TOKYO (MacHouse) – Several days ago, I was looking at several screenshots shown at this Japanese web site, which introduces iOS applications. And I thought to myself “That’s what I need for the iOS application that I’m currently developing.” The application introduced there has a pink solid-color background filled with lots of small, translucent circles. I tried to find a web site to download a free desktop picture like it except that I couldn’t find any. So I had another thought. Hmm… Maybe, I can just develop a desktop application that allows the user to fill a rectangular image with a shape of their selection. That’s how I’ve ended up with MiPatterns, which I submitted to Mac App Store several hours ago.

Source: Tom Bluewater

Source: Tom Bluewater

MiPatterns is a desktop application that you can use to create an image full of simple figures. It comes with a built-in library of nearly four dozen code-generated shapes including circle, triangle, star, heart, diamond. Select one, and you can repeat it over a rectangular solid-color sheet they define.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – More than three years ago, I submitted an iOS application called RollerTest to Apple‘s App Store. Several hours ago, I submitted a similar kind as a desktop application to Mac App Store. This new release is called Text2Read.

Source: Tom Bluewater

Source: Tom Bluewater

Text2Read lets you prepare text scripts so that one can read them on a desktop computer as a teleprompter. There may be several applications of this kind at Mac App Store. Yet, Text2Read is unique in several aspects. No. 1, Text2Read rolls text not line by line but letter by letter. When it begins rolling out a speech script, every single letter assumes the hide color you select. And Text2Read will gradually reveal the text script, applying the show color you select to each letter. No. 2, you can emphasize important phrases by applying the emphasize color you select to them. No. 3, you can prepare multiple speech scripts and run them consecutively. Text2Read will automatically switch one text script to another for you when the current script reaches its end. No. 4, provided that the current text script is long enough, when a revealing letter at the carriage return reaches the bottom of the screen, Text2Read will automatically scroll the entire script up so that the next revealing letter will appear at the center of the screen. No. 5, Text2Read lets you save all text scripts you prepare as a single data file. And you can recover all text scripts by just double-clicking on a data file you’ve saved.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – When I run out of software development ideas, I often get on the Internet and meaninglessly visit one web site after another. This time, a screenshot of an iOS game has caught my eyes. And I have thought to myself “Hmm… I wonder if there’s a simple way of creating that text image?” As a result, I submitted a new software release to Mac App Store several hours ago. This new software title is called Text n Colors.

Tom Bluewater

Tom Bluewater

Text n Colors is a desktop application that lets you create text with letters of alternating colors. You select one or more colors to create a color list, which will be temporarily saved in a drop-down menu. Text n Colors sets the fill color of each letter according to this list. You can save text as an image file or a rich text file to your disk.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – Last week, I introduced a desktop application that allows the user to create a firework display movie. It was a bit difficult to develop without the QT Kit. The application that I submitted to Mac App Store yesterday is similar to the extent that it produces movies.

Pict2Movie is a desktop application that lets you create a movie (.M4V) with a folder containing pictures they select.   Continue reading →

TOKYO (MacHouse) – If you write Objective-C, you probably know that the QTKit (also known as the QuickTime Kit) has been deprecated with introduction of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. And Apple, Inc. proposes that we use AV Foundation instead. A problem for transition to AV Foundation is that it’s quite difficult for us to create a movie with a bunch of images. Well, I really wanted to know how several months ago. So I opened a technical support ticket and asked DTS (Developer Technical Support) how. The guy who answered my request didn’t appear to know exactly how under OS X. It seemed that he was an iOS software developer because he gave me some links to web sites that shows how to use AVAssetWriter in iOS, which wasn’t the development platform of my choice at that time. Anyhow, I’ve eventually managed to create a movie with an array of NSImage objects.

Well, I haven’t used this new technique till now. A new desktop application that I submitted to Mac App Store several hours ago lets the user create movies. This new submission is called Fireworks Maker.

Tom Bluewater

Tom Bluewater

Fireworks Maker is a desktop application that utilizes the QuartsCore framework (also known as Core Animation framework) to animate a firework display. You can save the firework display as a still picture (BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PNG or TIFF) to your disk with a click of a button. Also, you can save the firework animation as a movie to your disk. Note that this application is suitable for a computer with a non-Retina display.   Continue reading →