Scott builds Software

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.

Couldn’t resist.

My tabulicious tool for creating iPhone Tab Bar icons continues to draw traffic. Users were asking for the ability to resize the icon, as the standard 32×32 dimensions can get crowded. You can now select from multiple sizes, from 30×30 to 128×128. Thanks for the feedback! Keep it coming.

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.

Its never too late to pursue your passion!

I saw Larry on American Idol last night. Sixty-two years old, break dancing, standing in front of America singing “Pants on the Ground,” a rap about kids who wear their pants too low. I warn you. The rap is addictive.

“I have a horrible feeling this song will be a hit,”
– Simon Cowell.

Maybe the real battle in 2010 will be Android vs. OS/X. I keep wondering if Google will rebrand it as Mobile Chrome. Regardless, I’m glad Google is finally coming out with the gPhone and letting Andy Rubin go nuts.

The growth in Android apps sure is compelling (see above, taken from Mashable). Its all over the Web this week. 2010 is going to be an interesting year for the mobile market. On the one hand, we’ll have an open store for the Android, much like the early days of Atari (if you built it, they’d pretty much sell it). On the other, we have a closed iTunes store with quality control, like Nintendo. Atari lost that battle in the 80’s as the low quality of games hurt the brand image. Nintendo came out of the gate slower, but thrived on high quality. Will history repeat itself?

Both will prosper as brands will be eager to reach their customers, directly, twenty four hours a day, on the go. Apps will be everywhere, apps with real time information, geo location, gorgeous graphics and human-friendly interfaces with haptics and sensors galore. I look forward to writing software for both

Ben Britten Smith, or Ben Britten, wrote the first chapter in iPhone Advanced Projects. Get the book. Ben’s chapter alone is worth the price.

His sample code is elegant, demonstrating a common design pattern for implementing 2D and 3D games. Ben’s explanation of a particle generator on an iPhone is particularly engaging. Particles are simple sprites with textures pulled from an atlas. A Particle Emitter generates sprites within a defined 3D region, like the back end of a tiny space ship. The Particle System is an embedded OpenGL game loop, animating and destroying sprites with every tic. The demo system uses basic physics (velocity, size), a handful of textures, and OpenGL color transformations. Commercial systems are more complex yet follow this pattern.

Apparently Ben was also using Cheetah 3D, a compact 3D modeling package for the Mac, written by a scientist in Germany. While not Maya or 3DMax or Poser, it has many of the same features for a killer price. You’ll want Rob Bajorek’s model exporter, too.

And the Iron? You’ll have to ask Ben. Its the logo from his site. Maybe it has to do with clean code, ironing out all the kinks.

Tom Krazit of CNET wrote an article about the Google Phone recently. He said, quote,

“…assuming Google really is planning on releasing a completely Google-branded phone at retail, such a plan could derail the momentum enjoyed by Google and its Android partners this year.”

Momentum? Do we really want another Windows, this time with Chrome but on mobile devices?

Empower Andy Rubin (the brainchild behind Google’s mobile efforts) to go nuts. He should be given complete, autonomous reign over the gPhone. Pick a set of technologies that compete with the iPhone. Tune ChromeOS to squeeze every bit of joy out of the hardware, blowing away his earlier success with the Sidekick. Then we’ll have some real competition, a chance for Chrome OS to shine. Please make me eat crow for my post on Chrome. I’d like to see a healthy market competition without a green screen of death.

Competition often produces better goods and services, at lower prices. We all win. Go, Andy, Go. Make the gPhone. You have my vote.

Croton on Hudson took a step forward to revitalize the Harmon District, an area hit particularly hard by the recession. The village board approved a resolution to rezone the Harmon district, a first step toward enabling entrepreneurs to build profitable retail space with rental units. The Mayor (Leo Wiegman) also announced a new “green tape” initiative.

Green Tape?

Its the antithesis of Red Tape. Green Tape is his word for process re-engineering, removing extra layers of red tape, streamlining local government. The title is catchy. It calls to mind other green initiatives, conserving natural resources, preserving our environment.

We all spend a lot of our waking hours at work, in our towns, working with people. Green Tape. We need more of it, conserving one of life’s most precious resources — time.