February 24, 2014 · 10:34 pm

Inorganic Acids, Polyatomic Ions and Potassium Nitrate

My new app is called Inorganic Acids, Polyatomic Ions and Potassium Nitrate. Hopefully, it will be useful for everyone who studies inorganic chemistry.

The English description:

Learn names and formulas of all important inorganic acids, polyatomic ions and their salts. An app is suitable for everyone: from high school students to chemistry professors.
Take a quiz or use the table as a reference.

* 70+ inorganic acids: from Sulfuric H2SO4 to Hydrazoic HN3
* 50+ anions and cations: from Chloride Cl– to Hydrazinium N2H5+
* 50+ salts: from Potassium nitrate KNO3 to Ammonium hexachloroplatinate (NH4)2PtCl6

*****

New features:
– Table prepared with iOS standard elements
– Rate App button
– New smaller Open / Remove Letters buttons
– The app icon resembles a safety diamond (shows how dangerous a particular chemical compound is)
– Entering chemical formulas as answers. I even didn’t use subscripts, because in the Georgia fonts, digits are already smaller than letters.
– “Acidic” colors are used in design
– Only first 2 modes and a table are available for free. Six others modes can be purchased just for $0.99 together with removing the ads banner.

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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February 16, 2014 · 11:04 pm

Hydrocarbons 1.1

The new version of the Hydrocarbons app has been approved after 6 days of waiting and just 1 min of reviewing.

The major reason of the update was to add “promo nodes” (links after questions) to my recent apps. I moved the “Watch Ads” button from the Settings to the game as well, though it seems that the whole idea with interstitial screen ads doesn’t pay off in my case. There are several minor fixes in chemical formulas in their style or sizes. In the main menu, I highlighted that two locked modes (“Dienes & Polyenes” and “Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons”) can be unlocked (= bought) in Settings. The word “Buy” near an inactive button was a bit confusing. The letter keys were made bigger in case of iPhone/iPod. The sounds of correct letters now grow in their pitch which is not as monotonous as it was in 1.0.

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February 9, 2014 · 8:58 pm

SI Unit Prefixes

The idea of an app about SI Unit Prefixes came to me several months ago. I registered it at the iTunes Connect in September. At last, it’s here for everyone to enjoy.

The English description:

How many meters are in 1 nanometer? How many vertices does Dodecahedron have? Is 1 Mebibyte bigger than 1 Megabyte?
This app will help you to answer these and many other questions about decimal, binary, and number prefixes. It has a complete list of prefixes approved for SI units.

Please check 5 Tables and 5 Quizzes:
* Decimal Multiple: kilo-, Mega-, Giga-, etc.
* Decimal Fractional: milli-, micro-, nano-, etc.
* Number Latin: uni-, bi-, ter-, quart-, quint-, etc.
* Number Greek: mono-, di-, tri-, tetra-, penta-, etc.
* Binary: kibi-, mebi-, gibi-, etc.

A quick reference and an easy way to learn this information essential for everyone studying math, computer science, physics, and chemistry.

*****

1. This app was uploaded several hours after Heterocyclic Compounds, they got into the review simultaneously, and SI Prefixes were approved 7 minutes before Heterocycles.

2. New features:
– This is my first app in the category Reference. Actually, after analyzing how the main page for each category is filled on the App Store, I’m leaning towards publishing all my apps as Games. To get on the first page of Education or Reference Apps, your app has to be picked up by Apple editors. In case of Games, all new free games get into the “New Free” bar.
– Tables show all question / answer pairs. It’s not only convenient for users, but helped me to check all errors and typos quickly during the development.

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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February 9, 2014 · 8:09 pm

Heterocyclic Compounds

My third chemical app – Heterocyclic Compounds.

The English description:

Heterocycles are parts of:
* Biomolecules (nucleic bases in your DNA and RNA; amino acids Histidine and Tryptophan)
* Important drugs (80% of top-selling drugs contain heterocycles: benzodiazepines, quinine, penicillin, etc.)
* and even Food (sugar has heterocyclic rings too!)

That’s why it’s so useful to know the structures of major heterocyclic compounds for molecular biologists, pharmacists, organic chemists and for general public interested in what the stuff is made from.

