How I lost my App name: Vignette is likely to become Vignettr

There I was, app coded and tested on the iOS devices I had at my disposal – some mine, some friends and some colleagues.

Months before I had decided that the app would be called ‘Vignette’, I like the word, I liked the retro and appealing look that it gave to photos, settled. It was now the big moment to get the iTunes distrubution provisioning profile, code-sign the app and send up the binary for Apple’s approval.

Then I hit a snag. The Bundle ID I have created online when originally registering the app name was bla.blablabla.vignette, but my product name in Xcode was Vignette – notice the subitle case mismatch. After a bit of poking around in Xcode I was unable to change the product name case to match without the app being labelled as ‘vingette’ (lower case) on the iOS homescreens. Not what I wanted.

So then I thought, no problem! I’ll just generate a new Bundle ID (bla.blablabla.Vignette) then change my App registration to use that one. Err, well you can’t. That’s when I made a BIG mistake (this was about 1am)… I’ll just delete my app registration from iTunes connect, then register the App with the new Bundle ID. After deleting it, I attempted to re-register the name ‘Vignette’ but a message “The App Name you entered has already been used.” My heard stopped.

Ok I thought, maybe it just needs some time to re-release then name. Whilst giving it it’s time, I though let me check if anyone else ran into this problem in the past. Not long and I’d found this thread on StackOverflow. The thread makes reference to the Developer Guide – where I found this:

“IMPORTANT: Deleting your app will not allow you to re-use your SKU, Bundle ID or App Name in the same account again and you will not be able to restore your app once deleted.”

My heard stopped again, it’s late, time for bed.

Next day I wake-up and wait until 9am for the Apple Dev Centre call-in number to be active, and I get connected to an agent. They can’t assist, I need to work throught iTunesConnect support team – who seem to only have an e-mail address (itunesconnect@apple.com). I e-mail them my sad sorry and begin the wait.

The wait lasted 2 days. I excitedly open up the response from iTunesConnect support hoping that they have resolved the issue, but no. They just pointed me to the exact paragraph I listed above from the developer guide. shit. I immediately e-mail back pleading with them to assist to get “my” name back, I’m awaiting for a response.

Whilst all of this was going on I was getting to grips with the fact that I may need to select a new name altogether if I ever want to get this app out on the market. Changing the branding within the app would not be a problem, but I felt sick just thinking about creating new icons for the homescreen, spotlight, itunes – not forgetting needing special res ones made specifically for the iPad, iPhone and iPhone 4′s retina display. I looked at my icons – just two letters ‘vi’, the first two letters of the, should be, App name. I then jumped onto a couple online dictionaries to see if I could find a suitable name by searching for words beginning with ‘vi’. There were a few candidates, but nothing I was really happy with.

So here’s the plan – I’m doing a flickr, and going with ‘Vignettr’

I’ll give Apple a couple more days to assist, else I’ll have to do the rename, code-sign and send it off for the approval process as ‘Vignettr’.

Beetle Bonnet

Had some time to kill this past weekend, so went to do a walk around Little India (Singapore) for some photos. In general a combination of lack of specific purpose, crappy light and scorching heat I did not walk away with the treasure trove of great images I was hoping for… but I did learn an interesting lesson… take a “bad” photo and keep cropping down until it’s more interesting – this photo was one of those.

Duke still growing…

Amazing to look at these and realize how much can change in just 2 months! I’m glad that I’ve kept this idea running and I’m sure I’ll be even happier when I look at this a few years from now.

Large on black

For the Strobists: 1x Vivitar 285HV full power pointed at wall for blown out background, 1x Canon 430EX 1/16 power through umbrella just off to camera right. Setup shot here.

Camera settings: Canon 400D + EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6. Taken at f7.1, ISO200 and at 38mm.

Font: Helvetica Neue Thin

Hong Kong meat market

During a recent business trip to Hong Kong, Lindi and I got the oppurtunity to get some time to roam around the streets of Hong Kong. There are some amazing contrasts between the big brand high fashion shops on the main street, then in the alley ways just off those same streets you get a glimpse of real Hong Kong life.

This is one of the many meat, poultry and fish market stalls we came across. It was crowded with people, so it took some patience to wait for a gap in the human traffic to grab a shot of this scene.

For the geeks: Nikon D700 with 17-35 f2.8. Taken at 35mm F2.8 1/400, ISO1600. Looking at this now I could have gone for 1/200 and lowed the ISO. This was handheld with available light. I’m so impressed with the low light capabilities of the D700, this was taken after 6pm on a very wet and overcast day.

Pepper crust roast beef

Great dinner! felt like Chrismas time, recipe link coming soon.

Strobist: 1x Canon 430EX @ 1/8th power thru partially collapsed umbrella camera left, and a foamcore board on camera right for some fill. Setup shot.

Canon 400D, EF-S 17-85mm, ISO100, 85mm, f5.6, 1/200.

Duke growing up

Here is a follow-up from the same shot I did of him at 3 months. Didn’t realize that he’d grown up so fast!. I plan to keep doing this every month for a while.

View large on Black

For the Strobists: 1x Vivitar 285HV full power pointed at wall for blown out background, 1x Canon 430EX 1/16 power through umbrella just off to camera right. Setup shot here.

Camera settings: Canon 400D + EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6. Taken at f7.1, ISO200 and at 38mm.

Font: Helvetica Neue Thin

Duke is small

Here’s our Duke at 3 months. I wanted to get a shot of him to remember his size.

View large on black

For the Strobists: 1x Vivitar 285HV full power pointed at wall for blown out background, 1x Canon 430EX 1/16 power through umbrella just off to camera right. Setup shot here.

Duke

Originally uploaded by db0yd13

Here’s Duke, our 3 month old miniature daschund puppy.

Strobist: 1x Canon 430EX @ 1/8 through umbrella camera left.

My home network

Drawn up with gliffy.com

Paste text without formatting or kill it with a key sequence

I find it very annoying when you copy-n-paste formatted text in Windows as I very seldom actually want the formatting to come with it, and rather just want the raw text. The process I’ve been using up until now is to first paste the text into notepad, then copy it from there for pasting – not exactly an efficient workflow.

I came across a little single executable tool called PureText which allows you to assign a special key sequence to paste text without the formatting, I use Windows Key+V. The tool is a tiny 13K and just sits quietly in your task tray.

On a similar note – here is a quick way to removing any formatting from text within a Word doc or Outlook e-mail message:

Select the offending text area and hit ctrl + spacebar