New iPhone with a 4-inch screen? So what’s the resolution?

May 17th, 2012

Considering Apple won't make a super-retina display, a 4 inch iPhone would have a 640x1096 resolution

The time draws close for the next iPhone (iPhone 5 or the New iPhone?) to show it’s face, and each day more sources are suggesting that it will sport a 4-inch display instead of the current 3.5 inch. Considering it’s current width to be almost ideal, it might turn up to be a phone that’s simply a little bit higher, with all the other dimensions kept the same (well, maybe thinner too!).

So I did some lame-math and it turns out that if we add some pixels to the current 640×960 resolution, we’ll end up with roughly 1096×640. That’s still lower than the first two iPads, but it will add that dreadful fragmentation to the Apple line, and the apps will grow in size to accommodate three phone and two tablet resolutions.

Windows Phone 7 will eat up Android’s market share, and fast!

May 16th, 2012

Windows Phone 7 might have had a rough start, but it's gaining momentum to become something more than a novelty

Today the Smartphone OS market is divided between iOS and Android, with the rest of the platforms being pretty much non-relevant. Yeah, I know, they’re bold and pro and all that. Too bad it doesn’t matter. A smart and well done ad campaign won’t change much now, without features. So yeah, there are two main OS’es, but Windows Phone 7 is going to be the third one whether you like it or not.

Let’s think about it for a second. There’s a finite number of smartphone makers. With WP7 gaining in popularity, who will suffer the biggest blow here? Apple? Nope! They make their own hardware and software, so that won’t change much, except maybe a few % of users switching.

Yeah, you’ve guessed it! Android is installed on phones by the likes of LG, HTC and Samsung. And we already see some HTC phones having WP7 instead of Android. With Microsoft’s pile’o money it’s only a matter of time before it spreads to other manufacturers. And the battle will begin! Google might actually loose the suppliers of hardware, which in turn will result in less Android’s sold, and less ad revenue for the company. This time Microsoft’s offer for the phones is actually VERY good. And they already have Nokia on their side.

And we were all wondering why did Google buy Motorola Mobile a while ago. Now it’s pretty obvious!

Is it the end of apps for businesses?

May 13th, 2012

According to our calculations, about 2% of businesses need a mobile app. Another 50% needs a mobile version of their website. The rest might use a mobile site, but don't really need one.

A while ago mobile apps have become the new web pages of the modern times. Everyone seemed to need one, even for the most bizarre kinds of businesses. Right now the reality has become more like an internet bubble of the late 90′s, and overcharged apps can in fact be a laughable novelty. At first they were charged higher than web pages, but the market quickly caught up to that, and right now they’re about the same price. And that feels kind of justified, because it’s not so special anymore after almost a million apps and games on the market (iOS and Android combined). If someone wrote a million apps in about 4 years now, it must mean that there are plenty of app programmers out there.

The other factor is the mobile market fragmentation. With iOS and Android plus all the competitors, to have an app for everyone, one must develop for many platforms, often different technology-wise. Websites that stretch to the mobile screen size will simply eliminate the need for most apps. Sure – people trust apps more than websites, as some of the images are pre-cached and feel more responsive, but that will soon change with LTE coming to power in more and more countries each day.

But the most important thing here is to understand why do we need apps at all. Games, Entertainment and Social apps are self explanatory. Utility apps (like wikipedia, calculators, measure converters etc.) are a nice thing to have to. But who wants an app of a company that makes sugar-filled soda? Or cars? How many times do we change cars in a lifetime? Probably less, than we change smartphones, but all rare occurrences will surely do with just a mobile website. A small percent of people travels a lot, so they might need a hotel-chain app, but most will have to do with a generic “search all hotels” app, and that market is already saturated.

Who else needs mobile apps? Seriously. That doesn’t of course mean that apps are dead. They can still make impressions (and money) but mostly with a creative idea of their makers. Not apps made for a client. Think Opus, Instagram and such.

Do you know any business that’s not saturated with apps, and REALLY needs them?

Shifting trends

May 12th, 2012

I actually prefer to watch random episodes on the Web than have choice now!

It’s pretty common knowledge, that trends tend to repeat themselves in patterns over and over. It’s probably the most visible with fashion shifts back to the 80′s or 70′s, but can still be applied to a far more interesting topic – internet attention. When we’re online we jump from place to place, almost never focusing fully on the page at hand. Multitasking has taken a lot of “peace” from obtaining information, so we multitask like crazy and we don’t slow down.

In the web where you get everything you want right when you want it (preferably NOW), I found out that instead of watching an episode of South Park that I choose, I prefer to go to a site, that shows random episodes in a completely random order. Is it going back from pay-per-view to television “watch what we serve you” concept?

