For a while now i’ve been toying with the idea of creating an iPhone App. After seeing a colleague battle with Objective C making our ReviewSpace Touch application I decided against a native one. I then switched my attention to Web Apps. I’d had a bit of a dig around making an iPhone optimised site before, but it didn’t really do much. With wanting to learn some of the new features HTML 5 would offer, I decided to create an app that tied into the GeoLocation API now available to the iPhone, via the 3.0 update. Without planning anything out, I dived right into the HTML5 Geo Location...

It’s that time of year again, when I find a picture to spread some festive cheer, so here you go – enjoy!

Post 4 in my Simples series takes a look at web programming languages. I’m not going to go into detail on how any specific language works but instead give you a general example of what they are, and how they are used. In regards to the web, a programming language adds a level of dynamic interactivity to a page. Web languages include PHP,  ASP.NET and Ruby On Rails. There are more but this is just an example. So when exactly would a web programming language be used? To help you understand why you would use a web programming language i’ll give you an analogy of a paper based shopping...

o2 our good friend in the UK for iPhone coverage claim to be ‘better connected’. That’s their claim, not mine. Recently I needed to tether my iPhone to my Macbook Air – a simple process you may think. It should have been, but it wasn’t. Hence this blog post. You can read my story, or just cut the crap and read how to do it. If you’re not familiar with tethering on the iPhone, it basically is a way of using your phone as a modem for your computer so you can get online. This is handy for the times when you’re out and about without Wi-Fi and require an internet...

Post number three in the new Simples series takes a look at Javascript – a scripting language that adds interactivity to web pages. It should be noted the Javascript should not be confused with Java (an entirely different programming language). JavaScript runs on the client side (your browser) and provides interaction with the user and the webpage. It does this by interacting with the HTML in the webpage. JavaScript is written in plain text and can be saved into a text file with the extension of .js (in the same way that n HTML page, has .html) JavaScript is a cross-platform, object-oriented...

Post two of my new series called Simples, takes a look at HTML and CSS. These are the primary technologies that make up websites, it’s content and ultimately how it is displayed. I have put the two together as they go hand in hand with each other and although they are seperate entities they should never really be apart. Think of them a bit like Ant & Dec! Imagine a traditional printed newspaper page. The content is layed out on the paper, and specific styles are given to parts of the content. For example, the headlines normally have the same sized large font, the content is usually smaller...

Throughout my new series of posts called Simples, I will be using a few terms that you may or may not be familiar with. This post will list these along with a very simple definition and a link to view a more in depth description. This list will be updated on regular basis and you can suggest new definitions by tweeting @leonbarrett with the hashtag #sizdef. Web Browser – The piece of software that is used to view Web Pages. You may only know this as the blue ‘e’ (Internet Explorer) icon on your desktop. There are many (better) browsers that you can use, such as Safari, FireFox...

To kick off my first post in a series i’m calling Simples, I will explain in simple terms what FTP is and how you can use it. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a way to exchange files over a network, such as the Internet. You would use it to transfer files between your computer to your server. You use an FTP client in order to handle this exchange. If you’re a bit confused about the whole server thing, don’t worry. Take a look at this post that will quickly explain it. Already lost, take the following example as an analogy (FTP is far more complex, but this should...

The web world is full of acronyms and abbreviations, some of which are baffling even to the most seasoned professionals. Do you hear terms such as FTP, PHP, HTML or MySQL thrown around and have know idea what they are? Fear not – this new series called Simples is for you. While I won’t be teaching you these technologies in depth, I will be offering an explanation to give you a basic understanding. In simple and plain english I’ll aim to explain many of the terms Web designers and Developers throw around, so you will no longer have to smile and nod when talking to them. I’m...

Jquery Even though i’ve been using jQuery to make web apps for quite a while, this simple function passed me by until quite recently. When loading data asynchronously, the end user doesn’t get any feedback that anything is actually happening (unless you display a loading gif or something similar). This can often lead to the user clicking repeatedly and risking things fucking up. I usually would include an animated loading gif next to the call to action, initially hidden by CSS, and then using jQuery would display it when the call to action was clicked. After the response was received...