Even this year’s CodeMash 2.0.1.2, a developer’s conference in Sandusky, Ohio sold out in an amazing twenty minutes to over 1,200 attendees.  So rather than holding out to see if Apple expands its own event, you should check out these upcoming alternatives:

• MacIT in San Francisco at the Moscone Center Jan. 26-28, 2012.
• 360|MacDev in Denver at the Embassy Suites Feb. 3-4, 2012.
• CocoaConf in Chicago at the Elk Grove Village March 16-17, 2012.
• 360|iDev in Denver at the Crowne Plaza Sept. 2012.
• MacTech in Los Angeles Oct. 17-19, 2012

You may even be able to score an event closer to home by checking Eventbrite, or by contacting a local CocoaHead. However, if you have your heart set on attending WWDC, there may be something you can do about it.

Cult of Mac points out that there is a service that will send you an SMS message the moment WWDC tickets go on sale.  WWDC Alerts, the site  extending this offer, also has a Twitter account that you can follow if you prefer. So sign up for the alerts, monitor your Apple information channels, and you just might get in.

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The free API will allow developers to create apps that provide access to Spotify’s more than 15 million tracks, so long as developers have a Spotify Premium account and app users are active subscribers to the service. We’ll likely see some attempts at straightforward third-party clients, including maybe one tailor-made for the iPad, but there are a number of other more interesting possibilities that also come to mind.

Imagine, for example, a game that lets you choose Spotify as the source of the soundtrack while you play. Or a game that actually uses Spotify more directly, like a music trivia app that has you identify tracks from the service’s library. Another interesting possibility that comes to mind is an augmented reality app that can match tracks available in Spotify’s library to real-world landmarks and locations via the iPhone’s camera or geolocation abilities; a real-life soundtrack for your walking tours, or even just a trip to the grocery store.

There’s one big limitation on the API, however: it’s for non-commercial use only. That means developers won’t be able to use it in apps that aren’t free. Spotify does offer to talk about a partnership with for-profit apps that want to use the API however, so it could be a good way for developers to test interest in Spotify integration among its users before entering into a binding business agreement.

Where would you like to see Spotify integrated in your iOS apps? Let us know in the comments.

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1. Source code. Great movie, eh? But also, when a developer writes software, source code is the actual program as it is being typed into the computer, written in a programming language. Source code is usually kept secret and closely guarded by companies, although “open source” software bares its code to the world.

2. Regression. A programmer friend once mentioned that a bug was “regressed.” I had vivid images of animals regressing to primordial ooze. Software regression is a bug that makes things stop working correctly after an event that changes the operating environment, like a system update. Not to be confused with regression testing, which in the programming sense, generally means making sure updates to software don’t introduce new bugs to existing, working features, and that previously identified bugs have been fixed. So it actually has nothing to do with science fiction.

3. Deprecated. “Cheer up!” might be your first reaction to your friend who tells you a critical programming library he or she relies on has been deprecated. That actually isn’t a bad instinct, because when something is deprecated it means it’s no longer supported by the manufacturer and may disappear in the future. If your program relies on a feature Apple has deprecated, your program could “break” in new OS versions unless you update it to use newer programming libraries. Generally speaking, if something is deprecated, it means it’s still there, but is no longer supported.

4. Release Candidate. No this isn’t about politics. Many readers probably know that a “test” phase of a program is a Beta. At some point, though, a product moves past the Beta phase (and the even earlier Alpha phase) and becomes a Release Candidate, usually designated RC. It might also be referred to as a Final Candidate or FC by some. Marking a build an RC or FC is the developers’ way of saying “we think this is probably good enough to ship.” Apple often releases several Final Candidate builds, the last of which becomes the…

5. GM. No this isn’t the General Manager (my first thought!), but rather the Gold Master. The code is frozen, and the FC designated the final GM is what ships. There should be no code differences between the last FC and the GM. Having the GM installed is pretty much equivalent to having the product. It’s the master version which is turned into the product: shipped on disk, downloaded or sold via the Mac App Store. You might hear people say software has “gone gold”; this is what they’re talking about.

So to review, when someone says “After we regressed our app in the new Mac OS, we found out that a library we relied on had been deprecated, so we went back to the source code to recompile our program. Now we have a solid FC and hopefully we’ll go GM next week!” you’ll know exactly what you’re talking about.

What other programming terms have slipped you up in casual conversation, and what are some other definitions you think people might appreciate?

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Below are a series of comments and insights from several top developers in the Mac community: Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of Bare Bones Software (Yojimbo, Textwrangler, and BBEdit), Gedeon Maheux, principal at Iconfactory (Twitterrific, Frenzic, etc.), Alykhan “AJ” Jetha, CEO of Marketcircle (Billings, Daylite, etc.), David Frampton, founder of Majic Jungle (Chopper 2) and Ken Case, CEO of The Omni Group (OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, OmniPlan, etc.).

Surprisingly United

These developers represent a pretty broad cross-section of solutions including developer tools like BBEdit, utilities like Twitterrific, business software like Billings, games like Chopper 2, and serious productivity tools like OmniGraffle Pro. What’s perhaps most interesting is how each one sees enormous opportunity for both “mass market” and “niche” solutions on the Mac App Store.

Why release through the Mac App Store?

When asked about why they chose to release their products on the Mac App Store, a general theme emerged. Most everyone was excited about getting in front of customers on the 20 million Snow Leopard Macs out there with a low-friction sales channel.

Rich Siegel, Bare Bones: “Folks who learn about our products through the Mac App Store are a welcome addition to our existing audience, particularly if they wouldn’t have become aware of our work otherwise.”

Gedeon Maheux, Iconfactory: “The sheer number of people who will be able to find your creations is exciting.”

AJ Jetha, Marketcircle: “The Mac App Store removes two friction points: downloading/installing and purchasing. That’s HUGE!”

David Frampton, Majic Jungle: “I was always planning to do a Mac version of Chopper 2 anyway, but the Mac App Store came along at just the right time, and being part of the launch was too big an opportunity to miss.”

Ken Case, The Omni Group: “The Mac App Store is the most convenient way to buy our software. Period.”

What are the advantages of the Mac App Store?

