While traipsing around the iPhone dev site… I realized that the iTunes Connect has improved tremendously. Does this mean that I’ll be heading back into iPhone development? Not so fast.
But I would definitely love to make a game on the iPhone, put all those lovely game design principles I’ve been gleaning from all these unposted blog posts…
If I did any sort of iPhone development, it’ll probably be a game. I wouldn’t know where to begin developing one…
stevenf.com – On Saturday night, we drove up to Seattle to….
All I can say is… Phil Schiller is quickly becoming more than a demo monkey. 
I guess he’s pulling another shift as a Apple customer service representative to the Mac Bloggers. I wonder who’s gonna get the next email…
The iPhone bug has to do with telling the phone there is a certain amount of data, and then not sending it as much as you said you would. The function that reads the data starts returning -1 to indicate an error, but the other parts of the program don’t check for this error and actually think the -1 is data from the message.
via Exclusive Interview: Hacking The iPhone Through SMS : Introduction – Review Tom’s Hardware.
Always interesting to see the anatomy of a hack.
How To Hijack ‘Every iPhone In The World’ – Forbes.com.
Good thing I don’t have a texting plan. Or ever plan to.
Should have released lite version from the beginning – There was no point to waiting and sacrificing the initial new release buzz. Since it is harder to get featured once your app is launched, say for app updates, it is important to strike early and hard with your app release.
Lite does NOT cannibalize sales – If your app is a gimmick then it might not make sense but in all other cases it only helps to increase sales (see our previous post on this topic)
Get the bugs out for your lite release – users churn lite apps and are fine giving you 1 star if they don’t like the experience. This is especially bad because the App store prompts users to rate an app when they try to delete it
Lite sales trail off too but paid sales remain higher – if you don’t have the x-factor that is needed to spread the word your lite downloads will fall as they have for iCombat, but in our case paid sales have continued to sell at a minimum rate several times higher than the pre-lite period
Frequent releases do juice downloads – Pocket God and other frequently updated apps have benefited from a weekly sales bump as they show up in the new releases section of the app store (users also like this episode style model)
via Just How Much Does a Lite Version Help Boost App Sales? « The App Farm.
I can attest to this. Demos are wonderful. A powerful marketing tool to get your product in the hands of potential customers. But there’s plenty more of things you’d have to do to make your iPhone application successful. Like this, writing about how your iPhone app did, providing insight for other developers, and drumming up the blogosphere (like what I’m doing right now). Simply having a lite version isn’t going to fix everything, although it’s a great first step.
Although, this whole “lite” version business is kind of a hack. There needs to be more of a connection between the lite version and the full version of an app. But Apple has bigger problems to fix on the App Store.
Developing software for the platform is like playing the lottery. Most people end up losing out while a select few strike it rich.
Read it. It’s worth your time. Also, I tweeted this earlier, noticing the general feeling towards the App Store in the past couple of months.
It’s as if the iPhone development world is waking up with a hangover. Seriously, it’s hilarious to see.
But since this is Apple, I sure do hope that this Trough of Disillusionment is followed by the Slope of Enlightenment. #hypecycle
Heck, look at Rails: Definitely at a Plateau of Productivity. I just hope that the Great Refactor triggers something awesome.
I’m talking about the Hype Cycle. I was a little late to the Technology Trigger, but I was definitely on board for around the Peak of Inflated Expectations. I think the App Store is trying desperately to get to the Plateau of Productivity… and failing at it.
The Google Voice rejection is the most recent addition to the growing list of problems with the App Store. Today, Apple announced a half-way fix for the broken searching in the App Store, and I certainly hope that this is one of many fixes that are to come to alleviate the problems with it.
I stopped doing iPhone development for a couple of reasons, and figuring out that the App Store didn’t really offer a sane viable business platform was one of them. (Although, the actual programming part was amazingly cool. Seriously, a phone… wait… a revolutionary Internet/communication device that I can program?)
But I was reminded by @amdev that Apple is indeed a hardware company. Here’s the conversation that took place. (By the way, where’s the “Export Conversation” feature for Twitter? I had to do this by HAND.)
@amdev: Eh, sad we expected anything else. Apple (company, not the reviewers who are blamed) is bending devs over w/ horrid policies. :\
@joshkim:Yeah, well if it starts affecting the bottom line, then changes will happen. They’re still selling iPhones like hotcakes, regardless.
@amdev: And that’s their business: hardware, so it will not hit their bottom line for a while (if ever).
@amdev: I mean really, who’s going to design something better in the next 6 months?
@joshkim: Exactly. I love the iPhone. It’s got it’s problems, but it’s the closest thing we got to the JesusPhone.
@joshkim: That’s a very good point. They really truly are a hardware company, with a bit of sprinkling of amazing software that works.
Until Apple actually sees a drop in iPhone sales due to garbage treatments of the iPhone developers, I don’t really forsee a large push in trying to fix something that barely works.
Sidenote: I’m sure Google’s first goal was to develop a useful product, but I wonder if the fallout in the iPhone development community was planned by the Google overlords.
This weekend has been spent largely on learning more and more about the joys of iPhone development: Going through this book, hacking away at this Cocoa Twitter engine, and trying out Tweetie (iTMS)/TwitterFon (iTMS) in a more developer mindset.
Being the list-maker that I am, I was a little happy that I finally got the ball rolling this past Wednesday. I was happy with knowing that I was able to act on these deep desires to create.
Around the height of my productivity, at 2 AM, I got angry.
Awesome things happen around and after 2 AM, contrary to “popular belief”.
I was angry at myself for not being able to do this earlier, faster, better… I realized that I maybe it’s because of some ridiculous standards that I set for myself, but it was more than that.
This cool, controlled frustration was exactly what I needed. I ended up taking most of it out on the “Whiteboard of World Domination”, attempting yet again to plan out the new new projects I will begin in the next couple of weeks.
I feel great to be in the high part of my waxing and waning productive cycle. Definitely took a new programming language, framework, and platform to get me started. Let’s see how far I can take it until I become lazy again.