Trying to jump into the app business has proved to be quite different from how I got into the freelance business. Compared to the app business, freelancing is a guaranteed source of income as much as a full time job. A lot of developers and designs wish to get in the app business to get away from working from anyone. Even if you freelance, you still technically “work for” people, those people being your clients.

What one doesn’t think about though, is that the app business has it’s own challenges. You may not have to deal with client demands, but you have to work for months on end with no pay while creating something you hope enough people will buy so you can feed your family. Gone are the days where you get paid multiple times.

I thought through this a bit, which is why I’m still freelancing full time and working on the app on the side. Of course, this means between work, p90x, some sort of social life and time with my family, I’m left with almost no time for the app. Did I mention I’m also trying to squeeze in time to write a couple of books and have some babies? Heh.

I have to often remind myself of some advice I once gave to both of my parents, who are both stuck in jobs they hate and have been planning on starting their own business for years now. The most common excuse I hear from almost everyone is that there’s “no time” and they can’t just quit their jobs to make time because they have a family to feed. Well, doesn’t everyone? Doesn’t the guy who started Starbucks have a family? Steve Jobs? Sam Walton?

We have to make time to start a business, otherwise we’ll be stuff forever in limbo, or worse, in a business or job we absolutely hate. Sure, I work a lot of hours at my desk, but I’m young and have no children and am trying to work now to retire at least at 50, but hopefully 30. I don’t want to be sitting at this desk at 75, making websites because I don’t have enough money to live off of.

Back to today and back to the plan. What is it you want to do? How will you accomplish it? You have to make every day a day that brings you even one step closer to the goal, or you might as well give up now and stop complaining about your stupid job.

Sorry guys, but I’ve closed the invite requests…couldn’t keep up with the emails

Fast forward to a year later. Codesnipp.it was sitting stale, with two burnt out programmers (we had brought in a friend during the middle of the year) and then there was me with nothing to do. We had over 2,000 users but only a very small percentage were active. We barely got 40 visits a day.

This was a sad time for me. I thought for sure this site would kick off quick and be a go-to resource for developers, but it wasn’t. We weren’t making enough money to dedicate extra time to the project, and neither of the programmers wanted to continue working on the project. What was I supposed to do?

I was forced to decide whether to leave the site stale, shut it down, or redo the whole thing. Obviously it wasn’t working for our users.

I decided to scrap the current version for a new one. I tracked down one of my favorite designers, Josh Helmsley, and traded him dev time for his design skills. I partnered with one of Codesnipp.it’s best contributors, John Clarke, for programming. We’re back in business.

This time, we decided to go in with a plan. We’re working on design, usability and features. We’re working on features with value to entice premium sign ups. We’re working on something to be really proud of.

Our goal plan is to start rolling out updates while the design and UX are being worked on. We’ve already given every single user unlimited posts and we scrapped the unused invite system to allow free sign ups via Facebook or Twitter.

Knowing when to scrap your app and start over is a tough, but it’s an important thing to learn. There’s no point in supporting something no one wants to use, and it’s a disservice to your users to just leave it stale on the web.

Creating a popular app takes time and apps like dribbble, Facebook and Twitter didn’t become popular overnight, but once you’ve tried everything possible to get the app out there and it still hasn’t been accepted by the community, it’s time to move on and try something new.

An additional benefit of a text expanding program is that it can be used in almost any program on your OS. Therefore, you are not limited to a single IDE for development.

Ok, I get it, but what text expander program should I use?

There are many text expander programs available on the market. The programs I recommend here are simply those that I have used myself and found to do a fantastic job. Please note; I have no financial gains from promoting specific programs over others. If you have an alternative program to recommend I would love to hear it in the comments section below.

TextExpander (Mac only)
Popular and reasonably priced autotype/autocorrect program. TextExpander also contains many advanced features and settings such as executing AppleScript. Offers a 30-day free trial.

Breevy (Windows only)
Another reasonably priced autotype/autocorrect program. Simple, fast and incredibly easy to use. The program offers many features from standard to more advanced. Offers a 30-day free trial.

Texter (Windows only)
Free text expander program created by the guys from Lifehacker using AutoHotKey. If you’re after a free program without all the bells-and-whistles then Texter should satisfy your needs. In this article I will use TextExpander for Mac to demonstrate my coding method.

How do I use it?