There are a number of advantages that these developers saw in distributing software through the App Store, like simpler licensing, management of serial numbers, and the ability to trust Apple to notify users of updates. The advantages are probably a little bigger for a small shop like Majic Jungle that had been using the shareware distribution model prior to the App Store’s launch.

Frampton: “I think historically many users have been scared of shareware and unsure of where to find and download apps. These users will now have the trust of Apple’s approval process and the single location to find apps, and so more users will be downloading more apps. It’s a perfect fit for Majic Jungle Software, which mostly focuses on games and entertainment apps with a broad appeal.”

What’s most exciting about the store?

When I asked what was most exciting about the App Store, many of the developers were optimistic about the convenience for customers. Apple has already developed a lot of trust with customers in running a software marketplace, which will make it easier for customers to buy at the new store. Gedeon Maheux captured a lot of my feelings about the App Store as a user.

Maheux: “For myself, I think the most exciting thing is there is now a place I can go to search specifically for Mac-based software. Before you had to a Google search, sort through the results, ask on Twitter, etc. The whole one-stop-shop approach is very appealing.”

Is the App Store a revolution in software distribution?

As to whether or not the Mac App Store was truly “revolutionary,” reaction was mixed:

Frampton: “Absolutely. It introduces a previously unviable business model, that of distributing ‘snack’ cheap apps with very specific tasks.”

AJ: “The iOS App Store was a revolution. The Mac App Store is just following in its footsteps, but it will be disruptive.”

Siegel: “So, it’s hard to give it full-fledged “revolution” status, but pretty easy to give it solid “evolution” status.”

How does the App Store compare to your existing sales process?

Maheux: “We really tried to make our sales process frictionless, but compared to Apple, it might as well be sandpaper. There really is no equal among online shopping experiences except maybe Amazon’s One-click checkout. Even Android can’t compete in this way with the App Store. It can’t be overstated.”

Case: “I view the Mac App Store as a replacement for the retail sales channel: It’s a place for consumers to go when they want to buy software.  And there couldn’t be less friction in their one-click purchasing process. Our own online store has a lot of flexibility the Mac App Store doesn’t offer, such as upgrade pricing and discounts for volume, bundle, and educational purchases.  But those options do lead to some extra complexity and friction.”

Siegel: “Products purchased using the Mac App Store interface are instantly downloaded, installed, and kept up to date for you. It’s hard to be lower friction than that.”

Will you market your products any differently to generate demand and push people towards the App Store?

Frampton: “I’ll be taking the same approach as I do on iOS. It basically comes down to managing your prices, updates and portfolio of apps, and taking any opportunities to cross-promote with other developers or announce new features to the press. It is a very different approach, but one that I am familiar with, and prefer.”

AJ: “We will still have to do marketing to drive awareness (especially after the buzz wears off), so this portion of the equation stays the same.”

Gedeon: “We won’t shy away from the fact that it’s also available on the App Store, but neither will we shift our entire focus there.”

Are you worried about a race to $0.99 with Mac App Store pricing?

Frampton: “The increase in customer numbers will make up for the lower price point in lower price games and apps with broad appeal. But on the flip side, niche apps with a focused markets can still price high or continue to distribute outside of the store.”

AJ: “People will eventually learn that you get what you pay for, but in the meantime …”

Maheux: “Naturally we are, but the iPad has demonstrated the ability to hold off price points above $0.99 so we’re encouraged that the Mac may be able to do this as well.”

Case: “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were another race to $0.99 — in fact, I fully expect one since some vendors clearly want the visibility that comes with being on their top 10 lists. But our iOS apps have done well without changing any prices, and I’m confident that our Mac apps will also”

Siegel: “Further erosion of pricing, we think, would be unsustainable for quality software. Quality erosion would be a very, very sad thing for the Mac eco-system generally. So, we hope companies are smart enough to charge a fair price, not exorbitant, but fair.”

Is the App Store only for impulse shopping?

Frampton: “Chopper 2 is very definitely targeted at the browsers, and Fluid Noise Generator is targeted at the hunters, and they are priced and marketed accordingly. I think there will be plenty of room for everyone to get along!”

AJ: “Our products are not for the impulse purchaser — we cater to people who want to build a successful business — so this type of thinking has not really entered our thought process.”

Maheux: “No, not really. All of our apps fill specific needs, mainly because we created them for us to fill our own needs as users.”

Siegel: “[Our customers] are more likely to do their homework before purchasing, and so we expect them to seek out curated reviews from journalists and domain experts, as well as anecdotes from multiple sources before buying.”

Bottom Line

While the Mac App Store represents a large shift in the landscape for Mac developers, the general consensus is that this is a good thing for everyone. It will be very interesting to see how developers choose to manage their products and promote themselves both within, and outside of,  the App Store itself.

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The second  holiday occurrence is that App Store sales go through the roof during the holidays. For example, our studio’s first game, Arcade Solitaire: TriTowers, was selling an average of 30 copies a day. Through a combination of being featured by Apple and the holiday sales boom, we hit a high of over 1,000 sales during one day. That was a 3,300-percent increase in sales for a game that wasn’t even in the overall Top 100. This is consistent with this 2009 report from Flurry showing an overall 50-percent increase in app sales from November to December, and iPod touch app downloads spiking to a staggering 1,000-percent increase on Christmas day.

I caught up with some fellow iOS developers to get their take on their App Store strategy for the holidays.

TheAppleBlog: Thanks for joining me today for this virtual panel. To start, why don’t you all introduce yourselves?

Matt Rix: Hi, I’m Matt. I made the games Trainyard and Trainyard Express. You can reach me on my blog or on Twitter as @MattRix.

Gavin Bowman: I’m Gavin from RetroDreamer, and our most recent games are Sneezies and Linkoidz. My Twitter is @gavinbowman.

Owen Goss: Hi, I’m Owen Goss, and I’m the founder of Streaming Colour Studios. We made LandFormer and Monkeys in Space. My Twitter handle is @owengoss.

TAB: How do the holidays affect your development plans, if at all?

Matt: The holidays are a really important time on the App Store, so I’m working hard to get an update for Trainyard out before Christmas. I haven’t released an update in a while, and it helps that Christmas is a nice, solid deadline to try to hit!

