names. Occasionally, I use several dozen images in an Xcode project. If you have that many, you really want to avoid typing all file names manually. So what do I suggest?

Tom Bluewater

Tom Bluewater

Oh-My-Arrays is a simple desktop application that lets you create an array of file names out of a folder you select. All you have to do is just drag and drop a folder right onto the application window. And just click on the disclosure button to retrieve code. Simple enough?   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – Ever since I switched to Swift last April, the way I write code has changed dramatically. These days, I use CocoaPods and include one or more libraries in my Xcode project. Ones that I often test these days are Alamofire and SwiftyJASON although none of the desktop applications that I submit to Mac App Store utilize them. Since I use both Xcode 7 and Xcode 8, I have to use different versions of those Swift libraries. In fact, I was going to use RxSwift with Xcode 8 under OS X 10.1 El Capitan when I was developing the last desktop application. But I was not able to install RxSwift 3.0 through CocoaPods. So things are messed up. We have completely different versions of Swift – 2.3 and 3.0. We have to use one Xcode version over another. We then have to consider whether or not a particular Swift library runs under a certain OS version. Oh, boy… Life is so confusing. That’s behind the idea of developing a new desktop application.

SimplyPods is a desktop application that lets you document and list Pods that you frequently use so that you can pick ones that you need from the list when you start out a new Xcode projects.   Continue reading →