deeje.com/musings

Jagged Flurry

tappr.tv screenshots 2017

Here are some screenshots of the latest version of tappr.tv

Differentiating Apple Music

 

This post will review the history of music APIs in iOS, and discuss some of its advantages for developer+affiliate opportunities, as they relate to competing “Music as a Service” (MaaS) providers and their developer “Terms of Service” (TOS).

And at the end, I have a simple ask.

Scaling tappr.tv from 3.5" to 12.9"

Of all the new devices Apple has released this year, I’m most excited about the iPad Pro. Its as close to a self-contained cinematic experience as Apple can create. And I've been preparing tappr.tv for it for almost 3 years now.

The habits of note taking

The inside story of how $1 billion Evernote went from Silicon Valley darling to deep trouble

"Evernote may be quickly drifting away from the glorified "unicorn" status."

There is much to ponder here.

tappr.tv Roadmap, 2015

Intro

Over the last 5 years, I've released 9 major versions of tappr.tv, with each release having a specific theme:

1. Wands = basic input-output architecture
2. Loops = recording and playback
3. Dances = recording and playing back in time with a song
4. Community L1 = publish dances and subscribe to favorite artists
5. Effects and Inputs = symmetry mode, audio in, TouchOSC
6. Live = dynamic BPM-based loops, network IO for real-time multi-device input
7. Remix = enable members to remix a dance, adding tracks, and changing effects and wands
8. Parallax = modernize the UI for iOS 7 and enhance the dynamic rendering of dance tracks thru parallax effects.
9. Community L2 = subscribe to other members, receive push notifications of significant events

And as always, I've got a roadmap in mind for the future of tappr.tv:

• 3D
• Apple TV
• Web
• Playlists
• Wands
• OSC

But, in order to keep marching forward, I have to address continuously evolving platform requirements. Specifically, Apple has mandated that all iOS apps be 64-bit compatible. At this point, I can't submit new builds until this compatibility is met.

Fortunately, I think I can knock off two birds with one stone…

iOS 8, Mail, Sound and Vibration Settings

I've been using iOS 8 for months now, and love it overall. But I noticed something strange recently: even though I *thought* I had disabled sounds for mail notifications, my new iPhone 6 was still vibrating on every new message.

Turns out, Apple has separated sound and vibration as two distinct settings for Mail, and setting the sound to None does NOT set the vibration to None.

Here's a step by step showing you how and where to make these choices.

tappr.tv - a stumble and 2 key learnings

I'd like to share with you a hard-earned lesson in app release strategy.

I've been working on tappr.tv for over 3 years now, and I've collected a ton of data along the way. One of the fundamental metrics, of course, is downloads, which is the top of any revenue-generating funnel. Over the years, I've noticed some interesting dynamics around the holidays, and I've been able to increase my download rate 4x year over year.

But with the recent v8 update, something went wrong… very wrong.

tappr.tv v8 in iOS 7 sneak peek

I recently submitted a completely redesigned version of tappr.tv to the app store for review. Hoping you can get it soon. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at the new UX.

tappr.tv usage analysis (mid 2013)

tappr.tv is generating all sorts of measurement data, across a variety of systems like iTunes Connect, Flurry, Parse, as well as built-in metrics within tappr.tv itself. Coalescing that data for better analysis is challenging.

Still, interesting patterns can be discovered if we look a little closer at any one system.