Blog

Please introduce yourselves:

I'm Euwyn Poon, a startup founder, software engineer and designer. In a former life, I practiced M&A law with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, LLP in New York City. I earned a B.A. in computer science from Cornell University and received my JD from Cornell Law School. I now run Opzi. Sherwyn is my brother.

I'm Sherwyn Poon, a product-focused software engineer. Prior to joining Opzi, I studied computer science at the University of Michigan. In the past, I've built products for Facebook, iOS and Android. Euwyn is my brother.

Tell us a little about Opzi:

EP: We’re a mobile games developer based in Gastown. We’re probably most known for our Opzi Casino series of free-to-play casino games on the iOS and Android.

Where are your current roles there?

EP: As founder, I keep the team happy, stay on top of metrics, hack on our analytics systems and prototypes, and take care of a whole host of other chores (sometimes, literally the chores).

SP: As software...

What does Immersion do for developers?

Immersion Inc has a library of vibration effects for Android. This library is licensed to game developers to integrate into their games. If you haven't heard of "vibration effects", it's a technology that became very popular in the game console world, and is now a favourite on Android, too. Our library has very fine control over the vibration actuator on a mobile device. So in a game, when a car door slams or someone racks a shotgun, the player can actually feel these actions at their fingertips. It's a whole new level of engagement.

When users are captivated and engaged by your game, they will play it more often, and for longer periods. That, in turn, increases your app monetization, and boosts the chances for success of your companion apps.

Who should use Immersion's tools?

We package our vibration effects library as the 'Haptic SDK'. It is used by game developers who want to increase the emotional connection with their players. There...

Mobile Developers – there is a great new event talking place in Toronto, Canada on May 25 – 28 - Mobile Innovations @ Discovery features four days of programming.  

You don’t want to miss Mobile Biz BootCamp: Developer Edition on Saturday, May 25th which will feature:

 - An intensive one-day event focused on helping mobile developers go global
 -Targeted at innovators, entrepreneurs and corporate entrepreneurs in the mobile space
 - Global mobile industry experts sharing their insights into how to win in the mobile marketplace
 - Mobile developer technology workshops and speed mentoring
 - Priceless business, technology, industry, institution & academia networking

Speakers include WIP CEO, Caroline Lewko, on the topic “The Parallel Universe: Extending your App’s Life Beyond 30 Days”  

Write once, deploy and wait = #fastfail!  Head over to the Parallel Universe, and uncover the building blocks to making great apps that make money. Discover how to link the agile product...

With the biggest Google event of the year about to kick off in less than 48 hours, there's no doubt you've started heading your way towards the Moscone. We wanted to give everyone a heads up on all the parties and events happening in and around I/O to make sure you make the most of your time! Please let us know if you're hosting an event/party so we can add it to the list!

Facebook Kickoff Party @ I/O (Jillian's)
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 7:30

China Night @ Google IO
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 7:00 PM

WIP Democamp and Google IO Extended
Wednesday, May 15: 2013 9:00-5:00 PM

Demo & Mixer @ Google IO 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013 5:30 PM

#IOPitchNight w / Startup Weekend and Google
Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM

Behind the scenes of HTC
Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Geo Ignite Talks falling on Google IO
Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:45 PM

Party with Pocket Gamer, Native X, iDream Sky and Immersion @ Google I/O
Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:00PM

Pitch & Demo...

What does Apptentive do for developers?

Apptentive powers in-app feedback, ratings, and surveys for developers on iOS, Android and Mac OS X. Apptentive helps developers get the feedback they need to improve their apps, and intercept negative feedback from ending up in the app stores. Apptentive also helps developers get their loving fans to leave great reviews in the app stores.

Who should use your tool?

Anybody with a mobile app.

How much does it cost to use?

The cost depends on the number of monthly active users an app has. It is free for every app that has fewer than 5,000 monthly active users. To read more about our pricing check out our plans page.

How do developers implement it?

We have a SDK that is quick and easy to implement. It takes most developers less than 15 minutes before they’re off and running. All of our code is open source and available on Github, so feel free to check it out and play with it.

