PHP Web developer, Robert Kern » iphone

On Middle Men

Robert Kern — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:56:13 +0000

“The Internet has been incredibly empowering to creators, and just as destructive to middle men. In the 20th century, every musician needed a record label to get his or her music heard. Every author needed a publishing house to be read. Every journalist needed a newspaper. Anyone who wanted to send a message needed the post office. In the Internet age, the tail no longer wags the dog, and those middle men have become a luxury, not a necessity. Meanwhile, the software industry is moving in the opposite direction.” (keep reading)

by Joe Hewitt via joehewitt.com

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App Store process

Robert Kern — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:26:50 +0000

Sorry for the delay in getting the next version of the Recipes App out. Its been 2 weeks since it was first submitted to the App Store. After one week, i received an email saying i needed to change something to adhere to Apple guidelines (when there is no Internet connection available you get a pop-up now… they didnt point that out in the first version!). Its been another week since submitting the updated version (with the popup) and it’s still in review.

Hopefully it will get the all-clear soon. I certainly hope they dont find something else and force us to wait yet another week or so.

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Multiple categories per recipe

Robert Kern — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:04:03 +0000

I have rolled out an update to the Recipes App backend that allows the recipes to be in multiple categories. This makes sense with recipes as many of them seem like they should be in more than one category. You wont be able to take advantage of this until you install the new version of Recipes App. It is in the App Store review stage now. I havent gone through and put all the recipes into multiple categories though, only a few.

I have also added support to keep track of where recipes come from. So if people have free recipes that they want to share with this app, I can keep track of which recipes came from which people/companies.

I have also knocked off the Help tab from the app as it was a bit redundant. Hopefully the new version will be available very soon. The new version makes a big difference.

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Skype on the iPhone

Robert Kern — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:08:18 +0000

I downloaded Skype for the iPhone this morning and made a SkypeOut call (I phoned my bank’s helpdesk in NZ) to a) arrange for something, and b) to test the quality of the call. I was pleasantly surprised that the quality of the call was very good. My Internet connection here in Honduras is fairly poor, and there were a couple of jitters but in general the quality was as much as could be expected – or better – for an international phone call. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that my bank in NZ has people working at 3am NZT!

If Skype can use the Apple Push Notification system to alert of incoming calls when Skype isnt open, this will be an amazing app. I dont see why they shouldnt be able to either. In version 3.0 of the iPhone OS – when push notifications finally arrive – the developers can specify an audio clip to be played when a notification arrives, perhaps even a vibration. So if in the Skype app settings, I specify a certain ringtone from a list of available ringtones specified by Skype (im not sure if custom ringtones would work – actually, im not sure if the name of the audio file is sent through the push notification, or the actual audio file?), then those settings could be synced with Skype’s servers. When a call comes in, the Skype servers would send the message to the Push Notification system along with my chosen ringtone. How much data can be sent in the Push Notification’s? Would it only pop up as a standard notification box on my phone?

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50 recipes per category

Robert Kern — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:16:17 +0000

The Recipes App was only displaying the first 25 recipes per category up until just now.

The reason behind the limit was to make sure the app remains snappy. I have upped the limit to 50 and it still seems pretty snappy. This change is done at the server end and doesnt require an update to the app on your iPhone.

I understand the confusion and frustration when a category says it has 700 recipes but you can only see 25! Its silly I know. I am working on version 1.1 of the Recipes App which will allow you to browse through EVERY recipe in each category.

In the meantime, make use of the Search tab to find recipes that you cant find by browsing through the categories.

Note: I wont be releasing version 1.1 until after iPhone OS v2.2 has been released (assuming it is released in the next few weeks as expected). This is just to make sure everything plays nicely with the next version of the OS.

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Recipes App stats for first few hours

Robert Kern — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:21:22 +0000

Recipes App has only been in the App Store for a couple of hours but already its been downloaded at least 60 times and that is climbing constantly. These users have viewed 125 recipes so far (and climbing). So far only a couple of people have said they ‘Like’ a recipe, and no-one has ‘Reported’ a recipe as being possibly incorrect.

Update: A couple of hours later and at least 330 people have downloaded the app, and at least 700 recipes have been viewed.

Update 2: Next day, over 2,000 downloads. Almost 3,000 downloads now.

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Recipes App is in the App Store

Robert Kern — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:15:00 +0000

It was nice to receive the App Store email today saying that the status of my app has changed to Ready for Sale! You can download it by clicking here, or searching for Recipes App in the App Store.

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6,425 recipes in Recipes App database

Robert Kern — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:07:00 +0000

There are now 6,425 recipes in the Recipes App database. These are from a number of different sources. The next version of the app will allow users to add their own recipes. Soon, you will also be able to add recipes through the website, so this number should keep growing – although sheesh thats already alot of recipes. How many do you really need?

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Attempts etc

Robert Kern — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:26:09 +0000

Noticed this afternoon that the IP address of 61.144.122.38 was trying very hard to get into my server. I quickly spoke to my Server Admin friend and he gave me a quick fix of simply adding a rule to iptables to block any requests from that IP address. A quick Google search of that IP shows that other people have had issues with it as well. Will be keeping a close eye on the auth logs.

Fyi, the command to tell the linux firewall to drop connections from a certain ip address is:

iptables -I INPUT -s 61.144.122.38 -j DROP

On another note, I received an email from the guys at Apple’s App Store review department. Recipes App had a minor UI issue that needed to be altered before being allowed into the App Store. It was a very quick change and I have resubmitted the app. Hopefully it wont take another week to get it approved. Hopefully they dont come back with something else they want changed.

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Notes for today

Robert Kern — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:52:41 +0000

Am running the WordPress 2.7 beta on my blog now. So far I like it.

Based on access logs for the Recipes App API, Apple have at least installed the iPhone app and done some testing for about 7 minutes from 2 different devices (presumably an iPhone and iPod Touch), plus another 6 minutes today at around 3pm. The first was yesterday at around 6.15am NZT. So now they’ve tested the app twice. Will they do it again tomorrow?

Recipes App has an Apple ID: 295107127 Which means when it becomes available, the following link should work: Recipes App on the App Store.

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