After being an Apple iPhone developer for over 2 years. I thought that I have seen my share of weird happenings with XCode, App Store policies etc. But this latest incident takes the cake. I was doing an app submission for a client who wants their game to be on Apple’s App Store, so I happily did the provisioning, certificate setup etc. Then when I used Apple’s Application Loader to upload the binary. I was met with a stonefaced error message of BLANK. Yes, BLANK as in the error message is empty. Normally, error message show some helpful or unhelpful error messages, or some error code. This can be easily solved with a quick google. But how the heck do you google an error message of BLANK?

So the Sherlock Holmes in me(or rather the hacker in me) decided to test a few hypothesis which is
A – The binary is corrupted
B – Somehow the binary is not corrupted, but the code is
C – The apostrophes are causing some input validation issues

So to test my hypothesis, I did the following
1) The blank error message pops up when I use Application Loader to send the binary over and during the authenticating with iTunes Store phase
2) I tried another binary which has been submitted before and then tried to upload it using the same account which gave the blank error message. So that means the binary is not the issue. So that rules out A and B
3) The blank error message pops up again when during the authenticating with iTunes Store phase
4) So this shows that the binaries are highly unlikely to be the cause, so on a hunch. I did the following
5) I changed the Apple ID to another Apple ID without the apostrophe and I did the same for the password
6) Next, I tried the upload with the actual binary with fingers crossed and
7) The uploading went through, so this means the apostrophe was screwing up the Apple ID and password validation

This is dangerous as a malicious attacker could use the apostrophe to perform SQL injection attacks. So if you have a blank error message, please remember your apostrophes

Ok, XCode 3.0 is really sucky when I compare it to the awesome iPhone and I guess Steve Jobs must not be a programmer, else he would make their development tool much easier and less buggy to use.

Today, I had to fix 2 XCode 3.x related issue which stumped me for the better half of a day.
1) My developer informed me that the provisioning profile that I installed on the phone expired today which was weird since I created it 2 months ago. So thinking that maybe the provisioning profile went wonky, I proceeded to generate a new 1 and hope that was it. But after installing the new profile, the error still didn’t go away. Scratching my head, I noticed that there was another unrelated provisioning profile on the phone which has already expired. So just to try my luck, I deleted that unrelated provisioning profile and voila, the provisioning profile expiring error went away. Weird, I know. But I am used to it when using XCode 3.x

2) Next, I had another error where I got a “putpkt: write failed” error when I try to debug using my iPad. So seeing that this was a weird error, I googled for the result and came across this page on the possible causes. So I switched off and on my iPad, cleaned all targets and tried again. So this fixes the error again.

So when it comes to XCode 3.x and you have a weird error, it is best to try weird methods to fix it as I will bet that that method will fix the error most of the time and I hope that XCode 4.x fixes all these weird bugs

Seems like there has been quite a lot of hooha about Zynga for the past few month, ranging from the Scamville debacle to Zynga’s outrageous growth to getting booed at during GDC.

One reason I hear about why Zynga is getting so much flak is because their games, such as Farmville; are not games anymore. But more of clickfests than anything which somehow attracts a lot of players who previously do not consider themselves game players. Heck, even my mum plays these Facebook games and she is the type who has an issue using Gmail.

I feel that all this flak hitting Zynga is unfair as they have done a tremendous job in making games really easy and getting a lot of users in the process. Leveraging on fast and efficient metrics testing, they have been able to roll out game features and iterate their games really fast. Traditionally, the games industry does not have this mindset since in the old days, once games were released. Any new feedback or improvements that were suggested will be implemented in the sequel or expansion pack, or even in game patches. And not a lot of meaningful metrics were used to garner feedback.

All these metrics has helped Zynga make better decisons on their games which also had the effect of attracting more players. Now, isn’t that good for the industry? After all, I don’t believe that gamers/game developers should consider themselves as a better breed if they do not create such games. As game developers, we should be creating games that entertain people and if Zynga is doing that using metric and making their game dirt simple to play. Then we should follow in their footsteps too.

Zynga was a good thing that came along as it gave the game industry a kick in the nuts with regards to how games should be developed and marketed and tuned to the needs to the customers who are the ones forking over money for it. So why is that wrong?

It has been more than 1 month since my last post. How time flies and I really should post more regularly. Anyway, I have been tied up with Windows Mobile 6.x game development, hence the busy schedule. After developing my 4th game for Windows Mobile. I just can’t help comparing it to the iPhone App submission system since both requires a stamp of approval before the app appears on the catalogue.

Apple always had a philosophy of making things easy for users and their iPhone App submission system is no different. With just a few clicks, I can set the pricing of the app, countries to put the app in etc; all within a few minutes.

