New Apple Submission Guidelines and the Independent App Producer

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Recently, Apple posted, for the first time, app store submission guidelines. They are pretty specific, informative, and useful. Apple has been fairly opaque, in the past, regarding what would get your app rejected, so independent developers and producers, like myself, always lived at risk as to whether or not their new app idea would be summarily rejected. The new guidelines increase transparency and should help lower the Apple-related risks involved in creating new apps.

Ever since Apple introduced the App Store for their iPhone, there have been stories of apps being rejected. In the beginning, shunned developers would post their rejection letters on the Internet, and we would all commiserate and learn from each other’s experiences. Later, these rejection letters themselves were put under NDA, so the specific reasons for rejection became even murkier, and the fear factor rose. Some rejections clearly violated the developer terms and conditions, so there wasn’t much sympathy going around. Other rejections were genuinely surprising, and sometimes, even nuanced. These were scary. Every developer had to judge for themselves whether the time and money was going to be summarily flushed into the bit bucket. I noticed that my clients, even when developing innocuous apps, were concerned about the Apple risk.

So, to protect my apps and my clients, I have spent a fair amount of time over the last couple of years tracking the news sites, talking to fellow developers, and just generally keeping a finger on the pulse of the shifting rejections winds. I don’t think this will still be necessary…at least not to the same degree. For the first time, we have a document to read, and it is readable by actual humans, too. This frees up my time and lowers the risk of rejection. Largely now, I believe, rejected apps will be from software bugs, honest mistakes, and willful belligerence, but not random fate.

Some rules are funny:

  • “Apps that include games of Russian roulette will be rejected”

    This was a problem?

  • “Apps that use location-based APIs for automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other devices will be rejected.”  My imagination flows with what could have been.

    "The pilot just died - does anyone know how to land a plane?" - "They made an app for that, but it got rejected."

Apple is a funny company. They have a history, mostly pre-iPhone, of being slightly indifferent towards their development community. This reputation has carried over into the iPhone age, largely because of the overwhelming influx of new developers to the Mac platform. However, in my experience, it is largely undeserved. I see them making missteps, like when the original SDK was under a tight NDA gag-rule that forbade developers from talking to each other unless they worked in the same company, and the long lack of specific app submission guidelines. So far, though, they have always, even if very belatedly, addressed those missteps. The gag rule was lifted. The submission guidelines were eventually posted. This impresses me. Their reputation should be modified to: “Will do bonehead things to developers in the short run, but the right thing in the long run, and will always try to protect the end-user.” It could be worse. The company’s DNA seems good, which for Independent Developers and Producers, makes the iPhone and iPad good platforms to invest in.

Must reads for Independent App Producers:
* Apple App Submission Guidelines (Requires Developer Account)
* PR Press Release
* HI Guidelines

Why I’ll Replace My MacBook Pro with a Desktop Because of the iPad

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picture of mac pro

Power-house

My 2.0G 15″ Macbook Pro is getting a little long in the tooth. I went to the Apple store yesterday to replace an unexpected failure in the external Mag-Safe power supply. I’m now on my fourth power supply – yikes. It wasn’t covered by AppleCare – the guy behind the counter pitifully reminded me that my laptop was now over four years old. That’s at least 28 years old in computer-hardware years, and in dog-years. So it is probably time to upgrade. But I don’t think I’ll replace this laptop with another – I’ll get a desktop instead. Unlike times past, the arrival of the iPad releases me from the laptop upgrade cycle.

Happily, unlike in my old Windows days, my computer isn’t slowing-down, per se, but I’m asking a lot more of it than I used to ask. I’m doing a lot of cross device smartphone development lately, which involves running multiple simulators – tough work for any computer, let alone a laptop. The recent upgrade to Snow Leopard breathed new life into my old beast. Also, my recent upgrade to a SSD hard-drive helped, too. But my hard limit of 2Gig of RAM is killing me.

I’ve written about how my iPad is proving to be a fairly useful portable computer. I find myself writing blog posts, catching up on reading long articles using Instapaper, and writing presentations and business plans using Keynote. I can even do some emergency SSH’ing to manage basic server maintenance. I plan to eventually do app requirements development and wireframe moch-ups, too, once I get around to building those apps.

