Tag Archives: aMemoryJog Password Manager

How to create an App Preview for the Apple App Store

When you are looking for an app in the Apple app store, I am sure you take a look at the screen shots to get a feel for whether the app will accomplish what you are looking for. Screen shots are important and look similar to this:

App Store Screen shots

App Store Screen shots

One of the more recent improvements to the Apple App Store is to be able to watch a quick 30-second video that shows how the app works. This can give you a much quicker assessment as to whether the app will fulfill your needs.

As an app developer, it is good practice to create an app preview so that more people will download your app. In today’s blog, I will explain how to create the app preview video for the Apple app store.

I will also show you how my App Preview turned out. If you are the kind that likes to eat their dessert before their entree, click here to see the finished app preview video.

Before Getting Started

Before you get started, it is important that you have the following hardware and software to create an app preview:

  • Mac computer – Running iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite (or higher). It will not work using a Windows PC.
  • iPhone 5 or higher – You can submit your app preview for different iPhone models (one for iPhone 5, 6 or 6 plus) but you have to record each separately. It does not support uploading app previews for iPhone 4.
  • QuickTime Player – This normally comes installed on your Mac computer but if it doesn’t, you can quickly download it. This is used for recording your app preview.
  • iMovie – You will use iMovie to edit the app preview, add titles, transitions and music. The cost of iMovie (at the time of this writing) was $14.99 USD.
  • Safari Browser – When uploading the final app preview to iTunes Connect, you must use Safari from your Mac Computer, Chrome and IE are not supported.

Step by Step Instructions for Creating an App Preview

Once we have the right hardware and software, we can begin the process.

Step 1 – Connect the iPhone to the Mac Computer

Using your lightning connector, connect your iPhone to your Mac Computer.

Step 2 – Record the Movie in QuickTime Player

Open up QuickTime Player and click File | New Movie Recording.

QuickTime Player File New Movie Menu

It will probably display your ugly mug in the camera so  you will need to switch it from showing your Mac camera to showing your iPhone screen. To do that, toggle the view to your iPhone:

Switch QuickTime Player from Camera to iPhone

Once you switch to your iPhone, it might look similar to this:

Showing your iPhone in QuickTime Player

From here, you simply press the red record button and it will begin recording everything you do on your iPhone. Tap on the icon for your app, go through the screens you wish to display in the app preview and when done, tap the record button again to stop the recording. Once that is done, it will ask you to save it in a folder or on your desktop, do that.

Step 3 – Import the QuickTime Recording to iMovie

Once you’ve created your recording in QuickTime Player, open up iMovie. Once opened, click File | New Event.  Then click File  | New App Preview.  Click the Import button to import the recorded movie.  Finally, drag the imported movie to the timeline.

Creating app previews with iMovie

Step 4 – Edit the iMovie

Now it’s time to edit the iMovie to render the final product. Some things you will want to do is to cut out sections of the movie that go on for too long or are not pertinent. The maximum number of seconds allowed for app previews is 30 seconds, so you should also trim it down to 30 seconds or less.

Working with iMovie takes a bit of experimenting. One useful feature is the ability to take part of your movie and split it so that you can erase parts that you don’t like. You can split the movie by clicking the location in the timeline and clicking Modify | Split Clip. Do this at the beginning of the section you want to delete and do it again at the end of the section you want to delete. Then select the entire split section and press the Delete key.

Another feature I liked is the ability to freeze a frame for a certain number of seconds. Let’s say you are showing a particular screen and you have a title that fades in that explains the screen. You will want the screen to stay there until the person has time to read the title. To do this, select that section on the timeline and click Modify | Add Freeze Frame.

Some other things you will want to experiment with is adding titles, transitions and music to your app preview. To add a title, simple click Titles in the left bottom corner of the page, then select the type of title you want (fade in from the bottom, side, etc.).  Then change the wording in the title and extend it to how long you would like it to show.

To add a transition (like a page curl), click Transitions and drag the transition to a section on the timeline. It is good  practice to split the movie and drag the transition to that split section.

To add music, click Sound Effects and select the music you like, then drag that to the timeline. If you want the music to fade out at the end, click on the music section at the end of the timeline and drag the volume down.

Once you are happy with your movie and it is 30 seconds or less, click Share | App Preview. This will create an MP4 file that you can then upload to iTunes Connect.

