Pek Pongpaet

I recently gave a talk at the Google Android International Code Sprint in Chicago. I compared two cross platform mobile development frameworks. What that means is that you can use these frameworks to create applications in one programming language and deploy them to different mobile platforms with little or no code modification. This is a major convenience to many app developers. Anyways, here are my slides. They are very visual and don’t have a lot of content. My slides are really only there to support my talk but here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’ve had the iPad since launch which is about 2 weeks now. I’ve downloaded most of the free apps that are made especially for the iPad and here are the ones that are I like in no particular order.

Kindle I’ve had the Kindle for a long time and love it. I find it very convenient to read books on my way to work. The iPad version doesn’t have that slick iBooks UI however I find that it’s actually easier for page turning. I also find that the user interface for the bookstore is a bit lacking – it’s essentially the Amazon website in a web view. However, I have access to all my books and that’s all that matter. Download link

Netflix If you have a Netflix account, then you need this app. You have access to all the on demand movies which you can stream instantly to your iPad. My only gripe is that the UI for app is basically the website – which isn’t all that iPad friendly. Download link

WeatherBug I like this weather app better than the Weather Channel app because it displays all the relevant information on the first dashboard. It seems they’ve really thought about the iPad screen and visualize a lot of information on a single screen. Download link

TweetDeck The TweetDeck app for the iPad is really nice. They’ve really thought about the form factor of the iPad and designed their app to fit it really well. It’s perfect for any power Twitter user. Twitterific is great as well, but I feel it’s a little too simple, like the Twitter website and for many people, that’s probably a good thing. The two apps are built for different types of users. Download link

ABC Player If you watch ABC shows this app is a must have. I’m a big V and Lost fan so this is great. One annoying thing about this app is that it doesn’t rotate depending on the orientation. I wouldn’t even mention this except for the fact that it’s a big brand. Download link

Epicurious This was one of the first iPad apps I download. I was very impressed. The design of it is really slick and suiting of a recipe book. It showcases the iPad really well. Download link

NYT Editor’s Choice The New York Times has always been at the leading edge of technology. I was an early adopter of the New York Times reader Silverlight app and AIR app that followed. They’ve always made well designed apps and this is no exception. Download link

Godfinger I am not much of a gamer these days but I was hooked on Godfinger for days. The graphics were cute and clean and the gameplay was incredibly addictive. Kudos to the team for sucking me in with all the game mechanics. I would give this game a negative score on utility because it’s got a high chance of making you less productive. Download link

Marvel Comics I’m not a huge fan of comics but I can appreciate the innovation here. The way that comics are presented here is pretty awesome. You can zoom in to the pane view and swipe your finger to the next pane. It’s a totally new comic book reading experience. Download link

Roambi This is a data visualizer’s wet dream. If you didn’t think the iPad had any business use, this app will change your mind. It turns your iPad into an instant dashboard. From a UI perspective, it’s downright sexy. I love it. Download link

Popularity: 8% [?]

Organizers of the Day of Mobile sent out a newsletter to follow up after the conference.

Here are the hackathon results:

Best Overall App: Novarra Team
Best Overall Runner Up: Runner up: Ravi Singh (@code4ever)
Best Open Source App – Mike Laurence (@mikelaurence)
Best Student App – Knapp Lab Team (IIT)
Best iPhone App – Pek Pongpaet (@pekpongpaet) and Chad Paulson (@chadpaulson)
Best Android App – Android Technical
Best Blackberry App – Vibhor Goyal (@vbgoz)
Best Design: Jon Jenkins

Also some of the speakers have posted their presentations up which is great since I didn’t get to go to any of them.

Slide shows/Contact Information:

Jason Shah
Twitter: @jasonshah
Presentation: Media on the Android Platform – http://www.jsdfllc.com/node/96

Jeff Norris
Twitter: @norrisjp
Presentation: Growing an iPhone App with an Internal Open Source Project – http://www.norrissoftware.com/presentations

Mark Murphy
Twitter: @commonsguy
Presentation: Making Money in Mobile – http://www.slideshare.net/commonsguy/making-money-at-mobile

Dave Uhler
Presentation: Mobility Application Trends in the Enterprise – http://slalomworks.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/dayofmobile1.pdf

Robert Martin
Twitter: @unclebobmartin
Presentation: Dynamic Languages Are The Future – http://vimeo.com/10025459

J Schwan
Twitter: @jschwan
J’s Meetup Group: http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Mobile-Application-Development-Enthusiasts/
Presentation: Mobile Development Tips and Tricks – http://blogs.solstice-consulting.com/2010/02/mobile-web-development-tips-and-tricks.html

Sean Vosen/Vincent Riccardi
Presentation: Connecting Your Apps to the Cloud – Vivo: http://www.slideshare.net/VOKALInteractive/connecting-your-apps-to-the-cloud-mobile-cms

Chris Grove
Twitter: @cagrove
Presentation: Multi Platform Apps – http://www.scribd.com/doc/28084781

Popularity: 1% [?]

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Shane Vitarana and I’m currently an independent iPhone developer.

Tell us a little bit of background info about how you got into Facebook application development.
The Facebook platform initially lured me in because of the ability to reach millions of people with little effort. The barrier for many web app users is the login process. On my fitness site, MyFitBuddy.com, 90% of the users drop off at the signup page. Facebook alleviates this problem because all the apps just use your Facebook login credentials. This causes people to experiment with new apps with ease, and invite their friends to use them. Therefore, I thought it was a great platform to develop some fun apps for.

I have a tendency to work with platforms that have some kind of constraints. Constraints open the door to be really creative. Limited screen real-estate forces you to really think about design and layout in a new way. I think this is a factor that got me into both Facebook and iPhone development.

