iPhone Conference 360 iDev San Jose April 2010

Are you going to 360 iDev San Jose 2010 in April? Its by far the best iPhone developers conference I know of… and I’m speaking at it this year. I’ll be introducing people to customer development and telling the story of our app Friend Focus for Facebook.

This year there’s 40 sessions, 3 panels, almost 40 speakers, 5 different Hands-On training sessions, all included for the price of $599 which IMHO is crazy good value. I attended in 2009 and it blew my mind. Here’s some of what I got out of the 2009 conference:

• Learned lots of inside knowledge about Apple that you can only learn from experience with them, including guidance on the mysteries of the approval process that easily saved me several thousand dollars in wasted development time on my own apps and helped strengthen my consulting practice.
• Got the inside scoop on mobile advertising, what works, what doesn’t.
• Met and made friends with a bunch of expert developers and iPhone business entrepreneurs including several chart topping studios and major iPhone app review sites – extending my network of experts to ask for help, advice, and press contacts.
• Introduced to several companies I’m now doing business with.
• Shared sales numbers with other developers and got a bunch of marketing tips.
• Got helpful advice on negotiating a licensing deal I was putting together for one of my apps.
• Learned techniques for memory optimization; SQLite; advanced debugging using notifications; core animation;
• Had a ton of fun!

The intimate size of the conference is very conducive to making friends and sharing insider knowledge that’s really hard to find elsewhere. Indie developers will be there in numbers, both successful and struggling, and there will be a good mix of major studios and iPhone companies represented too. You’ll be able to both vent your frustrations with peers and grill an Admob Google executive about eCPMs. Really, its tremendous value and great fun. Go and register now.

Sales Stats Tools for iPhone Apps

AppViz charts all your app store sales reports for you, and for a huge time saving it logs in to iTunes Connect for you and downloads them automatically. An added bonus (assuming you can stomach reading them) is that AppViz will download all your app reviews too! AppViz charts new downloads, upgrade downloads, all downloads, and sales revenue. Graphs can be plotted by different date ranges and for different countries, and it converts everything to your own currency. AppViz doesn’t currently support multiple iTunes Connect accounts, but there are work-arounds and the feature will be added soon. I’d like to see it handle the financial reports a bit differently to make it easier to reconcile with payments from Apple. Highly recommended.

AppSales Mobile is similar to AppViz, but its for your iPhone! AppSales source code is in Google Code right now, download with SVN and pop it on your phone with a debug build. Great distribution model for us developers! It’s a fantastically designed app, squeezing lots of charts onto the phone without anything ever look squeezed. Charts and reports show daily or weekly sales revenue with drill down by product or country. AppSales does have one big drawback, it is oriented around revenue from paid apps. It will show download number for free apps mixed in with the overall report data, but it doesn’t include downloads in the line graphs, they are revenue only. (Back in the day I used to use AppSales for the mac, but it’s no longer being distributed or updated.)

My App Sales is another sales stats checker for your iPhone, but unlike AppSales it reports and charts both free and paid apps. Reports are broken down by day and week, with your account totals and app by app too, showing new downloads, update downloads, refunds, and sales revenue for paid apps. From the reports screen you can drill down to see that data country by country. The app will chart your data by sales revenue or downloads by day or week. My App Sales is the work of Oliver Drobnik, and he’s still maintaining and actively marketing the app.

MajicRank and AppRanking scan iTunes servers and figure out apps ranking in iTunes stores around the world. As well as top 100 free and top 100 paid, the app stores have top 100 free and paid for each app category and game sub category, all of which can be browsed on the app store available on the iPhone and Touch themselves. I was very surprised to learn that Hit Tennis is in the top 100 paid sports games even in many countries including the USA, and its even in the top 100 paid games in a few countries around the world. This is really encouraging, and moves up the next release of Hit Tennis in my priorities. MajicRank is the first of the sales stats tools to record ranking data over time and graph it. Graphing ranking data alongside sales data and your calendar of marketing actions is very powerful for understanding how to tune your marketing plans to make the most from your apps. If you’re not sure about what all the different ranking lists are, read: app store top 100 rankings explained.

Mobclix shows app rankings on their site, with graphs. They are charting top 100 popularity free and paid combined, for the USA app store (so their numbers won’t match MajicRank’s numbers). Go Imangi!

AppStore Clerk is a simple utility that parses daily and weekly download reports and shows you the data in an easy to read table, showing new downloads and updates.

Heartbeat is a fully featured subscription website that features everything in all the tools above mixed with crash reporting, analytics, and a whole lot more. When I sell my millionth app I’ll try it :-).

AppStatz is another online solution to check out, though it’s still in private beta. (thanks @shanev). AppStatz – let me in your beta :-)

Drop me a line and tell me about the tools you use.