Related article: How to Build a Product Website for your App

Step 5 – Upload to iTunes Connect

The last thing to do is to upload the app preview movie to your iTunes Connect account. You must be using a Mac computer and the Safari browser to upload the app preview to iTunes Connect. To do that, click My Apps in iTunes Connect and go to where the screen shots are stored. Then tap on the device size that you recorded the video of:

  • 4.7 inch is iPhone 6
  • 5.5 inch is iPhone 6 Plus
  • 4 inch is iPhone 5

Once there, click Choose File and upload the app preview video. This is how it might look when you are done:

iTunes Connect App Preview

Step 6 – Rinse and Repeat

Once you have created your app preview for a specific device (iPhone 5 for example), you will need to do it again for any other device you are support (like the iPhone 6 or 6 plus). To do that, go through steps 1 – 5 for that device.

App Preview for aMemoryJog Pro

Want to see how my app preview turned out? Click the video below to view the app preview.

aMemoryJog Password Manager: App Preview


Brought to you by aMemoryJog

This blog was brought to you by aMemoryJog, a free password management app for the iPhone. If you are looking for an app to track your passwords and other easy-to-forget information, download aMemoryJog now at http://apple.co/1BsnQ7K. Why not, it’s free!

Password Keeper App

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Work a Little and Play a lot: Lifestyle Freedom through App Development

Many people are equating today’s popularity of mobile apps to the US gold rush of 1849. This hype suggests that you can create a mobile app, publish it to the various app stores and quickly become a millionaire.

Lifestyle Freedom

Is it true? Think about it, there are 1.2 million apps in the Apple App Store in mid 2014. Do you think all of the people publishing apps are millionaires? Nope.  According to Laura Tallardy (statistics provided by Owen Goss), here are the statistics:

  • The bottom 25 percent have made less than $200
  • The next 25 percent have made between $200 and $3,000
  • The 50-75 quarter are between $3,000 and $30,000
  • The top 10 percent have made $400,000
  • The top 4 percent are MILLIONAIRES!

So the real question is “Can I build an app company that does well enough that I can design my own lifestyle, work when I am inspired and play a lot?“.  To do that, you need to get yourself into the top 25%. Is that easy? I’m not sure but I do know that many app developers simply develop an app, put it in the app store, do no marketing and expect it to reach the top 10%. And as you might predict, they land in the bottom 25%.

2HourAppreneur Experiment

All of this brings us to an experiment called the “2HourAppreneur experiment. I am developing an app (and possibly multiple apps if it looks promising) to determine if a person can build an app business that allows them to live a cool and fulfilling lifestyle. A lifestyle that affords you the opportunity to work on your own timetable, play a lot and revel in your entrepreneurial spirit.

Why am I qualified to try it? I’m an entrepreneur that started a software business in 1998 and sold it in 2009. Selling the business made me financially independent and allowed me to retire at 50 years old. I have enjoyed the retired lifestyle freedom. I’ve traveled a lot, adopted new hobbies, and pushed myself with new challenges. With my free time, I can try this experiment without financial pressures because building an app business is fairly inexpensive. If you want to learn more about me, you can take a look at my personal website and travel blogs.

Will it work? I am not sure but it will be fun to try. I will document my journey and tell you exactly what works and what doesn’t. This posting will be a living document that includes a list of helpful blogs explaining exactly what I am doing and why.  And if it doesn’t work, at least we will all know!

Here are some blogs I’ve created to document the process thus far:

How Can You Track the 2HourAppreneur Experiment?

If you find this experiment interesting, you have a couple of ways of keeping updated on the progress:

Email
If you don’t mind getting an email every few weeks subscribe to my 2HourAppreneur blog. You can do that by entering your email address below (you can unsubscribe at any time):

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Facebook
If you prefer not to get an email this often but would like to check in, LIKE my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/2hourappreneur.

Twitter
Or you can subscribe to my Twitter feed at https://twitter.com/2hourappreneur, my Twitter handle is @2HourAppreneur.

aMemoryJog
While you’re at it, take a look at the first app I am developing called aMemoryJog. It is an app for keeping track of all your passwords, loyalty reward numbers, and anything else that is easy to forget. Learn more at http://www.aMemoryJog.com.

Latest Updates

As mentioned above, I plan to continually update this blog posting as I publish new blogs related to app development, so you will see the list of blogs listed above grow over time. I will also let you know where I am in the process.

