developer posts

Last week at WWDC, we met up with Jive DeVoe -- he's the developer behind the iZen Garden app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and, just recently, the iPad. The app purports to be a zen garden simulation, and it works as exactly that -- you can rake patterns in the sand, or put over 130 objects like stones, plants, or leaves on the ground and resize them as you like. In fact, everything in this app is "as you like." Rather than a directed experience, DeVoe called it a "coffee table app" -- something that you lay out on a coffee table, either with others or just on your own, and experiment with at whatever pace strikes you as right.

He's added some features over time -- one of the most requested was a meditation timer, and so the iPad app comes with an option for background noise, as well as a timer that will stop or even put the iPad to sleep whenever you want. DeVoe's also put a few of his own little touches in the app: if you look closely at the screen while tilting it around, you'll see the shadows underneath the objects move with the accelerometer, a very subtle effect that you'll only notice if you look for it.

DeVoe has played around with prices quite a bit since his app hit the store one day one way back when. He's been as high as US$7.99, and as low as $3.99 (which is where the iPhone version is currently set), and he decided to put the iPad app at $5.99. He doesn't want to go much lower than that -- at 99 cents, he says, there's more money to be made, but there's almost a stigma against pricing so low, as if a 99 cent app is somehow worth less, even if it's well-made. Plus, he told me, "at 99 cents you lose money until you hit the top 50."

There are also lite versions available, with fewer objects to see, and none of the meditation timer functionality. iZen Garden is a cool metaphor app that does what it says on the box, and in the end, DeVoe says, that's what most of his users want. The App Store, for him, is a direct connection between "my customers and me."

San Francisco isn't the most dangerous city in the world, but like any major city it has its fair share of property crimes. When Chinese developer Stone (just the one name) came to San Francisco to attend WWDC at Apple's request (he worked on QQ, China's pick of IM clients for Tencent), I doubt he thought he would wind up getting mugged.

Last week, I saw my share of iPhones being used on the MUNI, but never an iPad. I guess we know why -- Stone pulled out his iPad on the bus and was promptly mugged. He wound up with a broken rib and some lumps on the head, plus a shattered iPad screen. Although the iPad still worked (don't forget, it is magical and revolutionary), the screen was pretty well demolished.

Stone went to the Apple Store and, upon hearing his plight, they gave him a shiny new one. The old one will be wiped and recycled, but before heading home the developer was treated to one of those trademark one-line Steve Jobs emails: "safe travels home." Stone still has to deal with the trauma of what happened, but it's nice to see Apple taking care of this guy. It's sad that he came all this way to be subjected to such violence.

[Via M.I.C Gadget]

I believe we've mentioned Moodboard exactly once on the site before, as one of Brett's picks back when the iPad first released. But it deserves another mention -- developer Chris Nurre of A Tiny Tribe (a company founded with a friend to help pay for skeleton equipment and travel) stopped by to see us at WWDC to both show off the app and let us know how is experience on the App Store has been going. While I'm not a designer (a mood board is a real designer's tool, kind of a collage of photos created to give inspiration or show direction), I was duly impressed by how the app has matured to fill out its space on Apple's tablet.

Nurre got his app on the App Store the first day the iPad launched -- while he's also published a few iPhone apps, he wanted to try to get something right out of the gate with the bigger device, and Moodboard was it. He built the whole thing on a simulator without a real iPad, which itself is pretty impressive -- the app makes good use of multitouch to scale, size and move pictures, and he did a lot of option-clicking to simulate those in the SDK. The one thing he did have to change was a "long press" feature -- "it's a lot easier to keep a mouse still than a finger," he said, so that had to be adjusted once he actually got a device.

Hey TUAW's Developer Brain Trust! For many of you WWDC is just wrapping up, and you're now probably hanging around in airports bored and checking on e-mail, visiting web sites. We thought it would be a great time to offer you something to think about. Now that you've been exposed to iAds and are able to start returning to your offices to build and submit 4.0 apps using the GM release candidate, are you going to be adding advertising to your apps or not?

I've had very mixed results with ad-supported apps. For me, they've been successful outside of App Store (and a big old "thank you" to every single one of you who has clicked through! I very much appreciate it!) but not so successful in App Store itself. Now, with Apple behind iAds, I'm willing to give App Store another try.

