ZxCam for iPhone

JamesW

ZxCam is a free iPhone app that converts images taken with the camera into Spectrum style images. You can also convert images that you have transferred to the phone. The converted image can be mailed back as a scr for an emulator, or a png if you want to use it on one if those modern computers. ZxCam can also output the image as audio for an authentic tape loading experience. It'll work on an iPod touch too, but you'll miss out on the camera.

I've only tested the tape loading on an emulator. If someone could give it a go on a real Spectrum and report back it would be much appreciated.

bleugh

the camera app doesn't seem to work for taking piccies, just gives a black screen
works well for camera roll images though, i'm gonna have fun with this

thanks muchly

Dean

JamesW

bleugh wrote: »

the camera app doesn't seem to work for taking piccies, just gives a black screen
works well for camera roll images though, i'm gonna have fun with this

thanks muchly

Dean

I noticed a similar problem a day or two after I first submitted it to the App Strore, and I re-submited a fixed version before it was vetted. I thought I might have screwed that up and submitted the wrong version, but I've downloaded the version off the App Store myself, and the camera is working for me! I'm using an iPhone 3G and OS 3.0.1 for what it's worth. Anyone else having trouble?

bleugh

3G and 3.0 here

interestingly if you use the camera function, the picture that comes up to alter is the previously chosen one from the camera roll

JamesW

bleugh wrote: »

3G and 3.0 here

interestingly if you use the camera function, the picture that comes up to alter is the previously chosen one from the camera roll

Yes, that sounds familiar. I had added code for restoring the session if it was interrupted. Part of that was loading in the last displayed image. I forgot to test the camera after adding that code, and the restore session code was mistakenly getting called after the camera returned, and replacing the camera image with the previous image, or a black screen if this was you hadn't imported anything yet.

But I'd fixed that, and uploaded the fixed version to the store! I've just deleted ZxCam off my phone, which also deletes any associated data, and downloaded it again from the store. I'm at work, so there is no way that any development versions have slipped on by mistake. I started it up, and immediately took a picture. It worked! Could you give that a go and let me know how you get on? I can't believe the OS version has anything to do with it. 3.0.1 was just a security fix - the SDK is unchanged.

Also, has anyone else tried it out? How did you get on? Camera working, or knackered?

Graz

Post some piccies taken with this? I wanna see it in action :)

JamesW

Here's a few quick snaps I've just taken:

Jakeyw

Great little app, I'm very impressed!

JamesW

Jakeyw wrote: »

Great little app, I'm very impressed!

Thanks! I take it that that the camera works for you then?

Jakeyw

Yes, all seems to be fine for me.
(3G phone, 3.0.1 software)

JamesW

Glad to hear that it works for someone other than myself!

I've just posted the source code for those that like that kind of thing.

Graz

Oooh, you clever lil sausage! Fantastic.

Womble

Am afraid the camera integration doesnt work for me, I can select camera and take a photo but the "use" button doesnt do anything. It thinks for a while then fails back to the last photo selected from the camera roll.

One other thing is the "i" button is incredibly hard to use, 9 times out of 10 you get the "mail to" option instead of the settings, and thats when carefully only hitting the i.

Other than that its an awesome app, am well impressed !!!

Am on a 3GS at 3.0.1 btw.

bleugh

www.flickr.com/photos/bleugh

Arjun

JamesW wrote: »

Glad to hear that it works for someone other than myself!

I've just posted the source code for those that like that kind of thing.

That's mighty impressive looking app. Although I can't try out the Tape out feature, it looks pretty nifty. Am gonna try out your app a bit later when I get to office. ;)

JamesW

I know what's going on with the camera!* I'll submit an update when I get home. That'll take a while to make it onto the store, so if anyone is having trouble send me a private message, and I'll try and sort out an ad-hoc beta distrubution.

Arjun: why can't you test the tape output? You should be able to hear the noise it makes, even if you don't have a Speccy to plug into the headphone socket.

bleugh: I love the Sydney harbour bridge picture! One feature I would like a future version to have would be an option to upload to some shared gallery. Or Spectrum pictures on 'the cloud' if you're a marketroid. I'm not sure the best (easiest) way to go about this though.

Womble: yes, the 'i' button is a pain. I left it in the bottom right so that Apple's reviewers didn't have an excuse to deny the app. They seem to deny distribution for all sorts of silly reasons. I'll move it up to the top right in the next release and see if that's accepted.


*Technical details for those who care:
[strike]Australians are being punished because their side is too good at cricket.[/strike]
Bringing up the camera view was sometimes releasing the application's main view. The OS was doing this - I didn't request it, so I wasn't expecting it. When the camera is dismissed, the OS re-loads ZxCam's view. My code responds by loading the last image saved to the preferences, and this old image overwrites the new camera image. I guess it doesn't happen all the time as it is a decision the OS makes. Presumably when it is pushed for memory. The solution is to update the saved preferences as soon as I get an image back from the camera, but before dismissing the camera view.

Arjun

JamesW wrote: »

Arjun: why can't you test the tape output? You should be able to hear the noise it makes, even if you don't have a Speccy to plug into the headphone socket.

