iOS App Submission Tips

So, I have four app in the app store based on two code bases.  Here are some tips that you may find useful and that I wish I had known.

1. Wait until your app is REALLY finished before submitting it.  It only really gets one shot at the front page of the "new apps" part of the appstore.  The people who see it there are going to be your initial user base.  If its only half finished then people will download it, try it and uninstall it.  No questions asked.
2. Make sure it is in the right category.  I released a music news app and foolishly marked it as "news" first and "music" second.  Who looks in the news category?If i had marked it the other way round, i would have got a lot more hits.  
3. It usually takes a week to get a new app approved.  The app store gets the most action at the weekend, so submit your app on a Thursday or Friday.  Then nine times out of ten it will be live on the Saturday and you will get maximum exposure.
4. You have two apps, same code base but slightly different content.  Say, one is a "lite" app.  If you submit two apps, one an update to an existing one and the other a new app based on the same code, the update will be done before the new app.  I think it is about 4 days for an update and a week for a new one.  This makes me think updates are not as rigorously checked or that there is less paperwork for the reviewer to fill in.  I am just saying ...
5. "Lite" apps.  They are there to give someone a taster of the real app and nothing else.  If I am not doing many updates then I have no problem with renaming the lite app and resubmitting it as a new app.  That way it gets maximum visibility.  Some existing users will not get the update, but who cares as they probably are not going to buy the app.

iPhone Fragmentation

iPhone users laugh at Android because of its market fragmentation, but it is pretty fragmented itself.  if you are an iPhone dev then you have to worry about which iOS model  you will be running your app on.

iPhone 1 to 3G
Small screen.
Dead slow.
Rubbish camera.
Not compatible with a lot of the latest iOS features.

iPhone 3G/4
Bigger screen.
Fast.
Decent camera.
All latest iOS features.

iPad 1
Biggest screen.
Fast.
No camera.

All latest iOS features.

So to write a universal app you need to include 3!! versions of any artwork you require and at least three (maybe 5) different sized icons for the home pages.  You can't guarantee what features the device will have or what speed it will eventually run at.  Add to that iPone5/iPad2 and you have even muddier water.

The Lava Lamp Shaped Universe

Two of the great scientific questions of the age are what was before the "big bang" and what goes on inside a black hole.  It has always struck me as blindingly obvious that the "big bang" and block holes are both opposite ends of the same tunnel.  Whatever gets sucked into a black hole will eventually get spewed out into a new universe somewhere in a parallel dimension.  I believe Lee Smolin has done some research on this.

How does this work?  Well, imagine of you would a huge lava lamp.  As time goes by it changes shape, bits bubble off and bits join up again but there is always the same amount of "stuff".  The way i see it there is an unbreakable skin round the universe that can increase or decrease in size. when a bubble occurs it doesn't break off from the main body but instead goes off into another dimension in the same space. Then matter gets sucked out of the old universe and into the new one, a bit like sand running from one compartment in an egg timer to another.

So how does this relate to our universe?  Well imagine there was another universe U1.  U1 at some point in its life gets a black hole in it.  This is some sort of hole between dimensions.  matter starts leaking out from U1 and that forms our universe U2.  As it is in a different dimension it is an entity unto itself.  The bang in the "big bang" is the force of the matter flowing into our universe.  As more and more flow in, our universe expands and U1 shrinks.  This carries on until U2 starts to develop black holes.  Now we are leaking matter into any number of other universes Un.  Eventually once there are enough black holes, the amount of matter leaving U2 will be greater than the amount coming in.  This is why the universe seems to be contracting.  It is literally getting smaller.

This makes much more sense than all the matter sucked into a black hole being reduced to an infinitely small point or all the matter in the universe coming from one either.  it doe however make more questions that need answering.  If you have more than one black hole then what happens when they meet?  If the rest of the universe has been consumed then does one consume the other or can one suck the matter back out the other?  If the second black hole is consumed, would this have any effect on its child universes?  Who knows?  Is any of this measurable?  Probably not.

Is iTunes Racist?

