Interview with Themer iHaz3!

Here at MyGreatiPhone we love to talk to Developers and Themers. Hey, we even like to dabble a bit ourselves.

We thought we would reach out to the community and try to grab you an interview with some of these guys and girls to let you all know what makes them tick.

Well first to the stand is iHaz3. iHaz3 (Daniel) is a themer who’s work can be found on the MacCiti Repo.

He has developed themes such as MystiqueHAZ3-HD, SilverHaz3 HD and BlackHaz3 to name a few. So here you go….

So Daniel, where did the name iHaze come from?

Daniel: Well I started my career as a web designer and graphic designer, and soon I noticed I loved to create dark designs. don’t think I am a Dark person, I just think dark can be combined in some very nice color combinations. So i got the nickname Haze on my Job. When i entered the iCommunity i started to use the nickname iHaz3.

How long have you been in the jailbreak community for?

I have been in the Community for 2 years now, and have idevices from the day they came out. That goes back to the year 2007.

What iOS devices do you own / have you owned?

At this moment I own a 3G, 3GS, 2x iPhone 4, 2x iPad 1, 1x iPad 2, and my iMac 27inch i7 which I am very happy with. I have owned every other device before the 3G came out but sold them or gave them away to make somebody happy.

What is your day job?

My Day job is App developer, at which company I work I cant tell you. But mainly working the Xcode to create any kind of applications. And of course taking care of my children, because thats a job as well haha

What got you into themes?

TwitPanic got me into theming, as I said earlier in this interview I am a graphical designer, and I need to make capital to pay for the TwitPanic server. I don’t beg for anything so I thought lets make some cool themes and what I make with it I will use for my project ~ This is still going on because I want TwitPanic to be the most advanced and awesome twitter client available in the Appstore.

What themes have you developed?

Basically I have developed 8 paid themes – Blackhaz3, Silverhaz3, MystiqueHaz3 and IllumineHaz3 ~ that counts four, but fact is, the iPad versions are all different from the iPhone versions, for example many different widgets. So I count them as separate themes.

What gives you inspiration for your themes?

The inspiration comes by itself I guess, I just open Photoshop and the magic starts happening. I think thats my gift for making themes like I do, I don’t like overdone themes btw….but thats my personal opinion.

What tips would you give somebody like me, a newbie to the the world of developing themes?

Yes i can ~ Just be self assured about your work, don’t let people criticize your work and feel bad after, listen to what people say and learn from it. All my themes are based on my followers on twitter, what they like and what they don’t like.

If your a first time themer, go follow some tutorials, check out what you can do with patterns and gradients in the addons folder of Photoshop. You can do anything in Photoshop, and please don’t use any images from another theme…..it can get you into trouble. And lastly, I am on twitter very often so if you have any questions related to theming, just hit me up @iHaz3

Do you rock your own themes or somebody else’s?

I don’t want to sound arrogant but i wear my own themes, because i could not find any theme matching my needs or style. On my devices are Blackhaz3 and Illuminehaz3 right now.

What is your favourite all time theme?

First it was Blackhaz3, but IllumineHaz3-HD took the Crown

What was / is all the twitter drama about that you have ripped of others themes?

I have made 1 mistake when I submitted my very first theme and I forgot to put in my own status bar bundle, I contacted Macciti to explain the situation and admitted it was my fault. I corrected that mistake and within half an hour the update was on Cydia. But people kept on calling me names etc, and today they are still trying to put me down. This is a very delicate question you ask, but I promised to be as detailed as I can. I don’t rip themes haha never did that, but I do what any other themer does. For example, if your building a theme, and you want the phone dialer to be themed and you don’t know were to look for the images, you can use some other themes images for an example, but basically u designing your own image and only use the size and knowledge of the dialer theme. Thats not ripping themes in my book.

I am not a fighter, I don’t hate, in fact many people asked me if they could use my theme for an example and I don’t mind them doing that. I know that its MY design, and if people are decent and cool they will not forget who helped them out. So to all you new up and coming themers, my theme may be used as a sample on how to build your theme, just create your own images…

Any another advice? have patience don’t rush things…..make it as detailed as possible, just make it KICKASS!

You have been working on a new Twitter client, what’s it called and can you tell us a little bit about it? Features, ETA, possible first screen shot?

Ha! TwitPanic…..My Baby Twitter Client….its so going to rock the scene

Let me tell you about TwitPanic…as I told you earlier I develop applications. My most favourite Twitter client is Osfoora, just because of the many options and workflow, there is just one BIG but….it eats your ram, it takes 107mb away. That is, for most users, an issue. Think of the 3GS with only 254mb of ram… Currently when Twitpanic is running on my iPhone 4 it takes 6 mb of ram away from your idevice. Thats a major win for Haze Development and Twitpanic.

So I was thinking I am going to build an even better app with even more options and with some wicked options in it. And so TwitPanic was born. I had some personal things to do, moving to another house etc, so I had some breaks in between, but for now I can report that I already use it as my default twitter app for on my IPhone 4 So that means that the timeline is working, DM, Mentions, Pic upload, Twitlonger support, TweetLonger support in DM, and so much more is up and working. So I am excited that it is actually taking shape.

The UI that is being designed for TwitPanic is just too cool to be true, it isn’t finished yet completely but i can tell you all that no twitter client looks as good as this UI. But I also have to tell you that that is my personal opinion.

I will not give any ETA because if I am wrong people will remind me to eat my words, just wait for the updates that @TwitPanic will send out and be updated when there will be an update or announcement of an ETA.

If you managed Apple for a year what would you do, any news devices you would bring out, device you would make better?

Well actually I think I would not change anything. ~ I (my opinion) think its not bad to support (old devices) for too much time….why? It will bring more time to focus on the current Products they are working on.

I would change 1 thing in the Appstore, and that counts for the developers that deliver apps to the AppStore.

I would have made an option for the developers to add a trial period. For the people to check out how the app really works instead of seeing it on some screenshots. That way many people don’t have to pirate apps anymore and can choose if they want to buy it or delete it from there iPhone because it isn’t what they expected. And they don’t waste their money.

But from a source Apple is working on this idea

Are you going to bring us anything else other than your Twitter client and themes?

Yes, i just registered a domain for another Social Application besides TwitPanic, but i can’t say anything else about this yet, maybe in the next interview?

What’s you favourite meal?

Hahaha Awesome question! I Love Lasagna with bread and garlic butter ~ I might have been an Italian in my life before this one

Any thing you would like to add?
Yeah, to all the people that think bad of me…..Please don’t, i’m not a bad guy…..come and meet me on twitter and see for yourself if I am really that guy that they say I am. Judge by yourself don’t let people judge for you, you can find me on twitter @iHaz3

So there you go, now you know a little more about iHaz3 (Daniel). Personally I really like his themes, if you haven’t tried them head over to Cydia and search ‘Haz3′, they should all come up.

Let us know what you think about our interviews in the comments below, and maybe even a comment on who you would like us to interview next.