Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

For Newbie iOS Developers

By

On January 5, 2012

In Apple, Programming, Technology

After talking to a good friend of mine who had several questions for me on how one would get started developing iOS apps, I thought my advice was worth putting into a post. After all, I’m still a bit of a newbie iOS developer myself. So I thought I would share my experiences for other aspiring developers while all of the steps are still fresh in my mind.

The IDE

There are going to be some costs up front, especially if you don’t own a Mac. The IDE for developing iOS applications is Xcode and it can only run on a Mac. There are some projects out there that have tried to create a windows IDE but I haven’t seen anything that was successful and wasn’t a painful process to setup. You can try running a Virtual Machine and install OS X but you might run into some hardware complications. Honestly, if you are serious about developing iOS apps, go out and buy a Mac.

iOS Developer Program

Once you have a Mac to use for development the next thing you want to get is Xcode. You can download Xcode from the Mac app store and you can either pay $4.99 or you can sign up for the iOS Developer Program and download it for free. The iOS Developer Program is an annual subscription of $99 a year. Obviously you get more amenities other than Xcode for free. If you plan on distributing your app via the app store and/or you want to deploy an app to any iOS device (including your own) you will need to sign up for this. Xcode does come with an emulator so if you want to hold off until you are more comfortable, that’s what I would recommend, but bear in mind the emulator cannot test any email or Internet/Wi-Fi functionality.

If you want to develop apps for the Mac or Safari, they each have their own developer programs and will cost you another $99 a year for each.

Recommended Readings

I know that the Internet is an abyss of developer forums, tutorials and blogs which may, or may not have sufficient information to get you started developing iOS apps. I initially started out by searching for iOS tutorials and most of the advice people had was to go out and buy a book, so I bought two. Here are the two books I bought, which I highly recommend:

Subscribing to the iOS Developer Program also gives you access to developer resources such as videos, libraries and forums. You can also get code level assistance from Apple engineers (apple developer link).

The App Store

I thought I would finish with some things to keep in mind when you go to post your app to the app store. When you submit your app it first has to be reviewed and this process can take up to seven days, depending on the complexity of the app. You are responsible for setting the price of the app; you will receive 70% of the sales revenue, Apple will take 30%. There are no additional fees for posting free apps, credit cards, hosting or marketing.

That’s all I have for now, I hope you found this useful. If more tips come to mind, I will do a part two or something. Good luck!

Cheers!

A Dichotomy of Degrees

By

On January 4, 2012

In Programming, Technology

Most of the time I blog about gaming with the occasional current event or gadget thrown in. As someone who has been in the software development industry for about 10 years now, I thought perhaps I should start finding some career related topics to blog about. I’m not some high profile industry pundit nor do I work for any major computer or software giants, however I do feel like I offer a unique perspective on the industry.

If you know me personally, or have read the About page, you already know that I was a dual major at Purdue. I not only got my bachelors in software development, but I also earned a bachelors in organizational leadership (which is essentially a degree in HR). I feel like my degrees are an interesting dichotomy, a left brain degree and a right brain degree, but I feel that having both of them has served me very well so far in my career.

The days of stowing programmers in dark closets are ending. The introduction, and growing implementation, of agile development has many programmers having to be more interactive with other departments within a company. Communication is paramount now more than ever which is why I feel like my organizational education has not only helped me integrate into collaborative groups but has also helped others (the tech savvy and the non-tech savvy).

I think having the two degrees has also given me the unique ability to view an organization not only from the technical perspective but also from a non-technical perspective. I know many programmers, and other tech savvy people, may not like to admit it, but we can be a little obtuse sometimes. Management’s decisions to do, or not do, something may seem infuriatingly illogical on the surface, but there is always other factors that managers/directors/presidents also have to consider. There might be additional costs, additional resources, budgetary constraints, or even political reasons behind the decision.

I’ve already had a few times in my career where I felt strongly against a decision but I understood the reason for the decision. So, instead of protesting, I tried to help the others understand the reasons and help them find a way to cooperate. I know it’s tough to be a peon, especially in larger organizations, but learning to cooperate and collaborate will go a lot farther than refusing to adapt and change.

So that’s my spiel. I think if I keep going I’m just going to sound like I’m repeating myself. I hope that I have provided sufficient evidence that I’m competent enough to discuss industry topics. I do welcome and appreciate your feedback and topic suggestions either in the comments of this post or on Google+ and Facebook where I’m sure I have posted the link here. Thanks.

