iPhone Game Development - Chris Craft [143]
Software Seeding Program (Premier and Select only)
Technical Support (eight calls per year for Premier and two calls per year for Select)
Developer Forums (Premier and Select only)
ADC on iTunes (Premier and Select include full access; limited otherwise)
Compatibility Labs (three days per month for Premier and two days per month for Select)
Hardware Purchase Program (10 systems per year for Premier and 1 system per year for Select)
Apple Developer Forums
Just as no man is an island unto himself, as the saying goes, no developer can figure out everything on his own. You've probably already figured this out for yourself, or you wouldn't have bought this book in the first place. The day will come when you will have a problem and no clue what to try next. When that day arrives, one of the first places we recommend you look is the Apple Developer Forums (Figure 10.14).
The Apple Developer Forums allow developers to discuss iPhone development with other iPhone developers and Apple engineers. It is one of the few places where developers can go and discuss iPhone SDK features that may still be under NDA, or non-disclosure agreement. Apple typically requires developers to not publicly discuss material related to beta releases of either the iPhone OS or iPhone SDK in order to better protect their intellectual property. Once these items are publicly released, developers usually are free to discuss details publicly.
The Apple Developer Forums cover many topics, including Getting Started, Cocoa Touch, Core OS, Graphics and Media, Web Technologies, System and Device Features, Performance, Developer Tools, Distribution, and User Experience. If you are having a problem figuring out a way to accomplish something using the iPhone SDK, then others have probably already had the same issue and maybe even found a solution that they would be willing to share with you.
FIGURE 10.14
Apple Developer Forums
Apple Push Notification service
With iPhone OS 3.0, developers now have the power to use Apple Push Notification service. Instead of allowing background applications on the iPhone, Apple decided to implement a remote notification system. The goal was to maximize battery life and performance. With push notifications, your application can receive events even when it is not running (Figure 10.15).
Apple Push Notification ideas include:
Sports game scores
Instant messaging and chat applications
Workflow and task management applications
Game challenges and invites
Deal-of-the-day applications
FIGURE 10.15
Example of Apple Push Notification received while application not running
Be aware that when the iPod touch screen is on and has a Wi-Fi connection, push notifications are received at any time. If the iPod touch screen is asleep, it will check every 15 minutes for a notification.
Product icons
Product icons make up a large part of the first impression many users have of your application, as shown in Figure 10.16. Since app icons are 59 x 59 pixels for the device icon and 512 x 512 pixels for the App Store icon, there is potential to include marketing messages on the icon itself. Take a look at the top apps on the App Store today and you'll find many applications with some kind of marketing text as a banner, badge, or overlay. Some of the more common ones are Sale!, Sales 75%, 99¢, FREE!, and LITE.
FIGURE 10.16
iFlame's 512-x-512-pixel App Store icon
Note
You might have noticed that the App Store always has three large application ads at the top of the main page in iTunes. You might be wondering how much it costs to advertise on the App Store yourself. Unfortunately, for the most part, you cannot simply purchase this advertising on the App Store. These are not usually paid ads. You must be approached directly from Apple for your application to be featured here.
Supporting different iPhone OS versions
When Apple was preparing the iPhone OS 3.0 for release, there was a period where developers were required to support multiple versions of the OS. This meant that your