By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Aug 30, 2011 | TiPb’s developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store — a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Rene talks with Mike Smithwick of Distant Suns. What’s your name? Mike Smithwick What’s your company’s name? First Light Design, LLC, I was hoping to name it something like “Apple,” I know, dumb name, but someone already had it. Where are you located? San Jose, CA. Within walking distance of Cisco (really!), Intel, eBay, and only a few miles always from the Mother Ship. What’s your website address? www.distantsuns.com What’s your Twitter name? @distantsuns for any hot breaking news about, uh, Distant Suns (duh!). And @lazyastronomer for general space and astronomy geek stuff. Why @lazyastronomer? When people ask me why I wanted to write Read More

12.15.09        App Score: 8/10    Distant Suns 2: Unleash your inner astronaut — Judging by the number of pocket planetariums and other astronomy apps in the App Store’s inventory, stargazing is not just for fans of Star Wars or astronomy nerds like me. My astronomy app of choice is Vito Technology’s Star Walk, a wonderfully entertaining and educational app tapped by Apple as one of the best apps of 2009. If you want to know what’s going on in the skies around you, that is a must-have app. I recently had some time to try First Light’s Distant Suns 2: Unleash your inner astronaut, which is another astronomy app with similar features. I had high hopes that Distant Suns 2 would also take up space on my iPhone 3GS. Distant Suns has an extensive pedigree in astronomy. The original Distant Suns was written in 1985 for the Commodore Amiga, Read More