amdev’s blog

i love technology and hate stupid people

My Thoughts on the Apple iPad

My initial thought was wow, this is pretty lame. I was disappointed. I still am. It's a big iPod Touch. It does offer some in-between functionality around document editing via a customized version of iWork, which I think will be key to its success (if it does indeed succeed). It's my opinion that there were a great number of missed opportunities for the iPad but it's worth noting Apple's target market for the iPad is (apparently) not me.

The iPad has a fast, new processor that Apple designed in house. It's an ARM processor and it makes sense that they did this given the purchase of PA Semiconductor some time ago. Various blog posts point to animation being silky smooth and the UI being nice. Having not handled one, I can only go off what I've read as far as hardware quality -- it's great. The price is good. It starts at $500 and goes up to $830. I don't see the point of spending $130 extra to get a 3G enabled version. Generally, I will either be at home or at the office. Both have wifi. If I'm not at home or at the office, then I'll use my iPhone since it's in my pocket and easy to get to. I suppose the usefulness of 3G will depend on the user. The data plans are reasonable, but I'd rather pay an extra $15 and tether directly to my iPhone, where I already pay $30 for a data plan. The 3G enabled version of iPad will also ship a full 30 days after the wifi enabled version ships. This is bad for developers since testing on device is important. The simulator is good enough in most cases but users don't run simulators.

Onto the not so good stuff.

iPad is a terrible name. Feminine hygiene product jokes trended to #2 on Twitter today. 

The iPad has limited software. I expected more. I expected more of everything. And I don't just mean multitasking and standard connectors like USB. I expected the iPad to really fill the gap between my iPhone and Macbook Pro by actually interacting with the two in a meaningful way. Syncing via bluetooth would have been a good start. Perhaps allowing one to use the iPad as a secondary monitor via wifi would be another way to bolster its usefulness. iPad is sorely lacking in the productivity-make-my-life-easier software department. There's more, but I digress.

How about the target market? What is it, exactly? Well, I believe the target market is currently media consumption. It's a big iPod Touch. It'll be great for video, music, reading, and so on but not so great for your average business person. That's why Apple needed iWork for the iPad to succeed. It needed a business use case. I do believe the target market will grow with the release of iPhone OS 4. With any luck, it will fill in some of the gaps I've mentioned and give the iPad a shot at being in my bag with my Macbook Pro. At this point, I only plan to purchase one for the purpose of software development. I want to help expand that target market.

Posted January 27, 2010
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Detailed Account of Blipr - Beginning to Present

I've published a post about Blipr on the return7 blog. It talks about expectations, costs, risk, failure, etc. related to Blipr. You should definitely measure the effort and deeply research the market involved in creating a quality iPhone app (if you want to succeed). Check it out here.

Posted January 18, 2010
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Holiday Gift from App Store Review Team

Nescaline: NES Emulator that you can load your own ROMs into (painfully, one at a time).

 

Edit: Of course, this was pulled after a few hours.

Posted December 21, 2009
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App Store Approval Process Improvements

Apple's App Store and its approval process have taken significant heat over the past months from pretty much everyone. This includes myself. I think things are changing for the better, though. Apple seems to have cut the time for app approval and loosened their grip on the store. Although there's still room for improvement, I'm pleased at the strides they're making to improve the process.

Our submissions to the App Store have historically taken between 2-5 weeks. In the last two weeks, several updates to our apps have been approved in 3-7 days. That's huge. I'm not sure if Apple has beefed up staffing or if the App Review team is working overtime before the holidays but in any case, it's a welcome change.

In addition to shorter approval times, Apple has also taken a more laid back approach to the use of private APIs. Basically, they're letting developers use UIGetScreenImage() that, as the name implies, allows one to grab an image from the screen resulting in things like rudimentary video playback. They are also allowing updates with private APIs to go through in some cases and asking developers to resolve issues in the next build. This saves a lot of time.

Another once forbidden practice that iss now allowed is the ability to stream video over 3G. I'm not sure if this is a delayed side effect of the FCC inquiry into the behavior of AT&T+Apple+Google, but it's incredibly useful to be able to do this sort of thing. I expect EchoStar to enable support for 3G streaming in their SlingPlayer app in the near future.

I think these are great steps toward a more open App Store and my hope is Apple is working toward an entirely open App Store.

