I have built and made a .zip of my app. Now what? - xcode

I'm brand new to app programming, so hopefully, this should be a pretty quick question. After using XCode, I've built and made a .zip of my app. It's stored on my desktop for easy access.
Now what? Do I have to do anything specific before I begin the submission routine for iTunes? Or is the zip all I need to begin submission?
I've been reading http://www.idev101.com/code/Distribution/checklist.html, and it looks like I just finished Step 3. Step 4 shouldn't be too difficult, but I'm a little confused about Step 5. How and where do I select this SKU?
Once that's sorted out and Step 5 is finished and I'm on Step 6, how do I take these specific sized screenshots? Do I just open the iPhone simulator and cmd+4 the window content?
After that, what should I do? Help!!
As you can tell I'm a little overwhelmed! Any advice anyone can give me will be really helpful. I don't want my app to be rejected because I screwed up somewhere.
Which, brings me to my final, hopefully I'll never have to worry about them, questions... if my app is rejected for some reason or another, am I allowed to make changes and resubmit? Or am I out of luck?
Thanks so much!

Step 5 -- The SKU is just a # you put in that is supposed to help you keep track of your 'product' - the app. It can be anything, it's only used to help you (SKU = product ID #)... make one up for your app. Enter it on the same form you enter the description.
Step 6 - Yep, take the screenshots within the simulator, that's the easiest way IMO.
If your app is rejected, you can keep re-submitting til it gets in the store. Just remember it takes some time (was about a week for me) to review each app submission.
Hope this helps!

You can make screenshots easily by pressing the Home and the Sleep button on your iPhone / iPad simultaneously. The screenshot will be saved as a Photo on your Device.

Related

Google Play Developer App Marketing Strategy-Why App download decreased after icon change?

I have an app on google play over 5000000 downloads. And 20000+ downloads every day. When the designer changed the app icon to new good one ,the daily download decreased from 20000+ to 5000- . I don't think it's not good icon. I think may be there is a marketing strategy after icon changing google play changed app position on google play. Any idea about this?
Old Icon
New Icon
It is hard to pin down an exact reason. Maybe it was too similar to another app icon or simply new users didn't like it as much.
You can run A/B tests in the store listings, it's a hidden menu. Click Store Listing and beneath that, you should see experiments. You can run up to 4 icons (for example) and see which gets more downloads. This also works with the promotional video, screenshots, short app listing and full app listing.
There are a lot of customization choices as well.
I would make a few iterations of the logo, with different elements removed. I think the new one is a little too busy. try removing the phone on the left and right and see how users respond.
Sources:
Run A/B tests on your store listing
Increase installs with Store Listing Experiments
I think that the main reason is people knew the product. If they start looking for it now, they see something that they don't know as it has changed and will not download it as fast as before.
If everyone is used to the icon, your downloads will increase.
There is no ranking part that depends on the icon, so as I know.
I think there are 3 possible reasons:
1) Google dropped your app in the list because at the time you changed the icon, there where other apps added in this category. This made google to re-place and orden the apps. As your app was there longer and had a minor change, it was ranked as "old & going down", so it lost the confident place in the list.
2)Because of the new icon, people are not finding it as quick or they think the new icon is an actual scam version of your app, so they aren't downloading it anymore.
3)Your app simply got less popular. You got pretty much downloads, the rate was high. Maybe you reached all the people that needed this app and there are minus people wanting it.
Anyways,
maybe the download count raises again and you just need to wait a little week. It is very unlikely, but it also could just be a error at Google's side.
...

ListPicker control crashes app inventor 2 (ai2) when selected

I am having a problem programming the Pizza Party example http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/pizzaparty.html in ai2. The biggest problem is that I can't even connect to Pizza Party using the 6 letter code.
I am able to get around this by successfully connecting one of my other projects using the 6 letter code and then switching projects to Pizza Party. The app shows up on my android screen, but when I press either ListPicker, the list displays momentarily and then the screen goes black, subsequently prompting me for the 6 letter code again.
I am able to successfully press the submit button of the app so that's why I suspect the ListPicker. I disabled all the blocks to make sure the code behind wasn't crashing silently.
Can anyone shed light on why this is happening and how to overcome it?
PS: I have never been able to get the QR code scan to work
OMG I found the answer posted elsewhere! It was a Developer Option on the phone that caused the issue: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/mitappinventortest/5xq5NlPXFA4/RBg6_gHcCgAJ
Thanks Peter Bowers!

