Apparent Etch

When the iOS 4 beta first came out in May, I eagerly downloaded the seed in order to try my app, Geometry Stash, out in the new OS. The first iOS 4 simulator was a bit buggy; but hey, at least Geometry Stash worked. Afterwards, I stuck iOS 4 on the back burner and concentrated on improving my app. I didn’t download the following betas because my current testing device — a 1st gen iPod Touch — was unable to run the iOS 4 beta software .

Jump to mid-June, Apple had begun seeding that iOS 4 GM. I decided to download the GM because it was the final build and I would have to download it sooner of later. Turns out, Geometry Stash launches and then displays a black screen.

<-- not good

This happened in the iPhone and iPad simulator. I just assumed that that was just some technical mistake on whoever developed the simulator. I thought of this due to the fact that Geometry Stash seemed to operate perfectly on my device running os 3.1.3.

I submitted the update to the review team right before leaving on a weeklong church missionary trip. When I returned I found out that "Geometry Stash was rejected because it shows a black screen when running" .

I called an Apple support employee to clarify the issue. She explained that the review team tested Geometry Stash on their iPhones and iPads all running iOS 4. I then asked her if the current version of the app crashed in iOS 4. She replied no.

Overview so far:

Good news - The current version of the app still works.

Bad news - I didn't touch the project before it started malfunctioning in iOS 4. It was the exact same project.

I emailed Apple's Developer Tech Support regarding my problem. An engineer replied quickly — the following day — requesting more info about my project.

Update – July 14th

After sending out my project archive, the engineer pointed out that my MainWindow nib file were missing a Visible at Launch property. I checked the Visible at Launch property in interface builder and the app run perfect.

This was probably all caused by my own negligence. When the 3.2 OS beta came out I did a rush work to implement an iPad version of the app. Lesson learned…

…time to slow down and read more carefully.

Over the weekend, some friends and I decided to film an advertisement for Geometry Stash. With limited time before we would be forced off the campus and unplanned setup, filming began. Amazingly, the two takes we took turned out pretty well. Here’s the finished video. We’d like to hear your feedback in the comments below!

Note: If you can’t view the video. Here’s youtube link.