MomoLondon: MWC2014 Stand Competition Live Final

10 companies competing to win a place on the UKTI stand at Mobile World Congress 2014 and press & media activity to go with it. ICT KTN, Mobile Monday London, UKTI and Cambridge Wireless all work together to whittle down the competitors to a shortlist of 10, all competing for five places on the stand.

All the companies this year were remarkably different — in their approach, their development stage and their presentation styles.

In the audience vote, I went for Changify, but the five who were selected were PeachInc, 5 Tiles, 23 Snaps, Capito and Viewranger.

There’s also an official blog post with pictures on the Mobile Monday London blog.

Red Glasses

Adam Martin, Founder

http://MyEarthApp.com @RedGlassesApps

• embedding rich content into 3D objects
• have built a native 3D engine for iPad that deals with data
• also built two sample apps:
  1. visualization of magnified Earth heights
  2. showing videos on a 3D globe
• aim to partner with media & content organisations
• have built bespoke apps for clients for last 15 years
• want to expand to a white-label product
• other demos:
  • showing travel time from a point across the globe
  • luxury retail, where purchasing from

Changify: Design for Social Change

Priya Prakash, Founder

http://www.changify.org @Changify

• basic idea:
  1. spot & share ideas for problems
  2. get support from friends & neighbours
  3. ideas get backed by brands & biz
  4. earn credits for making the change
• partnering with Clear Channel to make a digital bus stop
  • crowdsourcing local opinion by voting on screen
  • touch & NFC
• council get realtime data of reports
• running a 3 month trial with Guardian Data at Elephand & Castle
• working with councils & local businesses
• http://changify.org has been available for 6 months
• also accessible via SMS

Coveritas

Sean Redmond, CEO

http://www.coveritas.com @Coveritas

• based in Bletchley Park
• founding team did functional verification of hardware verification
• have applied same system to software functional testing
• specialise in machine to machine interoperability
• uses randomisation & rules (constraints) to generate end to end use case tests
  • 3GP took 9,000 hours of test engineering
• looking to partner with domain experts in M2M standards testing
• customers are those companies with massive test labs for M2M interoperability
• have an annual time-based license model

SpatialBuzz

Leon Hardwick, Director Global Sales & Marketing; Andrew Blake, CTO

http://www.spatialbuzz.com @SpatialBuzz

• cloud-based customer experience management for mobile operators
• delivering info on status and capability of network
• give the operator an idea of how customers are reacting
• can also provide an early warning to operator of issues
• mix together operator outage & planned works with crowd-sourced input
• can cater for any service delivered geographically
• deployed with Telefonica UK & Germany, also Tesco Mobile
• benefits seen:
  • reduction in calls
  • reduction in response times
  • improving customer satisfaction

PeachInc

Dr Daniel Morris

http://www.peachinc.com @PeachInc

• mobile ticketing using the “MorrisCode” — 2D barcode
  • patented format
• optimised to be read from electronic displays
• at the moment PeachInc are the only people who can read them
• displays well on small screens
• stores a 16 digit number
• have built a suite of apps
  • can receive tickets via SMS (even on iPhone)
• also make hardware
• will be integrated into a
• biggest customer so far Saudi Professional football league
• versus QR codes:
  • reads faster and more successfully
  • reads at 20 frames a second with most mobile cameras
  • 5,000 people at an event with 100% success rate
  • 60,000 football matches in Saudi Arabia with no problems

5-Tiles

Michal Kubacki, Inventor & CEO; Piotr Pieczynski, CFO

http://www.5-tiles.com @fivetiles

• keyboard for Android
• business model based on app sales & licensing deals
• works well for smartwatches (with a touch screen)
  • takes a small amount of screen space
  • have a demo on i’m watch Android smartwatch
• looking to port to Windows & iOS
• also getting keyboard tested by RNIB
• currently have 100s of users on Android
  • and 4,000 downloads of the training app
• takes about 30-45 minutes to learn the combinations
• working to make the learning curve lower all the time

23snaps

Meaghan Fitzgerald, CMO; Ivailo Jordanoc, Co-Founder

http://www.23snaps.com @23Snaps

• mobile-first private social network for families
• spans across different generations
• also organise photos by date & location
• 500K registered users
• posting one photo every second
• make money by selling photo print products
• have users in 179 countries
• going to be launching in Brazilian Portuguese
• content owned by creators
• also provide a one-click export of all content
• wanting to meet consumer electronics, mobile networks, etc
• don’t want advertising next to family photos
• may go for other monetization such as premium features

Available for iPhone, Android, Windows 8, email, web and printed books!

Capito Systems

Tony Ballardie, CEO

http://www.capitosystems.com @CapitoSystems

• speech assistant technology specifically for mobile commerce
• about to sign first customer
• language variations, background noise?
  • have focussed on language understanding rather than speech recognition
• aiming to license to mobile commerce companies
• have built support tools to enable customers to build up a speech corpus of domain language

Viewranger

Ben Howard, Marketing & Sales Exec; Craig Wareham, CEO & Co-Founder

http://www.viewranger.com @viewranger

• digital mobile platform for outdoor activities
• interest-based social network
• publishing platform
• trail guide marketplace
• over 2 million app downloads
• used by over 100 search & rescue teams in UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Germany, Ukraine
• work with 22 mapping agencies & trail guides from 400 brands
  • including CAMRA :-)
• wanting to engage with handset OEMs & wearable manufacturers
• earn revenue through:
  • premium in-app data & services (maps & guides)
  • premium services & analytics for brands
  • syndication of content
  • could go for advertising in the future (have steered away so far to keep UX well)
• main competitors are still dedicated devices
• there are sport-based apps that seem to be fragmenting the need

Available for iPhone & iPad, Android and Nokia

UBIAPPS (Nquiring Minds)

Nick Allot, CEO

http://www.ubiapps.com @nallott

• secure end to end framework for managing apps both online & offline
• server management + enterprise-grade security is proprietary
• protocol is open-source (JSON-RPC over HTTP)
• all nodes are two-way — can manage apps and IoT devices using the same system
• easy & quick to integrate on any device
• looking to work with system integrators
• seen most interest so far from asset tracking systems

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Announcements

• Vision Mobile Developer Economics Survey
  • http://visionmobile.com/DE1Q14MoMoLon
• IDEALondon offering desks, mentoring & support for start-ups and SMEs working on new products & services
  • apply at http://idea-london.com

MomoLondon: Demo Night 2013

Another fun demo night from Mobile Monday London. Some new ideas and some old — you never know which ones are going to stick!

My bets are on Vyclone and Critical Arc…

Blue Badge Style

Fiona Jarvis & Kishan Gupta @bluebadgestyle

• a guide for the discerning less able
• app available for iOS: Blue Badge Style
• graduated from the Mobile Monday & UCL Mobile Academy
  • (it’s really great! sign up now! :-))
• social media advisor suggested:
  • video of app to attract people to download
  • RSS feed in app
• added TTS (but not voiceover?)
• got 1000 downloads in Nov (PR & press) + 300/month afterwards

Boss Level - Scavengers

Nick Brown @boss_level

http://playscavengers.com

• game based solely in HTML5
• aimed at PC, mobiles, tablets & smart TVs
• want same control system across everything
  • up down left right & select - lowest common denominator
  • fixed 720x720 resolution at the moment (will need to change for different devices)
• closed alpha at the moment
• aiming for Kickstarter to raise profile
• cross between xcom & worms
• freemium business model with in-game purchases
• also thinking about a store for game assets
  • there’s a game editor that allows you to completely customise levels and characters
• would rather not have in-game adverts, but depends on the eyeballs
• currently two developers

Connecthings

http://www.connecthings.com/

• NFC tags for street furniture
• 1500 tags displayed in Strasbourg
• real-time transport info
• integrated with cycle info too
• also has event & POI database
• POI tags show POI info first, transport tags show transport info first
• tags have QR codes too
• license the platform to municipalities
  • though not sure how well it would go down with councils that already have their own portals….

