*Updated*

Back on December 29th, I wrote a post about a new service from a company called MotherApp - who was offering native iPhone app development, and App Store submissions, all at no cost. It seemed too good to be true. However, here we are 15 days later, and I have my very own app in the app store! Here are the brief notes of my transaction history with MotherApp:

• First response from my initial inquiry / form submission – Very fast. They ask for various images for your app, feeds for your blog, twitter, etc… and descriptions for the App Store, etc.
• I emailed them about 10 days into the process, and again, got a very fast response, explaining they had a huge amount of interest, but they were still on track to get my app to the store quickly.
• This evening, I got an email notifying me my app was in the App Store!

Some screen caps of my iPhone app:

As you can see, the application is fairly simple at this point.

Application features:

• Access all of my blog postings
• Access all of my twitter posts
• Access to my YouTube videos (new)
• Access URLS from all posts in an embedded safari browser (slick)
• Save favorite posts
• Stores content in memory, for access when you don’t have a data connection (great!)

I am impressed with the service, and the application features thus far. I would be willing to pay for a service like this, especially as they evolve their offering. Off the top of my head, some feature requests:

• More control over the UI – More choice for colors/brand/etc… – also, how about different layouts?
• Comment integration – let users comment on my posts from within the app (Wordpress integration for starters)
• Easy integration with Twitter, Facebook, and email – to share posts you like (very nice)

I will be sure to think about other features, and submit them to the great folks at MotherApp. Thanks guys – A++++ !!!!!

Feel free to download my app, and let me know what you think!

Witec Alberta invited me to speak at one of their regular networking breakfasts on December 3rd, alongside Doug Lacombe from Communicatto. Doug’s presentation, titled “Creating buzz on a shoestring budget” had a very interesting insight into how SMB’s could best leverage social media today, as a cost effective marketing mechanism. You can read Doug’s slides here: http://communicatto.com/2009/12/05/creating-buzz-on-a-shoestring-budget/

My presentation : “Extending Enterprise Applications onto the Blackberry Platform” focused on the myriad of options available for Businesses today, who are interested in deploying BlackBerry applications to their users. IMHO, Kryos Velocity is one of the best options on the market today (disclaimer – I am the Product Manager for Velocity).

• You can view the presentation on your mobile phone at this link
• My slides from that presentation are below:

I just grabbed the new (free) iPhone app from LEGO today, and is it ever cool!

What a great way to extend a brand that has nothing to do with mobility to a smartphone. This is a great example of how to leverage the best features of your product on a platform that enables you to do so.

If the goal if this app is to a) remind me how cool a toy Lego is and b) to keep some mindshare in a market of increasingly complex gadgets – well then mission accmplished!

Good work LEGO!

Check this out: http://www.motherapp.com. This is a service that creates native iphone applications from your existing blog. I have started the process to see how this works to create an app for leemcarthur.ca. Could be cool. Puts the pressure on to write good content, all the time.

Stumbled across this interview I did at an event called mobile mondays, with a company called bite pr. This was a follow up to a presentation I gave at the session.

The interview was held way back in October 2006.

Play the interview here: MobileMonday_18Sep2006