Owen: Historically, Christmas Day has been my biggest sales day of the year on the App Store. If I’ve got a game that will be nearing completion any time close to Christmas, it’s definitely a deadline I would push myself to meet. This also applies to major updates planned for my apps. Because the App Store ranks are frozen over the holidays, it would be nice to be ranked as high as possible when the freeze happens.

Gavin: [They don't affect our plans] with any real intensity. We’ve tried in the past [to get something ready for the holidays], and if there’s a relatable app where the timing is right and the price could drop a little, we would probably do it again. It’s hard to stand out at the holidays though; everything is on sale.

TAB: Do you use holiday sales to attract attention or create buzz? Why or why not?

Matt: I’m having a holiday sale for Trainyard, but I think it’ll be tough this year, because every single app seems to be going on sale. At the end of the day, having a sale gives you something to talk about, so it’s still a great thing to do as long as you have a way to get the message out.

Gavin: If you have a visible app, putting out a holiday-specific update or version seems to work out well in some cases. Maybe run a contest or something, but it’s tough to get any attention for anything at this time of the year.

Owen: I haven’t, no. The Black Friday sales in the U.S. and the Christmas sales see hundreds of developers discounting their apps. It seems to me you’d be fighting for a small part of a large pie. However, the flip side of that is that lots of users will be looking for sales those days, so if you can get the press, the potential is there to have a good day or weekend. One of the great things about the App Store is that you’re free to change your price at will, so anyone can test assumptions about these kinds of sales themselves.

TAB: If not sales, are there other types of promotions you’d use?

Matt: I plan to send a message out to all the Trainyard players right around Christmas time to drum up some support.

Owen: I’ve attempted contests in the past without a lot of success, but a holiday contest might have some potential. I also have a game, LandFormer, that has in-game themes available for purchase. I’ve considered releasing holiday themes, but haven’t tried that yet. Cross-promotion with other apps is something that tends to work quite well at any time of the year. And of course, there are advertising buys, but I’ve found you don’t have a lot of success with small ad buys.

Gavin: We just try to keep in mind what holidays might be happening when our next game launches.

TAB: Have you, or would you ever develop a holiday-specific app?  Why or why not?

Gavin: We’ve done it twice on purpose and once by accident. It didn’t really pay off any of those times, but the holiday-themed version of our existing game was the best outcome of the three. Last year, we tried making a free holiday game. I wouldn’t do that again; the window of interest was too short to build up a customer base. You need to sell so many copies — or get so many active free downloads — to break even on any game, and it’s even harder to do in the small window you have around a holiday. It really depends on your existing setup, how fast you can turn around the game, how much it’s going to cost you, how easily you can communicate the new product to your existing customers, and what your quality standards are. I’ve no doubt holiday apps will work out very well for some developers.

Matt: I wouldn’t ever make a brand new app just for Christmas. The time frame is too short, and the Christmas app market seems highly over-saturated. That being said, I would definitely consider making “Trainyard: Christmas Edition” next year, as long as I can figure out a way to do it in only a couple of weeks of work.

Owen: I haven’t in the past, and I don’t think I would in the future. The problem with a holiday-specific app is that it has a narrow window of desirability. The only way I would consider it would be releasing a holiday-themed version of one of my other games. In that case, the cost vs. benefit might work out.

TAB: Do you find it harder to compete with bigger corporations’ app releases during the holiday rush?  If so, would you wait it out and release after the holidays are over?

Matt: If I had a potential top-100 game ready to come out, I think I’d consider delaying the release until after Christmas, just because so many things are going to be released at the same time. I think sites like TouchArcade are going to be drowning in new releases, sales, and “Christmas versions.” There’s going to be a lot of noise, and it’ll be very hard for a completely new product to get noticed.

Gavin: Absolutely. If it’s not the releases, it’s the sales. And if it’s not the competition, there’s all the freezing and quirkiness of the App Store around that time of year. You can win big if your timing is right, but I think I remember seeing some friends lose out big time on some major releases around the holidays last year. If I had a game scheduled to launch in December, I would be very tempted to hold it until next year.

Owen: As an indie developer, it’s hard to think about large corporations’ games as competition. I’m making different kinds of games from them. In terms of players’ limited spending amount and the number of games released this time of year, yes, it can be intimidating. I think it also depends on the kind of app you’re releasing. If you’re relying on a large number of review sites to write about your app or game, it’s going to be tough to get write-ups this time of year. However, if you’ve got other marketing channels you’re relying on, the potential upside of releasing before Christmas could be great.

TAB: Thanks again gentlemen for taking the time to join me for this virtual panel. Good luck with your holiday app sales!

Ken Seto is the founder of Endloop Studios, which develops iPhone and iPad apps. He can be reached on Twitter as @kenseto and on his blog. Disclosure: Ken owns stock in Apple Inc.

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Here are just three examples of terrific games recently released in the App Store, and the developers behind them.

1. Beast Boxing 3D — Goodhustle Studios, Inc.

This is a great new game, released just before Halloween. If you’re a fan of Nintendo’s Punch-Out!, you’ll find the gameplay pleasantly familiar. Don’t think for a second that it’s just a clone, though. There are RPG game elements, like the ability to trade coins earned in-game for increased stats, and you have more variety of control, perfectly suited to the iPhone’s touchscreen. But what’s probably most impressive about Beast Boxing are the graphics. Each character is beautifully rendered in 3D with careful attention to detail, and in-game animation is silky smooth.

Goodhustle Studios is the baby of former Yahoo web developer Gordon Luk. After resigning from Yahoo, Luk spent some time doing freelance work before being inspired to get into gaming after meeting up with an inspiring concept artist. His interest stems from genuine personal love of gaming, and he says on his blog that playing Halo 3 actually led to the meetings that prompted his move to actually becoming a game developer.

Luk’s first game, Skybox, is a 3D, multi-planar version of Tetris, and both it and Beast Boxing 3D have been well-received by critics and reviewers alike. They have yet to crack the top charts at the iPhone store, but they demonstrate a level of care that promises great things to come from Luk and Goodhustle.

Skybox is $0.99, and Beast Boxing 3D is only $2.99 during the ongoing launch sale.

