I pursued this internal AP project in order to learn iOS development. The project experimented with end-to-end technology: A server-side OS X application accessing the AP photo feed and delivering it to an iOS client app with a custom map component.

The server software read the AP NNTP photo feed that it publishes to members. My software:

• Created an XML feed of the content.
• Resized photo assets.
• Geolocated photos from textual metadata content.

Simultaneously, I wrote the iPad client app to:

• Read the feed.
• Write a network manager class to handle asset loading.
• Create a custom map component.
• Design and implement a simple but usable interface.

The map component was not based on Google Maps or the built-in iOS map viewer. It is a UIScrollView subclass—this was a great opportunity to learn how to use that class’s zoom ability. My map component:

• Is tile-based with three levels of zoom.
• Uses designed map tiles that I created in ArcGIS, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.
• Supports coordinate projection transformation and plotting.