#iPhoneDev

The other day I received my first “new” email notification from the App Store Review team . . .

Yay!, Apple must be reviewing my app I thought. But then the email body contained the unfortunate “Your application review process will require additional time.” #fail.

I’m really not sure how these changed state emails are going to provide developers with any helpful information. Previously our app status would have shown In Review and we would have had to wait until it was either accepted or rejected. Now we can see if the our apps are waiting for review or actually are in review sure, but how does that help me? Knowing that my application state has changed isn’t a huge relief to me either. What knowledge have I gained? I still have to wait until it is either accepted or rejected and now I have an additional step to add to my anxiety.

As you can see from the these screen shots the Status History doesn’t provide much helpful information either. It would at least be interesting if we could see which App Reviewer was looking at our app. Instead it just says Apple. No kidding, really? Can you imagine seeing inspected by number 7.

I guess it’s a good sign that Apple is trying to provide more information to developers regarding their cryptic review process but we are far from a perfect system.

Yesterday I signed up for the new indie level membership at GameSalad.com. It was a very reasonable $99/yr registration fee. The indie membership is called their Express Membership.For the $99 I am given their GameSalad Project Editor which reminds me a bit of the Flash interface. It is made up of scenes and “actors” which are controlled by behaviors. Alot of the process seems to be simplified into point and click. You have to attach some code  logic to these various widgets but so far it doesn’t seem overly complicated.

Also, they provide the GameSalad Viewer which starts out as an xcode project that you can compile and run on your ipod/iphone. It allows you to test your games natively on your device. This also seems to be a straightforward process. From inside the GameSalad Editor you choose to launch your project for iPhone and as long as your desktop and device are connected to the same wifi network the game is installed and runs on your device.

I should note that anyone can download and begin creating games with the GameSalad Project Editor for FREE. But you need a membership in order to get access to the GameSalad viewer which is really essential to testing the performance of your games.

There is also a PRO membership for $1999/yr but from what I can tell currently the only differences between the Express & the Pro memberships are the ability to change the splash screen (which for indie membership must remain the Created By GameSalad logo) and the ability to have URL Links embedded in the app. Both are worthwhile features that I would very much like to have but at this point I’m not willing to part with an additional $1900. You can add your own splash screen after the GS Logo if you wish anyway. The Pro membership also comes with some support incidents but they provide documentation, user support forums and a how-to wiki.

I’m excited to dive into the world of games and GameSalad is the most cost effective way I have found for a rank amateur like myself to get started in game development. I should mention that recently Unit 3d has released a free version but it is significantly more complex. Unity’s features are much more robust but the learning curve from what I hear is huge.

Get more info on GameSalad and their iPhone program from

I want to tell you about a handy free tool that developers can use to make their app demos more realistic and interesting. It’s called PhoneFinger by Wonder Warp Software. Simply what is does is turn your mouse cursor into a human finger. Not only does PhoneFinger make your demos look better but it also serves as a good usability test.  Another really cool feature of PhoneFinger is the ability to create your own custom hands. Maybe you don’t like the default finger or you just don’t want your demos to look like everyone elses, no problem. The author provides detailed instructions on making the customizations (See Below.)

Download the latest version from HERE

From the authors website:
Test and demo your iPhone apps the way they’ll actually be used!

Because of the iPhone’s high-resolution screen, Apple’s iPhone Simulator may use an area on your Mac’s display that’s physically far larger than an actual iPhone. This makes designing and testing user interfaces troublesome. Software that’s easy to use with a magnified screen and the precision of a mouse can be difficult on the actual device. PhoneFinger puts things in perspective and reveals hidden usability problems.

I came across this free tool today and I thought everyone should know about it. It’s called MockApp and it allows developers to very easily put together a mock up of their app ideas. The template comes in 2 versions: PowerPoint & Keynote. It has just about every possible UI element that you can imagine and is easily customizable. The developer has put a lot of time and effort into creating this beautiful resource so if you use MockApp all he asks in return is that you show him some tweet love or link love. Just give the man some credit and spread the word about MockApp to others. He calls this Tweetware which I think is a very clever and fitting name.

