As you’re likely already aware, sometimes there are glitches as new releases propagate through the caching and backend iTunes databases, so I wasn’t immediately concerned. After 12 hours or so, though, it started to become more worrying.

But what to check? The release date set in iTunes Connect was well in the past. We hadn’t received any email from Apple. There were the admittedly tiny but nonetheless present customer purchase and update counts. And of course, there was the reassuring green dot and “Ready for Sale” app status.

Hmmm…maybe the availability date should be more recent. Ok, I guess I’ll set it to yesterday, when the app was actually released. But what’s this?!? The date has magically bumped to today, and the formerly steady green app status indicator is now yellow with an alarming “Pending contract” message!

20 minutes of clicking through contracts and refreshing web pages was enough to resolve the immediate issue, which turned out to be that Apple wanted some contact information updated. But the bigger problem seems to be that an app can end up in this state at all with no notification to the developer and no indication in iTunes Connect that there is an issue. I’ve filed this issue with Apple and hopefully they’re working to resolve it, but in the meantime it’s something to watch out for.

TL;DR — Do not rely on the “Ready for sale” and green status indicators in iTunes Connect. Manually verify your contracts, availability dates, contact info, etc., especially if customers and users start seeing messages saying “This item is no longer available in the App Store” or “This item is temporarily unavailable”.

-Geoff

Here’s how. These first steps are really just to make sure the Apache installation on your Mac is correctly configured to serve OTA builds. They will only have to be done once.

First, make sure that Web Sharing is enabled (Settings->Sharing).

Next, bring up a Terminal window and enter the following command at the prompt:
sudo emacs /private/etc/apache2/mime.types

You will be asked for your administrator password. After you enter it, you’ll see an emacs buffer holding a text file with a comment on the first line that says, amusingly enough, “This is a comment. I love comments. “.

Ctrl-s to search, and enter “octet” (no quotes), which should bring you to a line that looks like the following:
application/octet-stream bin dms lha lzh so iso dmg pkg bpk elc scpt dmgpart
Go to the end of the line and add “ipa” to the list of types recognized:
application/octet-stream bin dms lha lzh so iso dmg pkg bpk elc scpt dmgpart ipa

Ctrl-s again, and this time search for “text/xml”. Add “plist” to the text/xml item:
text/xml plist

Ctrl-s, ctrl-x to save the file.

Restart Apache so that it recognizes the new MIME types:
sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl restart

Whew, we’re done with that — on to XCode! These next steps will need to be done for every build you would like to distribute. Don’t worry, it looks longer than it really is. I’ll assume you’re already familiar with generating ad hoc distribution builds. After your code is ready to go, create an ad hoc distribution build by using the Build and Archive item under XCode’s Build menu.

Next, go to Window->Organizer to view the Organizer window. At the bottom left, you’ll see a section called Archived Applications where you should find the name and icon of the application that you just created. Click on the icon, then select the specific build from the list on the right pane of the window.

At the top of the right side is a button titled Share. Click it, then select the Distribute for Enterprise item. A modal pane will slide down. You really only need to fill out the Title and URL items. Title is easy — it’s the name of your application, e.g., AccelaRuler. Create a URL using the Bonjour name of your computer (check Settings->Sharing->Computer Name) and your application ipa. For example, my Bonjour name is FilthyLucre.local, and I am building accelaruler.ipa, so my URL is going to be http://filthylucre.local./accelaruler.ipa

Click OK, and when prompted for a name, use the base name you used for the ipa (e.g., accelaruler). Save the items to /Library/WebServer/Documents. If you check there after following these steps, you should see two files, an ipa and a plist with the base name.

Here’s the magic URL that your ad hoc testers will need to enter into Safari on their devices in order to download the build:
itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http://COMPUTER NAME/APP NAME.plist

And here it is with the example info we’re using:
itms-services://?action=download-manifest&
    url=http://filthylucre.local./AccelaRuler.plist

To make things really easy, you can embed this as a link in an HTML document and just point your users at that referring page:

<a href=”itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http://filthylucre.local./AccelaRuler.plist”>Install AccelaRuler</a>

Note that this exact process will only work for users on your local network. Similar steps also work for externally visible web sites — just replace your computer name with the URL to the externally visible location, and then save or move the ipa and plist files to that location.

-Geoff

The recipe is simple. Players take dough, shape it, cook it, finish it off with delicious toppings, then ship it out to hungry customers. Though it’s not as easy as it sounds! There are a limited number of machines and dough to get the donuts made, and the factory is a veritable maze of twists and turns. Players drag and place machine parts to build a donut assembly line, test their solutions, then fill custom orders. Most levels even have multiple solutions!

Originally released on the PC, reviewers have applauded Rocknor’s Donut Factory as an awesome, addictive puzzler. DIY Games rated it the “Puzzle Game of the Year” in 2003, and Gametunnel gave it a “10 out of 10″. With 111 levels included, 5 different factories, thousands of donuts, and the possibility of a level editor in the future, Rocknor’s Donut Factory for the iPhone takes what players love about the original, and perfects it for the mobile platform.

“It’s exciting to bring this awesome puzzle game to the iPhone” says Duff Research Principal, Ramaneek Khanna, one of the three founding Principals along side Tim Nichols and Geoff Chatterton. “Clever and challenging casual games are perfect for the iPhone platform and optimizing the graphics and user interface for the touch screen has made Rocknor’s even more intuitive and fun.”

Time to make the donuts!