Screen Capture Tools for iPhone Apps

SimFinger & PhoneFinger help you make video demos of an app using the simulator with screen capture software such as Snapz Pro X or iShowU. Filming a real iPhone takes a lot more work to get a decent quality video, so screen capture can be the way to go if you don’t use the accelerometer or need to show integration with the phones native apps (which are missing from the simulator). PhoneFinger turns your mouse pointer into a customizable finger that taps the screen when you click, so the screen cap can feature a finger instead of a mouse pointer. I used it with iShowU to make the Duck You Undo video. SimFinger takes a different approach, the app is a window you position over the top of the simulator, and it does three things for your screen cap:

• Adds a white circle that follows the mouse pointer, which is great for directing the viewers attention in the vid.
• When you click the white circle ‘taps’ the screen.
• Shows a classy 3G style iphone with better gloss.

SimFinger has another handy trick, it can install fake versions of the native iPhone apps onto the simulator, so that in your video you get to launch your app from a normal looking iPhone, rather than the four apps the simulator has. See SimFinger in action with Snapz Pro in the Tweety demo. If you want a 3G looking phone and a finger, you can use SimFinger and PhoneFinger at the same time.

Duck You Undo! for iPhone

Our new app Duck You Undo! is in the App Store now

Does iPhone’s auto-correct sometimes change words in your emails without you noticing? Duck You Undo adds a popup toolbar so you notice ever auto-correct, and you can tap to undo or redo. Just 99c.

The Duck You Undo website is here

iPhone 3.0 As the Accessory to …?

Apple’s iPhone 3.0 software announcement is huge and exciting for iPhone users and developers. One area that really caught my attention is iPhone and iPod touch talking to ‘accessories’ by bluetooth and the dock connector. In the press conference Apple talked about a couple of possibilities such as a docked iPhone controlling your stereo or an add on blood pressure measurement device where the iPhone is the UI and tracks your blood pressure over time. Apple said that 3.0 apps will have full access to the dock connector and bluetooth, and developers can even create their own communications protocols. What are the possibilities for integrating an iPhone or iPod touch with any consumer or industrial device? Rather than thinking about adding accessories to the iPhone, what about thinking of the iPhone as an accessory to another device?

As an accessory to another device, iPhone & iPod touch with 3.0 will add:

• Beautiful color multi-touch screen that can playback video & surf the web.
• Easy to use Cocoa Touch or web user interface.
• Speaker, microphone, accelerometer (motion sensing), GPS,…
• Display of info from any additional sensors on the device it’s integrated with.
• Interface and content can be updated over the net.
• Embedded micro transaction platform (that doesn’t pass on chargeback fees?)
• It can send messages over the net, and you can send it messages.

What machines and devices can be made easier and more fun to use, cheaper to manufacture, more powerful, and more connected by adding and off-the-shelf or ‘from-your-pocket’ iPhone or iPod touch?

Interactive Toys: Clip an iPod touch onto a toy robot and a $20 plastic toy is transformed into a $200 toy that can talk, knows where it is and whether its standing up or flying around, can exchange information with ‘base control,’ and keeps score of how many times my robot battled your robot. The toys can have an online life ala Webkinz, but with iPod, the online content jumps off the desktop and comes right to the toy itself.

Toys with Add-on Content: Clip an iPod touch into the belly of a teddy bear (think Telitubbies or iPulse Bear), and it can read stories to you, showing illustrations and cartoons on its belly. When you want a new story you can buy it right in the ‘bear belly app’ using the in-app purchase micro transactions.

Intelligent Gym Equipment and Work Outs: At the gym every machine can talk to your iPhone. The iPhone tells the machine what resistance settings or workout program to use, it can listen in to your heart rate monitor, and every work out is recorded. If you don’t show up to the gym, push notifications will nag you to go work out. This idea is already a reality in the first ‘iPod is the accessory’ application: Nike+iPod and compatible gym equipment.

Tracking, Inventory, Point of Sale: That ugly handheld that the UPS guy gets you to sign on… stick an iPhone in a rugged case with a bar code scanner and signature pad and you have the same device. Similarly when you buy something in the Apple store without going to the register – just add a credit card reader to an iPhone and you have an Apple replacement for the handheld they currently use. ‘Would you like to receive your receipt by bluetooth sir?’ Right now iPhone and iPods are consumer devices with a consumer device level of failures, which is probably a barrier to using iPods in industrial applications, but hey they are cheap, carry a spare.

Vending Machines: How much do companies that operate vending machines spend on handling all the coins and in credit card fees and chargebacks? Why not bluetooth to iPhones and let Apple process the payment? Oh, and make the vending machines WiFi hotspots too.

Car Diagnostics: Want to know what that check engine light means? Connect your iPhone to your car’s diagnostics connector with a dock port adapter and it will tell you. It never needs to be out of date because the car diagnostics app it can update all the diagnostic codes over the net, tell you about the latest service bulletins, and book you in for service with a local dealer.