Description from the developers site:

* A large number of iPhone UI elements have been added and/or vectorized. I think I can now safely assert that MockApp 1.0 includes the most comprehensive vector iPhone UI library of any easy iPhone prototyping tool out there (no, the SDK is not a prototyping tool that my mom could use).
* The library file is now organized and commented based on the ultimate authority: Apple’s iPhone Human Interface guidelines. It even shows examples of some UI elements on an iPhone held by Steve Jobs’ hand (OK, maybe that wasn’t his hand).
* The template file, where you create your mockup, now features a shiny iPhone as backdrop for your app screens with working Home button and all.
* The template file now supports vertical and horizontal iPhone screen mockups.

One of my apps [Remix DJ: AudioBox] recently had the honor of being reviewed in iCreate Magazine. They gave it 4 stars out of 5! This issue is almost 3 months old, i’m lucky to have picked it up at the local Barnes & Noble yesterday otherwise I might have missed it.

(Issue #71, page 98)

The text of the article is below:

RemixDJ: Spice up your set with these free samples

” The iPhone is so much more than a phone that you can now even integrate it into live electronic music. This simple app aims to provide DJ’s with a bevy of samples to use while playing a set. The audio quality is excellent and the simple trigger button means there is no lag between button pressing and the sound being played, so you be sure you don’t mis-time your triggers. All of the samples are royalty-free, so you can use them in all of your endeavors – even if you’re already a superstar DJ and playing in front of thousands of people. There’s nearly 200 sounds available, so there’s plenty of choice and variation. This app is very honest; it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. If you want to get a boat-load of samples for free and use them for fun or even public performance, then it’s perfect.”

Verdict 4 stars Best for: DJs

Oliver Fürniß from www.curioustimes.de has released a very handy little OSX app that takes screen shots directly from the iPhone Simulator.

- You can save images as .jpg or .png.
- You can even tell the app to automatically remove the status bar from the top of your images.

It is very easy to use. Just start your App in the Simulator and press the “Take Screenshot“ button.

NOTE: The app only runs on snow leopard

Get the latest version directly from the Authors Website

Wow, just wow! My apps have now been downloaded more than 2 Million Times by people in over 50 countries.  Back in April I broke the 1 Million Mark which I thought was completely amazing. Now I have more than doubled that accomplishment. THANK YOU to all who have downloaded and enjoyed my apps! This definitely encourages me to continue creating fun & useful apps.

The stats are courtesy of Pinch Media Analytics. The service is free and provides a ton of useful information. Pinch provides stats such as: Total unique users, Total sessions, Total jailbroken users, Total cracked users, Total Time Spent Using the App, Device Type, OS version and More. If you are a developer and you are not using any type of analytics package then you are just foolish.

Below are the three main apps which helped me to break 2 Million Unique Downloads:

iCandyPix, iCandyPix 2 and the 3.0 Version of Peanut Butter Jelly Time (which was the first version of PBJTime to have analytics embedded) were all released after I broke the 1 Million Mark. Unfortunately for me all three of these apps were FREE soooo I am NOT a millionaire. Don’t feel too bad for me though, most of my free apps are ad supported and have earned a good amount of revenue.

Just for fun here are a few more stats on these three apps:

Peanut Butter Jelly Time has been used 2,224,168 times, out of those 17,961 were run on a jailbroken device. The total time users spent playing with PBJTime comes out to roughly 16 years 149 days 13 hours 18 minutes 52 seconds.

iCandyPix has been used 2,548,390 times, out of those 97,650 were run on a jailbroken device. The total time users have spent using iCandyPix comes out to roughly 10 years 358 days 11 hours 23 minutes 33 seconds.

iCandyPix 2 has been used 442,829 times, out of those 15,723 were run on a jailbroken device. The total time users have spent using iCandyPix 2 comes out to roughly 1 year 338 days 16 hours 21 minutes 15 seconds.