Update on 18-June-15
I am now working on my second app called Count Us Down. It lets you count down the days until a big life event (vacation, baby on the way, wedding, concert, sporting event, retirement, etc.).  It also allows you to share that event with your friends and family. Want to be part of the beta team? If you do, you will get early access to the app and you can provide feedback before it gets to the app store. Sign up here: http://www.CountUsDown.com

Update on 13-May-15
The aMemoryJog app has been in the app store for a few  months now and I’ve learned a great deal from this experiment. Click here to see what I’ve learned

Update on 17-Nov-14
I outsourced the development of the aMemoryJog app in early April 2014. It was expected to take about 4 months to complete but it has taken a lot longer than expected. The extra development time has been OK because it has given me more time to build my social media followers and prepare a marketing strategy. aMemoryJog should be in the Apple app store sometime in December 2014.

This Article Was Brought to You by 2HourAppreneur

This article was brought to you by 2HourAppreneur makers of the aMemoryJog Password Manager app. The app is free, why not try it now?

aMemoryJog: Best Password Manager

Newly redesigned website for aMemoryJog

In last month’s post, I discussed how to keep track of your appreneur tasks and time spent. This month I thought I would take a break from the typical posts regarding how to build and run an appreneur business and let you know about the latest happenings with our app, aMemoryJog.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.  Winston Churchill

Redesigned the aMemoryJog App

We were just about ready to launch the aMemoryJog app and took a 2 month pause. Why? Initially we were going to have 2 apps, a free one (aMemoryJog Lite) and a paid one (aMemoryJog Pro). After reviewing other apps in the App Store, we decided to move forward with a single app (just called aMemoryJog). It will be free but will offer an in-app purchase that will unlock some additional capabilities (this is called a Freemium approach).

The reason for this decision was that it will be easier to maintain and market a single app than it will if we have 2 separate editions of the app and the customer will have a much better experience if they decide to unlock the additional features with an in-app purchase. If they upgrade using the in-app purchase, the features will immediately appear and they will not have to download a separate app.

Password-Manager-Web-And-iPhone-Editions

Basic Features of the aMemoryJog iPhone App

When the free app is downloaded, it will have the following BASIC features:

  • Remembers passwords and other private information
  • Tracks accounts, credit cards, frequent flyer, loyalty card, and more
  • Easy-to-setup categories, custom fields and unlimited notes
  • Single tap access to your websites – fills in user names and passwords
  • Secures stored information with bank-level 256-bit AES encryption
  • Search feature finds any item containing the phrase typed in
  • Provides a strong unique password generator
  • Shields passwords from prying eyes with password masking
  • Configurable timeout setting for automatic log out after an inactivity delay

Premium Features (available with in-app purchase):

The cost to upgrade from the Basic features to Premium features will be $9.99. Below are the additional features that you get:

  • Provides all features of the Basic edition but with no ads
  • Includes a free web based edition accessible from PC, Mac or tablets
  • Allows you to import data from a spreadsheet
  • Cloud backups prevent loss of data if you restore your mobile device
  • Syncs with the web edition
  • Allows you to restore any deleted entry from a recycle bin
  • Supports English, Spanish, French, and German languages
  • Supports Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese languages
  • Self-destruct feature erases data upon too many invalid password tries
  • Remote self-destruct erases aMemoryJog data if phone is lost or stolen
  • Data erased from self-destruct can later be restored from cloud backup

If you want to learn more about the app, check out the aMemoryJog iPhone App website.

Redesigned the aMemoryJog Web Site

As the developer was redesigning the app, we took this time to also redesign the entire aMemoryJog website. The new site is easier to read, has more images, and is more search engine optimization (SEO) friendly than the original site. Below is the new look, but you can see the entire site here: http://www.aMemoryJog.com.

aMemoryJog-Marketing-Site

 

Related article: How to Build a Product Website for your App

When will it be in the Apple App Store?

We hope to have the app in the Apple App Store by early to mid-November, assuming we don’t hit any snags. As you may remember, the web edition is already in production and a free trial can be downloaded here.

Also, if you like this blog, please share it with others to increase our following. Our twitter account is @2HourAppreneur and be sure to like my Facebook page at http://www.Facebook.com/2HourAppreneur.

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