Engadget: “Though it’s very unlikely that Cupertino won’t offer assistance, devs will also be able to turn to EFF for advice, where they may even be paired with pro bono patent attorneys. Besides offering this bit of good news, Samuels was able to help us dig deeper into Lodsys, and the dirty business of patent suits.”
Well, there’s a bit of a silver lining, I think.
The Guardian: Florian Mueller, who closely watches developents in smartphones and patent claims, analysed the claims by H-W Technology and commented: “What’s really disconcerting about this lawsuit is that it’s the first such lawsuit to attack – besides operating system vendors and device makers, which are routinely sued by patent holders – a number of companies because of their smartphone apps. I’m really afraid we’re now going to see more patent lawsuits against application developers. Hopefully this won’t ever affect little guys who can’t afford to defend themselves, but if there’s a major company behind an app, or if an app is commercially very successful, it can happen and it has now apparently started to happen.”
This story contains details related to my earlier post. Darned patent trolls.
Fred Wilson: “I remember walking home one afternoon from the office on the phone with Mark Pincus. He had launched texas hold’em on Facebook operating under the name Presidio Media. We were talking about what he should call the company. He knew it needed to be a consumer brand. He said “Domains are so hard and expensive. I’d like to use a name I already own.” And he preceded to list a bunch of names he owned. He stopped at zynga.com which was his dog’s name. I said “you own the .com of your dog’s name?” He said “of course I do.” I told him I liked the idea of naming the company after his dog and it had the added benefit of being a short and catchy name. He agreed it was a good idea. A few weeks later, after thinking about it some more, running it by a bunch more people, that was the name Mark chose. It is a fantastic name and brand.”
I love stories like this, but I wonder how he came up with that name Zynga for his dog?
“You are named after the dog? HA HA HA…!” – Sallah
Fresno Famous: “It will be open and available 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. It will have strong, reliable internet access, modular desk units — and couches and a bar-sitting area — and plenty of dry-erase boards for anyone looking to collaborate. Plus, it’s sandwiched between a coffee shop and a bakery, across the street from a pizza parlor and on the route of a major bus line.”
I hope, beyond hope, this is extremely successful. It’s nice to have a place to go full of creative people when you’re working alone.
There are 14 Genius Adopter subscriptions left, only $200.00 for one year. Get ’em while they’re hot!
Marco Arment: “I’m asking people who bought a $200-829 device (many of whom also pay monthly for data service) to take a $5 risk. People risk that much for a side-dish of mashed potatoes that might suck at a restaurant, or a tremendous milkshake at Starbucks that they’ll finish in 30 minutes, without much consideration. iPad and iPhone owners often risk $30-70 on a case that they might break, lose, or get bored with after a few months.”
The App Store is such a strange beast. I think it’s a great distribution mechanism and if you’re an Indie Dev trying to keep the costs down it’s a real blessing. No need to worry about collecting money or keeping servers running. I’m more than willing to give 30% to Apple for that service.
The dark side is, as Marco points out, trying to convince people to take a chance on a $5.00 application.
When RxCalc shipped we priced it at $5.99. After a few months we decided to run a special and make it free for a day. After that we decided to keep the price at $0.99 believing it would increase sales. Well, we were wrong, again. It didn’t change sales, at all. We still get a trickle of sales, a few every day, just as we did at $5.99.
We will be making some changes to the price with the next release. When that will be, I have no idea.
HASHTAG Fresno: “A new collaborative co-work, hackerspace in the crazy Tower District. Caffeine, internet, and people like you. 24 hour access. Pizza across the street. Coffee next door.”
Makes me wish I were an Indie Developer! For $29.00/month you get a space to work with other creative people. Absolutely brilliant idea! Sure, I know it’s not new, but it’s needed in Fresno. There are a lot of creatives and developers there, they’re just hiding. Hopefully this brings them out into the open.
I know I’ve called Fresno a Technology Black Hole, but that one post made me realize Fresno has a large collective of great designers and developers, and probably generated more great reader commentary than any other post on my weblog.
I ♥ HASHTAG Fresno, just for taking the leap of faith and giving this a go.
Be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook, and don’t miss the 59 Days of Code kickoff tonight, 10PM at HASHTAG Fresno.
Craig Hockenberry: “In summary, we’re very disappointed with how things have turned out. Not because of the funding, but because there’s some potential here that will never be realized. We’ll continue to add things we need for our own products, but don’t expect to see any documentation or bug fixes that don’t affect our own code. Any changes or fixes will get pushed out to the community on a schedule that suits us best: probably at the end of minor release cycles (every few months.)”
If you’re an iOS developer you probably know who Craig Hockenberry is, he’s the guy that created Twitterrific. Anywho, he’s also a Principal at Iconfactory. I guess my point is the guy has been developing software for a very long time and is well respected. I do find it odd that he’s a bit disappointed in the response to Chameleon. I’m not sure what was expected? Open Source is by nature fickle. What I see is this; people will download it, use it, gripe about bugs, but do nothing beyond that. Sure, there will be diehards that get behind it and contribute, but mostly people will just pull the source down, build, and use it. That’s the way it goes in the Open Source community. I have a couple of Open Source things, granted they’re nothing special, and I doubt anyone has used them, but I never expected anyone to contribute to them, or give me money to support them. I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful person, but I don’t think you should expect to receive any money for an Open Source project. It’s icing on the cake if you could raise money to support it, but I wouldn’t expect it.
Anyway, if you’re an iOS or Mac developer you should take a look at Chameleon, and support it in any way you can, the fine folks at the Iconfactory put a lot of time and money into it.
You can donate to the effort right from the homepage.
New York Times: “Plenty of people want to build a popular Web site and become the next Mark Zuckerberg. But some technology entrepreneurs have a more old-fashioned goal: they want to make something you can hold in your hand.”
This is the American entrepreneurial spirit at work, Coffee Joulies.
Steven Vore: “Now when anyone brings me a task and interrupts my work, I turn to the board and ask if it’s important enough to keep these stories from being completed by the end of the week. If they say yes, I cross the story off the whiteboard, making it plain that they’ve made a decision to change priorities for me and my team. I’ve found that this helps provide focus to other managers as well — and that can only help reduce frustration throughout the organization.”
CNN Tech: “But for developers who wants their programs to make serious money, a nonunified app ecosystem may be less than desirable. Fully 74 percent of respondents said developing for Apple’s iOS gave the best opportunities for paid-app revenues, and twice as many developers claimed their apps were more visible in Apple’s app store than they were in the Android Market.”
Emphasis is mine. Another concern for developers was fragmentation. No surprise. Still, Android is a BIG deal. It’s the Microsoft Windows of Mobile.
You cannot ignore the platform.