Posts tagged with "developers"

Crapptastic Aggregates The Best of The Worst in the App Store

I’m a firm believer that there must be something wrong with many developers who publish apps in the App Store. Creepy artworks and soundtracks, scary screenshots in the App Store page, insanely horrifying user interfaces.

Crapptastic is here to help you find the best of the worst in the App Store, in case you ever wanted to do that. Founded by @Digeratii (Josh Hellferich, also owner of popular website iPad Apps That Don’t Suck) Crapptastic “celebrates the hilarity that is the iTunes App Store”, and in a good way: while those screenshots piss me off when I see them in iTunes, Crapptastic somehow manages to make me laugh everytime.

I mean, Listen to the pig? Seriously?

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iAd for Developers Not So Effective After All?

Last month Apple launched the “iAd for Developers” program, a way for developers to advertise their application through the iAd infrastructure by enabling the users to click on a banner and get an App Store-like page, with options to download the app (from the ad itself), see screenshots and read the description.

The iAd for Developers campaign comes at $0.25 per click (unlike iAd’s standard $2 per click fee) and, according to Apple, it should be the best way to drive a huge amount of traffic to your application. Admittedly, it sounds like a great idea: you don’t have the leave the app you’re currently in to buy another app, the system is smart and targets that app based on you. For small developers, this could be a great source of revenue at a rather affordable price.

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Google Introduces New Ad Formats for iPad Devs

In case you can’t wait for iAds to show up on the iPad and there’s no way you’re going to charge for your free app, Google has just launched new ad formats specifically targeted to iPad apps developers. (based in US and Canada)

Google explains in a blog post:

“The new iOS SDK supports ad serving in iPad apps using three of the most common online ad formats, instantly making it easier for developers to grow their businesses and for advertisers to expand their presence to the iPad.

Advertisers whose campaigns run on the Google Display Network and include text or image ads in the above sizes can now show ads within iPad applications – provided their campaigns are targeting mobile devices or specifically the iPad.”

Here’s my suggestion, though. If you really care about the look of your application, look elsewhere. Wait for iAds. Make it paid. Think about it.

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Hey, Apple: The App Store Is Broken.

Last night Cody published his thoughts on iTunes and wireless syncing to devices, a matter we’ve been discussing here at MacStories for a long time. I agree with him (though I’m really not into podcasts as he is), but I want to follow-up by focusing on a secondary point: the App Store navigation.

Google is copying Apple, but the App Store is broken. I can’t believe that after 2 years of existence Apple still hasn’t fixed many of the issues that affected the App Store back in 2008. In fact, they added even more.

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Apple Opens Up Compatibility Labs for Developers

If you’ve been a member of Apple’s Developer Connection program, you’ve no doubt taken advantage of Apple’s compatibility labs. If you’ve ever wanted to test the next hit application on a variety of hardware, Apple launched on Monday a $99 Single Day Lab Day Pass for compatibility lab testing inside the Tokyo and Cupertino campuses.

500 different hardware configurations are available for testing from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and while Apple Lab Engineers will be on hand to assist you with configurations, items such as certification and engineering support aren’t available.

It’s suggest that you’d inquire for a Day Pass three days before you actually need to use the labs, and while the $99 Day Pass makes Apple’s labs accessible, you can’t forget about the travel and lodging fees you’ll incur along the way. Hopefully you’re a native on the American West Coast (or metropolitan Japan).

Apple has a spiffy compatibility lab site you can check out here.

[via Macworld]

Test Cloud and Mobile Apps at Scale Before Deployment with New Tools

Admittedly developers and teams can have a helluva time testing at scale. Bugs are squashed, the experience is perfect, yet you don’t want to be left releasing a slew of updates through the next month to fix potential issues. Worse, if you’re a cloud based service, you want to make sure you won’t get absolutely crushed by a positive influx of consumer interest. So what do you do? Test at scale before releasing the next greatest alternative to Dropbox, that’s what.

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Camera+ for iPhone Generates $250.000 In Revenue

In these two years of App Store we’ve read many stories of indie developers making tons of bucks out of apps sales. Still, I’ve noticed a trend recently, and that’s why the news of Camera+ generating over $250.000 in revenue matters: if you look at the App Store Top Paid charts, you’ll see lots of games in there.

So the question is: is still possible to be successful in the App Store even without developing a game? Apparently, it is.

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Apple Releases WWDC Session Videos to Developers

Apple has just released the WWDC 2010 session videos. A registered Apple developer account is required to download them, and you can find them at developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2010/. They’re available both in standard and high definition.

“Watch over 100 in-depth technical sessions from WWDC 2010. You’ll learn advanced coding techniques that will show you how to enhance the capabilities of your applications with the revolutionary technologies in iOS and Mac OS X. Download the videos, then take them with you on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad to watch anytime, anywhere.”

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