Comments on: Idea: Lego Mindstorms IDE for iPad

By: app designer

app designer — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 13:45:12 +0000

Good day! I could have sworn I’ve visited this website before but after
looking at many of the articles I realized it’s new to me.

Anyways, I’m definitely pleased I came across it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back often!

By: robot loop

robot loop — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 14:41:07 +0000

You can download it from apple app store or cydia now.

By: felixch

felixch — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 14:17:24 +0000

Here is the link. NXT-G for iPad.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTkyODg4ODU2.html

By: Erli

Erli — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:55:01 +0000

Hey, how to download that one?

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 22:26:00 +0000

Apple allows third-party software to generate/execute code. They changed their policy in Sep 2010.

Look here: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/09/09statement.html
“…we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.”

An important point to understand is that the restriction to “not download any code” is actually to not download code that’s executable/executed on the iOS device.

In the case of an alternate NXT-G-type app, a RBT file/code would be created/edited on iOS, and then forwarded to an NXT for execution. The iPad would be only editing “code” that it can’t execute. I don’t believe we want the iPad to execute RBT files. Apple’s license doesn’t prohibit any of this.

By: Mark Petereit

Mark Petereit — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:04:13 +0000

The most recent version of iOS contains a Bluetooth API. The bigger hurdle remains, however — that Apple refuses to allow compilers into the App Store.

I have had some success using Pocket Cloud on my iPad to allow my son to log into his account on our iMac and do some programming, even while my wife was logged into her account and physically sitting at the iMac (using OSX Lion.) it works, but since the Mindstorms IDE was designed for a physical keyboard/mouse, it can be cumbersome.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:01:27 +0000

Any action on this? my classroom is slated to get iPads, so I would love it if my students could program and download (USB is good in classrooms with many NXT bricks) their programs from the iPad. Otherwise we have to keep some older macbooks around for the job.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 02 May 2011 20:57:23 +0000

I guess the best way would be to make an app that was an extension of the one already running on your PC/Mac. You could build your program and then push it to your pc which would then bluetooth it to the NXT.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:15:47 +0000

Greetings and props on your technical accomplishments,

I sent the following letter to Apple at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html after a little fact finding from your blog. Hope others will make their wishes know to Apple too. Cheers, Doug

Dear Apple Employee,

I am interested in an iPad for my 5 year old for it’s educational apps like ABC magnetic letters, whiteboard lite, brushes, etc. I also was thinking about how it could be used to control Lego Mindstorms robots, but when I started looking it appears that this is not doable because of lack of access to the bluetooth stack. I think access to the Bluetooth stack or another solution to marry Lego Mindstorms with the iPad would be greeted with great enthusiasm by many robotics enthusiasts.

Sincerely, Doug

By: admin

admin — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:31:32 +0000

It’s amazing how a few short months makes Android so much more of a viable platform. Not only Android, but the entire web platform. In fact, fairly recent Google App Inventor project is almost exactly the same thing, making apps for android (and it would be awesome if it were possible to make android apps on a nice android tablet, like the Galaxy Tab). Because the App Inventor/MIT Scratch/NXT-G style drag-drop block manipulation programming interfaces are natural and intuitive on a touchscreen.