Preparing For the App Store

The app is complete.

Now it's time to get it off to Apple for review. All I need to do is write a few paragraphs about it and then upload it to them, right?

No.

First I have to do a Distribution build, which involves signing the app with a different certificate, setting up a third build profile and then getting it all to work.  This took me all evening and more; some bits took a lot of fiddling to get working, and then the build would succeed, but inspection of the log showed it wasn't being signed with the new certificate. In the end, however, it got it all working.

Now all I need to do is upload it.

Um... no.

Now I need to supply a 512 x 512 icon (what! that's not an icon, that's a poster), and a url for a support website for the app.  I don't have Photoshop, but I do have a trial version of Acorn. I try a few ideas, but they all look embarrassingly bad. I give up and head to bed.

As for the website... I'm not game to spend much money as I don't think there's a huge market for this type of app. I think I'll be please to sell a dozen copies, not because it's bad (it's not), but because it doesn't have the same sexiness as a game or some of the other types of apps.

I think I'll see if I can get away with setting up another blog and using that for support.

Again, my friend Matt has stepped in and offered to try his hand at designing a poster. His idea was something like a Borg ship shaped like a resistor. That's his initial idea at the top of this post. I like it.

So, all I need now before I can submit this app is a poster sized icon, and a support site. And a price.