Apple doesn’t give much guidance on this important chunk of text. “Write your Application Description with a focus on what makes the functionality or design of your app unique.” was a tip from this past June from the App Store Tips blog.

We know that 4000 characters is the limit.  And App descriptions are made up of simple text, including unicode symbols like checkboxes (✔) and more (♣☢☂).  Apple takes your unicode text and formats it for display on the web via Web Preview, in iTunes and on the iOS devices themselves (the app store).

Since you probably have very specific points you want to get across, and users have a very short attention span, you need to pay attention to how Apple will format what you write.  In this entry I discuss how to create app descriptions that look great everywhere Apple publishes your app description.

Word Wrap and the Fold

Word wrap occurs in app descriptions when enough characters fill up a line.  Each line has a maximum number of characters and when a word goes over that, it is bumped to the next line.  This is important because one word of word wrap can waste an entire line of potential ad copy.  This is important: the length of your lines in your app description affects the placement of the fold.

The fold is the point where iTunes, Web Preview or the iPad App Store app decide to make the user click or tap the More… button.  Everything below the fold is out of sight, out of mind.  Without the data to prove it, my hunch is that at least half the time, users are not bothering to click More… before deciding whether they are installing an app or not.

All this means is that you must use the space above the fold as effectively as possible.

All app purchase vectors limit the top of fold line display to three lines.  Two important rules here:

1. Blank lines count as lines.
2. Lines over 120 characters in length will lead to word wrap and the use of an additional line above the fold line.

App Description Formatting on iTunes and Web Preview

Web Preview and iTunes behave in a similar way, Web Preview is just that, a summary of your app description and screenshots along with a link to view the app in iTunes.  The final step on a computer is to have iTunes open to the page where the user clicks purchase to download the app.  A history of Web Preview and SEO implications may be found here.

Both iTunes and Web Preview show the same number of lines from your app description before the “break” point.  A break point is where all text is hidden below the fold, and the user must click the More… link to display the rest.

Let’s look at some examples. The following three shots were taken from Web Preview.  iTunes displays the same amount of information as Web Preview, however only Web Preview has fixed width.  Resize the iTunes app window, allows longer word-wrapping lines but ultimately the same amount of information above the fold as Web Preview.

Note: Click any images to see the full size.

Here the app publisher has chosen to highlight two specific sentences and put a line of space between them for readibility.  Note that if the first line was longer than 120 characters, top of fold would be a complete and a partial line (due to the wrap) and the third would simply be a blank space.

Here the app publisher has one long line of text with no carriage returns.  This means that all three allowable lines of text are the result of one word wrapped line.  This is the maximum amount of information you can cram into the top of fold, but it does not read very well here.  Wait until you see how ad copy like this looks in the iPhone’s App Store.  For your reference, this one line of text is about 343 characters in length.

Looking at the devices

Currently there are two different sizes in the iOS hardware family.  The long one, (iPhone and iPod Touch devices), and the wide one, (iPad devices).  In addition, there are three types of binaries, iPhone only apps, iPad only apps and Universal apps, which work on both iPhone (iPod Touch too) and iPad.

If your app is only for iPhone you need to focus on how it is displayed in the iPhone’s app store.  If it is only for iPad, you need to look at it there.  In either case you also need to look at how Apple’s relatively new Web Preview page displays your app description too.

App Description Formatting on the iPhone

Often users install apps directly on their device, rather than using iTunes and syncing a purchase.  It is certainly less clunky and you have instant satisfaction of getting to run the app right away.  That means your app description marketing copy should be influenced by how the lines of text look when displayed on each of these devices.

Here are some screenshots of how word wrapping of text affects readability on the iPhone App Store app.  Note that the iPhone app store app only supports portrait orientation.

Interestingly, a long line of text looks like a nice paragraph on the iPhone.  Also, Apple uses the bullet character to bullet features.

Note here that the long lines make the display of this text awkward and difficult to read.  (I use it anyhow!)

Note a few things here:

1. The first and third lines are used so Web Preview and iTunes display both lines top of fold.
2. The bulleted lists do not word wrap, (the max char per line is 45).
3. Unicode goodness makes it look crisp.
4. Attention goes to lines 17 and 18 in the app description.  They are the final ones before the user would scroll down to see the screen shots.