Photo Studio Control: Lighting systems for professional photographers are available with remote controls for adjusting the brightness of the lights. Use your iPhone instead- the UI will be slicker, you can customize it, and it can remember setups between shoots.

Programming Your VCR: OK, so no-one is buying VCRs any more and DVRs solved this problem by having a nice big UI on your TV, but programming the VCR is the classic case of some piece of digital equipment that has a user interface thats cheap to manufacture but is horrible to use. Keep the cheap user interface and augment it with bluetooth and a cheap to make iPhone app. Program your coffee maker using your iPhone, use your iPhone as universal remote for your stereo, set your car stereo’s FM stations and change the clock using your iPhone.…

Of course, all of these ideas require an iPhone app, and Apple has the final word about what gets into the app store. The app review process and the ‘iPod compatible’ licensing process will have to come together for these kind of ideas to work, and the economics of that confluence will dictate what is possible and what isn’t. iPod compatible coffee makers – maybe not, but iPod interactive toys – I think so for sure.  What machine would you like to accessorize with your iPhone?

360 iDev iPhone conference, days 2&3

360 iDev is over. Wow. Totally awesome conference. There were about 170 of us there (?) and we had 47 session over 3+1 days. I missed several sessions I wanted to see because of overlap or just brain melt. But that’s the kind of problem you want to have right – too much of a good thing. I registered at $350, and I live in San Francisco so I just had to add to that a couple of tanks of gas and a few hours of lost sleep for getting up at 6:30am. So $350 for 3 days of education and networking that there is no other way to get in an exploding new market. Maybe in a year I’ll be able to estimate the value I got out of this, but its got to be 4 or 5 figures of $value. How can this be? Here are some of the things I got:

• Hard core marketing advice on promoting my existing apps, new ways to moneytize, and how to choose and design future apps
• Learned the latest market trends from Pinch Media, Flurry, Admob, Medialets, etc, and got 1-1 help using their services from their founders & top people.
• Was taught a game-plan how to build a productive working relationship with the mothership, and gleened quite a bit of inside info.
• Learned about many open source libs I can use in my and client’s apps
• Got offered awesome free new iphone feature by AT&T Interactive to roll into my apps (in a few months I hope)
• Met several developers of hit apps we’ve all heard of.
• Over the three days I made significant progress / improvements with my own business plans and got specific advice on some deals I’m working on.
• Free legal advice from an expensive firm
• …

And did I mention it was fun? Hope others got something good out of me in return… got to speak at the next one. Many thanks to Tom and John at 360 Conferences for organizing. One suggestion for you guys: get an air horn and sound it when the food arrives. That lunch went pretty quickly.

360 iDev iPhone Conference day 1

Years of hard work with the US immigration system has me living and working in San Francisco just north of Silicon Valley, and I make sure to get to all the awesome iPhone developer events here: iPhone Dev Camp, Silicon Valley Developer’s Meetup, and now 360 iDev iPhone Conference which is on right now. Day 1 was great, here are some of the people I spoke with or presentations I caught:

Scott  Michaels from Atimi Software gave a fantastic presentation on app marketing discussing PR, managing your relationship with Apple and bloggers, how to make a lite version work, the state of in app commerce and other revenue oportunities….

Owen Goss presented the story of developing his new game Dapple. Owen has tons of experience in the game industry and explained how he applied his background to his indy iPhone title. His compelling message is focus on pre-production (which to the non entertainment industry folks among us means design). Dapple is a color matching game where you get to make matches by using a paint brush to mix paints and change colors. Paint spreads, and color matches don’t have to be all in a line, so gameplay is a bit different from other color matching games. Its a very polished fun title, check it out.

Noel Llopis showed me Flower Garden, a lovely 3D flower growing toy / sim that’s shaping up to be pretty special.

Keith Shephard game me a demo of Little Red Sled, a sled racing game with a winning combo of cute cartoon graphics, fast and smooth 3D animation, snappy accelerometer controls, and lighthearted audio design. The whole thing comes together to make a fun game with a delightful kid esthetic.

Michael Huntington presented on the Unity Game Engine, and he the audience was very open talking about experiences with Unity, OpenGL, Maya and Blender. Unity looks attractive and there are a couple of dozen title iPhone titles out on it now.

Finally, Mike Lee gave us the Keynote, in which he ‘toured us around the Cocoa developer community’. Good stuff Mike.

iPhone Calling Card and Travel Guide

I’ve updated the web site for Smart Caller with an iPhone Calling Card Guide, Guide for Travel with iPhone, news page, etc, to better support customers.

iPhone vs ZX Spectrum vs Nintendo DS by ngmoco’s Neil Young

From iPhoneDevCamp2, Neil Youngs excellent presentation about iPhone compared to ZX Spectrum and Nintendo DS. I started on the beloved ZX Spectrum, and I’m now focusing on iPhone, so I took this very personally while sitting in the audience.

Neil Young > iPhone is greater than… from Dom Sagolla on Vimeo.