Check your app release dates!

iPhone 1 Response »
Nov 012009

When I checked my app store stats for the first day, I noticed that the only PicSlide sales were from my blog & promo codes I gave out. On further investigation, I discovered that it suffered the same fate Craig Hockenberry described here: the release date was set to Sept. 24, which is the day I submitted it, rather than yesterday, when it was approved. As a result, it wasn’t listed as a new application.

iTunes FAIL.png

I went into iTunes Connect and changed the availability date to tomorrow, which will probably cause it to disappear until then, and hopefully be listed as a new application. If you want it now, leave me a comment to get a promo code.

Posted by mike at 5:57 pm Tagged with: , ,

Have iPhone apps reached a new low?

iPhone Comments Off
Oct 262009

Today I received the following press release:

Venice, Italy, 26 October 2009. MobFarm announces availability in few days of PUSH my Fart on Apple App Store.

PUSH my Fart is a revolutionary joke application for iPhone and iPod touch. Using Apple Push Notifications you can let fart your friends devices from anywhere in the world. It’s priced 0.99$ (Tier 1) and will be available in few days worldwide.

PUSH my Fart uses the latest sdk api to share contacts with friends like Bluetooth, e-mail and obviously Push Notifications, it integrates with Facebook for unique user experience.

Here a PUSH my Fart brief description.

Fart on your friends wherever they are, whenever you like with PUSH my Fart!

Make their iPhone or iPod touch ring with a loud, rolling fart when they are enjoying a beer at the pub or while in a staff meeting!

Or just at the bus stop or even in the elevator!

Thanks to the most advanced technologies, Apple’s Push Notification Service and Facebook integration, PUSH my Fart allows you to make jokes with extreme simplicity, but surefire success.

Just select you friend, choose the fart and… FART!

Features:

- Make your friends fart with just a tap!

- Choose between 30 different high quality farts to send or play directly on your device.

- Add friends with Bluetooth or trade contacts through E-mail

- Find even more friends from around the world with Facebook Connect

- Send farts thanks to Apple’s Push Notification Service

- Send farts from the Web through Facebook on http://apps.pushmyfart.com/pushmyfart/

Become a fan of PUSH my Fart on Facebook and help spread this amazing application, or just find more unwitting victims of your jokes!

Visit http://pushmyfart.com for ideas and jokes to play on your friends, you’ll find amusing videos and nice gags.

Notice:

Sending and receiving Farts, and Facebook Connect, requires Internet connection.

Bluetooth doesn’t work with iPhone 2G and iPod touch 1G.

PUSH my Fart is localized in English, Spain and Italian with many languages coming soon.

PUSH my Fart will be available on App Store

PUSH my Fart has a dedicated Website http://pushmyfart.com

There’s a support e-mail support@pushmyfart.com

PUSH my Fart is also a Facebook application with the ability to send farts to your friends’ devices directly from the web.

Posted by mike at 7:34 pm Tagged with: ,

ICHC Crashes

Programming, iPhone 3 Responses »
Sep 092009

I’ve been receiving a lot of reports of ICHC crashing recently. I’ve never been able to duplicate any of those crashes myself, but from looking at the crash logs available in iTunes Connect I have an idea of what’s crashing them.

The crashes seem to occur when restoring the last viewed item results in an index out of range. We use a scraped feed (which is hosted on one of ICHC’s servers) that returns pages of 10 items each, to reduce the load time. I’ve seen a few instances where items, usually videos, are missing from the scraped feed, and in that case it returns a page of fewer than 10 items. If you happen to have been viewing item 10 the last time you quit and the next time you end up with only 9 items, it will crash.

I’ve put in some error handling for that case, but if you’re experiencing that crash, I’d like to have you test it before I submit the update, so email me your device ID and I’ll add you to my beta list. Note that Apple can take several weeks to approve an update, so even if I submit it right away, it may be a while before the update becomes available.

This will be the last update to this version. I’m doing a major rewrite for version 2.0 using Three20, the framework used in the FaceBook app. This will be a free upgrade.

Before I do much on v2.0, I’m finishing a new application I plan to release first. More about that in the next few weeks.

Posted by mike at 10:12 pm Tagged with: ,

I Can Has Cheezburger free version STILL not approved

iPhone 2 Responses »
Aug 242009

I submitted version 1.5.2 of both the free & pro versions at the same time. As you know, ICHC Pro was approved a few days ago. The free version is still in review.

I got a call from Apple today asking about a contest (which I figured out was probably one of the ads). Thanks to AT&T’s wonderful wireless service, the call was dropped right in the middle. I wasn’t able to return the call and they haven’t called me back.

Posted by mike at 7:11 pm Tagged with: , , ,

U CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER! (almost?)

iPhone 1 Response »
Aug 212009

I just got an email from Apple saying that I Can Has Cheezburger (ad free) is ready for sale. Nothing about the free version, which I submitted at the same time.

