iPhone Game Development - Chris Craft [155]
Caution
Be aware that removing a device from the list of currently registered devices will not replenish the current number of devices available. You will not be able to reset your device list until you renew your Apple developer membership.
You can manage your currently registered devices at http://developerapplecom/index.action. Apple allows you to have a maximum of 100 devices allocated for your development team, which includes beta testers. Once you have added your beta testers' devices, you can create a beta build for your application and send it to them. From there, testers can install the application through iTunes and test on their devices.
FIGURE 10.31
Ad Hoc beta testing
While on one hand you want to make sure to take advantage of all the opportunities Ad Hoc beta testing brings, be sure not to use up all of your device slots too soon. Remember, Apple releases new devices regularly, and if a beta tester upgrades from one device to another, you will lose another slot. You want to make sure you always have some device slots left for yourself.
Application names
Your iPhone application name is very important because it is shown under your application's icon on the actual device. While your App Store application title can be quite long—up to 5,000 characters—your actual application name must be fairly short.
Your app's name cannot contain special characters like UTF-8 characters. The font used for showing application names on the iPhone is not a fixed-width font, so there is no specific number of characters that will not fit. Just be aware that if your application's name is too long, the iPhone OS will insert an ellipsis into the application name and remove any extraneous characters, making the name short enough to fit in the space allocated.
If you try to use a name for your application that is already taken, you will receive the following error message:
The Application Name that you provided has already been used. Please provide a unique Application Name.
Caution
Once you assign a name to your application, it can be a bit of a challenge to completely rename it later on. You can rename it easily enough in Xcode, but if you want to rename every file, you will have to invest a little time finding and then replacing each reference.
Application piracy
For the most part, developers don't have to worry too much about application piracy. It does exist, but marketplace forces keep it in check. In order to pirate an iPhone application, you have to be able to afford an iPhone and an iPhone data plan. Most applications are very affordable, many only $0.99. Buying applications from the App Store is so easy and affordable it is hard to imagine a pirated version existing that could compete. Plus pirated applications can only be run on hacked devices, which further reduces the risk.
Screen shots
The App Store allows you to include up to five screen shots of your application, and you should try to include as many of these screen shots as you can. It's one of the quickest and easiest ways users can get a look at your application and get an idea of what the user experience will be.
Screen shots are very useful to include on the App Store, as shown in Figure 10.32, but be sure to include them on your application's Web site as well. One nice thing about including screen shots on your Web site is that you can include more than five of them. Also consider posting screen shots to various social networking sites such as Facebook. Screen shots allow you to market your application to users early in the development process before your application has been listed on the App Store. This allows developers to create buzz for their upcoming releases well in advance, creating momentum and increasing initial