Critical Arc

http://www.criticalarc.com/

• previous company led security & surveillance for Olympics
• security & safety in large open spaces
  • e.g. universities
• define SafeZones where there is a response team available
• security team have an app to see a situational view of the campus
• free app to call for help & get notified
• have created a platform for sharing location and situational information
• universities are first market
• no tracking in the background for general public
• security officers are tracked in the background
• Wi-Fi positioning covers off GPS issues
• can report on security staff location — heatmaps etc, can be used to actively plan response

Decibel Analytics

http://www.decibeltechnology.com/analytics/ @decibelanalytic

• actionable analytics
• object maps, which integrate with elements on page, to show which are actually being clicked
• attention maps — shows which areas of page are actually viewed
  • i.e. where is the fold for all your customers…?
• which content is contributing most to goals & revenue generation
• can filter by device and by incoming source
• adding A/B testing soon

Men’s Fitness UK iPad app

Paul Cooper, Design Director, Dennis Publishing @dmfcoops

iPad app: Men’s Fitness UK

• COPE — create once, publish everywhere
  • started by NPR in the US
• Drupal CMS with responsive design & native elements
• started with The Week (iPhone & iPad)
  • takes one person one day to lay out
  • less than 100Mb an issue
• now done a monthly magazine — more content
• Drupal 7 & responsive is a complex thing
• Adobe DPS takes over a week to lay out an issue of EVO
• content producers (photogs etc) struggled a little with responsive design, but get training
• can preview the issue before generating the app
• looking at licensing the system to other parties
• developing a system like InDesign that outputs responsive HTML

GO!Enterprise

Globo plc - Enterprise Mobility in a BYOD world

http://goenterpriseserver.com

• deploy access to back office systems in a secure manner
• no need for mobile device managment
• client app available from standard app stores
  • GO!Enterprise for iOS
  • GO!Enterprise for Android
• three products:
  • office — point and go
  • mobilizer — development for custom enterprise apps (cross-platform)
  • reach — make apps for customers

Trademob - mobile click fraud protection

Adrienne Gauldie @adriennegauldie (ag@trademob.com)

http://www.trademob.com/

• did a study in june (6m clicks)
  • 22% accidental (< 0.1%)
  • 10% botnet & hijacked clients
  • 8% server-side fraud
• can see it from data…
  • e.g. in-app clicks from non-mobile user agents
• don’t get fraudulent clicks from publishers with real customers
• building a blacklist of dodgy publishers
• 100 people in company

Vyclone

http://vyclone.com/ @vyclone

Download the app for iPhone

• wouldn’t it be amazing if we could make a single video from all the angles at a rock concert…?
• combine multiple vids in one
  • had 200 people filming a Jason Mraz concert
  • 150 people at Ed Sheeran in Hammersmith Apollo
• business model:
  • lots of interest from music industry
  • want to get footage and release it to fans for behind the scenes
• copyright: music industry recognise that this is already happening
  • now they get access to video, so a win-win
  • customers can choose to keep video private, or share with everyone
• app is winning lots of awards!

AudioSnaps

Marc Sallent, We Choose Fun

http://audiosnaps.com

• record 5 secs of ambient sound while taking a picture
• JPEG + MP3 = JPEG! (plus extensions)
  • all devices can still show it
  • web site can play audio with just one line of javascript
• why not just take a short video?
  • want to capture a moment, not tell a story

Chirp

Geraint, Animal Systems

http://chirp.io

Download the app for iPhone

• send small amounts of data using sound
• want to release an API for third parties
• have an arduino that can chirp
• teach the machines to sing!

Catch-up with last year’s demos

Two of last year’s Demo Night presenters returned to give us an update. See my notes from last year.

Ko-Su

http://ko-su.com @kosumobile

mobile learning for everyone

• demoed last year, one month pre-release
• been accepted into BBC Worldwide Labs
• material created in lots of countries around the world
• now “officially out of pre-revenue” (?)

Six-Three

https://six3.tv/

Simon Frost, CTO @spli

• started out as a private closed network — a messaging thing
• sports stars started using it to keep in touch with their public, but also to communicate with their private street marketing teams
• made it onto WAYRA Telefonica business incubator

Handheld Conference 2012

This is a new conference, organised by Craig Lockwood around lots of intersecting areas of mobile design and development.

This year it was held in the beautiful St David’s Hotel, overlooking Cardiff Bay. The conference centre was a bit cramped, but the hotel itself was lovely.

There was a single track of sessions, but they covered a wide range of areas from getting a business started to futurology via several variations of design. As with many mobile events there was a fair mention of the web vs native debate, but there was a reasonable balance between the two here — with the only loser being the whole app hybrids like PhoneGap (which took a large amount of flak).

As with most of my posts, here’s my quick notes, typed during the sessions so that you can get a rough overview of what happened. Craig has published videos of several of the sessions on Besquare (I'll link to them next to my notes).

Handheld 2012: Book stories — How to turn a sideline into a business

Keir Whitaker, Viewport Industries

http://keirwhitaker.com

• co-owner of Viewport Industries with Elliot Jay Stocks
• using the web to do side-projects / passion projects
• published Insites book — interviews with web developers & founders
  • also available as ebook (via http://woop.ie)
• wanted to create something that makes money while they slept
• there’s still a passion for physical media (especially amongst designers…)
• had 65 people involved in making book
  • 21 interviewees, but a lot of others
  • copy editors, etc
• picking a new collaborator is hard
• did a precursor project (insites tour) to find out if they could work together
• discuss the money up front
  • horrible conversation to have
  • but really important to sort out before starting
• raising money
  • bootstrapping (your own money)
  • kickstarter (watch out for scaling issues)
  • funding
  • sponsorship / partnership
  • chose partnership (published in association with Mailchimp)
• need banking for a business account
  • they need address, phone number, etc
  • chose HSBC for Xero integration
• company needs a physical address
  • don’t use your home address
  • can use an accountant’s address
• need a telephone number
  • again, don’t use a personal number (especially mobile)
  • used a company called dial9 to have a virtual Bath number
• need terms & conditions
  • banks pay people to read them when you apply for stuff
  • most people borrow other people’s terms…
  • ask first!
• get an accountant
  • will save you money
  • HSBC business account feeds directly into Xero online accounting system
  • accountant can then work directly from Xero
  • costs about £19/month
• need a storefront for the website
  • shopify costs £19/month
• payment gateway
  • middle man between storefront and merchant account
  • need it if you don’t go for paypal
  • alternatives:
    • braintree
    • paymill
    • stripe (US only)
    • gocardless (going Europe-wide, direct debit only)
• merchant accounts
  • money comes through into real business account after about 2 weeks
• ensure that the gateway supports issuing refunds
• digital goods
  • use fetch app
  • works by web hooks
  • benefit with fetch app is that you can resend orders (sometimes they don’t go through)
• need to do support…
  • try to take dissatisfied customers off twitter and into email
  • think about what you can offer unhappy customers (e.g. digital goods in lieu)
  • helpscout.net can suck in email
  • can outsource support
• costs:
  • accountant: £70
  • xero: £19
  • telephone: £10
  • shopify: £19
  • payment gateway: £19
  • merchant account: £25
  • fetch app: £6
  • support: £100
  • based on 4 hours of accounting & support / month
• projects will always take longer than you think
  • impacts the finances

Start small, think big

Lee Armstrong, @lesmond, lee@pinkfroot.com

Video available on besquare.me

• shipfinder - first app
• planefinder - most successful
• inspired by Google, facebook, twitter
  • started thinking big from the start
• planefinder started with coverage of the south of the UK
  • sold app across world and started getting a few emails back saying “don’t you know Poland exists?”
  • started planning for bigger
• now cover most of world apart from China & Africa
  • have 400-500 radio receivers across the world and splice that data with other databases
  • all receivers are land-based: ships have range of about 50 miles
• when initial small hosting plan started creaking had to decide to self-host or cloud?
  • ran a comparison recently, found that it would cost $2000/mth more using AWS than using at the moment
  • but have internal skills to do server management
• currently have 32 servers but are flexible
• need to be able to scale up (and down)
  • pinkfroot turn machines off when scaling down
  • doesn’t save capex of rack space, but saves power
• user reviews…
  • bonkers reviews — ignore them
  • but pay attention to common themes
  • take time to spend time on customer support
  • takes around 30 minutes to turn around an angry customer
• built in social sharing into app
  • pick a flight and share it - shares web link + image
• built up community of app users
  • really valuable when lost photos of individual planes
  • managed to get users build up their own photos in the app (credited to users)
• product releases - little and often really helps
  • big release with loads of new features will miss out most features in reviews
  • what’s new notes in store are the one chance to communicate with users
  • make it chatty, make it friendly
• building up a good brand
  • working with Eddie Stobart to make an Eddie spotter app
• have apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone
  • spend a lot of time writing native apps
  • make savings on back-end — they all talk JSON
  • Android is 10% of iOS sales
  • Windows Mobile is 1% of iOS sales
  • doing it for brand exercise
  • going through improving other platform apps

So you have an app idea?

