TapLynx

The latest podcast from the Mac Developer Network features Scotty hosting an interview with Brent and I to talk about TapLynx. We give an overview of the SDK and talk about some of the best features. It’s a fun, casual interview. If you don’t already listen to the Mac Developer Network podcasts, please do so! They are intertesting and informative.

http://www.mac-developer-network.com/shows/podcasts/mdnshow/mdn013/

I just stumbled across an article on CIO.com titled “Five Qualities of a Great iPhone App.”  The article provides a bunch of of good advice for iPhone App developers.  While not all of the suggestions may apply to the specific app you’re thinking of building, or building, there are still a lot of useful pointers.

The headlines for the 5 tips they point out:

• Give ‘Em A Reason
• 1 out of 100,000
• Don’t Go Overboard
• Make it About Me
• What’s My Reward

Hopefully that’s enough to pique your interest into reading the piece.

Do you have other best practices for iPhone App developers to add?  Leave ‘em in the comments section!

Last week Brent, Walker and I held a webinar to discuss some best practices and answer questions. We were really pleased with all of the inquiries, which gave us a good idea of where we need to improve documentation and also generated some ideas for the roadmap. If you missed it, you can view it now on the webinars page here: http://taplynx.com/webinars/

Discovery News has gone through quite the transformation this week – they’ve launched a completely new site design and to go along with it, they now have an iPhone app.

If you haven’t seen the Discovery News site – you should take a look. They have fantastic articles across a multitude of topics – but its not your everyday news site. Check out some of these recent stories:

• Shark Performs Cesarian Section
• Bats Have Creative Sex Lives
• Evidence of Water Found in Moon Crater
• Vatican Preparing for ET
• Top 5 Saturn Videos!

The team is passionate about news, and about reporting on “the science that matters to everyday life”. Lori Cuthbert, the Editor in Chief of Discovery News put it best, “My core passion and mission remain the same as the day we first launched Discovery News in 1998: to deliver unique news and deeper information in an easy-to-understand, to-go format so that our visitors can spread the word of just how awesome our world is. Maybe you’ll be inspired, if only a little, to want to help save it.”

We’re honored that TapLynx can help spread the word Lori!

News came out this week that ought to make some iPhone developers happy.  Apple announced that they are now letting iPhone developers track the status of the apps that they’ve submitted to the App Store.  This will be big news for some out there,  as one of the chief complaints of many developers has been the lack of information and updates from Apple regarding the approval process of submitted apps.

The categories include: “waiting for review,” “in review,” and “ready for sale.”  In addition, a time and date is associated with each status update.  Previously, all developers could see was the average wait time for recently-submitted apps.

A step in the right direction, it seems.

You can read more about this announcement on Wired’s Gadget Lab site.

If you’ve already registered for today’s TapLynx webinar (here), below are the instructions to access  both the audio and online portions of the webinar.

Audio Conference Dial-in Information:

U.S. & Canada: 800 732 6870

International: 00 +1 212 231 2902

Access Code: 9520120

*You must dial in via phone to hear the audio portion of this event*

Web Conference Information:

http://newsgator.readytalk.com

Access Code: 9520120

See you today at 1pm ET!

Apple Announces Over 100000 Apps Now Available on the App Store

Couple of quick observations.

The iTunes App Store _launched_ in July of ‘09. Until the store launched, most developers didn’t know about iPhone development, that’s when they started learning. Zero to 100,000 apps in 16 months is an amazing feat all the way around – amazing that 100+K developers have paid $99/year just to write their first line of code, amazing that Apple has the supported the crushing demand of developers against an OS that is barely out of the blocks, and amazing that Apple has been able to support, encourage and innovate the tools and technology along the way.

Anyone who has built an iPhone can attest, its not an easy process to get your app written, tested, code signed and approved. My hat’s off to Apple and to the other 100K+ developers who have put a herculean amount of sweat and energy into making the iPhone market as successful as it is against the tidal wave of demand.  And we’re just getting started.

I’d like to let you know that next Thursday, November 12 at 1pm ET we’ll be hosting a free TapLynx webinar with Brent Simmons, the creator of TapLynx, along with Jenny Blumberg, TapLynx’s technical support engineer, and Walker Fenton, GM of NewsGator Media & Data Services.

In this webinar they’ll discuss the ins-and-outs of TapLynx, best practices for its use, and give pointers on how to quickly and easily create content-rich iPhone apps that can contain pictures, audio, video and more.  Also, there’ll be an informative question and answer session towards the end of the webinar, that you will be allowed to participate in!

We’ll have more details as well as a signup page very shortly.  But, for now, keep your schedule open next Thursday, November 12 at 1 ET.

In other exciting news, we’re working on a contest that will give you the chance to get a free TapLynx license key!  We’re still working out some details, but it should be lots of fun.  We’ll let you know more about this in the near future too.