Ryan Grier Dev

I have written an application called DS_Store Cleaner and it’s been available for almost 10 years now. It was originally written in Java and always available on both Windows and Mac OS X. The Java version is still available for Windows and older versions of Mac OS X. I am now launching a native version of DS_Store Cleaner for Mac OS X. 

DS_Store Cleaner (native) was going to be available on the Mac App Store. I purchased a Mac Developer Certificate, rewrote the app in Objective-C and submitted the app to Apple. 

I submitted the app to Apple on August 14, 2011. The app went into review on August 18th, 2011. Apple rejected the app on August 31st, 2011. Their reason for rejecting the app was that the app had limited functionality. I appealed to Apple showing proof that they had already approved a similar app (which I won’t promote here). I got a call from a gentleman named Steve (not that Steve) and we discussed the app for about 30 minutes. He went on to say that they couldn’t approve an app that modified files that the Finder created. He said that they would not approve the app in it’s current state. He finished by saying they would look into the other app they already approved (which today is still on the App Store). I guess the morale of the store is, submit to Apple early to avoid any new regulations they add. 

I decided instead to keep DS_Store Cleaner free and just release it on my site. I was planning on charging $1.99 on the App Store. Instead it’s free here. 

Yesterday, MarkIt Up 1.2 was approved and released by Apple to the Apple iTunes App Store. This update has two important updates.

Firstly, it fixes an issue that was created in MarkIt Up 1.1. This was an issue when a user would perform a calculation and then tap on the results (to perform another calculation with the results). The number that was moved into the Price field was in the wrong format and would break the app. That is fixed now.

Secondly, the update includes a new feature. Now, you can enter two different prices and calculate the difference between the prices (percentage). This is a feature that I wanted to add to the app from the begining, but held it off so I coud release the app. 

Enjoy the update. There are more to come. 

MarkIt Up 1.1 was approved by Apple yesterday and released to the masses. I found out this morning that I sent an old(er) build to Apple.

The issue occurs when you perform a calculation and then tap the results to perform another calculation on the results. The number put into the price field is in the wrong format and causes an error. 

The good news is that I submitted an update to Apple (last night) which has some new features and should fix this issue. I hope that Apple approves the fix shortly. I have a feeling that the update will be approved by Apple in a week or so. 

Please bear with me until Apple approves the fix. Thanks. 

MyCntdwn HD, my first iPad app, has been approved and released by Apple. 

My original plan was to just port (slightly modify) the existing MyCntdwn code to work on the iPad. After doing this for a bit, I decided that this just wouldn’t work. I needed to start from scratch. 

MyCntdwn (and MyCntdwn 2) didn’t allow for the iPhone to be displayed in landscape mode. The layout of the screens were also very iPhone-centric. I needed to rethink most of the app for the iPad verison.

I developed and tested this application without owning an iPad. I hadn’t even touched an iPad until I had been developing the app for a few weeks.

During development, I decided that I needed to see how the pop-overs work, I ran to a local Apple Store and played with an iPad over lunch. I am glad that I did, my idea of how the pop-overs should work was wrong and I needed to change things. 

I had an excellent tester though. He played with the app for a number of weeks. He provided a ton of feedback. He also let me play with MyCntdwn HD on an iPad a number of times. It let me find a number of issues that I couldn’t find just using Apple’s iPad simulator. 

Some of this must have been what the initial iPad developers went through while developing apps before the iPad was released. 

Even thought MyCntdwn HD was released last night, I have already submitted a small update to Apple. My next goal is to get the push notifications working on the MyCntdwn HD. I also have a few more updates planned to get some of the editing screens to work better (more intuitive).

Look forward for more changes. 

 

MyCntdwn 2 2.2 has been approved and released to the Apple iTunes App Store. 

This latest update has two new themes for you to use. The new themes are ‘Due Date’ and ‘Wedding’. These themes were highly requested. 

I’ve already started thinking about the next big update. My plan is to move the server syncing (which can be annoying) to the background. It ruins the flow of the application when you are adding/editing events and you see the ‘Syncing with server’ screen a lot. I haven’t started on this work yet, but I plan to make it my main goal once the new iPad app has been submitted to Apple. 

Enjoy the new themes!

I am happy to announce that my latest application has been approved by Apple and placed on the Apple iTunes App Store. The application is called MarkIt Up.

This app is another collaboration between Brad and myself. We wanted to make another iPhone app together. This is one of the ideas that we came up with. 

So what does MarkIt Up do? 

Brad wanted a way to add a mark up cost to certain freelance and work projects. He needs to do this a lot in his profession and wanted a super simple app to use. 

