05 November 2012
Corona Geek On Air – Episode 13 – Hanging out with Dean Murphy, Joke Shake app developer
Corona Geek On Air episode 13 is live!
During this special episode of Corona Geek we hangout with Dean Murphy, developer of the Joke Shake app for iPhone and iPad. Dean shares his Corona experience as someone who is new to programming entirely. Dean also shares some of the lessons he had to learn the hard way. Check out the show notes below for the full line up of topics and resources discussed during the show.
As always, be sure to join us next Monday at 2pm CST and add us to your Google+ Corona SDK circle.
Thanks for watching,
Charles McKeever
CoronaGeek
Show Geeks:
- Dean Murphy – Joke Shake App Developer
- Brian Burton – Author of Mobile App Development with Corona: Getting Started
- Toff Ward – Developer / Geek / Gnome
- Charles McKeever – Developer / Gamer / Runner
If you are new to the conversation, the Corona SDK is a cross platform mobile development tool kit that makes it easy for developers to create native applications for Android and iOS devices as well as for Kindle, and Nook.
Show Notes – 11/05/2012
Announcements
- Win a Corona T-Shirt! – Corona Labs has generously volunteered to supply Corona t-shirts for giveaways to the Corona Geek community. None of us have ever run a t-shirt giveaway, so if you have suggestions for the best way to host a giveaway, please post a comment below and share your thoughts. We’ll be starting the giveaway in a few weeks and we need your input.
- Burton’s Media Group Affiliate Program – as you may know, Dr. Brian Burton has written several books on developing mobile apps using the Corona SDK, which website owners and affiliates can earn a commission on by promoting the books through Amazon. But, now you can get a higher commission and a longer cookie by using Brian’s brand new affiliate program. If you have any questions about the program, be sure to contact Brian on his website at BurtonsMediaGroup.com.
Lastest Build Release Notes
http://developer.coronalabs.com/corona-daily-builds/summary
- Building for iOS 6.1 – Apple is encouraging developer to build their apps for the latest iOS release, so in an effort to keep everything cutting edge, Corona Labs is making possible for developer to develop and build their apps against the latest version of iOS. According to the build notes, “We want everybody to be on top of the iOS betas from now on. Please start building against the 6.1 SDK and testing your apps on 6.1 devices.”
- New Widgets are here! Build 942 added a bunch of new widgets to the Corona widget library. Things like an on/off switch, stepper, progress view, radio buttons, and check boxes are available for both iOS and Android devices.
Corona Blog highlights
- A categorized list of Corona SDK tutorials have been added to the Corona Labs website under the “Resources” tab of the website.
- FAQ Wednesday provides some great Lua coding tips including a great tip on how to turn Lua comment blocks on and off.
Developer Spotlight
This week’s special show guest was Dean Murphy, developer of the popular Joke Shake app. Dean joined us from the UK. During the show he shared:
- how he was able to create apps using Corona SDK without having an advanced knowledge of programming,
- why he chose Corona as his app development tool kit,
- how Joke Shake came to be,
- and what lessons he learned along the way.
Community Questions
This week we also discussed app pricing models. Should app developers publish their apps using the freemium model, or should they charge a fee up front?
Here are some of the article we referenced during the discussion:
- Freemium Growth Figures – freemium has certainly grown in popularity over the past several years. See what the numbers look like.
- Freemium as a Profit Model – how can app developers leverage freemium for profit?
- Why Do Paid Apps Still Exist – if freemium is so great, why are there still paid apps?
- Game App Churn Stats – does freemium work better in categories that have a lot of churn, or can freemium work for any app category?
- 50,000 Downloads in a Day! – On a TapForTap Podcast Episode (50,000 Downloads in a Day!) Jaap Van Kampen, developer of EasyMeasure reported reaching 50,000 downloads per day, just by turning his app into a freemium app,
App Review
Dropbox – Dropbox is a great resource for sharing project files with other members of your development team and clients. And, as Brian points out in chapter 4 of his book, Mobile App Development with Corona SDK, you can drop your Android APK file in a folder on your computer and then install your app directly on your Android device by just clicking a link. With an Internet connection, Dropbox gives y our mobile device access to expanded storage in the cloud, which means you don’t have to sync and carry hundreds of Gigs of files on your device. Your files are right there in the cloud when you’re ready for them. Dropbox is a great tool that we use all the time here at Corona Geek, so we thought we’d share it with you.
Device / Industry News
- Our iPad mini review
- Our Surface hands on experience — Consumer device vs content creation device
- Our Samsung products hands on experience
- Amazon App Recommendations hit Kindle Fire HD
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charlesmckeever
Posted at 13:34h, 03 DecemberDean’s working on his first game app. He’s shared a few video walk throughs with me and I have to say I really like his style of clean and simple UI. The menu system for his next app has an organic fell and is playful, which makes you want to interact with it right from the beginning. I’m looking forward to seeing it in the app store.