So the thing is, even good laptops don’t perform as well as good desktops. I’m realizing that my next computer might last a long time, longer than I’m used to in the Windows world. My single biggest desire, other than more horsepower, is a large screen with letters big enough to let me avoid reading glasses. I also know, from experience, that a very high quality monitor can last many, many years. So my need for an upgraded laptop just isn’t too pressing. My old laptop will probably serve my increasing occasional heavy-usage mobile needs. My iPad will probably serve my lite-usage mobile needs. My new desktop will likely serve my big screen and big cpu needs. My spectrum of needs (I’m needy), will get met.
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I’ve been relying upon laptops since I got a Dell Latitude in 1998. I just need to last the two years of business school. That is about how long it lasted, too. The thought of moving away from laptop-land is weird. Scary. Exciting. Visions of three 30″, side-by-side, monitors are dancing through my head. Home office utopia might be near. Ahh, peace is settling across my being.

Good bye laptop upgrade cycle. Thank you, iPad.

iPad vs. Jesus: Healing the Blind and the Silver Market

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[Guest Post by my father-in-law, William Haueisen, PhD., CEO of Sterling Research Group (SRG). William agreed to share his recent experience with the iPad touching the older generation that has been sadly overlooked by recently technology innovations. That older generation is rapidly growing and sometimes referred to as the silver-market because of their under-addressed needs and under-tapped purchasing power.

About SRG: SRG designs and executes high-quality, and high-volume, customer satisfaction surveys.]

Gavin and Maddie’s great grandmother, aged 86, has suffered from macular degeneration for a decade. In earlier times she was an avid reader, sometimes with multiple books “under process” at the same time. But the macular degeneration has robbed her of any ability to read. She “reads” now only by sitting under a bright light and holding a fairly strong magnifying glass. That is until a week or two ago.

Great Grandmom lives in a retirement center so meals are always a big social time. Recently she’s been hearing her friends talk about Kindles. And while she hadn’t actually seen one, she had a feeling that it might be something that could help her read again. So we took her on a shopping trip, first to Best Buy to look at Kindles. They were interesting and she was fascinated with the idea of the thing, but unfortunately, even with the text enlarged to its maximum, she couldn’t read from a Kindle except with the ubiquitous magnifying glass. Part of the problem was the lack of contrast. But, even though it didn’t help her, she sure liked the basic idea of the thing.
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Next we took her to Barnes and Noble to see a Nook. No dice, not enough real estate, and otherwise the same problem with lack of contrast.

… Read More

The Killer App for the iPad is, wait for it…, Writing.

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The killer app for X. Everyone always wants to know, when a new widget is built, what it really does well. Often, it seems, it isn’t what was advertised. The killer app for the iPhone was suppose to be, according to Jobs, Making-Phone-Calls, with a heavy emphasis visual voice mail. The killer app for the personal computer, for those of us that can remember back that far, was supposed to be Cooking-Recipes (OMG!). The killer app for the iPad, again, according to Jobs, is Media-Consumption. All wrong.

The iPhone, although it needs to make phone calls, is only so-so good at it – but it is great for always-within-arms-reach-apps. Granted, there are lots of other uses for it, like games, web surfing, etc, but the Unique thing about the iPhone (and other smart phones) is that it is a little computer that you carry in your pocket that is connected to the Internet – and it does it Good-Enough(tm). I used to carry a Palm Treo 650 – which was also in your pocket and connected, but not it didn’t quite do it good-enough. It arguably did it better than others, but key functionality was really crippled if you weren’t employed by a company that could afford the Good e-mail back-end server. The Good software made the Treo very Blackberry-like. Apps were relatively difficult to install – more difficult than for a normal PC. The killer app for the Treo was the e-mail. Same thing for Blackberries. Maybe the twist for the iPhone is the ease of app installation and their security – you really can’t screw up your phone by downloading hack-apps. You could screw up your Treo, and you can still screw-up your Android phones.

