October 16, Saturday is the Fall Astronomy Day (not to be confused with the Spring Astronomy Day). Amateurs from around the world are asked to haul out ol’ “Betsy” or whatever they name their telescope, over the weekend to let their friends and neighbors have their very first ever look through a scope. So to encourage people to look up, I am offering Distant Suns 2 for sale at only $.99. Distant Suns 3 is also on sale for half off, and is...

Some recent email demanding that I fix this and that. I know the feeling after getting some apps I had trouble with. Usually it may take only 10 minutes to fix a bug, but then I have to upload it to Apple for approval. Unfortunately, that’s the main bottleneck. Last year the reviews were taking up to 3 to 4 weeks (!). However, by this spring some folks were reporting reviews of less than a day, now that’s more like it. But it has since crept up...

Good news, for all of you patient and kind Distant Suns types, 3.1.1 went up live to the Appstore last night fixing the compass bug that caused it to flip 180 degrees when in landscape mode. A  number of smaller things were tossed into the mix. Some have reported the compass staying stuck on North. I see that at times but it goes away when I change my position by a few feet.. So I am convinced that it is an iPhone/iPad issue and not a Distant...

All of my apps make use of Apple’s “Push Notification” service, a means of sending out short announcements to users of specific applications without needing those applications to actually be running. When an app is installed that has APN available, the system will warn you and specifically ask if you want to receive notifications from that app. That is under Apple’s domain, so there is no way for a wiley app author to  ”sneak” APN in under the...

I get this question a lot. And yes, it is legitimate to ask. The reason why I don’t upgrade Distant Suns 2 users to version 3 is simple: There is no way to do that on the Appstore between two different apps. “Ok, hotshot, why have two versions of the same thing? Couldn’t you have just made Distant Suns 2 the universal app and not have another version for sale?” Yes, and no. Yes, as that is what I would like to have done…No…is that Distant Suns...

After leaving my cameras in the men’s room at Gate 25 of the Santiago, Chile airport (D’oh!), it became necessary to make my iPhone 4 my exclusive camera to shoot the July 11 total solar eclipse. This posting is merely some observations about the phone’s handling in less than ideal conditions. The eclipse’s path began in Argentinean Patagonia, the most southern province in Argentina. Our target was the town of El Catafane, pop. 25000, a popular...