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avgarrison

221 karma · joined July 10, 2009

.NET developer by day, and iPhone developer by night. You can check out my iPhone development here: http://andrewgarrison.com
submissionscomments
avgarrison··on Scott Hanselman's 2011 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows
That's funny, I didn't even notice it. Banner burnout, I suppose.
avgarrison··on Anti-iPhone iPhone game makes it past Apple's review process
Technically, it's not a game, since it is listed in the Education category.
avgarrison··on Inside IBM's cognitive chip
There's been another submission regarding IBMs new technology, with a lot of good comments:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2898229

avgarrison··on iPhone vs Android app sales: numbers from an indie developer
The permission requirements are ridiculous, but are required for Mobclix. I would like to get away from all that, with a single requirement for Internet.
avgarrison··on iPhone vs Android app sales: numbers from an indie developer
Thanks for the tip. What publisher are you working with?
avgarrison··on iPhone vs Android app sales: numbers from an indie developer
I have another app, SimplePhysics, which is a far better app, and I made it free last week. I have a notification in it that says: "If you like SimplePhysics, then you should check out my other game, BridgeBasher!" and redirects them to the download page for BB. Since SP is free, it's getting around 80k-100k downloads per day, and really driving sales for BB.
avgarrison··on iPhone vs Android app sales: numbers from an indie developer
It may be worthwhile for me to chime in here with my own stats, which are far less impressive than bignoggins. I recently ported my iOS app, BridgeBasher, to Android. I took a different route though. Since I had no users on Android, I thought the best thing to do would be to create an ad-based version on Android, mostly because I've heard a lot of people say that Android users are less likely to pay for apps. I decided on using Mobclix for advertising, and here are my stats:

Date - Android / iOS

 8/7/2011 - $2.16 / $142.00

 8/8/2011 - $1.68 / $97.00

 8/9/2011 - $1.15 / $84.00

 8/10/2011 - $1.82 / $76.00

 8/11/2011 - $0.98 / $78.00

 8/12/2011 - $0.57 / $103.00

 8/13/2011 - $0.59 / $88.00

 8/14/2011 - $0.72 / $102.00

 8/15/2011 - $0.43 / $74.00

 8/16/2011 - $0.44 / $75.00

 8/17/2011 - $0.18 / $88.00

Total - $10.54 / $1,007.00

This is obviously comparing apples to oranges, since the iOS version is paid ($0.99) and the Android version is ad revenue only, however given bignoggins success with a paid app on Android, I'm thinking I have made a mistake going the free route on Android.

avgarrison··on iPhone vs Android app sales: numbers from an indie developer
Thanks for posting your figures! What did you do to advertise the new app on Android? I have recently ported one of my games from iOS to Android and even though it is free on Android, it is really having trouble getting traction, and this is even after sending an e-mail to 40k people and several hundred dollars in Admob advertising.

Edit: Ah, nevermind, I see you already answered this in your reply to utnick.

avgarrison··on Today I launched my solo project, Listry. Feedback/suggestions appreciated
Ya, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, I know this is the last thing you want to hear on launch day!
avgarrison··on Today I launched my solo project, Listry. Feedback/suggestions appreciated
For some reason the proxy server at my work is blocking your website with the message "Virus detected and blocked" and McAfee reports it as having Medium risk: http://www.mcafee.com/threat-intelligence/domain/default.asp...
avgarrison··on IBM creates chip that mimics brain function
Ha, thanks. I really suck at finding out if I'm going to post a dup. I just did a site search of HN on the URL, but apparently the article was regurgitated from several news sites. Oh well, thanks for linking me with those comments. Interesting stuff.
avgarrison··on Wikipedia traffic statistics for Hacker News (or any other article)
Airbnb's traffic stats were interesting last month. See if you can guess when news of the incident became viral: http://stats.grok.se/en/201107/Airbnb
avgarrison··on Wade Adams - Nanotechnology and Energy (TED)
Ok, that was awesome..inject gold plated nanobots into your body and then heat them up with infrared to kill cancer cells. My question is, how do you get the nanobots out of your body once their job is done?
avgarrison··on Steve Yegge quits Google in the middle of his speech [OSCON Data 2011]
After we solve all of the hard problems in the world, can we go back to looking at cat pictures?
avgarrison··on Limelight creates a beautiful site for your apps in seconds.
Sounds good to me. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of a potential headache. Good luck to you, it is an awesome app, and I will most likely use it in the future.

