Developer Relations at RIMAugust 3, 2012
A couple days after I blogged about some of the pain points I have been having with BB10 development, I received an email from Garett at RIM appologizing for the delays I had seen getting good replies on their forums and he offered to chat on the phone about ways they might be able to help.
Wow.
Yesterday I had an hour long conversation with Garett and he took a page full of notes on a range of topics. Some of the things were action items that he could address, others were things that he intends to pass on to people responsible for those areas. As an example, a trouble ticket that I submitted about the IDE hanging after a power outage was escalated the day after I spoke with Garett.
I find this kind of responsiveness rather incredible, and of course it is every developer's dream to have a dev platform company not only responsive but even reading blogs.
It's kind of humorous to contrast this with giant companies like Google. A few months ago I got an email from Google warning that I hadn't filled out the "Business Website" field for my developer account, and that if I didn't do so, they were going to remove all of my apps from the Android store. I followed the instructions in the email exactly, but the screen they referred to didn't have a "Business Website" field. I replied to their email letting them know about this, but didn't get a response. I sent a second reply a few days later, even including screen shots (I think), and again didn't receive a reply. Sure enough, Google did as they promised and removed my app from their store. A few months later, I got an appology email from Google and my app was back for sale, and the "Business Website" field was now where it was supposed to be.
So yes, a bit of a contrast there.
iTunes Sync for Android?August 3, 2012
Back in November/December when I was blown away by the response to iTunes Sync for PlayBook, I considered writing a version for BlackBerry phones. I didn't bother for a few weeks, since BB phones have a built-in feature called "Wi-Fi Music Sync" that you can turn on via the BlackBerry Desktop app. But eventually I convinced myself that some people might still value a "one button sync" app for syncing their music, so I went ahead and did it. Inexplicably the BB phone version has made up 40% of my sales, so am I ever glad that I did!
I have also pondered from time to time whether it would be worth releasing iTunes Sync for Android. Because Android can run Adobe AIR apps, I would even be able to use most of my code, but for some reason I've never bothered to research the landscape to see what music syncing is built-in for Android phones, and what third party apps exist. Part of the problem is that I don't have an Android device. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, a user said that she had installed iTunes Sync on her husband's BlackBerry and loved it, and she wished there was an Android version for her phone.
That's the thing about mobile development: There are just so many juicy ideas that one would love to persue, but there's only so much time in the day. Because I'm having fun learning BB10 and can't find much time to do it, I don't really want to distract myself with Android development, but on the other hand it seems somewhat silly not to give this idea a try.
Open on PlayBook: App RejectedAugust 3, 2012
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a couple of PlayBook apps in an afternoon. One of them is named "Open on PlayBook". The concept is that sometimes you'll be viewing a webpage on your computer and want to pick up your PlayBook and continue reading the article on your tablet. The app allows you to do just that.
I posted on CrackBerry's forums and had some people beta test it. There seemed to be a pretty good response to the app so I was looking forward to posting it for sale on App World.
Unfortunately the App World team rejected it because it uses the word "PlayBook" in the title. This is the first time I've had an app be rejected, and it's not a pleasant experience. The App World team suggested I rename the app "Open for BlackBerry PlayBook" which doesn't make much sense if you ask me. (Perhaps it's semi-automated reply or something)
I think I'll rename the app "Open on Tablet" and try again.
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