Dave Addey, Agant, @daveaddey

Video available on besquare.me

• 2008 Dave was an web developer in a spare bedroom office
• now runs a company with 7 employees
• a good idea for an app
  • is it a good idea?
  • is it a good idea for an app?
  • how do you go about making it?
• example: late night bars in London
  • cost low four figures to make
  • 3 months of preparation time for database
  • sold 2000 copies @ £3.99 (or £2.40 after Apple & VAT) — didn’t even break even…

is it a good idea?

• measuring good app market:
  • universal - niche
  • international - local
  • lasting - ephemeral
• UK Train Times launched in 2009 when the app store was smaller
  • local - UK not worldwide
  • lasting
  • fairly universal
• Malcolm Tucker app
  • when you open the app there’s one new voicemail waiting for you
  • when you listen to the voicemail it starts a 4 day process with incoming emails & voicemails as Malcolm Tucker tries to find his phone
  • timely
  • fairly niche
  • fairly local
  • so covered costs but not much more
  • but led to a lot of other interesting projects
• does the app have a long tail?
  • lasting appeal
• does it scratch your own itch?
• should have some kind of hook
  • something that’s not been done before
  • something to show off to user’s friends

… for an app?

• when potential clients say “I want an app”, it’s not always true — Dave talks 50% of clients out of
• dead time (5-10 mins)
  • e.g. supermarket line
  • used for QI app
  • book-style interface had larger books with longer content
• we know where you live
  • trip advisor offline city guides
  • nosey parker
  • rightmove app
  • e.g. next train home in UK Train Times
    • one button to home station from around here
• the app that’s always there
  • guitar toolkit
  • imdb: “what was she in?”
  • british red cross first aid app — everyone should download this now!
• ongoing (everyday) use
  • opposite of throwaway app
  • people rely on them
  • UK Train Times
    • get more sales through word of mouth than any other means
    • can still charge £4.99
    • has sold 300,000 copies throughout the UK
    • but losing National Rail icon caused a massive drop in sales
  • twitter clients
  • TuneIn Radio
  • clipboard management apps

how to go about making it?

• lots of platforms to cover
• one approach is PhoneGap, hybrid app builder
• but problem: e.g. featured app Wikipedia
  • doesn’t work in the same way as native apps
  • form controls are different
  • search is not the same for either platform
• @daveaddey’s maxim: “develop once for every device: you get a rubbish app for every device”
• have seen big brands develop PhoneGap apps and then pull them after a month
• if you spend ages fine-tuning your HTML to behave like a native app, then you might as well spend that time writing native
• … but the rule is different for games
  • you can build using cross-platform games engines, e.g. Unity, Marmalade
  • the interface is not specific to the device but specific to the game
• it’s all about the implementation
  • sharing profits based on an initial idea doesn’t make sense…
  • it’s all the little ideas throughout development
• Derek Sivers - cdbaby
  • ideas are worth nothing unless executed
  • they are multipliers
  • http://j.mp/ideaMultiplier
• Sergey Brin: “coming up with an idea is the least important part of creating something great… the execution and the delivery are what’s key” (via The Guardian)
• PhoneGap can be useful for a quick prototype to guage response
• apps can and should make use of HTML5 where appropriate
  • e.g. Malcolm Tucker emails, credits pages
  • QI app content — but displayed using CoreText not a web view
• hybrid approach
  • suggest creating a native app for one platform
  • a mobile web app for the rest
  • choice of one native platform is up to target market
  • use experience of first native to decide next native platform
• don’t muck with user expectations
  • native apps are expected to have native performance & behaviour
  • web sites have different expectations
  • but don’t try and make your mobile web site appear like a native app!
• pricing:
  • getting high value apps going
  • e.g. launching £10 app at £5.99
  • 69p for a UK only app is not going to break even
  • Agant don’t do 69p apps…
• bandwidth, speed, etc
  • saw more of a change between capped & unlimited than for improvements in speed
• biggest failing in App Store is lack of paid upgrades
  • adding new functionality is about finding additional users by re-promotion
  • Agant avoiding freemium because eeurgh :-)
  • but freemium seems to be a side effect of the lack of a paid upgrade option

10 top tips

1. project the risk of everything you do: best and worse case predictions
   • app should have a business plan
2. keep project budget realistic
   • don’t be tempted to spend a fortune
3. it’s important that all partners have a vested financial involvement
   • don’t take on apps for a content provider where they have no risk
4. talk about your idea - it will lead to better ideas
5. value Apple promotions
   • Malcolm Tucker was not promoted due to sweary language
   • QI app did get promoted - massive difference
6. best way to get Apple promotion is to make Apple devices look good
7. create a video that tells people what your app does
   • gives an equivalent to your app that people can share
8. keep updating your app - and give Apple reasons to promote it in each case
   • if you add big content, Apple will treat it as a new app
9. keep it simple and focussed
10. sweat the details
    • “the best way to market your app, is just to build a great app”

Content & tone

Robert Mills, Studio Manager at Bluegg, @RobertMills

Video available on besquare.me

• creating, managing & using content
• need an individual responsible for content
• content first otherwise design won’t fit…
  • see @rellyab, @halvorson
• used slickplan to plan site
  • signed off site map first
  • then got client to provide all content
  • client had to really think about what she was saying
  • she had to think about the whole site up front
• having all content ready means that organising translations is easier
• using content
  • what are you saying and who to?
• managing content
  • can use Google Docs, Dropbox, etc
  • or GatherContent
• doesn’t end after launch
  • need to review & refine
  • audit & strategy
  • ensure consistent & authentic
• auditing content for mobile
  • prioritise content over navigation
  • can prioritise content using traffic lights
  • need to check end use: ask why content is important

Working with Muppets

Ollie Wells, Sequence, @olliewells

• Sequence focus mainly on mobile web sites
• research — use analytics
• stakeholders (esp HIPPOs) can cause problems
  • Blackberry v5 is a pain in the butt
  • can use analytics to persuade them that their use case is not common
• useful functional spec wording (plain English, without version numbers):
  • The website will be built to perform at its best in the most common of modern browsers
  • Bugs that stop the side being usable will be fixed in the latest versions of the above browsers, as well as in 1 older version
  • Any bugs that we find in browsers more than 1 older version of the most common browsers will be looked at on an individual basis. This includes bugs that affect functionality as well as design.
• don’t oversimplify the mobile web site
  • ensure the functionality is still there
  • don’t remove functionality just cos your on mobile
• doing information architecture using sketches on paper
  • good example {picture}
• do prototypes on device
  • click from screen to screen
• frameworks
  • jquery mobile useful for quick prototypes
  • for prototypes, use sass, haml, coffescript and middleman
  • for production, use Mixture, gridset, twitter bootstrap
• Muppets web site for movie
  • all about characters
  • desktop is animation based
  • mobile is much simplified - same content, but static images
  • tablet is same layout as desktop but no animation
• device testing…
  • bluegg looking to open a device lab
  • choose your devices carefully - you can’t support everything
• do double res images for iconography, but not for photography
  • most users wouldn’t see the difference for photos
  • also CSS3 web fonts are useful for iconography

Taking content abroad

Rob Lo Bue, applingua, @roblobue

Video available on besquare.me

• imagine that you’re a french speaking user and you download an app, but it’s in english
  • bad initial impression…
• get your English right
  • get someone else to read it and answer questions
  • check it’s easy to comprehend
• avoid idioms - they don’t translate
• make your units use worldwide standards
  • e.g. include dollars as well as sterling, km as well as miles
  • always include timezone for event times!
• use a clear font for writing
• icons save translation costs!
• support international sharing
  • e.g. qzone (QQ), badoo
• if you have the budget and time, then look at translations
  • get users to translate!
  • but get another user to check
  • can use Google Translate for checking translation (don’t use Google Translate for actual translation!)
• choose languages carefully
  • e.g. most iPhone users in India are English speakers and use their iPhone in English… less ROI on a Hindi translation
• international compatibility

What’s holding the mobile web back, and what are Facebook doing about it?