For Brad it was important to be able to mark up costs. For me, I wanted to be able to easily apply a discount to a price. I can often do these in my head, but I wanted something easier.

MarkIt Up is also a great way to add sales tax to the price of something quickly. If something is $59.99 and there is 6% sales tax, use MarkIt Up to find out the final price quickly ($63.59). 

In the future, we plan on adding a way to find out the percentage marked up (or down) based on two prices. We were going to try to add this to the initial release, but we wanted to get the application released. We plan on adding that shortly in a free update.

MarkIt Up keeps a running history of the calculations you perform. This makes it easy to go back and look at what you’ve marked up or discounted down in the past. You can clear the entire history, or individual history items.  

This past week Apple approved updates for all four of my iPhone apps. 

MyCntdwn, Mycntup, and LearnIt have some minor defect fixes. I have also added a way to collect some basic usage stats. I want to know a bit more about the iPhone OS versions and devices that are using the app so if I can move up an OS version. 

MyCntdwn 2 has already been sending this information. MyCntdwn 2 was updated with some minor defect fixes. 

If you are concerned about the information I am collecting by these apps, don’t be. I am only collecting the following information: application version, iPhone OS version, device type (iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone), and a piracy bit. MyCntdwn and MyCntdwn 2 also send the number of events and the number of events ending soon. I do not send the device id, phone number, or any personal data. 

I plan on submitting a new update to LearnIt in the next day or two. This update adds “swipe to change” the flashcard. In addition to pressing the previous/next button to proceed, you can swipe left or right to proceed. 

On Father’s Day, I submitted one of the completely new apps to Apple. If there aren’t any issues, it should be approved within the next week. Expect a new blog post about it when it launches. If you want a hint of what’s coming, check out the “Info” tab (Or About LearnIt button) in one of my apps.

I have been planning for updates to all of my apps (MyCntdwn, MyCntup, and LearnIt). The updates for these have been a long time in the making, but may not be that large in reality.

I am also working on two new applications. No details on this yet, maybe in the next week or two. One application is completely different than what I am used to doing, so there won’t be any updates for a while. The app may even become lost (like a few others that I have worked on). 

I have also started the process of designing and developing a few iPad applications. I am still unsure if I am going to make iPad specific versions of my existing applications, or working on completely new applications. 

I have also thought (a lot) about dipping my toes into the Android marketplace. I think my initial dip would be an Android version of MyCntdwn. I have a solid background in Java (which is the Android SDK language), so I should be able to port MyCntdwn over fairly easily. 

I have a lot of items up in the air right now. I hope that I don’t drop them all. 

I currently have about 4 or 5 ideas for new apps or updates to my existing apps. I just need to find the time to implement these updates.

I may try to see if I can port my existing apps to Android and possibly Blackberry. I have a solid Java background and porting these may not be too difficult. I still need to investigate this though.

I may also look into making some iPad specific applications. But I would like to get an iPad for development purposes. I did the same thing with an iPhone (among other reasons) and an iPod Touch and that was worked out well.

Some large freelance iPhone and web development opportunities may be coming up soon. So, I really need to get to work. I’ve had discussions with several people about developing iPhone apps for them. I’m not sure where this will go yet, it may be a great opportunity for me. Plus there is always the constant possibility of freelance web development.

With all of this potential work, I need to get cracking on my own ideas. With luck, I can deliver one or two of these apps/updates before any outside work comes in. And if the work falls through, I will have gotten my updates out and may make some more money.

The traffic to my software site (http://software.ryangrier.com) has been on a steady increase. I think that this also coincides with slight increase in my iPhone app sales.

I often wonder how I can get more development time into the day (without losing my mind). I also wonder if I am too ambitious. Either way, I’ll keep moving forward.

LearnIt 1.2 was approved by Apple in the Apple iTunes App Store yesterday. This update is a big one because of one significant item. It includes an In App Purchase item.

The In App Purchase available is called Barnyard Animals and costs $0.99. It includes 12 barnyard animal flashcards. LearnIt 1.2 also includes another free module called Shapes. Shapes includes 9 shape flashcards.

In App Purchase (or Downloadable Content) has been something that I promised to add to LearnIt when the application was first released. It took about 6 months of time for me to get the feature in there, but it’s there now.

Apple initially rejected this update. But they rejected it because I hadn’t submitted the In App Purchase for review. I thought that I could submit the In App Purchase after LearnIt was approved by Apple. It turns out that you have to submit the In App Purchase first (or at the same time). Apple was nice enough to send me an email to let me know this. They were also nice enough to allow me to reply to the email to get the approval moving again. So, thanks Apple!

If you own LearnIt, please help support me and check out the In App Purchase. If you don’t own LearnIt, please purchase both. :)