Managing iOS projects
Whether you’re an indie developer, an established company or an amateur, App Cooker is the perfect tool to bring your iOS application ideas to life. Start with an idea, a sketch or an icon, then utilize the App Board to organize and inspire your work as you go. It’s easy enough for anyone to use yet achieves professional results. App Cooker is the best solution for planning and perfecting your projects until they are ready for production.
Think, make, test and share iPhone & iPad projects, BIG or small.
Welcome on the App Board!
The App Board gathers your concept plans, mock-ups, icons, App Store info and pricing strategy into a single work area. It is the backbone of every project and keeps your work organized. Nice and clear.
App Cooker’s Evolution
App Cooker is already pretty awesome but in the near future 5 features are going to be completely redesigned and a secret one introduced. We want to give you the best tool ever so here is the list of features we will be improving. As each of these are tweaked the price will gradually increase until it reaches the final $50 price tag. Grab App Cooker now at this highly discounted rate and watch it grow from great to indispensable in a matter of weeks.
Definition Statement
This is how every App should start. Type what your App is doing in ONE sentence. It will be displayed on the App Board, so each time you open your project you have a reminder of what you really want it to do.
The type of App
App Cooker gives you advice on the best interface style to use based on the type of application you are making. Simply select one of the 5 areas and the advice will appear inside the box on the right.
Evaluate the App
Rating your work throughout the project is a good way to measure progress and identify improvements. The criteria used are recognized standards across the profession.
Small yet Powerful
This is a small widget but use it and you will understand just how valuable it can be, saving a lot of time for you or your clients. Don’t underestimate this; the biggest players out there start this way.
Create Workflows
App Cooker is the best solution to create and manage complex workflows. Zoom in to get details, zoom out to get the big picture. Add up to 200 screens in each mockup you design.
Portrait & Landscape
Because “There is no right or wrong way for holding it” (Mr Ive), App Cooker allows you to design any screen in both orientations. You don’t have to jump out and mockup a separate screen. Neat.
The Real Thing
Test your mockup full screen just like it's a real App, directly from App Cooker. If a screen is designed in portrait & landscape mode, simply rotate the device when you play the mockup, and voilà.
All UI Widgets
The real Apple UI Widgets are supported inside the mockup editor. Tap the UI icon and a familiar pop-up will propose to you the list of available widgets. All of them are customizable in a simple yet intuitive way.
Wireframing Kit
All the UI Widgets are available as wireframes. It's the most powerful way to create stunning mockups and focus on the functionalities of your App. They are also fully customizable!
Hand Drawing
The hand drawing tool brings the mockup editor to the next level. Spread the box, double tap on it and draw inside. The drawing is transformed as an object you can move and duplicate. Unleash your creativity.
Vector Shapes
Here are all the shapes App Cooker can handle: line, square, rounded square, circle, triangle, star and polygon. All of them are fully customizable from the corner radius to the number of edges.
Text Tool
The text tool gives you two options: a simple line of text or a completed lorem ipsum text area. All the fonts available on the iPad are also available here so you can really get into your design and give a soul to your mockup.
Links Area
Linking screens together is really simple. Tap the link icon and one appears on the canvas. Drag it where you want, stretch it and select a target. Done. Now you can hit the play button and experience the real thing.
Image Support
images from the photo library can be imported into the graphic editor. They can be rotated and scaled. Images with an alpha channel such as translucent PNG will be supported in the future.
Picto Library
App Cooker is bundled with more than 100 pixel perfect pictos from various pro sets available on the web. Now you can create outstanding navigation bars, tool bars and tab bars with ease.
Smart is the Way
We wanted to make your life easier so we put a little bit of smartness here and there. Paste in place, smart duplicate, smart guides and others will greatly improve your productivity.
Colors
A black and white mockup is nice to get the layout but add colors and it will tell even more of the story. For now a color palette is included but you will get RGB, HSB, Greys, Gradients and a color picker very soon.
Property Bar
The property bar displays the canvas options by default. When an object is selected, it displays that object’s options for quick reference so you don’t need to press the info button all the time.
Pixel Perfect
The finger is a great interaction tool with a tablet, but it is not a precise pointing device. Introducing the transformation bar, a place where you can adjust your objects down to the pixel. Finally.
Follow the Guides
Smart guides help you to place and align objects as they move, scale or rotate through the canvas. This makes you even more productive while you build the interface of your screen.
#1 Asset
The icon is the most important asset for your application on the App Store. This is the first thing users see of your work so cherish it, polish it and continue until you have some real eye candy. It’s really worth the work!
