Just shipped: New platforms, ads, and more!

Posted by Jonathan Beebe

Today, we are pleased to announce a brand-new public release of the Corona SDK!

Due to the enormous amount of changes, we won’t be able to cover everything in this blog post, but I’ll go over the major new additions you can look forward to. If you want to see a complete list of all the changes since the last public build, take a look at the release notes.

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inneractive Ads

Monetization is crucial for mobile apps to succeed (or any kind of software for that matter), so we want to make sure you always have plenty of different ways to make money from your apps made with Corona. With our previous Corona SDK release, you could make money from paid apps, in-app purchases, virtual currency, and a single ad network.

Since then, we’ve heard about issues with low fill rates which caused dissatisfaction with some developers. Well, we’ve been listening closely and wanted to provide you the best solution we possibly could.

So with this new release, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve partnered with yet another ad provider: inneractive. But this is no regular ad provider. The inneractive network is what’s known as an “ad mediation network”, which means that inneractive is really a way to connect to, and optimize across, many different ad networks — giving you access to ads from over 100 different ad networks across the globe!

With this new release, you now have more monetization options and should see better results.

To get started, see the inneractive ads guide. Also see the new inneractive sample at /SampleCode/Ads/Inneractive in the CoronaSDK folder for a working example. The inneractive ad network allows you to utilize banner ads, text ads, and even full-screen ads to be integrated in your app however you see fit.

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Kindle Fire and NOOK

It’s always exciting to support a new platform, because as always with Corona, you get to use the same project, choose a build target, and deploy! With the this latest release, we’re happy to announce that Corona SDK now supports two additional platforms: Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Color!

But there’s one important caveat: Although both platforms are technically Android under-the-hood, they both plug into completely different app ecosystems, each with their own special requirements, so we’re treating them as a completely new platform. Therefore, you must be a PRO subscriber to build for the Kindle Fire and Nook Color devices.

The benefits of building for the Kindle Fire and NOOK platforms now include (but are not limited to):

• Establishing a presence in the brand new up-and-coming markets before they become saturated with competition.
• Reaching completely different audiences (not everyone who has a Kindle or NOOK has an iPad, and vice-versa).
• Taking full-advantage of Corona’s cross-platform capabilities. Going the traditional route, it could take several months to port a single app across four different platforms. With Corona, you can knock four down at once!
• And of course, targeting these platforms gives you the perfect excuse to present your spouse as to why you just HAVE to buy the hottest new tech gadgets.

Additionally, as a PRO subscriber you’ll also notice two brand new Kindle Fire and NOOK device skins in the Corona Simulator, as well as the extra build options in the menu.

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Storyboard API

Our official solution to scene management and transitions—the Storyboard API—was previously announced and sparked quite bit of excitement among the Corona community.

The feature was rolled out to subscribers only via Daily Builds, but is now available to everyone as part of this release!

Some of the highlights of the Storyboard API include:

• Easily create scenes with a single function call (or split scenes up into separate, external modules).
• Manage scenes and transitions through Corona events.
• Tons of great-looking scene transition effects.
• Auto-freeing of unused scene resources on low memory.

To get started using this brand new API, and to see everything it has to offer, please see the Storyboard API documentation. Additionally, you can see a working example at /SampleCode/Interface/Storyboard in the CoronaSDK folder.

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Native UI in Mac OS X Simulator

We’ve made a significant addition to the Mac simulator in this release, and that is the ability to see and test native UI elements (such as text fields, message boxes, web popups, etc) in the Corona Simulator!

Previously, you had to build for device (or the Xcode simulator) to test out things like text fields, web popups, etc. but now—for Mac users—you get to skip those extra steps and test these elements directly—this helps make already-fast Corona development even faster!

NOTE: Mac OS X native UI elements differ slightly from their iOS couterparts, so there may be minor differences in behavior here and there. Overall, you should be able to test basic functionality of your UI elements just fine.

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New Corona Home Screen

Also new in this release: the Corona Simulator now has a brand-new look!

But cosmetics aside, the new launch screen has been made to be a lot more useful. From this screen, you’ll now have easier access to the bundled sample code, the Getting Started guide, API reference, tutorials, the code exchange, developer forums, a news ticker, and an infinitely handy ‘New Project’ dialog with various templates to take the hassle out of starting new creations!

And for new users who want to get a feel for what Corona is all about, we’ve also included a new Demo app that shows how easy it is to do some of the most common tasks in Corona. This is also useful for those who want to show their friends and family what Corona is all about, but don’t want to do the talking.

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What a Release!

From the major new features to the countless number of bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements, this is one monumental release! In fact, I won’t even hold it against you if you stopped reading at some point to go grab the new release out of sheer excitement.

But for the patient ones who made it this far—wait no more!

Go download Corona SDK right now to take advantage of Inneractive ads, the Storyboard API, native UI in the simulator, and tons of core improvements—or become a PRO subscriber today to take advantage of the newly added Nook and Kindle Fire build options!