drahtwerk

Our Blog.

Real talk.

We like approvals.

Timelapse Pro v1.5 approved

General

Monday, March 08, 2010

Timelapse Pro v1.5 has finally been approved, this update adds a lot of new features to an already complete app. We have been working on this update for a long time, but the release of iCamcorder and Tumbles delayed the completion of the update. Anyways, here is the full change of this release:
  • New Feature: Ability to turn off timer click sound.
  • New Feature: Battery saver, simply cover the top left corner of your iphone to turn off the display.
  • New Feature: New Export Movie Effect, Invert Colors
  • New Feature: New Export Movie Effect, Hard Colors
  • New Feature: New Export Movie Effect, Sepia
  • New Feature: New Export Movie Effect, Old Movie
  • New Feature: HD Movies
  • New Feature: Facebook, upload your movies directly to your facebook page.
  • New Feature: YouTube, share your movies on YouTube.
  • New Feature: Send by Email
  • New Feature: Clone Project
  • New Feature: Timers can be setup and started manually.
  • New Feature: Landscape Support
  • Bugfix: Special Characters in Projectnames
  • Bugfix: Memory Issues on Jailbroken devices
  • Bugfix: Entering 0 as image count for an unlimited timer causes the timer to get stuck
  • Changed: When creating a project, entering a description is optional.
 
 
Calorie Free

iCamcorder Lite submitted

General

Thursday, March 04, 2010

We have just submitted iCamcorder Lite to the App Store. The difference between iCamcorder Lite and the regular version is that the Lite version is basically built on a "Freemium" business model. Additional features and functionality can be added to the Lite version using "In-App Purchases".
Without any add-ons iCamcorder Lite records videos of 15 seconds and comes with one effect. Additional recording-time and effects can be unlocked using IAP.
One thing we don't want to do is introduce IAP in the regular version, so don't worry any improvements will always be free for customers of the regular version.
 
Keep 'em coming.

Tumbles and iCamcorder reviews

Fame

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

More reviews of Tumbles have appeared on the internet:
iCamcorder has also been nominated the 6th best app of January 2010 on blogcritics.org.
 
We're currently working on a new update for our timelapse app, which will introduce numerous new features, improvements and bug-fixes. The update should arrive on the App Store within the next weeks. As always a detailed change-log will be posted once the development has been completed.
 
Update: Added another Tumbles review.
Get down!

iCamcorder v1.9 approved + SDK

General

Friday, February 12, 2010

iCamcorder v1.9 has just been approved by Apple. It should be available on all App Stores worldwide within the next hours.
With the approval of iCamcorder v1.9 we have also unveiled our iCamcorder SDK which allows other developers to include iPhone 2G/3G video recording capabilities in their apps. We're looking forward to see how developers make use of our technology!
 
This is the complete overview of all changes in this version:
  • New Feature: "Multi View" - Effect.
  • New Feature: "Super 8" - Effect.
  • New Feature: quick access to effects menu.
  • New Feature: auto-save on exit.
  • New Feature: rotating device to landscape changes button orientations.
  • New Feature: showing movie duration in video library / photo roll.
  • New Feature: showing file size in share video picker.
  • New Feature: recording beep sound can be disabled.
  • Improved: recording performance.
  • Improved: saving time.
  • Improved: preventing sharing by email if movie attachment size is too big for mail.app.
  • Changed: new settings button image.
  • Changed: settings menu button positions.
  • Bugfix: if audio input is not available (i.e. during phone call) the app crashes.
  • Bugfix: sharing big videos on youtube could cause a crash.
 
Way to go.

iCamcorder v1.9 and Giveaway

General

Monday, February 08, 2010

We just finished the development of iCamcorder v1.9 and it is currently being submitted to Apple for approval.
iCamcorder v1.9 contains a lot of new features, improvements and bug fixes:
  • NEW FEATURE: "Multi View" - Effect
  • NEW FEATURE: "Super 8" - Effect
  • NEW FEATURE: quick access to effects menu
  • NEW FEATURE: auto-save on exit
  • NEW FEATURE: rotating device to landscape changes button orientation.
  • NEW FEATURE: showing movie duration in video library / photo roll
  • NEW FEATURE: showing file size in share video picker
  • IMPROVED: recording performance
  • IMPROVED: saving time
  • IMPROVED: preventing sharing by email if movie attachment size is too big for mail.app
  • BUGFIX: if audio input is not available (i.e. during phone call) the app crashes
  • BUGFIX: sharing big videos on youtube could cause a crash.
We also want to thank Giuseppe from iPhoneItalia.com for the italian translations.
The update should be available in the App Store sometime this week.
 