Posted December 18, 2009
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App Sketch Book is Pretty Cool

So I met @stephenmartin at the awesome Mobile Camp Atlanta. We chatted it up a bit about iPhone stuff. A few days back he sent me an App Sketchbook. It's literally a sketchbook to help designers and developers mock up their iPhone UI on paper before moving it into InterfaceBuilder, etc. 

I'm not exactly gifted when it comes to art/sketching and the like and I admit I was skeptical until I tried it. I think it's extremely useful if you either have a designer with you or you remember to pick up a stencil like the one TUAW showed in their recent sketchbook roundup. BTW, TUAW reviewed the App Sketchbook here. They seem to like it a lot. So do I. I'll be using it to help mock up our next app (after Blipr and Tippy, which already have fancy UIs).

Crappy pic below thanks to my iPhone 3GS.

 

Posted October 7, 2009
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NSLog("100 device limit in iTunes Connect Sucks");

Never mind that the Ad Hoc build process and code signing only sort of work and are a fraking disaster to get going but there's this 100 device limit. Ok, I can deal with that because we can just remove/add devices when I drop beta testers, right? Nope.

"Are you sure you want to remove this device? Devices removed still count against the 100 devices you are allowed to register per membership year."

Posted October 5, 2009
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Rant: I Hate The Expert

Short rant. So @stammy recently tweeted a link to this excellent rant on the Smartest Guy In The Room. Great read, but I'd like to generalize it a bit. Know who I hate? The Expert. Yep, it's that guy who knows everything about anything and cries if they don't get their way.

You know who I'm talking about, don't you? That pretentious asshole who knows he's right, even when he's wrong. And when you prove he's wrong, he won't admit it. Shame on you should you decide to ignore their shitty advice. Never mind that you never asked for their shitty advice to begin with. If it isn't done their way, it must be wrong. They're immediately offended and go on the defensive. Maybe they're a "consultant" (title of deities) so they must be right. If they don't like what you've done then it's bound to fail since they're an oracle who holds the opinions of the masses. In fact, they control the opinions of the masses. They simply haven't decided to let the masses know yet. I just don't understand why so many people fail to grasp the concept of humility these days. Experts are great.

Posted October 1, 2009
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Tips To Avoid iPhone App Rejection

A single app submit/reject cycle can easily take two weeks. I've put some tips below to help you avoid being rejected by Apple. Many of these are things that have caused our apps to be rejected.
 
• If your app requires a network connection, use reachability to detect status and inform the user when there's no connection
• Don't put region specific pricing in your description (unless you use a region specific description for each region)
• Don't use competing app names in your search keywords (even if they use yours..)
• Test your app thoroughly before submitting so Apple doesn't have to do it for you
• Don't bother trying to argue with Apple reviewers -- they pretty much always win
• Don't discuss iPhone/SDK limitations in your app description
• Don't use hidden APIs
 
Despite the big black hole that is the review process, the Apple review folks are actually human (I've spoken to one on the phone -- hi Steve!) and they're pretty nice to boot. They simply have guidelines they have to work within to do their jobs and that's not something they can change. Having said that and despite improvements Apple has attempted to make, the review process sucks. Look for a blog post on why in the near future.

EDIT: And don't mention Apple in your description at all.

Posted September 17, 2009
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Some Fun BillMinder Stats

Over the lifetime of the app, 37,210 users have spent 11 years 18 days 7 hours 40 minutes 26 seconds using BillMinder to track their bills over 628,757 sessions.

Since September 1 through September 16, 2009, 16,531 users have spent 1 year 105 days 19 hours 40 minutes 25 seconds using BillMinder over 74,794 sessions.

Cool, huh?

BillMinder is, of course, available on the App Store.

Posted September 16, 2009
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How To: Improve the App Store Approval Process

Often, we submit an app and get legitimate feedback on things that need to be changed. It often takes 14+ days for one cycle, despite what the gauge on the iPhone Dev Portal says, to find out we've done something like put wording Apple deems in appropriate in our application's description. This is a waste of time for both Apple, developers, and users. Even if we resubmit the same binary immediately, it takes additional days or weeks to get approved.

 I suggest the option to pay a little (perhaps $50? $100? $150?) for priority service for important releases (bug fixes or otherwise). The amount should be enough to keep developers from overusing it but be affordable for indies. Perhaps there could be limits on how often devs could request this service.

 Just a thought.

Posted September 16, 2009
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