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Kickstarter-funded PXL Magazine debuts on the iPad
Randy Nelson is a former colleague of mine over at Joystiq, and he stepped away from our gaming-focused sister site last year to follow his own path. Part of that path includes a new gaming magazine project called PXL, which Nelson posted on Kickstarter back in January. With a humble budget of $3,500, the project got funded quickly, and a few months later, the first issue of PXL is now available in the App Store. The completely tablet-based digital magazine is an interesting experiment for Nelson, and at this point, he's locked in for quite a while, since the Kickstarter project sold full subscriptions for up to a two-year period. "The Kickstarter experience was awesome," he told me. "Beyond just being instrumental in making the magazine a reality, it worked really well as a place for us to keep in touch with backers, get their feedback on things, and really gauge how excited people were for what we were doing." PXL will use work from freelancers (and the first issue has five or so contributors), but at this point, most of the publishing work in the first issue's 67 pages is being done by Nelson and his girlfriend. PXL is a partnership with a company called Mag+, which allows Nelson to publish both to the App Store and to subscribers pretty easily, and he says most of the hiccups didn't come from putting the content together (Nelson's worked on a few gaming publications, including Joystiq and PSM in the past), but from actually going through Mag+'s process. "There are a lot of requirements to meet," he says, "in terms of making sure you have the right information and assets ready for them for review -- lots of boxes to tick -- but other than the wait, about five days, the process was smooth." Nelson says the magazine is "off to a slower start than I was hoping or think it deserves, but of course I'm biased," he says. There's a free app to download first, and then you can buy the magazine at 99 cents per issue, or 12 issues for $9.99. PXL will be compatible with the new iPad as soon as the latest update goes through, and while the first issue, out a little while ago, won't be Retina-ready right away, the second issue will, and the first issue will get "remastered" soon. Nelson's also working on a site for the magazine, and there are some interesting plans along those lines as well, like archives of various reviews and news online, and there will be new in-app content available in the app every Friday. It sounds like deciding to publish on the iPad has been a successful experience for Nelson so far, even if the magazine is taking a little while to reach its audience. If you're interested in checking it out and seeing a prime example of how Apple's tablet is making independent publishing easier than ever, you can pick it up from the App Store right now.
iPad/Android-based games mag PXL looking for assistance on Kickstarter
PXL is a proposal for a new game magazine on Android tablets and iPad, combining elements of traditional magazines and websites in a neat way. Each issue of the upcoming magazine will have a news section that updates weekly, and reviews that magically arrive on the day of release, so that issue always has the latest news (stretching the definition of an "issue"). PXL founder and former Joystiq editor Randy Nelson has assembled "a crack team of gamers who've written for PSM, Nintendo Power, Next Generation, Official Xbox Magazine, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, Joystiq, and more" to write for the magazine. The team plans to release the first issue in February, for $.99. A Kickstarter campaign is active now, offering free subscriptions and other bonuses in exchange for the funding to get the magazine off the ground and into your tablet. If you're interested in a new outlet for games writing (in addition to Joystiq; never stop reading Joystiq), or more stuff to read on your iPad than Atomix, why not help out?
iPhone PXL format goes dark
The iPhone Package and eXtension Library (PXL) was the open source community's response to Nullriver's wildly popular Installer.app. It worked with the iBrickr tool on Windows and Breezy tool on OS X. During its heyday, it enjoyed mild success but the release of iPhone firmware 1.1.1 put the first nails in its coffin. Breezy stopped development. iBrickr has not yet been updated to support 1.1.1. The main PXL repository has closed up shop. A note on its main page states that Extremis, the repository maintainer, will no longer be maintaining the PXL packages. Since no volunteers have stepped forward to pick up the reins, the PXL project is for all purposes dead.
Installer.app locks out PXL package
Lots of drama in the iPhone development community since last night, and it all revolves around a decision that "lg," the developer of Installer.app, made to remove PXL from its list of installable applications. PXL is another package manager for iPhone (open source, while Installer.app is still free, but currently closed source), that works with either Breezy, iBrickr (for Windows), or any other PXL manager. A little while back, the PXL guys decided that the easiest way to get their packages onto the iPhone was to actually run through Installer.app, but lg, last night, apparently decided that he didn't want them doing that, and locked them out of the application.And that, according to many iPhone developers, is not cool. The creators of NES.app, in response, have pulled their application from Installer.app completely, posting a notice on their site that "NES.app will no longer function from Installer.app or other third-party package installers that we believe are not trustworthy/secure. You will need to remove these tools to use NES.app."TUAW spoke with drudge, the developer who originally wrote the package for PXL in Installer.app, and he makes it clear that this is a bad move for the iPhone community. "We need to grow and learn each step of the way," he told me in an email. "Releasing closed sourced apps at this stage in the game doesn't help anyone." But the problem, according to drudge, isn't that Installer.app is a closed source application. "The only problem is it is a centralized management system... meaning "lg" has the final say in what happens with any package." And when lg decides, as he did last night, that someone's out, everyone suffers.lg has not commented on what happened yet, as far as we've heard. At this point, it sounds like everyone involved is trying to work towards a solution, and get the PXL package back in Installer.app (the alternative would be for PXL to create their own Installer.app type of program). As drudge also told us, "The community is only 2 months old so for developers to be taking sides... makes it harder on iPhone users and developers."Thanks, drudge!Update: They've reached a solution-- NullRiver (lg and the folks behind Installer.app) are going to create their own open source library for package management. Since PXL was created because Installer.app was closed source, another open source solution means PXL will likely not exist any longer.Update2: Here's the latest.
Developers offer free iPhone application packaging
Today developers Nicholas "Drudge" Penree and Shaun "Ste" Erickson have announced unlimited free Installer.app packaging for iPhone application developers. If Installer.app sounds familiar, you might recall that a few weeks back we posted about the Installer.app utility. Installer.app is an iPhone-based package manager from NullRiver.com. It allows you to download and update iPhone application packages over EDGE and WiFi connections directly from your iPhone home screen. The problem with Installer.app packaging is that it's fussy and requires a lot of dotted-i's and crossed-t's and for many programmers who are busy improving their software, it's an extra step that can easily get overlooked. Enter Penree and Erickson. They are offering to bundle up your application and host it on either Penree's Conceited Software or Erickson's smxy.org. These services are a big win for both the iPhone user base and the iPhone application developer community. They allow programmers to focus on their applications and the users to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Donations are welcome at both sites. Both Penree and Erickson are considering expanding this service to include the new PXL/Breezy package management tool in the near future. Update: Want to put Installer.app on your iPhone the easy way? Read our post about TappApp, the Universal Binary Installer.app-installer. It's very simple to use.