Simon Cross, @sicross, si@fb.com

Video available on besquare.me

• worked at facebook for about 2.5 years now - makes him one of the old-timers
• digging in to Zuck’s quote from techcrunch disrupt in Sept 2012
  • faceweb v4 built from 2010: webview with extensions
  • at that time, facebook was a web company
  • update at will, one m-web codebase
• reach a point where people hated it because:
  • it was slow — slow*er* than their other apps
  • it pretended to be a native app
• took 6 months to fix it
  • because had to retool the whole company
  • had to slow down the release cycle, which felt wrong
  • had to get used to submitting binaries to Apple & Google
• v5 app (more native UI) went from 1.5 stars to 4 stars in 3 weeks
• …and Zuck’s quote continues to say that there are more people using facebook on mobile web than there are on Android and iOS combined
  • 7000 device types accessing every day
  • mobile users growing twice as fast as desktop
  • 126m mobile-only users
• so how to help developers grow mobile web apps?

distribution

• asked developers at PhoneGapDayEU why they were using PhoneGap: response — to be in the App Store (80%)
• in the app store to get distribution, but also because boss said so…
• mobile usage is different from desktop
  • general browsing is less used
  • instead people solve a problem, or fill some time
• facebook integration is no longer click to share
  • now it’s about publishing structured data
  • where, when, who
• e.g. soundcloud defined 5 actions
  • if you do any of these actions on any of their apps, it publishes that to facebook (if opted in)
  • then comes back as news feed either in app or in facebook app
  • news feed in facebook launches app directly — or else takes you directly to the app store to install it
• e.g. SongPop grew 9.7m users mainly through facebook sharing
• last 30 days, facebook sent users to native app stores 180m times
• also facebook has App Center for mobile web app
  • 170m monthly users
  • social recommendations
• last 30 days facebook sent users to mobile websites ~7m times

performance

• no visual difference from v4 to v5 except speed
  • but got 2x engagement
• Moore’s law still applies to mobile
  • at least to newly released devices
  • due to upgrades & contracts, the actual speed of increase is slightly slower…
• facebook is a founding partner of the W3C coremob community group
  • one of the first priorities is fixing appcache
• also developed ringmark: http://rng.io
  • Ring 0: what we have now
  • Ring 1: what we need to run 8 of the top 10 native Android & iOS apps
  • Ring 2: what we need to build all of the native apps on the mobile web
• 4 months ago, Dolphin Browser Beta for Android succeeded on Ring 1
• browserscope is now tracking ringmark over time

monetisation

• display ads?
  • on mobile? really?
  • they suck - both for size and for intrusion
  • BBC have long narrow columns because they need the right column for ads in the US
• credit cards?
  • too hard
  • cannot compete with native
• carrier billing?
  • can integrate via middlemen (bango, boku, zong)
  • facebook mobile payments layer on top of that
  • Ed: but doesn’t work on Wi-Fi

It started with a browser

Matt Gaunt, Developer Advocate, Google TV, @gauntface

• @AliDriver (Future Platforms designer, now freelance) able to do amazing things with HTML5
• latest devices could do it, but performance always an issue
• now looking at Google TV Spotlight
  • app store for TV optimized web apps
  • apps look really great
  • but developer spent two weeks adding a specific animation…
• just think about screens of different sizes
  • see Jason Grigsby’s article {link here}
• users don’t care if it’s a responsive design or separate mobile & desktop sites
• though probably want to have a catch-all site that will be ok for all situations
  • then add native apps or customized web sites as needed

Is your thinking L-shaped?

Kevin Mears, http://mearso.com, @mearso

• big CRTs meant you needed L-shaped desks - so could fit CRTs into the corner
• but don’t need them anymore for flatscreen monitors
• requirements change, don’t forget to change your tools…
• “Moses said”: my boss says…
  • difficult to argue with someone who isn’t in the room
• politics means that designers & developers can’t just be artists
  • have to sell the work
  • “Design is a Job”
• mobile use case — apply “app thinking” to a web site (Sarah Parmenter, FOWA)
  • what is the single reason for someone using my app?
  • and who are they?
• universities do have lots of different use cases
  • e.g. glamorgan
  • 100 users concurrent active users
  • 100 sub-sites
  • 100+ editors
• teaching people that need to delete stuff that is no longer relevant
  • Ed: but then it’s important to archive stuff on the web too
• basing templates off twitter bootstrap
  • frameworks tend to make you fit the content to the framework

UI for developers

Amber Weinberg, @amberweinberg

Video available on besquare.me

• specialises in mobile web apps
• did audible mobile web site
• pretty much 99% of design briefs Amber is given only include full-size desktop web site
• forget about mockups
  • just make it responsive
• breakpoints are when your site breaks
  • fix all the breakpoints at different sizes
• don’t fake it - you’re not a native app, so don’t pretend to be one
• put content where people can reach it
  • Apple have guidelines showing how people hold iOS devices
• show what’s important
  • e.g. boston globe
  • navigation gets simpler
• use columns
  • can move to less columns before switching to single column
  • compare scroll time with content size
• give extra spacing
  • make sure the text doesn’t hit the edge of the screen
• menus are crucial
  • if there are buttons in the header you may want to keep the menu drop-down and a separate action
  • can also have menus at bottom of page and a jump to bottom link at the top
• choose words or icons, but not both
• reduce images
  • responsive images not yet possible
  • try to use less images and more CSS
• retina-smetina
  • most of the time, users won’t even notice…
  • is it worth the bandwidth?
• buttons
  • read apple’s button guidelines
  • make important buttons bigger, 100% width
  • encourages people to press them!
• hover effects
  • make it clear that hoverable items are interactive
• don’t assume you know what your users are doing
  • but make it easy
• make font sizes appropriate
  • not too big
• don’t disable zooming
  • it’s an accessibility thing
• use sliders - with gestures
  • http://www.woothemes.com/flexslider/
• don’t forget your bookmarklet icon

We, Human

Andrew Spooner, Creative Technologist, Microsoft, @andspo

• works in developer platform evangelism team
• get tech about a year or two before it hits the public
• why do we connect things?
• vannevar bush & the memex…
• internet fridge…
• toaster telling me that the robo-vacuum has picked up the dog being sick behind the sofa
• NEST gives feedback on temperature changes: it will be 21°C in 15 minutes
• in 2008, the number of things connected to the internet exceeded the population of Earth
• latest John Deere cotton picker RFID tags each cotton bale
• microsoft project emporia
  • personalised news editor based on articles that you say you like or don’t like
• kinect
  • daughter thinks kinectimals is a film that she stars in
  • shadow puppet control
  • making people invisible (at least on TV)
  • putting a kinect on a quadrocopter
  • trolley that follows someone on a wheelchair
  • face detection and recognition…
• use with caution
  • what are the standard gestures?
  • cancel?
  • don’t turn up the volume control by whirling your arm round and round
• human capacity is not accelerating like our tools…
• minimise complexity, increase consistency
• design style: http://design.windows.com
  • pride in craftmanship — sweat the pixels
  • fast & fluid — motion & animation
    • custom controls need a lot of extra work
    • we have movement in nature, we expect things to move in the same way on digital screens
    • animation with a purpose
  • authentically digital
    • use sensors
    • iconography can represent digital realm
  • do more with less — get rid of UI chrome
    • make the content the interaction
  • win as one
    • small pieces loosely joined
• summary:
  • contextual & social UX is an expectation
  • understand the human - keep it that way