But there is something we want to rant about, iCamcorder is a really high-tec app: it contains a lot of low level assembler code to achieve it's great performance - we spent weeks developing this code. The UIGetScreenImage method Apple recently allowed developers to use captures the current screen contents. Unfortunately it is really slow, about 15% of the processing time of the App just goes into calling this method. Our optimized assembler code makes up for this slowness. But that's not the only drawback of this method, it is also not possible to create camera overlays like buttons, sliders or labels because those overlays would also be captured. However there are other, undocumented methods within private frameworks (PhotoLibrary/CoreSurface/...) that can be used to avoid the slow UIGetScreenImage call and also make it possible to create overlays.
Our competitors' video recording apps make use of these private frameworks. We're not sure if Apple knows about this or not, but it's pretty obvious that they're using private frameworks because of these overlays - the code doesn't even need to be analyzed to figure this out.
But how did they get through the app review process then? We assume that they are dynamically loading private frameworks/methods (dlopen/dlsym/...) to avoid directly linking them into their code, as this would cause the static analyzer to yell.
What really upsets us about this, is that iCamcorder v1.7 was rejected because we used an undocumented method to force the movie player into portrait mode. Which is nothing compared to what they're doing with the private frameworks, oh and by the way they're also forcing the movie player into portrait mode.  Let's see if we can get a statement from someone at Apple about this issue.
 
Now that you've made it through our rant, tuaw.com is currently hosting an iCamcorder promo-code giveaway, simply post a comment over there to get one of the 20 promo codes they have!
 
Update: Just had a phone call with Apple and they share our view on this - all developers should play by the same rules. We hope to have more information on that topic by the end of this week.
Rock on!

Tumbles featured by Apple!

General

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

And once again one of our apps has made it into the "New and Noteworthy" spotlight,
this time it's Tumbles. Awesome.
 
What do they say about it?

Tumbles reviewed

Tumbles

Monday, February 01, 2010

The first reviews of Tumbles have appeared on the net:
Our thanks go out to the writers, who took a few minutes of their time to take Tumbles for a test-drive. If you want to review Tumbles, we still have a few promo-codes left!  
Check out our new Tumbles trailer:
 
 
Update: Added sCommerce.com review.
Definitively worth the wait.

iCamcorder v1.8 approved!

General

Friday, January 29, 2010

After a long wait, and one rejection by Apple iCamcorder v1.8 has finally arrived at the App Store.
The changes in this version are probably not new to most of our readers, but here is the complete overview of the new features, changes and bugfixes:
  • New Feature: 'quad-cam' effect.
  • New Feature: 'mirror' effect.
  • New Feature: 'pop-art' effect.
  • New Feature: 'color flip' effect.
  • New Feature: user interface facelift.
  • New Feature: FX indicator button, visible when an effect is active. Tap it to disable it quickly.
  • New Feature: added twitter sharing.
  • New Feature: added movie date to thumbnails in library.
  • New Feature: sharing over 3G / EDGE.
  • New Feature: fixed framerate, to improve audio/video sync (experimental).
  • New Feature: export to camera roll.
  • New Feature: Italian translations.
  • Improved: amazing performance boost!
  • Improved: audio/video sync.
  • Improved: added social-network icons to the share menu.
  • Improved: added upload progress indicator when uploading movie to social network.
  • Improved: startup time.
  • Changed: full screen camera, removed status bar.
  • Bug Fix: record button not changing to stop button.
The product page has also been updated with new sample videos, thanks to the people that shared these with the world.
This release is listed as version 1.7 on the App Store, but it actually is version 1.8. This happened because we submitted a new version of the app for reapproval by Apple.
 
By the way, we're also on Twitter now @drahtwerk! 
Start your engines.

Tumbles approved!

