App Dev

The Continuing Adventures of an iPhone/iPad Developer

 After 43 days, I have my first app in the App Store.  It is called NextRx and it allows for quickly calculating when prescriptions can be refilled.  My wife is a nurse and suggested this idea, so I ran with it as my first app.  Right now it is mainly targeted for the iPhone, but I am looking for ideas how to improve and optimize NextRx for the iPad. 

This has me thinking about how not every iPhone app, especially utility style apps like this, have an obvious gain in functionality by moving to the iPad.  NextRx was designed for quickly and easy data entry, additional screen real estate doesn’t make the app any easier to use.  As of right now, I think I will try adding a monthly calendar view that will display the start and end dates. 

Beyond that, I don’t really know what else the iPad could offer NextRx.  Still trying to get a handle exactly what the iPad offers developers.

Update to My iPhone/iPad Developer Adventures

I’ve decided to take a brief respite from reading and researching iPad news, and instead focus on my iPhone/iPad development efforts. Ok, maybe “forced” is a more accurate term than “decided”. The money I set aside from my iPad purchase was sadly needed for a slightly more important use (stupid recession). So instead of dwelling on this unfortunate turn of events, I jumped into my development books.

Today I have been reading iPhone User Interface Design Projects to get inside the heads of successful app developers. While I am only a third of the way through the book, I wanted to share two great quotes
from it.

In the introduction there was this little gem:

If you’re not going to differentiate your app on quality, this book is probably not for you. Instead, just go to iTunes Connect, and lower your price.

Then in the chapter about the designer of the App Cubby apps, David Barnard, there was this line:

The potential benefits of the multitouch interface are, however, easily squandered with a bad UI.

I have a feeling iPhone User Interface Projects may become one of the more important resources in my development toolbox.

The Adventures of an iPad/iPhone App Developer

So I have been kicking around the idea of doing iphone development for awhile.  Since I earn my living by writing code (calling it programming may be too strong of a term) , then surely I should be able to write an app.  Now with the introduction of the iPad I’ve decided to take the plunge. I mean a nine year old wrote an iPhone app, how hard could it be?

My goals for this adventure include:

1. Target the iPad, then possible port down to the iPhone.
2. Make a genuinely useful, or entertaining app. There are enough fart apps already.  This would be an iPad app that I would want to use.
3. Sell the app.  I will be more than happy if I make back the annual $99 Apple developer fee plus the $30 for a how-to book.
4. Launch the app in 60 days.  No point dragging things out.

Armed with my copy of iPhone Application Development For Dummies (iPad version isn’t available yet), I set out upon my journey…and made it to page 5, OS X 10.5 or higher is required… Crap, 5 computers in the house, not a single Mac.

I’ve read up on the hacks that will allow you to do iPhone app development in Windows, but you won’t get your application into Apple’s App Store that way.  I want to do this official and see my iPad app listed in all its glory by Apple.  A quick trip to Best Buy with the ol’ trusty Best Buy Card, and I walked out with a 15″ MacBook Pro.  Alright, on to page 6…