Design Systems

Laura Kalbag, @laurakalbag

Video available on besquare.me

• moving to responsive design
• but still designing at fixed widths
• shouldn’t be thinking in static
• thinking about devices, not content; deliverables, not process
  • thinking about what they give to the client
• design systems
  • typography
  • layout
  • shape & form
  • colours
• what are you going to keep the same across different viewports, and what will change?
• content is always the same
• for design, might want to start with typography
• then move on to base unit
  • based on width/height of ad unit?
  • used for grids, line height
  • makes site feel consistent across changes
• grid can’t stay the same, but try to keep consistency
  • 6 -> 3 -> 1
  • or 4 -> 2
• shape and form includes textures & illustration style
• colour can be kept the same most easily
• design in the browser
  • brilliant idea
  • can’t do it though…
• tools:
  • share design ideas through style tiles
  • styleguides
  • http://pea.rs
• clients want to know what it looks like on different devices
  • they’re snapshots, not mockups
  • if they like the style tiles, then start prototyping in the browser
• don’t base breakpoints on device widths — should be based on content
  • e.g. videos, images, headings
• “if you’re not ashamed of what you did 3-6 months ago, you’re probably not keeping up”
• another app to try is typecast

a happy grain of sand

Aral Balkan, @aral

Video available on besquare.me

• think about how the whole system works together
• an experience is only as strong as its weakest link
• as a designer, try to remain naive
• washing machine:
  • designers think they’re building a machine that washes clothes
  • users actually want a machine that cleans clothes
  • don’t want or need to know the internals of how or why clothes are washed in different ways
• superman effect:
  • makes the technology disappear
  • and the interaction appear like magic
  • Ed: shouldn’t this be the A. C. Clarke effect…?
• interaction design is about dealing with the loss of a human from an interaction
  • replacing the human with a machine is hard
  • but it’s really important
• focus
  • great design is a symptom of a design-led organisation or organisational structure
  • antoine de st. exupéry: “Perfection is attained, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed.”
  • design is not democratic
  • you have to make sacrifices
  • in this day & age, great design is the business plan
• design > test > develop > test > design …
  • keep iterating
  • and don’t forget the vision
  • the user testing needs to be filtered through the vision
  • Ed: e.g. Apple does less user testing as they know that asking people doesn’t always give the right answer
• user empathy:
  • indeterminate spinner isn’t enough — need to show empathy when waiting
• web vs native: http://thelink.is/webvsnative

Over The Air 2011: The FT Web app - We've Got a Website for That

Andrew Betts, Assanka @triblondon

• An app is:
  
  • responsive design
  • responsive to human interface (mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, TV remote, …)
• The Daily app is now generating less than 50 tweets a day (and still going down)
  
  • Down from over 200
• iPad web app also works on other devices
  
  • not just tablets – phones too
  • currently only accessibly on iPad
  • works on Android & QNX but not released yet
  • Android imminent, QNX a few months
• server serves the same code to all devices
  
  • client does customisation and caches as much as it can
  • so can go offline and still access pages
• FT web app
  
  • 8 months with 3 people
  • then additional 4 months with same people to get Android & Playbook

issues

• flowed columns and flowing text around fixed elements
  
  • adobe webkit fork has great flow additions - but not available on devices
  • css3 template layouts – but again not supported
  • so have to measure content and cut it into positioned containers using Javascript
• content balancing
  
  • always show a whole number of items across the width
  • done by classifying devices into four groups according to screen size
    
    • small, medium, large, large wide
• podcast pages
  
  • want to keep playing audio even when move to another page
  • put audio player at the top of the DOM, so not altered
  • entire app is in a single page – just swap content in and out
• swiping between sections
  
  • continuous carousel made out of three divs
  • middle one is always the current
  • outer ones are preloaded as required
  • implemented swipes using touch gestures
  • have to do your own gesture interpretation
    
    • distinguish between slow drags and flings

tools

• playbook has remote web debugging
• WeinRE can do similar, but can’t debug Javascript
• TouchScroll allows you to keep headers fixed and snap to columns when swiping across
• web debugging proxies (e.g. Charles)
• use desktop for layout, but real device for interaction (swiping)

discoveries

• people use native apps differently
  
  • they tap lightly and fast
  • the web browser waits for fast taps in case there’s a double tap to zoom
  • if you don’t want double tap to zoom
  • Assanka made fastclick

offline access

• launching app offline
  
  • need to specify URLs in app manifest
  • if you change a single file, all of the manifest needs to be re-downloaded
  • store as little as possible
  • the more you store, the longer your app will take to launch
  • iOS manifest is buggy – you can get name conflicts with other webapps
    
    • so make sure you give your manifest a custom name
  • development is hell – things get cached the whole time
    
    • instead, add a comment that changes every minute (for dev)
    • still leaves you time to refresh a few times to check the cacheing
• manifest is no good for editorial content
  
  • local storage is much faster than SQLite
  • so if you only access by key then use it
  • you need permission to store > 5Mb
  • strategy:
    
    • launch app from web, just store <= 5Mb and prompt to save to home screen
    • saved from home screen, immediately ask for 50Mb and never ask again
  • images downloaded from server as base64 encoded strings
    
    • can combine images into single requests
    • and can then gzip the whole thing
    • stored in local SQLite
    • rendered into DOM as a data: URI
    • base64 transfer also avoids operator image recompression!
• analytics
  
  • can’t use Google analytics
  • log user actions into local DB
  • POST the log when requesting updated content
  • on the server, rewrite the log into an Apache format access log

unresolved issues

• SSL security: no browser chrome, so no browser padlock
  
  • trusted, because we tell you…
• Social media integration – OAuth in separate window doesn’t work
  
  • have to reload completely when return to app
• offline adverts:
  
  • not technically hard, but ad server companies don’t know how to deal with them
  • can’t retract the ad
  • can’t measure clicks
  • can’t click through at all…
• automated QA – selenium doesn’t really work
  
  • ended up using lots of people and lots of devices

platforms

• Android is by far the poorest web environment when compared with iOS and QNX
  
  • mainly due to lack of hardware-accelerated CSS transitions
  • so FT have a native Android app which has a single native component – the gallery to enable swiping
  • the rest of the app is HTML/CSS/JS
• QNX has a native app too, but only to have a home screen icon and to provide distribution

Q&A

• upset Apple?
  
  • probably not – FT are specific market
• differences between web app and native
  
  • web has more sections than native ever had
  • web app preloads content, so people swipe more often
  • as a result web app gets much more interaction
• is not appearing in the app store an issue?
  
  • yes, but instead making tactical native apps
  • e.g. FT Top 100 Companies – tells users if you want the full edition, go to the web app

Over The Air 2011: Exploding the Gap Between Web and Native

James Hugman - Engineer at Future Platforms @jhugman

• Web vs Native is a false dilemma
  
  • the answer is: it depends, or it’s both
• often a lot of display in UI
• story of the glastonbury app
  
  • Orange app for iPhone, Android and Nokia
• three/four phases of content:
  
  • before (and before embargo)
  • during
  • after
• lots of data
  
  • 3000 bands, 65 stages – timings could change

experimentation & research

• assumed offline and native UI
• but native was too expensive for three platforms
• how do you make native in web technologies?
  
  • every phone has a different web view
  • Android users don’t like seeing iPhone UX
  • and Android back button can exit app if you’re not careful
  • there is no release cycle of WebKit
    
    • manufacturers just take the trunk and fix bugs
  • dev and cpu time spent getting UI just right
• Titanium: write your UI in Javascript, render natively
  
  • ListViews either don’t look right, or leak memory
  • doesn’t always deal with latest design patterns – can’t override platform-specific behaviours
• Impact for iOS: javascript talks to OpenGL
  
  • experimental & proprietary
  • morphed into appMobi’s DirectCanvas
• game{closure}
  
  • pre-alpha – HTML5
  • also node.js
  • debug your mobile app and your browser app all in the same browser
• but Game UI is not platform UI
  
  • easier to make cross-platform game UI as the UI is brand-specific, not platform specific
• important to get events passing between rendering and UI logic
  
  • all frameworks bundle their own Javascript engine
  • Android users don’t like big apps – Titanium hello world is 6Mb!

new platform

• Kirin requirements:
  
  • native, platform appropriate UIs
  • minimal download
• design:
  
  • native UI
  • JS application logic
  • native platform
• advantages:
  
  • raw events processed natively
  • only app-specific events passed through to app
• “the keyhole”
  
  • instantiate an invisible web-view
  • build proxies for objects
  • javascript calls into native and the other way
• modular javascript using CommonJS
  
  • each screen has its own module (one file each)
• threading using asynchronous APIs, inspired by node.js
• native-specific features available as services
  
  • e.g. Location, SQL, Network access
  • same Javascript to native bridge
  • JS just uses a require(...)

releasing as open source

• available now on github
• as a 0.5 release
• apache license
• looking for feedback
• iOS and Android only at the moment (Qt coming later)
• Windows Phone 7 might come later

Q&A

• testing & debugging:
  
  • build script runs node.js
    
    • so can include unit tests at build time with assert
    • have console access
    • no actual debugger
• why port model code – isn’t it simple?
  
  • but if using database on device, then model not so portable (Core Data doesn’t port well)
• porting pain? scaling to iPad?
  
  • most of pain was electronic programme guide
  • download & syncing

Over The Air 2011: Stolen and lost phones - can mobile phone applications help with the problem?

