Author: aucadmin

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Josh Deprez, Google

Swift, iOS, OS X, all the frameworks, the LLVM compiler, Xcode, and everything else is, or tries very much to be, magic. Light, easy-to-use magic is generally the best kind, but underneath the shiny new magic of Swift or the new frameworks is often dark and frightening magic, such as LLVM, CoreFoundation, the Mach kernel, BSD, all kinds of nasty libraries, and the x86 or ARM CPU itself.

This talk is about peeling back the curtain on some of the darker magic. I aim to cover some lighthearted debugging and profiling with Xcode and Instruments, some CoreFoundation cave-diving, the structure and binary interface of compiled programs, and what happens to a running system when the swap file mysteriously disappears.*

*Due to time constraints, this last item might not be demonstrated.

Josh DeprezJosh graduated with his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Tasmania in August, and has been working at Google in Sydney since the start of the year. He’s given talks at /dev/world for several years, and has programmed a few successful iOS apps.

 

Honey I Shrunk My App! – Mobile Second Done Right

Adam Debono, University of Wollongong/AffinityLive

These days, everyone only seems to care about ‘Mobile First’, like it’s the only way to do things. The discussion behind it is mostly justified, but what if you’ve already got a desktop application?

This session goes beyond the ‘shrink and squeeze’ mantra adopted in many places, and looks for ways to create a great overall experience, including some best practices and pitfalls. It will take an in-depth look at how this was achieved for AffinityLive, and look at some other real-world examples.

Adam DebonoAdam is an iOS and web developer from Wollongong. His passion lies in using software to create great user experiences using intuitive interaction. While not finishing off his Bachelors of Computer Science, he develops for AffinityLive – an SaaS business management tool.

 

Making a Joint with SpriteKit

Richard Deveraux, Charles Darwin University

After seeing Jonathon Manning make a working platform game in less than a hour last year at /dev/world, I was really intrigued to try out SpriteKit for myself and finally make a game idea I’ve had in mind since my first /dev/world 2 years ago. It’s not finished, but it was my first real native iOS app that was built using a framework, which was so new at the time that there was hardly any guides or tutorials for it other than Apple’s bare-bones documentation. At the end of the day I wanted to be able to fire an arrow to cut a rope and release a key, all governed by the physics engine built into SpriteKit and hopefully to be able to toss a few bombs around too…

Richard DevereauxRichard has been coding since high school with multiple programming languages at his disposal including Flash/Actionscript 3, Java, PHP, HTML/CSS and Javascript.

He currently works as a professional web developer & designer while working towards publishing his own games on multiple platforms including iOS and Android.

Making Devices Talk with Peer to Peer Networking

Judit Klein, Auckland University of Technology

Making computers talk is one of the most fundamental parts of computer programming. It brings with it a whole wealth of possible rich user experiences and helps unlock the potential of devices. For new programmers, the Multipeer Connectivity framework is an abstraction layer that offers easy to use APIs for networking capability. For more customisation and flexibility, or even to communicate between iOS and Android devices, this session focuses how to dive deeper into the underlying network layers.

Judit is a creative technologist based in Auckland. Aside from working for startups such as Prezi in Hungary, and when not working on new research in the field of collaboration technology, she is involved in projects around the world, including remote parts of Fiji, assisting students to learn about the use of iPads.

 

Tools and Tips for Prototyping Apps

Judit Klein, Auckland University of Technology

You have your idea for your new ground breaking app. Prototyping is an important part of bringing your creation to life, before you even touch a line of code, to ensure you’re building the right thing for your users and that they have a great experience. This talk covers with practical demos with what different tools are available for different stages of the prototyping process. Some more complex apps require interaction beyond simply tapping on buttons so this talk suggests some prototyping strategies for networked or collaborative apps.

Judit is a creative technologist based in Auckland. Aside from working for startups such as Prezi in Hungary, and when not working on new research in the field of collaboration technology, she is involved in projects around the world, including remote parts of Fiji, assisting students to learn about the use of iPads.

 

AUC iOS Developer Workshops 2014

We’re really excited to be running a series of “Introduction to iOS Development” Workshops ahead of /dev/world conference at the end of September, 2014.

These workshops are free, with dates and locations as follows:

  • Sept 1 – AUT University, Auckland
  • Sept 3 – University of Queensland, Brisbane
  • Sept 5 – University of Sydney
  • Sept 8 – RMIT University, Melbourne
  • Sept 10 – Flinders University, Adelaide

Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If we receive more registrations than places available, we’ll wait list the overflow based on application order.

Sorry – all workshops are now full.

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/dev/world Call for Speakers

/dev/world is our annual developer conference for Mac OS X and iOS, and this year will run on September 29 and 30 at the RMIT Design Hub in Melbourne.

We’re seeking expressions of interest from AUC members and the wider Apple developer community in Australia and New Zealand who are willing to present at the event.

Presentations may take the form of talks or workshops. Workshops will be run on delegate-supplied laptops, so workshop proposals should include recommended equipment and software requirements.

As a presenter you should have a well-rounded general knowledge of software development on OS X or iOS, as well as a high level of expertise and knowledge in your topic area. You must be able to successfully impart information and knowledge to attendees whose own technical ability may range from basic to advanced. You must be able to present information clearly and in a well-structured way, as well as be able to address an audience of your peers.

Talks will be recorded, and made available after the event on the AUC’s website and/or social media channel(s). Workshops will not be recorded.

Presenter Support

The AUC will support presenters with:

  • free registration (includes conference attendance and all included meals)
  • between $250 and $450, depending on distance from Melbourne, towards receipted expenditure on airfares and accommodation – no other expenses are covered or claimable

Closing Date

This call for presenters closes Monday July 28, 2014, August 4, 2014,and offers can be made by completing the submission form>.

Learn more at http://devworld.com.au.

30,000 iPads: A Licence to Thrill

Dennis Macnamara and Lynnae Rankine, Part of XW14
University of Western Sydney

UWS embarked on a strategy to blend all its programs in 2012. Within that it decided to provide all students and all staff with iPads. The magnitude and the speed of the iPad deployment provided huge challenges to all sections of the university but especially IT and learning and teaching. It also challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of on campus lectures and classes and central controlled application usage. This bold initiative has stretched people to the limit, fermented a creative environment and on most measures has gone surprisingly well. This presentation will describe the how’s and the outcomes as well as some of the dramas along the way.

Dennis and Lynnae work in the Blended Learning Management team at UWS, an area responsible for the overall implementation of blended learning across nine schools or faculties and 1000 units of study. Within that they are responsible for the learning and teaching aspects of the iPad deployment including professional development, and work with a team of 45 learning design staff located at the centre and within schools.

Slides for this presentation are available on slideshare.

X World Registrations Open

Sessions details for most of the X World sessions have now been posted, and registrations have opened for the event. Early-bird registrations close June 18 – be sure to register prior to then to obtain the best rate!  If you’re interested in presenting, late submissions may still be considered if submitted via our CFP form.

We have a great X World program this year, and have partnered with JAMF Software to bring you the latest information on OS X and iOS deployment.  We hope to see you there!

Mobile Learning in Business Education

You are invited to this free event to see how lecturers and students in business schools are using mobile devices and digital content to create, collaborate, innovate and communicate. Hear how business schools such as MIT’s Sloan Business School and Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School have empowered their students with iPads, enhancing their preparation for business careers. One of the three presenters works with these clients and is well informed from his doctoral and postdoctoral experience at UCLA, Cambridge and Oxford.

Continue reading “Mobile Learning in Business Education”