Xamarin Media Plugin error: Only one operation can be active at at time
I've been getting System.InvalidOperationException: Only one operation can be active at a time in a Xamarin app I've created which uses the Media Plugin, and finally figured out why I was getting it. I...
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UWP OAuth in Xamarin Forms using Xamarin.Auth
tl;dr: Complete standalone example here. I recently wanted to authenticate to Evernote via OAuth in a Xamarin Forms app I'm creating. There is an excellent Xamarin plugin, called Xamarin.Auth which...
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Using Styles and Data Triggers to disable Xamarin forms while waiting
It's a common scenario: You are sending data to a service, or waiting for something to happen, and you don't want the user to interact with your form while that is happening. The naive approach is to...
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“Alexa, enable the My Notebook skill”
I just released my first Amazon Echo Skill, called "My Notebook". You can use it to create notes in Evernote or OneNote using your Amazon Echo: To try it out, say "Alexa, enable the My Notebook skill"....
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Using the Apple Thunderbolt display with the Dell XPS 13
After many years of buying Mac laptops, I've bought a Dell XPS 13. One question was how much of my old Apple hardware I could reuse. By buying an Apple USB C charger, I can re-use all the power adapter...
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A more friendly Xamarin Forms DatePicker
This is a small, simple thing, to make a Xamarin Forms DatePicker more friendly. Instead of showing the date for yesterday, today and tomorrow, as it normally does, it instead shows "yesterday",...
View ArticleUsing Google Sign-in for iOS in Xamarin Forms to access Google APIs
This is another of those posts where I am essentially writing a message to my future self to remind myself how to do something, and in the process perhaps help out someone else. I wanted to use the...
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Live coding a Xamarin Forms Custom Circle Control using SkiaSharp
Supports segments of varying colors, radius and degrees, and supports data binding. Resulting code in GitHub
View ArticleThe inevitable evolution from wearables to embedables
The inevitable evolution from wearables to embedables is at once both exciting and horrifying. Let’s think about bluetooth headsets. They are already becoming smaller, and will soon be invisible. I...
View ArticleEyeglasses are broken
My eyeglasses are broken, and I want them fixed. I vividly remember the morning I woke up, and could no longer read. Everything was blurry, and no matter how much I blinked away the night, I still...
View ArticleUsing the Evernote API from Swift
There is a fine Evernote iOS SDK complete with extensive Objective C examples. In this blog post I want to share what I did to get it working with Swift. First I created a new Swift iOS app (called...
View ArticleWatchKit Error – unable to instantiate row controller class
Trying to create a simple WatchKit table, I hit the error shown in this blog post title. You mileage may vary, but the eventual cause was that when I added my custom RowController class I accidentally...
View ArticleScrolling long Pebble menu items
This is a technical blog post. Warning: contains code. We recently pushed version 1.2 of Evernote for the Pebble to the Pebble App Store. It is a minor release, with one bug fix, and one new feature....
View ArticleOn Pulse – How I got my dream job: My wearables journey at Evernote
I just wrote on LinkedIn’s Pulse about How I got my dream job: My wearables journey at Evernote
View ArticleOn Pulse: Why your basal ganglia and wearables were made for each other
I just posted Why your basal ganglia and wearables were made for each other
View ArticleKeeping your Moto 360 alive while charging
If you are developing using the Moto 360 and debugging over bluetooth, you’ll notice the battery plummeting quickly. If you put the watch on a QI charging pad, the Moto 360’s charging screen kicks in,...
View ArticleCapture your Mac screen activity into daily videos
I know I’m not alone in wishing there was a TimeSnapper equivalent for the Mac. Among many things it lets you look back in time at what you were doing on your computer minutes, hours or days ago....
View ArticleUpdating the Pebble Emulator python code
I recently wanted to make some changes to the Pebble emulator, which uses the PyV8 Python-JavaScript bridge to emulate the phone environment running your phone-bases JavaScript companion app. These are...
View ArticleUsing Android Wear to control Google Cardboard Unity VR
Using a VR headset, even one as simple as Google Cardboard, can be mind-blowing. Nevertheless it is the little things that can also be disconcerting. For example looking down and seeing you have no...
View ArticleAndroid 5.0 Media Browser APIs
When I read the release notes for the Android 5.0 APIs I was delighted to see this: Android 5.0 introduces the ability for apps to browse the media content library of another app, through the new...
View ArticleBuilding an Amazon Echo Skill to create Evernote notes
First, a demo: Alexa, tell Evernote to create a note “Remember to call my Mother”: I recently acquired an Amazon Echo, and although there is limited support for interacting with Evernote via IFTTT, I...
View ArticleMaking using TypeScript for Google Apps Scripts more convenient on OS X
I’ve started to use TypeScript in IntelliJ, and wanted to use it for a Google Apps Script App that I’m writing. There are a couple of issues with using TypeScript for this: The first is that Google...
View ArticleRadical surgery: Slimming Pebble apps down to run on Aplite
A long way to go In December 2015, when first I released Powernoter, an unofficial Evernote client for the Pebble Watch, I initially targeted Pebble Time (codename Basalt), and Pebble Time Round...
View ArticleCreating a Windows Universal app to talk Bluetooth LE, save to SQLite and...
The Goal I’ve had a couple of TI SensorTags sitting on my shelf for a couple of years. These are the original ones, which have been superseded by smaller ones that have additional sensors for light and...
View ArticleVisual Studio missing “Forms Xaml Page” from “Add|New Item” menu using Xamarin
Not sure why this is happening, but its been happening on all my installations of Xamarin with Visual Studio 2015. All the tutorials and web pages talk about using Project|Add New Item and adding a new...
View ArticleGetting Xamarin Xaml Intellisense when the binding context is set in code
I’m working on an app where I navigate from one page to another, passing data by setting the new page’s binding context: When designing the Xaml for QuickNotePage I was pained to see that Intellisense...
View ArticleUsing Siri to control your Alexa Smart Home devices
I have many Smart Home devices that can be controlled from my Amazon Echo, however none of those devices can be controlled from Siri on my Apple Watch or iPhone. None are HomeKit compatible. What I’ve...
View ArticleScreencast: Your computer screen as an Alexa Smart Home Security Camera
This is a screencast I just put together showing how you can show your computer’s screen as an Alexa Smart Home Security Camera. I wanted this because I already have security camera software running on...
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