iPhone/iPad DevCon East Final Day

I keep thinking it is Friday already. I have learned a lot in these three days. Will I retain it? Will I be able to build my killer app?. One class I attended was call Building Rich iPhone and iPad Apps with Web Technology by James Pearce. Now this was one I understood. He showed us how HTML5 and CSS3 could be used to build websites that looked like native apps on mobile devices. The question was then why use xcode at all. His answer, which I agree with, is that you loose the "It's on iTunes" line when telling a user where to find it. He also show how the web site can take advantage of the camera, gps, accelerametor and other device features. The last cool thing was found at PhoneGap. This framework allows you to build the app using web technologies and make it an app. From there on to iTunes and fame and fortune.

Michael Simmons then gave this days keynote, "Achieving App Success: Why Are You Really Doing This?" Like yesturdays keynote it pointed out a more marketing business feel. He discuss, passion, weakness, audience, price, quality, marketing, pr and other aspects many developers don't consider. This was practical advise and a little duhish to me. But then again I have been in management for 25 years. I did really like his philosophy on pricing which was 99 cents and under will give you a lot of users you'll have to support for free. The next class I took gave a solution to that. This class was on in app advertising. Eddie Marks went through the math of rolling in your own vs iAd type advertisers and ad mediators. Basically it was this. Unless you have a sales staff to sell ads, don't do it your self. iAd and ad networs are good but don't always have ads to fill or don't generate much money. The ad moderator like AdWhirl will let you choose several outlets and prioritize them. He showed how you can make 400% more money that way. I loved how we actually did algebra to figure it all out. I took another web services class. funny how they all said the same thing but different. Then ended the day learning about the Game Center. The big thing there is that it is not just for games. You could use this for anything in which you want to keep a score, like foursquare. I also learned it would not work with golf (only highest score) and when testing remember it only post the highest score.

In summary the conference was very educational. I learned a lot and got excited. I met a lot of people, too bad developers don't have business cards. Here is a link to some of the slides. My only complaint was where were all the vendors. I'm now going to try a generate couple real simple apps. My goal is to have something on iTunes by July.

Fred M Abaroa
The Marketing Imagineer

Making a mountain out of a molehill is an idiom referring to over-reactive behaviour where a person makes too much of a minor issue.

iPhone/iPad DevCon Day 2 "Cue The Mariachis"

Another 5:30am wake up call to learn more about iPhone app development. This days included a couple classes on databases and web services, legal issues, iOS blocks and mariachis. The first class on database syncing went really fast and I was clear what was going on. Come to find out the class was going over a library the speaker created. Now it all made sense. The class I really loved was on legal issue. I guess I am still stuck on business issues. Let me tell you about the keynote speaker Mike Lee. The crowd was hushed as a mariachi band came out and payed a few tunes and the speaker, know as the toughest programmer in the world, came out all statues as a traditional mariachi. I spoke with him the day before and found out he is a hawaiian, living in Amsterdam and is often mistaken for mexican. Mike's speech was entitled Product Engineering The Mariachi Way. It became obvious in the first few minutes his apps are successful because of his passion. Mike took the audience through the history of the machine and beyond. His main point was that apps had to be quality and stand out. Companies should think about the users. A good app should easy to understand, social and make money. He gave the example of a developer who was creating a health app. The developer said people couldn't relate to calories so he was going to show that as push ups. Mike found three problems with this. Push ups are also pretty abstract, no reason to show your friends, and who would pay for it. Mike thought of a few changes. How about showing calories as time taken off your life. There could be explanations on why that cheeseburger will affect you in this way. Your friends will compete most lethal food and health organizations will fund it. Mike also emphasized doing some thoughtful research before starting to code. This keynote was really good and a change from the coding classes offered. The legal class pointed out a few gotcha I had not thought about. The big one for me was open source code. The speaker, Michael Schneider, said to make sure to make a copy of the license agreement and save it when you use the code. You never know when the agreement could change then your app may be in danger. He also talked about ownership of logo, graphics, code and other assets. Make sure a contract is signed. One question that came up was over seas development. He pointed out it is really hard to go after someone outside of the US. Also they may use code developed for you in other projects. This might not be a good thing in the long run. In the evening there was a reception where the exhibitors got to show their ware. The problem was there were only 6 exhibitors. I met a few people that came just for the exhibits and were sorely disappointed. All in all I learned a lot and made new friends. I'm feeling more comfortable now. Stay tune.

Fred M Abaroa
The Marketing Imagineer

Making a mountain out of a molehill is an idiom referring to over-reactive behaviour where a person makes too much of a minor issue.

iPhone/iPad DevCon East Day 1

With macbook pro in hand I headed out at 5:30am to learn to be an iOS developer. The workshop I took was entitled "Coming Up To Speed on Objective-C and Cocoa Fundamentals" with Daniel Steinberg as instructor. I was told about 300 would be attending the conference. I think about most were in this class. The instructor started out asking a few questions to see at what level we were at. I was surprised to see nearly half of the audience were new to Apple. A lot of the developers came from a java development background. Prior to the session we were given some files to download. I did this. I also came prepared with xcode 4. Unfortunately there were a few that had not upgraded so the instructor had to spend some time explaining how to do certain things in the older version of xcode. I should explain that xcode is the development environment for building apps for apple products. About mid morning I found myself thinking, "What have I got myself into?" I was not sure I could keep up and the questions about the doing things on the old xcode had me confused. The instructor then paused and told the class not to worry if this was confusing. he told us with a little practice this would all become second hand. With that encouragement I took a deep breath and continued on. By the end of the day I was exhausted but feel I had a good handle on some basics but more importantly I knew where to go for answers. I now could start my first simple project as a way to practice what I had learned. The conference continued with some pizza and lightning talks. The first set of talks were kinda sketchy, but the last set got my juices flowing for some more tools and apps.

Fred M Abaroa
The Marketing Imagineer

Making a mountain out of a molehill is an idiom referring to over-reactive behaviour where a person makes too much of a minor issue.

Journey to iPhone/iPad Killer App

I've been involved with technology for many years. I started programming computers when I was 16 in 1978. I've always dreamed of the killer app. I've seen many changes in programming and programmers. A few years back Apple introduced the iPhone and with that the iOS developer program. I was excited about this new platform and had some ideas right away. I signed up and got a book so I could learn to build my killer app. The major hurdle was that I had been management for so many years the new styles of programming had past me by. I therefore became intimidated and did not pursue my dream. Now I have rekindled my dream and am attending the iPhone/iPad DevCon East in Boston (http://www.iPhoneDevCon.com). This conference of 300 eager iOS developers is comprised of workshops and special classes for the beginner to advanced programmer. My hope is that my old brain will be able to come up to speed quickly so that I may develop my killer app.

Fred M Abaroa
The Marketing Imagineer

Making a mountain out of a molehill is an idiom referring to over-reactive behaviour where a person makes too much of a minor issue.

Superbowl 2011 - Commercials

It is said that a quarter of the Superbowl viewers are primarely viewing to watch for the commercials. Take a look here and tell me if any are Making Mountains Out Of Molehills:

Superbowl Commercials 2011

Fred Abaroa
The Marketing Imagineer
Fred [@] TMIFred.com
@TMIFred

Making a mountain out of a molehill is an idiom referring to over-reactive behaviour where a person makes too much of a minor issue.