If you’re a Ruby on Rails developer, and curious about developing Facebook apps, check out my book: http://peepcode.com/products/rails-on-facebook.

What made you decide to go into iPhone application development?
iTunes is the #1 music retailer in the world right now. People are used to buying music and movies from it with relative ease. I think applying that to applications was a genius idea. It makes applications immediately available to people with a few clicks/touches, similar to how Facebook made applications easily available. You can buy an app for your iPhone with a minimum of 3 touches (App Store -> App -> Buy), without any login credentials. There has never been a simpler process for buying applications ever.

I saw it as a great opportunity as an independent developer to make iPhone apps. I love working on small projects that I can finish in 1-2 weeks. I have a low attention span and the App Store provides the perfect place for me to work on fun little projects and make a living out of it. The iPhone has been a huge success story for Apple, and is not going away anytime soon.

Can you talk about some of your iPhone applications and what we can expect from you in the future?
I currently have two applications in the App Store. Places uses the iPhone’s location capabilities to find nearby restaurants, coffee shops, nightlife, and shops. It is the only application in the store right now that lets you pick a cuisine and get reviews and ratings for nearby restaurants. There are a few similar apps, such as Yelp, Where To?, and Vicinity. Unfortunately many people are unable to distinguish the feature set between these apps. I made Places free for a limited time so people can try it and see how it is different from the other location-based apps.

Drum Kit has had much more success than Places. It has been one of the Top 25 paid applications for almost a month now. At one point it was #12 in the U.S Store, and in the Top 10 in some other countries. It is basically just a toy drum set on your phone. You can tap the heads to make sounds and it provides visual feedback. Ars Technica wrote a great review of Drum Kit: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/08/07/review-drumkit-for-iphone-a-toy-with-potential. Now that it has reached such a level of success, I have big plans on improving it. However it is tough to add features while keeping it super simple. I’m a stickler for simplicity so I have to go about it very carefully.

A screenshot of Shane’s best selling iPhone App: Drum Kit

I have a few more applications in the pipeline. On of them will be called Anthem Music Videos. It’s kind of like Pandora but for videos. You pick an artist, and it finds videos for that artist and similar artists. It launches the YouTube application where you can view the videos. I also want to make a game at some point.

My applications are at: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=284976112 (iTunes link)

And finally, What advice would you give entrepreneurs going into business for themselves and/or looking to create software applications for the current web.
First and foremost, you must love what you are doing. You have to be the type of person who will build what you are building if it provided no monetary reward. I understand this may be to difficult if you have a family to support and other obligations, but it has been done. You have to be excited about your idea. You have to wake up super anxious to work your product, and want to see it come to fruition. If you are only focused on making money, you have already failed before you’ve begun.

You also need to be willing to take risks. I know countless people who have great ideas but are hesistant to leave their day jobs. You can still keep your day job and build a startup, if you put the time and effort into it. However, if you really believe in your product, quit your day job and do it full-time. Sometimes going into debt and being constrained financially will force you to get the product out there quickly. I quit doing client work for five months to learn the iPhone SDK, and it has paid off nicely so far..

Another piece of general advice is to not get caught in the planning phase forever. Just start building it. No elaborate design diagrams or documents are necessary. Forget the waterfall method, even forget the Agile development process. Process is for rank-n-file engineers, not passionate entrepreneurs/developers. Throw away the project management tools, story cards, the bug trackers. You don’t need that fluff for small projects. Process just bogs you down hampers creativity. I just have a simple todo list for each project. You really don’t need anything else besides a sketch pad and a todo list for a 1 – 3 person project.

Also, ideas don’t really have much value anymore. It’s all about the implementation and execution. Don’t worry about protecting your idea, screw NDAs. Just be open about it, find the right people, and build it. If you’re a developer and can code with relative ease, you don’t really need much in terms of resources. The barrier to entry is super low for both web application development, and even iPhone development. Furthermore, surround yourself with people who have a history of creating, and actually have something to produce, like open source projects. Then you’ll have a source of inspiration, and a pool of talent to tap into if you need additional help.

Your approach, however, should really depend on what kind of application you are building. Building consumer applications and business applications require very different models. A consumer “social” application generally has to be free, because people are used to social sites being free. To be able to afford hosting and development costs, you may need to seek Angel or VC funding. Business applications or consumer applications that you charge for don’t always need VC money to start out with. If your application is a success, you can use the revenue from version 1.0 to fund the rest of the development and hosting. Try as hard as possible to not get funding so you don’t have to answer to anyone, and can follow through with your vision. If you really need to, get funding from family/friends first.

For a consumer app, don’t simply think ad revenue is going to save you. Ads work on Google because of the search aspect. People are actively looking for something, and therefore are more likely to click on a targeted ad. If your application doesn’t have a search component, you need to build a substantial user-base to make any money off of ads. Building a huge user-base is hard work.

Finally, don’t discount the value of entertainment apps. People spend an ungodly amount of time watching TV and will gladly spend money and time on an application that provides entertainment value. The biggest apps on Facebook are entertainment oriented apps, and the most successful apps on the iPhone are games.

I hope that gets you readers pumped about about starting your own stuff. I know I am. For more Shane Vitarana, you can follow is tweets: http://twitter.com/shanev or subscribe to his blog http://shanesbrain.net/

Popularity: 18% [?]

• 24 Creative Business Card Designs Courtesy of Digg
• Star Wars The Clone Wars Movie – Behind the Scenes
• Non-Compete Clauses Thrown Out In California Courtesy of Slashdot
• Showcase Of Creative Online-Shops
• 12 iPhone Tricks You Might Not Have Known Courtesy of Digg
• A Peek Into Adobe Flex 4, Codename Gumbo
• Extreme Daily Life Photos
• Great Flash Website Design

Popularity: unranked [?]