[HN Gopher] Show HN: Click counter using iPhone volume buttons
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       Show HN: Click counter using iPhone volume buttons
        
       Author : GoodluckH
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2024-07-08 18:48 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (testflight.apple.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (testflight.apple.com)
        
       | andrewbarba wrote:
       | Doesn't seem to work for me. I downloaded and ran on my Mac and
       | proceeded to click the volume buttons on my iPhone but the count
       | remains 0.
        
         | DennisAleynikov wrote:
         | hahahahahaha
        
       | slobiwan wrote:
       | doesn't seem to work well for me. volume up and down sometimes
       | register 1 count, sometimes 2, sometimes none. Deleted shortly
       | after install, worried about what it's actually doing rather than
       | counting.
        
         | GoodluckH wrote:
         | thanks for trying it out!
         | 
         | this is a commonly reported bug that wasn't able to spot when
         | in development mode.
         | 
         | i think the issue is that i might have attached the volume-
         | button handler multiple times, so that each time you click on
         | the volume button, those duplicated handlers all emit events.
         | 
         | pushed out a small fix currently under apple's review
        
       | rgovostes wrote:
       | Bear in mind this is a prerelease app on TestFlight and that
       | Apple would not allow this behavior on the App Store, or even on
       | apps notarized for alternative stores in the EU:
       | 
       | > 2.5.9 Apps that alter or disable the functions of standard
       | switches, such as the Volume Up/Down and Ring/Silent switches, or
       | other native user interface elements or behaviors will be
       | rejected.
       | 
       | Infamously, there was a third party camera app, Camera+, that
       | turned the Volume Up button into a shutter release. Apple pulled
       | it from the store--and then released the same feature for the
       | built in Camera app.
       | 
       | https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/112111/popular-ip...
        
         | birdman3131 wrote:
         | That would suck for any kindle reader people. One of the best
         | features is volume to switch pages.
        
         | GoodluckH wrote:
         | oh damn i wasn't aware of this given that Apple's native camera
         | app can use volume button to take pics
        
         | teeray wrote:
         | I really hate this rule. The Snapchat camera used to fire with
         | the volume controls and now it is much harder to take a selfie.
         | To add insult to injury, Apple's own native camera app does
         | this same thing! You can't even argue that it's a confusing
         | experience if you, yourself, do it too.
        
           | rgovostes wrote:
           | There is a permitted API these days for physical capture
           | buttons. Can't blame Apple if Snapchat doesn't adopt it.
           | 
           | https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avkit/avcaptureeve.
           | ..
        
       | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
       | Is this a social engineering test to see how many hacker news
       | users will blindly download a testflight app? I assume it's been
       | reviewed by the app store by this point, right?
        
         | GoodluckH wrote:
         | it's a testflight app i built for fun but apparently it might
         | not be able to pass the apple review for production release (i
         | just learned this 2 seconds ago)
        
           | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
           | Fair enough, I didn't meant to imply you were nefarious, but
           | I'm interested to see how many people will blindly download
           | your app without considering whether they should.
        
             | GoodluckH wrote:
             | yep that's the beauty of developing for the ios ecosystem.
             | apple made it a high trust environment for users to try out
             | different things by making it very safe and sandboxed
        
               | flawn wrote:
               | ... in return of the freedom of every iOS user. Not a
               | world I want to live in, same as a government telling me
               | what to not eat so I am "safe".
        
         | pimlottc wrote:
         | To be fair, the whole point of iOS application sandboxing and
         | the permissions system is to allow users to run unknown apps
         | with a minimum of risk.
        
       | GoodluckH wrote:
       | KNOWN ISSUES SO FAR - counts more than one every time volume
       | button is clicked (fixed in new build, waiting for review)
       | 
       | - crashes if you hold one of the volume buttons for long
       | 
       | JUST LEARNED THIS... Apparently, Apple prohibits apps from
       | altering hardware functions like volume buttons. So, that likely
       | means this app won't get published on App Store.
       | 
       | But it's been fun to learn Swift and Objective-C from building
       | this simple app.
       | 
       | If I want this to be released, I would need to remove the volume
       | button control and only support swipe gestures.
       | 
       | I can also make this open-source if you are interested in
       | learning how it works.
       | 
       | Lemme know what you think.
        
         | js2 wrote:
         | I'm surprised it was approved for beta testing. Did it not go
         | through TestFlight App Review when you uploaded the first
         | version and added it to an external testing group?
        
       | wonger_ wrote:
       | I'm on Android, but I assume it's a click counter like these
       | physical devices? https://scorecount.com/click-counter/online-
       | click-counter.jp...
       | 
       | Really nifty idea to use the volume buttons instead of the
       | touchscreen.
        
       | slobiwan wrote:
       | I'd be interested in a frequency counter view, with a running
       | average per minute or per second. So I can record that I see 10
       | Teslas per minute driving to work in the morning, but only 3
       | Teslas per minute on the way home at night (for example).
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-12 23:01 UTC)