2. Game Dev Story — Kairosoft Co.,Ltd.

Game Dev Story was addictive enough to nearly be responsible for genuine relationship problems for me. Luckily, I managed to burn through the 10 year span the game covers in a solid day of playing, without any breaks to avoid lasting damage. But I still want to play more of Kairosoft’s sim. In it, you manage a game development company, choosing the direction and platform of your games. It’s the old efficiency management game, but Kairosoft’s done a good job of making it feel new again.

Kairosoft isn’t new to the game development game. It’s been making games for the Japanese market since 1996, for both PC and cellphones. But Game Dev Story is their first offering for the iPhone, though it’s a port of a game created earlier. Based on Game Dev Story’s success, though, we’ll probably see more from Kairosoft, and we’ll probably have just as hard a time tearing ourselves away.

Game Dev Story is $3.99.

3. Galaxy on Fire 2 — Fishlabs

Did you enjoy Privateer or Freelancer on the PC, or Escape Velocity on the Mac? Or maybe EVE Online is more your speed? If you liked any of the above, you’ll love Galaxy on Fire 2. It’s a sequel, as the name suggests, and the original Galaxy on Fire is also a great play. Many improvements have been introduced in this latest offering, though, and the story isn’t really tied too strongly to its predecessor, so if you’re only shopping for one, get GOF 2. There are other space trading/combat sims out there for iOS, but this is the best.

Fishlabs was founded in 2004, and works in every mobile platform. It has the most offerings in the App Store of the developers covered here, but it hasn’t achieved the recognition of players like Gameloft and Chillingo. Fishlabs also makes promotional games for companies to use for advertising purposes, which could become a boom industry if integrated properly within iAd efforts, for instance. Founder Michael Schade sees a strong bond in the future between gaming and corporate branding, according to TechCrunch, and Fishlabs is well-positioned to take advantage of that shift away from more traditional advertising.

Galaxy on Fire 2 is $6.99. Waterslide Extreme, one of Fishlabs’ most successful ad games, is free.

These developers aren’t the only ones out there making great games for iOS, but they are the ones taking some unusual and exciting approaches to what has, in many ways, become a boilerplate space. Don’t get me wrong; I still enjoy offerings from the big studios, even the cookie cutter ones, but these are the kinds of titles that I just can’t put down.

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This is one of the main questions that Ken Yarmosh, proprietor of a DC-based boutique mobile agency, tackles in his new book App Savvy. He talks about how people with ideas can connect with development teams to make their ideas a reality, among other things. I caught up with Ken to find out more about his book and how it can help people get their app ideas built.

TheAppleBlog: Can you give us a brief overview of your book?

Ken Yarmosh: App Savvy (O’Reilly) is a field guide for taking an idea and transforming it into an app on Apple’s App Store. The book literally steps readers through a disciplined yet straightforward process of creating an app, without assuming they have any relevant or related experience. I like to say, “it’s written for the rest of us” because it’s not a design or technical book, while still providing the right amount of design and technical information for the average person.

Ken Yarmosh

Many readers tell me that they consider App Savvy a helpful resource for building any new business. I had a feeling I’d hear feedback about the ideas being applicable to other contexts since the book embodies the spirit of my business and product philosophy. At the same time, I thought it would be best to describe how I applied my approach to one of today’s most exciting markets (mobile) and to the leader in that space (Apple), which is why App Savvy is focused on helping people build iPhone and iPad apps.

TAB: How did you come up with the idea for App Savvy? Did you approach O’Reilly with the idea or were they looking for an “app strategy” book already?

KY: While writing about apps and mobile-related topics often on my blog, one morning I set out to write a longer post entitled, “The Product Manager’s Guide to Building iPhone Apps.” After spending several hours on it, I realized there was a much bigger idea (see this tweet) and possibly even a book hiding between the blog post, notes, and outline. I didn’t go full force into pursuing it at that point. The idea marinated for just under a month before I decided to turn it into a book proposal and shop it around.

Publishers like O’Reilly probably pursue some authors but I wasn’t one of them. They were on the top on my list but having some experience with placing my writing, I didn’t get too excited about my prospects, especially with pitching a book somewhat outside of their traditional sweet spot. And at the same time, I also didn’t send my book proposal to other publishers because I felt I was covering an angle no one else was.

TAB: So your book is interesting in that it’s aimed at both non-developers and developers. What would you say would be the biggest take away for non-developers reading your book?

KY: It was a challenge to write App Savvy for all these various audiences. My approach to making it useful for non-developers and developers alike was to keep it practical. By keeping it a practical, step-by-step guide, my hope for non-developers, including entrepreneurs, product and project managers, marketers, and even just for people with ideas, was that they could be empowered to pursue building an iPhone or iPad app despite not having the design or development expertise required to do so.

That relates to one of the big takeaways: Roughly 30 percent of an app is about the upfront work of researching an idea, understanding Apple’s mobile ecosystem, talking with potential customers, mocking up an app, and hiring a team. None of these items require a designer or developer to be involved, so non-developers can rest assured that they can get started on an app the right way without anyone else’s help.

TAB: And what benefits would existing app developers likely get out of reading App Savvy?

KY: To start, I’d hope that developers also value the need to think first, code later. While having the ability to program (or design) is a huge advantage, it actually hurts many developers. They start their apps from the perspective of, “how can this app be done” instead of “should this app be done.” When the motivation is the former, it’s possible to build a technically superb app that no one wants to download.

The other major takeaway for developers relates to marketing. Many developers either do not market at all or begin doing so once their app is released. As a result, they miss out on one of the best opportunities for their app, which is in that short window when it first appears in the App Store. My goal was to guide them on how they can begin marketing an app in parallel to development, showing that development and marketing actually help each other. Many developers are surprised to discover that marketing will make development more effective (e.g., significantly increase the number of beta testers) and vice versa.

I do also need to mention user experience (UX) and design. While I usually lead UX on my apps/projects, I’m not a designer. App Savvy doesn’t go into tremendous detail about UX and design but they are addressed because Apple is known for easy-to-use, aesthetically pleasing products. If you are a developer and you are ignoring these aspects when building your apps, you’re doing so at your own peril and Apple likely will never do more than simply approve your app. If you can’t push yourself in these areas, then team up with or hire a designer to help.