Detective Sergeant Andy Williams

• National Mobile Crime Unit – based in Notting Hill
• Criminals stealing to order
• Cops are not the most technologically advanced people – when Andy wants something done, he asks his children…
• in 2001, 45% street crime linked to mobiles
  
  • this was from the British Crime Survey – not reported crime, but surveyed
• current stats:
  
  • 9.7% of all UK crime accounted for by theft of a handset
  • 60% of mobile phones stolen in personal robberies are iPhones or BlackBerrys
    
    • not just the phone is high value, but the data on the phones
  • avg 8,000 phones stolen every month in london

what happens to stolen phones?

• used until blocked (by IMEI)
  
  • IMEI blocking works across UK, 60% of Europe, plus North & South America coming in soon
  • but main export markets are North Africa (mainly Algeria) & Romania
• some handsets are vulnerable to having their IMEI changed (so can be unblocked)
• phones used for parts (broken screens, etc)
• phones used for non-phone functions – mp3 player, etc
• blocking:
  
  • operator will block SIM
  • will also request IMEI to be blocked
• individual can install a theft tracking app, but police would need a signed warrant
  
  • police can’t monitor 8,000 phones a month
• IMEIs are personal data in Germany
• phones offered on eBay, shown as blocked or no signal

immobilise – national property register

http://immobilise.com

• if device is registered with immobilise, police don’t need to go through RIPA
• can put anything with a serial number on there
• can check on people’s phones when stop people on the street
• private company set up and operated in conjunction with the police

formation of NMPCU

• initially front line - reducing robbery
• expanded to all acquisitive crime
• working at all levels of crime - local through to organised
• now an offence to offer to reprogram a phone (change the IMEI)

Police Central eCrime Unit

• trying to combat cyber-criminals
• looking at denial of service attacks, etc
• front line police notoriously poor at dealing with cyber crime
• but no law enforcement agency that specialises in all areas of cyber crime
• most expertise is in the forensic area
• judicial system is not set up to deal with cyber crime
• judicial boundaries don’t help – if online connections are not in UK…
• recently starting up new kind of officer: Covert Internet Investigator
• not very many across the country

Case study: organised criminals targeting music events

• following same bands the whole time
  
  • bands with mosh pits…
• Download 2010: 3 people found with 140 phones buried under their tent

Security & new mobile tech

• Man City gave 20 season ticket holders their tickets on their phone
• if someone steals your phone, they have access to your wallet, your ticket, your flat…
• NFC requirements requested by police:
  
  • PIN required for all payments – not gonna happen!
    
    • at the moment, 5 payments of £10 until a PIN required
  • capture IMEI during transactions
    
    • possible but not gonna happen
  • compulsory registration with financial institution
    
    • may happen

key areas

• registration at point of sale
• carphone warehouse register 25,000 phones a day at Xmas
• only 4 in 10 PIN lock their phone
  
  • significant barrier
• locating devices post theft
  
  • works ok, but not great – won’t work if someone goes into a block of flats
• identification of a SIM change post theft

checkMEND

http://www.recipero.com/checkmend

• can find out if an IMEI is stolen
• some operators run this service for free
• but otherwise may cost £1 a shot

iOSDev UK: Making Money with In-App Purchases

Dave Verwer, shinydevelopment, @daveverwer

Developing in-app purchases in the Explore Flickr app

• purchases can be:
  • content, functionality (permanent purchases)
  • services, subscriptions (repeatable purchases)
• have to design your own store
• in-app purchases restrictions:
  • no promo codes or volume purchases
• store should answer:
  • what is this store?
  • what will I get if I upgrade?
  • big green friendly buy button
• ruby script to switch info plist based on DEBUG/RELEASE — needed to switch between versions
• measure success with analytics
  • log each stage to capture where people fall out
  • e.g. store shown, video played, upgrade button tapped, upgrade process complete
• 1.6% conversion from Explore Flickr (from those who view the store)
• A/B testing for store designs
  • HuffPost do A/B testing on headlines
  • have 3 choices for first hour, then automatically chosen
  • be consistent with presentation (don’t let people know we’re A/B testing them)
  • need to know if we’re still A/B testing
  • put both bits of code in app, and choose according to web check on first launch
• Results:
  • store -> video -> upgrade pressed -> upgraded
  • A: 100% -> 7.5% -> 3.2% -> 1.6%
  • B: 100% -> 9.5% -> 3.5% -> 1.8%
  • interesting stat is that video
• What next?
  • make the store more dynamic
  • downloaded plist file for wording
  • HTML for whole store page (but would need to download and cache it)

iOSDev UK: Tap to Experiment

Chris Ross, Osmosis Apps, @darkrock

An attempt to find success on the AppStore

• App: Tap to Chat
  • Other chat apps look very similar — buddy lists & tab bars
  • Decided to try something different — picture-based
• Go along to a nearby group (e.g. Brighton iPhone Creators)
• Experiment #1: universal Facebook chat app with a novel UI
  • 1.5 weeks each for two people
  • Used pre-existing code from other apps (Facebook XMPP chat)
• Collaboration helps — both to evolve good ideas and filter bad ideas
• Can appeal app store rejections, even if you don’t change the code (e.g. if your app relies on a third party that was down during testing)
• Don’t underestimate the phenomenal power of the Christmas period
  • e.g. EA drop their prices just before Xmas, their apps go to the top, and their downloads rocket
• Experiment #1.5:
  • iAds seeing only 10-15% fill rate
  • Apple pay you just to show the advert
  • Admob have a higher fill rate, but only pay you for click-through
  • More differentiation with paid app
  • Removing adverts is not enough to get people to buy the paid version
  • Added “share app on friends’ walls”
  • had a spike -> 1000 shares a day
  • revenue jumped to £4-4.5K / month
• Experiment #2:
  • Started a company to house the app
  • Rewrite the code
  • Changed the facebook (spamming)sharing since Facebook complained…
  • but they were polite
  • Added Google chat, AIM + others
  • More free apps: one per API — better upgrade path (get all in one app)
  • Got a designer
• Aimed to do all that in two weeks…
  • but took three weeks from 6am-11pm
  • downloadDidFailWithError is a private API
• Got an expedited AppStore review to be in store in time for Apple Design Awards
• Results:
  • Revenue jumped to c.£6k/month
  • Difficult to convert people from v1 to v2 (especially since v2 was on a new (company) iTunes account)
• Success in the AppStore?
  • Overall stats:
  • Mean amount of money made: £30,000
  • Median amount made: £600
  • Tap to Chat:
  • 18% revenue from paid apps (18K downloads)
  • 82% revenue from adverts in free (500K downloads)
  • £40K made so far
• Moving to using mopub to do advertising
  • provides more control on the server side
• Mistakes
  • changed sharing in v2 — less visibility
  • no push notifications in v2 (but kind of a choice anyway)
  • transitioning to a new iTunes Connect account
• Next steps
  • building a backend server for push notifications
  • building libraries for MSN & AIM
  • improving user retention:
  • Osmo character offers advice and news

Q&A

• Facebook App ID
  • can share same app ID between apps
  • v1 & v2 (different iTunes Accounts) and free apps use same facebook app ID
• Facebook spamming guidelines
  • you must have a single action per share
  • you must allow the user to edit their text on others’ walls
  • If there is an issue, facebook contact you to say that you have to resolve the issue in 24hrs — but they need you to respond in that time
  • you can ask for a grace period
  • Tap to Chat asked for 2 weeks
• Transferring iTunes Accounts
  • can convert a personal account into a corporate account if you ask
• Experiments with price?
  • v1: 59p
  • aim to bump the price with each added network
  • “no point putting things for less than £2 on the app store — if people have made a decision to buy it, then they’ll buy it…”

iOSDev UK: Handling the Press

Chris Phin, Editor, Tap! Magazine, @chrisphin

Or, “How to get five-star reviews, sell millions of apps, and retire six months from now — guaranteed!”

