So, with that, you basically create a QR code using any number of free online generators and then put in your logo, or anything else, to customize your QR code using PhotoShop or any other image editing software.

The “How-To” post can be found here http://contentdeveloper.com/2010/01/how-to-customize-qr-codes-with-your-brands-identity/ but it’s basically as simple as I just explained.

This is one that I came up with over the weekend, adding in our logo. The code simply links back to our website, however you can put contact info in the code, add in your logo, and put it on a Business Card, or create one for your App and add in your App’s Logo – what kind of code can you come up with?

When Amazon’s store launched developers were told that there would be a free app of the day in the app store, and that developers would make 20% on each free app downloaded rather than the usual 70% if it was not a free app. This is a little worrying, especially because you dont get any say in wether or not your app can be selected as a free app of the day. However, getting 20 percent of the price may actually be a good deal especially if millions of people are downloading your app because of the immediate exposure it is getting.

OOPS We Lied
Amazon has decided that they dont want to give developers 20%, they like 0% much better. Now with this new model they will ask the developer to agree, but amazon chooses the free apps. A amazon app developer Shifty Jelly received this from Amazon:

“As you may already know, the Free App of the Day offer placement is one of the most visible and valuable spaces on the Amazon Appstore. We would like to include your app “[name removed]” in our Free App of the Day calendar. We have seen tremendous results from this promotion spot and believe it will bring you a great deal of positive reviews and traffic. It is an opportunity to build your brand especially in association with a brand like Amazon’s. The current price of this placement is at 0% rev share for that one day you are placed.”

The developer agreed and sold 100,000 copies of the app that day. Unfortunately after the free day it was pretty much back to business as usual, just with 100,000 more people with the app who paid nothing. Do you think you would want your app to be the free app of the day?

New stuff for users:

Notification center

(http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html#notification)

• alerts are displayed at the top of the screen momentarily
• android style slide down list of all notifications
• list of alerts on lock screen, If you slide to unlock on one of the notification it takes you right to the app for that email/text/calner event/push notification etc

iMessage

(http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html#imessage)

• iphone to iphone text messaging over data, doesn’t use text messages
• “receipts” sender can see that recipient received txt and wether or not they’ve read it.
• works with ipods and iPads as well

iCloud

Allows syncing of data across devices (for instance I buy a song on my phone and when I get home it is already on my computer and iPad

new app reminders

Does location based reminders (for instance reminds you that you need bacon when you walk into the grocery store)

wi-fi syncing

can sync devices with itunes over wifi without plugging in

vol + button acts as a hardware shutter button for the camera

new stuff for developers

Again, this is tricky because technically we are under NDA and cant talk about this stuff but there are over 1500 new apis for developers. However below is info that has already made it out to news outlets and is now public knowledge.

iCloud apis allow document syncing

Apps can request space on the users iCloud and all of the users devices will upload new data to the cloud and all devices will download new data. So for instance if I edit a document on my phone and pull it up in the same app on my iPad, Mac or PC the document will be the most up to date version I edited on my phone.

air play mirroring

allows the screen to be displayed on a TV via an appleTV. Games are using this to show the game on the TV and use the iphone/iPad as a controller

Core Image

gives us easy apis to do difficult stuff with images, for instance facial recognition is built in

There are a lot of new features coming in iOS 5 that are going to open all new doors for developers and publishers of apps, giving breath in to new app ideas and allowing existing apps to add in new features. We’re looking forward to the official launch of iOS 5.

Apple also announced today that in an effort to become more transparent they would be releasing the submission guidelines that they use to approve apps. This is huge considering that many developers submit apps to the app store with no idea if their app will be accepted or rejected. This will at least give developers a baseline to go off of before submitting their app. I personally have struggled with rejections from Apple for not following certain guidelines that were not public at the time.

I think both of these items will be great for developers and I think we will see much more creative apps in the app store because of this.

UPDATE: here are the app submission guidelines (PDF)
Here are some funny excerpts from the guidelines:

11.11 In general, the more expensive your app, the more thoroughly we will review it
4.2 Apps that use location-based APIs for automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other devices will be rejected (oddly specific)

Source: Apple – press release

“Beginning July 22, you will need to use Application Loader to submit your binary to iTunes Connect. Binary uploads will no longer be accepted through the iTunes Connect interface on that date”.

Since the opening of the app store three years ago developers have had to submit their applications through a web interface in iTunes connect. The only time anyone used the Application Loader was to upload apps that were huge (apple recommended it for apps over 100mb) this would prevent browser timeouts while uploading large files. Now it is a requirement for all apps, I find this strange especially after finding nothing wrong with the current method. I however am not complaining, In the newest version of xcode apple allows you to submit your app to iTunes connect from within Xcode. Anytime I don’t have to leave the application to upload files to apple and fill out a legnthy web form is great for me however this will prevent windows users from submitting apps (not that there is a huge demand for that since you have to have a mac to code the app in the first place, but Im sure someone somewhere does it). Below is the full email from apple.

Dear Hank, Beginning July 22, you will need to use Application Loader to submit your binary to iTunes Connect. Binary uploads will no longer be accepted through the iTunes Connect interface on that date. Application Loader offers fast uploading, a more stable connection, and early validation warnings. You can now also submit binaries that contain In App Purchase using Application Loader. Make sure the status of your app in iTunes Connect is Waiting for Upload before you submit your binary through Application Loader. If you have installed iPhone SDK 3.2 or later, you can access Application Loader from the Utilities folder (/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Application Loader.app). You can also download Application Loader from iTunes Connect. If you have any questions regarding Application Loader, please review our Frequently Asked Questions or utilize the Contact Us system on iTunes Connect. Best regards, iTunes Connect Support

Definitions:

-Multitasking is the ability to run tasks while running other tasks (I’ll get to specifically what tasks in a moment)
-Backgrounding is when the phone “freezes” your app and unloads it from memory to be returned when you return to your app

Multitasking:
Apple allows you to have multitasking under a few specific circumstances. These circumstances are GPS apps, VOIP apps, and audio apps. The GPS profile will allow you access to GPS information and the network, the VOIP profile will allow you access to the network, and audio apps will allow you access to the network and audio output and input apis. When you exit your app depending on what profile you chose those services will continue to run in your app (AND ONLY THOSE SERVICES) doing anything other that collecting and manipulating the data received or sent from those sources will get your app booted out of memory by the OS.You can however manipulate UIViews but you obviusly wont see the changes untill you reopen the app.

BUT WAIT! what if I want to do something other than voip/GPS/audio?
Well using the VOIP profile to create a new AIM client is a sure way to get your app rejected by apple, however if you want to do other operations in the background there is a solution to that! Regular app services allow you to complete running a task in the background while running other apps. Basically regular app services allow you 10 minutes to do whatever you want (excluding processor intensive tasks like running openGL animations). This feature is great for apps like dropbox which will now let you finish uploading or downloading a file in the background while you perform other tasks.

Backgrounding:
Backgrounding is now included in every app you create for iOS4 what backgrounding does is essentially freeze your app so that when you come back to it you are right where you left off. If you are three pages deep in an app and need to take a call when you return from your oh so important call you will be exactly where you left off in the app, no extra code required! If you don’t want this functionality you can opt out of it in your apps Info.plist file.

Both of these new features are great additions to the iPhone. Although there are some limitations, those limitations are there to keep battery usage down which for the average user is great. Another angle to this is app developers who create enterprise apps (apps that are not distributed via the app store but through a local server to company employes) can use these multitasking technologies however they want without fear of rejection from apple. So you can make that AIM client you always wanted. Just make sure you convince your boss its for business purposes.