So, what does the iPad do that is unique and awesome. Sure, you can read books. Sure, you get most of the benefits of the iPhone. But that isn’t unique. Browsing the web while I lounge in the living room, without having to fumble with a a mouse is truly awesome. Watching Netflix and ABC is, without a doubt, a game changer for media consumption. The Wall Street Journal app is within spitting distance of demonstrating how newspapers will survive. But, those are all, oh, how to say it, too obvious. However, when I attach my Bluetooth keyboard to my iPad, I roam to where there are no distractions, and write like I haven’t written in years (though, still, badly).

My desktop, for me, is for programming, and spreadsheets, and sort of serious endeavors. Writing, for me, is one of those things that is important to do, but never urgent. How could I ever justify writing? If I’m sitting at my computer, how can I allow myself to write when I should be programming? Well, nobody programs directly on the iPad. Nobody does serious spreadsheet work on the iPad. You get the idea. But an iPad with an external keyboard provides a wonderful, portable, low-distraction, writing environment.

I’m drafting this post at my kitchen table. I probably won’t add the links and pictures until I get back to my desktop, because rapid switching between programs, image uploads, etc., are a bit of a pain on the iPad – which is great – because I should be writing, not cropping images! The value is in the content, and thought, not the links and eye candy.

My 1st grade son and I have a semi-regular routine of going to a coffee shop, before his school starts, and we both write. Frankly, grabbing my laptop, the mouse, maybe the power supply, ejecting the external drive, grabbing the backpack, is just a bit too painful. Grabbing the iPad and keyboard, is cake. Not much bigger than my son’s composition notebook. I can grasp those two with one hand. He gets a the good influence of seeing a parent write. I get good writing time and good quality time. He gets to practice his writing and gets to see that an otherwise dull homework activity can be spiced up by just changing locations. We wrap-up by reading our creations to each other. His are more interesting.

iPad Annoyances

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I’ve been using the iPad since day one, and I thought I would categorize some things that I still find annoying about the iPad. Consider this a Dear-Apple letter for things they should refine.

1) The brightness controls are not calibrated for dark rooms. I often read my iPad in bed, at night, but the screen is simply way too bright. It is bright enough that a bed partner will need to turn away from it so that they can sleep. So, every night, I go into Settings and lower the brightness to its darkest setting. The next morning, I reverse the process. This is not ok.

2) The iPad has a bad habit of doing an unwanted screen orientation rotation when it is moved from vertical to flat. Flat, like, flat onto my lap or table top. The is really never the desired behavior, because hey! – I was looking at that!

3) The wireless-keyboard connection is way too sticky. As I write this, I’m sitting at my kitchen table with my iPad and bluetooth keyboard. Its great. If I were move to the couch to surf the web, I wouldn’t want to use my keyboard anymore that is still sitting in the kitchen. However, the iPad stubbornly refuses to bring up the on-screen keyboard until I go into settings and disable bluetooth. I would really like to just hit a button on the keyboard to disconnect it, like, say, the Eject button…
[Update] I’ll be damned – guess what the eject button does! It brings up the soft keyboard – but its only temporary. I bet there is a way to totally disconnect – hmmm.
[Update – 24 May, 2010] I’m an idiot. You can get this to mostly work by remembering to turn off the wireless keyboard when done. You do this by pressing and holding the power button for about three seconds. When you press the power button, the little green light will turn on, and then off after a few seconds, which is how you’ll know it is off. At that point, your software keyboard will pop back up. This solution isn’t perfect, but it isn’t bad. My happiness quotient just went up!

The keyboard dock I settle on

[Update – 10 August, 2010] My old wireless keyboard simply wasn’t good enough. The Apple iPad Keyboard Dock just arrived today. You know – the one the physically plugs into the base of the iPad. It isn’t an ideal solution since it isn’t as portable as the wireless keyboard, but it seems solid and has a few iPad specific keys. Most importantly, since the connection is physical, the device shouldn’t get confused as to whether or not I have a physical keyboard in front of me.

4) Don’t get me started on Apple’s official iPad case.

5) On physical keyboards, I can hit the Delete key to left-delete, but I can hit, say, fn-Delete to right-delete as if I were on my desktop.

6) [new] The home button is too loud. While in bed, I’m afraid to hit it. It would be too loud for some meeting situations, too.