If you think that text expander is only good for long snippets of code/text then you’re mistaken. I use text expander to quickly type almost every tag when writing my HTML or CSS code. To start off, I created two separate folders to easily navigate between my HTML and CSS snippets. If you’re using TextExpander, please note that the program has its own snippet library for HTML and CSS. I chose not to use the TextExpander library and instead, created my own.

In addition, within the general TextExpander preferences I set abbreviations to execute only when the ‘trigger/delimiter key’ is clicked. This means that abbreviations will only work once I click the ‘Tab’ key. As a result, there is no conflict between the different abbreviations or shortcuts for other programs. You can set the ‘trigger/delimiter key’ to be almost any button on your keyboard. Do keep in mind that you don’t want the ‘trigger/delimiter key’ to conflict with anything else.

Ok, now that I have my two folders, I decided that I want all my HTML abbreviations to start with the apostrophe key and all my CSS abbreviations to start with the semicolon key. That way I will be able to reuse the same letter/word for both languages. For example, If I want to use a snippet with the abbreviation of the letter ‘p’, I know that apostrophe+p will give me a paragraph tag in HTML whilst semicolon+p will give me a padding tag in CSS.

As seen in the example, my abbreviation system is based on the first letter of the words in each tag. For instance, if I wanted to quickly type the CSS tag – margin-top – I could easily do it by writing semicolon+mt (followed by Tab).

Now, to take that a step further, the moment I type semicolon+mt (Tab) I instruct TextExpander to replace it with following:

margin-top: px;

Moreover, I can instruct the program to position the cursor in a place of my choice once the abbreviation is completed. Using the same example, the (cursor) will symbolise where the cursor will be positioned.

margin-top: (cursor)px;

As you can see, not only was I able to quickly insert the ‘margin-top’ tag, but the pixels and closing tag sign are also completed for me. Now, all I have left to do is to specify the number of pixels I require. The beauty of this system is that I hardly have any abbreviations to memorise because I know that each abbreviation starts with the first letter of the words in the tag.

Here are a few more example both in CSS and HTML (please note that each tag has to end with the ‘trigger/delimiter key’ in order to work):

Ok, what else?

A text expander program has endless possibilities. You can expand on my CSS and HTML examples and create CSS3 and HTML5 abbreviations. Also, you can use a similar concept to create abbreviations for other coding languages that you regularly use.

It is important to note that many of the programs also offer advanced features including shortcut access to homepages/folders/applications, spelling corrections, date/time snippets and special character symbols.

If you are interested to find out more, Jeffrey Way from Nettuts+ made a fantastic screencast that shows how you can use some of the more advanced features in a text expander program.

Conclusion

In this article I wanted to demonstrate my own method of using a text expander program to speed up my coding. The system that I use works great for me, but might not be 100% suitable for you. It is important to realise that you can take what I have shown you and tweak it to your liking. I am sure that many of you will be able to find a substantial amount of use in a text expander program, both for code and other areas of your work.

If you found the article useful or have suggestions for other ways to use a text expander program for your coding, please feel free to leave a comment below.

I was quite impressed by this book, and it has to be the first and only coding how-to book that I enjoyed and actually looked forward to working on every night. Unfortunately it took me four months to finish, but that was only because I could only work on it for 30 minutes a few nights a week.

Synoposis

Beginning iPhone 3 Development is a 555 page, black and white paperback book. It’s written in very clear language and takes you step-by-step through most kinds of iPhone apps, and even touches on OpenGL, which is what is used to make iPhone games.

The book assumes a working knowledge of Objective-C, but was simple enough to follow along with no knowledge of the language at all. Now that I’ve finished, I’m contemplating picking up a beginner’s Objective C book to compliment this one, as I’m still not knowledgeable enough to create the apps I want.

This book definitely gets 5 out of 5 stars. It was easy to follow along, the apps were exciting and fun to build and the authors were silly enough to be fun and enjoyable.

Chapters

The chapters are laid out well and take you through all different kinds of apps and functionalities.

1. Welcome to the Jungle - Installing the SDK and introductions
2. Appeasing the Tiki Gods – A walkthrough of Xcode and Interface Builder
3. Handling Basic Interaction – Short explanation of MVC and a quick app
4. More User Interface Fun – Learning controls, images, text fields, alerts
5. Autorotation and Autosizing – Rotating views and expanding layout
6. Multiview Applications
   
7. Tab Bars and Pickers
8. Introduction to Table Views
9. Navigation Controllers and Table Views
10. Application Settings and User Defaults
11. Basic Data Persistence – Storing and retrieving data, SQLite3
12. Drawing with Quartz and OpenGL
13. Taps, Touches and Gestures
14. Where Am I? Finding Your Way to Core Location
15. Whee! Accelerometer - Shaking, moving the iPhone
16. iPhone Camera and Photo Library
17. Application Localization - multiple languages and countries
18. Where to Next? - list of resources

Worth The Purchase?