As for Windows Mobile 6.x, it seems to be the opposite. I was developing a game for the HTC HD Mini(Great phone btw, small and nice screen) and logged into the Windows Mobile Marketplace website to submit the app. After a few clicks and waiting for the pages to load, I came to the page where I had to select which screen resolution my game would run on. Scanning through the entire list, I could not find the 320 x 480 screen resolution that matches the HTC HD Mini. Only nearest resolution is the 320 x 320.

Seeing that this was the case, I had to close my browser, then spend a few more days tweaking the code to run on a 320 x 320 resolution and a 320 x 480 resolution without showing a lot of weird graphical artifacts.

The idea of doing this is absurd as the website should have listed a screen resolution of 320 x 480 since there is a Windows Mobile phone running on that screen resolution.

With the news that Windows Mobile 7 is enforcing very strict rules about the hardware, I hope that such a system does not appears in the Windows Mobile 7 app submission platform.

With Microsoft already late as it is to the mobile space, it won’t be good for them if they don’t improve their system soon.

1 more thing, reducing the price of app submission from $99 USD to something lower or even free would be better.

Now that Apple has reaped a lot of cash and mindshare with their App Store. Every telco and mobile related company is rolling out their own version. But most are doomed to fail. To know why and how not to suck at it. Let us revisit the mobile landscape a few years ago before the iPhone was released.

Long ago, actually that was between 5 and 10 years ago. There were App Stores which were operated by telcos, but developers could not access them. Instead, they had to go to aggregators who would gather all the mobile apps and games and present it to the telcos who would then cherry pick the outstanding ones or those with existing IP attached to it. The rest would not be picked and hard luck then.

The fees attached to it was that the telco would take 50% and the aggregator would take 50% and you would take the rest. So if your game sells for $2, you would get 50 cents. Plus each aggregator would specify that your app has to run on X number of handsets and support Y number of screen sizes and the picture ain’t that rosy anymore. So to recap, you need to
- Deal with multiple aggregators
- Settle for a piss poor 75/25 with you getting 25% only
- Deal with multiple screen resolutions

And that was only 1 telco, Multiply that with the countless telcos and aggregators all over the world and you can imagine the logistical nightmare dealing with all these companies. But we, developers had no choice and the market was ripe for disruption. But no one stepped up to the plate.

Except Apple, when Apple came and announced the terms of publishing for the iPhone. Other developers and I were excited as the terms were like manna from heaven compared to the old times. They were
- 70/30 revenue share with developers getting 70%
- Dealing only with Apple. No middleman, no aggregator, no kidding
- Deal with only 1 screen resolution

Apple opened the floodgates to make it a lot easier for developers to make money and other companies were caught by the sudden popularity of App Stores and now they are rushing to play catchup. But to make a successful App Store, it is not just apps that drive the App Store. To make sure that your App Store doesn’t suck. Here are a few tips

- Make it easy for developers to sign up and submit their app. So that means try to keep all the paperwork to a minimum and don’t make them click through 10 pages of stuff just to register or submit a new app

- Make it easy for consumers to find what they want. In iTunes App Store, it is very easy to find the app that I want using my iPhone, but having tried the other App Stores. My verdict is that Nokia Ovi Store is a failure in this sense. Windows Mobile Marketplace is functional, but needs to work on being better looking. Samsung App Store comes a close 2nd to iTunes App Store in terms of navigation and looks while Android Marketplace is ho hum

- Make it easy for developers to monetize their app. Right now, I can’t believe that Android Marketplace does not allow paid apps in Singapore and only a few countries outside of USA have paid apps support for Android. The others allow paid apps, but none so far support in-app purchase which Apple rolled out 1 year ago. In-App purchase is very useful for mobile games that rely on virtual goods and that is a huge goldmine, if you do it right.

- Make it cheap for developers to develop applications on your App Store. Apple charges developers $148 USD per year for unlimited submissions. So why should you charge more? Or ask the developer to jump through hoops just for submitting a new app?

The mobile industry moves along at twice the speed of the traditional IT industry and now that a lot of companies are trying to outdo Apple. Hope you all can run just as fast

With the much awaited announcement of the iPhone 4G at WWDC The phone was revealed to have a lot of other features such as a gyroscope, front facing camera(which other phones already have for years) and the 4x resolution of 640 x 960. Screenshots of the new increased resolution certainly makes the phone look good and other Android phones running on 480 x 800 look lousy by comparison. But it also made me realized that now, my earlier comment about fragmentation or lack of, on Apple’s mobile products is wrong.

