Is there an iPhone app that would allow me to tell the phone to auto-download a particular image or file, say, every hour or every 24 hrs?
Is there an iPhone app that would allow me to tell the phone to auto-download a particular image or file, say, every hour or every 24 hrs?
It depends on if the local push service can trigger events or if it just posts notifications. I’d have to take a look at the SDK. I’ll take a look when I am home next.
Hrmmm . . . this seems like a job for a developer.
I’ve been meaning to look at the SDK for a while now. I’ve got the whole gargantuan thing on my computer now.
As far as I know there is not a good way to pull this information in the SDK.
What you are asking for is almost some kind of cron job app for iPhone. which actually could have a market but as far as I know does not actually exist, and I’m not sure if it can, though I do have a possible solution in my head now.
The problem need to solve with pull is based on how multitasking works on the OS. This is compounded by the time scale you are looking for. iOS auto quits programs basically at will based on how much memory is available when you try to open something new. Stuff that runs in the background is very time sensitive, and the OS pretty much kills with impunity especially if it looks like it’s not doing anything. In most cases multitasking is actually saving state to memory while somethings in the background, and not what you would think of as multitasking on your desktop computer.
I would imagine you could push a notification to the app that then when you open the app automatically triggers whatever task it is you want it to do so it seems like things are happening automagically. It may also be possible to trigger an app to do something in the background from a push notification. I’m not sure, that goes way beyond the depth I’ve looked at on this.
If you could do that it would be possible to write an app to do this. I think. But what, more specifically are you trying to do, there might be a better, or existing solution to the specific case even though there is not one for the general case.
What I’m trying to do is #PANIC! No, really:
OK, so let’s say someone sets off a nuclear bomb nearby, or perhaps there’s a big (and I mean BIG) eruption at Yellowstone, or some other event that makes it important to know — for purposes of planning an evacuation/escape — which way the prevailing winds are blowing at various levels of the atmosphere. There are maps that will show you precisely that, but an unexpected catastrophic event such as a nuke or a mega-eruption is also like to cripple the communications system for some time… so I’m not likely to be able to log on with my iPhone and view the map. So I’d like to be able to have the current prevailing-winds maps downloaded onto my phone already (ideally the new ones would overwrite the old ones each time they auto-download), so in such an event, I could view the maps (without needing to get online) and quickly decide whether to drive south toward New Mexico, west toward the mountains, north toward Wyoming, or what. 🙂
So what you really want is a detailed weather app that automatically up updates in the background? I’m not aware of one that does exactly that just yet, but as the more premium apps update for iOS 4 there might be something along those lines that crops up. And encouraging the developers of those apps in that direction might help get the feature you want.
Though with that amount of PANIC in mind, I’m surprised I’ve managed to convince you to come to DC for a weekend… When congress is in session no less. I mean Arlington is well with in the immediate kill blast radius.
It would have to be a pretty specialized and technical weather app, to include the sorts of maps I’m thinking of. Your average consumer doesn’t really care about a map of wind direction at various layers of the atmosphere… it’s the sort of thing you’re more likely to see linked by weather nerds speculating about possible hurricane tracks than in standard-fare weather forecasts & apps.
As for PANIC, heh, well, I’m certainly not going to change any travel plans as the result of amorphous fears of terrorist attacks or whatever… I just figure it’s good to be prepared for the worst. I also have the “Survival Pocket Reference” app on my phone (I read that it helped save somebody’s life in, uh, Haiti or someplace)… this falls into the same category. Something I would fully expect to never use, but in the 0.0000001% chance I ever needed it, I’d really, really kick myself for not having it.
It depends on the weather app, there are quite a few aimed at a lot of different markets. You are probably right that they think that kind of info is too esoteric. But that doesn’t mean they won’t put it in if customers are actively asking for it.
On the other hand, we could build the apocalypse app… Everything you need in the event the four horsemen start trampling plow shares…
Brilliant. We shall call it iPANIC.
Wow Brendan, I hope your kidding. If not I really think you need to see a therapist and stop reading Drudge, et al. 🙂
You are FAR more likely to be killed in a car accident than ever have to deal witha nuclear attack. Heck your odds of being struck my lightning are higher too 🙂 Start driving a Volvo and wearing rubber boots and you’ll be better un-PANICed 🙂
Yes, I know all that. But if I get into a car crash, my fate is probably sealed at the moment of impact — either I’m dead, or have suffered injuries that the doctors won’t be able to save me from, or else I’ll survive. The only real variables are how quickly & effectively I get medical help, and that’s pretty much out of my control — it’s dependent on where I happen to crash, where the nearest ambulance is, what hospital I’m taken to, whether the doctors there are competent, etc. Same deal if I get struck by lightning: once it’s happened, there isn’t much for me to do, I just gotta hope my internal organs aren’t too badly damaged, and I can get quick & effective medical help. Either I’m going to live, or I’m going to die, but my fate is by and large sealed.
Obviously I can take preventative measures, like driving safely, and not standing in an open field during a thunderstorm. 🙂 But I already do those things, and I don’t need an app to help me with them. And the point is, with events like that, there’s no need to contingency-plan for what to do AFTER disaster strikes, because by that point, it’s already too late.
By contrast, making sure I have the informational tools at my disposal to deal with the period after a major disaster when 1) I’m not dead yet, and my fate isn’t yet sealed, but 2) I could be in imminent danger of my fate becoming sealed, making quick decisions imperative, and 3) communications networks are likely to be shut down, severely limiting my ability to do any “in-the-moment” planning, strikes me as perfectly sensible. I know that I’m preparing against an extremely obscure and unlikely risk. But in the, as I said, 0.0000001% chance that I ever find myself in a situation where the information would be helpful… it would be VERY VERY helpful. So what’s the harm in being prepared?