TAB: One of the things I really enjoyed about the book was the developer interviews. Can you tell us a bit more about the research?

KY: As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had my own successes in the App Store. But I’m humble enough to recognize that I don’t have the market cornered on building apps the right way.

There are many developers in the community that I admire. They’ve worked their butts off to create amazing apps and have seen the App Store become a large portion, if not the sole source of their income. I knew that to make App Savvy a definitive resource, their perspectives needed to be incorporated into the book. So, these interviews were a part of my plan from the very beginning.

Here’s my big secret: One of the reasons the interviews have been so useful for readers is because I also found them quite educational. Everyone in the book is a leader in the industry and I snagged folks whose background would directly relate to topics in each of the chapters. I then developed questions specifically for them, which were often based both on particular ideas in the chapter, how they build their own apps, and thoughts they may have shared on blogs or elsewhere.

I knew the interviews were on the right track when Phill Ryu of tap tap tap wrote to me, “Thanks again for some actually intriguing interview questions that are fun to answer.”

TAB: If you had to give 3 essential tips for people who are looking to make an app, what would it be?

KY:

1. Aim big but start small. This point is especially important if you are bootstrapping or self-funding your app. Many get lost in trying to build an app with 42 features either to never ship it or ship something that does 42 things very poorly. Say goodbye to junior’s college funds.
2. Keep customers front and center. Develop your assumptions but then talk with the people who will use your app even if your app is not built yet. It’s easy to do that today but even if you have a small network, start with personal contacts. The first time you get feedback on your app shouldn’t be in the Customer Reviews section of the App Store.
3. Be prepared for the unexpected. There are going to be unforeseen problems. Development will get off schedule. You’ll get into disagreements with your team. An app similar to yours might appear days before your launch. Remain calm, know that you aren’t the first to encounter these problems, and push forward.

TAB: One final question: I know you’ve made your own apps in the past. Are you currently working on a new app idea for yourself?

KY: In order to stay sharp, I don’t just think and write about building apps. I continue to work with clients (everything mobile, not just Apple’s iOS) and create my own apps. The latter item is important because it gives me the greatest opportunity to refine existing strategies while experimenting and tinkering with new ones without not impacting anyone except myself.

I’m almost always working on a new idea. Not all of them launch but there’s one in progress right now that will called, “Rise Alarm.” It may seem silly to develop an alarm clock app with Apple providing its own option and with seemingly hundreds of them on the App Store. That’s a large part of why I am doing it. My goal is to further explore what it takes to succeed in a crowded market. It’s been a really fun project so far and I’m pretty excited by the response to the initial sneak preview on the Rise Alarm teaser site (http://risealarm.com).

TAB: Even as an experienced app developer, I can say that I still found great tips in the book and appreciated the very practical approach. Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Ken.

Ken Yarmosh can be found at www.kenyarmosh.com and his book App Savvy can be found at www.getappsavvy.com.

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Attending WWDC for the first time this year, I was not prepared for the overall quality of the conference itself. It really was a very well put together conference; in fact, I would go so far as to say it is among the best if not the best conference I have ever been part of. And I have been to, spoken at, and even helped put together my fair share of conference over the years. So what makes this conference so different from the rest?

Over 1,000 Apple engineers on site throughout the week. That’s a lot of talented individuals, and these talented individuals are all put to good use. The overall quality of each and every presentation was impressive. They were all as well polished and of the same professional style of the one delivered in the keynote by Steve Jobs, and equal in quality to that of each state of the union presentation also delivered on that first Monday. It is as if there is a special training class that all Apple staff must take to make them all professional iWork Keynote experts. Very little variance in the slide design. And each used animations as well as visual graphics to bring each particular point across brilliantly.

Then there was the delivery of each presentation. We are talking about engineers and IT managers for the most part. Not the best speakers in the world one would think. But one would be mistaken given that this is Apple we are talking about. Most presentations were tag teamed, and several different individuals took the stage to present a sub section of material for each topic. In one presentation in particular, I do recall that an engineer made a mistake in a highly technical demo, started to choke in front of hundreds of fellow developers, and instantly was replaced on stage with a fellow presenter that took over right where he left off, and continued the presentation. This was required as most presentations ended exactly on time like clockwork with little time to spare. Don’t expect getting out early at WWDC. These topics are jammed packed of useful information.

This information should not be taken lightly either. The topics were very well thought out and seemed to lead developers in the direction of raising the bar of the overall quality of applications in the App Store today. Not only did these sessions introduce several new opportunities to design a better application, or redesign an existing application solely based on some of the new APIs and multi-tasking capabilities, but they also more clearly defined some of the core competencies of developing for iOS 4 and even changed the development life cycle itself by showing how and when to use specific instruments to make Apps better.

Given the clearly stated goal that Apple has for all of the apps being marketed in the App Store to be a cut above the rest, it only makes sense that Apple releases all of the session videos from this years WWDC freely to all registered developers. Development teams that invest the time necessary to review and adopt some of the concepts that are presented will be in a much better position to build better applications than those who do not.

So the ball is in your court, the sessions are there, online waiting to be viewed. Before you submit that new or updated app to Apple, take a brief look at some of the sessions, and see if there is not a thing or two you can use to make that next submission a better one.

In a press release, Senior Apple VP Scott Forstall doesn’t even pretend it’s about the Mac anymore. WWDC will provide “in-depth sessions and hands-on working labs to learn more about iPhone OS 4,” helping developers “make their iPhone and iPad apps even better.”

And it doesn’t end there, unless we’re talking about information on the next iteration of Mac OS X.

For developers, the $1,599 package gets you in on five technology tracks: Application Frameworks; Internet & Web; Graphics & Media; Developer Tools; and Core OS, but no IT/SysAdmin track. The sessions offer blanket coverage of iPhone OS development, but unless OS X 10.7 sessions will be super secret, there doesn’t appear to be a lot there. It sure seems telling that five design awards will be handed out for the iPhone and the iPad, but not the Mac.

For those who are not developers, expect to see the next generation iPhone, rumored to be named the iPhone HD. If the infamous prototype revealed by Gizmodo is the final version, its hardware features will include: a front-facing video camera, camera flash, micro-SIM card, and two volume buttons. Also, John Gruber has suggested the resolution of the display will jump to 960×640. The launch date for the phone will certainly be announced, probably June or early July.

