Just in case you haven’t checked your email yet.

Apple has released iOS 4.1 beta firmware to developers, with SDK updates that incorporate the Game Center features. When it comes out of beta, this will be the first major update to iOS 4.

iOS 4.1 Compatible Devices

Firmware for iOS 4.1 has been issued for iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 2nd and 3rd gen. Noticeably absent from the firmware lineup is the iPad.

Despite the speculation that the 4.1 release would include iPad support and unify the iOS across devices, it doesn’t look like there is iOS 4 support for iPad quite yet. Perhaps in future beta updates the iPad will join the iOS 4 party.

iOS 4.1 Download

To get the iOS 4.1 beta and SDK, you’ll need to be an Apple iPhone Developer.
* Login to developer.apple.com
* Download the firmware from the download links

Installing the iOS 4.1 beta is the same as any other iOS update. So far the only GUI difference that has been noticed is that the signal bars are more accurate. More to come!

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• June 8, 2010 -- Apple’s New iOS 4

Every iPhone developer dreams of making that #1 selling AppStore app and some make it, but to be quite frank this is so rarely the case.  Alot of developers make a masterpiece (or something not even close to it) just to realize one say every few days, it’s discouraging. So what to do to recover from lack luster sales? Well a few developers with success stories and a marketers have shared their stories below to help those apps that just can’t seem to not do well in the AppStore see another light of day. Hey, maybe a tip or two will help your app recover!

Alan Ringvald shares his story:

Our iNDA app lets users create and sign custom non-disclosure agreements. We launched this app in November of last year for $4.99, but barely got our friends to download it! Then, in mid-april, we decided to make the app free to hopefully get more exposure. Within a day of making the app free, we received over 1,000 downloads and reached the #25 free business app in the US in April 2010 and the top 100 free business app in 18 countries. Now with this new exposure, we have lots of legal and online signature companies interested in acquiring the app.

Craig of Caruso Apps:
After a hurtful winter of only making $4.80 in December, I set on a quest to promote my app. I read a lot of blogs and made my own recovery plan during this time. I lowered my app to 99 cents from the $1.99 it was originally selling for and made user suggested changes to improve the quality of the app. After these changes were made I saw a slight increase but was still not happy. During March I made my own Twitter account for iLineup (twitter.com/iLineup). Since my app is baseball focused I decided to use hashtagging – a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets.

By using #baseball, #coaches, #softball, #fielding and some other tags I saw a huge growth in my app. I think the start of the 2010 MLB season really helped me kick off my sales. The hashtag of my app was looked at by a local minor league baseball team and I worked with them at an event in June.
My advice to all developers is, if your app is sports driven, release it before the season starts and not in the middle since you will only make half the profit. If you start ahead of the game, you’re bound to win!

151 Ventures , a  marketing and sales consulting firm that helps mobile software companies and application developers take their products to market and drive sales and revenue points out a few things that will help developers increase visibility, make their apps more discoverable, and increase downloads/purchases.

1. PAY ATTENTION TO REVIEWS AND RATINGS AND ADDRESS ANY COMMON BUGS MENTIONED

iTunes is not a beta testing ground and you should ideally fix any and all bugs prior to launch. Consumers will get your apps and leave public reviews and feedback with problems they have and bad reviews can hurt ratings and downloads/sales. If you’ve already launched, fix the bug and revise the top of the description letting people know that the issues have been resolved. Also, responding to user feedback with an update shows your user base that they matter and that you listen to their feedback, which can often result in them changing negative ratings and fosters better responses from new, prospective users.

2. CHOOSE THE RIGHT CATEGORY AND/OR CHANGE CATEGORIES IF YOU NEED TO.

The “most relevant” category is not always the best one, especially if it’s a crowded category. Figure out the best combination of category relevancy and visibility, so your app has a better chance of getting into the “Top Listed” apps for that category.

3. ADD A “LITE” OR “PREMIUM” VERSION.

In iTunes, you can’t have the same app in more than one category. But you can have similar apps in different categories, so add/remove a feature of your app and create a new “lite” or “premium” version of it in another area of the store to maximize your reach and visibility across iTunes.

4. REVISE PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS WITH RELEVANT KEYWORDS AND WRITING STYLE

Make sure that your product descriptions are in a writing style that appeals to your target audience. In many cases, this is not a laundry list of product features or technical functionality but a highlight of key features AND benefits to the end user. Also, make sure that the description includes relevant keywords based on the type of product you have, the category and potentially even competitive products. You can find these keywords by seeing the auto-suggested searches in the iTunes search box, by looking at popular competitive apps, or even doing a Google search on your product type.

5. CHANGE THE PRICE AND TEST DIFFERENT PRICE POINTS

A lot of times app pricing and consumer valuation just don’t match up. That’s why you need to adjust pricing and see what price point drives the most total revenue. Remember that getting a lot of users at a lower price point, can be much more lucrative than fewer users at a high price point, or vice versa. It is crucial to test different price points so you can see the market response and adjust your strategy and pricing accordingly.

