Now for the bad news. I'm going to have to pull fbook Photos from the App Store. I knew I walked a thin line with fbook Photos -- there was a risk that the icon and name were too similar to trademarks owned by Facebook Inc. I plan on re-releasing fbook Photos with a different name and icon, but I'll do it after I've updated the app to work with the new data access model that Facebook will soon require. In the meantime, there should be no reason the app doesn't work for everyone's who's bought it. And, I promise you, it'll come back soon, better than ever.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
flickr Photos update, Pica Photos now live
I have some good and bad news. The good first: The latest version of flickr Photos is up and it's quite an update. You can now watch videos right in the app! You can also search for photos and videos on flickr. You can view and download search results and, perhaps my favorite use of search, see them in a slideshow. Pica Photos, an app that allows you to view your Picasa photos, was finally approved by Apple and is now live on the App Store. I had to do some back and forth with Apple to get the app approved -- I had to change the app name from Picasa Photos to Pica Photos. This new app debuts at version 1.4 and has the same functionality as flickr Photos, minus the video viewing.
Monday, June 7, 2010
WWDC 2010
I have never been a fan of receiving updates to an event in realtime. I'd much rather get a summary of what transpired, in one easy to read location. No live blogs, no streams, just the summary. And WWDC this year was no different. To help curb my curiosity, I took a nap from 10 till noon (that's my story and I'm sticking with it!).
After getting up, I read through all the various blogs I have in my Google Reader. Unsurprisingly, WWDC was just about the only thing people had written about. About the only thing announced was the iPhone 4 (not iPhone 4G, not iPhone HD, but the simple and accurate name "iPhone 4").
Of course, we all know a lot about the phone already because of the leaks the past couple of months. What it looks like, the front-facing camera, the LED flash, etc. And we knew what the next iPhone OS had in store (by the way, I'm a little torn on the name iOS -- it makes a lot of sense but it sounds kind of stupid).
The surprises: I was pleasantly surprised by the 10 hour battery life and just plain out surprised about the gyroscope. The iPad has spoiled me in terms of battery life -- I love the fact that I don't have to worry that my battery will die. A friend of mine scoffed at the battery life, questioning who would watch videos for 10 hours. I think he misses the point -- it's the peace of mind that's valuable. As for the gyroscope... I'm not sure I understand it well enough or can envision how developers will use it to truly appreciate it. My initial question: What can the gyroscope do that the compass + accelerometer can't do? After a bit of thinking, I did see the value in a gyroscope but I'm still a bit skeptical about its uses. I do reserve the right to change how I feel about it later, however. :)
As for the other things... FaceTime looks pretty exciting. Korea's had video chatting for years now and, having seen friends use it the last time I was there, I'll bet it's going to be big here soon. The OS itself looks really nice, especially the multitasking and grouping of apps. The physical hardware looks pretty slick, with high-end material used to make the phone -- be sure to check out this video (and I dare you NOT to think of Foxconn while watching it).
I am disappointed that WWDC only announced one thing. I wanted to hear about Apple TV, new Mac hardware, MobileMe, iTunes.com, iPhone on Verizon, iOS for the iPad, the new OS X, etc. I did just hear that Apple had a press release announcing Safari 5 (*yawn*) so maybe these other updates will trickle out (at least the smaller ones).
All in all, though, I'm excited for the new iPhone. I'll probably be in line to get it on June 26th (the day it launches).
After getting up, I read through all the various blogs I have in my Google Reader. Unsurprisingly, WWDC was just about the only thing people had written about. About the only thing announced was the iPhone 4 (not iPhone 4G, not iPhone HD, but the simple and accurate name "iPhone 4").
Of course, we all know a lot about the phone already because of the leaks the past couple of months. What it looks like, the front-facing camera, the LED flash, etc. And we knew what the next iPhone OS had in store (by the way, I'm a little torn on the name iOS -- it makes a lot of sense but it sounds kind of stupid).
The surprises: I was pleasantly surprised by the 10 hour battery life and just plain out surprised about the gyroscope. The iPad has spoiled me in terms of battery life -- I love the fact that I don't have to worry that my battery will die. A friend of mine scoffed at the battery life, questioning who would watch videos for 10 hours. I think he misses the point -- it's the peace of mind that's valuable. As for the gyroscope... I'm not sure I understand it well enough or can envision how developers will use it to truly appreciate it. My initial question: What can the gyroscope do that the compass + accelerometer can't do? After a bit of thinking, I did see the value in a gyroscope but I'm still a bit skeptical about its uses. I do reserve the right to change how I feel about it later, however. :)
As for the other things... FaceTime looks pretty exciting. Korea's had video chatting for years now and, having seen friends use it the last time I was there, I'll bet it's going to be big here soon. The OS itself looks really nice, especially the multitasking and grouping of apps. The physical hardware looks pretty slick, with high-end material used to make the phone -- be sure to check out this video (and I dare you NOT to think of Foxconn while watching it).
I am disappointed that WWDC only announced one thing. I wanted to hear about Apple TV, new Mac hardware, MobileMe, iTunes.com, iPhone on Verizon, iOS for the iPad, the new OS X, etc. I did just hear that Apple had a press release announcing Safari 5 (*yawn*) so maybe these other updates will trickle out (at least the smaller ones).
All in all, though, I'm excited for the new iPhone. I'll probably be in line to get it on June 26th (the day it launches).
