

I Have No Idea [Why Apple Featured My App] - MaysonL
http://blog.mikeswanson.com/post/17160200980/i-have-no-idea

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kurtvarner
I don't know why everyone thinks that getting an app featured by Apple is some
sort of huge conspiracy. If an app is of high quality and has some traction,
it's not absurd for it to gain positive attention from Apple.

In the case of Halftone, the quality of the app is excellent and has
significant usage. There are 1100+ reviews that average to 4.5 stars. These
numbers would be considered fantastic by any developer's standards.

~~~
marcofucci
Apple often features apps of poor quality and it's not always clear why (e.g.
games with 3 stars developed by big names or indie apps not working as they
promise). So, yes, I understand why people are surprised.

~~~
kurtvarner
You are considering the inverse of the matter. The post is about a high
quality app being featured. My comment was intended to say that it shouldn't
be surprising when a quality app is featured.

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wallflower
At the iOS road show, Apple showed a video that I fervently wish that they
would make available on their developer portal. It was one of the highlights
of the day. It was inspiring. They showed video montages of some of the ADA
winning apps, showing how they were so polished, so beautiful, such a great
user experience. The one with the DJ app was phenomenal. You left with a smile
on your face. This was the kickoff. For the rest of the day, you were
overwhelmed and enthralled with the quality and depth of the technical content
and expertise. They want to help you build the best Apps. And that was before
you stepped into the onsite developer labs.

Apple wants you to build beautifully crafted user experiences. Google does
too, but that is not their primary focus.

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sriramk
Tangential anecdote - I worked with Mike at Microsoft where he did some
stellar work putting together all the conferences Microsoft did over the
years. He was one of the few who 'got' it. Fantastic to see him get some well-
deserved recognition - and that too, outside the MSFT family!

------
betageek
Another approach to vector art in iOS using PDF files
[http://mattgemmell.com/2012/02/10/using-pdf-images-in-ios-
ap...](http://mattgemmell.com/2012/02/10/using-pdf-images-in-ios-apps/)

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mirkules
Wow, I actually had no idea you could convert paths from illustrator to
Objective-C code! This just opened a whole new world for me. Thank you!

Side note: digging a little bit, here's a very useful library for converting
SVG to UIBezierPaths: [http://ponderwell.net/2011/05/converting-svg-paths-to-
object...](http://ponderwell.net/2011/05/converting-svg-paths-to-objective-c-
paths/)

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Codhisattva
Buried lede department : "I decided to build a new plug-in that exports
Illustrator artwork directly to Objective-C code". There's a new product.
While the Opacity app is good, it's a bit neglected. A plug-in for Illustrator
would make me and my designer thrilled!

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tobylane
It's good he has no idea. It proves that there's no special treatment, that
the App Store staff use these app themselves out of review time. The
alternative is some sort of time/money/review requirement which isn't as
purely effort-rewarding as this way.

~~~
CognitiveLens
One data point doesn't at all prove there's no special treatment, but it is
good to hear about one case where special treatment didn't appear to be
involved!

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ThomPete
As a side note. I find it puzzling why Apple haven't included some sort of
vector support natively.

Seems like such a powerful thing to be able to use more freely.

Anyone knows why that is? CPU, battery something else? (I am not a programmer)

~~~
thought_alarm
PDF is the OS X and iOS native vector format (and before that, PostScript). It
was one of the great design decisions made by the early NeXT OS engineers,
even though few people understand what "Display PostScript" or "Display PDF"
really means.

Most of the toolbar icons you see in Mail, Preview, Finder, etc. are actually
PDFs that scale to any size.

The OP could have (and probably should have) used PDF for his vector-based
graphics. And actually, by exporting raw CoreGraphics drawing functions from
Illustrator he's essentially exporting a PDF document in a custom file format.

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funkah
Great stuff. I love when people sweat the details.

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BillPosters
Are we sure the rewind list isn't decided by one staff member at Apple, who
ticks a few boxes one morning at their cubicle?

Somehow I knew the app wasn't going to be free after reading the article: "I
just have no idea, except maybe that's it a really quality app [that you too
can feature on you homescreen for just 99 cents]".

~~~
pbhjpbhj
That seems overly cynical. He designed a method of vectorising images in order
to ensure quality of resized stamps - I don't think you should be complaining
that he's charging for such work.

What I don't understand is why Apple wouldn't indicate why an app is featured
- if for example high quality and innovation are prized then this should be
lauded aloud to encourage others.

~~~
BillPosters
So I bought the app and checked it out. I may be cynical, but I also buy apps,
(and my right to be cynical).

I made an image with the app just now: <http://i44.tinypic.com/aua3ic.jpg>

Review: 3 stars Good UX path on loading the app, guides you through steps. The
designer of this app has done well to make a sensible interface, with only
some work needed on the settings screen and the labeling choices there.

Replay value is another question. There's no sequencing layout tools or
anything relating to more than the single image you're working on. Tools are
not that powerful, but they do their job ok. It does one trick, and most
people will probably use it one time.

Yep, the vector thing is pretty cool.

Now it just needs the ability to arrange and re-arrange multiple images, and
swipe through them as a slideshow. Throw in a library of sound effects to
assign each slide, with animated visual effects for little movie-making mobile
graphic novels... and THEN it'd be a paid app worthy of promotion in my mind,
but this is a good start.

