Quick Tip: How to use the remote control in your TVOS Apps for Apple TV in SWIFT

How to use the remote control in your tvOS Apps for Apple TV in SWIFT

There are already dozens of 'Hello world' tutorials published for the new Apple tvOS, so let's do something different. I'll show how to use the remote control to move a sprite on Apple TV. It was surprisingly easy and took me only 10 minutes to implement:

1. Download the XCode 7.1 Beta from the Apple Developer Portal:

2. Create a new project:

Quick Tip: Implement the new Google AdMob / Adsense Cookie Policy

In the last days Google sent out emails to App developers which uses their AdSense and AdMob frameworks. Google urges them to inform their users about the usage of the advertising cookies:

From Google:

European laws require that digital publishers give visitors to their sites and apps information about their use of cookies and other forms of local storage. In many cases these laws also require that consent be obtained.

In this tutorial I'll  show how you can implement an information alert about the cookie usage in SWIFT. The basic idea is to detect, if the app is started the first time:

• If yes show an alert with a message about the cookie usage. 
• After clicking 'OK' store a key in NSUserDefault. 
• Next time the application is started, this key will be found and therefore no alert will be shown.

IMPORTANT: I'm not a lawyer. So no guarantees. You have to decide on your own if this is sufficient.

AdMob Cookie Usage

Quick Tip: Combine iAd and AdMob Ads for iOS in SWIFT

Use iAd and AdMob ads in the same app

Today I'll show how to use iAd together with AdMob ads. If you use the interstitial ads provided by Apples iAd frequently, you might have seen that the fill rate is not always 100 percent:

One reason could be that there was just not enough time to load the new content. This tutorial shows how to improve the fill rate by requesting a Google AdMob ad in parallel. Depending on the availability, the iAd or the AdMob ad will be shown.

Quick Tip: Integrate iAd banners in your iOS App with two lines of code

The easiest way to add an iAD banner to your app

Today I'll show a very simple way to integrate an ad banner to your iOS app. Most tutorials (including mine) explain the complex version by implementing the ADBannerViewDelegate protocol. If you don't care about error handling, animations, positioning or the maximum number of allowed banner instances (10!): There is a much easier way which requires only two lines of code in SWIFT.

I've published an update for my (Watch) puzzle game in the Apple App Store

Yet Another (Watch) Puzzle Game:

Simple puzzle game inspired by the 15 Puzzle for Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad.

New in version 1.3: Puzzle mode - slide image tiles instead of numbers.

 

 

Quick Tip: Implement fullscreen (interstitial) Ads for iOS in SWIFT

How to implement an Interstitial Ad combined with a counter

Today I'll show how to implement a often used pattern in free games: Usually you can play free games a certain time, till a fullscreen ad is shown. For example after each third game over an ad is shown. Implementing this behaviour for the iOS platform requires only few lines of code in SWIFT.

How to implement In-App Purchase for your iOS App in SWIFT

Adding In-App Purchases:

Welcome to part 8 of my swift programming tutorial. Today I'll show how to implement In-App Purchases:

• Create In-App Purchases in iTunesConnect
• Implement In-App Purchases
• Test and upload to iTunesConnect

As a starting point you can download the sample project from my GitHub repository.