Monthly Archives: May 2011

Film Quiz Version 2.0

Posted by on 27 May, 2011 No comments

The last few days I’ve been working on Version 2.0 of my Film Quiz App. The main features being Game Center integration, an iPad version and of course, more Questions.

I started first with Game Center which I thought was going to be the hardest to do. Liking a challenge I first found Apple’s documentation for a good read. I was shocked at how simple it was. It true Apple style they’ve really thought about it and created an easy to use API. Firstly you need to set up you Leaderboards/Achievements on the iTunesConnect web site. Each leader board has an ID associated with it. Using this ID you add a few lines of code to your project calling the leader board methods with the leader board ID and the score. That’s it. There’s also the bit of code to sign the user in too. Again, very simple.

I was confident making the App ‘universal’ to run on the iPad too. Using the MVC model, all I needed to do was create the new iPad views, and connecting each of the view elements to the outlets/actions in the controller.

It also occurred to me to check for memory leaks using the ‘Instruments’ app. After running a few tests I could see there were quite a few objects I had allocated but not deallocated and as a result memory was being leaked. With a few code changes I managed to tidy up my code.

All I have left to do is creating a load more questions. It’s funny because when I tell people I have an App on the App Store they ask was it hard to create and write all the code. My answer is always – it’s harder to come up with the questions and think of alternative answers. That’s what takes the most time.

With over 2000 downloads in a week, and iAds generating a bit of money for me I’ve decided to change the way the App pays for itself. I’m therefore going to create a full version with all the current features and the ones I’ve described above along with all the questions I’ve created. I’m also going to create a ‘Lite’ or free version, keep the iAds but only provide a limited number of questions. I’ve read how to create a full and lite version of your App in the same Project but have yet to try it out yet.

Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions for questions please let me know. Thank you to my brother Jonny for provide a few earlier today.

Version 1.1 already? Thanks iAds!

Posted by on 23 May, 2011 No comments

At work today I got several people to download my new Film Quiz app. While it worked for some, it didn’t work for others. I was a little confused by this. The only thing I could work out was that if the iOS version was below 4.2 it crashed when you pressed the start quiz button.

After I got home I decided to look into this problem in XCode. I compiled and ran for iOS 4.0 and ran into the error.

What I found was that the iAd banner had changed slightly in iOS 4.2. Version 1.0 of Film Quiz was only tested on iOS 4.3. So there we have it. After a quick Google I found the solution.

Version 1.1 has now been uploaded to Apple for approval and will shortly be available for download.

1.5 days live and over 1000 downloads

Posted by on 23 May, 2011 No comments

Just checked the latest stats on my app and I’m amazed I’ve already reached 1091 downloads! And it is now number 14 in the ‘Top Free iPhone Triva Games’.

A big thank you for all of you who have downloaded my App.

Film Quiz App available on App Store

Posted by on 22 May, 2011 No comments

I was greeted this morning with an e-mail from those guys at Apple telling me that my App’s status has changed to ‘Ready for Sale‘. So I immediately went on the App Store and did a search for ‘film quiz’ – and there it was, top of the list.

Total time from submitting the App to it being approved: 4.5 days.

Impatient

Posted by on 18 May, 2011 No comments

It’s been over a day now and my Film Quiz App is still at ‘Waiting for Review’. I’ve taken a look and can’t find anywhere on Apple’s site of the average time it takes to approve an App. A few web sites say around 70% of Apps are approved within a week. Guess I’ll have to keep waiting.

Upload successful

Posted by on 17 May, 2011 No comments

So after a busy night coming up with lots and lots of questions, I finally managed to get over 100. After 30 minutes of testing on all my devices it was time to upload to the App Store. I’d already set up everything for upload on the iTunes Connect web site including my App description, artwork etc. What I couldn’t find though was some instructions of the actual process to upload my App.

I Googled around but most of what I found was for XCode 3.x. Eventually I found a link to a site telling what to do for XCode 4.0. I was surprised how easy it was actually. XCode 4 seems have now have it all integrated without the need to launch any other applications. Once I generated my Distribution Provisioning Profile for my App, loaded it into XCode all I had to do was Archive my App and submit to the App Store. Easy!

As you can see from my previous post I ran into an error when submitting to the App Store. I got some Java exception. Thought it was strange Apple of using Java for XCode to upload to the App Store. Disappointed about this I tried again. No luck. Tried on my other Mac… No luck. So I Googled the error and found it to be a common problem. The advice that kept coming up was to do a full uninstall of the XCode Developer tools, download the latest XCode, install and try again.

So after downloading the 4.6GB XCode installer over night, uninstalling, reinstalling and testing my App again, I tried to submit to the App Store again. Success! Woop woop!

Just have to wait for those guys at Apple to approve it now.

Annoyed!

Posted by on 16 May, 2011 No comments

So spent all night working hard and finally the App is finished, questions done… Tried to submit to the App Store but getting:

com.apple.transporter.util.StreamUtil.readBytes(Ljava/io/InputStream;)[B

Grrr!! So annoyed. Just done a quick Google and it seems to be a popular problem. Will have to look into it tomorrow now.

Just a few more…

Posted by on 16 May, 2011 No comments
in_app_purchase_icon

I really want my first App to be free, just so I can say I’ve been through the process and gotten an App out there. But having spent a few hours last night coming up with questions for my new Film Quiz App I can really see why people charge for their Apps. It’s hasn’t been the time spend coding or creating the artwork, it’s the amount of time you have to spent to come up with good content. I’ve spent hours racking my brains for questions – with a little help from IMDB and Wikipedia. I just hope you all appreciate it and download my App!

So, it order to earn maybe a small amount from my App I’m going to add iAds in and see how good a return I get. I have lots more ideas for version 2.0 of my App already which I think I’m definitely going to charge for. Don’t worry, it won’t be anything crazy. Probably round the 59p mark (which I’m assuming is $1?).

A long time coming…

Posted by on 15 May, 2011 No comments
AppStore Icon

With a little inspiration from a mate from University launching his first app, Top Toast, I’ve finally got round to writing an App worth putting on the App Store. To document my experiences I’ve decided to set up this blog. It will also contain pages for each of the Apps I’ve released to the App Store with a bit of information to convince you to download them.

My first App is almost there. Since it is my first I’ve decided to do a free one to see what’s it’s all about. I’m just needing to add a load of more questions to it before I submit to Apple. Hopefully by the end of next week, with a few hours work every night, it should ready.