Introducing The Anime Network for iOS, Version 2.0

I’ve worked on software of all shapes and sizes. One of the world’s largest open source projects. Small, back-office projects that never saw the light of day. All points in between. There really has never been a dull moment, because I love challenges, and as a developer I’m always faced with challenges new and old every day.

But nothing quite compares to the thrill one gets when working on a solo project. It’s all brand new, and it’s all yours. So back in February of 2010 when I teamed up with The Anime Network to do their iOS app, I was definitely excited. The iPad had just been announced, and this was the very definition of uncharted territory in the tech world. Was it going to be like a big iPhone? Was it going to be like a laptop without a keyboard?

As we all know so well now, it was neither: it was something totally different. It was a tablet, a device the likes of which none of us had ever really interacted with before, at least not on any legit sort of scale. So as we scrambled to build an app that would work on both the iPhone and the just-announced iPad, there was a lot of guesswork as to how the app should look and feel on this mythical new device.

Well I’m happy to say that with the advantage of two years’ worth of hindsight behind us, I’ve teamed up with The Anime Network once again to produce something that we’re all very proud of: The Anime Network for iOS, Version 2.0.

For over six months we’ve been brainstorming, mocking up, developing, testing, and tweaking. And the product of all that effort is something to behold: a wildly popular app that looks beautiful on both iPad and iPhone. And it blows all the competition out of the water.

From an architecture perspective, the code is very streamlined, efficient, and organized. This is the app I’ve always wanted to write, done the way I’ve always wanted to do an app. The focus is on speed and performance. I wish I could show you the source. It is a thing of beauty.

To accomplish all of this awesomeness, we’re using several neat tricks and acrobatics:

• Cover Flow: To show off all of that beautiful artwork.
• Prepopulated Core Data database: So the user doesn’t have to wait 10 minutes on first run.
• iTunes Connect Manager: My open source Github project that makes working with In-App Purchases a breeze.
• Downloads using NSOperation: For super-smooth async downloads, which I’ve blogged about here before.
• JSON-based API: Which I am a huge advocate for on any project, and with the work of the super talented Aaron Poffenberger we’ve been able to accomplish here. JSON = snappy. XML = crappy.

App Store reviews tend to be like exes: you only hear about the bad, none of the good. So it pleases me to no end that we’ve finally achieved a nice rating for the app. Everyone over at The Anime Network has worked very hard to achieve this rating, and it’s been no small feat. Bringing Larry Kotef’s beautiful mockups to life has been one of the highlights of my career. Stacy Dodson, Samantha Stevens, and Lance Martin, as well as the rest of the team, have all put in some serious effort into this app. Many nights, weekends, and holidays have been spent devoted to this project, so to see that hard work reflected in the feedback is truly rewarding.

For me, this was a labor of love I devoted most of my free time to this past year. Many hours were spent agonizing over the smallest detail, because codewise, this one is my baby. Every X-Y coordinate. Every XIB layout. Every algorithm. Every crash. All mine.

This app is my 2011 opus, and I’m very proud of it. Hope you like it!

Click here to download the app now.