New Updates

I took a break to work on some personal stuff and now I am back into the iPhone swing of things. I have updated the free version and I am currently waiting on apple's approval for the that update and I am trying to get some technical stuff worked out for the paid version. I think I might have the email to a friend thing down, but the favorites might take a bit longer. I will see if I can get the email to a friend down this week and then see how far I can get on the favorites. If I can't get it by week's end, then I will just submit it as is and do the favorites in the next update.

Second App Approved

Apple finally approved my original, clean app. It only took them a month. Here is a link to the clean one, it has about 200 bumper stickers versus the 600 the mature one has. Let me know what you think.

itms://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=321314997&mt=8&ign-mscache=1

Getting some good sales

Thank you to everyone who is buying the app. I am getting some good sales, but not too many good ideas for bumperstickers. Please send me some so I can update with some of your suggestions. I am working on the next update now, so I will let everyone know when it is submitted.

Approved

Okay, so Apple finally approved one of my applications. They approved the Mature Bumper Sticker Wisdom one. Which I personally think is the better one, as it is much more amusing. So, go out and get it, tell all of your friends about it. It can be found here:

Mature Bumper Sticker Wisdom

Also, one you get it, let me know what you think. I am open to making changes and to making it better. I also can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for their own, especially since this is the mature one, people can go crazy.

Update

Okay so I have resubmitted both of the apps and here is where things stand. For the regular app, it got rejected again because they said I didn't rate it high enough, due to "crude humor". So I went ahead and up'ed the crude humor tab to it's highest rating, but that didn't change the rating from 12+. So I also up'ed the "mature" tab to get it to 17+ which should be enough. So, hopefully, they will pass it and it will be live soon.

As for the mature app, well I resubmitted it and got a letter from Apple saying they need more time to review everything. From what I have read, this means they are going to kill the app by not accepting it, nor declining it. Oh well, at least it looks like one of the two will be live.

I think I am going to start my next app tomorrow. I think this one will be much easier to get through, and I think I will try to incorporate some new things into it. It should be fun.

Time to move on?

Well, I have submitted the fixed applications to Apple and I haven't heard anything yet. I am thinking it might be time to move on to the next application. I have some ideas on how to update the bumper sticker apps, but until I know they will be available, I am going to wait on the updates.

I have some ideas for my next application, and I think they will be a little more Apple friendly, but let's see what happens.

Apps Rejected

Okay, so I got an email from Apple today stating that both apps have been rejected. I was not surprised by the mature one being so, but the normal one too? The email stated that I was in violation of their obscene/objectionable content clauses and they sent screen shots of the objectionable content.

It would seem that the only thing Apple had a problem with was the Religious button. Of all of the examples given, they all had either the words, God or Jesus in them. Some examples, "My God can beat up your God," and "Jesus loves everybody you hate." Needless to say I was a bit shocked. So, I went ahead and removed the religious button and put in a "Submitted" button. This is where all of the user submitted entries will go.

I then resubmitted both of them and let's see what happens now....

Still Waiting....

Well, it's been over a week and nothing from Apple. This has to be the hardest part about the App process, the waiting. If you think about it, it is kind of a rip off since you only get a year in the program and you have to wait almost 3 weeks (the longest I have heard), to get your app out there. Updates take the same amount of time, so it is really hard to fix things right away.

I just want to get the apps out there and see what people do with them. I want to start getting email submissions from people so that I can do more updates and get more feedback. I think people are going to have fun with the apps but I need them out there.

Oh well, just keep waiting. I am also hoping that they will approve both apps, but we'll see.

Mature App Submitted

Well, I got tired of waiting for Apple and went ahead and submitted the more mature version of my app. This one is NOT for kids. So right now they are both in the review process. The main app which is just bumper stickers, about 350 of them, was submitted on Wednesday 24 June and will be available for $1.

The mature version, if it passes Apple's strict decency standards, will have an additional 300 bumper stickers, in three new categories and will also be $1. This way people can choose which one they want, the clean one or the mature one.

The mature app is full of mature sayings like, "I am as confused as a baby in a topless bar" and stuff like that, while the normal app has stuff like, "Don't judge a book by its' movie." I tried to keep the two apps separate and the more off the wall comments in the adult one.

I just wish that Apple's review process was a little more open. If either app is rejected, and if they even tell me why, then I have to make the changes and resubmit. I will have to wait the entire time again even if the change is something minor like I forgot to change the app name to one word instead of two. The same goes for updates. When I have an update, it will take the full review time for it to go live, which will not be fun considering I plan on having a ton of updates, with all of the suggestions everyone is going to send me.

Oh well, we will see. Oh yeah, I am on Twitter now, so you can follow along there at "bumpwisdom".

Why do it?

I decided to create an app because it was something I thought I would be able to do. I have a lot of great ideas for apps and I figured I would try and share them with the world. About 3 months ago I decided to go ahead and take the plunge.

The first thing I did was look around on craigslist for a Mac computer (as that is required). I found an old EMac for a pretty good price, (it's for sale if you want it). Then I joined the Apple development program and went to the book store to get a book on programming. Then I spent about 2 months trying to teach myself how to code in C++.

After getting to the point where I thought I could actually do this, I had to get a new computer. Turns out, to develop on the iPhone you have to a newer style Mac computer (one that doesn't use an Intel Chipset). So, I got me a nice little Mac mini computer. Then I hit the programming hard. I spent hours trying to get it work.

At one point I almost gave up because it wasn't working and I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Turns out I had forgotten to put a "@" in one place and it totally broke the code. So, I finally got everything working and managed to get the app to the point where I feel I can share it.

I know there are still a few more things I can add in, I know I need to fix the random number generator part so that it doesn't repeat as much but I am working on it. I just can't wait until Apple approves the app so I can get it out there into everyone's hands. So, far I have been showing it off to everyone (even random people that I meet in stores), but they can't buy it yet. It has been almost 2 days and from what I hear, I have about 8 more to go.

App Submitted to Apple

Well, I have finally finished the Bumper Sticker Wisdom app and sent it off to Apple last night. So, we will see how long it takes for them to give it the thumbs up or down (they say about a week). I have already found a few small typo errors and some display stuff, so I am already working on the update.

I plan on trying to update this thing about once a week, to add more bumper stickers and add some more functionality. I would like to have a "swipe" gesture to be able to go through the lists in order rather than just randomly. I would also like to implement a saved/favorites feature so you can see the ones you like and/or the ones you submitted.

I was also thinking of maybe doing a stand-alone version of the app that was "adult" oriented. There are a ton of those out there, but I wasn't sure Apple would let me get away with it. With the new 3.0 software parental controls update they might just do it....