This app is the unique place to learn the structures and names of 80+ heterocycles.

* Entertaining letter quiz ‘Structure – Name’
* Nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur heterocycles
* Everything from Purine to Pyridine

*****

1. This app has a bit aggressive “watermelon” design and its goal is not only to teach millions of iOS users about heterocyclic structures but also test the simplest possible “letter quiz” model. There is one linear mode. No flashcards, no tables. The IAP just removes the ad banner.

The review time now is slightly longer than 1 week.

2. Features:
– One linear mode of 81 heterocycles with random questions after finishing the whole sequence
– English and Russian localizations
– Games – Educational / Word category

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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February 6, 2014 · 9:13 pm

Amino Acids Structures and Names

My second chemical app Amino Acids Structures and Names was approved less than in one week after the first one about Hydrocarbons. This time there have been no problems during the submission / review process at all.

The English description of the app:

Do you know the chemical formula of glycine?
Btw, the knowledge of structures and names of amino acids – building blocks of proteins and peptides – are important not only for chemists, but also for biologists, pharmacists, and just for everyone studying science and/or medicine. This app is the easiest and the most efficient way to learn the structures, codes, and properties of 20 standard amino acids and 14 related compounds.

*****

* ‘Structure – Name’ Quiz
* Flashcards – Rate each card to adjust to your level of knowledge
* All 22 proteinogenic Amino Acids (20 standard + Selenocysteine and Pyrrolysine)
* Colorful structural formulas
* Three- and One-letter codes (abbreviations)
* Isoelectric points (pI)
* Essential Amino Acids
* Polar and Hydrophobic Amino Acids
* Unnatural Amino Acids such as D-Alanine
* Dipeptides such as Aspartame*

*****

It is a perfect app for everyone studying:

* Biochemistry
* Organic Chemistry
* Molecular Biology


*****

New features:
– It can be also called my first biochemical app.
– Flashcards mode – the player sees a formula or a name of an amino acid, tries to remember what’s the missing info is, checks “Show an Answer” and finally rates how well he/she knows this particular amino acid (from 1 – not at all – to 5 – very well). The probability of this card to be shown again depends on this rating.
– The IAP is associated with flashcards. There are 34 compounds in the app and only 10 cards are available for free. To get them all, one has to buy “All flashcards & Remove Ads”.
– “Promo buttons”:
a) instead of the “More Games” list in Settings, I have a direct link to Hydrocarbons and other apps from the game. The button shows up after answers to certain questions.
b) The button “Watch Ads” was moved from Settings to the game as well. It shows an AdMob interstitial, gives hints for this, and disappears.
– So far it was localized only to English and Russian but I do have plans to add at least German, Spanish, and Italian in future updates.
– I may called it “a game” but it’s my first app in the Education category.

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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January 31, 2014 · 6:15 pm

Hydrocarbon Chemical Formula

Word World

My first chemistry app Hydrocarbon Formula has been approved and is on the App Store. I plan this to be a start of a series of apps based on the model “Letter Quiz” where the player sees a picture or a formula and has to build its name from the given letters. There will be both chemical and non-chemical quizzes.

The English description of the game is the following:

This application is essential for students learning the basics of organic chemistry, for teachers, graduate students and professionals checking their knowledge of the subject. There are more than 175 structural formulas: fun to guess – easy to remember. Hydrocarbons are the most fundamental class of organic compounds, so it is very important to know their chemical names.

Questions are logically divided into 6 topics covering all possible hydrocarbons. Begin with crucial structures such as methane CH4, benzene C6H6, and octane C8H18 and then proceed to advance topics learning about benzopyrene C20H12 and cubane C8H8. In each question, guess the name of the hydrocarbon or use the hints.

The compound database is prepared by a PhD chemist. 178 structures and names of:

* Alkanes
* Cycloalkanes
* Alkenes / Alkynes
* Dienes, and Polyenes
* Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Arenes)
* Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

***

1. This app was twice rejected because of too-long name (the reviewer asked to move all those “dienes, polyenes” to keywords) and because of failed (?) in-app-purchase. According to the attached screenshot, the IAP did work. So I wrote a letter to the Resolution Center and the app was quickly approved without any additional comments on their side or actions on my side.

