A resurrected blog on the Indie Web
The conversations about the App Store and the drive towards 99-cent applications continues. Here are some more thoughtful posts:
And from 37Signals:
Ok, I lied. That last one isn’t about the App Store—at least not directly. ;-)
In case you missed it, there’s been some great discussion lately about the iPhone App Store and the drive towards 99 cent applications. In particular, whether or not this pressure for lower prices will allow developers to make enough money off of more complex applications.
I’m happy to see this discussion starting. More than a few of the conversations I’ve had recently have been with people who seem to have unrealistic expectations about the iPhone App Store. I’ve talked to many people who must have an iPhone app without a real business case or logic for it.
That’s not to say that people can’t be successful with the App Store nor that there aren’t really interesting and exciting things happening in the market. It just feels a little out of balance.
I’m going to write more about this in much more detail later and am planning on making this part of my presentation topics for the coming year. However, I wanted to make sure people were following this conversation. So here are some of the better articles on the topic:
The dotMobi people have published a nice, free eBook highlighting the best and worst sites for mobile devices.
The Android launch, the Symbian acquisition and open source roadmap, Intel’s Moblin 2.0 and OpenedHand acquisition, Nokia’s adoption of WebKit as a feature of the S40 platform, the Trolltech acquisition and incorporation of Qt on S60, Purple Labs acquisition of Openwave and Sagem assets, AOL’s Open Mobile Platform…
It seems that in the space of just one year open source has transitioned all of a sudden from geekware for Linux enthusiasts to a successful commercial alternative to closed-door standards. Moving forward, 2009 will be the year of maturity for how open source can be used as a tool for cheaper, faster collaborative software development, which reduces barriers to entry and breeds innovation.
http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2008/12/mapping-open-source-into-mobile-who-where-and-how/
The web inspector in Safari has been redesigned. I’m most excited about the new network graphs showing latency in requesting files.
Again, I’ll say that I can’t wait for access to this sort of data on mobile devices as well.
Live in Portland? Come join us Tuesday for an Obama ’08 for iPhone launch party and watch the next Presidential debate.
Doors open at 5 pm at the Mission Theater in NW Portland. We’ll be joined by Representative Earl Blumenauer and representative from the Oregon Obama for America campaign.
More details and RSVP information are available on Upcoming.org. You don’t have to RSVP to attend, but please show up as early as possible because the venue will likely sell out.
If you want to blog about the Obama iPhone App, here are some resources you can use:
Team Member Info
The main reason I became excited about mobile technology—excited enough to quit my job and start a new company—was because of the potential for mobile technology to be something that can literally change the world.
With that in mind, I’m happy to announce the Official Obama for America application for iPhone and iPod Touch users.
This is a secret side project that I’ve been working on for the last couple of months. The development started in earnest in the middle of September. The application was developed in 22 days.
The application is a great example of how mobile technology and the iPhone in particular can be used to change politics. One of the things we are proudest of is the fact that it helps people become what we started referring to as two-minute activists. The application organizes your address book by battleground state and provides mechanisms for you to track who you called and what they said.
Have a couple of spare minutes? Make a quick call and get out the vote.
I’m terribly proud of this application. I’m also honored to have been part of making it happen. It’s not simply that we built something that we believe will empower people to bring change to Washington, but it is also the fact that we assembled an exceptional team.
It’s a rare opportunity in life to work with a great group of talented people who are working long hours on a tight timeline for nothing other than their belief that they can make a difference. Our ten member team consisted of:
There’s much more that can be done with mobile technology to create social and political change, but for now, download the Obama ’08 for iPhone application and see the first steps in that process.
P.S. It probably goes without saying, but just to be clear: I don’t work for nor speak on behalf of the Obama campaign. I’m just a geek who wanted to help out. :-)
An note to those attending the Web 2.0 Expo in NYC.
I was struck last night at the TechSet networking event at how much I was out of my normal element. The experience made me realize that nearly no one at this conference knows who I am. So why would anyone come to my session?
With that in mind, I want to give you the top ten reasons to attend my talk about Going Fast on the Mobile Web:
So there you have it. Ten great reasons to attend my session. The session details are:
I also want to assure people that even though it is in the performance and scaling track that it has a wider appeal than just people who specialize in those topics.
I hope to see you tomorrow.
“Cell phones will now tell Italians when the tide is high in Venice. The city government just launched a free text message alert system for the floods which frequently put La Serenissima under several feet of water.” Originally from Zoomata and highlighted by Textually.
I wonder how long it will take before the U.S. starts to realize that SMS-based alerts would be much more effective than radio and television alerts. There’s a whole generation that the public broadcasting alert system would miss who are listening to their iPods and watching IPTV instead of the networks.