Icons

The importance of app icons

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Jan 24, 2013 a 8:15 pm

Renowned icon and app designer Louis Mantia -- who's been a guest on our design show, Iterate, not once but twice -- has shared his thoughts on app icons and their importance in an article on mantia.com:

Apple alerts developers to new catalog reports, iTunes Connect Mobile 2.0, and 1024x1024 icon requirements

By Simon Sage, Wednesday, Jun 20, 2012 a 12:47 am

Apple has sent an e-mail to developers informing them that new submissions will require icons that are 1024 x 1024 pixels starting in July. This is a sharp increase from the current minimum of 512 x 512, though apple has been recommending 1024 x 1024 for awhile now.

Add effects and transitions to your app icons with Motion [jailbreak]

By Andrew Wray, Wednesday, Jan 25, 2012 a 4:54 pm

Motion is a new jailbreak utility in Cydia that makes your iPhone homescreen just a bit more interesting. While motion may not add a ton of functionality to your device, it's a fun tweak to play around with and show off to your friends.

Daily Tip: How to personalize your new iPhone or iPad to make it your own

By Jared DiPane, Monday, Dec 26, 2011 a 5:24 pm

New to iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and curious how to set up a new ringtone, change a wallpaper, or arrange your app icons and folders, and otherwise personalize it and make it your own? Luckily these tasks can be completed quite simply, so let's take a look at how they are done.

Daily Tip: How to adjust icon labels and transparency with Alphacon [jailbreak]

By Allyson Kazmucha, Tuesday, Aug 23, 2011 a 3:05 pm

Wondering how to easily and quickly adjust the transparency of your icons or turn off labels? If you Jailbreak, you may want to check out Alphacon. Other apps like Winterboard allow you to do this but if you want something much more simple, Alphacon is it.

Daily Tip: How to improve the look of your home screen Safari bookmark icons

By chrissyboy6969, Tuesday, Jul 12, 2011 a 10:15 pm

Wondering how to make your home screen Safari bookmarks (Web Clips) look better? If the site you visited hasn’t made the effort to create a proper home page icon, all you end up with is a screenshot of the webpage. If the page is mostly text it can look awful on your home screen. Well the good news is there is a work around that will allow you to improve the look of that icon. We’ll show you how, after the break!

Daily Tip: How to extract Apple's default iPhone and iPad icons in Xcode

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Jul 11, 2011 a 11:26 pm

Wondering how to get your hands on the PNG files Apple uses for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad interface icons? If you're a developer running Xcode and for some reason you can't use the default controls but want your custom controls to look just like them, you're in luck, UIKit-Artwork Extractor by 0xced will get you everything from the action button to the trash can, Emoji to the glossy effect.

UIKit Artwork Extractor extracts all the artwork and emoji symbols contained in UIKit into png files.

TiPb Asks: Do you judge an app by its icon?

By Georgia, Friday, May 6, 2011 a 3:12 pm

A while back on iPad Live, we got to talking about how we often judge and app by its icon -- if the icon is bad, or even just not great, we don't buy it (ahem, Chad!). There are just so many apps in the store it becomes an easy way to eliminate some. If the developer doesn't care enough to make a fabulous icon -- the thing everyone sees when buying and launching their app -- what else don't they care about?

Are we being snobs? Superficial much? Missing out on great apps just because the developer was better at coding than they were design? Or do great icons sometimes hide crappy apps?

White Verizon iPhone 4 icons show up in iTunes 10.2

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Mar 16, 2011 a 1:29 pm

MacRumors says one of their readers did some digging through iTunes 10.2 and found that a white Verizon iPhone has been added to the previously existing white GSM (AT&T) iPhone 4 version.

[The icons] would be displayed in the Summary window within iTunes when the device is connected. The image is distinct from the original white iPhone 4 icon and clearly shows the antenna break on the top right side of the CDMA version that is not present in the GSM version.

Bugs: Disappearing icons [Jailbreak]

By Georgia, Tuesday, Feb 15, 2011 a 1:30 pm

There's a Jailbreak bug that affects Springboard (the Home Screen system on iPhone and iPad) and causes your icons to go fuzzy and disappear. Depending on which version of iOS 4 you're on, and which Jailbreak tool you used (limera1n, greenpois0n, redsn0w, etc.) you may or may not experience it or be able to replicate it, but if you do we have a simple if temporary fix for you after the break.