Yes, it is to a certain extent.  How?  Well you see, it tends to classify everything that comes out of the US, England, Australia and some parts of Europe as "Pop", "Alternative", "Electronica" or whatever.  The musical output from the REST of the world get labelled "World Music" which, in all honesty, is a bit ignorant.  It may come as a surprise to some,  but the rest of the world can do our sorts of music as well as we can.  Labelling everything as "World Music" is like labelling Bob Dylan and Daft Punk as the same genre.  It is just not the case.

Capturing iPhone or iPad screen shots.

I searched for a long time for how to take an iPhone 4 sized screen shot using an old 3G iPhone or Xcode.  There are lots of very old stories floating around the internet from before the iPhone simulator had this facility. You dont need extra software or stitching ordinary screen captures together.  No, you can capture screens from the iPhone simulator using control-command-C.

Simple as that!

Now open Preview, select "New from clipboard" and save the result as a PNG.

Things I Hate About iTunes ...

In no particular order

1. No undelete option. You spend 2 hours hand crafting a play list and hit delete by mistake. Boom, its gone.
2. It will fetch some artwork for albums you rip but not all of them. Even really obvious ones.
3. If you rip a 2CD set then it will invariably try to name each CD differently. Why?
4. The interface in general. Start playing a track, rename a whole bunch of other and a dialog box pops up while the renaming takes place. Can you stop the track? Nope.
5. Genres. Some have "&" in them and some have a "/". There is Electronic, Electronica and Electronica/Dance. I think you will find that Alternative is quite separate and different to Punk.
6. Oh look, Apple has released a new bit of hardware. Time for another huge iTunes download with a couple of features that aren't applicable to you.
7. Why is Bob Dylan next to Bob Marley in my collection? One is D and one is M.
8. Why it gives strange errors (Error 50, I'm looking at you) when Apple make iTunes, the iPod and even the computer it's all running on.

Epic Pet Wars Hints, Cheats and Tips

I have been playing Epic Pet Wars a while now on the iPhone and on the web site and here are a few tips to getting the most out of your pet.

1. Start with a strong pet. The original selection of pets were quite weak compared to the recent additions. It always pays to download any free pets that come up as they usually come with respect points as well. Certainly in the first few dozen levels having a strong pet makes all the difference.
2. You should never have to lose a battle. The simple rule for battles is ONLY fight pets that are weaker and less well defended than you are. Make sure their weapons and armour are several levels below yours. If they don't have any accessories then even better. If they have no equipment at all then you should kill them in one strike. This is easier on the website as you can refresh the battle screen if they all look too hard. I have fought 500 other pets and only lost 4 times.
3. Equip only the suitable equipment. Weapons and armour are a matter of taste. I go for the ones with +HP, +Attack and +Defence. never go for any that reduce anything.
4. Bosses. Only fight these when you have to and make sure you are well equipped with spells and potions when you do. You can easily defeat the early ones just by having the best equipment. Some of the more advanced ones require spells. Here you have two options. First one is HP. You can get spells that reduce H and Max HP at the same time. These are useful as they hurt the enemy but they can't heal themselves as their Max HP is diminished as well. The other approach is attack and Defence. Here you either reduce theirs and/or increase yours until it becomes a one sided battle.
5. Mysterystein. I finally managed to defeat this boss. If you chuck all the strong spells at him then he just reduces tour Max HP until you are dead. It seems the way to get him is to chuck the weakest spell (B.S.O.D.) at him. this doesn't hurt him but a) stops him casting the nasty spells and b) bumps up your stats quite nicely. You want to use at least 50 on him by which point you can start attacking normally.
6. Friends. This is a good site for building up your Possee. you need at least 400 by the time you reach level 100+ so add a few a day. And remember, friends are cumulative so they are shared by all your pets and are never lost.
7. Have a few pets. Some of the latter levels are a bit tedious if you just log on once a day, train and log off again. Having a couple of pets keeps it interesting. It is also good to have one long term pet and another one or two practice ones.

I hope you found that useful, and don't forget to add AEGZRL.