Back in July I went to Treviso, Italy for 2 weeks to stay with Fabrica and work on some fun mobile projects. Besides drinking a lot of coffee (and getting made fun of for ordering a latte after lunch) I worked on an iPhone application in conjunction with the Exquisite Clock project. It has been sitting on my hard drive for a couple months while a couple bugs were fixed and beaurocratic barriers resolved, so I am proud to announce that it has landed in the App Store.

The Exquisite Clock is made up of photos of numbers from many different people. The display is simple and highlights the photos in clock format: HH:MM:SS. With the iPhone app you can now take photos quickly with your phone and add them to the Exquisite Clock, as well as seamlessly download the entire catalog of number photo images.

Go forth and download! It’s free, fun, and I made it with my fingers.

After being stuck in the review process for over a month-and-a-half, Apple silently pushed our application live a few days ago. We didn’t even receive an automated e-mail informing us that our app was not online. Our friend Marshall discovered it and notified us (After downloading and writing us a stellar review…Thanks!).

The last we heard from Apple:

Dear Steven,

Your application, Album Art Tap, is requiring unexpected additional time for review.   We apologize for the delay, and will update you with further status as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your patience.

I responded a number of times hoping for more clarification, or something I can do to help expedite the issue, but their lips were sealed and did not even bother me with a response. My guess is that since the app has in-app purchases there must be a different review workflow that takes an extended amount of time. I suppose I shouldn’t be too angsty since it did finally go live, but five-to-six weeks of little-to-no communication is a bit frustrating.

So now the fun part begins! We get to see people download and play with it, and most importantly, break it. Already was clued into a couple bugs that should be fixed in the next update. I submitted it a couple hours ago, so if our last experience is any indication, you should see it in a month-and-a-half. I’ve heard updates are processed faster, but I’m not holding my breath.

The goal of the game is to guess the album before time runs out. Tapping tiles will subtract from the timer, and hence your score. Once you know the album, clicking the ‘Name Album’ button brings up multiple choice answers to choose from. Be sure to choose wisely, as each wrong guess subtracts 250 points from the timer. If the answer is correct, the album will grow to full size, flip, and show details about the album. Repeat until your reach 100 (if you can).