Thursday, June 3, 2010
A Day in the Life of a Coder
As a developer, who hasn't felt like this before? I just had that type of moment a couple of weeks ago, when the slideshow feature of my apps suddenly just... worked. *shrug*
Yup, that's right, the updates that I submitted allow you to view your photos in a slideshow! I have it turn off the idle timer (the thing that turns off your iPad after a few minutes of inactivity) when the slideshow starts. There's only one simple transition right now (the same as "Dissolve" on the iPad) but it feels and looks great!
Just waiting for Apple to approve my updates...
UPDATE: Oh, I forgot to mention this... I had submitted an iPhone-only version of fbook Photos and it just got approved by Apple. It's on the App Store now at a low, low price of $0.99! I wanted to have a version of the app priced appropriately for those who don't have an iPad.
Yup, that's right, the updates that I submitted allow you to view your photos in a slideshow! I have it turn off the idle timer (the thing that turns off your iPad after a few minutes of inactivity) when the slideshow starts. There's only one simple transition right now (the same as "Dissolve" on the iPad) but it feels and looks great!
Just waiting for Apple to approve my updates...
UPDATE: Oh, I forgot to mention this... I had submitted an iPhone-only version of fbook Photos and it just got approved by Apple. It's on the App Store now at a low, low price of $0.99! I wanted to have a version of the app priced appropriately for those who don't have an iPad.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
My (spiky) sales charts
Every day, as soon as I wake up, I log onto my computer (or iPad, more recently) and check out how many apps I sold the day before. Yes, I do this as a bit of a pick-me-up every day, true, but because Apple let's you access only the last seven days' worth of sales, I have to download the reports before they become inaccessible.
After stumbling upon this blog entry by Zoho on analyzing iPhone app sales, I signed up for Zoho and started importing my data to it. I made a few graphs and charts to help visualize my sales. Here's a graph I have that portrays total sales per day (fbook Photos and flickr Photos, combined).
As you can see, there are spikes in the graph that correspond to when the iPad launched, when the iPad 3G launched, and when the iPad launched globally.
And here's a graph that I have that breaks down how many of each app I sold per day.
The green line shows the sales of flickr Photos, the red shows fbook Photos. I didn't expect the flickr app to outsell the Facebook app. There's probably an order of magnitude difference in membership for the two services. But it made sense in hindsight, given that flickr users probably have higher quality photos and are more likely to buy an iPad and want an app to display their photos.
The fbook Photos started selling better because... well, because the flickr Photos app started selling less well. The initial reviews and ratings for the flickr Photos app were brutal. Plus, there are more (and cheaper) options for flickr apps on the App Store (though I still think my apps are the best looking photo viewing apps!).
Some other notes... I didn't see as big of a sales increase when I updated my apps to be universal. I thought that would be a big selling point, as I assumed that most iPad users also owned iPhones. Also, I had heard that there are slight increases in app sales on weekends and I definitely see it in my data (though it's not too pronounced).
Before I end this entry, I wanted to mention a service I started using a week ago. There's a great service called appFigures that tracks your app sales for you automatically. You provide your iTunes Connect login credentials and they'll fetch your reports daily and send you an email about it. Very convenient. I also like the fact that they store these reports so that you can download them later (no more worrying about the rolling seven day only availability of these reports!). appFigures also provides great charts and graphs, showing you your revenue, rankings, and reviews. I'm still on the two week trial and I'm not sure I'll pay for the Premium service (I feel the $4.99 per month should cover more than just two apps), but I've been happy with the service so far.
After stumbling upon this blog entry by Zoho on analyzing iPhone app sales, I signed up for Zoho and started importing my data to it. I made a few graphs and charts to help visualize my sales. Here's a graph I have that portrays total sales per day (fbook Photos and flickr Photos, combined).
As you can see, there are spikes in the graph that correspond to when the iPad launched, when the iPad 3G launched, and when the iPad launched globally.
And here's a graph that I have that breaks down how many of each app I sold per day.
The green line shows the sales of flickr Photos, the red shows fbook Photos. I didn't expect the flickr app to outsell the Facebook app. There's probably an order of magnitude difference in membership for the two services. But it made sense in hindsight, given that flickr users probably have higher quality photos and are more likely to buy an iPad and want an app to display their photos.
The fbook Photos started selling better because... well, because the flickr Photos app started selling less well. The initial reviews and ratings for the flickr Photos app were brutal. Plus, there are more (and cheaper) options for flickr apps on the App Store (though I still think my apps are the best looking photo viewing apps!).
Some other notes... I didn't see as big of a sales increase when I updated my apps to be universal. I thought that would be a big selling point, as I assumed that most iPad users also owned iPhones. Also, I had heard that there are slight increases in app sales on weekends and I definitely see it in my data (though it's not too pronounced).
Before I end this entry, I wanted to mention a service I started using a week ago. There's a great service called appFigures that tracks your app sales for you automatically. You provide your iTunes Connect login credentials and they'll fetch your reports daily and send you an email about it. Very convenient. I also like the fact that they store these reports so that you can download them later (no more worrying about the rolling seven day only availability of these reports!). appFigures also provides great charts and graphs, showing you your revenue, rankings, and reviews. I'm still on the two week trial and I'm not sure I'll pay for the Premium service (I feel the $4.99 per month should cover more than just two apps), but I've been happy with the service so far.
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