That is of course temporary and will probably shift back to active choices sometime soon, but does it apply anywhere else? It’s a little bit like the App Store selling models, with Freemium occupying most of the gaming charts nowadays, and people spending up to 91% of total game revenue inside the game. But at some point, they must realize that buying virtual coins for real dollards, that we can buy virtual hat with is not really worth it. Then the shift might go towards paid games and peace of mind. The one thing we can be sure of is that we won’t see many fans of ad supported gaming – mainly because nobody likes ads.

What does this pretty common knowledge teach us? Nothing new, but wether you’re making an indie App Store game, or a TV show watching website, it’s best to know what people want right now. Being creative AND riding the trend waves (creating trends is a completely different story) is the way to go no matter what business you’re into.

Fun fact: A British band – Brett Domino, recorded some nice (and funny) covers of well known artists. They are selling their album on iTunes BUT you can order a digipack from them to have it in a more touch-friendly / shelf friendly format. What’s so original about it? Well the boys supply you with the cover and a blank CD-R on which you can record their album from iTunes yourself. Why? To avoid paying double royalty to the authors of the songs, which is a brilliant idea really. They do get their fair share from iTunes anyway. So here’s a backwards trend of buying physical albums (a few years ago people actually preferred MP3′s, and now it’s slowly coming back) with an original twist to it. How cool is that?

How game design works – based on HungrySquid for iOS

May 7th, 2012

Our friends at Hype4 shared some of the knowledge about how the development of HungrySquid went, and also some tips on what they did wrong in the App Store at the beginning.

First of all, normally – as a company a game like HungrySquid could’ve been done in about two months. Since Hype4 was working on it overtime, it took about 4 months to complete. The idea was born last summer, when Mike observed some water ripples while throwing pebbles at a pond. The story was written quickly (available as a free iBook) and the game design followed. It didn’t look like it does now though. The first idea was for the tentacles to grow, instead of fluorescent goo, but with many intersections and shapes it just looked weird and unnatural – even for a squid in space. The game was developed using Cocos2D (and Partially Kobold2d) and most of the graphics were drawn in 2048×1536 resolution, even though the new iPad was yet to be announced. It’s sometimes good to trust your instincts, because it would be really hard to make the Retina iPad version.

Read the rest of this entry »

Solar charging with twists and turns

May 3rd, 2012

I’m a big fan of renewable energy. Since there’s not enough wind where I live, and not enough geothermal anywhere that I can dig with a shovel, I decided to go with solar. There are two companies that definitely stand out both efficiency, and design-wise so I decided to buy both chargers on impulse and try them out:)

First the Voltaic AMP arrived. It’s a small, portable charger that’s a foldable case, so it’s easy to carry around. Two panels give out about 4Watts of energy, and that in turn is supposed to charge the internal battery (3,000mAh, 11 Watt hour capacity) from 0 to 100% in about 6 hours. It turned out that even in Eastern European sun on my field trips, I was able to get it charged in between 6 to 7 hours. That resulted in a full battery and the ability to charge my iPhone 4S once, and then to about 50%. Not bad! The case is durable and looks like it can survive plenty of damage, so for anyone doing some outdoor survival this charger would be perfect. It’s so tough you can easily hit it with a rock and break the rock ;) They also offer iPad chargers, laptop chargers and solar backpacks!

Pros
Light, portable, ready for travel
Pretty fast charging
Very durable

Cons
No social media integration or measuring your charges
The battery gets easily scratched when used
Can’t charge an iPad at all

Voltaic AMP is a good deal at $99 for everyone who does a lot of travel and needs sun on the go

The second one is the newest of all – a Solar Charging community, with uploading your Wh and CO2 grams to a social website to share. It’s called changers, and it does make a change by introducing the social aspect to solar power. I found out that I’m actually uploading the data every day and it’s really awesome to have saved over 50 grams of CO2 by doing this. Since I’m using both chargers, and both are 4Watts, I’m probably saving twice the amount actually. The solar panel has the Holstee Manifesto on the back, some suction cups that can be reversed (to place it on the inside or outside of a window), and this time the battery and the panel are separated. The panel is light and quite flexible, but pretty big and hard to pack (unless you strap it to the outside of your backpack), and the small, beautifully designed battery (looks like an Apple designed elephant a little bit) can power two iPhones a day. On their promo materials they also said it could give some juice to the iPad, but unfortunately Changers doesn’t seem to work with either iPad1, or the new iPad (I have both for testing apps). On the upside I think it takes a little faster for the battery to charge, so in 4-5 hours of sun a day you can have two iPhones ready to go.

