Recently I received a few comments and e-mails stating that the beginner’s game programming tutorial featured on this site had issues when running with Xcode 4.  I decided to test things out, and had no issues when running the tutorial in Xcode 4 with the latest release version of the SDK.

You can see a screenshot of the game running in Xcode 4 and the simulator below.

The issues may have to do with some still running an older version of Xcode, possibly a beta version.  Be sure to update to the latest version available in Apple’s developer website, and if you don’t have access to download the latest version of Xcode 4 you can find it available in the app store for $4.99 here.

If you still receive an error when running the tutorial even wit the latest version of the SDK, please state the error within Xcode.

Thanks!

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Found a very interesting tool that I have been using today that is absolutely brilliant for anyone programming in Objective-C on iOS and Mac.  The tool is known as Accesorizer.

What this tool does is allow you to generate repetitive Objective-C code using fully customizable parameters.  It’s tough to explain exactly what this tool does as it is completely different from anything I have used before, and it will take awhile for me to exploit the power of this tool.

If I did have to explain it though, I would call it super code complete on steroids.

Looking through the quick start guide should give you a very good idea about the coolness of this tool.

This video from the creator might make things a bit clearer (sorry it’s a download – previous Youtube video was removed):
Accessorizer Demo Video

You can find a trial version on the Accessorizer homepage which lasts for 30 days.

A great timesaving tool for sure.

[via Cerebral Gardens]

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

One of the little complaints is the Apple pay frequency for iOS app store developers, having to wait months, or not meeting the threshold for payment can be unnerving.  While tools have been created by third parties to better track earnings little had been done to improve things since the start of the app store.

Recently, Apple made an announcement that they would now be consolidating payment from around the world into a single monthly payment, reducing the thresholds for pay so developers could receive payments sooner, and improving the presentations of earning.

Further details on Apple pay frequency and payment information can be found in the Payments and Financial Reports module in iTunes connect.

Thanks for reading, please share this using the buttons below!

[Source: News And Announcements For iOS developers]

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

It’s the dream of pretty much everyone who has worked on an app to get an app featured by Apple.  By now I’m sure we’ve all heard the stories of ridiculous profits that can be earned within a few days.

Now the problem is, how does Apple choose which apps are featured?  I’ve seen absolute junk get featured in the Canadian app store while some brilliant apps seem to get glanced over.  So unfortunately,  no matter what luck definitely seems to be the biggest factor in the formula for getting your apps featured in the magic formula.

All that being said I read an interesting article from one developer who was able to get their app featured by Apple, a game known as Alienz which was able to reach the top 100 strategy and arcade game categories of the app store earning them nearly $2k in a week.

Here’s a quick summary of the formula they came up with:

1. Presentation – Definitely looks are the most important factor that you can actually control.
2. Uniqueness – The author emphasizes this, and it seems to be a factor, but I have seen a lot of rehashed stuff get featured so I’m not too sure about this one.
3. Time of release – Interesting stuff here.. definitely seems like on some days Apple has slimmer pickings on some days as opposed to others.  Their suggestion is not to get your app listed right after the weekend if you want to get featured.
4. Make The App Paid – According to the author Apple typically only features free apps by big publishers.
5. Get Mentioned By The Big Sites – Apple seems to favor apps featured on big sites by Engadget (I would say though that these are usually only quality apps anyways

Interesting stuff, and you can read the full article here.

I would say that it is 90% luck, 9% presentation, and 1% the other stuff, but definitely some things to consider.

Thanks for reading. Please share this, by using the buttons below!

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

You may have heard about how some  apps have been making a lot of money through advertising.

The eBuddy success story comes to mind, but for most of us it’s a tough way to earn money, and to earn the most money we’ve had to put a price tag on things.  It’s really been an up or down thing, and since the early rush from advertisers the payouts went down dramatically and stabilized.

Apple has added their iAds platform into the mix which is supposed to create ads so engaging that the end result for developers is suppose to be much higher ad revenue when compared  previously provided. We’ll see if that’s true and how long it lasts.

All over the forums right now I see posts form people having trouble getting iAds to work properly.

Fortunately Ray Wenderlich, the creator of the Space Game Starter Kit and co-author of the Learning Cocos2D book, has posted a complete tutorial and project with actual working iAds.

So if ou’re interested get those iAds into your app fast… if it’s like when the previous platforms first appeared the initial payouts should be at a high CPM rate.

[Source: Ray Wenderlich]

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Editors Note: I received this submission, and I was reluctant to look at it since there seems to be a flood of marketers trying to cash in as app marketing experts.   I decided to accept this one as it is somewhat different, and didn’t simply provide a simplistic list of tips such as take good screenshots, start a blog, or sell internationally.  Please comment on whether you’d like to see more content on app marketing in the future. – John

In my time working with software developers I’ve been able to pick up on some common mistakes that ultimately lead to lower sales or even bankruptcy.  Accept them as the ultimate truth or accept failure.  The choice is yours.

