PCalc developer James Thomson is one of our favorites because he not only makes great apps, but he seems to love doing it, and always figures out new, positive, and productive ways to get our attention.
This time around it isn’t just the release of an iPhone 3.0 compatible version of PCalc for iPhone ($9.99 – iTunes link) that includes support for copy and paste (and a couple of new vertical button layouts, one for engineers, one for programmers), it’s how he built one version of the app that supports both iPhone 2.2.1 and iPhone 3.0 at the same time. An iPhone version of Apple’s “universal binary” concept, as it were.
We’re not sure he’s the first to do this — and according to Twitter he isn’t either — but we hope he does write up the process when the 3.0 SDK NDA (non-disclosure agreement) lifts so other developers can do it as well. It’s an elegant solution to say the least.
Now to see if we can not only paste some complex calculations… but understand them!
Tim Daley let us know via Twitter that his app, What Would Chuck Do?, was rejected by Apple’s iTunes App Store for the most terrifying reason imaginable. Because they said so:
Thank you for submitting WWCD – What Would Chuck Do to the App Store. We’ve reviewed the Application and, consistent with the criteria considered in our approval process, we have chosen not to publish this application. As you know, Apple reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject an application for any reason.
Regards,
iPhone Developer Program
While as a publisher, this is absolutely within Apple’s rights, as a platform that needs to nurture and maintain the support of both its developer and user base, it’s suicidal. And what’s worse, it’s stupid. In this day and age, especially for a company as connected as Apple, poor communication causing bad PR is as astounding as it is inexcusable.
Steve Jobs and Eddy Cue need to pull out whatever flame-thrower they marched the halls of MobileMe with last year and turn them full-throttle on whatever passes for the current App Store rejection policy. If any reviewer even thinks of typing “because we said so” they should immediately be transfered to whatever passes at Apple for Siberia.
It’s getting tiring to keep typing this, but developers deserve clear, consistent guidelines, users deserve top notch reviewers to make sure we get the best technical quality in apps, and Apple deserves a happy developers and PR experience that matches the phenomenal success of the App Store.
It’s such an easy thing to fix, which makes it all the more stupefying Apple not only hasn’t fixed it, but hasn’t even reached out to developers to show they understand the frustration level and are working to fix it.
For more examples, see TUAW’s recent reports from Christina Warren on MiniPops and Erica Sadu on iLaugh Lite.
Apple.com has posted up the winners of the WWDC 2009 Apple Design Awards (APA), and specifically for our interests, the iPhone winners. Like last year, a lot of our favorites got the nod. Here they are, with iTunes links where available:
It was a longtimecoming, but as part of yesterday’s WWDC Keynote, TomTom co-founder Peter-Frans Pauwels demonstrated their company’s solution to turn-by-turn GSP navigation for iPhone 3.0, and interestingly, it comes in two parts:
The TomTom navigation application for iPhone; an Apple version of TomTom’s award-winning turn-by-turn navigation software, including IQ Routes and latest maps from Tele Atlas;
The TomTom car kit for iPhone; a specially developed car kit for secure docking, enhanced GPS performance, clear voice instructions, hands-free calling and in-car charging.
No word on pricing or availability yet, though it will be at some point later this summer, after the iPhone 3.0 release on June 17.
Was it worth the wait, and what kind of pricing are you anticipating (or hoping for)?
Short story: GP Apps made iVidCam, a video recording app. Apple rejected it for using undocumented APIs. The developers appealed on the grounds that other camera-related apps also use undocumented APIs and demanded Apple allow it in, and let them sell it for 2 months before Apple released their own video recording functionality, as anticipated for WWDC 2009. Apple thanked them for pointing out other API violators, said they would investigate, and let the rejection stand.
Long story, including personal response from Apple VP of marketing, Phil Schiller: See GPApps.com.
It’s hard not to sympathize with GP Apps given the amount of hard work and obvious passion they’ve put into iVidCam. They’ve made 680(!) other apps already and had them approved in the App Store.
But here’s the thing: the app is in clear violation of App Store policy. If Apple keeps the other violating apps in the store, GP Apps could clearly argue fairness, but if Apple investigates and removes the other apps, that’s a done deal. Basing significant development resources on the shaky foundation of others getting away with something is harder to sympathize with. It’s more of a gamble than an investment.
