Everything Development
Apple has recently removed Airfoil Speakers Touch by Rogue Amoeba and AirFloat by The Famous Software Company from the iTunes App Store for using AirPlay APIs that Apple has deemed non-public.
MGTitleMenu is an open source iOS interface component that lets developers conveniently add pop-up, tile-based contextual menus to iOS apps. It makes the most sense on big screen iPad apps, but can also be used on iPhone or iPad touch. MGTileMenu, as the name hints, is from well known iOS developer Matt Gemmell under a free, attribution license (it can also be licensed without attribution for a small fee).
A recent survey by a marketing firm called App-Promo shows that 59% of developers don't manage to make enough money from app sales to break even on costs, and 80% don't generate enough revenue to support a standalone business. 68% earned $5000 or less from their top app, while 12% earned $50,000 or more. Those top earners have around $30,000 set aside for a marketing budget. 64.5% of the apps created by those surveyed were paid, while 39.5% relied on advertising and 32.9% were freemium or lite versions of full apps.
Apple is currently rejecting apps that use the Dropbox SDK to provide integration with the popular cloud storage solution. The reason for the rejections is apparently that, under a specific but not inevitable set of circumstances, someone using an app with Dropbox integration could end up on Dropbox's web site and find a way to pay Dropbox for additional storage. That would violate Apple's prohibition against using external websites to circumvent Apple's 30% cut of subscriptions.
A Lithuanian developer, LemonLabs, has recently published an interesting infographic detailing a few simple ways in which designers can prepare their assets for developers in a useful and sensible way. The advice ranges from simple standard resolutions for icons, to highlighting particular Apple style guidelines, and how to package your final bundle of assets. A lot of it seems like common sense, but I'm sure there are at least a few iOS developers out there who would like to make sure their designers have at least glanced over something like this.
iOS developers on the west coast might be just a little bit peeved that WWDC sold out before they were even awake, and even more may have been cut out from the fun today as Apple canceled some tickets. Luckily, another event called the Indie Developer Lab has been put together for the same time (June 11 - 14) and only a few blocks away from the Moscone Center at The Box (it's fancier than it sounds). Tickets are considerably cheaper at $100/day as an early bird special, compared to $1600 for the whole four days at WWDC.
This morning Apple has apparently canceled some WWDC 2012 tickets, claiming that they are "ineligible" because individuals aren't supposed to buy more than one.
Splashtop's desktop-to-mobile virtualization app has just perversely enabled users to access their Windows 8 PC desktop on their iPad. Of course, this sort of VPN is nothing new, but it is the first time we're seeing it with Windows 8, much of which was designed specifically for touch input.
TestFlight, the popular beta distribution service for iPhone and iPad apps, has just launched TestFlight Live and aims to give iOS developers real-time analytics (how many users are using their apps right now), engagement metrics (how often and how long users are using their apps), and more.
Developer ID is the name Apple's giving their "trusted developer" system for deploying secure, tamper-safe non-Mac App Store apps to OS X.
