Solid Eight Studios

PhotoTangler for Android is Here

admin — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:33:55 +0000

At long last, PhotoTangler for Android phones and tablets is now available on Google’s Play Store! The Android version is actually the most powerful mobile version yet, adding oft-requested features such as canvas resizing and zooming, multiple blending modes, and much more! I expect to roll out similar changes in the other versions, but for now you can get the goods on your Android devices here!

WindowTangler 1.0 Release

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:33:05 +0000

Version 1.0 of WindowTangler is now available, a powerful utility for organizing and controlling groups of windows on your desktop. It allows you to set up hot keys or timers to hide or show different types of windows, freeing up precious desktop space and removing distractions from your daily workflow.

For details and to download the free trial, visit here!

The Step-by-Step Guide to Making Stunning Photo Collages…

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:24:43 +0000

As a free gift, we’ve created a simple-to-follow, fully illustrated e-book entitled “The Step-by-Step Guide to Making Stunning Photo Collages…”, focused on explaining how to get the most out of PhotoTangler Collage Maker!

Feel free to download it, and share it with your friends!

Download the Free E-Book
Format: PDF. Current version: 1.0 (Update: 04/02/2012), 977KB

PhotoTangler for Mac OS X

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:30:28 +0000

The premium desktop edition of PhotoTangler is now available for Mac OS X via the App Store! It works just like the desktop Windows version, which you can see in this video.

PhotoTangler App Giveaway!

admin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:06:02 +0000

Want a free copy of PhotoTangler for the iPhone? Visit here for details!

PhotoTangler Desktop Video

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:18:38 +0000

Here’s a snazzy new video showing off the desktop version of PhotoTangler Collage Maker. Enjoy!

Maintaining iPhone Compatibility

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:10:43 +0000

I recently decided to add iAds to PhotoTangler Lite, in exchange for removing some of the limitations. One of the problems that arose is that iAds aren’t available on older versions of iOS. Since the beginning I’ve been trying my best to make sure my app runs on every iPhone out there, including the very first Edge network devices. The steps I ended up taking were as follows:

Set the iOS deployment target low (iOS 3.1 in my case)

Add the iAd framework to Build Settings, but flip from Required to Optional

At runtime, detect the iOS version using [[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion]

If it’s a high enough version, enable ads and reduce limitations.

If ads aren’t supported, keep previous Lite version limitations.

I tested it in all the simulator versions, an old Edge iPhone, a 3GS and an iPhone 4. Worked perfectly on all of them for me. If you’ve got a similar challenge with your own apps, this approach might be worth a shot.

PS – One extra tidbit: [[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] floatValue] can be used to get the version number as a float.

PhotoTangler for Windows Released

admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 22:12:16 +0000

PhotoTangler Collage Maker is now available for Windows as a premium desktop application. Packed with features yet easy to use, PhotoTangler for Windows takes effortless collage-making to a whole new level. There’s a trial version available here. New media and resources related to the application should be available in the coming days. In the meantime, here’s a screenshot:

For all the juicy details and download information, visit here.

PhotoTangler HD for the iPad

admin — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:52:35 +0000

The initial release of PhotoTangler HD is now available for the iPad! While the iPhone version of PhotoTangler runs correctly on the iPad, the resolution is severely limited due to the smaller screen size. PhotoTangler HD is custom-built for the iPad, with higher export resolution and an improved interface. You can grab it here!

iPhone Business Book

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:44:22 +0000

Noel Llopis recently posted a review of “The Business of iPhone and iPad App Development”, a book I read (first edition) shortly before launching my own app. His conclusions about it are pretty similar to my own, in that it’s nothing groundbreaking, but has a lot of good, practical advice. There were definitely parts that seemed out of place, such as code snippets in sections that didn’t really require any technical explanation, but overall it was a solid read.

The book contains little nuggets that developers new to the platform may not’ve considered, such as whether it’s better for certain apps to have a separate Lite version versus a single free version (with in-app purchases.) Another example I appreciated was a section about the length of an app’s name. During development I hadn’t considered that “PhotoTangler Lite” doesn’t fit in it’s entirety on the iPhone home screen, so I used the little trick where both versions are called “PhotoTangler”, with the “Lite” banner placed on the icon itself. Granted that’s a common practice these days, but having little pointers to details like that is certainly handy. I also found the book’s list of news and review sites useful when it came to publicizing my app.

If you’re looking to sell apps of your own, I definitely think it’s worth checking out.