2. New features are:
– “Watch Ads” button showing an AdMob interstitial and giving the player 20 hints
– Send an email to the author (asmolgam@gmail.com) button in the app
– 40 hints are given for sharing the info about the app on Twitter or Facebook
– Localization to 5 languages besides English and Russian: German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

3. Acknowledgements: icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

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December 16, 2013 · 1:52 pm

Congratulations Generation

Word World

You may call my newest app Congratulations Generation a joke or a linguistics exercise. For me, it’s an experiment. Or more precisely, a continuation of experience with different apps. Suffice to say, it’s my first non-game (Entertainment/Lifestyle categories). I don’t risk to launch new games before the Holidays because of high competition with top titles (downloads of my games dropped significantly during Thanksgiving for the same reason).

Well, what does the Congratulations Generator do? It creates a random six-string greeting to a friend using a “best wishing database”. There are four databases (modes) corresponding to 1) Christmas/New Year, 2) Birthday, 3) Other happy occasions (graduations, weddings, etc.), 4) the Valentine’s Day. For each mode, there are more than 1,000,000 unique combinations of strings. Some results look like real serious messages, others are funny jokes, the rest is a grammatical or semantic nonsense. I didn’t realize how difficult it is to make strings agree with each other. OK, the app is free, so nobody should be very angry. After all, I suggest to use this app as entertainment + inspiration, not as a reliable source of pre-written greetings to friends and family.

The new technology I implemented in this app is a Send E-mail button. I found the sample code online but it didn’t work properly for iPhone with iOS 7 and required thinking and tuning that eventually led not only to solving this bug but an existing bug in my apps dealing with closing UIViews in Cocos2D. It’s always nice to learn something new and useful even in such modest apps.

If users like Congratulations Generator, I’ll prepare an update with extended database and more holidays.

Acknowledgements: icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome. The Birthday cake icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com.

Thanks!
Happy Holidays!

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November 16, 2013 · 4:32 pm

Circles: New Version

Circles

I’m glad to report that a new version Circles is available on the App Store. If you solved all levels in the first version and are looking for more challenging ones, here they are:

– 12 New levels (totally 21 levels in the Game) divided to three Circles;
– New topologies requiring completely new strategy. In some levels you slide two sectors simultaneously, it makes the puzzle a 2D analogy of a Sphere or a Klein bottle in addition to the Torus topology of original 9 levels;
– Levels with 4 Rings: match three internal sectors by color as you did before and make all tiles in the external fourth ring of the same color too;
– A better control of tiles during rotating and sliding;
– Comprehensive Leaderboards in the Game Center summarizing your best times in the first 9 levels or in all 21 levels.

Please contact me if you have questions and suggestions. I promise to make timely updates of Circles based on your valuable feedbacks. Thanks!

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November 5, 2013 · 10:53 pm

Review Times for Apps [FruitoMarathon: Day 3 – Peach]

The third fruit in fruHarvest is a peach. It’s also on the app’s icon. Today I’ll write about the review times for applications submitted to the App Store. It usually takes about a week before the status “Waiting for Review” changes to “In Review”. This website shows daily estimates: between 2.99 days on Aug. 9 and 8.45 days on Jan. 7 in this year. Let’s compare with waiting times of my apps:

Monster! What Color is It? Take a Quiz!
Version 1.0 – Submitted: Jun 7, 2013 – Reviewed: Jun 14 (7 days) – approved
Version 1.1 – Submitted: Aug 7, 2013 – Reviewed: Aug 12-13 (5-6 days) – approved
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November 3, 2013 · 6:59 pm

Creating iOS App Icons [FruitoMarathon: Day 2 – Plum]

Circles is a great puzzle. But I’d like to continue “FruitoMarathon” in honor of my another recent app fruHarvest. The second fruit there is a plum. And today I’d like to talk about app icons in iOS7.

The icons in iOS7 differs from icons in iOS6 in shape (see a comprehensive discussion here), in size and the absence of the gloss. Before I prepared only 7 icon files, now I need 13 files:
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