Category: iOS

Categories
Business iOS

Design then Code

Design then Code
Design then Code: “Building iOS Apps From Scratch is an introduction to Objective-C and Cocoa for first-time coders. It explains Obj-C’s unique syntax, the Cocoa frameworks, creating and using objects, Model-View-Controller, and how to build an app’s interface. This is suggested reading before tackling project tutorials.”

This is Mike Rundle’s latest project to help the iOS Design and Development community avoid creating Frankenstein applications. Mike’s a rare breed, he’s a great designer and he gets Cocoa and Objective-C, which makes me a bit green with envy.

If you’re a beginner, and can’t wait to build your first iOS App, you could do a lot worse than purchasing the Design Rookie and Cocoa Rookie packages together. Heck, if you’re not sure, give the free tutorial a spin before purchasing. That should give you some idea of the quality to expect.

Well done Mike!

Categories
Development iOS Mobile Technology

Software is King

Mike Rundle: “Because the future of mobile hardware design is for it to fade away completely and have the focus be the OS and apps it runs.”

Yes, software is king. It’s good to be the king.

Categories
Apple iOS Life

Newspaper Publishers warn Apple?

BBC: “Apple is being warned against trying to squeeze cash out of the newspaper industry by controlling subscriptions for iPads and iPhones.”

I don’t get this at all. The newspaper publishers clearly have a choice in the matter. If you don’t like the pricing structure don’t create a native app for iOS, you still have the web. Oh, you can also give it away on Android, right? It’s pretty clear the only successful platform that supports paid applications is Apple and iOS. Android users all expect their applications to be free. Now don’t get your knickers in a twist. I didn’t say the only place to make money was iOS. Clearly some people are making money giving away their applications, but that model doesn’t work for everyone.

The choice is yours.

Categories
iOS iPhone

A non-geek view of the iPhone

The Daily Dish: “I guess, lastly, I’m not a geek. I use this technology and marvel at it without having the slightest clue how it really works. And since switching to Apple for everything a few years ago, the only problem I have had with the technology is AT&T and when I dropped my iPod in Cape Cod Bay and when I left my MacBook in a cab.”

Take that however you want.

Categories
Apple Business Google iOS Mobile

Who wins?

A cute little monkey.tap tap tap: In the end, I think that both Apple’s and Google’s models will thrive and there won’t be a clear-cut winner. They’re ultimately two completely different markets, targeted toward two different kinds of users… and two different kinds of developers.

That’s a good way to look at it. There are those of us completely sold out to iOS and there are those sold out to Android.

We all win.

Categories
Indie iOS

Paid vs. Ad Suppprted

Inside RogueSheep: “First, the good news. Putting iAds into an iOS application is as easy as the documentation says it is. And in its first week as a free app with iAds, SnoGlobe had respectable downloads, over 50,000 ad requests, and made 3 times what it made in all of November.”

RxCalc IconMy brother and I have struggled with the idea of making RxCalc free with iAds support. These results seem to support that idea but a Snow Globe app verses an Pharmacokinetics Calculator? I don’t have the slightest clue how that would work for us. We made RxCalc free for a day just over a year ago and downloads exploded, but there was no telling how many were by medical professionals.

We’ve also struggled to resolve our feelings about changing to ad supported because of our current user base. I think we’d do it in a heartbeat if there was any way to know if we were upgrading an existing user and turn off the ads. If there is a way to do that I’d love to hear about it. We could then make RxCalc ad supported with the option of turning off the ads for $0.99, for new users, and turn them off automagically for existing users.

Oh, and you’d be surprised how many folks are reluctant to spend $0.99 on iPhone applications.

Categories
Apple iOS Mac

Setting yourself apart

Daring Fireball: “The whole point of Apple’s success with iOS has been the opposite of “write once, run anywhere”. It’s more like “write a version that is specifically optimized for this particular device”.”

This is one of the things I love about Apple. A lot of companies would be fine with slapping some simple mouse based helpers into their emulator, change it ever so slightly so it works on the desktop, and ship it. Apple doesn’t do that. They tune their software for the hardware platform. As it should be.

Categories
Indie iOS

What happened to Camera+

Tap Tap Tap Blog: “I posted about us submitting version 1.3 to Apple for review. This version was all about allowing users to snap photos using the volume buttons on their iPhone. It was rejected by Apple.”

Read the comments. It would appear that Tap Tap Tap has disappeared off the face of the planet.

This is pretty fascinating stuff.

Categories
Business Development iOS

Craig Hockenberry on iOS Development Costs

Will write C/C++ for foodStack Overflow: “I’m one of the developers for Twitterrific and to be honest, I can’t tell you how many hours have gone into the product. I can tell you everyone who upvoted the estimate of 160 hours for development and 40 hours for design is fricken’ high. (I’d use another phrase, but this is my first post on Stack Overflow, so I’m being good.)”

Craig would know, he’s a very experienced Mac and iOS developer. In other words he’s been doing this for years and is one of the good guys. Listen to what he has to say. These aren’t toys, they’re serious applications, and those serious applications take time, and money, to create.

My brother and I spent many hours on a fairly small application, that doesn’t have a complex UI. Can you imagine the amount of time it takes to go outside the default UI, not to mention whatever logic is needed behind the scenes? Yeah, it can be quite daunting, I can assure you.

Go read the piece. Craig should post it to his weblog. It’s very valuable information, from a very valuable developer in the iOS ecosystem.