General

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Our first serious attempt at an iPhone game "Tumbles" has finally been approved to the App Store. 
Pop, pop, pop - pop till you drop! Tumbles is a highly-addictive physics-based game with beautifully polished graphics and a cheerful soundtrack.
  • Four distinct game modes will keep you entertained for hours: Classic, Challenge, Blitz and Multiplayer!
  • Tilt the screen to change the orientation of gravity.
  • Interactive Tutorial to get into the game within minutes.
  • Multiplayer: Play against a friend via Bluetooth™.
  • Full (ngmoco's) Plus+ integration with seven leaderboards and 15 awards!
  • Beautifully polished graphics with a cheerful soundtrack and matching sound effects.
  • Play with your own background music, just play a track with your device's music player before your start Tumbles.
Tumbles is now available in the App Stores around the world for only 99c.
 
Here we go again.

iCamcorder v1.8 submitted

General

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Just had a nice call with Steve R. from Apple. Steve is part of the Apple developer relations team. The reason for this call was that the engineers at Apple could not believe that the performance in the submitted version was possible with legal API1 calls. This assumption is actually quite an honor for us, because our encoding engine is not using illegal, undocumented API calls at all.
 
So our encoding engine was not using an illegal API call at all, but our video library code was using one. The movie player that Apple provides developers with can only play videos in landscape mode, but there is an undocumented API call "setOrientation:" that let's developers specify the playback orientation of the movie player.
Why did we use this undocumented API? Because our competitors are using exactly the same and there is no reason why we shouldn't make use of it or why we shouldn't get away with it.
Well, there is a reason as Steve put it, using undocumented APIs is a "no-no".
 
So iCamcorder v1.7 was rejected — and we had to wait days for the rejection. The good thing is, iCamcorder v1.8 was just submitted a few minutes ago and iCamcorder v1.8 is super! For 1.8 we continued the optimization of our encoding engine and added another effect.
 
 
 
 1 The iPhone SDK provides developers with a set of functions to interact with the operating system and other components developed by Apple. Not all existing functions are documented in the iPhone SDK documentation. Calling undocumented functions is prohibited and might lead to the rejection of an app during approval or removal from the App Store.
Please hold the line.

iCamcorder: still not approved.

iCamcorder

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

We just got an Email from Apple telling us that the approval of iCamcorder v1.7 will "require additional time".

Get ready to pop.

Tumbles submitted

General

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

We just submitted Tumbles to the App Store. Tumbles is a highly-addictive, physics-based game with beautifully polished graphics and a cheerful soundtrack.
We're really looking forward to the feedback we get on Tumbles.
The feedback we got from our testers has been really great so far:
 
Just wanted to let you guys know that Tumbles is actually a really fun game. It's addicting too. So far, I haven't seen any issues or suggestions, but if one comes to mind, i'll make sure to let you guys know. Keep up the good work.
Super fun so far! You have a real winner with this one! Thinking of a text, 1.99?
So I have played my first game of Tumbles. It is addictive and a very good way to spend time. I'll be trying it a little more and write about it on my blog with screenshots.
If you want to preview Tumbles, contact us and we'll send you a preview build!
 
Unfortunately we're still waiting on the approval of iCamcorder v1.7. The approval is taking longer than we anticipated especially as our previous App Store submits were approved within 48 hours.
Dude, that looks awesome.

Homepage Facelift

General

Friday, January 22, 2010

Welcome back!
 
While iCamcorder is still waiting for approval we finally found the time to deploy our homepage facelift!
We really like the fresh and clean look and if you knew our old page you can see some similarities here and there.
 
Some content is still missing but we're working on it and everything should be back to normal really soon.
You should also check out our "Apps" page, it features a really neat effect when the mouse hovers of a product.
If you spot some typos or notice something odd in your web-browser, please let us know.
 
By the way, iCamcorder is currently the eighth best selling app in the U.S. App Store! Thank you for your support, and we're sure you will love the upcoming release.
Ready to roll.

iCamcorder v1.7 submitted

General

Thursday, January 21, 2010

While I'm typing this, iCamcorder is being bundled up and will be sent to Apple for approval today.
This is a major update and the change log is gigantic:
 
  • Improved: performance boost, encoder has been rewritten using arm asm. About 15 FPS with all settings turned up to the maximum.
  • Improved: audio/video sync.
  • Improved: delete menu.
  • Improved: added social-network icons to the share menu.
  • Improved: added upload progress indicator when uploading movie to social network.
  • Improved: startup time.
  • New Feature: 'quad-cam' effect.
  • New Feature: 'mirror' effect.
  • New Feature: 'pop-art' effect.
  • New Feature: user interface facelift.
  • New Feature: FX indicator button, visible when an effect is active. Tap it to disable it quickly.
  • New Feature: added twitter sharing.
  • New Feature: added movie date to thumbnails in library.
  • New Feature: sharing over 3G / EDGE.
  • New Feature: fixed framerate, to improve audio/video sync (experimental).
  • New Feature: export to camera roll (experimental).
  • New Feature: Italian translations.
  • Changed: recommended settings preset.
  • Changed: full screen camera, removed status bar.
  • Bug Fix: record button not changing to stop button.
The amazing performance of this update can be seen in the rapid motion test video, that has been uploaded to Twitter.
While you are waiting for the approval, here are the updated product images for the App Store:
 