So, that is a pretty short list. Since, though, you can’t hack the iPad or iPhone much, unlike the Android phones, we’ll all have to wait patiently for Apple to address these. None of the above are show stoppers, and competition in the field is hot enough, that things do seem to get addressed by all of the vendors eventually.

Apple’s iPad Case is Badly Designed: How to Make It Better

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When I bought my iPad on day one, I also bought the official Apple case along with it, and the official Apple docking station (doc). I’ve already hacked up my case to make it compatible with the doc, but I’m about to get out the scissors, again.

After using this iPad combo for a few weeks, I’m having two problems, one big, one small, speaker coverage and orientation-lock blockage. The case has little holes so that sound can escape from the speakers, but, at least on mine, the don’t align with the speaker grill. The iPad fits in snugly so there really isn’t any wiggle room. The holes are simply in the wrong spot. WTF?

Secondly, and more importantly, the case has a sort of annoying and uncomfortable flange around the body. The flange seriously blocks the orientation-lock switch, and, to a lesser degree, the volume control. I’m going to hack these real-soon-now(tm).

Fix 1 (optional): Docking Station Compatibility

Fix 2: Uncage the Speak Grill

Before:
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After:
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Fix 3: Free the Volume and Orientation-Lock

Before:
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After:
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Now, my hacks are pretty ugly, I know. The rubberized case isn’t very easy to gracefully cut with scissors, and, truthfully, I didn’t put too much time into it. Yours will probably turn out better.

The iPhone HD and iPad means Apple Hates Apps – That’s a Good Thing

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According to Gizmodo, this is Apple’s next iPhone, importantly, to me, with a screen of 640×960. There has been a lot of kvetching around the Internet about the iPhone’s new case, it’s front facing camera, etc. but I think that people are missing the cooler picture here. Since the iPad’s resolution is 768×1024, and that the original iPhone’s screen is at 320×480, then we can only draw one logical conclusion: Apple hates apps.

Yup – I said it. There is no taking it back. I dare you to disagree. Well, at least some apps. The bad apps. The unloved apps.

hero-shop-pixi.png
pre-family-verizon-device.gifOne of the iPhone’s, and iPod touch’s early competitive advantages against the Android, Palm, Nokia, and Blackberry was it’s consistent development target. As a developer, a typical app that I built for the iPod touch would work just fine for the all of the iPhone platforms because they had the same input, same screen resolution, etc. If it worked on an iPod touch, then I really didn’t need to test it on, say, an iPhone 3G. Unlike, say, the Blackberry line, with several different resolutions, orientations, and input methodologies, developing for one model meant very little chance of it working on the other models. My early Blackberry development was a bit of nightmare. I screamed at Palm when, after making a game for them targeted at 320×480 on the Palm Pre, when they started shipping the Palm Pixi with resolution of 320×400. What kind of sadist company would do that to their developers? Don’t get my started on what it is like to test for a Nokia app. That fragmentation made it quite difficult to develop for them. The recent spat of resolution changes for the iPhone line, though, changes that Apple advantage (but don’t worry about Apple just yet).

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Why would Apple do this? Well, partly, of course, is that they sorted of needed to get higher resolution screens for the iPad. But for the iPhones, those little screens are good enough, and Apple has never been known for introducing technology with out a corresponding and compelling uptick for the user’s experience. I think this is part of their strategy for culling their massive app catalog of the crappy apps. I don’t think you can underestimate how many of the apps in the app store basically don’t make any money. Stories abound about the app producer that spent $30,000 in development but only harvested $1,000 from the app store. There are countless more, and I know from first and second hand experience, of apps that, although costing less to develop, are only earning $100 in revenue over the life of the app. So, arguably, most, but not all, of the apps, just suck. Those developers will simply not re-invest the time and money to port them to the iPad or the higher-resolution iPhones.

This is win-win for Apple and the consumers. Apple still gets to rightly claim an un-godly number of apps in their catalog, but as the newer devices come online, those consumers will only normally see the apps designed for their device. As a new iPad owner, I really felt compelled to remove every iPhone app, except for the one or two that didn’t have an iPad equivalent and were actually important to my daily workflow.