Make. Remake.
The best way to achieve a nice icon is through iteration. Sketch it with the full featured graphic editor then collect colleague or client feedback to incorporate in the next version. Repeat.
Glow Effect
You always want to see if your icon renders well with the typical glow effect. Well, App Cooker not only allows you to check this but also gives you the ability to try other type of glow that might go better with your creation.
Export PNG & PDF
App Cooker exports rounded icons as PNGs, or as a set of icons inside a PDF, making it clear for collecting feedback on the various sizes it will be displayed in the Store or the device.
Sales Season
This is the time period for in app purchases and advertisements. Project your sales over one week, 3 months or a year and all the math is then done for you.
Net Result
Displayed live, it is simply the revenue minus the expenses. Any change elsewhere and this is updated instantly. The “Fruit’s” share is already subtracted from the total.
Currencies
All six currencies used by the App Store to pay its developers are supported: USD, EUR, YEN, GBP, CAD & AUD.
iOS Market Potential
How many iOS Devices are out there today? Buy a daily estimation of the number of iPod Touches, iPhones and iPads (based on Apple public info).
App Sales
Finding out how much money you are going to make from your app. Select a price tier and estimate the number of downloads. Done.
In App Purchases
Price Cooker supports the three types of in app purchases: Consumable, Non Consumable and Subscription. All of them are fully customizable.
Advertisements
You can customize up to three different types of advertising method: Cost per Click, Cost per Mille and Cost per Action.
Extras
This is a free space where you can add a custom source of revenue such as a license or a contract, based on a given value and frequency.
Wages
Need external skills? Hire someone for 3 months and pay them $500/week for 3 months and let App Cooker do the math for you.
Rents
It is easy to forecast any kind of rent. For example, the cost of an office every month or a web server for one year.
Equipment
Having a Mac and an iPhone/iPad is really important if you are serious. The iOS devices change every year so factor in those costs.
Others
Making Apps can have some expenses on the side which you should also forecast. How much for 3 coffees daily across an entire year?
They Read It
The potential buyer gets smarter every day. What you write in the description of your application will determine who eventually buys it, so take great care in what you say here.
All Categories
Selecting the right category can be a crucial factor. App Cooker has listed them all out so you can select them on the fly without the hassle of firing up iTunes Connect.
Rate It Right
The rating tool inside App Cooker gives you the real thing (as it is today) to see if your App will be sellable on the App Store. Think twice before checking any boxes; Apple can be harsh sometimes.
Top Advice
Every time you have to write the keywords or the description of your app, you have to scour the internet for the latest rules and advice. Well, here we’ve gathered the most relevant points so you can now just focus on the words.
“...” Checker
We’ve heard so many grumbles from developers about those darn “dot dot dots” tagged to the middle of a lengthy App name. They would have chosen something else if only they’d known. Check this in real time now.
Bytes Counter
Did you know that all the info you send has a minimum and maximum size on the App Store? Did you know that a byte is not the same size as a character? App Cooker counts all of it for you, automatically.
Localize It
As might be expected, simply localizing the description of your App can increase your international sales. That is why App Cooker features a unique way to deal with the 18 languages supported.
Duplicate It
After completing everything in your mother tongue, simply select another country and all your previous text is duplicated, giving you a starting point to work from. If you are competent in more than one language this makes life a lot easier.
Delivering Projects à la Carte
From the popular PDF to the JPG & PNG as well as an editable file, App Cooker offers various ways to export and share your projects. It gives you the ability to select precisely what you want to export and how you want to export it. It’s easy, flexible and it works.
App Cooker backups are only readable by App Cooker on the iPad. You must own a copy of App Cooker to read and/or edit the projects.
The PDF (Portable Document Format) is an open standard for document exchange. It is readable by Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.
The JPG (also known as JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital photography.
The PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. It is widely used in graphic software.
About Xcode
Exporting a mockup as a starting point inside xcode is currently not supported by App Cooker, here is why:
Generating an Xcode project from an iPad is not possible. Apple doesn’t allow an iPad App to execute a code to build an application, this could result in a breach of security on your device.
We are currently looking at the feasibility of a Mac Application which could handle such a task. It takes a lot of time to provide not only a feature but a true solution for developers, on this topic.
We are working on this because it is a massive request from you, our beloved Cookers, but don’t forget that this is like the Holy Grail, we all need to be patient and there are no guarantee that we will crack the code of this.
The Hot Apps Factory Team