Because I don't own an iphone, and the one I'm gonna test the app on belongs to a mate in office. :) That won't necessarily prevent me from going on a nostalgic trip listening to the loading noise though! ;)

bleugh

JamesW wrote: »

Arjun: why can't you test the tape output? You should be able to hear the noise it makes, even if you don't have a Speccy to plug into the headphone socket.

.

He's probably forgot to press 'play'...dumbar$e :-P

Womble

Bleugh! Another melbournian speccy fan, where are you based? Am in Newport mesself.

bleugh

lol womble, we shoulda met up for a pint a year ago!,
was in st kilda for a couple of years, i've moved over to Sydney a couple of months ago though.

should update that location info sometime!

how long you been in Newport?, nice down there, had friends over in Yarraville so often went down that way for munchies

andrew_rollings

JamesW wrote: »

Glad to hear that it works for someone other than myself!

I've just posted the source code for those that like that kind of thing.

Link doesn't work for me... I'd love to take a look though.

Andrew

JamesW

andrew_rollings wrote: »

Link doesn't work for me... I'd love to take a look though.

That's odd. It worked for me just now.

Tobo

Only using existing photos works here - not taking pics using the app itself (black screen).

Here's two StormTroopers that visited our local Summer Fayre recently.



Toby

JamesW

Anyone waiting on the camera fix is probably going to have to wait another two weeks. An eagle-eyed reviewer spotted that my spotlight application icon was based on the Camera.app icon. I'd sneaked it past them in the original version. I've re-submitted it with a non-infringing icon. Can't do much but wait now.


Verboten!


50mm Nikkor lens shrunk to 29x29 pixels. Should be allowed I hope.

csmith

JamesW.

I've had a fantastic idea for _ages_, but not got around to getting the iphone devkit yet, mainly because I don't have a Mac and haven't the time to try and get OSX to run on my Linux machines...

What I want to do is create an application that can browse the WOS archives for .tzx files, download them and then play them "like a cassette recorder", with forward, stop, rewind, play etc (just like your cassette recorder in zxcam).

That would be totally groovy. Instant access to any speccy prog, anywhere you have phone signal or wifi (just wifi in the case of ipod touch).
You can archive your favourite files, or ones you create yourself, or just download them on demand.

I was porting the tzx play code from playtzx - it's in C.

Go on. Have a go! I'll never get around to it, what with the book, Harlequin and other projects...

Chris

JamesW

After writing ZxCam, especially the tape output part, I'm probably the least entitled to ask this: why?

What are you going to do with the tape sounds? The obvious thing to do with over-the-air access to the WoS archive would be to load them directly into an iPhone port of Fuse, which wouldn't need audio, but Apple are never going to allow that anyway. That leaves you with the option of playing the audio through a computer's mic socket, and into an emulator, or into a real Spectrum. In the first instance you could just download the files on the computer. The second is likely to be a minority pastime. I asked if anyone has loaded a picture from ZxCam into a real Spectrum, but so far no-one has reported back.

I suspect the audio facility is used as a novelty; reminding people of days gone by. A bit of vanity searching supports this suspicion:

Twitter wrote:

ZX Spectrum fans: check out ZXcam iPhone app on iTunes. Converts pics and outputs tape sounds to load into Speccy. Retrogasm!

JamesW

ZxCam 1.0.1 has finally been approved. This should make the camera work reliably, and moves the 'i' button out of the toolbar, so that you don't hit the 'Mail' button by mistake.

DrewPee70

@JamesW - superb mate - absolutely superb!
I love this app! I will be trying it on my real speccy later on tonight!
I will post back when I have something to tell!
Andy

JamesW

DrewPee70 wrote: »

@JamesW - superb mate - absolutely superb!
I love this app! I will be trying it on my real speccy later on tonight!
I will post back when I have something to tell!
Andy

Glad you like it! Did you have any luck trying it with a real speccy? It would be nice to have a report - successful or not.

adrianebrown

JamesW wrote: »

Yes, that sounds familiar. I had added code for restoring the session if it was interrupted. Part of that was loading in the last displayed image. I forgot to test the camera after adding that code, and the restore session code was mistakenly getting called after the camera returned, and replacing the camera image with the previous image, or a black screen if this was you hadn't imported anything yet.

But I'd fixed that, and uploaded the fixed version to the store! I've just deleted ZxCam off my phone, which also deletes any associated data, and downloaded it again from the store. I'm at work, so there is no way that any development versions have slipped on by mistake. I started it up, and immediately took a picture. It worked! Could you give that a go and let me know how you get on? I can't believe the OS version has anything to do with it. 3.0.1 was just a security fix - the SDK is unchanged.

Also, has anyone else tried it out? How did you get on? Camera working, or knackered?

hi
great app, had lots of fun

trying to loading images into FUSE its get so far and stops loading.

ade

JamesW

How are you trying to load the image into Fuse? I've tested this by recording the iPhone output with Audacity, and saving the result as a WAV file. If I open the resulting WAV file as a tape in Fuse, then it loads just fine.