How to track a customer only bug

Scenario:
A customer is reporting bugs in a near useless fashion "sometimes when i press button A it does not work".
There story is constantly changing every time you talk to them "button A seems to go wrong after pressing button B" "now button A goes wrong after pressing button C" "Button A goes wrong irrespective of buttons B and C it was all just coincidence"
I have a test rig in my office and can see button A working perfectly, i have never had any issue and cannot replicate the customers problem no matter how many times i try.
management are 120% sure the issue is in the code, no chance that the issue is with the customers button A hardware.
What steps can be taken to trace this issue ? What do you do to show you have covered all possible bases before informing management the code is not the problem and you cannot fix it.
Edit: the software is embedded firmware not an application running on a computer.
As your customer is on the other side of the world I'm guessing your office hours are different and that's what makes it difficult to see what they're doing remotely. If the office hours isn't an issue, then you could ask them to let you watch their screen whilst they attempt to reproduce the issue. Software which could help this remote viewing process includes:
Join.me (FREE)- http://join.me
LogMeIn - https://secure.logmein.com/
GoToAssist - http://www.gotoassist.co.uk/remote_support/
amongst others.
If remote viewing isn't a possibility, another option might be to ask them to record the process, by using Steps Recorder (this is built in to Windows 7 & 8, so only useful if they're using one of these). A guide on how to run it is available here:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/problem-steps-recorder.htm
They could then send you this file which would mean you could see exactly what they're doing and what the outcome is.
Often what's going wrong is that the customer is omitting some detail that seems insignificant to them (always makes sure to submerge everything in water before use, for example), but is actually the other part of the cause. Ideally, you want as much detail as possible. If practical, visit in person to see the bug in action. If not, see if they can make a video recording of start to finish.

Questions about app I just submitted to the App Store

First off, can apps have an underscore in the name? The name I chose was taken, but I realized that because of the logo and style of the game it would work with an underscore at the end, so that's the name I used in iTunes connect. Will Apple reject it for this? I haven't seen any apps with an underscore in them.
Second, I'm testing the release version of my app (compiled using the release settings), and my in app purchase no longer works. It says invalid username/password, but it doesn't say sandbox mode. Is this normal? Will it work whenever the app is released? Also, will the iAds load real ads and will Game Center not be in sandbox mode? I'm pretty sure Game Center wasn't in sandbox the first time I started the release, but now it is.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Relax... Take a deep breath and calm down. The IAP is most likely not yet approved, iAds will show just fine, and GameCenter login depends more on if you use a test account or not, and it will be fine most likely.
First app?
:)

How to make an ipad app impossible to close

I am programming an app for an experiment by the University of Queensland Psych Department. The app needs to be impossible to exit, or at least it would be preferable if it were impossible to exit. This is not a virus- it is for an experiment with the Grute Eylandt Aborigines. Anyways, do any of you guys have any idea how to set the app to be impossible to exit, or even better, to set it so that you have to enter a password to exit it? Furthermore, on a separate subject, do you guys have any idea how I can save the information in the app to the iPhone? This app will not go through the App Store so it does not need to follow App Store rules. Therefore, if there was a way to save "Button (whatever button it is) pushed at (time and date)" to the notes section of the iPhone every time a button was pushed in the app, and/or to save audio recorded using the AudioToolbox framework to the actual iPod library, that would be fantastic. Otherwise I would have to make some sort of db or plist file to save everything with if-then statements, I think. Thank you!
Check-out iOS 6 Accessibility feature:
It allows a parent, teacher, or administrator to limit an iOS device
to one app by disabling the Home button, as well as restrict touch
input on certain areas of the screen
Put the device in a "kiosk" case so keep the home button from being pressed. For storing the data to the device, if it is a small amount of data, use NSUserDefaults, if this will be a large amount of data, I would lean more toward Core Data
Easiest solution on the market -- MOKIMOBILITY has developed software that allows you to lock the home button. It is Mobile Device Management software with a full range of security features. It essentially locks down your iPad so the user is only able to use what you what them to use. It is called +MDM www.mokimobility.com The software can be managed mobile-y from a central interface. Slick software.

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