If you are developer or even a iPhone, iPod , or iPad app user, what are some tips you would add?

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• November 25, 2009 -- iPhone AppStore Cyber Monday Sales
• November 9, 2009 -- Apple at 100,000 apps, who are the losers? – Part 2
• October 15, 2009 -- In App Purchase Now Available for Free Apps
• May 20, 2010 -- iPhone Sales Up in First Quarter 2010
• March 24, 2010 -- Didn’t consider the iPhone a Gaming Device? Think Again.

Apple this week announced the winners of its annual Design Awards at the Worldwide Developers Conference, highlighting some of the best applications written for iOS.
The winners of this years awards were represented by five applications written for the iPad, and five for the iPhone. They were selected among the more than 225,000 options on the App Store, which has earned developers more than $1 billion to date.

This year’s Design Awards did not include a category for Mac OS X applications, further demonstrating that the focus of WWDC 2010 is iOS, which powers the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Winners were selected based on criteria including design, technical excellence, innovation, quality, technology adoption and performance. Nominations were accepted through Apple’s website by members of the iPhone Developer Program

The awards ceremony was followed this week by MacStories, which provided a full list of the winners, also included below with iTunes links:

• Financial Times
• Doodle Jump from Lima Sky
• Brushes from Steve Sprang
• TabToolkit from Agile Partners
• Articles from Sophiestication
• Flight Control HD from Firemint
• 20 Minute Meals – Jamie Oliver from Zolmo
• Star Walk for iPad from Vito Technology
• Real Racing from Firemint
• Pinball HD from Gameprom

Congratulations to all the winners (even though most of these were already popular apps, which I was afraid of) and I hope you guys find some great apps to use from this list.

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• June 8, 2010 -- Xcode 4 Announced at WWDC 2010
• July 15, 2010 -- Reviving Dismal iPhone App Sales
• June 8, 2010 -- Apple’s New iOS 4
• June 7, 2010 -- WWDC Brief – Just Like You Were There (Updated Daily)
• June 7, 2010 -- iPhone 4 Officially Confirmed

I personally think iOS 4 makes the iPhone  exactly what they wanted the original iPhone 3 to be. iOS 4 on the iPhone handles many user issues including better mail and app organization. Read more about the complete upgrade details with iOS 4.

The iOS 4 brought a lot of updates but we have listed only the most important:

• Users can organize their iPhone apps into separate folders for better organization and easy access
• Manage up to 2160 applications on a device
• Folders will feature the drag-and-drop functionality that Apple device users know
• Email: View messages from all your accounts in a single, integrated inbox
• Email: Messages will be threaded
• Email: Open attachments using third-party apps
• Custom playlist creation for iTunes
• Tap-to-focus video
• 5x zoom for camera functions
• Photo: “Faces and Places” allows users to sort and view photos based on where they were taken and who appears in them
• Easy background changes (this seems silly to type, since the phone can do so many other things well)
• Gifted apps to friends and family (BIGGIE for devs!)
• Bluetooth enabled wireless keyboards
• Built-in spell checker

June 21st – Those with iPhone 3GS and iPod can upgrade capability to new iOS 4

Very nice updates I might say, some of them should have been originally added but everything takes time right. I’m now questioning what the iPhone 5 will have included, it seems like the iPhone 4 pretty much covers it all. I’m sure Jobs is already on top of this, lol.

Also, I hate to speculate, but does anyone else at least KIND OF think this OS will soon (maybe within a year or two) make an appearance onto their Mac desktop platforms. I think it would make it easier for developers to program, it seems to fit with their some what “consolidation” thing they have going on. Ohhhh the guesses, predictions, and wishes we Apple fans make.

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• April 28, 2010 -- WWDC: iPhones & iPads Only
• October 28, 2009 -- AppStore at 100,000 apps, who are the winners? – Part 1
• July 21, 2010 -- “Amazing Products Coming this Year” – Steve Jobs
• July 16, 2010 -- ‘See…We Aren’t The Only Ones’ – Apple’s Antenna Page
• July 15, 2010 -- Reviving Dismal iPhone App Sales

Even though it’s not available at this time to all developers on the Apple Developer website, for all of those developers there is news, Xcode 4 has been announced.

We have only received a few bits of info about the Xcode, but the new version of the developer tools consolidates the Xcode editing tools and Interface Builder into a single application, among other enhancements.

Only a preview is available for developers that are attendees of WWDC 2010 ( see there was a reason to pay $2k to attend *sure*) and we have the link.

Apple requires that WWDC attendees must use an Ethernet connection to download Xcode 4 Developer Preview while inside Moscone West. Xcode 4 Developer Preview should not be used to build iPhone applications that users plan to submit to the App Store. We expect Apple to release Xcode 4 together with iOS 4 later in the month.

