Wednesday, October 31, 2012

You now need to submit 3 sets of screenshot!

Tried to submit an update the other day, and strangely as below, got this "Missing Screenshot" as shown below.
At the details view a slightly more helpful popup message was shown.


It took me a while to find the problem. As shown below, the middle part, we now have a new section for "iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th ten) Screenshots". The only difference is the new screen size compared to previous version of iPhone/iPod.

Too lazy to design new ones, so I just use Inkscape to increase the width of the existing iPhone/iPod ones a bit, submit the new screenshots, and that fixed the problem. So for those who hasn't or is going to submit new app or updates, make sure you have 3 sets of screenshots ready!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Lesson learned about reducing PNG file size

Did my first submission attempt the other day after putting some new images and fixes for the iOS6 + new iPhone 5 screen size fix. But received this email saying the binary size exceeds the download limit email as below.

Definitely don't want my users to have this trouble, so I started looking around for ways to shrink/reduce some of the huge background image file size.

At first found a site (ca't find it any more?) which offers free service, just need to upload the image and it will shrink it for you. Tried a few and seems quite good, so I happily processed all the huge .PNG files. But when I tried to build the app, as below it failed with all these "CopyPNGFile" error, WTF??!!

Further research shows that site probably didn't shrink but rather convert it to ".JPG" file format but still keep the same ".PNG" file name??!!

That was very disappointing as it wasted my time!

Later found this site talking about using PhotoShop to "Posterize" the images. This time was a bit more careful, only did a few, confirmed it won't cause any of those "CopyPNGFile" error, then continue with the rest....

It was a pain, but at least I learned the lesson about how "NOT" to reduce your image file size!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

May be it's not that difficult to get an iPhone 5?

I read quite a few not-so-nice news about iPhone 5 recently (e.g. see here, here, and over heating and battery issue) and was a bit reluctant to order one delivered as it would be hard to argue/explain if it's been delivered and found any problem (plus the hassle of bringing it to a shop to swap), vs opening it from box inside an Apple store. Was also struggling if should wait for "iPhone 5 version 1.01", as first version of most new IT products were always full of bugs (rushed to meet deadline?)...

Walked past the Sydney Apple city store last Friday and was told they are out of stock and need to make a reservation between 7am and 3pm on this special link, and will receive a response before 9pm if stock is available in the shop I selected.

I tried once yesterday around 1pm, of course, nothing received. Then tried again around 8am this morning, and I got this email around 8:54pm! Wow, I thought there was a stock shortage of iPhone 5 and everyone has to wait until end of October or something like that??

Actually I never expect to get it straight away and tomorrow morning I might not even be able to make it due to other commitments at work... I have cancelled my reservation, and my apology to those who reserved today but didn't get it because of my "test" reservation, please try again tomorrow :-)...

So despite all the news and marketing hype, looks like it's not that difficult to get an iPhone 5 - only a few weeks after it's announcement - at least in Sydney?

Still working on changing my 2 games for iOS6 and iPhone 5, seriously, base on all these, I might just wait for iPhone 5 version 1.01...