 
We want to thank all our testers and people that mentioned iCamcorder on their websites and blogs!
We also want to thank Giuseppe from iPhoneItalia for the Italian translations.
 
UPDATE: iCamcorder has now been submitted to the App Store!
New and Noteworthy!

iCamcorder featured on iTunes

General

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

We just got word that we are featured on the App Store front page under "New and Noteworthy". This is a great accomplishment, and honors the effort that went into the development of the application. Thank you Apple!
 
 
Some news on the upcoming release, we're currently testing the release candidate of iCamcorder v1.7! If we don't encounter any serious issues, iCamcorder v1.7 will available on the App Store soon.
Keeping it in motion.

iCamcorder v1.7 in Development

General

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The development of iCamcorder v1.7 continued right after the last public release.
What we did was rewrite critical methods that were written in C using ARM assembler. This resulted in a big increase of the amount of frames that can be recorded per second. 
We also added amazing new effects that are similar to those found in the OSX Photo Booth app.
A very often requested feature "Export to Camera Roll" is also in progress, but we're not sure if this feature will make it into the upcoming release.
One of those often requested features is MMS, unfortunately this cannot be implemented because the iPhone SDK provides no functionality to send an MMS. Unless Apple adds the functionality for developers to send MMS from their app, we cannot implement this.
 
 
We're still looking for a few more people to join our Q&A team. If you have your own blog or your own YouTube channel then this is even better, as we encourage our testers to write about their experience and the newest apps. If you're from the media and you would like to have an early look at the upcoming release, please don't hesitate to contact us.
 
Step by Step.

iCamcorder 1.5 released

General

Saturday, January 09, 2010

iCamcorder 1.5 has just been approved to the App Store featuring many amazing new features:
 
  • built-in 4x digital zoom
  • more performance
  • new user interface
  • landscape support
  • and a very remarkable feature: realtime effects processing. 
iCamcorder 1.5 comes preloaded with five different realtime effects that can be applied to your movies. We have posted two new videos showcasing some of the new features at the iCamcorder product page.We would also love to translate iCamcorder into as many languages as possible, if you want to have iCamcorder translated into your language and you want to help us with the translations please don't hesitate to contact us. 
 
We didn't expect this: from submit to approval in 24 hours.  Thank you, Apple!
Right On!

iCamcorder released

General

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

iCamcorder was released yesterday, and so far it seems like the app is a total success even though we didn't receive any media coverage at all. That doesn't mean we didn't send out a press-release, in fact we did. But we do want to thank the few bloggers and sites that wrote about the release, and we also want to thank all of our customers and the positive reviews that appear all around the world:
 
Thats the best Video App for. iPhone 3g. Weiter so!!!
Porten, Germany
Dis really is the best video camera out there u need to get this trust meeeeee. The top 3 video are qik video.ivideorecorder. And this one is the best
Brayanforreal, United States
Now this is a real video camera, and I have 2G iPhone. Very Very smooth. Love it.
Tom7072, United States
This is the best recording app out there, don't spend your money on anything but this if you are in on buying a video recording software!!
Leftydog, United States
Ok va bene che si può sempre migliorare apparte un problema che ogni tanto si blocca é l' app migliore per adesso video fluido velocità di salvataggio da 4 stelle!!!! 5 stelle le do qnd sistemano quel problemino...e migliorino la qualità video... Ciaooooo
cecchino83, Italy
Perfetta manca solo a landscape mode e la registrazione nel rullino fotografico e sarebbe perfetta!!!
cxcorporation, Italy
5 Sterne verdiendt er wohl aber nun ein update um die videos im camera roll zu speichern und warum in Querformat auf genohmene videos werden auch nicht im gleiche form abgespielt? Sonst find ich cool die App..
Sefilo21, Germany
This is the best 3g video taker.the fps is great and the videos look great it's just awsome.
Kantros, United States
All posted reviews are five star reviews in the App Stores around the world, and there are way more! Thanks to everyone that helps to make this app a success!
I want you for...