In other words, if several people jaywalk in front of us, and we get caught, we’re still getting the ticket. And demanding that the cop not give us the ticket, and give us two months of unmolested jaywalking privileges on top of it… Well, we admire the hutzpah, but when the cop’s name is Apple, we don’t see it getting us too far.
Still, we wish GP Apps good luck. If those APIs are made public (as happened with the undocumented API’s Google was using), and Apple restricts their built-in video functionality to third generation hardware, we expect it will iVidCam may still appeal to a lot of iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G owners.
Yeah, BeeJive is totally teasing us now. Instant messaging (IM) is one of the most anticipated services when it comes to iPhone 3.0’s Push Notification service, and BeeJive aims to deliver and soon.
Best of all — (see screenshot, above) — they aim to deliver it free to all current customers. Maybe as soon as WWDC next week?
Well, Hassan from Inside Redbox Mobile reminded us that, with iTunes 8.2 going into general availability — and into the hands of consumers — developers now have access to the full range of crash logs from their full base of installed customers. Bug. Fixing. Goldmine. (See the Inside Redbox Mobile crash log report, above.)
From the consumer standpoint, the information looks to be as anonymized as anything else sent from iTunes to Apple — Genius info, for example — and in exchange for sharing, users will likely get more stable apps.
John Carmack has written an update on his Doom port for the iPhone, and he’s continuing the same candor he began with his Wolfenstein 3D post. What are we getting? A classic in almost every sense of the word:
Before I actually started coding on the project, I had visions of adding a lot of modern tuned effects to the core gameplay experience. It would certainly stay a sprite-and-sector based game, but there are many things that would be done differently with the benefit of a GPU and the wisdom of hindsight. Once I began actually working on it, it started to look like a bad idea for a number of reasons. I am trying to not be very disruptive in the main codebase, because I want it to stay a part of prBoom instead of being another codebase fork. While I can certainly add a bunch of new features fairly quickly, iterating through a lot of user testing and checking for problems across the >100 commercial Doom levels would take a lot longer. There really is value in ” classic” in this case, and there would be some degree of negative backlash to almost any “improvements” I made. There will still be a couple tiny tweaks, but nothing radical is changing in the basic play. It would be fun to take a small team, permanently fork it, and make a “Doom++” just for the iPhone, but that wouldn’t be the best first move. Maybe later.
Check out the full post for more on his experiences with iPhone game development.
Daring Fireball has posted a bitingly satirical look at Apple’s iPhone App Store review process which, like the best of comedy, is firmly rooted in both tragedy and truth. That Apple hasn’t posted clear guidelines for developers is frustrating enough. That they apparently haven’t imposed them on their own internal staff raises the flabbergast bar to dizzying new heights.
With 35,000+ apps and a billion downloads Apple is well on their way towards building that next great platform. Until they fix the app approval process, however, that building is a house of cards.
Enough of the choir preaching. Here’s Gruber bringing the painful funny:
MONDAY MAY 18: The dude who wrote that game with the iPhone icon seems very upset. Says that the iPhone image is used to explain that the user must tilt the device in order to play the game, and so how can he show this visually without using an image of an iPhone. And he has a list of other apps already in the Store which use similar graphics. I reply with the exact same message as last week, word for word. Spend the rest of the day playing Flight Control.
Read the entire Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer via Daring Fireball…
Mac and iPhone icon designer Sebastiaan de With of Cocoia takes app designers to task for not making their icons better match the quality and look of Apple’s built-in apps. Says de With:
A lot of professional designers get it wrong as well, and I can understand; it’s truly very hard to make an icon that looks as great as one from Apple’s bunch and blends in with the rest. I don’t mean to be an icon snob; I like diversity in my icons, and especially creative freedom. It’s more than just annoying, however, when creative and diverse motifs look extremely alien to their environment.
Part of the blame is placed on Apple who’s iPhone HIG (human interface guidelines) provide a mere 378 words on icon design, with examples that are sub-par. But de With isn’t just complaining — he’s doing something about it. Enter: Composition:
Sean Patrick O‘Brien and I are working on the very first Mac application that will be released under the Cocoia ‘brand’: Composition. Composition allows you to take any image and get a pixel-perfect preview of iPhone’s default effects at regular home screen size and Settings/Spotlight small icon size. It also lets you look at your icon in a virtual home screen to achieve a native look (and yes, both iPhone and iPod touch home screens will be represented), and export it for further usage on websites and other materials.
