With Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference -- WWDC 2013 -- selling out in under 2 minutes, Apple has published a shot news blurb on their News and Announcements for Developers hoping to assuage the disappointment of those who couldn't score a ticket by reiterating that videos will be coming quickly this year, and that Tech Talks will once again be following in the fall.
Former developer tools evangelist at Apple, Michael Jurewitz has been going flat out on the writing circuit this past week, topped off by a an insane final lap consisting of a 5-part series on understanding App Store pricing.
Michael Jurewitz, former developer tools evangelist at Apple, has been blogging up a storm this week, with two great pieces on two important subjects for developers. First is the idea of minimal viable products, or how much you need to build in order to be able to start selling your current work, and supporting your future work. Jury says:
Apple has posted two new entries to their developer news page, the first warning developers they need to stop tracking people via UDID, and the second warning them they have to start supporting the double density Retina display, and 16x9 iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5 dip-lays, by May 1.
In the post-iOS 6 world, developers now have a choice of using Apple's new MapKit to embed map tiles and location services in their app, or to use Google's newly separate Google Maps SDK along with Google's tiles and location services. Both have strengths and weaknesses, including design and data quality. To compare and contrast Apple and Google's offering, and after speaking with developers, Michael Grothaus at FastCompany reports:
HockeyApp for iOS has nothing to do with the sport of hockey and everything to do with maing developers' and beta testers' lives easier. Time was, in order to beta test an app, you had to tether to iTunes and manual transfer over the provisioning and app files, and you had to do it every time the beta updated -- which could be often. Then services like HockeyApp showed up, and they allowed for direct, on-device, over-the-air (OTA) installation and updates of both provisioning files and apps. Hockey will even alert you when updates are available. Moreover, for developers, HockeyApp provides crash reports, feedback, and analytics.
With Apple's recent freeze on App Store screenshot updates, developers now have to make sure they have usable artwork ready and set when they hit the submit button. No more week(s)-long review cycle and vague plans to fix it later. That can add to the stress of a launch or update, especially if multiple language versions are needed for multiple, regional App Stores. Daniel Jalkut of Mars Edit fame, however, has shared some tips on Bitsplitting that could save developers a lot of time and frustration.
The Iterate roundtable returns with Seth Clifford, David Barnard, Marc Edwards, Russel Ivanovic, and Rene Ritchie discussing the economies and realties of making and selling apps on the iOS App Store and Android's Google Play.
NSNorth is a new iOS and Mac-centric conference taking place in Ottawa, Ontario from April 19-21. Aimed at app creators, it it features a delightful, single session track of industry experts and platform luminaries. It's being run by Dan Byers and Philippe Casgrain of Sparked Insight. Here's the pitch they've posted on NSNorth:
