Issue 42

News

Distributing 3000+ copies of an iOS game

So how did Six to Start recently distribute 3000+ copies of their Kickstarter funded iOS game to the project backers? I am quite surprised Apple were OK with this, especially allowing pre-orders to continue outside of the Kickstarter project and as they say in the article I would not really take this being allowed once as any kind of official policy. Good advice to always keep talking to Apple though.

Tools

Resource Helper

Useful new tool by Chris Ross for converting and checking 2x assets in iOS apps. I have been helping to beta test this and it quickly became a part of my regular workflow, a good sign.

My App Crashed, Now What?

This is a topic I always like to dive into when training as people new to the language can really struggle to realise exactly what is going wrong when an app crashes. This article by Matthijs Hollemans is worth a read if you are new to Objective-C.

Unit Testing with Core Data

Saul Mora with a look at TDD for Core Data models using Magical Record.

Code

Under the Sheets with iCloud and Core Data: How it Works

Drew McCormack digs into the internals of Core Data iCloud syncing. You should also check out his previous post which has some great advice and gotchas about getting started with iCloud and Core Data.

MGTileMenu

Matt Gemmell with a new component released this week for displaying a grid style menu. He also gives some insight into the design process while developing the control and it is interesting to see that he considered how both left and right handed people would interact with the control.

MPFoldTransition

Wondering how to create "Clear" style folding or "Flipboard" style flip transitions for your apps? Look no further than this code from Mark Pospesel.

Design

Photoshop CS6 improvements

This article from Bjango isn't brand new but with the release of Creative Suite CS6 this week I thought it was worth a link.

Business and Marketing

Money and the App Store

Emeric Thoa looks at a few myths of building and selling a game on the App Store and follows up with some case studies of apps which have published their results.

Native to web iOS apps, or there and back again

David Mytton with the story of his company's journey from launching a simple native app for their server monitoring platform, through a brief diversion to PhoneGap for version 2 before moving back to native for version 3.