Last week I discovered that it was possible to load unbundled images using the iOS [UIImage imageNamed:] method:
Interesting. I didn’t know that you can use [UIImage imageNamed:] (and its caching benefits) for non-bundled images: http://stackoverflow.com/a/2324544
I’ve since created a UIImage category that allows you to easily drop in the code into any project - available here on Github.
A dirty hack, but it seems to work OK. Use at your own risk… ;)
Super-handy script.
Here are a few EirText promo codes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day…
EirText for iOS
Click on a code to redeem on your iPhone, iPod, iPad, or computer.
EirText for Mac
Click on a code to redeem on your Mac.
Here are a few promo codes for my messaging app, EirText.
EirText is an app which allows you to send free or cheap text messages
More info on EirText available here.
EirText for iOS
Click on a code to redeem on your iPhone, iPod, iPad, or computer.
EirText for Mac
Click on a code to redeem on your Mac.
Display ads - waste of money. The return on banner/text ads is very disappointing. Google has the best CTR. Facebook are well-targeted, but are expensive (if your app sells at less than €3, then it might not be worth your while). BuySellAds allow you to purchase ad-space on some popular blogs - the service itself is great, but sites I’ve advertised on didn’t give a good CTR.
Journalists - big blogs (Techcrunch, etc) are worth contacting but don’t expect to get featured, unless you’re VC backed and have raised a bunch of money. Focus on smaller, niche blogs - for example, a Russian iOS blog caught wind of a Muud.io sale and subsequently sales spiked 400% for couple of days. Local journos are usually eager to help out too.
App review sites - a handful of the bigger ones are worth contacting. A personal email works best if possible - press releases are usually ignored. Most are a waste of a promo code however.
Apple - extremely difficult to get noticed. Build a great app and you’ve a better chance, but don’t count on getting featured. If you have any contacts in Apple, it’s worth getting in touch - you might at least get your app in front of the iTunes editorial team for review (even so, you’re still not guaranteed placement).
Twitter, Facebook, Google+ - Worth maintaining a presence. The more active you are the better. Twitter is #1 referral stream for visitors to the Muud.io website.
If you’ve never coded before, have a look first at Visual Basic, then C++ or C#. You can get Microsoft’s tools online for free. Just do a Google for Visual Studio. There are loads of tutorials online for VB and C# - I’d recommend trying out the latter as it’s probably more relevant (C# can be used for Windows Phone programming). This also lets you try your hand at programming without having to buy a Mac.
Once you have a bit of coding under your belt, you’ll be ready to move on to Objective-C, which is the iOS & Mac programming language. As you can guess, it’s an enhanced version of C, but it looks quite different. You’ll need a Mac for this, but you might as well go ahead and buy one - you’ll thank me later :)
Apple supply a huge amount of sample apps with the iOS SDK. All you need to do is fire up Xcode, click on Help and then on Documentation and API. There should be a link to Sample code somewhere on the main page of the docs. Xcode is available on the Mac App Store for free.
Apple also offer video tutorials on iTunes U. Check out the Stanford iOS course on iTunes U while you’re there. Jeff Lamarche’s blog is a great resource also.
To be honest, you could read and read, but the best way to learn is to download the Apple samples and tinker with them until you get a feel for how they work. Try out code, break your code, and learn how to fix it… Unfortunately it all takes a bit of time, but it’s worth it once you get your first app running on-device.
Some books:
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X
Cocoa/Mac focused, but a great entry-level book)
http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Programming-Mac-OS-3rd/dp/0321503619
Beginning iPhone Development
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iPhone-Development-Exploring-SDK/dp/1430216263/