That phone will be running iPhone OS 4, of course, which has already been previewed. There may be a few new features, along with information about a “unity release” of iPhone OS 4.1 for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad sometime in late summer or early fall.

As for what to expect that is not related to the iPhone, if one can expect anything, probably a quiet update of the MacBook is in order. There’s also the question of the MacBook Air, which was last updated at WWDC09. The iMac will almost certainly not see an update until the fall, same for the Mac mini, if then. The Mac Pro, which shockingly has not seen an update for over a year, is a candidate for the Intel’s Xeon 5600 CPU. That could mean a 12-core Mac Pro with two six-core CPUs running up to 3.33 GHz. That would be pretty amazing, run pretty hot, too.

Or Apple could completely ignore the Mac and OS X for the desktop, but, hey, how about that magical iPad? No matter what is or isn’t at WWDC10, TAB will be covering the Keynote, product introductions, and new developments in development, of course.

Windows Phone Series 7 remains largely an enigma for developers until the MIX conference next month. There will be a “marketplace” hub, but Series 7 will apparently not be compatible with Windows Mobile programs. Highly restricted multi-tasking appears similar to that in iPhone OS, and multi-touch will be required in Series 7, which is scheduled for release late this year.

But that’s then, and this is now. Colin Gibbs has prepared a report (subscription required) for GigaOm Pro on the seven leading mobile platforms to advise developers on which platforms are the right and wrong ones.

The seven platforms covered are Android, BlackBerry, Maemo (now MeeGo), iPhone, Symbian, webOS, and Windows Mobile.

Not surprisingly, the most vibrant platform at the moment is iPhone OS, with more than 75 million devices sold and a highly successful App Store. However, there are trade-offs for developers, most notably the closed nature of the App Store and an approval process that can be seemingly mercurial at times. Interestingly, it seems that the 70/30 revenue split at the App Store has become almost universal among platforms, with only RIM offering BlackBerry developers 80 percent of revenue. It should also be noted that Nokia’s Ovi Store takes carrier allowances for bandwidth out of the developer’s pocket.

Potential unknowns are also explored, such as aggregators like Verizon, which will subsume content from multiple platforms into its own store. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, an alliance of carriers and handset makers have also vowed to create an open technology platform that all mobile consumers could shop at. Adobe is also pushing Air as the new run-time development platform for every phone without a fruit logo that will let them install it.

Setting aside possible game changers in the future, the wealth of information on the seven major mobile development platforms does not conclude with a best choice for developers right now, because there isn’t one. That won’t change in 2010, or 2011, but it is arguable that there are platforms to avoid, and that’s where developers should start their decision process.

Read the full report on GigaOM Pro → (subscription required)

The article also notes that finding good solid numbers related to both the number of jailbroken iPhones that are out there, and the number of those devices that are actually pirating games is difficult to do. After reviewing numerous sources of information, 24/ Wall St. arrived at the conclusion that an estimate of 75 percent piracy rates for paid apps was most accurate.

That means that for every paid app download, there have been three pirated downloads of the same app that result in no revenue. Given that the researchers behind the report also estimated that around 17 percent of the 3 billion app store downloads, or 510 million, were paid apps (though we found 1 in 4 in December, so that number seems to be growing), that means that the number of pirated apps is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.53 billion apps. Not a number you’ll see Apple using in its promotional material anytime soon.

Even considering that only around 10 percent of those who pirated apps would’ve purchased them instead if the illicit option was not available, this represents a loss of around $459 million for both Apple and the app developers working with the Mac maker. Doesn’t seem like an insignificant number.

Insignificant or not, Apple isn’t doing much to quell piracy rates, either. Sure, it counters the most recent jailbreak exploit every time a new model of the iPhone is released, but those countermeasures are usually pretty easily overcome. Apple could do more on the software side, with apps themselves, but that would only spark another arms race-type situation between the company and the hacking community, and allowing users to jailbreak and pirate frankly helps Apple sell hardware, which is the real cash cow.

It’s a troubling report for developers who can’t afford to just eat these kinds of losses the way Apple can. But it also makes the assumption that piracy will continue to grow, which I think is a false one. Yes, it’s easier than ever to jailbreak your iPhone, but as Apple continues to work on the operating system behind the platform, there is less and less reason to do so.

Many users only jailbreak to get some extra functionality out of their device that already exists there, rather than being set on trying to get software for free. As long as iPhone 4.0 introduces true multitasking, I think we’ll see overall jailbreak rates fall off considerably, and likely piracy numbers will follow, too.

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It’s a cute 8-bit-era game with deliciously retro graphics that clones Pacman with a pie-themed twist. Eat the pies, don’t get caught by the cooks, and try to beat your high-score. The game can be installed for free simply by visiting http://mrgan.com/pieguy/ on your iPhone’s browser.

The surprising thing is that all of this was achieved without the App Store. I’ve never come across an iPhone web app that feels so much like a native app. From the install process, to the icon and graphics, the attention to detail is impressive.

Admittedly, Pie Guy is no Rolando, but nevertheless it’s just the sort of 99 cent app I’d expect to find riding high in the App Store charts. Except it’s not in the App Store — Pie Guy is free from the constraints and anguish of Apple approvals and it’s just as polished and professional as we’d expect, but perhaps rarely find, from a native premium app.

What’s amazing is seeing what has been achieved without the App Store. A great user experience and a great product, all without running natively. Plus, it even works offline, despite being a web app. It’s worth noting though Pie Guy is iPhone 3GS only, the app apparently takes advantage of the significant improvements Apple made to WebKit performance on the device.

Of course, iPhone web apps are nothing new. Way back when, before the glorious mess that is the App Store, Jobs announced that developing on iPhone was effectively as simple as creating a web site.

After a rather disgruntled reaction from the dev community, and much purported rushing on Apple’s part, we ended up with the App Store. The very notion of web apps, on the other hand, seemed to get tossed aside in the free-for-all gold-rush that ensued.

Many months later, attention is beginning to swing back around to the untapped potential of web apps. It may be that developers are looking for a route to take their concepts to users without running the rejection gauntlet that is Apple’s app approval process. However, it’s also likely that developers want to take advantage of those handy WebKit performance improvements on the 3GS.