1.    Not accepting that it is all about money. Money is the measure for app success. It doesn’t matter if your app gets rave reviews, a million free downloads, or iPhone and iPad users love it.  What matters is that it makes money.  Even if you’re just branding or building a portfolio.  If it doesn’t make money in the end then what was the point?

2.    Thinking app store sales are the only way to succeed. There are many possible business models. Look around, you’ll see many businesses making money from iPhone apps that aren’t even selling them.

3.    Misunderstanding the importance of marketing. Marketing is at least as important as development. If you don’t believe that then you haven’t been watching the app store very closely.

4.    Not building anticipation for your app. You want to hit Apple’s top download lists, and the easiest time to do that is when your app is first released.  Copy the techniques of those having multiple successes in the app store.

5.    Not doing any of the marketing legwork. Many developers seem willing to spend thousands of hours on an app, yet none on marketing. You know you have to leverage social media, find good keywords, send your app to reviewers, take good screenshots, create a video, do some market testing, defining your market, finding your purple cow… but are you doing it?

6.    Not being willing to spend any money. The $99 that you pay Apple to join their development program is not going to cut it as a marketing budget. If you’ve got an app making money try reinvesting some of it in one of the many ways such as ads in other apps, search ads, ads on app review websites.

7.    Not tracking advertising results. Advertising an app is all about selling. I have seen developers burn their marketing budget on ineffective ads that they have no clue whether they are working or not.

How many of these mistakes are you making? Agree or disagree on the importance of marketing?  Discuss.

Ed has been marketing software for nearly 15 years, and has recently turned to iPhone and iPad app marketing.  For now you can follow Ed Wang on twitter.  In the future he will be providing more information on iPhone app marketing.

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

Something that can be very easily done using Cocoa Touch is animation.  This is a brief programming tutorial showing how it’s done.

The easiest way to do animation in Cocoa Touch is using the animationImages property from a view.
It’s a simple 3 step process.

1. Set animation images to an array containing your UIImages to be used for animating.
2. Set the duration to animate for.  (you can also set the number of times to repeat the animation for.)
3. Start the animation.

For example:

UIImageViewName.animationImages = arrayContainingImages
UiImageViewName.animationDuration = .. number of seconds ..
[UiImageViewName startAnimating]

More information on animationImages can be found in Apple’s UIImageView Class Reference here.

Brandon has posted a nice project here at: Animating A Game Sprite

[Via: iCodeBlog]

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

I was asked by a friend working on their first iPhone app if I could show them how to fade buttons to provide the user with visual feedback.  So I came up with this quick iPhone development tutorial using some source code that is actually from the second app that we I will be showing how to build in my iPhone development videos.

A very quick demonstration of the effect is shown in this video:

Fading a view on the iPhone is very easy you simply specify the ending alpha value, and duration, and commit the animations.  The views will then fade to the chosen alpha value.  Overall it’s a pretty sweet way to fade buttons, and images used in your interface especially if you’ve had to go through more complex techniques.

The code for the two methods to create the buttons is shown here:

That’s all there is to it, it’s very plug and play so all you have to do is run the methods to perform the effect., and I’ve included some sample code with a project that has various views fading in and out based on which button is selected.  With a little bit of playing around you can make flashing images/buttons etc. 

The completed project can be downloaded here: >>> FadingViews <<<

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

This is a ranked listing of iPhone application review sites that accept applications submissions from developers.  Getting listed on these sites can be a good way to gain exposure for your app, and every little bit helps.

I have filtered out sites that simply track iTunes feeds and list everything in the store.

The listings are ranked based on traffic given by the Compete.com rank.

http://toucharcade.com Compete Rank: 18,238
http://www.appsafari.com Compete Rank:27,893
http://appadvice.com Compete Rank: 38,515
http://www.appcraver.com Compete Rank: 39,759
http://iphoneapplicationlist.com Compete Rank: 56,764
http://www.appstoreapps.com Compete Rank: 88,622
http://www.gamestooge.com Compete Rank: 121,583
http://theapppodcast.com Compete Rank: 174,360
http://www.freshapps.com Compete Rank: 201,486
http://www.nativeiphoneapps.com Compete Rank: 345,031
http://www.iphoneblog.de Compete Rank: 1,141,082
http://www.apptheater.com Compete Rank: 1,171,181
http://www.appgallery.org Compete Rank: New
http://iphoneappgirl.com Compete Rank: New
http://www.theipodkid.com Compete Rank: New

If you know of any other good sites that accept app submissions for review please post them here.  Thanks.
 

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

 This is the second part of the tutorial on building your iPhone App’s interface in interface builder.  In this video I quickly drag out all the elements, and connect the interface elements with the appropriate outlets, and actions, and build the class file automatically.

This is the 5th video/tutorial in this series, and I hope you enjoy it.

The first tutorial can be found here:
>>> Developing Your First Apple iPhone App <<<

The project containing the app at the end of this video can be found here:
Project file for tutorial

We will finally get into writing code in the next video!

Here it is:

Thanks for reading.
 

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.