Happy dub-dub everyone! The smell of new technology is in the air and we are practically breathless, we tell you, with happy anticipation. Already, Apple's Developer Site has begun its updates and we are just as excited as you are for the 4.0 Golden Master candidate and all the new developer goodies.

Any particular changes you're looking forward to? Let us know in the comments...

Update: Beta 5 (GM Release Candidate) is ready for download

Steve Jobs said Apple created iAds to help developers make more money. The problem before iAds, to hear Apple tell the tale, had been that mobile ads on the iPhone were a bit of a kludge: different systems supported only basic interaction, they dumped you to Safari most of the time, and as each ad network does things differently, a developer wanting to make ad-supported apps had to do the math every time they signed up. With iAds, developers get 60% of the revenue generated by the ad in their app. They can pretty easily drop them into their apps because the system is built into iOS 4. But will anyone use them?

Advertisers are convinced they will. Quoting Steve via this morning's liveblogs, "So let me tell you some of the brands that will be advertising with us. Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Campbells, Sears, JC Penny, Target, Best Buy, Direct TV, TBS, and Disney... those are some of the brands." Those are no small potatoes. At the keynote Steve demonstrated an iAd for the upcoming Nissan Leaf electric car. It's a compelling ad, to be sure, with an interactive signup feature and even a chance to win a car just through the ad. Steve went so far as to project that Apple would have 48% of the mobile advertising market locked up by the end of this year. That's the $60 million in commitments they've got so far and then some! Granted, this is all new movement, and the ad industry has been desperate for a new play lately, with most "standard" ads on the web being annoying or easy to gloss over. Ad execs are clucking their tongues over the richness of the iAds platform (while seemingly missing the fact that they could have always built engaging experiences on the web this way without resorting to Flash).

On the developer side... Well, I'll do a little informal polling whilst here in San Francisco. But I think Apple will make this so easy to do that it'll be an easy decision for developers ready to serve advertising. My only concern: will these ads be sucking up the precious bandwidth on AT&T's network, causing me overages on data? I guess we'll find out when the system launches July 1 along with iOS 4.

photo courtesy Engadget

Many of the developers who are attending the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco this week are already on site, getting ready for the top development event of the year. Others are boarding trains, planes, and automobiles to get to WWDC 2010. One thing is for sure; they're all going to need to know what's going on once they get to the venue.

Apple announced the availability of its official WWDC app last week. The app has a schedule of conference sessions from the start of festivities this morning until the closing bell on June 11 at Moscone West. The list is searchable and sorted by date, with a choice of events that are currently in progress or events happening later.

The app has a favorites list that attendees can contribute to, and will provide updates on what's new and exciting throughout the conference. If you're not familiar with San Francisco, need to find parking, or need to know how to get between Moscone West and the Apple Store, there's a Places tab in the app with helpful information.

The free app is only available to developers who are attending the conference. To download it, go to http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/app -- you'll need to log in with the account that you used to purchase your WWDC ticket.

[via AppleInsider]

Apple has published a new Web page meant to promote and show off the features of HTML5. There are seven sites featured in the "HTML5 showcase," each demonstrating a different function: video, typography, a photo gallery, transitions, audio, 360º product view, and VR.

Each demo includes some aspect of interactivity. For example, the typography demo lets you insert and manipulate your own text, while the video lets you scale the movie, apply a mask, and change the perspective. In addition, each demo explains how it was made and offers sample code from the Safari Dev Center.

Note that Safari -- mobile or desktop -- is required.

Apple has picked its horse and is sticking with it. It's a nice demonstration of what can be done with HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. Here's the money quote:

"Standards aren't add-ons to the Web. They are the Web."

[Via Daring Fireball]

It turns out that the long-awaited tethering option on the iPhone (in the US anyway) is just around the corner. MacRumors discovered that there is a new configuration page for setting up Internet tethering via the iPhone inside of the latest beta of iPhone OS 4.0. The feature isn't actually enabled yet; as you can see in the picture, you'll need to call AT&T to set up the service (which, of course, will come with an additional charge). But the framework is in the latest version of the iPhone OS, so when that version gets released, presumably sometime next month when the new version of the iPhone is rumored to arrive.

