Archive for the ‘iPhone’ Category
It’s great to have customers again.
Posted by: Steve in Entrepreneurship, iPhone on October 5th, 2009
Today a customer sent us an enhancement request starting with: “First of all I would like to thank you for providing this great app. this app is the best!” Another said “I have a few suggestions that I would like to see on this great application.”
It’s great to have customers again!
You can become one, too! See Runmeter, Walkmeter, and Cyclemeter.
How To Install a Beta iPhone Application using Ad Hoc Distribution
This is a primer on how to install software sent to you by a developer. This process is called “ad hoc distribution”, and it’s Apple’s way of allowing developers to send pre-release software to up to 100 users.
- You should have already sent the developer your device ID. If not, follow these instructions, and wait for the developer to send you an application configured to run on your device.
- Unzip the file sent to you by the developer. You’ll see two files, one that ends in “.app”, and one that ends in “.mobileprovision”. (On Windows, the “.app” unzips to be a directory, but carry on as if it were a file.)
- Open iTunes and attach your iPhone.
- Sync your iPhone.
- In the panel on the left, click on Applications, under the Library section.
- Drag the “.app” file and the “.mobileprovision” file to the Applications window.
- Sync your iPhone again.
- You’re ready to start Beta testing!
How to find your iPhone Device Identifier
When an iPhone application developer wants to send you pre-release software to test, the software must include a certificate that allows it to run on your particular device. This is how Apple assures that only approved software can run on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Your device is identified by a cleverly-named long string of numbers and letters called a device identifier.
This is a (fake) example of a device identifier: 7c8f223423cb1be7995591d2a21232a80c331313
Here is how to find your device identifier.
1. Launch iTunes and connect your iPhone or iPod Touch. (Mac or PC.)
2. Click on the “Serial Number” label on the iTunes window. (See picture below.)
3. “Serial Number” will change to “Identifier (UDID)” followed by the device identifier.
4. Choose the Edit menu, then click Copy (or use Command-C on the Mac or Control-C on Windows). The device identifier is now on your clipboard. (There is no need to select anything beforehand.)
5. Paste it into an email and send it to your favorite developer.
You’re done!
Click on "Serial Number". It will change to "Identifier (UDID)". Then copy and you're done!
What’s in a name?
Posted by: Steve in Entrepreneurship, iPhone on February 21st, 2009
My friend, Kevin Wallace, and I are building an iPhone application. We’re getting close to launching, so it’s about time for us to incorporate an LLC so that some bad-ass lawyer doesn’t try to take our houses when his client trips while looking at our app and walking at the same time. We know the name of the product (we’ll tell you that later), but we need a company name, since “TBD LLC” is already taken.
We spent a few days on a “buy every domain name that sounds halfway decent” binge. Kevin says his goal is simply to watch me spend lots of money, but in reality, he has standards, too. Like “don’t pick a name that people will laugh at”, and “don’t pick a name that sounds like an erectile dysfunction drug”. If he weren’t a brilliant engineer, he’d be working at Landor.
So like any CEO in engineer’s clothing, I decided to run a survey to get some data. And given that this is 2009, I thought I’d post it on Facebook to ask my friends to help me. Thanks to you all for your help.
Here are the results of the survey.