Also, #PANIC
🙂
“So what’s the harm in being prepared?”
From a utilitarian standpoint? Nothing at all, and I agree that certain precautions that can be taken for general sense disasters (emergency kits, first aid kits, basic survival handbooks, meeting and contact plans, etc.) are all well and good.
As someone who knows what its like to deal with anxiety disorders though, and as your friend, I just am a little concerned with the idea of spending any efforts beyond “can I do this, nope, oh well” on something so incredibly obscure. It COULD be nothing more than nerdish curiosity, I just hope its not an indicator that you might be taking all this doom and gloom stuff around you a little to seriously is all. I’m not about to stage an intervention or anything, its not like you are building an underground bunker in your back yard or anything (well i ASSUME you aren’t, I don’t actually know, Google maps aren’t that detailed and up to date…) Just some friendly concern for your mental well being 🙂
Trust me, there is no cause at all for concern — I suffer almost literally no anxiety whatsoever about these sorts of “doom and gloom” scenarios. Indeed I spend very, very little time thinking about them at all, and am much more concerned about the more mundane sources of #PANIC that have populated the blog lately (the economy, etc.). To the extent that I have an emotional response at all to the notion of, say, a nuke going off, or Yellowstone erupting, it’s more akin to a fascination with placing yourself inside the plot of a movie, and wondering what you’d do and how things would unfold, than actually worrying about something happening in real life.
To wit: the only reason I thought of this at all was, on Saturday, I was driving south on I-25 with the girls to a bluegrass festival in Colorado Springs, while Becky was at her job doing product demos up in Boulder. And for some reason, as I looked back north in my rearview mirror, the thought entered my mind — inspired by an article I’d read about the anniversary of Hiroshima, combined with memories of the TV show “Jericho,” which I loved — of what I would do if, suddenly, I saw a bright flash followed by a mushroom cloud in the rearview mirror, indicating that Denver had been nuked (but Becky and I were both, presumably, safe for the time being, as we’d both have been well outside the immediate blast radius). I wondered what I’d say if I could reach Becky by phone, what plan we’d make, and how I’d know which way to go for maximum safety. And that brought this auto-download concept, which I’d first considered back when Yellowstone was rumbling in early 2009 (not for my iPhone, which I didn’t have yet, but I thought about setting up a cron job on my laptop), back to my mind. So I thought I’d ask my community of nerds. 🙂 But this is by no means something that I’m losing any sleep over, seriously.
Relax, David !
Our Brendan is still as non-partisan unbiased and as sane as ever …
He jsut wants to be able to have an app that shows how close Gov Palin (or any GOP person) is getting to the White House …
Alasdair, amid all the troubles of this world, from economic crises to suitcase nukes to lightning strikes, I sleep soundly at night knowing that some things are constant, chief among them your sarcastic, uh, wit, and partisan/ideological hackery.
In other words, yes, you’re absolutely right: because I believe Obama, while a pretty big disappointment to date (as I explained in a recent blog post that you and gahrie somehow interpreted as O-Bot worship; go figure), is still a more serious force for sane governance than the GOP in its present incarnation, and because I don’t accept each and every one of your premises and opinions about the state of the world (which you believe are not opinions, but facts), therefore yes, I am in fact BIASED and INSANE. And you’re absolutely right, I make no distinction whatsoever between Palin and “any GOP person.” Never mind that I’ve said I would switch to the GOP to vote for Romney or Gingrich or Jindal or even Huckabee, if that’s what it takes to stop Palin from getting anywhere near the White House — nevertheless, you’re right, I hate all Republicans equally, and my considered disdain for Sarah Palin is actually just a reflection of my overall GOP-hatred, which is precisely why I’ve been such a crazy lunatic liberal all these years, supporting candidates like Ned Lamont and Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich… because I’m an unreasonable partisan who hates the GOP and is completely insane with left-liberalism, and stuff.
[/sarcasm]
Occam’s Razor time. Which is more likely: 1) that you, who has never once perceptibly deviated from the Republican talking points of the moment (even gahrie has more of an independent streak), is simply deriding my viewpoint because, whereas it has sometimes lined up with yours on some issues, it presently doesn’t; or 2) that I, who has an established track record of independent thought and strong agreement or disagreement with politicians of various parties and ideologies at different times, depending on the issue, have suddenly morphed into an UNTHINKING PARTISAN HACK, and you, the neutral observer (hahahahahahahaha), are merely pointing out this sad fact?
P.S. Cue your “doth protest too much” comment! Complete with puns!
In all seriousness, if this seems like an unnecessarily strident response to a short and relatively inoffensive comment by you, it’s really more a response to some comments you made elsewhere recently that I haven’t had time to answer.
“In all seriousness, if this seems like an unnecessarily strident response to a short and relatively inoffensive comment by you, it’s really more a response to some comments you made elsewhere recently that I haven’t had time to answer.”
And overall pattern of behavior.
FYI Alasdair, I voted for McCain in the primary of 2000 and continously vote for Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed (R). Sorry I should have asked if you were sitting down for those revelations.
@Brendan – Glad your seeming paranoia is of the safe and sane variety and not the “oh great, now he’s gonna go build a survivalist cabin in the Colorado wilderness” type 🙂
Heh.
David K:
Now cure Sandy…..
@gahrie. Dammit Jim I’m a doctor not a miracle worker!