Only when you look back do you realize how far we have come. Sounds like a cheesy re-tweeted quote, but it’s a simple fact. I was talking with my business partner Ashli and we were laughing about the things that are just flat out old news, how soooo high tech they sounded when were in the late 1990′s and early 2000′s. If you still use these things, say these things – take the gentle nudge as a hint to let it go. These are definitely in no order just as they occurred to us:

#1  – “Can I just call you collect?”

Ok, so if you’ve heard this one recently, I’m assuming bail money soon followed. Do you remember all the crazy competition and commercials featuring Carrot Top. If you don’t remember them, check the video.

#2 – “Dude…you’re getting a Dell”

I mean really, if your grandma still uses this oh so cool year late 1999 – 2000 line, it’s definitely time to find her a new replacement joke. Even the guy who was the star of the commercial (Ben Curtis) has moved on with an off-broadway show titled, “Dude Your Going to Hell”

#3 – “You’ve got mail”

That’s right, that righteous reminder of you getting your important spam email. Don’t you miss your favorite email reminder and AOL’s disc with free minutes at the front of every retail kiosk, well for old time sake – here you go.

#4 – THE Windows TADA

THE Window’s TADA sound for Windows 95 you can never forget -  Apple fan, Windows fan, whatever…you heard this and it’s just so classic.

Now, if you still hear this on someone’s computer, stop what you are doing and give them your computer, it’s an emergency.

#5 – Download Accelerators

God knows I only had 56k for a minute and of course I tried to download every piece of media (we will leave media at that) , so the only solution for this was the infamous “Download Accelerator” that did absolutely nothing to help, but you could at least pause your downloads this way. LOL…Oh the memories. Believe it or not, they still have these – check it out for yourself!

#6 – Beanie Babies (circa 1998)

Yes, Beanie Babies! Remember all of the riots in stores that carried them and the rushes to get one. People were desperate to just get something stuffed with beans in it. Even McDonald’s gave them away at a time. Go look in your closet or the attic, you know you still have them,  just waiting for the day for them to appreciate in value! HA!

#7 – The Window’s 98 Intro Music

When I found this online, I wanted to tear this brought back so many memories, don’t think you know what music I’m talking about…Ok, here’s a reminder!

#8 – Visit AOL Keyword…

The only keywords used now are in search engines, but remember when you watched a commercial by your favorite retailer and they wanted you to visit their “website” by typing in their KEYWORD, not a bad idea, but could you imagine the fight over keywords today. WOW!

#9 – Ohhhh…This has Anti-Skip Protection

You were sooo tech savvy and up to date when you had a CD player, especially a Sony Discman with “ANTI-SKIP” protection. I mean come on when you ride on the bus with your CD player, do you really want your CD to skip, that’s only for the non-cool cats. Oh, the things the iPod killed, lol.

#10 – “Pass the TV Guide”

Ya, we had a printed book with the TV show listings in there. Not saying these don’t still exist, but when was the time you used a printed TV Guide!

So I’ve shared  some of our favorites, what are the old things you just haven’t seen or heard in decades? I want to hear some funny ones.

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• Perfect time for an Apple video game console?
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I guess with the hardware and software of the iPhone a bit more stable, Apple has time to address other issues that have been a pest.  For the past several months jailbreaking an iPhone required a special exploit until recently.  The latest iPhone 3GS devices to hit store shelves now address this issue and make it (for the time being) impossible to jailbreak.

I guess as apple becomes more lenient on the types of apps they allow in the AppStore, they return the favor by making it harder for people to jailbreak their device. From a business standpoint it makes perfect sense for them to plug this hole which made it possible for a few dedicated individuals to circumvent loading Apple’s pockets with money having to stick with Apple-signed apps in the AppStore.

For the time being Apple has won the battle, but we all know nothing is perfect and software is not invincible, and this may just be the push someone needed to try their luck in returning jailbreakage to the iPhone. I just hope Apple doesn’t get too caught up in this cat and mouse battle that new features and advancements become less frequent or dull.

TechCrunch also has a blurb about this: http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/10/13/apple-moves-to-block-jailbreaks-once-and-for-all/

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• Back to School with a Free iPod Touch
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I know, I know, it has been a while since my last post, but I promise I wasn’t just sitting around at a beach or something. I’ve just been swamped. Anyway, so it’s been over a month since we released Cram for Mac and it has been a great and new experience for me. I’ll talk about some of the points during development that stood out the most.