Wanted: Beta Testers

General

Sunday, January 03, 2010

We're currently looking for a bunch of new beta testers for our Q&A team to test our current and upcoming releases. If you like finding bugs and testing new products at the same time and you own either an iPhone or iPod Touch then what are you waiting for? You can apply as a beta tester by filling out the beta tester application form. 
Pictures in motion.

iCamcorder submitted

General

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

We have just submitted our newest App to the Apple App Store: iCamcorder for iPhone 2G/3G!

We're really looking forward to the feedback we get on iCamcorder, an incredible iPhone application that allows smooth video and audio recording on older generation iPhones. iCamcorder records at an remarkable average minimum of 10 frames per second and a maximum of 15 frames per second, similar Apps in the App Store allow a recording at 2 or 3 frames per second or 5 frames per second without audio.
Besides the amazing video quality iCamcorder delivers, it also features a beautifully designed user-interface and it is fully translated into English, German and French.
Recorded videos can be shared on YouTube/Facebook/Email and can be downloaded off the iPhone using the built-in webserver.
About To Pop.

Let's Get Ready!

Tumbles

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Tumbles is ready for it's approval. The production build has been submitted to ngmoco:), once we get their approval we're going to submit Tumbles to Apple. At this point we would like to thank our testers and everybody else who was involved during the development.
 
Tumbles Promo Images
A show stopper.

iTunes Connect Error

General

Thursday, December 03, 2009

This is how it usually happens, on the 1st December, one day after the release of "Wireless Webcamera" a system error occured in the iTunes App Store Database. The app is no longer downloadable in the App Store, this obviously happens because both the name and the description disappeared.
Unfortunately, editing the application meta-data using iTunes Connect is not possible, as this results in a system error.
We have contacted iTunes Connect support, but we did not recieve a reply yet.
Once the issue is resolved we will update this page.
 
This error affects all App Stores world-wide except the german App Store.
 
Update 12/04/2009: We got a response from Apple, obviously the error is related to the rollout of a new iTunes Connect version. We highly doubt that, as the error was present before the rollout begun.
 
Update 12/08/2009: The error is still not resolved, we have tried to contact the iTunes Connect support two times already, but our emails are still unanswered. The applications cannot be bought in the App Store, we're loosing money and it's true Apple does not care about their developers at all.
 
Update 12/08/2009: We just got a reply from Apple stating that they're looking into the issue. This is a very unsatisfying reply as they're investing this issue for eight days now.

Update 12/09/2009: And another Email arrived. Apparently the issue should be fixed within two business days, but they also told us that if it's not fixed then we should write yet another email.

Update 12/10/2009: After ten days the issue has finally been fixed, the applications are available in the App Store again. 
Nice and easy, does it all the time.

Timelapse Pro Released

General

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Our newest app "Timelapse Pro" has finally arrived at the App Store!
 
Create fascinating timelapse movies using your iPhone and the integrated camera. Create, edit and share timelapse movies with Timelapse Pro.
Movies created with Timelapse Pro are standard Quicktime MOV movies, share them on YouTube or play them on your computer.
 
Using the “Share“ functionality you can download the movies to your computer without any additional configuration. 
 
  • Create fascinating timelapse movies with your iPhone.
  • Easily create a series of pictures using the built-in camera timer.
  • Review the most recently taken pictures with the on-screen filmstrip.
  • Delete pictures or change the order of the pictures in your timelapse project.
  • Review the pictures in your timelapse project using the integrated picture viewer.
  • Export your timelapse project as a QuickTime movie.
  • Many options when exporting your project (Playbackspeed, Black/White movie, Compression- and Sizeoptions)
  • Show your timelapse movies to your friends using the integrated player.
  • Download your movies to your computer using the integrated webserver.
  • Access the integrated webserver without any configuration with the supported Bonjour protocol.
  • Beautiful userinterface.
Timelapse Pro requires an iPhone with at least OS 3.1 and is available in the App Store now!
 
App Store Link

@drahtwerk.

You can also follow us on Twitter now! Browse to twitter.com/drahtwerk and click the follow button!

Copyright © 2009 drahtwerk. All rights reserved.

Powered by drahtwerk web authoring system. Impressum.