512 Pixels

Here is the original idea I had about the message for this sponsorship:

Saved is the simple iPhone app that helps you make better spending decisions.

But this didn’t feel right for readers of 512 Pixels. You love Apple, I love Apple — but the readership here probably skews toward individuals who do not need a budgeting app. Not an easy sell.

Instead, this week I’m inviting you to read a series of articles on my blog about what life is like on a small indie team. For fellow app makers, this is my way of sharing what I’ve learnt about the app business with the community. For everyone else, I hope this gives you a bit of insight about what goes on behind the scenes at little app makers.

If you get some value out these articles and would like to support us, you can get Saved on the App Store.

Love, Allen from Snappymob

Sponsorship via The Syndicate

My brother, writing about his trip this past summer to South Sudan:

Most documentary films coming out of war zones are created by veteran videographers and producers who have a rare skill for capturing incredible stories while cheating death time and time again. Not us. Sure, we have a ton of talent as a team, but we’re still learning how to navigate situations like the one above. We’re not the heavily tattooed, cigarette-smoking, bulletproof vest-wearing journalists depicted in Hollywood films.

We’re a bunch of guys in our 20s who grew up in white, middle-class suburbia. Just being honest. The only reason we travelled half a world away when we didn’t have to is because our friends in Sudan asked us for help.

The Verge’s Micah Singleton:

There goes another one. AOL is shutting down The Unofficial Apple Weblog, better known as TUAW, sources familiar with the situation tell The Verge. The company — which is also shutting down its gaming site Joystiq — is in the midst of a major reorganization, and is cutting back on media properties it deems as underperforming. TUAW’s run comes to an end on February 2nd.

AOL is spiraling, and there are about to be another round of Apple writers on the job market because of it. I’ve got friends caught up in this. Sad day.

Joe Rossignol at MacRumors:

A number of iTunes Connect developers have turned to Twitter and tipped us off about an ongoing issue where users are being shown someone else’s session after attempting to login into their own account. MacRumors has been able to duplicate this issue, which appears to be widespread and has been going on since at least 8 AM Pacific.

Thankfully, developers are getting “unable to process request” errors and are then redirected to their own account if any action is requested while logged into to the incorrect account.

Man, old iOS looks crazy now, doesn’t it?

The highlights:

• $74.6 billion in revenue
• 74.5 million iPhones sold
• 21.4 million iPads sold

Insane. Don’t miss Jason Snell’s charts. That revenue one is mind-blowing.

Changes are coming to how Apple reports is earnings, as Josh Lowensohn at The Verge explains:

One big change this quarter is that Apple is no longer reporting its iPod unit sales. As of this quarter, Apple now lumps them into a new “other products” category that also includes the Apple TV, Beats headphones, and soon the Apple Watch.

This week’s show is a big one:

Five years later, Federico, Myke and Stephen re-visit Steve Jobs’ announcement of the original iPad.

In the spirit of the 30th episode of The Prompt, this show takes a look at Steve Jobs’ original keynote in which he announced the product.

Oh, and this guy makes an appearance.

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Weird naming aside, this update packs a punch:

• Resolves an issue that might cause Wi-Fi to disconnect
• Resolves an issue that might cause web pages to load slowly
• Fixes an issue that could cause Spotlight to load remote email content when this preference is disabled in Mail
• Improves audio and video sync when using Bluetooth headphones
• Adds the ability to browse iCloud Drive in Time Machine
• Improves VoiceOver speech performance
• Resolves an issue that could cause VoiceOver to echo characters when entering text on a web page
• Addresses an issue that could cause the input method to switch languages unexpectedly
• Improves stability and security in Safari

10.10.2 can be downloaded from the Mac App Store now.

This week five years ago, the original iPad was introduced. While the core experience of the iPad is more or less the same today, the hardware had come a long way in half a decade:

---

Specification	2010 iPad	iPad Air 2
Height	9.56 in	9.4 in
Width	7.47 in	6.6 in
Depth	0.5 in	0.24 in
Weight	1.5 lbs	0.96 lbs
FaceTime Camera	N/A	1.2 MP
iSight Camera	N/A	8 MP
Battery	10 hours	10 hours
Resolution	1024x768	2048x1536
PPI	132 ppi	264 ppi
Clock Speed	1 GHz	1.5 GHz
Cores	1	3
RAM	256 MB	2 GB

---

Having an original iPad next to an iPad Air 2 shows just how far Apple’s come. While the numbers above show the weight and thickness changes, the difference in the bezels alone make the original iPad feel older than it is.

While the iPad Air 2 is a good bit thinner than the original iPad, becuase of the original’s curved back, it’s only apparent when the devices are photographed face-up. In fact, the entire iPad Air 2 is as thick as the sidewall on the original iPad.

Thickness and weight aside, the basic recipe for iPad hardware hasn’t changed much. Sure, the 30-pin Dock Connector and rotation lock switch are gone and the iPad picked up TouchID last year, but looking at these two devices side-by-side, it’s hard to believe there have only five years have passed between them.

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Sponsorship via The Syndicate

Several developers have recently shared information about their sales, including the company behind Saved, a budget tracker for the iPhone.

While Saved’s numbers are far smaller than some recently shared figures, Allen Ding’s bit about the first version of app jumped out at me:

Just one problem. We just didn’t make any money. The conversions sucked. The app sucked. The business model sucked. I don’t really know. And I was still answering all these support emails. In multiple languages. I tried everything. Hundreds of emails to friends. Display Ads. More Ads. Sponsorships. But nope. Nada. There just wasn’t any traction.

That moment when you open up your sales figures after launch day and see that you’ve made $2.10 on the first day, and $6.40 on the second – that is when your world comes crashing down. You’ve never seen an App Store spike this blunt.

Depsite that, the team recently launched version 2.0 of the app to a level of success not enjoyed by the initial app.

When I think about the App Store, it’s easy to just think about the hits — the apps that make good money off the bat and are enjoyed by a wide user base. The truth is, however, that the App Store is full of people working really hard to see their dreams fail to take flight the way they were hoping. It’s sobering, but I think it should make the victories all the sweeter.

Mind-blowing stuff.