User Interface

Having developed an iPhone application(Cram for iPhone) before made the dive into Mac development a little smoother, however I still had a few challenges here and there, the first being the user-interface of the application. With the almost limitless number of ways to present your application to a user on a Mac combined with having to understand the smartest and most efficient ways of handling the application’s functionality makes for a pretty tough and thorough first step.

My goal for Cram was to have an interface that easily displayed the user’s tests, the categories they are in, and the functions that can be performed on the tests. Like many applications that have similar type data, an interface with a side-panel of categories, a main section containing the data within the selected category, and a toolbar along the top served to be the best choice for Cram.

One word of advice that I would probably give to anyone out there starting out, is to try A LOT of applications from other developers, the good ones and the bad ones. Understand how they present data and the application’s functionality. Read their reviews and find out what people like and don’t like about them. Find out about methods that are common among many applications. I feel that doing this allowed me to understand what is common among popular and successful software and also helped me include the best aspects of these apps and combine some of these ideas with my own. Some of my favorite apps out there among others are Timeline 3D by Bee Docs, The Hit List by Potion Factory, and Things by Cultured Code. Also another good tip is to pay great attention to the latest and greatest software from Apple. Many times the direction that Apple takes within their applications usually drives the direction of many apps in the third party world usually because it’s something cool but a more important reason is that your users are more than likely going to try an Apple product before they try yours, so when the time comes that they do try your software the user experience will likely be more positive because that particular  functionality in your application is something they feel comfortable operating.

Icon

As many know, the icon for a Mac application is kind of big thing in a lot of people’s minds. It definitely was for me too. I’m not the type of person who will not use an application because the icon sucks, but I do appreciate a great icon that appears to have effort and time behind it. After contacting a few designers about having an icon designed for us, we realized that we are cheap and would rather design the icon in-house first before going the outsourcing route. I cannot say if I recommend this to everyone, but since we had a concept in our heads already, we felt that it would not hurt giving it a shot and I think the end result that Ashli was able to whip-up turned out excellent:

The final icon concept for Cram

Coding Time

You’ll probably spend most of your time (until Marketing gets into full gear) in your life on your project doing development. Having spent most of my life coding in Java, I spent the first couple of weeks getting my brain fully adjusted to Cocoa and Objective C, which quickly turned into a language that is complete joy for me to code in. Getting over the uncomfortable feeling of a new language, framework, platform etc is a big hurdle for a lot of developers. When I approach this I’m usually in a mental state of not knowing if I know enough to jump into a project or if I should look at more examples that seem to make enough sense in my head. Time and time again, I have proven to myself that working on the actual project is the best way to learn. You’ll run into enough roadblocks during development that prompt you to research best practices, fixes, and workarounds to issues that sooner or later will build confidence in you to complete your new endeavour.

Development of Cram took me about a month, but that includes many 12-14 hour days so in reality it took almost two months to complete based on the traditional 40-hour work week. Even though many indie developers don’t like to mention it, sleep is probably the best tool you have when coding. There have been many nights when I was up until around 5 am and had little to show for the last 2-3 hours of work because my eyes, brain, and fingers fail to work together when they are sleep deprived. Sometimes I even feel just plain weird, if I’m not coding something every hour of the day. If you don’t take anything from this blog post… please understand the value of sleep! After a good night’s rest, I always feel able to willing to tackle any issue and complete any task…and usually did.

Marketing

This is by far the most important topic when it comes to releasing and updating any product. Since it’s such a vast topic, I’ll save it for a part two of my blog post. I’ll get into what seems to work for us so far, what did not work, and what we plan to do in the future.

Also if there is anything else you wanted to know or had questions on and want to see in the next post…just drop a line in the comments

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Leaves are changing colors and falling, the air is getting crisp, and you’re getting ready for school. Okay maybe not, for most people out there, school has just ended and summer is about to get into full-swing, but the back to school deals have started.

Apple has once again started their back to school deal where college students and faculty can receive an iPod Touch if they purchase a new Mac through September 8 2009. It’s a pretty sweet deal (and excuse to purchase a new Mac) for anyone wanting to go back to school this fall with a brand new computer at their desk.

