It’s been a long time coming but our new iOS app has been approved just in time to help you out with your Christmas shopping. And after Christmas? Well it’s got you covered there too. Gift Plan presents a whole new way of remembering and managing birthdays, anniversaries and any other gift-giving occasion you can think of.
Take a look at the demo video and let us know what you think!
Support
To report bugs in The Early Edition, Gift Plan, Barista or Cellar, please use the button provided in each app.
![Win one of 10 free copies of our brand new app! [Updated]](http://www.glasshouseapps.com/wp-content/themes/bigfeature/library/timthumb/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/newapp-teaser2.jpg&w=528&zc=1)
[Update: The 10 winners have been randomly chosen and emailed]
We’ve just started initial beta testing of our newest iOS app. If you’d like to be among the first to know more, enter your name and email address below.
To celebrate the launch, we’ll be giving away 10 free copies (in the form of US App Store promo codes) to people randomly chosen from the mailing list, once the app is approved.
![80% Sale on The Early Edition [SALE OVER]](http://www.glasshouseapps.com/wp-content/themes/bigfeature/library/timthumb/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/tee-sale-banner3.jpg&w=528&zc=1)
[UPDATE: The sale is now over. Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy while it was going cheap. We hope you're enjoying the app!]
To celebrate the release of version 1.3 we’re cutting the purchase price of The Early Edition by 80%! If you already own it, now’s the time to tell your friends because the price will return to normal on Monday.
Click here to get it from the App Store.
We’ve introduced some great new features in version 1.3 including more multi-touch gestures, feed backup and plenty of sharing options. See a demo of what’s new here.
Version 1.3 was submitted to Apple about a week ago, so we’re hoping it will be approved soon. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak at what you can expect to see in the new version. [UPDATE: It's been approved! Check your Updates tab on the App Store to download it now.]
What’s new:
✔ 4.2 Compatibility
✔ New Sharing Tools: Twitter, Facebook, Read it later, Delicious
✔ Settings: Make your personal newspaper even more personal
✔ Backup: Export your feeds/folders to OPML (via email)
✔ Delete past editions: New button in Archives popover to prune your database back to articles fetched today only.
✔ Instapaper Mobilizer: You now have the choice of viewing articles as they appear on the website that hosts them, or as they appear when Instapaper Mobilizer has been applied to them. This choice is available in Settings.
✔ New Gestures:
- Swipe to next/previous article when viewing in full screen
- Pinch to close articles when viewing in full screen (Note: this works best in Story mode, but you can make it work in Original mode by placing one finger in the toolbar at the top when performing the pinch to close).
- Tap and hold on individual sections or feeds to do an isolated fetch
- Two-finger horizontal swipe to flip from Story to Original view (and vice versa)
Strangely, just building really cool apps usually isn’t enough to succeed as a developer these days. That was true when I started out two years ago with Barista, but back then there were just 12,000 apps to compete with. If that felt like being a drop of water in a lake, today the App Store is more like an ocean, consisting of over 270,000 apps (274,778 according to 148Apps). Standing out from the crowd is becoming a harder task all the time.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. There’s a lot that can be learned from experience and David Appleyard of iPhone Appstorm fame has written a book with that focus in mind. It’s called iPhone App Entrepreneur. Basically he’s asked 12 designers and developers (including us) a series of questions about their experiences developing and promoting their apps – what’s worked and what hasn’t – and packaged it all up into a highly readable book.
It’s a great resource for both new and seasoned developers alike and I can thoroughly recommend it.
Disclosure: we have no financial interest in this book whatsoever, just to make that perfectly clear upfront.
