Categories
Business Indie

Vesper Pricing

A wonderful bouquet of flowers.Q Branch: “Now that Vesper supports all iOS device layouts, we’re raising the regular price for the app to $9.99. With fast, reliable, unlimited sync, we think that’s a great value.

I think the idea of a sustainable business is the right way to look at this, but pricing an app at $9.99 isn’t the proper solution. The proper solution is to charge for their “fast, reliable, unlimited sync.” That’s the value, the app is just a way to get to your data.

The idea of apps is wrong footed, it’s about services. Mobile and Web are the two important clients in that equation. Sure, having a native Mac app would be fantastic, but Web is a better choice to spend your time on, especially for a note taking application.

Here’s an example; Evernote. The value of Evernote is the ability to not only take notes, but get to them from Mobile and Web. We pay for the backend service to keep our data secure and easily accessible. At $45 per year it’s a real deal.

A better play for apps like Vesper is an annual subscription service.

Categories
Business

Twitter, buy Path

Here’s another of my strange acquisition desires; Twitter should buy Path.

It seems, for some strange reason, there’s a bit of Facebook envy at Twitter. Maybe media reports just make it seem that way, maybe it’s true, I don’t know. One thing is for sure, Twitter lacks certain functionality. I think Path could give them some of that functionality.

Path is a much better version of what Facebook would like to be on mobile. Path is beautifully designed, easy to use, and limited to following a small set of people. You can still share your Path adventures outside your immediate network, but your timeline is limited inside the application. It’s perfect. Not only is Path a better Facebook, it’s also a darned good replacement for Instagram. The photos feature is solid and it has all the nifty filters people have come to expect in applications (if you need more filters you can always get them via extensions.)

Another nifty addition would be Hipstamatic. I love this funky camera app but a lot of what it does could be redesigned as an awesome set of extensions (I could be very wrong about that.)

The bottom line is, Twitter could get a lot more functionality with the purchase of a single app.

Categories
Business

The Lifestyle Business

Medium (“Unicorns vs. Horses” by Andrew Wilkinson): “They don’t need to be first, second, or even tenth, in their space, and have instead chosen to focus on a small percent of a massive market. They answer to customers, not investors, and focus on making their employees, customers, and themselves happy. They’re thoroughbred horses, not unicorns, and it’s time we start paying attention to them.”

I can think of a couple businesses right off the top of my head that fit this mold, I work for one. Panic, Big Cartel, and The Iconfactory all fit this mold.

This seems the proper way to run a business. I like that it’s about the customer and the employees, not about the investor. Having a little, privately held, business that changes the lives of others seems a nobel goal.

Categories
Apple Business

Crazy Prediction (A.K.A Wishful Thinking)

On occasion I think how interesting it would be if certain companies acquired other companies. Here’s one I’ve thought about quite often.

AHHHHHH!I’m a big fan of The Iconfactory. I use Twitterrific every day, as well as xScope. Both are beautifully designed products and easy to use. I’ve been thinking for a very long time, Apple should acquire The Iconfactory. Not just for their products, for their design and engineering talent. I think they would have to discontinue many of their products, like Twitterrific, or find a buyer for them, but xScope could be given away as part of the Xcode development suite and they will have gained a great design and engineering team. One that gets Apple.

Categories
Business Life

Bitwise on Transforming Fresno

Bitwise Industries: “It’s tempting to think that what we’re doing at Bitwise Industries is about buildings or technology or companies. Those are incredible byproducts of what we’re trying to achieve, but that’s not our game. Bitwise is about humans. We’re about their stories, and empowering the next generation of ambitious people to do awesome stuff in Fresno.”

This is why I named Bitwise, Irma, and Jake as A few of my favorite things. Their undying love of people and community. They’ve built something special in Fresno.

Thank you, Irma and Jake.

Categories
Business

It’s about ads y’all

Listen... do you smell something?CNBC: “Flock is part of Twitter’s push to transition from a place where people go to tweet, to an infrastructure and ad supplier for mobile apps.”

Oh boy.

I can imagine the conversation inside Twitter:

“I know, let’s create the worlds best open communications platform.”

