Category: Uncategorized

  • Navigation Bar

     

    Apparently, there are some issues with transparent navigation bars so I won’t be using those. But I managed to get an opaque navigation bar set up. Here are three versions:

    Which do you like best?

    • a) the original without any bar
    • b) the one with just a bar on top
    • c) or the one with both

    Doing navigation without a bar (getting it to look back like the original) would be kinda tricky for me because I’d have to write custom code to do all the switching and the other pages (history and settings) look better with the bar since they’ll be more standard iPhone interfaces. So I wanted to get a gauge of people’s opinion as to whether it was worth putting in the effort to do something like that.

    Reply in the comments section!

  • Planned Features

    Whooh, after spending a couple hours replying to emails and comments for the second night in a row, I think I need to come up with an FAQ or something so I can get back to coding! Well, here’s a start:

    • Updates are free and automatic! So if you’re just waiting on a feature that I’m planning on implementing, you can buy it now and not have to worry about checking back here to see if I’ve implemented it yet. But I certainly welcome people to read this blog if they’re interested. The RSS feed is great for that.
    • Dice locking is the first feature that I’m planning on implementing next (I want to play Yahtzee, too)! Hopefully, I’ll be able to get that done this weekend.
    • Colored dice are definitely coming! I just have to work out an elegant interface for it.

    Update: see the full list of planned features on the Apps -> Mach Dice page.

    • I’ve Hit the Big Time!

      Well, maybe not the big time, but certainly bigger than when I started. It’s been a heady couple of days.

      A couple nights ago, I created a little YouTube video to demo my app. It got a couple views. Yesterday morning I posted on it in the apps forums of MacRumors. Again, just a few views. But one of the people who saw it was Arnold Kim, the guy who actually runs MacRumors! So then he posted on it in in the front page of the iPhone section and that got a few thousand views. Of course, only a small portion of those people actually purchased the app but still, it’s been exciting. I spent several hours last night responding to a lot of great comments and emails.

      So thank you Arnold, and thank you MacRumors community, and thank you YouTube community! If you bought Mach Dice and enjoy it, please tell your friends about it. I plan to continue blogging about developing applications for the iPhone so if you’re interested in that sort of thing, please do check back occasionally or subscribe to the RSS feed.

    • Demo Video Now on YouTube

      Hey, after many requests (okay, just one) I created a YouTube video to demo my dice rolling app. So now you can check out the demo before deciding whether or not to buy it on the iTunes store. Enjoy!

    • “Mach Dice” Now on the iTunes Store!

      Yay, my little dice rolling app is finally available on the iTunes Store! Please go check it out. Now, I’ve got to go see how quickly I can create a YouTube video demoing it…

       

    • SIGGRAPH

      I’ve been in L.A. this past week attending SIGGRAPH, a conference on computer graphics. I enjoy going because it’s a chance to catch up with old friends and meet other people in the same field. I also got a chance to show off my latest version of Mach Dice. People thought the tilting 3D effect was cool but hey, we’re a bunch of computer graphics geeks.

      So, the good news is that my app has been approved by the reviewing group! Sadly, it hasn’t actually made it onto the store yet, but I think it’s just a matter of time. I can imagine that they’re quite flooded with app submissions.

    • Special Thanks

      I know I’ve only barely started with this whole iPhone thing, but I wanted to take the time to thank three friends without whom I wouldn’t be doing this now:

      • Bena, who gave me a really great deal on her old MacBook Pro. This is the first Mac I’ve owned and without it, iPhone app development would have been pretty tricky.
      • Josh Qualtieri, who gave me his old iPhone when he upgraded to the new 3G. Yeah, I know … pretty sweet, eh? In return, he just wants me to develop a good game for his phone. I guess that’ll be the next project.
      • Josh Anon, who helped me with general iPhone development stuff. He’s much more experienced in writing for the Mac OS (in that he actually has experience). Check out his FlipBook application.

      I’d also like to thank my brother Paul who lent me his Power PC MacBook. It was good starting with that, but unfortunately the dev kit doesn’t work so great with PPC machines. I’m also indebted to my friends Matt Webb and Mike Fu who have provided moral support for general iPhone stuff. And of course, I’d like to thank my wife, Tracy, who provides constant support and critical analysis like, “Those graphics suck!”. No, just kidding. She never says stuff like that! She just thinks it. But that’s okay, it keeps me humble.

    • Hello world!

      So, I’ve decided to join the 21st century and create a website. I started developing a dice rolling application for the iPhone and I need a place to point to.

      Someday, I’d like to fill this site with a few more apps and maybe even a comic. But first thing’s first, better make a decent WordPress theme for this site.