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… ;)

I am very excited to announce that Chromocam Dots is in the hands of beta testers, and is fully underway it’s journey to the app store. I know that for an iPhoneography app, Chromocam is taking a long time to be released, especially since its focus is on one particular abstract ‘effect’, but I want to make sure that its simplicity is backed up by functionality. This app is producing some great, high resolution images, and I refuse to allow application crashes, memory issues, or app slowdowns affect the experience. But why not just release a buggy-ish app now so I can get some cash flow going?

First, Chromocam Dots is just one in a series of programs to explore this concept of abstract iPhoneography. I want to make sure that all of the effects produce beautiful images, and that the finished product will look just as good on a desktop as they do on the phone. All of the apps run on a similar code base for exporting and manipulating images behind the scenes. Therefore, while the effects and parameters will change from app to app, the core functionality will be stable and familiar.

Second, I want this first 1.0 release to be stellar, but I also plan on doing updates as the platform matures. With the release of all the iWhatever news lately, its clear that the iPhone OS is going through some big changes, and the different types of devices that will run Chromocam is going to be fracturing off this way and that. By ensuring the code is stable underneath, I will be able to provide free updates for the lifespan of iPhone OS.

I’m definitely in this for the long haul, so please follow this blog or follow me on twitter for updates on Chromocam! And of course, you will get the chance to pick up promo codes on the release of each app. :)