加入潮流變成一個『行動應用』開發者吧！

使用 CORONA SDK 開發 APP 已經有好幾年了，看著這個產品從草業初創天天更新日日補丁的系統，變到現在穩定快速，日流量上億次，用戶蒸蒸日上。整個見證了一個 Mobile App 的開創紀元。由於我是台灣最早一批的 Corona 開發者 (若不是第一也應該是前五名) ，所以我就向原廠要了一個大使的頭銜 Ambassador ，自動自發的幫忙在台灣推廣這個開發工具。拜 Mobile App 的大浪潮所賜，到現在 CORONA SDK 已經有數百名的台灣用戶。

>> 歡迎您加入臉書的 CORONA 社團
https://www.facebook.com/groups/corona.taiwan/

就在今天，CORONA 又做了一個勇敢的大挑戰，推出 Corona SDK starter 版本，以及許多新的功能。我相信就像『行動應用』這個市場一樣，我們都處在一個即將爆發的科技大潮流裡，歡迎大家都跟我一樣，加入潮流變成一個『行動應用』開發者吧。

在 CORONA SDK 中文資訊相對不足的台灣，我會努力將 CORONA『行動應用』開發者所應該獲得資訊，儘量中文化後提供給大家，讓台灣開發者也能與世界同步，一起用 CORONA SDK 開發出可以改變世界，改變人們生活的 APP 來。

讓我就從導讀 Corona 創辦人 Walter 的這篇文章，當作一個開始吧！

 Posted on April 4, 2013. Written by  Walter

Today, I have some very exciting news.

Before I dive in, let me talk about the new public release we just made available for download. We’ve been fixing a lot of plumbing this time around. Lots of infrastructure and feature improvements like a rewritten async http network library, a re-architected widget library, remote push notifications on Android, iAds, to name a few. We also have a new build server that’s much more scalable.

>> 最新版 CORONA SDK build 1076 已經可以下載了，新的功能包括 2.0 的 network library, widget library，Android 上面的 push notifications，iOS 上面的 iAds 等等。另外因為 Corona 每次 build 都要連到伺服器，所以官方也把伺服器換成一個可以因應流量 scalable 擴大的方案。

There’s tons more listed on the release notes. All in all, there’s been an incredible amount of work to make cross-platform development as painless as possible. By the way, if you’re curious about Apple’s May 1 deadline on UDIDs, we’ve got you covered. Read more about it in the release notes.

>> 最新版 CORONA SDK 在出版文件上已經把新功能作了完整說明，最重要的還包括了 Apple 在 2013-05-01 以後禁用 UDID 的事件， Corona 這次也提出了解決方案。

Introducing Corona SDK Starter

Okay, so here’s where it gets really exciting. From very early on, we have focused on democratizing app development. We felt (and still do) that anyone could create the next great app with Corona. Since then, Corona has been embraced by indies and your apps have hit the top of the charts.

Indies are a key part of our community, so today, we are taking that vision a step further. We are announcing Corona SDK Starter – a completely FREE version of Corona that lets you publish to all the platforms we support without paying us a single cent.

With Corona SDK Starter and the Starter tier of Corona Cloud, you can publish amazing, connected apps faster and more affordably (free!) than ever before. We are the only platform that lets developers do this. A lot of other products have hidden fees or force some sort of watermark/splash screen. There is no such restriction with Starter. That’s the difference between “fake free” and a true free option.

>> 因為個人開發者一向是 Corona 的最大支持者，所以這次官方推出了 Corona SDK Starter 版本，最大的特色是『完全免費』，不管是 iOS 或 android 或 Amazon Kindle 或 Nook。不像其他某些工具（我猜是指 Unity）限制了免費版無法擁有自己應用程式的開機畫面 Splash Screen 或在開機畫面上放浮水印，這個 Starter 版本沒有這種問題。

Now, of course, not everything is free — we’ve got a business to run after all!

If you want to access certain specific features like in-app purchase and analytics, you’ll need to subscribe to a paid plan. You can still build with those features on your own device, but you can’t publish apps to the store if they use those premium features. Daily builds are also only available to paying subscribers.

>> 不過天下還是沒有白吃的午餐，一些像 in-app purchase 程式內購買，analytics 用戶行為分析，daily build 等等功能還是要付費的。（這裡則是維持以前的方式，在自己裝置上測試時免費，要 build 到 Play/App store 時，才要付錢）

Re-imagining Pro

From the beginning, Corona SDK has been about packaging up industry-standard technologies that big game studios use and making them available to you. The same underlying architecture that powered all the original top apps (Angry Birds, Tap Tap Revenge, Diner Dash) was the inspiration for Corona — only we made it 10x faster and easier.

That’s why nothing beats Corona when it comes to its combination of power and speed of development.

Today, we are ready for the next growth spurt of innovation. We think Corona is the best platform in the universe, but the true measure is if we can make our latest innovations available to Pro subscribers.