(Please NOTE: The Peanut Butter Jelly Time App is No Longer available due to a disagreement between myself and the supposed originator of PBJ Time.)

OK, ok. So I wasn’t actually attacked by pirates but it makes for an exciting headline! I did how ever find a few of my apps listed on Appulous. If you don’t know Appulous is a website where you can download free cracked copies of pay iPhone Apps.  Accroding to Appulous the site “is merely a collection of user-submitted links, and Appulous takes no responsibility for what users submit to this site or use this site for.” Well, whatever helps them sleep at night.

Here’s another gem from their website . . . “Apple has chosen to allow a multitude of ridiculous, worthless, poorly-represented applications through its “strict” screening process, nearly all written by mediocre programmers with a dream of getting rich quick.”

So what does Appulous do with these ridiculous, worthless, poorly-represented applications? They distribute them to anyone who wants them for free. Wait, what?

I guess piracy is the greatest form of flattery ?!?!

I also found a torrent for this same app ( damn, it must be popular!) . . .

Design Commission is selling a very handy tool for those of you who like to draw mock-ups of your iPhone App UIs before you sit down and start banging out graphics. The iPhone Stencil

From their website:

“Quickly sketch out iPhone UI prototypes. Brainstorm your application ideas using our precision cut stainless steel stencil and mechanical pencil.”

The kit comes with:
- One iPhone UI Stencil
- Zebra mechanical pencil
- 2 Design Commission stickers
- Downloadable .PDF letter-sized paper template

Very cool if you ask me, I may just buy one.

First I will answer the question that probably will pop into most of your minds. Why on earth , as  an iPhone Developer, would I post information that could be used to circumvent copy protection in my own apps as well as those of fellow developers?

Foremost I believe in the fact that information in and of itself is not dangerous and whenever possible should be freely available. It is the way you decide to use the information presented that determines whether or not you are in a grey or black area.

Also, I believe this particular information can be extremely valuable to fellow developers because in order to properly defend our applications from piracy we need to understand the methods that the pirates use to defeat copy protection. As developers on the iPhone platform we have very meager means of protecting the apps we spend days and months pouring our hard work into. So it is to our benefit to study the practices of those who mean to thwart our efforts.

Now that we have gotten the philosophical argument out of the way we can get to the meat and potatoes. The article/information presented was written by Reily of ARTeam. ARTeam is a group dedicated to “facilitate the sharing of knowledge about Reverse Engineering.” Their motto is “I HEAR and I Forget, I SEE and I Remember, I DO and I Understand.” I can’t say that I disagree with that.

This information only surfaced about 10 days ago and has for the most part managed to stay fairly well hidden from the general public. The article describes in extreme detail the methods used by “Hex-Hackers” Application crackers that use hex level editing to unlock protected binary files. They remove Apple’s DRM to allow unauthorized distribution of our apps. This is one of the most difficult forms of cracking to defend against and has been declared by most to be an un-winnable fight.

Here is the article description quoted directly from the ARTeam website:

“Since Apple opened the AppStore tens of thousands of application are available for the iPhone and the iPod Touch and it keeps growing. All available apps are protected by Apple’s own DRM system called Fairplay. The binaries are encrypted. From the jailbreak of the iPhone it only took a short time till Fairplay was broken. An iPhone port of GDB made it easy to crack those apps by dumping the decrypted binary from the iPhones RAM. The process, thanks to Crackulous is now even simpler. Of course the developers are aware of this and some of them are trying to protect their applications with their own methods. They check for the modifications done to the package because they are not allowed to use serials or other methods to protect their work. This tutorial focuses on finding and disabling these checks.”

Without further ado here is the link to Patching Applications from Apple’s AppStore with additional protection

Feel free to leave comments if you feel strongly for or against this subject.