My recent apps that I upgraded for to the iPad, Nightlight and Powernap: Forty winks anywhere meant some significant re-thinking of the app. I couldn’t just rely upon iPhone emulation mode – things didn’t look good without re-designing. Redesigning for a different screen is a big deal. The investment is significant. The looming changes in screen resolutions out of Apple is also having me revamp my whole programming workflow – something difficult for less sophisticate programmers and developers shops to pull off. Developing for the iPhone OS line just became a lot tougher.

What Apple could have done to make me think different? While in emulation mode, when zoomed in at 2x, I would have expected to see the fonts, for example, re-scaled. Imagine when you zoom-in in Safari, the text still looks awesome. Not the case for iPhone apps on the iPad. Graphic images also could also have been resampled/interpolated, like when you plop a DVD into a player attached to your fancy HD TV. Those DVDs, without extra processing, look pretty crummy. That crummy image was, originally, a big marketing angle for Blue-Ray purchases. But with good processing, a DVD actually looks pretty decent on an HD TV. Apple is a smart company – they could have done that, too, if they thought it important enough – they just didn’t.

This is all pretty good stuff. Apple wins. Consumers win. And, I think, independent developers will win because of fewer get-rich-quick developers out there trying to win the app lottery, undermining the economics. I, for one, welcome our new varying resolution Apple overlords.

iPad as Nightstand: The Apple iPad Case and Docking Station

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So I harbor fantasies of making the truly ultimate alarm clock. I’ve actually schemed about the finer points of alarm clock design since I was a kid, with my college years serving as my main inspiration. I think the iPhone and iPad can both be great alarm clocks that sit on your nightstand, but I’m running into some practical problems with my iPad – it’s case.

Yesterday I bought the Apple dock for the iPad so that it can charge overnight and safely run an app throughout the evening without draining the battery. When I brought the dock home, I discovered that I couldn’t mount the iPad onto the dock.

I have a case for my iPad and it was interfering with my dock. It is the official Apple case. A decent, even if terribly overpriced, case.
Do I need the case? I live in a house with a two year old and a six year old, so the thought of a naked iPad makes the muscles in my back tighten-up with nervous tension. Hmmm – what to do.

Ok – so out come the scissors! I expanded the cut-out in the bottom of the case where the dock goes. I also opened up a rectangular area in the back to match where the back-rest of the dock will sit. Now – the dock mounts fairly well.

So – I hope this little trick works for others. I wish the case had been designed to work with the dock in the first place – I hate hacking with scissors.
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Nightlight now on the iPad – first impressions.

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Happy iPad day. I picked up my iPad at Pentagon City this morning. We made it a family outing and my six year old son was at least as excited as I was. We got in and out of the Reserved line a in about 20 minutes, so really a pretty good experience.

I like the iPad so far. Nice screen. Nice keyboard. Nice heft. Very few things to complain about.

Here are my complaints. My home button is a bit loud. A little too loud if you are typing in bed and don’t want to wake your partner. It would be too loud for a meeting, too. I seem to recall, though, that my last iphone had a loud home button, but that it quieted down with use, so take this complaint with a grain of salt.

I also resent that I can’t seem to use my old iPhone cable to charge my iPad. It’s like a big loyalty tax. What is is up with that? Correction: The problem wasn’t with the cable, it was with what it was plugged into. If I plug into my older MacBook pro, then it won’t charge, but it will charge if I lug it into the wall. What is up with that. More correction: charges sometimes on the MacBook a maybe when the iPad is turned off?

All in all, a great product, though. I’ve had a lot of fun with it so far.

I launched an upgrade to Nightlight for the iPad – check it out. Although I was stoked to have that out on opening day, I’m really bummed that I’m still having issues with getting my Powernap upgrade out the door. It’s seems to work fine for me, but apparently crashes on Apple’s test rig – arghhh. [Update: Powernap: Forty winks anywhere is doing just fine.]

I also launched a simple, but useful upgrade to Elegant Quadratic and launch a Pythagorean equation solver and generic math expression solver called Lil Math. These three are using a new technology that I’m developing to streamline app development – especially cross platform stuff. More about that later.

Elegant Quadratic

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Quadratic
—
Solve the quadratic equation. Simple. Refined.

 

 

This little app solves quadratic equations for you.  Really.  That’s it.  It works.  It is pretty.