Download Xcode 4 Developer Preview

Xcode 4 Developer Preview is the revolutionary new development environment for building Mac, iPhone, and iPad applications. With it, you can write better code, faster. WWDC attendees can log in and download this new version of Apple’s Integrated Development Environment. Download now

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• June 9, 2010 -- WWDC 2010 Apple Design Award Winners
• June 8, 2010 -- Apple’s New iOS 4
• July 21, 2010 -- “Amazing Products Coming this Year” – Steve Jobs
• July 16, 2010 -- ‘See…We Aren’t The Only Ones’ – Apple’s Antenna Page
• July 15, 2010 -- Reviving Dismal iPhone App Sales

Well, it’s that time of year again – WWDC time and Apple has made it official with their announcement of the WWDC 2010 official dates release.

What’s WWDC you ask? What’s the price, the date, the juicy details? Well let me explain!

First off for my newbies – What is WWDC?

The short version – The WWDC  (The Worldwide Developer Conference) is a tech conference that Mac, iPhone, iPod, and now iPad developers attend for the latest news and tech sessions on everything Apple related.

This year WWDC will be held in it’s usual location Moscone West in San Francisco, California on June 7th – 11th,  Only 5 WEEKS AWAY! 

For those ‘ole WWDC pros, a few things have changed. For one, they are NOT awarding any Mac apps this year, I know bummer. Also, the price has INCREASED. But are we really surprised, when was the last time Apple showed any concern for your pocketbook and pricing -recession or not, lol? Another kick to the ”you know what” for Mac developers, most of the sessions provided during the WWDC are geared towards iPhone and iPad development ONLY. Quite interesting!

Also, I don’t know if this is a good thing or  a bad thing, but you also don’t have to submit your app to be considered for the Apple Design Award this year, you simply have to have a live app in the AppStore. I think this makes sense, yet I have a feeling the apps that have already been featured and have already received high praises, high sales, Apple commercial features, etc. will be the same apps receiving Apple Design Awards.

So you guys be the judge. What do you think about the ‘NEW WWDC’ - no Mac apps? Do you think Apple has forgotten it’s core or will Apple surprise us with some “huge news” (sorry had to speculate or maybe this is just my wishful thinking sneaking in)? Do you think the Apple Design Awards are to expensive for the average non-top 100 app developers to attend? Do you think Mac apps will ever return to WWDC or was this just the last nail in the coffin for Mac apps?

Whatever your opinion, if you plan on attending open that piggy bank and call your travel agent (who really has a travel agent these days) . WWDC Tickets are presently on sale now for US$1,599. All attendees keep us posted!

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• June 8, 2010 -- Apple’s New iOS 4
• July 26, 2010 -- App Mention: Task Manager for iPhone – Dejumble
• March 31, 2010 -- Developer Showcase: Appsnminded
• November 24, 2009 -- App Deal: 1Password Pro FREE!! Limited Time.
• November 9, 2009 -- Google Acquires AdMob – What does this mean for the rest of us?

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• March 31, 2010 -- Developer Showcase: Appsnminded
• July 15, 2010 -- Reviving Dismal iPhone App Sales
• June 30, 2010 -- Calendars app makes Google Calendar iPhone friendly
• June 8, 2010 -- Apple’s New iOS 4
• June 3, 2010 -- Developers Showcase: Ultralingua

Hey guys!

Just wanted you to know about the contest over at SimpleLeap Software.

SimpleLeap is giving away one free Apple Magic Mouse and one free copy of Cram for Mac on there blog to two winners. Check it out here: http://www.simpleleapsoftware.com/blog/giveaway-free-apple-magic-mouse-cram-for-mac-570

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• April 26, 2010 -- Free for Today Only: Cram
• November 24, 2009 -- App Deal: 1Password Pro FREE!! Limited Time.
• July 26, 2010 -- App Mention: Task Manager for iPhone – Dejumble
• June 4, 2010 -- Official App for WWDC 2010 Attendees
• March 28, 2010 -- How-To: 5 Ways To Get a FREE iPad

For all you developers of free apps out there who aren’t getting enough money from people tapping on your ads, have another way of generating revenue. Apple just made in app purchases available for free apps.

Apple also wants to simplify things for developers, consumers, and probably themselves by suggesting using in app purchases for free apps that unlock additional features as opposed to creating a lite version.

This is probably a better way to convert users to a paid version of your app, as a recent report claims only about 7% of users upgrade to a paid version of an application after having used the lite version. Maybe the in app purchase route could help by eliminating the need for the user to remember your app name, find the full version in the AppStore, download & pay.

Some other iPhone posts you may enjoy:

• July 15, 2010 -- Reviving Dismal iPhone App Sales
• March 24, 2010 -- Didn’t consider the iPhone a Gaming Device? Think Again.
• February 23, 2010 -- Best App Ever Award 2009 Winners Announced
• February 16, 2010 -- Cool Macworld Stuff (Video)
• February 2, 2010 -- App Mention: Fake-A-Call