Here’s Rock Show’s Web Preview:

App Description Formatting on the iPad

The iPad app store app supports both landscape and portrait modes.  It also brings back the idea of the fold and its exposing link, “More…”  In this way, the iPad’s app store application is formated more like iTunes’ traditional display.  See for yourself by comparing iBooks Web Preview with the landscape view of the iPad App Store app. iBooks also happens to have a fancy custom background that 3rd party developers generally won’t have access to:

Conclusion

There isn’t an easy way to preview how your app’s text will look in all these different store fronts until after it is published , but you can at least know what you’re up against.

Experiment with your language and line length.  Every opportunity for a new installation of your software on an iOS device holds not only immediate, but residual value.  Since potential users may view your value proposition from a few different angles, pay attention to the quirks and write accordingly.

Great song, cool remix.  I’ve been seeing these embedded waveform and music playback widgets by SoundCloud.  Deadmau5 also uses this services for posting experimental clips.  I like the in-timeline comments.

A Note on Media Alignment

It is worth noting that we’re beginning to see more media outlets align with or against Apple.  From my frequent review of popular mobile news coverage, it has become clear that Gizmodo and PC World do their best to highlight gaffes and problems in the iTunes ecosystem or just about iAnything.  Meanwhile a blog like MacRumors seeks to downplay news that might be viewed as concerning or add to the distress from iphone4antennaegate. (I just made that up).

While the title of these publications alone should serve as a strong indicator, keeping track is important.   The Clintons are well known for keeping their loyalty lists in order and it is entirely reasonable to assume Apple is doing the same.   For the record, I run an iOS app development group and generally advocate for the iOS platform.

The Recent Gaming of the App Store

Back to the issue at hand, MacRumors published a piece titled, “Reports of ‘App Store Hacked’ Greatly Exaggerated” that sought to downplay concerns related to the book category being hijacked by a rogue developer for over four days.  Indeed, the book category is small, however any evidence that challenges the fairness of the App store only adds to the mindset that not all developers get a fair shot.

When news like this is published it suggests that as an app developer, you not only must court and respond to any marketing opportunities provided by Apple (few and far between) but also worry about your app competing on its own merits in the top 50 ranking.

Apple ID Password Policy

Currently the only requirement for a password that may be used to access iTunes, MobileMe, the iOS developer portal and more is that it be 6 characters in length.  As far as I can tell, there are no other requirements and no common passwords are blocked.  (I briefly changed my password to ‘password’ to test this.)

To quote Wikipedia’s entry, “Password policies are usually a tradeoff between theoretical security and the practicalities of human behavior.”  In the case of the iTunes music store the practicalities of human behavior are that the general public is really bad at remembering passwords, especially if they require numbers or upper case letters.

From Apple’s perspective, when someone forgets their password they can not buy virtual goods, whether that be music, videos or apps.  It is my belief that Apple forces you to re-enter your password when ‘buying’ free applications or upgrading previous applications specifically to make sure you always know your password just in case you decide you want to buy something.

Given the number of accounts out there linked directly to credit cards, it is fair to assume that if Apple were to implement a stronger password policy it would have a negative effect on sales.  And, at least for the moment, the number of negative publicity associated with compromised accounts and their use to game the app store does not outweigh this figure.

Apple ID password requirements appear to have been unchanged for years, as hack reports have been reported for some time.  What is new is the app store gaming.  No one cares about others’ poor password choices until they start affecting their own bottom line.

The good news is that soon we may find hardened amber containing DNA from this long evolved-past website.  Following this, a white bearded father figure may start a park on a remote island in South America seeking to recreate the fantasy of this long departed wild animal leading to an escape and adventure beyond our wildest expectations.

Here’s a link to check out the new album:  http://www.myspace.com/mia

This of course affects those who have unauthorized charges to their credit card, and also those developers with apps in competition for rankings in the book category.

My guess would be that the unethical developer behind this push would also game up competitors apps so that it is unclear which is at fault or benefiting the most from the hacking.  It seems that Apple should have checks and balances to detect for and trigger a flag when a previously unpopular, over-priced iOS app is suddenly in the top 10.

Evidence of folks who have discovered hacks are currently in the comments for some of the apps that have made their way up through gaming.  Currently “Conan 3″ an app described as “this is a application to read book” by Thuat Nguyen is in position #9 in the books category today. One of the reviews is as follows:

Watch Out!

Someone out there is hacking into people’s iTunes accounts.  This just happened to me last night.  Luckily, my bank is right on top of things like this and did not authorize release of the funds and closed the account.  Keep a watchful eye on your account information….often!”

