Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Portland-based Urban Airship, the little company that’s going to help iPhone app developers scale in big ways, has announced that they are now accepting participants as part of their beta program for Apple Push Notification Services.
Portland-based Urban Airship, the little company that’s going to help iPhone app developers scale in big ways, has announced that they are now accepting participants as part of their beta program for Apple Push Notification Services.
If you’re a developer working on an iPhone app and you want to take advantage of iPhone OS 3.0 features, I’d highly suggest you check it out. Even if you’re not, the whole setup is pretty impressive. Read More
The Oregonian’s Mike Rogoway (Happy Fathers’ Day, Mike!) has a great piece about the burgeoning market supporting Apple products—especially with iPhone app developers—here in the Silicon Forest.
Portland-area startups mentioned in the article include Portland-based Urban Airship, Small Society, GadgetTrak, PheedYou, and Vancouver-based Avatron. Read More
Shop local for iPhone 3.0 apps by trying the Whole Foods Recipes app, the latest project released by Portland-based Small Society
Today, there are tons of people waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Standing in line to get the latest Apple iPhone, the iPhone 3G S. But anyone with an iPhone can grab the new operating system, iPhone OS 3.0. And once you’ve done that, you can snag some cool new apps.
Looking for one to try? Shop local by trying the Whole Foods Recipes app, the latest project released by Portland-based Small Society. Read More
Today as Apple makes iPhone OS 3.0 available, Urban Airship announces a deal with Tapulous makers of the insanely popular Tap Tap Revenge that will enable the game to support the latest iPhone 3.0 features.
Okay. I have to admit, I thought it was a big deal when Portland-based Urban Airship launched at WWDC and announced Portland-based Subatomic Studios as their first customer.
But just wait until you hear this.
Today as Apple makes iPhone OS 3.0 available, Urban Airship announces a deal with Tapulous—makers of the insanely popular Tap Tap Revenge—that will enable the game to support the latest iPhone 3.0 features. Read More
Based on how many times I just wanted to chuck my iPhone across the room in the last 30 minutes or so, I think Portland-based iPhone developer Calvin Rien may have nailed it—with Ion Charge.
[HTML2]Every successful game developer knows that they have to walk an extremely thin line. A psychological balance beam between aggravation and satisfaction. Make a game too easy and no one will play it. Make it too difficult and the same thing happens. The challenge is to build a game that frustrates the user enough that they find it challenging—while steering clear of so much hair tearing that they walk away, never to return. It’s a delicate balance.
And it takes skill to pull it off.
Well, based on how many times I just wanted to chuck my iPhone across the room in the last 30 minutes or so, I think Portland-based iPhone developer Calvin Rien may have nailed it—with Ion Charge. Read More
Local iPhone development agency Small Society—with whom I apparently have a bit of a fanboi obsession—made it to the big stage at the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) when Zipcar was asked to demo their upcoming iPhone app.
Urban Airship wasn’t the only exciting Portland-based iPhone news, today. Local iPhone development agency Small Society—with whom I apparently have a bit of a fanboi obsession—made it to the big stage at the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) when Zipcar was asked to demo their upcoming iPhone app.
“Small Society is working closely with Zipcar to bring Zipcar for iPhone to market,” said Raven Zachary at Small Society. “We love our friends at Zipcar.”
And apparently, so does everyone else. Take a look at some of the highlights from today’s coverage of the WWDC mentioning Zipcar. Read More
Portland-based Urban Airship is taking flight at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in hopes of providing similar support to independent Apple iPhone developers. And just like their Web app predecessors, the impact could be huge.
[HTML2]While everyone points to the prevalence of open source as the primary reason for the renaissance of the Web affectionately titled “Web 2.0,” there are two particular components of Web development that have played a critical, albeit under appreciated, role. Those unsung heros? Frameworks, a means of simplifying common development tasks that allows developers to focus on the apps they want to build rather than the stuff they have to build, and Web services, a means of extending functionality and infrastructure by using services in the cloud.
Those two things have empowered small independent development teams which, in turn, has created the Web we know today.
Now, Portland-based Urban Airship is taking flight at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in hopes of providing similar support to independent Apple iPhone developers. And just like their Web app predecessors, the impact could be huge. Read More
You never know. There might be something to this whole iPhone thing and Portland.
Today, Portland-based Lexcycle was acquired by a little bookstore up in Seattle called Amazon.
“We are excited to join forces with a company that has innovated on behalf of readers for over a decade and is a pioneer in ebooks,” the company stated in a blog post. “Like Amazon, we believe there is a lot of innovation ahead for ebooks and we could not think of a better company to join during this exciting time.” Read More
Ever wondered what it’s like to submit an iPhone application to the Apple App Store? Now, Beaverton-based FastFigures provides some much needed insight into the whole process with the lessons they learned after one month in the iPhone App Store.
The post provides a fascinating look into the planning of the launch, including struggling with issues like pricing:
The price sensitivity data showed a starting price of $9.99 maximized revenue but I was concerned that these customers were too familiar with our products and wouldn’t represent the broader world of iPhone users. After agonizing over this for over a week, I decided to adjust the pricing based on some additional factors and settled on $5.99. This decision is proving to be both a good one and a bad one, and I struggle with selling our applications so inexpensively to this day.
Mistakes made:
And this is where not understanding the process hurt us. First, I didn’t realize that there was some additional paperwork that needed to be completed. That was completed on the 23rd. Then, once everything is signed off, it takes 24 hours to show up in the AppStore. Finally on the 24th, I’m looking for the application in What’s New and can’t find it!
And valuable lessons learned:
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Two things happened around March 19th that changed our fortunes. For one, we hit that magical 20 review level I’ve talked about before. Second, one of the products in the Finance category most similar to ours went free. There has been a lot of discussion on the web about free applications versus paid applications and that the two customers aren’t the same. And this competitive application proved that.
Plus, some insightful suggestions:
Can you make money in the AppStore? Yes. But the competition is fierce and it’s very hard to differentiate your product from others. My suggestion: Spend plenty of time up-front figuring out how to get above the noise with factors you can control.
Long story short, if you’ve even remotely entertained the idea of building an iPhone app, this post is a must read.
Thanks to the folks at FastFigures for opening up and providing this valuable insight into the process.
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Back in February, we got word that Raven Zachary and James Keller were starting a new iPhone agency to help clients build compelling and beautiful iPhone applications.
An agency model for application development? Would it work? Given the resulting backlog of clients—which is always impressive but especially in this environment—it seemed that it was an idea whose time had come. There was only one small problem: the agency didn’t have a name.
Now, the small team has managed to carve out enough time from client work to name the fledgling agency. Introducing Small Society:
In times of great innovation, cross-disciplined and talented individuals have come together to bring new ideas to life. It is in this spirit that our team has built a company that wants to help change the way people connect with each other and experience the world around them through iPhone OS.
We believe that the iPhone platform represents a major shift in mobility and provides a compelling opportunity for businesses to deliver new products and services, whether native or web-based, to a global audience.
Why did it take so long to come up with a name? Quite frankly, the team has been busy with other pursuits.
Like what? I’m glad you asked. Here are a couple of their recent releases.
The Small Society site is still under development. Until it is complete, raven.me remains the primary resource for information on the agency and its efforts. For more information, you can also follow @smallsociety on Twitter.
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