“Naw, let’s make an ad network. People will love it!”

Welcome to the Free Web.

Categories
Business Design

Teehan+Lax+Facebook?

Teehan+Lax: “Ultimately, the things we would get to do at Facebook, the people we would get to work with, the problems we get to solve were too compelling to say no to.”

While I’m not a fan of Facebook I can’t blame anyone for “selling out” to them, but this deal is strange. Basically the Teehan+Lax principals just shuttered their company so they could go to work for Facebook.

In a nutshell “the people we get to work with” at Facebook are better than the people we hired and work with every day, so we’re just going to move to Menlo Park and enjoy the good life.

That, of course, is a bit harsh, but it sure reads like that’s what went down, doesn’t it?

From one of their employees, on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/derekkinsman/status/556102474625720320

Also, why wouldn’t Facebook offer everyone a position, or at least give them the opportunity to take a position in California? It all seems very slimy.

The one thing I learned while freelancing, people will try to get you to do work for nothing. Facebook obviously pulled off quite a coup, without having to purchase an entire company to get what they wanted.

It also sounds like they had reached an inflection point. They obviously didn’t like dealing with the day-to-day garbage (who can blame them) and they wanted to do the interesting stuff. Can’t fault them there.

https://twitter.com/derekkinsman/status/556098484953432068

In the end the Teehan+Lax partners did what was best for them. I just feel bad for the 40 folks left standing in the cold of a Toronto winter wondering what just happened, and what do they do next?

https://twitter.com/derekkinsman/status/556144070742269952

Categories
Business Cloud Life

Etsy Credit Card Reader

Bringing in the HarvestEtsy News Blog: “Today, Etsy launches a solution for our sellers based in the US to accept credit and debit card payments in person and help manage their multi-channel sales more efficiently.”

My dear wife has a store on Etsy for her little crafting business, Ragamuffin Design. She’s been using Square at craft shows and has been evaluating other store solutions that offer tighter integration with her domain, but the introduction of this card reader connected to Etsy’s service to manage inventory and collect payments is hard to ignore.

At a recent craft show Kim used this new reader and the Etsy application to great effect. I’d say it’s a winner and may be a good option for others running small businesses. I didn’t get a chance to use the app or accept payments with it, but I would change one small thing in the iOS Application. I would allow it to rotate upside down. On an iPhone 5 the app is upside down if you want the card reader at the top.

I do find it interesting Square hasn’t created an SDK for others to hook into. With the advent of Apple Pay I would hope they’d open up a bit. Access to credit and debit cards is still necessary for little businesses like my wife’s crafting business. Collecting cash isn’t the only thing she needs to do. She also needs to manage inventory on her site.

Big Cartel is a small, tight-knit, company that provides a white-label storefront for indie artists, crafters, and whatever else you’d think to sale online. They have a small (500,000) set of very loyal customers that manage their day-to-day online sales using the platform. They also have a really nice iOS client application that is missing one small thing. The ability to support swiping credit cards on the go. They do provide a way to collect money by typing in credit card numbers, it works, but is less convenient and error prone. They could really benefit from a Square SDK. They need this kind of integration because, like Etsy, they can manage your product inventory as the transaction is completed. Doing that after the fact is a real pain, I know, I’ve seen my wife do that after shows, prior to using the Etsy card reader.

I’m also a bit surprised someone like Stripe hasn’t created a white label reader with an SDK. Couple that with an open platform from someone like Big Cartel and you suddenly open possibilities for third party developers to create all kinds of interesting solutions.

Categories
Apple Core Labs Business Development Indie iOS Life

Into the Fray

I Have Failed

Will code for...Back in June I decided I’d jump back out into the Freelance iOS world and make a go of it. I had a couple contracts lined up so it seemed like a good time to make another run at it. Boy, was I wrong. About that time a number of well known Indie software developers were writing about their experiences in the App Store. The market for Indie work has kind of collapsed and I can tell you the Freelance market has bottomed out in many ways. It’s difficult to get folks to understand a mobile application is a real application. I hope someone is studying the psychology surrounding this phenomenon. I know every freelance developer has experienced this in their field. You give an honest estimation of time and an associated dollar value, and you never hear from them again. I hear fellow developers saying “Yep, been there, done that.” It’s just how things work.