Also, where did you get the art for the iPhone image? I would like to have more flexibility than what the Apple images provide. Thanks!

avgarrison··on Limelight creates a beautiful site for your apps in seconds.
This is a great idea and executed very well, however it looks like you are using the marketing resources from Apple for the iPhone graphic and the Available in the App Store graphic. You should be aware that the use of these graphics requires compliance with the App Marketing and Identity Guidelines for Developers: https://developer.apple.com/appstore/AppStoreMarketingGuidel...

Relevant Sections: For the App Store badge: "The App Store badge can be placed on a black or white background, on a solid color background, or on a background image, as long as legibility is not diminished. Do not place the badge on a visually cluttered or patterned background. If the badge is placed on a photograph or other image, it must be positioned in an area that is uncluttered and provides strong contrast and clear legibility."

For the iPhone graphic: "The Apple-provided product image can be displayed only on a white background. Never place the image on a black background or on any color or pattern."

I know these guidelines may seem ridiculous, and I often wonder what consequences may come from not complying with them, however given this is the core of your app, I think it deserves special consideration from you.

avgarrison··on Instantly Add Chat To Hacker News
This is rather cool, however I was alarmed when another user was able to inject javascript and throw up an alert window in my browser. This begs the question, does this wrapper site do anything to protect me from XSS? Does it prevent someone from stealing my cookies? http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/08/protecting-your-coo...
avgarrison··on Hourly Hacker News Snapshot
This is neat, however I'd like to see it archive the comments as well. It looks like it redirects to the actual discussion page on Hacker News, which is not an accurate glimpse of that thread at the point in time it was archived.
avgarrison··on iTunes now costs $1.3 billion/yr to run
What do you mean by the exclusivity? How do you mean it can destroy your business if caught on the wrong side?
avgarrison··on Most developers are coding for Google's Android instead of Apple's IOS
I've been able to get by in Apple's app store with minimal knowledge of Objective C and a massive usage of C++. Thank God for *.mm files!
avgarrison··on Most developers are coding for Google's Android instead of Apple's IOS
Well, I suppose developers could develop for more than one platform.
avgarrison··on Most developers are coding for Google's Android instead of Apple's IOS
"...67 per cent of developers code for Android..." I'm a little confused. 67% of all developers? 67% of mobile developers?
avgarrison··on How I got to #7 in the App Store (Including Analytics)
I posted this story earlier, but I decided to make it into a blog post since I reached #7, and I also included some analytics on the bulk e-mail that I sent out.
avgarrison··on How I got to #12 (and still climbing) in the iTunes App Store
Yes, just a popup that asked if they wanted to be notified when I released my new game.
avgarrison··on How I got to #12 (and still climbing) in the iTunes App Store
I really wish I hadn't put my e-mail on this page...I'm already getting spam now. Can anyone delete my previous comment with my e-mail?
avgarrison··on How I got to #12 (and still climbing) in the iTunes App Store
Yes, BridgeBasher gave me a good seed to start with around 1.2 million total downloads, most of which were obtained when it was free.
avgarrison··on How I got to #12 (and still climbing) in the iTunes App Store
I think that, sadly, $0.99 is the expected price of iPhone users, and it is integral in climbing the charts, unless you have an extremely sophisticated or high quality game.
avgarrison··on How I got to #12 (and still climbing) in the iTunes App Store
Sure, you can reach me at iphone at andrewgarrison dot com.
avgarrison··on How I got to #12 (and still climbing) in the iTunes App Store
Thanks! I do have a blog, though it is geared more towards my users than developers: http://andrewgarrison.com
avgarrison··on How I got to #12 (and still climbing) in the iTunes App Store
I would love to port it to Android! Just don't have the time at the moment.
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