Q: What is a quadratic equation?
A: If you don’t know, then this is the wrong program for you.
Q: Hey – I really want to know.  I think I remember, but I’m not sure.
A: Given an equation in the form of ax^2 + bx + c = 0, then solve for x.
This is available for the following:
Desktop Web (Safari Only)
iPhone App Store (Coming Soon)
iPhone/iPod touch Web App
Android Web App
Android Native
This little app solves quadratic equations for you.  Really.  That’s it.  It works.  It is pretty.Q: What is a quadratic equation?A: If you don’t know, then this is the wrong program for you.
Q: Hey – I really want to know.  I think I remember, but I’m not sure.A: Given an equation in the form of ax^2 + bx + c = 0, then solve for x.  This is available for the following:
Desktop Web (Safari Only)iPhone App Store (Coming Soon)iPhone/iPod touch Web AppAndroid Web AppAndroid Native

Elegant Quadratic on iPhone

Elegant Quadratic in Mobile Browser (click to run)

Elegant Quadratic on Android

Lil’ Math

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Lil’ Math
—
Read every day. Great for everyone both kids, and libiophiles, alike.


This little app solves simple math problems for you, like 2 + 3, or, if you feel daring, 2 + 3 * (4+2 -8/2). Really. That’s it. It works. It is pretty.

iPhone Screenshot 1

iPhone screenshot

iPhone Screenshot 2

iPhone screenshot

iPhone Screenshot 3

iPhone screenshot

iPad Screenshot 1

iPad screenshot

iPad Screenshot 2

iPad screenshot

iPad Screenshot 3

iPad screenshot

Nightlight: Gracefully lighting the night

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WalletZero – zero clutter, zero worries, convenient savings
Nightlight
Gracefully lighting the night
A simple but effective nightlight that automatically shuts down when its time to sleep. Perfect for when visiting a strange hotel and need a little light before getting into bed. It is elegant.

A simple but effective nightlight that automatically shuts down when its time to sleep. Perfect for when visiting a strange hotel and need a little light before getting into bed. It is elegant.

Features
==============
* Device stays awake while counting down, then powers down after specified duration.
* One-Touch timer start.
* Set timer for up to one hour.
* Set brightness.
* Set custom colors.
* Works in landscape mode

Happy sleeping,

iPhone Screenshot 1

iPhone screenshot

iPhone Screenshot 2

iPhone screenshot: a different background

iPhone Screenshot 3

iPhone screenshot

iPhone Screenshot 4

iPhone screenshot

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iPad Screenshot 1

iPhone screenshot

iPad Screenshot 2

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iPad Screenshot 3

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iPad Screenshot 4

iPad screenshot

PowerNap: Forty Winks Anywhere

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WalletZero – zero clutter, zero worries, convenient savings
PowerNap
Forty Winks Anywhere
Take a short nap without fear of oversleeping. The power is in its simplicity.

I designed the PowerNap alarm clock specifically to let you take short naps away from home. In the library, for example, I don’t want to bother my fellow readers by needlessly setting off an alarm when a simple vibration may have been adequate, so PowerNap vibrates for 25 seconds before sounding an audible alarm. While waiting in the VIP lounge at the airport, you don’t want to accidently have the wrong AM or PM setting, so PowerNap limits your times from between one and 60 minutes. Lastly, you don’t want to miss the alarm because of a muted phone, so PowerNap provides a “Test Alarm” button for testing volume. It’s great while waiting for class, while waiting for a plane, or while just resting your eyes before the next big thing. PowerNap lets you catch 40 winks anywhere.

Get some rest,
JJ

Try it Now! Seriously – this works (no sound).

iPhone Screenshot

iPhone Screenshot: Waiting to start

iPhone Screenshot 1

iPhone screenshot: Showing the silent option

iPhone Screenshot 2

iPhone screenshot: Mid Nap

iPhone Screenshot 3

iPhone screenshot: some backgrounds

iPad Screenshot 1

iPad screenshot

iPad Screenshot 2

iPad screenshot: Picking images on the iPad

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iPad screenshot: Rain background (my backyard)

iPad Screenshot 4

iPad screenshot: Settings