So that’s what we’re going to do. We are going to make some amazing technologies available to all paying subscribers, but especially Pro. Here’s a glimpse at some of the exciting things that we’ll be making available:

>> 對於已經付費，或未來願意付費的用戶，官方的誠意是推出一系列更強大的新功能，例如：

Graphics

As I talked about last week, our bleeding-edge OpenGL-ES 2.0/shader-based graphics engine is in the works. You are going to be blown away with what you can do. I’ll talk about that more later but I did want to give you a teaser.

If you watch this week’s CoronaGeek episode, you’ll be able to see 5,000 fish running at 60 fps! It may be hard to tell from the video, but this is what I showed to a lucky few at GDC. I recommend watching the whole show, but if you’re pressed for time, you can skip to roughly the 35:00 mark.

>> 1. OpenGL-ES 2.0/shader-based graphics engine 超高速的繪圖效能。 Corona 在 GDC 有個 demo 可以在裝置上畫出 5000 隻動畫游魚，以每秒 60 格的速度移動。

Plugins

Second, there’s Project Gluon, a.k.a plugins. We’ve done a ton of plumbing work so that you’ll be able to integrate 3rd party services and functionality into your app, and do so painlessly from the comfort of the Corona Simulator.

Now there’s good news and bad news here. There are a lot of moving parts, so plugins didn’t quite make it to the public release — and yes, I’m disappointed too.

But the good news is that plugins are coming very soon! We’re getting ready to seed this to beta testers this month. We are actively building a library of plugins that will be hosted on our servers. We’re working with folks like Amazon to get you more monetization options. We are acutely aware that this is a big issue for a lot of you.

>> 2. 好消息！以前 Corona 無法串接第三方程式庫的問題，這次以 Plugins 的方式解決了。以後你要接 adMob 或其他網路廣告商的程式庫，或你要接『藍芽』接『人臉識別』等等，都能解決了。壞消息是這個功能還要再等一下子，在 build 1076 是還沒有弄好的。（本月會有人有機會測試到這部分）

Device Access

Lastly (for now), we have found a way for you to access certain Java and Objective-C APIs from Lua! On the Android side, we already have the foundation there thanks to Enterprise, and we’re looking at how we can accelerate bringing those Enterprise innovations down to Pro developers. In parallel, we also have a proof-of-concept on the iOS side, so I’ll have more news once we’re past the research phase.

>> 3. Corona 找到透過 Lua 取用 Java 和 Objective-C API 的方法，目前在 android 上面很成功，相信在 iOS 上也是可以的。未來這都會開放給付費用戶。

New Pro Pricing and Subscriber Promotions

As you can see, we are re-imagining Pro as a much more sophisticated product. By May, we anticipate that the daily builds available to Pro will offer significantly more value than they do today. Because of that, we will be changing the price of Pro to $599/year starting May 1. Even after this change, we think Pro still remains a great bargain – it’s less than $50 per month and saves you hours of development work each and every day. And more importantly, you’ll be able to do more and more!

In the mean time, we want to thank our current subscribers and do the following:

• All current Indie subscribers are now upgraded to Pro (the Indie subscription has ceased to exist).
• All current Pro subscribers now have an extra 2 months added on to their subscription.

>> 新的變革還包括費率調整。現在起原來買 Indie 版的用戶（就是付 $199 只買一個 android or 一個 iOS 平台授權的），現在都升級到 PRO 版（雙平台），原來 PRO 版的用戶則獲得多兩個月的授權期限。然後從二零一三年五月一日起， PRO 版一年的授權費用要從 $399 調整為 $599。

In addition, we are offering a special promotion:

• Between now and April 30, anyone can buy a Pro subscription (or add to their existing subscription) for $349 before the new price takes effect.
• But wait there’s more. As long as you have an active subscription on May 1, you will be able to renew at the $349/year price for 2 more years — just don’t let your subscription lapse!

>> 新的促銷（『補償』）方案則有：在四月底前還是可以用 $349 買到 PRO 版。然後所有舊 PRO 版用戶（指在2013/5/1授權還有效的用戶），在未來兩年的續約價都維持在 $349 一年。

For more info, please refer to our Corona SDK Pricing FAQs.

* * *

Before I wrap up, there is one more item worth mentioning: we’ve finally gotten around to putting Corona Enterprise on our store page. If you are a small outfit, you qualify for the $999/year tier. Larger organizations can get Enterprise at $2499/year which comes with extra goodies and volume discounts. Check out our entire pricing lineup to see which one makes the most sense for you.

There’s a lot of game changing stuff here, but Corona SDK Starter brings me back to how we all got started — to change people’s lives in real ways. We think more people will have the opportunity to be a part of the mobile revolution and take advantage of the mobile revolution. We can’t wait to get all of our innovations into your hands – and more importantly, see what you do with them.

Walter

>> 最後 Corona 的企業版也以 $999/年 跟  $2499/年 的方式正式推出。這兩者的差別，主要是在技術支援上面，費用高的版本，可以有郵件保證回覆的技術支援。

-- 希望這個部落格能達到一定的推廣 CORONA SDK 的效用，更希望獲得您的支持。

Bob Yeh 葉浩銘