Who to contact for help?

ezra [@] apptentive.com

 ...

Tell us a little about yourself:

My name is Erel Uziel. I’m the CEO and founder of Anywhere Software. I’m also the lead developer. During the day I’m writing code in three different languages: Basic4android, (examples, tests and support), Java (Android libraries) and C# (the IDE itself).

What does Anywhere Software do?

Anywhere Software specializes in mobile development tools. We started with Basic4PPC (Basic for Pocket PC) which was a Visual Basic-like tool for Windows Mobile. Later, as Android started to make some noise and we noticed that Windows Mobile was fading, we decided that it was a good time to switch to Android and now our core product is Basic4android. Basic4android is a complete development solution for native Android applications.

So far, Basic4android has been very successful. There are more than 40k developers registered in our community and the feedback has been really great. The community is actually one of the strongest aspects of Basic4android. It is a...

Here at WIP, we are always looking for ways to gather information and intelligence to pass on to our developer community.  We have partnered with Vision Mobile and App Promo on a couple of developer surveys to do just that. 

Complete the surveys at the links below.  Not only will you be helping the industry, you also have a chance to win a prize or two. 

Thanks for your help!  We will publish survey results/links once available. 

Developer Economic Survey Deadline: May 5, 2013

Take the new Developer Economics 10-minute survey and win prizes!   Be the first to get VisionMobile’s latest State of the Developer Nation report and enter a draw for great prizes: an iPhone 5, 2 x Samsung Galaxy SIII,  2 x Nokia Lumia 920, 2 x Blackberry 10 devices, an AR Drone, a Next thermostat and a Nike Fuel band.

App Developer Survey Deadline:  May 5, 2013

Calling all app publishers and developers. Last year, App Promo found that nearly 60% of app developers were not...

WIP was at droidcon Berlin to organize the 3rd of our MOBICAP democamp! droidcon Berlin is the largest android developer event in Germany, 4 days of hackathon, barcamp and conferences.

If you haven't heard of our previous democamps, they are a series of short demos showcasing talented mobile developers with great products. The objective of the democamp is to help these entrepreneurs find seed funding and support to help them succeed in their project. After London and Barcelona we were coming to Berlin!

For this democamp we had a selected bunch of applications from all over Germany (and beyond). The variety of the apps, the really great UI / UX and the quality of the teams was a credit to Berlin, a city which aims to become the new heartland of tech entrepreneurs in Europe :

• Pockets United: A Munich based mobile startup making it possible to share bills with friends through a banking integration that settles accounts automatically at the end of each month.
• Refreshme:  A...

Last week (April 3) marked the 40th birthday of the first mobile call ever made. Did you do anything to mark the occasion? The mobile phone has come a long way since that first call – you know the story - Marty Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, was in Manhattan and made the call to one of his competitors at Bell Labs. I did a bit of a walk down memory lane and remembered:

• seeing the first ‘car phones’ in the mid 80s and how pretentious they looked
• the big bricks we used to take out to lake for our SCUBA weekends in the late 80s, for ‘emergency’ purposes, but they were usually used to order pizza on the way home (an expensive call!)
• working on the Iridium project in the mid 90s, and how soon everyone could be connected to anyone, anywhere
• funding companies in the early 90s for picture sharing, because cameras on phones were going to be big; and confirming that Java was the language of choice for mobile programming!
• some of my own first phones (see photo),...

What does your tool do for developers?

App Publish enables developers to publish their Android apps to 130+ app stores within a few clicks, and manage submissions, download tracking and revenue from a single dashboard.

Who should use your tool?

Android developers of all sizes should seriously consider using App Publish. Alternative app stores are an extremely valuable part of any distribution strategy, and App Publish completely takes away the nightmarish complexity associated with publishing to multiple stores

How much does it cost to use?

Submissions on App Publish are completely free. There is a nominal processing and invoicing fee charged on the developer revshare for paid apps at the time of settlements. There is no fee at all for free, freemium and ad-funded apps.

How do developers implement it?

There is no SDK or API integration to use App Publish. Developers can easily upload ready binaries for their apps that meet set criteria through our online portal, follow...