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Saturday, July 14, 2018

Developer tips - Visual Studio - Apple iOS erase certificates

Disclaimer !
This article is based on tests/research/finding at April 2018. Things can change.

Sometime is better to clean up the mess of certificates used by Xamarin for Apple iOS development.
Here what to do based on my experience.

Normally the certificates are generated/maintained on the Apple Developer website.

Developer tips - Visual Studio - Apple iOS development types of build

Disclaimer !
This article is based on tests/research/finding at April 2018. Things can change.

Apple iOS can be a very complicated environment, especially if Xamarin is involved (Visual Studio on Mac).
This article is part of a small collection of notes about some things that usually annoy the developers :) (me)

Ok ok, these are just some notes for me to remember some annoying things

Disclaimer !
This article is based on tests/research/finding at April 2018. Things can change.

In order to develop code for iOS (or also Mac) you need to have certificates and provisioning profiles from Apple.
In other words the application will be able to be installed and run on the device ONLY if Apple recognize the certificate.
The certificates are so a very intimate and integral part of the development and preparation of an app for iOS.

Developer tips - Visual Studio - workarounds

Ok, let me start with I didn't choose to use Visual Studio !! 😛
But sometime is the pain that choose you.

In my case I'm using Visual Studio 7.4 on a Mac in order to develop apps Android and iOS in C# (old Xamarin).

This article contains some tips I discovered that can be useful if somebody else has the pain to use 'that'.
Of course this article is working in progress, expect updates.

SmartPhone audio accessory

Some notes about some audio accessories for smartphone.

Hype Retro Walkie Talkie handset

This funny toy is shaped like a traditional-style ham radio microphone.

The idea is to "transform" the smartphone into an Ham radio. For example, used with Zello can facilitate to use it in a mobile environment or for who is nostalgic about it.

I tested it on the Samsung tablet but is not working with Zello.
However is working with other applications. This suggests that there are other differences other the 3.5 mm jack pinout.

Let's open it up

The quality of the gadget is of course very low. Beside, for 5$ really is not expected to be better.

The gadget

To open it there are just four Philips screws

The little board has a small amplifier based probably on a LM386.

There are two push button and a trimmer for the ON/OFF and volume setting.

The small push button on the top is the one that is used to start the conversation.

The big push button on the side simply mute the speaker (IMHO wrong choice since normally the PTT button is on the side on a normal/standard mike).

Operations

The idea is to plug the mike in the smartphone audio jack and turn it on.
After that the audio output is redirected to the small speaker and when pressing the PTT button, the mike is activated.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Smartphone/tablets audio connectors

One of the few things really annoying is when manufactures decide to don't follow a single standard for the connectors of their products.
I have around some smartphones and there are differences on the audio (3.5 mm) connector.
These differences creates problems with some accessories.

For example I bought a very nice desktop phone stand from Aptiva, but I soon discovered that it is incompatible with my Sony Ericsson Xperia.
The same for a Hype Retro Walkie Talkie handset I wanted to use to enhance the Zello experience.
On the Sony is not working at all, on the Samsung tablet works in part (see the note on the bottom of this article).

So there are differences about the connection of the 3.5 mm audio port on these devices.
This article is trying to document the pinout of different phones/tablet and giving information about this problem and how to solve it.

Introduction

The typical 3.5 mm jack is divided in different areas :

Sleeve
The part of the connector close to the handler, the cover.
Ring
The part of the connector separated by a insulator ring
Tip
The far part of the connector, the "point"

There are many different types of jack.

In the figure below, there is an explanation of the main parts of such connector.

This type of jack is called TRRS (Tip/Ring/Ring/Sleeve) and it become the "standard" for smartphones.

The most known type of jack is the one used to connect the standard stereo headset.

This type of jack is called TRS, from the initials of the connections :
Tip - Ring - Sleeve

CTIA Audio jack

CTIA defined an audio connector.
It is a TRRS :

(sleeve) Microphone input
(ring) Ground (common)
(ring) Right Audio out
(tip) Left Audio out

iPhone 4S

Many audio accessories are labeled as iPhone compatible.
This means that the majority of the audio accessories found on the market follow the Apple standard for the 3.5 mm audio connector.
The iPhone/iPad audio jack follows the specifications defined by CTIA.

So every accessories that declare to be iPhone compatible has the pinout shown above.

OMTP audio jack

Android, as general rule, seems follow a standard defined by a group called OMTP.

However different manufacturers choose to follow the CTIA, others didn't.

The main difference between the CTIA and OMTP is switching the place from Ground and the Mic.

So each Android smartPhone or Android tablet can have different audio jack pinouts. That's very very bad.

This is the OMTP connector :

So let see different brands what offers.

Keep in mind that usually models of the same brand uses the same pinout, but it could be different !

So never assume.

Sony Ericsson Xperia LT18a

OMTP standard

In order to use Apple iPhone standard accessories, is necessary to use a converter.
It is possible to search for CTIA<--->OMTP conversion cable or it is relatively easy to build one.

Samsung Galaxy Tablet 7" GT-3113

CTIA standard

Samsung SPH-M910