However, as of 11PM (3 hours after I received the email), it still shows ‘removed by developer’. Something is badly screwed up. I had pulled the previous version while waiting for this update to be approved, but it changed from ‘in review’ to ‘removed by developer’ rather than being ‘available for sale’.

Posted by mike at 10:20 pm Tagged with: , , ,

Unexpected additional time

iPhone 3 Responses »
Aug 202009

For anyone who hasn’t kept up with my saga, I got a call from Apple Monday telling me exactly how I should rate ICHC and what changes I should make to the description. I did everything exactly as they requested and resubmitted it.

Today, I got the following email from the app store reviewer:

Dear Mike,

Your application, I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) 1.5.1, is requiring unexpected additional time for review. We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

Posted by mike at 5:20 pm Tagged with: , , ,

App Store rating inconsistency

iPhone Comments Off
Aug 192009

I was under the impression that any application which accesses the internet must have a 17+ rating in the app store, yet Twitterrific (which even has a built-in web browser) and some other Twitter clients have a 4+ rating.

This makes no sense at all to me.

App Store Rating Inconsistency hosted by Ember

Posted by mike at 10:25 pm Tagged with: , ,

I Can Has Cheezburger removed from sale

iPhone 4 Responses »
Jul 312009

I have removed I Can Has Cheezburger from sale until Apple approves the updates, if they ever do. I’m tired of everyone bitching about it. I know that version has problems, most of which have been fixed more than a month ago in the update Apple still hasn’t approved.

Posted by mike at 4:56 pm Tagged with: , ,

Changing app store ratings

Programming, iPhone Comments Off
Jul 312009

I finally discovered the trick to change the ratings for ICHC, so hopefully Apple can review it now. As long as there’s a valid binary, iTunes Connect won’t let you change the ratings. If you reject the binary, you can go to edit information and change the ratings BEFORE you upload a new binary. Once you upload that new binary, the ratings are locked out again.

I set the ratings to infrequent/mild for all items, which still only results in a 12+ rating, not the 17+ rating Apple requested. We’ll see if Apple approves it now.

Posted by mike at 2:50 pm Tagged with: , , ,

ICHC Update Rejected again

iPhone Comments Off
Jul 302009

This is getting to be an ongoing ritual. I submit an update and about a week later Apple rejects it.

Here’s my latest rejection letter:

Follow-up: 78814583

Dear Mr. Cohen,

Thank you for submitting I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 & I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) to the App Store. We’ve reviewed I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 &I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) and determined that we cannot post these versions of your iPhone applications to the App Store at this time because they are not appropriately rated. Our review indicates that the applications’ contents are not consistent with the current rating. I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 & I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) contain user-generated content, which can include frequent mature or suggestive themes. Applications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access.

Please visit iTunes Connect to resubmit your binaries and rate your application appropriately.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

However, it isn’t possible to change the rating because everything is grayed out on the rating screen! A few developers have told me that the rating can only be changed for 3.0 apps, so I’m building it for 3.0 only so Apple will finally let me change the rating so they can approve it.

Posted by mike at 7:46 pm Tagged with: , , ,

More Ratings Stupidity

iPhone Comments Off
Jul 212009

Barnes & Noble’s eReader contains no content and doesn’t access internet content directly. All content comes from books downloaded from your B&N account. It has to display all of these warnings, yet it gets a 12+ rating. In this case, the parental control restrictions should be set in the B&N account rather than restricting the application.

iTunes
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

PS – KRAPPS picked up the story of ICHC’s latest rejection.

Posted by mike at 2:02 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

Ratings FAIL

iPhone Comments Off
Jul 202009

I’ve found definite proof that app store ratings are seriously broken. As KRAPPS pointed out, some pretty raunchy applications are getting a 12+ rating while ICHC and any other app that accesses user generated content is forced to get a 17+ rating. ICHC has much less sexual content than this app.

Rating Fail
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Posted by mike at 1:35 pm Tagged with: , , ,

REJECTED

iPhone 2 Responses »
Jul 192009

I just got another rejection notice from Apple:

Dear Mr. Cohen,

Thank you for submitting I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 & I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) to the App Store. We’ve reviewed I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 &I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) and determined that we cannot post these versions of your iPhone applications to the App Store at this time because they are not appropriately rated. Our review indicates that the applications’ contents are not consistent with the current rating. I Can Has Cheezburger 1.5.2 & I Can Has Cheezburger (Ad Free) contain user-generated content, which can include frequent mature or suggestive themes. Applications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access.

Please visit iTunes Connect to resubmit your binaries and rate your application appropriately.

I don’t want ICHC to be rated 17+. I’d rather just pull it completely rather than continue to fight with Apple.

Posted by mike at 5:21 pm Tagged with: , , ,

Email of the day

iPhone Comments Off
Jul 132009

I got the following email this morning:

Mike;

I really appreciate the fact that you designed and made available an app for the iPhone that shows the ICHC site. I’m not bashing you for that.