• Getting an app noticed:
  • Exposure
  • Endorsement
  • Tap! magazine really want to embrace developers
  • Purchase
  • 91% of readers buy recommended apps
• UK magazines make money from selling issues
  • In the US it’s more based on advertising
• How reviews are chosen?
  • Gut feeling from the editors
  • Fitting in to specific sections
• How to piss off an editor?
  • Not knowing the magazine title or anything about it…
  • Unfocussed pitching
  • Aggressiveness
  • Choosing the wrong comms channel (email/SMS/phone)
• How to make an editor happy?
  • Devs with passion & high standards
  • Personal connection — trust other devs’ feelings
• Freelancers
  • e.g. Craig Gennell — Tap! mag contributing editor for games
  • Some are integral part of team; some are chancers…
  • But help them as much as possible
• Press releases
  • Same rules as any other content — first line should be who made the app, its name and what does it do
  • Links — to the web site and the app store
  • Contact details
  • include twitter
  • After all this, can put in description of company (but not before)
• Website
  • What it is — in as few words as possible
  • Price — including details of promotions (if poss)
  • Screenshots — equinux.com does a good media room
  • Contact details — again, specific media details if poss
  • Contact forms not so good as the sender can’t track the outgoing email
  • So have an obfuscated email address on the page
  • Reviewers’ guide
  • Often hooked around a narrative
  • Opportunity to guide the review — pick out USPs, etc
• What to do when you get a review
  • Read it! Not just the score…
  • Take any feedback
  • app reviewers see a lot of apps, so maybe a little more informed
  • but they are just another individual user!
  • Shout about good reviews
• Other ways to get in a magazine
  • Not just full reviews: app roundups, features, updates
  • Building relationships leads to tweets etc

Q&A

• innovative ways of catching attention
  • direct mail involving cookies!
• press area
  • often include reviews from other magazines (but that’s not useful for reviewers)
  • screenshots, hi-res logos, videos
  • useful to have a zip
• beta builds
  • interesting from bigger apps (well-known, anticipated)
  • Chris loves TestFlight
• mailing out
  • really targeted, passionate, individualized approach to 5 or so key targets
  • mailshot out the rest
• screencasts?
  • prefer image galleries as can skim them
  • otherwise, 20 seconds max!

iOSDev UK: Programming iOS Sensors

Alasdair Allan, Babilim Light Industries

http://programmingiphonesensors.com/

Magnetometer (it’s not a digital compass!)

• 4th gen iPod Touch doesn’t have magnetometer
  • so no outside AR apps without markers
• UIAccelerometer API newly deprecated for CoreMotion in iOS5
• if you want compass heading but not location, then just start up [locationManager startUpdatingHeading]
  • you won’t get location updates warning
• however, magnetic north varies across the world
  • there’s a big lookup table in the iPhone that can translate the magnetic heading into true north
  • so you need actual location to work this out
• watch out for device orientation: magnetometer always reports heading pointing out of top of device
  • need to rotate according to device orientation…
• local magnetic anomalies cause a fluctuating magnetic field — which is when it tells you to wave your device around
• Earth’s magnetic pole is a quadrapole, not a bipole — it swaps over every now and then and the north pole goes south

Gyroscope & Accelerometer (CoreMotion)

• iPhone 4 has more bits in its accelerometer sampler
• combining gyroscope and accelerometer provides very accurate device attitude
• if there’s no natural timer in your app, then you may have to use the push API
  • otherwise much easier to use pull API
• CMMotionManager should be treated as a singleton (but API allows you to create multiples…)
• monitoring does take a lot of CPU, so remember to stop it when you’re finished
  • device motion at 100 samples/sec uses 65% of iPhone 4 CPU
  • see “Pushing Device Motion” slide
• you can fetch a frame of reference and then work out attitude relative to that

AR Toolkits

• Marker based:
  • ARToolKit for iOS
  • Qualcomm AR Toolkit
• Location-aware
  • doPanic Toolkit
  • ARView — available from Programming iOS Sensors

External accessories

• Arduino for iPhone!!!!
  • Redpark Breakout Pack for iPhone
  • been going through Made for iPhone accreditation for the last 3 years

MomoLondon: Web vs Apps

I couldn’t make tonight’s Mobile Monday on location, so I thought I’d post my delayed notes from last time’s debate on Web vs Apps.

It was a lively session with both sides arguing strongly, though (unfortunately?) sometimes for the other side! The team members started by taking turns in giving short presentations — notably all of team web had slides (including beautiful ones from Bryan as usual) whereas all of team apps had decided just to talk.

Team web ended up with the audience vote (just!), but personally I thought team apps had the better argument. Yes, there are billions more mobile devices out there that can access web sites rather than have apps, but as we’ve seen (and as even Tomi Ahonen has been repeatedly caught out by) slick user experience drives mobile devices more than anything else. Web sites are great for finding stuff — but people don’t keep coming back to the same web site like they do to a favourite, well-designed app. And the skew in stats that we’ve seen since the iPhone came out (iPhones and similar devices punch way above their weight in usage compared to number of devices) applies even more for apps vs web sites. In his 5 minute presentation, Mauricio put up some Flirtomatic stats saying that they made about three times as much revenue from mobile web as from apps, but then revealed that their iPhone app provided 11% of revenue from 0.8% of sessions!

Anyway, enough ranting… Here’s my usual semi-structured notes:

Panel

Chaired by Leila Makki

Team Apps

• Sam Machin — Geek at O2
• Alex Watson — Head of App Development at Dennis Publishing
• Rebecca Pate — Mobile Product Owner at Tesco.com

Team Web

• Bryan Rieger — yiibu
• Cait Roberts — MePlease
• Mauricio Reyes — QA for Flirtomatic

5 min presentations

Each team member made their own presentation, but my notes have all the points mixed together. Viji Pathy has posted a pretty comprehensive report of the session on the Mobile Monday blog that gives a bit more detail on the presentations side.

• Discoverability
  • App store pre-installed
  • Browse, search, one-click install
  • Web is about information — apps are about utility
• Building a mobile web app is not just about knowing HTML and CSS with a bit of Javascript
  • Easy to get very bad results on mobile
• Numbers: 77% of 6.8 billion people have access to a mobile device (5.3 billion)
  • only 100 million iPhones (only 2.015%)
  • for 1/3 of population internet access is only via mobile
  • the other devices are mostly “feature phones”
  • but this is not an argument for web vs native… since many of the feature phones either have limited mobile web, or else support native apps!
• Linkability — if you don’t have the app installed, sending someone direct content doesn’t work so well
  • this is Tim Berners-Lee’s fear, but apps can integrate with a web-based backend (e.g. instagram) and app stores themselves can be web-enabled
• Non-technical people actually don’t understand what a website is…
  • Big successful web sites are understandable on a human level: eBay/Amazon are shops; Facebook is the pub
  • Similarly, apps are a more human thing — you get a nice shiny icon
  • The blank browser scares many people
• AW: When you get the iPad, it’s totally useless until you put apps on it
• From content perspective: Google prioritises quantity of content, whereas apps can highlight small limited quality
  • For example, instagram has many less features than flickr but has grown to 5 million users very rapidly
• Flirtomatic — iPhone native has 11% revenue from 0.8% sessions…
  • and Mauricio is on Team Web…?
• At Tesco, have seen that mobile web used for research but not for re-use and habitual long-term usage
  • app use encouraged by push notifications and widgets
• 1 in 4 mobile searches in the US are on Google Voice search
• Mobile web seems to be doing well for mail order & delivery shopping sites — searchable content with larger payments
• Tesco made money back from iPhone app in less than a week
• Targeting mobile devices: build it and see who comes, then target appropriately

Summing up — pro apps

• Tangibility
• Ownership & engagement
• Native apps are faster
• Using hardware
• Lots of web browsers available, but are they ever going to be your customers?

Summing up — pro web

• Don’t just target the rich west — reach beyond
• Discoverability for apps can be one of the biggest problems

Q & A

• What about using web apps on a long flight?
  • Not really
  • but this is possible now
• Hard stuff: two-way voice with echo cancellation etc?
  • Not in a web app
• Fragmentation of web browsers?
  • Design your site appropriately: it depends on who you want to target, but it’s still a larger number than just iPhone apps
  • e.g. target a touch-enabled mobile site and get both iPhone and Android at once
• Mobile social
  • Good example of having both a mobile web and native strategy
  • e.g. Facebook native users add photos more; web users add quick status updates
• Mobile ads — is there a problem keeping competition away from apps?
  • Tesco doesn’t have external ads in their apps
  • The end-user wants the curated experience…
• Testing across multiple devices?
  • AW: It’s a problem for mobile computers — they don’t work some of the time…
  • AW: Apps are a reliable experience
  • The mobile web is no better and sometimes harder
• Apps are good for some things and webapps are good for others… It’s like asking a carpenter which is the better tool: a hammer or a saw?
• Monetisation?
  • Not for web games… yet
  • Flirtomatic has in-app purchases of virtual currency, but it’s a whole range of transaction
• How do costs compare for native vs web?
  • It depends… You can spend more or less on each
  • Tesco: cost seems quite similar — especially since mobile dev has to be optimised for various devices
• App-store owners take a cut; will it be the same for web?
  • probably — billing partners will always take a cut…
• Will it be a digital divide between those who have apps and those that don’t?
  • Some people just don’t want apps on their phone — e.g. mother has a binatone phone with big buttons and doesn’t even use a mouse
  • There’s just a time lag to the rest of the world
• What about lock-ins?
  • By choosing HTML, your development environment is free from manufacturer tie-ins
  • However, by choosing HTML, you play into the hands of Google making things free, operator content filtering etc.
• Mobile web currently over-promises and under-delivers, but we’re all hedging our bets as mobile web catches up…?
  • Panel: yes!
  • BR: mobile web is catching up very fast, and depending on your business may already be a better bet
• How do you find where your customers are?
  • Analyse the web browsers of your mailshot emails