Definitely. Although I’m by no means ready for the App Store, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge with this book and feel ready for the next in their series.

By the way, the download of Xcode, Interface Builder and the Simulator is free, along with the free developer account. However if you want to put the apps on your actual phone or sell in the app store, you have to pay a $99 fee. However, all the apps in the book work pretty well in the simulator, so no need to pay the fee just to do these apps.

Buy It Now

You can find Beginning iPhone 3 Development in Amazon for only $26.39

Have You Read This Book?

What are your thoughts on it?

I’m going to break this article into three sections: on the web, on the Mac and off the Mac; which will allow me to explain the various different ways you can make sure to get your website or application working perfectly on any browser, no matter what the crappy IE throws at you.

On The Web

I’ve tried a few different web applications that allow me to check out how the site looks in IE. Although web applications give you more browsers you can test in for free, it also has the set back in being that they’re only screenshots. But a lot of times you only need to get a quick screenshot anyways, so web apps are the fastest way to get them.

BrowserShots

Browsershots isn’t the prettiest web app, but it’s the most extensive way of testing your site without having to own and install every single browser known to man. It’s one of the first apps I found for testing, and was pretty useful for awhile, especially when you’re in a pinch.

Basically, you put in the address of the site you want to test and then select which browsers you want a screenshot in. The major downside to this, is that there isn’t a computer running the screenshots, it’s people taking the shots for you. Which means you’ll have to wait anywhere from 10-30+ minutes for the screenshots. Not helpful when you’re in the middle of developing.

Adobe BrowserLab

Adobe BrowserLab is was my favorite way of testing my websites before I found VMWare. It requires an Adobe account (which is free), and while they claimed this wouldn’t be free for long over a year ago, it still is.

You can create custom browser lists that will automatically check the website you input in. These are also screenshots, but are automated, which means you get your shots in less than a minute. This service is the next best thing to a real browser.

On The Mac

Being able to test in Internet Explorer is pretty much the best way to do it. You don’t have to leave your computer, you get a real browsing experience versus screenshots, and you can test animations and rollovers.

VMWare Fusion

VMWare Fusion has to be the coolest app I’ve ever come across, and the best way to test your sites. The allow a 30-day free trial and the app is on sale right now for $45. I’m still in the free trial period, but I can definitely say that I’m going to purchase it as soon as the trial’s over.

Basically, VMWare Fusion allows you to install a virtual version of Windows on your Mac. That means in addition to purchasing Fusion, you’ll also need to have a copy of Windows.

I was able to install VMWare Fusion and a copy of Windows 7 Home Edition in less than 30 minutes with no problems at all. The OS runs very quickly and smoothly, and feels like I’m actually using a Windows machine (besides that fact it doesn’t, you know, crash every 5 seconds). You can then install any Windows programs you like and be able to test your sites in anything.

So far, I haven’t installed any addition software since IE8 allows you to test in IE7 as well. But who knows what crazy browsers you’re forced to support.

Off The Mac

Sometimes you have an old crappy Windows laptop laying around (last count, we had 3!) that really isn’t good for anything. If you can at least get it running somewhat, you can use that as a testing machine, if you’re not wanting to spend the money on installing a virtual version on the Mac. This is probably the next best way to test your sites next to VMWare, but it also comes with it’s drawbacks. Mainly, you need a Windows laptop lying around, and you’ll often have to leave your desk or move around to use it.

IETester

IETester is a very  helpful (yet somewhat crash-prone) app that allows you to test several versions of IE all from one app. That means you don’t have to install multiple versions of IE or anything.

It’s free to download and use and pretty easy to set up. The sites look and act just like they would in a real install of IE.

Multiple IE

I used Multiple IE for the longest time at my old places of employment. It’s pretty useful, although now that I know there’re better options, I don’t really recommended it anymore, simply because it’s a pain to get working right. You also have to install several versions of IE, and last I heard it doesn’t work on any operating systems newer than XP.

Your Thoughts

What do you use to test in IE on a Mac?