However, your unchecked ad campaign is a bit asinine. “Unibrows: since 1969″ is not an ad. It’s annoying space taking designed to annoy the user into buying the 99 cent version of the app. I must say that it is effective, since I will be buying it as soon as I can get to my computer.

Anyway, thanks again. Even though you’re an ass.

Sincerely;

[name withheld]

Sent from my iPhone

Posted by mike at 8:03 am Tagged with: , ,

Movie FAIL

iPhone Comments Off
Jul 102009

The ICHC Web site has switched from YouTube to Viddler for embedded videos. Unfortunately their videos aren’t compatible with the iPhone (even in Mobile Safari they’re broken). I currently don’t have any work-around until they can provide iPhone compatible videos.

Screenshot 2009.07.10 17.38.57.png

Posted by mike at 4:41 pm Tagged with: ,

Best warning label ever

Fun Stuff 1 Response »
Feb 282009

This jar of cashews actually has a warning label that says it contains cashews. I’d be concerned if it didn’t contain cashews.

Warning: contains cashew

Posted by mike at 6:07 pm Tagged with: , ,

WP-O-Matic FAIL

WordPress Comments Off
Feb 222009

If you follow me on twitter, you probably saw about 32 tweets spew from my blog, thanks to WP-O-Matic blowing chunks all over my blog, which Twitter Tools dutifully reported as new posts.

I’m attempting to set up automatic photo blogging from my Flickr photo stream. Flickr produces RSS feeds for each tag, so I’m using the tag photoblog to have those images posted here automatically by subscribing to the resulting feed. Unfortunately, Flickr’s tag feed URL has several characters such as ‘?’ or ‘&’ that WP-O-Matic choke on. As a result, instead of seeing my tag feed, WP-O-Matic saw my entire photo stream. Furthermore, although I limited it to post only 5 items, it decided to post each item multiple times.

A work-around for the URL problem is to use a URL shortener such as tinyurl to generate a clean URL for WP-O-Matic. I’ve made it create new items as drafts instead of publishing immediately, so it shouldn’t happen again.

Posted by mike at 7:31 pm Tagged with: ,

iPhone FAIL

iPhone Comments Off
Jan 122009

Since yesterday I’ve been unable to make calls with my iPhone. As soon as I dial any number, I get CALL ENDED followed immediately by CALL FAILED. I’m able to receive calls and send SMS, though.

I completely restored my iPhone, made sure the time zone & caller ID are correct as suggested in Apple’s support forums, and even reset network settings and the problem still persists. If nothing else works, I’ll probably be taking a trip to the Apple store.

Posted by mike at 12:53 am Tagged with:

Should Apple pull the plug on the iPhone?

iPhone 2 Responses »
Oct 222008

Last year, John Dvorak said:

These phones go in and out of style so fast that unless Apple has half a dozen variants in the pipeline, its phone, even if immediately successful, will be passé within 3 months.
There is no likelihood that Apple can be successful in a business this competitive. Even in the business where it is a clear pioneer, the personal computer, it had to compete with Microsoft and can only sustain a 5% market share.
And its survival in the computer business relies on good margins. Those margins cannot exist in the mobile handset business for more than 15 minutes.

According to Steve Ballmer:

Now we’ll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.

Who’s having the last laugh now?

Posted by mike at 1:27 pm Tagged with: ,

Is Richard Sprague going to eat his words?

iPhone Comments Off
Oct 222008

A year ago Richard Sprague wrote:

I can’t believe the hype being given to iPhone. Even some of my blindly-loyal pro-Microsoft friends and colleagues talk like it’s a real innovation and will “redefine the market” or “usher in a new age”.

What!?!? Without even mentioning that the same functionality has been available on PocketPC, Palm, Nokia, and Blackberry for years, I just have to wonder who will want one of these things (other than the religious faithful). People need this to be a phone, first and foremost. But with 5 hours of battery life? No keypad? (you try typing a phone number on that screen, no matter how wonderful it is — you will want a keypad). And for all that whiz-bang Internet access, you absolutely need the phone to work, immediately, every single time. Will it do that?

So please mark this post and come back in two years to see the results of my prediction: I predict they will not sell anywhere near the 10M Jobs predicts for 2008. Okay, it’s possible there are enough Apple religious people to buy a lot of them at first, but even the most diehard Mac fans who buy one of these will secretly carry two phones. One to prove how loyal and “cool” they are, and the other to actually make and receive calls.

I remember the lessons I learned working with the Newton team many years ago. I was in Apple’s marketing department at the time and we did this big fancy user study which basically proved that nobody would buy the thing at the price and functionality we were building. So what did we do? We shoved it into the market anyway because it was “cool”. Cool is great, but you still need to make phone calls.

Now how did that work out?

Posted by mike at 1:13 pm Tagged with:
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