Photics: Revisions – Course Correction (Can it be done?)

It all starts with an idea. There’s a vision in my head… a space-shooter video game. I’ve been wanting to make a video game based on my book Photics: Revisions. With the iPhone and GameSalad, there appears to be a road to victory, but can it be done? I’m not sure, but I’m going to document my progress. The more I research the matter, the more confident I become. Yet, the idea to make “Photics: Revisions – Course Correction” is not new. That idea has been bouncing around in my brain for years. Has technology finally caught up to fantasy? Do I finally have the tools to make my dreams a reality?

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How to Add Menu Items to Android Apps

I’ve been looking at the new Android phones and a lot of them do not have keyboards. I don’t know why the industry is still playing “me too” with iPhone-like interfaces. But as an app developer, I have to be aware of this issue. Considering that keyboard-less android phones have few buttons, the menu button becomes more important. That meant I had to get past a developer hurdle – learning how to add menus to my android apps.

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Apache Redirects – For When Your Web Pages Move

apache-redirect-thumbnailRecently, I moved all of my Guild Wars content to a new website. I feel pretty good about the new content management system and the new direction of the website. But as I went to bed last night, I started thinking about 404 Errors – Page Not Found. I had forgotten to set up Apache Redirects. After having a dream about poor search engine ranking, I woke up and updated my .htaccess file. It was simple but important work. Without sending web traffic to the new location, I risked losing visitors. Fortunately, with Apache Redirects, I could point web visitors to the new locations. This should create a better experience for both Human and Robot visitors.

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Making My Android Apps Zipaligned

android-photics-forums-thumbnailWhen I would publish my Android Apps, the Google Developer Console would give me an unusual error. “The apk is not zipaligned. Please run the…” Blah, blah, blah… what’s Google complaining about now? Typically, I would just ignore this warning. Why should I care? Google didn’t prevent my app from being published, so I would just let it go. But recently, I decided to give this another look. How do I zipalign my apps? I went digging through the Android Developer documents and I was finally able to publish my apps properly. Although, as usual, it was a bit of a struggle. That’s because I hadn’t updated my Android software in a while. It seems that some things have changed in Android land.

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Photics Forums – The iPhone App

photics-forums-icon-thumbnailDespite the grumpy feelings, I decided to give iPhone development another go. So far, I’m pleased that I did. While converting my Photics Forums app to the iPhone / iPod Touch, I learned some new tricks. For the longest time, I was struggling with getting my iPhone apps to match my Android apps. I was having problems with Reachability and Landscape mode. With the completion of my new app, that’s no longer an issue. While waiting for my app to be approved, I have some time for reflection on my progress.

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