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Voices that Matter iPhone: August Trometer on UI design and the iPad
August Trometer is a veteran iPhone and Mac developer -- along with his own stable of titles, he's also one of the developers behind the popular Yowza!! mobile coupon app, and the author of a book on web development for Apple's handheld device. He spoke not once but twice on the first day of the Voices that Matter iPhone developer conference in Seattle last weekend -- in the morning on "Designing a Killer UI" for the iPhone, and in the afternoon about what's new for developers in terms of code available on the iPad. After the second talk, he agreed to sit down with us and discuss a little bit of his thinking about concepts of UI design for both devices. In the interview below, he chats with TUAW about what developers can do to make better user interfaces for iPhone and iPad users, why he believes Apple had a plan for the iPad all along, and what's next in terms of interface design Read on for more.
Interview with Brian Akaka of Appular and Hand of Greed
Brian Akaka is an old friend of ours here at TUAW -- he is a veteran of Mac gaming, and was a familiar name in our inbox back when he was working at Freeverse and promoting their Mac software and iPhone apps. A little while back, he stepped away from Freeverse to form his own company, Appular, and since then, he's continuing to work with iPhone developers, both marketing and promoting their apps. Just recently, however, Appular has moved from simply promoting iPhone apps into actually publishing them. Their first title is named Hand of Greed -- it's a game that actually first appeared on the App Store in January, and has now been repackaged and republished by Appular in an effort to give the app some visibility. I got a chance to play the game last week, and then met up and spoke with Akaka this past weekend at the Voices that Matter conference in Seattle. After the link below, find both my impressions of the game, and a quick interview with Appular about why they've decided to not only promote iPhone titles, but publish a few themselves.
Voices that Matter iPhone: Creating the Winter Olympics app
Xomo's Jeff Sinclair took the stage on day two of this past weekend's Voices that Matter iPhone conference to the tune of the Olympic theme music -- his company (well his most recent company -- he's worked on a few other ventures previously) was formed for one purpose: to provide the official iPhone app for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Eleven months before the games, in March of 2009, Xomo was formed around the idea of "disposable apps" -- the thinking was that since most people only use an app for a period of weeks anyway, they would create event-based and location-based apps that had a built-in time limit. The eventual goal was to provide an Olympic app, and so even before the games knew they would want an app, Xomo started up to build one. The story was actually pretty interesting -- Sinclair talks about the trials and tribulations of building both the app and building the funding and audience for it. Most iPhone developers start out with money and go from there, but Xomo really started out with the software, and then convinced the Olympics and their sponsors to pay for it. Read on to see how the award-winning app was eventually built.
Voices that Matter iPhone: "From iPhone to iPad" panel
To end the first day of the Voices that Matter iPhone conference in Seattle last weekend, a group of veteran iPhone developers sat down for a roundtable panel and talked about the iPad. August Trometer (Yowza!!), Brent Simmons (NetNewsWire), Kyle Kinkade (Tap Tap Revenge), Daniel Pasco of Black Pixel, Tim Wood of The Omni Group, and TUAW's own Erica Sadun were questioned by moderator Chuck Toporek about the differences between the iPhone and the iPad and a few of the pressing issues that both devices are likely to face in the future. Even though the panel ended the day (and all of the attendees and panelists were craving the eventual beer and pizza that would be available later in the evening), it was a lively discussion that offered both insight and frank opinions from these developers. Read on to hear what they said about Flash on the iPhone, app pricing, and their favorite apps on the iPad.
Voices that Matter iPhone: How Ben Newhouse created Yelp Monocle, and the future of AR
Yelp's Ben Newhouse (who is actually still a student at Stanford) gave a fascinating talk this weekend at the Seattle Voices that Matter iPhone conference. He talked about Yelp Monocle, the augmented reality (AR) iPhone app that he created, and revealed the surprising (and somewhat scandalous) story behind what's known as the iPhone's first-released AR app. He gave some technical details about how he designed the code to make it all run and speculated a little bit about where augmented reality and camera vision are headed. It was very interesting stuff. Newhouse seems like an extremely smart, young guy who already knows this burgeoning technology very well. When it comes to augmented reality, it certainly seems like the iPhone is leading the charge as a relatively cheap device that will eventually replace more expensive and cumbersome technologies.
Voices that Matter iPhone: Aaron Hillegass and Joe Conway on the lifecycle of an iPhone app
Aaron Hillegass and Joe Conway of Big Nerd Ranch kicked off the Voices that Matter iPhone conference in Seattle this weekend with an overview keynote detailing the lifecycle of an iPhone app from a developer's point of view. The two are trainers and consultants for developers working on iPhone apps, and they laid out how an iPhone app is made, from start to finish, giving tips and suggestions to the developers in attendance on how they've developed their own process. Read on to learn the steps they take at Big Nerd Ranch in making an iPhone app, and both how and how not to perform them.
Voices that Matter iPhone: Five iPhone app design mistakes, and how to fix them
TUAW is at the Voices that Matter iPhone developers' conference this weekend, talking to iPhone OS developers of all walks of life. All weekend long, devs are here learning about how to code and design better iPhone applications from some of the best minds and artists on the App Store. We've gathered some wisdom from the hallways and discussions here at the conference, and boiled them down into five different design mistakes that developers need to address before moving into the iPad arena. Hit the link below to see what's going wrong with typical iPhone practices when they are applied to iPad development, and how to do it right.
