Scott builds Software

If you have ffmpeg, here’s a handy one-liner to convert a 480×320 Quicktime movie file into a movie that will play fine on both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS:

% ffmpeg -i original.mov -r 30 -s 320×212 -b 1200 -padtop 14 -padbottom 14 -padcolor 000000 new.mp4

Here’s what the various arguments represent:

• “-i original.mov” reads the video bits from the Quicktime movie, original.mov
• “-r 30″ sets a frame rate of 30 frames per second
• “-s 320×212″ reduces the movie from the original 480×320 dimensions to 320×212, maintaining the correct aspect ratio.
• “-padtop 14″ adds 14 pixels to the top of the movie, a black bar, since we’ve shrunk to a screen size that has a different aspect ratio
• “-padbottom 14″ adds 14 pixels to the bottom of the movie
• “-padcolor 000000″ specifies a black color for the bands that surround your movie
• “new.mp4″ is the new movie

The App Fund

I read today about The App Fund. They’re looking for killer apps that will run on an iPad, targeted at early adopters. Funding starts at $5000 and grows to $500k for a fully funded app with marketing. We would be happy to build the app for you!

Sausage Pad

Having trouble using that iPhone while wearing gloves? No problem! By a Jimmy Dean and slap that baby on the screen instead of your sticky mitts. Its all the rage in South Korea.

The Google Tablet

Google “leaked” their tablet concept for Chrome yesterday. The video depicts an even larger format, a 24″ screen laying flat on your desktop.

Apple is clearly #1 in the App universe. I love writing code for their wonderful devices. The recent, mocking attacks from the Twitterverse and Blogosphere remind me of a famous quote:

Deadly Nadder from Flame It!

Last fall Ben Preuss called me from ThinkNerve. Ben runs a fantastic little studio in Brooklyn, partnering with Hollywood boutiques, producing dozens of Flash widgets and microsites. I’ve always been an admirer of his work.

Ben had an iPhone project called “Flame it!” and wanted to know if we could help. The idea was silly but fun: transform your breath into a fire-breathing dragon. Sounds simple enough. Today we submitted it to the App store. Shortly we’ll submit the native French and German versions.

Yet, when all was said and done, the App had to be written in OpenGL, CoreAudio, C and C++. The menus were all custom, maintaining the look and feel of the movie. Listening to your breath, processing the audio, then controlling the stereo sound and flame in real time required a bit more work than I originally thought. The audio engine is custom, as you’re recording, playing and animating sounds in a real-time loop with less than a 10msec delay.

After I got audio working — suspending correctly, resuming without hanging, and handling sound effects in real time — I had to create a new particle engine for the flames, inspired by the fabulous work of Particle Illusion. It should be able to play all effects from their library of thousands, some of which were used in 2012 and other Hollywood films. So fun. As the movie draws closer, new flames and particle engines will showcase the unique character of the starring Dragons. You can even use a multiplayer mode, flaming particles across a local WiFi network in real time using UDP.

Here’s a first preview from GDGT. I can’t wait to buy one! By the looks of it, Apple has created a blend of a full desktop with the App model. Slick.

Steve Jobs unveils the iPad Tablet

Couldn’t resist.

Moses Introduces Folding Tablets 500BC

Moses shows original tablet durability, smashes Golden Calf (Duomo, c.1536)

The Original Language Tablet. Mobile version available with a team of slaves and oxen.

Spock Introduces the Tricorder Tablet for Interplanetary Use, bad polyster suits required for use.

Evans and Sutherland introduce the Data Tablet c. 1975. Colors available with 75lb display! Take that, Kindle.

The Liquid Tablet: 6oz Tab bottle, half the calories. Just brilliant. c.1977

The Apple Tablet is finally here! My inbox is already filling with entrepreneurs wishing to jump into the fray, filled with ideas in sports, finance, and media. Just this morning I was talking to an editor at APress. They have a slew of great books coming shortly to help us along.

Throughout this incredible growth of the App market, I’ve been taking notes on all the different players in the market. Someone, somewhere will create the Wordpress for Apps and become incredibly rich. Bespoke development will give way to turnkey, customizable Apps for the masses. 150k apps? Its but a drop in the bucket. There are 8 billion web sites, growing every day.

Here are some of the players in the market, and what they strive to do. I hope you enjoy this list as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Guaranteed they’ll all be offering versions for the Tablet in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

• uBuidApps: Build an App for $99. An app is a screen with “buttons,” where you tap a button to open another window.
• WP Touch by Brave New Code: turn your Wordpress blog into an iPhone-friendly site. Slick. I use it here and for all my customers.
• iSites: Build an App for $25. Apps are essentially newspapers, with formatting inspired by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Newspaper content is pulled from an RSS feed.
• AppMakr: Build an App for $199, or $499 if you want to submit it to the store yourself. These are all “tab-bar” apps, one tab each for your Twitter feed, YouTube videos, Blog posts, etc. Choose your feeds, use a stock design, away you go.
• Mother App: Build an App for $99, or split ad revenue 50/50. These are tab-bar Apps that feed off your Twitter and Blog data stream. They also offer a hobbled HTML reader, which turns HTML into iPhone apps… almost like a microbrowser.
• My App Builder: Build a multimedia app for $29 per month. Templates are available for bands, authors, audio books, plus the emerging standard feeds for Twitter, Blogs, and RSS.
• Seattle Clouds: Build an App for as little as $9.99, but expect to end up with a developer account for $499. Nearly a dozen templates are available, including a real estate agent, restaurant, band, as well as the standard feeds from Twitter, Blogs and RSS.
• SwebApps: Build a “button” style app for $50 per button. The main screen is a set of buttons, like the iPhone apptop. Press a button, launch a screen. Adjust colors, fonts, graphics. All editing is done online in a Flash application, and buttons feed off RSS and lists hosted by them for $25/mo and up.

I love apps. Amazon announced a private KDK (Kindle Development Kit) today available to the big boys, like Electronic Arts. Over time they’ll let more developers in as “space becomes available.” But…

The Kindle is dead. Black and white apps? No real operating system? Limited developers? Please.

Jeff Bezos had a wonderful idea, first virtualizing infrastructure with Amazon Web Services, then virtualizing his product with the Kindle. I see the Kindle venturing to the island of broken toys, replaced by software running on tablets from Google and Apple. Amazon will prosper with a terrific book store, great customer service, and unparalleled logistics. I just don’t see device design as a core competency.