To recap, with the recent launch of the iPad. Now I have to cater for 3 different screen sizes when developing for the iOS 4 and they are
1) 320 x 480 – Old iPhones
2) 1024 x 768 – iPad
3) 640 x 960 – iPhone 4G

Great, that means additional work for me, plus additional time which means additional costs passed on to my clients. Why, even Windows Mobile which used to be a fragmentation monster was reworked to Windows Mobile 7 and now only 2 screen sizes are supported. Well, maybe now is a good time to revisit Android.

It’s been a while since my last post and I realize that I post more on Twitter than on my blog. So now you can find more of my posts on Twitter than on my blog as Twitter allows for short, bursty comments from me about the mobile industry than anything else. So check out @gibtang on Twitter if you wanna know my latest rants, comments about the mobile industry.

On another note, I was looking at 2 3D game engines for an iPhone game that I was doing for a client and I shortlisted 2, namely SIO2 and Oolong engine. After mucking around with both, I decided that Oolong was too low level for me and SIO2 provided the right fit for me in terms of flexibility and I decided to go with SIO2. A strong contender was Unity engine, but lack of support with the iPhone APIs lead me to discarding it from the pack.

So ya wanna be a mobile developer? After hearing all the rags to riches stories of developers making it rich from iPhone apps and with smart phones being so ubiquitous. Ya think that ya could be the next one to strike it rich? Let me tell ya sumthing. It ain’t as glittery as you think it is and if ya are willing to spend a bit of time, let this ole time developer give ya a few tips on what to look out for so that when ya are looking at the sky, ya won’t fall into a deep hole.

#1 – Always know the market. If ya wanna make it rich in countries such as Indonesia, then junk that iPhone SDK and stick to good ole J2ME and Blackberry as Blackberries outsell iPhone 11 to 1 in Indonesia

#2 – Phones users use their phones for tasks that last a few seconds, so don’t ya try to be funny and create a full blown web app that users uses for a few hours and squeeze it into the phone. This will blow up in your face faster than a blind man holding a match in a Swedish dynamite factory

#3 – Observe how people use their phones and where. Most people use their phones using 1 hand while the other hand is grabbing a pole in the bus, train etc. So create your mobile app to suit all those 1 handed varmints and they will be thankful for it

#3 – Phones have all that fancy, schmancy stuff like GPS, camera etc. So use that thick skull of yours to find out how you can use all these nice features creatively

#4 – Read and memorize the 8 unique benefits of mobile and get it into that thick head of yours

Now, shoo. Go out and start ya mobile observations. With enough observations and thinking, ya are sure to make it big. Else ya will end up just like the rest of the other mobile developers. And ya did not come into this mobile space just to be like the rest, did ya?

After Apple showed the rest of the world how to create a great device that combine mobile with gaming. The other companies such as Sony Ericsson, Microsoft etc are now taking a new look at mobile gaming. But way before the iPhone became a great mobile gaming device. Nokia dipped their toes into a similar field and it became a big fat failure for them instead. So here is what went wrong with Nokia’s N-Gage(Both 1st and 2nd version)

1) Design failure – Anyone heard of side talking? Nuff said. Plus, the designer who thought of the idea that making people remove the battery in order to remove the game cartridge should be taken out and shot. But that battery idea was fixed in the N-Gage QD
2) Supporting old technology – When the N-Gage was released. It only had MIDP 1.0 support which meant that a lot of cool graphic features were not supported and there was a technical limitation on how good games could look
3) Failing to dump the cartridge system – This is a classic error of just taking whatever works on an existing platform and shoehorning it to a new platform. Nokia should have dumped the cartridge system and just go with downloads via telcos.
4) Lack of standardised hardware – When N-Gage 2.0 came out, it wasn’t a mobile phone anymore, but a game platform. So that means developers have to support different screen sizes, OS versions and other assorted crap issues pertaining to fragmentation. Fragmentation is a bad enough deal as it is in the mobile world and Nokia had to rub salt in the wound with their N-Gage 2.0 platform

So just 4 points from me on why the N-Gage failed. Anyone who has developed for the N-Gage care to chip in their 2 cents?

While fiddling with some code in XCode a few minutes ago, I then decided to run it on my new device to see how it works. So I loaded the provisioning profile etc into my brand new iPhone and modified the configuration to run it on my device.

Then once I clicked on the “Build and Debug” button and instead of seeing my app on the device. I was confronted with a “Failed to upload YourAppNameHere” error in XCode. After regaining my senses, I rechecked my provisioning profile etc to make sure that everything was correct and it was. So a quick googling later. I discovered the cause of the issue.

Seems like XCode does not like you debugging on a device when 2 or more projects are open. So with this in mind, I closed XCode and opened the project that I wanted to test and voila, the app appears on the device.

If you encounter such an error, be sure to check that only the project that you want to debug on the device is opened.