Cheers!

What Happened to “Frag”?

By

On January 3, 2012

In Gaming, General Cogitation

I’m an old school gamer. I started on Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog. I graduated from console gaming to PC gaming when I went to college and I began with first person shooters like Half-Life and, of course, the infamous Quake. Quake was the game everyone played at LAN parties, no matter what the latest gaming fad was at the time. It was a staple.

As is common in every gaming community, Quake players developed various colloquial expressions. The most common word among the nomenclature was “frag”. There were t-shirts, bumper stickers, and various other paraphernalia that donned various phrases using the word. If you are not familiar with the word “frag” it meant that when you killed someone, or you were killed, you weren’t just mortally wounded; usually fragged meant your death was a grisly explosion or dismemberment that left parts of you scattered about. The MMO genre doesn’t have such graphic fatalities so, I think, “frag” loosely evolved into the word “pwn”.

Personally I like frag better and I wish there was a way to bring it back. The fact is MMO gamers have already established their own set of colloquial expressions so introducing a new term would be very difficult. Also, the games themselves would need to properly reflect what it meant to frag, or be fragged, when a player dies. Somehow I can see such macabre graphics being met with much opposition once the ESRB became involved. If the ESRB rating is too mature it could adversely impact the sales of the game.

Personally I think introducing these kinds of deaths to an MMO would be pretty cool. Sometimes such visual indications of victory can make you feel extremely triumphant. Maybe one day an MMO will come along that has this feature, and maybe one already exists that I just haven’t played yet. Either way, it was a fun trip down memory lane and reminiscing about Quake has made me want to go dig up my old install disks.

(P.S. The image I used for this post is the iconic image used by Penguin Computing who are known for delivering high-performance computing solutions.)

Cheers!

Happy New Year!!!

By

On January 1, 2012

In General Cogitation

Wishing everyone, everywhere a Happy New Year. I hope your 2012 is prosperous, safe and joyful.

The MMO Times: Merry Christmas!

By

On December 24, 2011

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Hello again, gamers! I hope you all can tear yourselves away from SWTOR to check out the following articles that I found interesting over the past week. This will be the last one I do before Christmas so Merry Christmas all! Enjoy!

Guild Wars 2 Enters Closed Beta

December 16th, 2011 – Guild Wars 2 will be entering closed beta. NCSoft will be running an internal selection process to determine who will be in the beta. There won’t be any public application process. I’m sure, regardless, fans are excited. Check out more at the Massively article
Massively article

Aion Going F2P in Europe

I was excited when I first read about Aion going Free-2-Play because I thought it would be for all servers. Apparently, at the time that I am writing this, it is only going F2P on the European servers. This is scheduled to happen in February, so there is still time for NCSoft to change their mind about the NA servers.
Massively article

Farewell SWG

Well, the first ever Star Wars MMO is officially shutdown. December 15th was the last day for Star Wars Galaxies. I never played it, I thought about it, but I didn’t know anyone that was playing so I didn’t partake. Despite the fact that I never played it, a part of me is still sad to see it go. Jef Reahard, of Massively, gave SWG a very well written farewell.
Massively article

Previewing MechWarrior Online

Massively has a pretty decent article that covers some of the “nuts and bolts” of the upcoming MechWarrior Online MMO. There are several images of some concept art in the post. I never played MechWarrior, but I knew of it. Some are claiming that this is their most anticipated game of 2012 (which means it has a release date of sometime next year). Check out the article and tell me what you think.
Massively article

Marvel Universe MMO Renamed

Gazillion’s newest project, Marvel Universe, has been given a new name. It makes sense, they want to differentiate their game from the DC version. It is now called “Marvel Heroes”. I found the post on an MMO News site. There still isn’t a lot of details provided about the game. Check it out if you are interested.
MMONews post

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Tis the Season

By

On December 21, 2011

In General Cogitation

I am not a politically correct person, so I am not going to wish you Happy Holidays.

I most certainly will not use the ridiculous phrase “Season’s Greetings!”

I don’t have time to figure out if you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, or Winter Veil!

I’m going to use the phrase that, to me, best expresses the joy of the season.

I’m not trying to force religion, or my religion on you by using it.

So if what I am about to say offends you, all I can say is … Buck Up, Sally!!!

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