Football in the USA

It's hard to not get caught up in Football Mania living in the US.  Kids are encouraged to wear their colours/jerseys to school and church on/before game days.  Everyone talks about the game, many with too much seriousness.

It really is a way of life down here.  Much like the insanity that ensues in Ottawa when the Sens are on a winning streak or are in the playoffs.  Canadians can not poo poo Americans for their love of a sport.

Canada : Hockey as United States : Football

Thankfully, the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl are much shorter and don't drag on into summer like the NHL playoffs.

The kids are really getting into it with all the hoopla at school and their friends.  They are making Seahawks themed colouring pages, hats, banners, etc at school and church.  Church even showed a Seahawks versus 49ers montage today and there were comments to the effect that God was on our side.

Sheesh!

Well, that ridiculousness said, we will be tuning in for the big game come February 2nd.

How can we not?  Our new home team is in the Super Bowl!

GO HAWKS!

HockeyTweet Breaks into the US App Store

I made my first sale in the US App Store yesterday for HockeyTweet. It's a small start and encouraging to see the app selling outside Canada.

I also updated the Lockernine website based on feedback from a user. There is now a direct link to the App Store for the apps for sale by Lockernine (Lockernine being me and apps being yes there are more in the works).

Steve Ballmer Scoops HockeyTweet

Steve Ballmer announced the future of Hockey viewing on CBC's The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. Steve knows that part of watching hockey is yelling at your TV and sharing with your friends and driving the other fans crazy. He scooped HockeyTweet on the show and talked about how you should be able to immediately tell your friend about a fantastic goal -- no matter whether your friend is next to you on the couch, at the bar or at the game.

Steve's vision of the future didn't take long to realize. HockeyTweet is now available in the Apple App Store. After you've downloaded a copy, take a minute to check out Steve Ballmer''s interview.

Steve -- just visit the iTunes store to get your copy. Better yet, send me an e-mail and I'll send you a promo code.

NC-17 Rated Hockey Twitter App on the iPhone

I've gotten feedback about HockeyTweet that goes along the lines:

• An NC-17 Hockey app for the iPhone, that is my kind of hockey.
• Hey, where are the girls in this app?
• What no porn?

Kidding aside, why would I launch HockeyTweet with an NC-17 rating? It clearly is just a Twitter client for sending tweets about Hockey.

For most developers and those that follow the App Store saga, the reason is probably clear. For those that don't know let me explain. There is what is called a UIWebView, for non-programmers, this means a web browser view/window in my app. That UIWebView has access to Twitter so users can authenticate and if required to create a new Twitter account. There is a loop-hole in that UIWebView when you are on Twitter that means you could go out onto the Internet at large and view "objectionable material."

Since I allow the user to be able to navigate through Twitter to the internet they could view something that is objectionable. This sounds ridiculous and it is but the point here is that some apps have been rejected due to this and chose the route of least friction in the app review process.

So, yes, the app is rated NC-17. Does it have objectionable material in it? No. Should it be rated lower? Yes, but why would I go the route that has lead other devs to have their apps rejected?

First iPhone App: HockeyTweet has Launched

HockeyTweet is my first foray into the Apple App Store. HockeyTweet is a Twitter client which makes it fast to send Twitter updates about hockey games in real-time.

HockeyTweet is purpose built for the NHL. But enough of repeating the product page in the App Store, check out HockeyTweet in the App Store.

Here are some of the questions I've gotten about developing for the iPhone and what my next plans are:

Does it cost money to develop for the iPhone?

• Short answer no, for the majority of people though the long answer is yes.
  
• No, if you 1. Own a Mac, 2. Only want to write and test apps on your Mac.
  
• Yes, if you 1. Don't own a Mac, 2. Want to run the app on your own device, 3. You want to post the app to the App Store.

Ok, how much does it cost?

• $99/year (before taxes) for the iPhone Developer license.
  
• $$$$ for your Mac
• $219 CAN (before taxes) for the 8GB iPod Touch to approximately $1200/year for an iPhone
  

Does it cost any more?

• Well yes, what is your time worth? If you are like me and you love to try new things, love to play with different programming languages and create, then this is not a real cost. If you add that time into your costs, it starts to skyrocket, but hey we are here to have fun and design cool apps that solve problems for people.

What are the tools like?

• In a word, AWESOME. I love Xcode (the Apple provider IDE) and the toolset that it comes with. Basically everything I've used to write, debug, run, test software is available. The list of features is long but you won't be disappointed.
  
• NOTE: Your mileage may vary if you don't accept the tools and learn them. I love vi, the editor is not vi. I decided with Xcode to not fight the tools and try to use replacements. This is paying off as I learn more shortcuts and they start to sink in.

What is next for me and HockeyTweet?

• I plan to market HockeyTweet using several tactics with minimum cash. I'll write about how each of these pans out as I try them.
• I will be working on the next version. The app is designed to allow me to quickly integrate other sports. I will be improving the design as I work on the second sport and seeing how I can improve the design to let me integrate other niches quickly.
• I will be adding localization to the app for French.
• I will be monitoring user input for future features and working on any issues that arise.
  

What did you learn technology wise? I've gotten to learn the following (or at least scratch the surface):

• UI design
• Objective-C
• The Cocoa Touch framework - the SDK you build iPhone apps in
• Web Services using Google AppEngine
• Python for the Web Services
• Dealing with performance and responsiveness in a constrained environment
• Integrating open source frameworks into code
• Managing deadlines with team members
• Learning when to stop implementing and ship it ;-)
  

Is it hard to write an app?

• Are you a programmer? Do you have passion? Are you ready to learn? If so, no it is not hard. Again, back to the time issue. If you have it and are willing to do a lot of self learning then it is fairly easy.

Do I have a website?

• Yes, I am currently building Lockernine as my (planned) various apps home on the internet.
  

Have I had sales?

• Yes, though does my wife and friends count?
• I will post an update on sales numbers later once I have something interesting to report, be it good sales, or poor sales.