Notices

• BlackBerry Developer Day coming up on 24th June

• UCL have a course in Making money from Mobile

• Future Mobile Monday events:

  • 4th July — Vision Mobile state of developer nation

Over The Air Hack - a LEGO robot with an iPhone brain

As promised, here are the details of my Over The Air hack — The Eyes Have It — which won prizes for “Best Hardware Hack” and “Best Use of Other Features” in the overnight hack-a-thon competition. I also took it along to Mobile Monday London’s Demo Night on the following Monday.

The hack was a LEGO Mindstorms robot with an iPhone brain that followed faces in front of it and steered towards them. It performed well on stage, following me as I gestured towards it, just like a small pet.

The hack was composed of two parts: an iPhone app that detected faces in the video feed from the front-facing camera; and the LEGO robot that took instructions from the iPhone and steered accordingly.

Communication

Getting the two parts to communicate was one of the trickiest areas to get right, and caused extra headaches before each presentation. Both LEGO Mindstorms and the iPhone can communicate over Bluetooth, but Apple has restricted Bluetooth communication to companies that will pay the Apple “Made For iPhone” license fee or that use particular hardware. Bluetooth comms is not available through the standard SDK and apparently needs some kind of “secret handshake” to work.

Unfortunately, Mindstorms came out a while before the iPhone and uses a different Bluetooth chip; and LEGO and Apple haven’t managed to do a deal to provide Mindstorms access from the iPhone (perhaps because LEGO has open sourced much of their software?). LEGO has now released an Android app to showcase mobile phone integration, so let's hope Apple can work with them to get some iPhone apps too.

So no Bluetooth, and Apple won’t let you talk over the dock connector either… That left feeding information to the robot through one of its five senses — a touch-sensitive button, an ultrasound distance sensor, a microphone, a light sensor or the motors themselves (which can detect rotation).

A quick search on LEGO Mindstorms iPhone brought up the iPhoneRobot which used the light sensor to pick up different greys on the screen. This was a great start, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. For a start, it required the LeJOS firmware on the Mindstorms brick — this is a cut-down Java VM that replaces the built-in LEGO firmware. I’ve left my Mindstorms with the default LEGO firmware as I use it with my 7 year-old son. He’s not quite ready for Java, but can easily understand the Labview-based visual programming that comes with the Mindstorms kit. Secondly, the robot itself wasn’t quite suitable — I wanted a robot that would recognise faces, so I needed the iPhone to be pointing upwards towards people’s heads rather than along the ground.

Motor skills — building the robot

Designing a new robot from scratch takes quite a while and I only had overnight. Unlike normal LEGO with bumps and holes, the Mindstorms kit uses the new-style LEGO Technic, which is mostly holes and connectors. Also, LEGO’s own sample models are pretty complex, as they are built to look like animals or people as well as interact.

Fortunately, I found a great site with designs for quick Mindstorms models that are easier to hack to do what you want. Some of the ideas are amazing — especially a Segway that actually balances! I started with the 3-Motor Chassis and added the distance sensor on the front to prevent crashes. I also added the button sensor on the side to help with starting and stopping the program, as the iPhone was in the way of the program buttons on the Mindstorms block.

Here’s some pictures of the final result, holding the iPhone pointing upwards. I’ll try and generate some build instructions later.

Computer vision — the iPhone app

Humans are exceptionally good at seeing faces. Our brains have been trained from birth to detect and analyse faces very quickly. We can tell which way people are looking from far away and even see faces in random patterns.

Computers have a harder time of it, although recent developments have massively improved what is possible. Companies such as Polar Rose have shown demonstrations of both face detection (finding out where any faces are in an image or video) and facial recognition (matching the detected faces against a database of known images) running in real-time on mobile phones. Unfortunately, their code is not available to an overnight hacker, though they’ve recently been bought by Apple so we may see interesting capabilities in future iPhones.

However, Intel launched an open source project back in 1999 called OpenCV (for Computer Vision) and not only is it still going strong, but the library is easily compatible with the iPhone and has a git repository of a ready-built library. OpenCV is all about providing well-optimised functions for real-time computer vision, so that developers do not have to reinvent the wheel. It includes face detection algorithms and a guy called Roy has posted some examples of how to get face detection working on an iPhone video feed.

Roy’s sample code was written for iOS 3, and iOS 4 provides much easier methods for accessing the video feed from the device. I updated Roy’s code to use the new AVCaptureVideoDataOutput class that provides direct access to uncompressed video frames from any iPhone camera. This bit took a little while longer than it should have done, as the video feed is provided as landscape (you’re recording a video, right?) whereas its preview feed is oriented the same way as the camera. This was not obvious, and made worse by the fact that face detection algorithms do not work when the image is rotated by 90°… There was a point in the early hours of Saturday morning when I thought there would be no face detection at all!

Anyway, following Roy’s recommendations, I scaled down the input image and adjusted the parameters of the OpenCV face detection call. At the moment I transpose the image before sending it to the detection algorithm, but I suspect it would be faster to use a rotated Haar feature set (the bits that the algorithm picks out in each image to match faces). I also didn’t use Roy’s changes to use integer arithmetic rather than floating point — it turns out that the iPhone 4G has enough grunt to cope with the standard OpenCV code.

You can get the iPhone code from my github repository and try it for yourself. Note that it’s hardwired to use the front-facing camera at the moment. If you don’t have an iPhone 4 just change the AVCaptureDevice to point to the ID of the other camera and the rest of the code should still work (though possibly a little more slowly…).

Light and dark — the LEGO program

So now I had a robot base and an iPhone app that could see faces. The next step was to connect the two together using the light sensor.

LEGO provide a drag and drop programming interface for Mindstorms that lets you build up programs using blocks such as “move motor”, “wait for sensor input” and control logic of loops and if/else switches. It’s quite capable and makes simple programs relatively easy, but using variables and arithmetic can be a little cumbersome.

The main issue in getting the robot to drive was calibrating the light sensor, especially when each demo was under different lighting. After a fair amount of tweaking (some just minutes before presenting at Mobile Monday London’s demo night), the best results turned out to be when I crammed a small piece of cardboard into the hinge that held the light sensor onto the iPhone…

You can download the “.rbtx” file from my github repository, but for those who don’t have the LEGO software, the algorithm is essentially:

1. Calibrate the sensor when pointing at the black and white squares to either side of the control square on the iPhone screen
   • The robot prompts for each reading with its display and waits for you to press the button between each sensor reading
   • The program reads the raw values from the sensor and calculates its own scaling values, as the built-in calibration routines turn on the light on the sensor — this works for reading black lines on a white sheet of paper but isn’t so good at reading the backlit screen of the iPhone…
2. Wait for another button press to start the robot moving — so you can step back and make sure your face is in frame
3. Read the raw value of the light sensor, convert it into a value between -90 and +90, and then steer that amount, then repeat
   • The program checks that the light sensor value is within a reasonable range before steering, otherwise the robot tends to go round in tight circles and you have to run round it like a lunatic trying to get your face in the camera frame!
4. When the distance sensor picks up something closer than 6 inches, stop, play a sound and show a beating heart on the display (“I’ve found you!”)
5. Start moving again when the button is pressed

To give you an idea of what this looks like in the Mindstorms NXT software, here’s a picture of the program!

Prizes

Thanks to Monotype for the beautiful poster of Gill Sans Bold Extra Condensed. They were going to give me two, but were happy to swap one for a copy of FontExplorer Pro instead, so I can see my digital fonts presented almost as prettily. Apparently, it’s now available for Windows as well as Mac OS X.