As you can see in the picture, we're talking about a 3G connection. I find it hard, if not impossible, to believe that this will work over my 1G iPhone's EDGE connection. Since we already know that some features of OS 4.0 won't be working on anything other than the 3GS, it's likely that there will be limitations on the number of phones out there that can actually use this service.

Of course, the beta is still being tested; it's not an official release, and obviously, the service isn't set up yet, so don't throw out your various Wi-Fi or EV-DO subscriptions prematurely. However, it seems like we're closer than ever to an official tethering solution from AT&T.

[via Engadget]

Apple is now 4 for 4.

Or at least Beta 4 for iPhone OS 4.0.

They have just posted the latest and greatest iPhone OS 4.0 beta. As with previous beta releases, this new beta update provides firmware for each of the supported devices (namely the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 3G, and the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch).

Because of the ongoing NDA, the details of this release remain behind a wall of confidentiality. You'll need to visit the developer site and check out the specifications for yourself. Apple will be releasing 4.0 into the general iPhone population this summer. An iPad version will debut in the fall.

Apple's servers get slammed whenever a new SDK is released. You may want to wait a few hours if you encounter any problems connecting to the developer site.

Apple just posted its latest iPhone OS 4.0 beta. As with previous beta releases, this new beta update provides firmware for each of the supported devices (namely the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 3G, and the 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch).

As usual, the details of this release remain behind the NDA wall, so you'll need to visit the developer site and check them out yourself. Apple will be releasing 4.0 into the general iPhone population this summer. An iPad version will debut in the fall.

Apple's servers get slammed whenever a new SDK is released. You may want to wait a few hours if you encounter any problems connecting to the developer site.

UPDATE: Apple has pulled the beta for now. This has happened before and generally indicates some problem with the build (despite paranoia about leaked features). Please let us know when Beta 3 returns.

UPDATE 2: The beta is available for download once again. The beta returned around 9:30 PM (Pacific Time). Given that the beta was only pulled for less than one day, and judging from comments made by developers who managed to grab the beta this morning, chances are the reason for the beta being pulled may have been due to installation location problems. Now that the download is back, we'll find out soon enough.

Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckynova are the husband-and-wife team that make up iPhone developer Imangi Studios, creators of the popular Harbor Master iPhone game and its iPad cousin. I got to meet them both at the 360iDev conference a few weeks ago, and they kindly showed me an as-yet-unnamed game that was still in the early stages of development. They said it would be a little while until they unveiled a trailer for it, and then this week they sent out the trailer above. The game has been named Max Adventure, and Imangi Studios tells us they hope to release it a few more months from now.

The version I played at 360iDev was very early -- the menus were still in bits and pieces, and there were no real missions or text yet implemented. But the story was told to me: the protagonist (Max, apparently) is a kid who lives in the suburbs, and when all of the parents get ported off of the planet, it's up to him to save his friends (and eventually, you'd assume, the world).

Aaron Hillegass and Joe Conway of Big Nerd Ranch kicked off the Voices that Matter iPhone conference in Seattle this weekend with an overview keynote detailing the lifecycle of an iPhone app from a developer's point of view. The two are trainers and consultants for developers working on iPhone apps, and they laid out how an iPhone app is made, from start to finish, giving tips and suggestions to the developers in attendance on how they've developed their own process.

Read on to learn the steps they take at Big Nerd Ranch in making an iPhone app, and both how and how not to perform them.

Just a quick heads up to developers: Are you struggling to determine what changes between one beta release and the next? There's an easy solution. Head on over to the pre-release reference library. This site lives behind the normal Apple firewall and can only be accessed by members of the paid ($99) iPhone developer program.

Normally, Apple's documentation on the main beta release page (also behind the paid developer wall) lists only those differences between the last major firmware version (currently 3.2) and the newest beta (currently 4.0 beta 2). Over the last few days, I've been able to point quite a few people over to the document that shows the differences the previous beta (4.0 beta 1) and the current (4.0 beta 2). By checking in there, you can easily see what's new right away when a beta build drops. Hopefully this will save some of you a bit of extra work.

Thanks, Emanuele Vulcano!