Earlier this week on Twitter, David Kaneda, a WebKit developer, claimed, “I could write a pretty competitive Tweetie clone, pretty quickly.” Loren Brichter, developer of iPhone Twitter-client Tweetie, promptly responded by saying, “I dare you.” What resulted from the ensuing exchange was a coder battle that may go some way in illustrating the real potential of WebKit, with Kaneda already producing promising results.

In the meantime though, users are caught between a somewhat chaotic App Store and a predominantly lackluster selection of web apps. There’s clearly room for improvement in both arenas and it’ll be interesting to see what developers manage to squeeze out of WebKit in the coming months.

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I’ve had a rant building up for a few weeks. A rant about developer’s treatment at the hands of the App Store submission procedure. However unlike many rants on the topic, mine is not directed towards Apple. It is directed towards the iPhone developers who complain about the poor, unfair treatment they get, carrying their bleeding hearts in their palms while claiming Apple is bludgeoning the life out of them.

Two recent news headlines, seemingly separate, are intrinsically tied together and the synergy of them have made my eyes dislocated from the continued rolling they involuntarily perform.

The first headline, Facebook Developer Turns Back on iPhone relates how another high-profile developer has thrown their hands up in disgust over how Apple’s closed system runs against their principles. A direct quote from Joe Hewitt, developer of the popular Facebook application can be found on TechCrunch, and is most relevant. I will come back to this later:

I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process.

The second headline is Apple’s App Store Approval Process Now Includes an Automated Layer. The quick version is that Apple is now using an automated tool to determine if the Apps that developers submit to the App Store are using any Private API calls.

These two headlines are actually the same story, a fact that was made quite apparent by a popular direct iPhone-to-iPhone messaging App called Ping!. On Ping!’s Facebook Page, the developer announced that the much-anticipated version 1.2 of Ping! has been rejected by Apple:

Bad news is Ping! 1.2 has been rejected by Apple on Nov 14 due to a software library we used, developed by the Facebook company. This library is used by many apps including Ping! and the iPhone Facebook app itself. Unfortunately the most recent version of this library has violated some of Apple’s guidelines and  has caused hundreds of apps to get rejected including Ping! 1.2.

So let’s get this straight. Ping! and hundreds of apps have been rejected because they used a popular development framework, a framework which used Private APIs. A framework, which was created by Joe Hewitt initially for use with the Facebook application and then made available to third-party developers.

Lets be clear about this; Joe Hewitt used Private APIs in his public framework, well-known to be against the rules of the App Store, and then acts all indigent when Apple slaps his framework down. Rather than disclosing his error, rather than saying “oops sorry about that,” he would rather ride the trendy wave of ‘blame Apple control policy’ and cite ‘philosophical differences.’ I rather wonder if these philosophical differences would still be present if his framework hadn’t been caught in this automated tool. If it were just other people’s frameworks that were caught, would he still have quit for ideological reasons?

Now I don’t mean to pick solely on Mr Hewitt, and maybe I’m being too harsh. But he is just the latest example in a blogosphere that increasingly seems to love taking the loud minority and say “Look! Here’s proof that the end is nigh!” Come on, the end isn’t nigh, it’s not even on the horizon. Out of the thousands of App Developers that exist, we’ve had a dozen, maybe two dozen make a public fuss and quit. Big deal! This is the real world; businesses start, some succeed and some can’t hack the brutal reality. Those just make excuses and quit. Just like everywhere else in the business world.

To summarize the full story that I see, it goes something like this:

• Apple publishes the rules for making iPhone Apps, including publishing and documenting the specific APIs which developers are allowed to use.
• Some developers ignore these rules and make use of Private APIs. Some Apps get through the cracks in the newly functioning App Store review procedures.
• Apple starts to crack down on private API usage. Developers who get rejected due to Private API use cry foul “Why are WE rejected but THOSE apps are allowed?” This was a fair question.
• In response Apple says “They shouldn’t have been allowed, we are working on a way to fill up the cracks in the system”
• Apple then goes ahead and fill the cracks with an automated (and thus unbiased) system to test of private API usage.
• Developers then cry foul, “It’s not fair, you’re a bully, it’s too hard.”

Cry me a river….

Before I get off my soap box, I’d like to add that there are times and places for Private API use. As a professional software developer working on proprietary custom embedded solutions on Windows Mobile devices for specific customers, I freely admit to using Private API calls at times. Sometimes its necessary to get a specific job done. The difference is scope and control. Our clients deploy the software under our care and guidance, with specific OS and hardware requirements. If they change devices or operating systems, we know about it well in advance and can prepare for it accordingly. Our clients don’t just upgrade the OS and expect everything to work.

The consumer market is a completely different kettle of fish, customers upgrade willy-nilly  and expect things to just work, especially things related to Apple products. Private APIs are private for a reason, because they can not be relied upon to behave from one OS release to the next. This means that applications will break and the consumers, you and me, lose out.

In the brutal competition of any market place, and indeed the world in general, the strong will survive and the weak will perish. The App Store is no different and I’m constantly dumb-founded as to why some people expect it to be so.

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Some of the lies being perpetrated are coming from firms that look otherwise legit. Lots of offshore development companies are cashing in on the trend by providing low-cost alternatives to in-house or domestic U.S. solutions, and some of those are taking serious heat for what appear to be bald-faced lies.

One of the more high-profile apps involved in the scam is TapBots‘ popular iPhone unit conversion application, ConvertBot. ConvertBot’s design and intuitive interface have earned it praise from both the press and iPhone users, and it remains a popular app in its category. According to Ars Technica, TapBots partner Paul Haddad recently received a surprising inquiry from a client about his program:

This prospective client wasn’t looking to hire TapBots for any development work, they were looking for confirmation that a development firm out of India did the coding on ConvertBot, a popular TapBots application. The client had found Trucid, the supposed coders of ConvertBot, on the Rentacoder.com website, a virtual cork board where companies can hang their business cards. Trucid quoted a sum of $2,400 for an application similar to ConvertBot. The only problem? TapBots designs and writes all of its applications entirely in house.

At least the company in this case was smart enough to make some inquiries before going ahead and hiring the coding company making the false claims. Other people might not be so discerning and cautious.