Here’s a screen shot of that app’s preview page as it stands. Here are a few tweets about folks getting their iTunes account hacked and an article from May on what the fallout when your iTunes account gets hacked.

Consider updating your iTunes password to include numbers, characters and capitalization!

When I went in search for the course files, I found them all individually linked on the course downloads page.  Since I don’t want to have to return to this page, I used a Firefox plugin to download all of the files and then organized them into folders. The result is one single archive for you to download.

Download – Stanford CS193P.zip – 81.3 MB

Most people are going to get an error when building projects from this set: “error: There is no SDK with the name or path…” Gonzalo Gasca posted a four step solution to this:

1. From the Projects menu in XCode, choose “Edit Project Settings”
2. Click on the “General” tab. Near the bottom of the inspector window, you should see the path to the non-existant SDK that’s troubling you.
3. Change the selection for “Cross-Develop Using Target SDK:” to another listed SDK instead of “Other” as it probably currently reads.
4. Click Build, and away you go!

It is nothing short of amazing that this level of educational material is available for free.  I came across the Stanford course after Windows Phone 7 evangelist Paul Thurrott pointed out that Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do in the realm of developer documentation and free training products.  He’s right.

There are a number of tricks to upgrading an iPhone in the United States.  Most revolve around the fact that AT&T subsidizes the cost of new iPhones.  So your old iPhone may be worth as much or more than the cost of a new iPhone if you’re up for a two year renewal.

I’ve been lucky to have every model of iPhone break on me at least one time (except the 4 which hasn’t failed yet) and have every phone replaced by Apple.  My iPhone 3G broke twice.  The first was my now well-indexed bit on the white screen of death.  In the second phone, the sleep switch stopped working (a common problem with early iPhone 3G).  Technically, I’m on my fourth iPhone in just over two years.

The day before the iPhone 3GS launched (June 18th, 2009), I took my malfunctioning 3G to the Apple store downtown Boston.  Since it had been just under a year since I had bought the 3G, Apple replaced the phone and I had a brand new iPhone on my hands.  I ended up selling the 3G for about $380 to someone who wanted to unlock it and send it abroad. Since the new 32 GB iPhone 3GS  was only $300, I got the new phone and pocketed some cash for a screen protector and a Gela Skin.

Today, I did near the same thing with the 3GS.  I only had the 3GS break once on me. One day the device stopped booting properly and would not make it past the Apple logo no matter how many restores and resets I performed.  Since the phone was non-functional, I took it in only a month prior to the release of the iPhone 4, and got a brand new 3GS.

Here are some starter things that will go in your favor:

• If possible, always buy your iPhone from the biggest Apple store in town.  My experience is that Apple stores are best at taking back purchases from their own location.  I’ve heard of AT&T taking returns rejected by the Apple store but that’s not been my experience.
• Be on the upgrade cycle.  Get your contract to line up with the annual June release date for the new iPhone.  This is when the older gen iPhone is at its highest value used.
• Wait to return a partially working phone until just prior to the launch of a new iPhone.
• Make sure you have the new iPhone on reserve at the Apple store prior to the sale.
• List the iPhone on Craigslist, including the OS number and the baseband number.  These are found in the Settings -> General -> About page.  The baseband number is the modem***.  Make sure you use the words ‘unlocked’ and ‘jailbroken’ in the listing even if your iPhone is neither.  For example, “The phone is not unlocked or jailbroken.”  This will improve your  chances of showing up in results.
• Plan to meet the buyer near your target Apple store.
• Plan to have backup buyers in case the first fails to show up.
• Bring a small paperclip to the sale, so you can remove your SIM card.
• Remember to do a Settings -> Reset -> Reset All Data at the end of your sale. Do not give your phone away until you have wiped all data!

At one point I considered adding AppleCare, since that would extend the time the phone could be owner.  However my experience is that most people buying past generation iPhones are doing so to jailbreak and run on different carriers.  Apple will not return jailbroken phones, so Applecare and the secondary market for iPhones actually collide somewhat.

Just saw MIA’s Born Free video for the first time.  It contains life-like violence and is difficult to watch.  But it yields a striking combination of sound and imagery with a purpose. Boing Boing has info on the tune.  Amazing how this artist can flex from a $100 music video of her dancing in lasers to a complex short film with plenty of cash behind it.  [watch on vimeo]