David Beck's Blog

2009 October

iPhone Video Screen Capture

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

I recently had the misfortune of having to make a video to showcase Bubble Burster. The results were not pretty. I was literally laughed at by friends when they saw it. The problem is that while you can take screenshots of the iPhone screen, there is no way to capture video. I could have used a screen capture program but those cost around $100 (yes I am very cheap). The best solution I could come up with was to use the built in iSight on my MacBook to show the app.

In order to improve the quality of the video, I created a SIMBL plugin for the iPhone simulator. Basically it captures a screenshot every frame and then saves it to video. It overlays a circle for the pointer and a gloss iPhone frame.

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Filed under: Software

AVR and Xcode

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

I recently purchased the beginning embedded electronics kit from SparkFun Electronics. It is a kit that include everything to start programming AVR microcontrollers. A microcontroller lets you control the most simple, physical things, like an LED or a motor. Given my lust for control, you can see why this has quickly become my latest obsessive hobby.

The problem is that I want to be able to program the micro with my Mac, which presented a few problems. Here is how I got it working with Xcode on my Mac.
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Filed under: Electronics

Lunarpages Review

Friday, October 9th, 2009

I have been using Lunarpages for over a year now and I really love it. I first started using it for work, and then for my personal sites like this one. I have really enjoyed it and will definitely be using it for a long time to come. It is what I recommend to anyone that dare ask my opinion.

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Filed under: Web Development

Early iPhone App Sales

Monday, October 5th, 2009

It has been about a month now since Bubble Burster was released to the App Store and early sales are not promising. Before I launched Bubble Burster, I did a lot of research into marketing and sales of iPhone Apps and I found very little information. Most of what is available in terms of sales numbers is from big companies with apps in the top 100, and almost no data from your average app developer.
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Filed under: Software