Posts tagged: chromocam
Although I was already happy with how Chromocam has done so far, I got a nice ray of sunshine through my office window when I opened up iTunes Connect one sleepy morning and saw 20x the usual amount of downloads for Chromocam Dots. Now, I did some quick googling, checked search.twitter.com, and didn’t see much. I actually figured it was a bug in iTunes reporting, especially since they had some weird warning messages about outages and errors in reporting on the top of the screen.
So I checked the next day… and even more downloads! :) Now I know something is up, so I did some more research and saw some great reviews, especially from CreativeApplications.Net and Pocket Plastic. So, I’m thinking that my traffic is coming from there. By the way, I definitely need to do a future blog entry on payola and improper practices by some shady blog owners… anyway, know that creative applications and pocket plastic are amazing journalists and curators and I highly recommend adding them to your RSS reader.
I just happened to then check iTunes, looking for reviews and ratings and things like that, and what do I see? Chromocam Dots is featured right on the front page!!!! :O Apple staff thinks I’m New and Noteworthy! What an honor :). For all the marketing, design, and development I did myself, it really felt great to know that people who look at apps all day, every day, thought that mine was worth something. I don’t really care about the 99c price point, I don’t make a ton of money off Chromocam or anything, but being selected for this curation, sharing space with amazing, revolutionary software like Gravilux, and Circuit Synth. It’s definitely a nice feeling, and I’m feeling very happy of my choice to go with iPhone development. I’ve been wavering lately, with the EVO 4G coming out, but I think I’ll stay with iPhone for the forseeable future… or until Chromocam Cubes gets rejected. ;)
Chromocam Dots is finally released! The first in a series of iphoneography apps, you can download Chromocam Dots for .99c in the iTunes App Store!
I’ve already found a bit of an embarassing bug… when you upload your creation to Twitter, it sends along text that says Chromocam is still in Beta! :( But, I already had a feature update ready to send out, so there will be an update to fix that little bug out shortly. And of course, all updates will be free, forever - there will be no Chromocam Dots 2 or anything like that- so go ahead and download it, and enjoy!
How do I get started?
Take a picture by pressing the camera icon in the bottom-left corner. Then, when you are happy with the photo, click “Use” and then the dots will start appearing. Control their speed, size, and transparency with the settings icon in the middle of the tool bar. Try adjusting the mix of the dots and original image by pressing and dragging on the image in the main screen. When you are pleased with your composition, save the picture, e-mail it, or upload it to Twitter with the icon in the bottom-right corner!
What resolutions are supported? I don’t want no tiny pics!
Chromocam saves images in the full resolution that they are taken. So, depending on which phone you have, Chromocam exports at the full resolution possible for that device!
How can I switch Twitter accounts? I entered my username and password but now I want to post to a different account.
Check the “Settings” app on your home screen, and scroll down to the application specific settings. You can change your Twitter login here!
How can I undo?
Ummm… you can’t. It might be implemented in a future version if people want it, but I really like the permanence of how the app works. I recommend taking another snapshot! The possibilities are endless.
What does alpha mean?
Alpha is fancy-computer-image speak for transparency. Adjusting this makes the dots more see-through.
These dots are too fast, how can I slow them down?
Try altering the speed in the settings pop-up, or just double-tap to pause (double-tap again to resume).
How can I use my own images?
Right now, you can’t. I might add this later, but I’m not sure if its necessary. If I see some amazing pics done with multiple apps and such, maybe it will inspire me to add it…
I have an old iPhone… does Chromocam still work? What about iPod touch?
Chromocam definitely works on all iPhone devices. iPod touch, not so much, since it doesn’t have a camera. If I end up adding the import picture capability then it will probably work on iPod touch as well.
I took some great shots, how can I share them?
Post them to Twitter with the hashtag #chromocam and I’ll be on the lookout for them! Also, use the chromocam tag on flickr or tumblr, or submit them to the Chromocam blog!
Wait, I have more questions! Where can I direct them?
Send me a message on Twitter! @chromocam
The Chromocam beta has been great so far, getting some interesting shots and some great feedback from my testers. I’m happy to say that initial reports say the app is stable, and runs smoothly on all iPhone generations, from 2G to 3GS. But of course, a decent amount of code is going to be rewritten anyway.
Why would I rewrite code, and why aren’t I more upset? Actually, I’ve been reading the classic “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”, and it had some very timely and sage advice: You don’t really understand the problem until after the first time you implement a solution. I suppose that is a rephrasing of “Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.”, from Fred Brooks’ The Mythical Man-Month.
I was chatting with a beta tester when she remarked that she didn’t understand how the settings button worked, which is one of the few controls that the minimalist Chromocam offers. Now I didn’t include an instructions manual or anything like that for precisely this reason, so that I could find out which parts of the app were unintuitive. Of course, in my smugness, I thought that surely the beta testers would be thrilled and amazed and not at all confused, but looking back, what a strange custom view I created. Basically, clicking and dragging on an icon for size or for transparency will, via coregraphics, dynamically generate a new icon that is bigger or smaller, or is more or less transparent. But the icons don’t move at all. You can check it out in the preview promo vid I did:
So I rewrote it to try and make more sense. I added an icon instead of the settings button with sliders on them, and then ended up emulating the icon instead of the other way around. Now the icons move, and they have some context as well referring to the maximum and minimum settings. A new beta should be out shortly, and this time I think I nailed it.
But we’ll see… ;)
