Teen Driving Log has been submitted to the App Store. Now the wait begins for the approval.
It was a little more difficult than I thought to submit the App. There were some certificates that I had to get and my Bundle ID was not in the correct form.
I will post later about the process.
myApp is almost done. I have a couple little fixes to make and then I will have some testers give it a check out.
If there are not any major problems, I will submit it to Apple on Tuesday.
Today is the day. I have signed up to be an official iPhone Developer. It says that I should get an email within 24 hrs. I will be checking my email a few times today.
My App is still coming along. There are just a few more coding tasks I have. Once those are done, I will have to work on some of the graphic elements. Some of them are just place-holders and they need to be updated.
I have learned a lot over the last couple of months. Developing for the iPhone is fairly complex if you don’t understand it. And, even if you understand it, it can be a challenge. I would not have been able to develop my App as easily if I didn’t have access to the internet. There are so many wonderful resources to consult when the Apple docs become overwhelming. I will add a post later on that lists some of the web sites that I have found that have helped me through the development process.
Programming 1 hour a day is a slow process. It gets things done, but it takes a while. But, today, I am taking a day off from the real job, so I have some extra time to spend on my App. I figure I can set aside at least 4 hours today. That is almost like a whole week for me (you know, at 1 hr/day).
The App is coming along pretty nicely. I will post info here once I submit my App to Apple, but I don’t want to spoil the anticipation. 🙂
My goal has been to finish up by August 1. Then I will join the Apple iPhone Developer program. I will be able to test the App on real hardware at that point, so, it will be interesting to see if my App works with no issues on a iPhone or iPod. I have been using the simulator for all my developing and that has gone pretty good.
If that testing goes OK, then I will submit my App – hopefully by August 9. Then I just have to wait.
Oh, and the marketing plan? Not exactly sure yet, but I will be sure to get the word out through different channels. It would be nice to make a little money off the App. It looks like the iPhone 4 will cost me $200 and then about $30/month to add it to my plan, so I figure I need to sell about 30 Apps a month to break even in 2 years. Oh, yeah, plus the $99/year for the developer program, so maybe a few more than 30/month.
I do have some other plans for other Apps, so maybe the next ones will be a little easier to program.
Anyhow, it is time to get back to coding….
I had a little problem with my App. One of the views just didn’t want to update when I wanted it to. That lead to moving a whole block of code into its own method (which I should have done in the first place). That gave me the opportunity to go back through one of my source code files to clean it all up. It was a good feeling to go back and get rid of all the little “this does not work right – maybe you need to try this…” comments. I probably cleaned out well over 200 lines of comments and code that I really didn’t need.
Oh, and yes, I did make a backup of my whole project before that – just in case I deleted something that wasn’t a comment. 🙂
I really need to look at a Source Code Management (SCM) product soon. They all seem to be a little complicated, but I have heard that git is pretty easy and it should be in the next Xcode, so maybe I will just use the old save-a-copy-of-the-whole-project method for a little longer.
I really like the new Twenty Ten theme for wordpress. I was looking for something else and came across a page that shows how to make some minor changes to the theme. I really wanted a drop shadow, so I added that.
/* The main theme structure */
...
#wrapper {
/*added these*/
border:1px solid #000;
-moz-border-radius:20px;
-webkit-border-radius:20px;
-moz-box-shadow:3px 3px 15px grey;
-webkit-box-shadow:3px 3px 15px grey;
/*end of added these*/
margin-top: 20px;
background: #fff;
padding: 0 20px;
}
It was added to the #wrapper section of the style.css
I went back and updated my graphics. I kind of got lucky because I already knew that I might need some different graphics, so I held off on most of them just in case. I only have a few items that I will need to re-draw from scratch (which might be good anyhow).
I updated my project to have the @2x graphics files and they all seem to work fine in the simulator for the iPhone 4.
I have downloaded and installed the new SDK. There were a few little problems (like the Base OS issue), that I had to figure out, but it seems to be working fine.
What motivates people to do something? I think it is because they want something. My motivation for starting iPhone programming is that I want one of the new iPhones.
Here is something from my other side (the side that likes playing with graphics). If you have an iphone, head on over to my WeWerePirates iPhone Wallpaper Pack. The colors are great and it is always fun to swap out your wallpaper once in a while.
Here is the list of colors available:
CaribbeanBlue
GoldenTreasure
PlunderPurple
PoopDeck
PrivateerPink
ScurvyLime
Seaweed
StormySeas