FEATURES:
111 levels and 5 different factories
Over 15 different donut-making machines
Game profiles for 4 players
Complete learn-as-you-play tutorials
Introductory beginner levels; brain-teasing expert levels
Changeable factory speeds
Most levels featuring multiple solutions, allowing for creative flexibility
Thousands of variations of donuts!

Rocknor’s Donut Factory is available for $0.99 for a limited time in the App Store on iPhone or iPod touch or at http://itunes.com/apps/rocknorsdonutfactory

Website: http://www.duffresearch.com/apps/rocknors-donut-factory

Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEGvvtBWx8w

About Duff Research:
Duff Research, LLC is a cutting-edge software development company specializing in mobile and consumer services and products. Founded in 2009 and based in Silicon Valley, the Duff Research founders have developed for many top-tier companies, including Apple, Microsoft, WebTV, Moxi and ZING. Products they have worked on have won multiple awards, including an Emmy and Best of CES three times. In the iOS space, Duff Research is at the forefront of mobile software innovation. The company has created many productivity, entertainment, and game applications to serve as powerful consumer tools, and mobile branding software for companies like adidas, and Coupons.com. For more information on Duff Research, please visit them at www.duffresearch.com.
Press Release

Tracking down these memory management issues can be quite tricky and consume a lot of time. Often the crash doesn’t occur until well after the offending release or deallocation has occurred. So what’s a deadline-stressed iPhone developer supposed to do? These days, my first reaction is to reach for the magical Guard Malloc lifeline.

Here’s the description from Apple’s developer documentation:

” Guard Malloc is a special version of the malloc library that replaces the standard library during debugging. Guard Malloc uses several techniques to try and crash your application at the specific point where a memory error occurs. For example, it places separate memory allocations on different virtual memory pages and then deletes the entire page when the memory is freed. Subsequent attempts to access the deallocated memory cause an immediate memory exception rather than a blind access into memory that might now hold other data. When the crash occurs, you can then go and inspect the point of failure in the debugger to identify the problem.”

In plain English, what Guard Malloc does is cause your application to crash at or just after any access to the improperly freed memory. In practical use, go to the Run menu in Xcode and select both the “Enable Guard Malloc” and the “Stop on Objective-C Exceptions” menu items. Then run your application and wait for the debugger break to hit. You should get a solid clue as to the data structure or activity causing the issue, and possibly end up staring right at the offending lines of code. Like when a cut-and-paste fumble in your dealloc() routine calls [super dealloc] before releasing your instance memory. Not that that’s happened to any of us recently. Ahem.

For more info on Guard Malloc, see the developer documentation on Apple’s developer site.

-Geoff

Many sharing sites have links to online forms or special email addresses that can be used to report infringing material.  If you can’t locate an online reporting mechanism, you can usually send an email to legal, admin, or support at the domain in question.  Google Page Translate is your friend for viewing the forums and comments which will most likely not be in your native tongue.

Once you have located a site and identified a contact point, you can create the request to remove copies of your cracked application.  Issuing a DMCA takedown request requires the following five boilerplate items:

a.    an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;

I am the owner of the copyright and intellectual property embodied in the iPhone software application called MyApp.
A. Developer (signed)

b.    a description of the copyrighted/trademarked/patented work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;

Your website is hosting a “cracked” copy of an iPhone application called MyApp. The posted software is a copy of my application which has been illegally stripped of the digital rights management scheme in order to allow free distribution to people who have not legally purchased those rights.

c.    A description (typically an exact URL) of where the infringing material is located on the site;

http://iPhonePiratesRUs.com/downloads/MyApp_CrackbuPhuloves.ipa
The file name is:  MyApp_CrackbyPhuloves.ipa

d.    your name, address, telephone number, and email address;

A. Developer
1 While Loop
Santa Clara, CA 95051
408-555-1234
a.developer@mywebsite.com

e. a statement confirming you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law.

As the copyright and intellectual property holder, I have not authorized this work to be distributed outside of the iTunes App Store.  I am not aware of any authorization to distribute this work taken on my behalf by my agents or the law. I declare under penalty of perjury that this notice is true and correct, and that I am the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on behalf of the copyright or intellectual property owner.

A. Developer (signed)

Put these five items into an email, send it off to your identified contact point, and then go look for the next file sharing site to take down!

-Geoff

A subset of the hacker community has posted their rationale for cracking iPhone applications and creating tools for others to easily crack apps. To be fair, they do have some valid points concerning the lack of an Apple-sanctioned “free trial” mechanism and the notorious unreliability of
the posted in-store reviews. As a developer, you should think about these points and do what you can to alleviate the pressure that would lead others to crack your app in the first place. Techniques such as offering a free trial version of your application can go a long way towards addressing the valid concerns raised by both hackers and legitimate users.

But in our view, the remainder and vast majority of the people downloading cracked apps are freeloaders, pure and simple. And simple it is. Cracking a standard AppStore application is as easy as tapping an on-screen checkbox in a widely-distributed cracking application. “Script kiddies” doesn’t begin to cover it – your grandma could crack an iPhone application before breakfast!

Once an application is cracked and posted to a high traffic website such as Appulo.us, you can expect thousands of free downloads to occur in a very short period of time. When one of our apps was cracked and posted to four filesharing sites as well as a torrent package, our best estimate is that upwards of 10,000 downloads took place within 48 hours, compared to the total of 3,000 paid downloads that had occurred during the previous three weeks.

This is a phenomenal amount of attention. And if you can harness it for your benefit, it is a potentially powerful viral tool for driving legitimate sales.

In future blog columns, I’ll discuss how to detect that you’ve been hacked, as well as strategies for maintaining or regaining control both from within your application code as well as via legal recourses such as filing DMCA takedown requests.

- Geoff