Tales of a part time indie iOS developer

Being an iOS developer is not an easy thing. Being a part time iOS developer is even harder. Having so many ideas but very little time is a bad mix. Wanting to write about great iOS application designs while blogging about Apple after Steve Jobs reign is challenging to say the least. So what's up with me these days?

In the last few days I've spent most of my time on this blog in order to move it out of Blogger. Now I'm done with that for a while. I'll be more enticed to write about my discoveries now that I love where my blog is and its new look.

It's been a while since I updated my apps. I feel they are where I think they should be feature wise. As you may already know, I started to write blog posts late last year about a new iPad application I want to build: a Tumblr browser. I still have the desire to create this thing but I didn't have much time to work on it. I'll return working on this shortly and try to create mockups with the new Paper app for the iPad.

My application sales on the app Store are kind of depressing. This is expected as my apps are in a very crowded market segment. I sell just enough units to pay for my application purchases and Apple contract. Oh well.

I'm trying to set aside some time to follow the Stanford University course on iOS programming. I started to listen to them a while back on my first generation iPad with iTunes U.app. But the thing is the application kept crashing and I stopped using it and decided to return to this when I get the third generation iPad. Now I have it so I'll get back to this as well.

That's it for news about me. 

Do you like the new design of Building iPhone Apps?

Building my first iPad app - to share or not - that is the question

Last november, I wrote a blog post about looking for inspiration to help me building my first iPad app: a Tumblr client for browsing pictures. Very simple idea. Since then, I've spent quite some time, on and off, not only about the idea itself but also on sharing to the world the process of building the application. What if someone steal my idea?

Well, this kind of thing can happen as soon as someone post about his or her work on the internet. Maybe someone is reading my blog and is waiting in the dark for my next blog post about this app so he can start coding and publish on the App Store. May be. May be not.

Building a Tumblr client is not really a novel idea. There are many available already. But the thing is they all suck. I don't like their design. I don't like using them. I want to build my own and love using it. This is exactly what I did with Ultimate Password Manager. I love using it. And many others do too!

So, I want to be proud of something that I've built. Sharing with others how I tackle the task of building this application is also useful. In order to build something and write about it, your ideas must be clear and well defined. Just the process of posting on the blog about it helps me think better about this application design and refine a lot of details. In the end, I'm winning and eventually my users will hopefully win too.

If someone is inspired by my work on this application and start on their own and eventually create a really cool and nice looking application for browsing pictures on Tumblr, then I would be more than happy to buy it and use it and tell the world how happy I am about it. In the end, whatever happens, I'll win. And remember, this is not always about money.

Keep reading my blog learn how I'm creating my first iPad app: a Tumblr client for browsing pictures! Comments are always welcomed too!

I'm still alive... and well !

You know, it is summer time. As an indie iOS dev, I'm taking a time off. I'll be back soon.