Another developer, Sugar Cube, Inc. operating out of San Francisco, only discovered that others were taking credit for its work when prospective clients noted that they’d already seen the screenshots included in Sugar Cube’s pitch materials in packages from other development firms. Apparently, Sugar Cube had been trying to secure referral relationships with some other firms, and in so doing had sent around a sampler package. Some of these companies were then redistributing the materials as their own.

It’s a disturbing trend, but one to be expected with something like the App Store, which many see as an opportunity to cash in quickly and easily. As the industry matures, expect to see this sort of thing become less and less common, but until then, check and double-check any claims that seem to good to be true.

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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the original release of the Macintosh Portable — the first truly untethered Mac, thanks to its internal battery.

There’s a quote attributed to Steve Jobs: “Do not trust a computer that you cannot lift.” The original compact desktop Macs were offered with an optional carrying case, and some pioneer Mac-users did lug them around, but analogous to the tiny Mac mini today, they couldn’t be considered truly portable due to the necessity of a wall-current umbilical.

The Mac Portable development project was launched in 1986, not long before Steve Jobs’ departure from Apple, and the product was first released for sale on September 20, 1989. It was featured on the cover of the November 1989 edition of MacUser magazine, which called it “by far the most complex piece of machinery devised by sale by Apple computer.”

While it incorporated a laptop-style foldable form factor with a front-mounted carry handle/lockdown lever, the Mac Portable weighed only about a pound less than contemporaneous Mac Compact desktops — a hefty 16 pounds, due partly to it having a robust lead-acid battery. It wasn’t cheap either, selling for a likewise heavyweight $6,500 — or $7,300 with an optional hard drive.

Internally, the Mac Portable had a 16MHz Motorola 68HC000 processor chip, an internal 1.4MB 3.5-inch floppy drive, a 40MB 3.5″ hard drive, and a whopping 1MB of RAM, expandable to 9MB but unfortunately in an oddball 30ns SRAM card (one slot) module format. The monitor screen was a crisp 9.8″ 1-bit active matrix, 640×400, LCD — initially without backlighting — and there was also a video output port for driving an external monitor. The upside of that heavy lead-acid battery was a very respectable five-to-10 hour charge life.

Also included were an ADB port for a keyboard and mouse, DIN-8 serial ports for printer and modem connections, and a DB-25 SCSI connector. An internal modem was optional. An interesting trivia note is that the Portable was the first Mac to ship with a pre-formatted hard drive and a pre-installed operating system.

Apple added a backlight to the Macintosh Portable in February 1991 and also increased the standard RAM to 2MB or 4MB, changed the RAM ceiling to 8MB, and replaced the expensive SRAM chips with less-expensive pseudo-SRAM, although the pseudo-SRAM and backlighting reduced battery life.

The Mac Portable was replaced by the PowerBook models 100, 140, and 170 in October 1991 — the 100 slimmed down to five pounds — launching the modern laptop computer era with a form factor essentially the same as the one still dominant today. However, the Portable gets credit for pioneering the battery-powered Mac concept. Happy Anniversary!

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Macworld was in intensive care in 2008 and Apple’s decision to not exhibit in the future killed it, right? Maybe not. Macworld may end up stronger than ever. It reminds me of the classic science fiction plot where the main character goes through some strange metamorphosis on his deathbed (Doctor Who anyone?).

The Big Squeeze

My first Macworld was 1995. The clone wars were about to begin, but it was still Apple’s show. I had an absolute blast, and it wasn’t just because Sandra Bullock was filming “The Net” on the show floor. Back then there were detailed product demos and face time with a vendor’s sales and support team. Schwag bags were so big I’d have to ship a separate box back to Kansas.

As time marched on, smaller vendors were squeezed out by the big shots. Just like in any business, big national chains increased costs and make it more expensive for the little guys. Eventually, vendors stopped sending top personnel and often just hired warm bodies to staff their booths.

After over a decade of attendance, I decided in 2008 to pack it in. Too many exhibitors were doing “engineering via PowerPoint,” showing off screenshots and mockups of future products in lieu of real demos. Quicken Financial Life is still M.I.A. Any word on NightHawk? When I asked an exhibitor a moderately difficult question I was simply handed a card and told to call some support or sales number, or pointed towards the FAQ on their website. Furthermore, the show’s emphasis on Mac hardware and software had been overwhelmed by a preponderance of laptop and iPod cases and sometimes seemed to be more of a fashion show than a technical conference.

As a press person, qualifying for passes became difficult as the show management became overly bureaucratic. Many attendees and exhibitors hated the event’s timing, right after the holidays and New Year. After the second day in 2008, I decided it would be my last Macworld due to the increased hassle and decreased value. Apparently Steve Jobs agreed with me and took a pass on 2009, and then Apple soon followed suit.

Better, Faster, Stronger

With Macworld declared dead, IDG can take the opportunity to completely upgrade the event. They can rebuild it. They have the technology. Better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster. Now instead of the beginning of January, the Expo takes place in February. This gives all of us time to breathe after the first of the year and the busy holiday season. Additionally, the expo is at the end of the week and includes a weekend day.

Better hours will attract the casual Mac user who wouldn’t necessarily take time off from work to attend, but who simply wants to learn about new Mac products. These are the people who go to the Apple store “just to browse.” Registration is currently free for an exhibit-only pass thereby encourage those window shoppers (not to be confused with Windows shoppers). IDG is also focusing on attracting more small and independent developers who had been priced out of previous Expos. These are all very smart moves by IDG and will greatly increase the show’s value.

I’m psyched to attend in 2010. I’ll have plenty of time to recover from the holiday rush. I’ll attend on Saturday so I won’t be missing as much work. The outreach to small and independent developers will act as a tonic to boost the show’s technical and Mac-focused content. I’ve always loved the developer pavilion and am glad to see this concept extended. Not only is the person working these smaller booths the sales agent, but he or she may also be the developer! Want a feature in the program? Just ask and they’ll try and accommodate you. Like a rainforest, removing a couple big trees lets the underbrush grow and flourish.

Will attendance increase in 2010? I predict it will, and I plan to be part of this. Are you attending? Exhibiting? Thinking about it?

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