Complete details can be found on Apple’s website. If you have been procrastinating on buying a new Mac or waiting for some deals in these tough economic times or you just needed a reminder to buy something cool, this is probably something you have been waiting for. And for those lucky people who live in states with tax free holidays during the back to school season (Georgia is one) this is an even better deal! Also I’ll throw in a cheap plug in this post…a perfect back to school companion for your new Mac and iPod Touch is Cram, which lets you study with flash cards and multiple-choice tests.

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With reports of the Palm Pre launch just around the corner, it’s only natural to wonder how it will hold up against the existing competition.

Since the iPhone’s arrival many devices have tried (and failed) to challenge the iPhone’s mass consumer appeal, hype, and sleek aesthetics, but the Palm Pre appears to have a better chance at making its presence known. The user interface powered by the new Palm webOS as well as the clean and simple styling of the device may have captured the attention of many who would consider or own an iPhone, but the sheer strength of Apple and its AppStore (not to mention the huge subscriber base of AT&T) probably won’t slow the iPhone train anytime soon.

Palm Pre

On the other side of the battle is RIM and their powerful BlackBerry brand. Although RIM has made pushes into the general consumer space with devices like the Storm and the launch of the AppWorld marketplace, their bread and butter still lies in the hands of business consumers, a sector the iPhone has not penetrated as easily. This however is an area where Palm has a strong history, and where RIM has grown at Palm’s expense.

The difference this time around is that consumers (thanks to the iPhone) are demanding a better user experience from the first time the phone is booted up, to the animations of message alerts. And from early demonstrations the Pre appears to handle this rather well, while the user interface on BlackBerry devices is beginning to show its age. This could be an area of concern for RIM since Palm has less convincing to do in the business world than the iPhone. If priced right, executed successfully, and an introduction to an additional carrier besides Sprint is achieved, the BlackBerry lineup may be caught flat-footed against the Pre with no apparent plans of a UI overhaul anytime soon.

In RIM’s favor, they are not sitting idle in the UI department, but with a new iPhone guaranteed to hit shelves soon, and the Palm Pre a few weeks away it’s hard not to believe they’ll be playing catch up.

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There is no question that Apple has made a push into the gaming world with the iPhone and iPod Touch. The power of the devices coupled with the solid AppStore platform brought the gaming world to iPhone owners everywhere. This got me thinking that an Apple video game console would be an excellent fit into their lineup.

A goldmine is resting in the living rooms of consumers around the world for Apple. An AppleTV like device that not only gives you access to music, movies and streaming video via the iTunes store but also a game-focused AppStore where consumers can purchase, download and play games right on their sofa could be the must have device(if priced right) for any kid, teen, tween, or adult out there.

This could  also open the doors for developers to reach an even wider audience who haven’t yet jumped on the smartphone bandwagon, but enjoy playing games from time to time, as well as the hardcore gamers who live and die by their Xbox, Wii, or PS3 game consoles.

From a business standpoint, Apple would have the opportunity to not only compete with Microsoft on another front(against their Xbox), but also with Amazon and Netflix with their streaming services…all from one device. With big names like EA and Sega already developing iPhone games,  support from game developers already exists  on the Mac platform possibly even attracting more big name developers.

With the economy stabalizing, the current game console generation going flat in about a year or so, and the hype behind everything iPhone, I really think Apple has a golden opportunity to make a giant footprint in yet another industry.

I’m not the type to wait in line for a product, but something like this may have me camped out at a Best Buy.

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Earlier this rather long week, we (SimpleLeap) released our first Mac application, Cram. Cram is a study and testing app that allows you to create, download, and share multiple-choice tests and flash cards. This is the perfect tool for college students who are looking for a solution that helps them study their material on their Mac.

Cram started its life almost a year ago when it was released on the BlackBerry platform, followed shortly by the iPhone version. For complete details on Cram for Mac you can visit http://www.simpleleap.com/cram/mac.htm

Right now Cram is in beta, and we’re offering it at a discounted price of $34.99 and also download the trial. Here are couple screens

Taking a timed test

Graded Test

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• So I Developed My First Mac App…
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