Some of the contract work I’ve taken over the past couple of months are jobs I should not have taken. The pay was substantially less than it should have been and at least one of the applications was so substantial in size I really should have walked away, but I didn’t. That’s a big mistake on my part, something I regret, and a mistake I cannot make again. I took the work because I needed it. It’s a horrible position to negotiate from. You have zero power.

I also had a contract that went about as sideways as one could go. That is a cautionary tale and one I hope to tell someday, but not now.

All of this is, of course, a self made disaster. I chose to take the work, it’s something I’ll have to struggle out of, in the meantime I’m back out on the market, looking for a full-time gig.

What Do I Offer?

I’m a seasoned developer. You can call me old, that’s fine, I am not a 20-something. I have a wealth of experience shipping software. I’ve lead teams of developers and I’ve been an individual contributor. I know how to ship software. I’ve been there many times.

Most of my experience lies on the client side of the world. Windows desktop and iOS primarily. I’ve written code in C, C++, Objective-C, and C#. I have had a couple of stints writing software that ran on the server; Paramount Farms and LEVEL Studios come to mind. Both times the server side code was developed using a full Microsoft stack; C#, .Net, and SQL Server.

I believe connected services are the obvious thing to be doing. Along those lines I have experience developing and consuming services. REST and JSON based services are where it’s at today, but I’ve also consumed SOAP/XML based services. It’s all data, but I really do like the simplicity of REST/JSON.

I still like writing software but I’d also be more than happy to take on a Development Lead or Program Manager role. My last full-time position, with Pelco, was leading a team of 8-12 folks (it fluctuated in size and I’m counting contracted developers) developing a C++ and C# SDK for use with the Pelco VMS and I really loved what I was doing. I didn’t leave because I was unhappy, I left because iOS was calling me.

I’d love to continue working on iOS Applications, if possible, but I’d be equally happy working on desktop or server side software. I will warn folks up front. My SQL skills are pretty crude, but doing application logic and user interface isn’t a problem and is something I quite enjoy.

Career Highlights

I’m not much of a salesman. I don’t interview well (Whiteboard code? Instant fail, test anxiety.) I say this because I’ve had some of these moments recently. That’s the bad side of me.

I thought I’d share some things I have done and are in use by millions of people worldwide.

  1. Visio – I worked on Visio for over 10-years. QA, Setup Developer, Developer Support, and Visio Engine Development. When I left in 2003 Visio was used by over 9-million people worldwide.
  2. Pelco Endura – I worked on the Pelco line of Decoders for five years. This included the Workstation, VCD, and our shared pipeline component framework; MPF (Media Processing Framework.)
  3. Pelco SDK – I worked with a talented group of folks to create a reimagined SDK. We were able to design a new object-oriented C++ and C# SDK. I love creating code for others to use.
  4. LEVEL Studios – While at level I contributed to web services used by a large Android handset manufacturer. At the time the project was handed off our client it was supporting over 8-million people worldwide.
  5. Freelance – While freelancing I helped with a few applications, some are no longer in the store, and I have created a couple apps of my own (both in desperate need of a facelift, I know.)

If I were to sum up what I can offer I’d say this. I know how to ship software, how to make those tough decisions, and I can see the big picture. I know, and understand, that business needs play a big role in product development. I can lead or follow.

Categories
Business Cloud

Early Instagram

Medium: “9am: Kevin and I panic as our tiny server crumbles under the weight of our first-day traffic.”

In this day of large scale systems it’s hard to believe Instagram launched with a single server, which promptly melted down under the strain.

On Wednesday, October 6, 2010, Instagram launched its mobile photo sharing service for iPhone. In six hours, the back-end operation, which was running off a single machine in Los Angeles, was completely overwhelmed.

That’s from a 2011 Mashable article. I’d love to know how many boxes Instagram runs off of today. This stuff fascinates me.