Pros
Sunpowered social media – it works!
Fast charging!
Aesthetically pleasing design!

Cons
Hard to travel with
Can’t really charge an iPad at all

Changers will work better at home or at the office, where its design will shine and you'll be sharing your CO2 savings with friends online.

Review: Hungry Squid

April 21st, 2012


Rating: ★★★★★

This game is a fruit of passion and it's visible in every single detail. Simply beautiful!

Since this is a cooperation that CM took a part in, one of our outside reviewers decided to cover this one for us.

Hello, my name is Mike and I’m a guest reviewer here. Today we’ll focus on the new Hungry Squid game, that was just released yesterday. It’s a puzzler unlike any other – there’s a story (and a promised free ebook that will further push the story), amazing graphics and music (the soundtrack will be available for free too). First thing of notice is how much heart went into making this little game. It’s innovative, but also beautiful beyond what’s on the app store most of the time.

The idea is to rotate hexagons to create a path from a squid, sitting conveniently in the center, towards the outer rim. The more exits you find the better, but it also has some arcade elements and is strictly time based. The faster you are, the higher your scores.

I seriously can’t find anything wrong with this game – it’s addicting, beautiful and there’s promise of more levels and a level editor, so anyone can create their own puzzles. If you haven’t started downloading already, do it now:


App Store link

Size: 26mb

Price: $0,99





1 hundred billion dollar acquisition

April 16th, 2012

The title of this entry is of course ironic, but we’re seeing lots and lots of valuations of companies that don’t turn up any profit, and it makes us wonder – does the world turn idealistic all of the sudden? Or maybe someone sees hidden potential in monetizing Instagram someday? Facebook tries to keep up with “the cool” as it has lost the cool about a year ago. Changes come barely noticed, people just move on and go back to playing whatever social game is at the top right now. A nicely packaged idea can bring millions (or billions), sure, but innovative things can be overshadowed by bells and whistles and a touch of hipster retro.

Do you think 1-bit camera will suddenly rise to power, claiming that vintage looks of Hipstamatic and Instagram are not really retro-enough?

Probably not, but as Dropbox showed us all, an 800 million dollar deal from Apple wasn’t an option, and they decided to stay independent. Maybe because their work really has merit, promise and is useful? Hopefully not all of the startups will sell out to the big boys, as that usually leads to crashing and burning innovation and turning everything into ad-ridden “investments”.

But who knows. I’m currently working on an innovative, social app idea. If it becomes a reality, maybe I’ll cave in and accept the offers of Brins and Zuckerbergs of this world. But as of now, I can be a little hypocrite, since I don’t have a billion dollar idea on my hands. When I do I’ll let you know. It’s gonna be killer!

Oh and check out 1-bit camera here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1-bit-camera/id505119307?mt=8

Thoughts on the new iPad

March 23rd, 2012

I got myself the new iPad in London two days after it launched and have been using it for a couple of days now. Not going to jump into praise of the display, because it has been done before countless times. Blah blah blah retina display blah blah. I didn’t get the LTE version because a) it doesn’t work in europe and b) I need the iPad for beta testing my iOS game rather than any travel-computing.

What I noticed that even after an hour of Infinity Blade II, the device is still cooler than a macbook running a flash animation. It doesn’t bother me at all and I was in fact expecting some heat anyway. It’s an electronic device, come on!

The all-night charging schedules are somewhat true, but I can get by with an hour of charging on occasions too, so it’s not that big of deal. The funny thing is that I recently bought some elements for my own solar charging rig and the battery I bought has the same capacity as the new iPad’s battery. The difference is that it’s as large as a Mac Mini and weights at about 5 kilograms. Putting that same capacity into a rather flat and light device is the thing that impressed me the most. All in all it’s a big change from the previous iPad’s and still the leading tablet brand.

Photoshop Touch is finally here

February 27th, 2012

iPad2 only, but still it's a nice way to sketch some projects on the go, and finish them on the real PS at home

Adobe has just released Photoshop Touch for the second generation iPad. The software was present on the Android platform since november, but apparently it wasn’t so easy to port. The good thing is that they didn’t use that “toilet paper roll logo” this time, going for something a little bit more classy. The software itself will probably be expanded with new features as soon as the third iPad gets here and Android tablets will get a power boost. But for now it’s probably the most powerful image editor out there, just a little bit ahead of PhotoForge 2 (which is also great but lacks some features).

In this video they emphasize the ease of use and sharing, which might suggest it’s pointed mostly to casual users editing their facebook pictures, but time will tell if it’ll be adopted by professionals as well.

You can download the software here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-photoshop-touch/id495716481?mt=8

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