post

360iDev 2011 – WWDC USB Drive Scavenger Hunt is on!

May 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Of course it’s on! I’ve been a bit pre-occupied with getting 360|iDev going, so this is a late start, but it’s definitely happening!

Going to WWDC this year? I’ll be hiding a few (Probably 4) USB drives packed with promo codes (Devs, if you have some codes you’d like to share, see below) and a free pass code to 360|iDev 2011 this September.

Last year all but one drive were found and claimed. I think a hobo picked up the missing one. We’ve done this a few years now, and it’s always fun, and there’s always a great turn out of folks trying to find the drives.

I’m trying to think up a few more things to put on the drive to make it even more interesting, but more on that later.

 

Supporting Indie Devs

Every year we do the scavenger hunt, we ask the indie dev community to throw in some promo codes. Not only does it make finding the drives a bit more interesting, but it helps give a little promotional boost to indie devs, which is a huge thing for us, we want to help in any way we can with getting the indie community more exposed. If you’ve got an app in the app store and want to contribute a few codes, let us know. The more the better. Just before WWDC we do a post outlining what’s on the drives, so it’s a great bit of exposure.

 

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Denver, Geeking Out, Parties, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , , , ,
post

360iDev 2011 – Cocoaheads get free passes

May 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Do you go to a local cocoaheads meetup? If not you should, they’re a great way to meet up with other developers. Maybe in your neck of the woods it’s NSCoderNight, or come other variation, but if you’re not meeting up with and sharing a drink (beer, soda, even water if that’s your thing) and talking about code, you should be.

As if hanging out with other devs wasn’t enough, you also have a chance at winning a free pass to 360|iDev 2011. We’re more than happy to offer all cocoaheads and other user group type meetups two passes to 360|iDev 2011. All we need is an email from the organizer with what city the group is in.

If your group hasn’t done this, email us and we’ll get you set up. All we ask in turn is help spread the word about how awesome 360|iDev is. There’s always a catch, and as far as catches go, that’s not too bad, right?

 

Don’t miss out, get your cocoaheads meeting hooked up with 2 passes to give away, raffle, sell at auction, whatever. Of course we also have a 15% discount for all other members to use if they want.

 

We’ll see you in September!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Denver, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , ,
post

360iDev 2011 – Volunteer and Help us Rock!

May 5, 2011 By 4 Comments

Why do we want volunteers?
Obviously having free workers are a bonus, but one of our main reasons for having volunteers is to provide a way for those that absolutely cannot afford the conference to be able to have a way to join us!
Give us your new graduates, those that were laid off, and those without 2 nickels to rub together!

We feel that having volunteers from the community, is better than giving away free tickets for nothing. Why not help support the community by working the registration desk or helping film sessions?

The point behind 360 conferences is to have an affordable event that the majority of people can come to!

The ability to need and have volunteers helps make that desired outcome of affordability even more possible for even more people to come! Plus it’s a great way to help out community members who need it.

If you just want to save a few bucks you don’t necessarily fit the bill. Think of those less fortunate than you! We’re is always tossing out discount codes, watch the blog and the twitter account!

What do I need to do if I’m a volunteer?

  • We need you to be available Saturday thru Wednesday.
  • We need everyone the Saturday prior to the conference for badge assembly, and swag assembly, to get familiar with the location, and we are setting up the schedule that day – pick your sessions you want to see!
  • We need people Sunday to run the Registration desk. This is your training for monday when the masses invade! There are 3 shifts, 7am-noon, noon-5, and 5-8.
  • Monday thru Wednesday we need people to run the Registration desk as well as help speakers, count attendees, and do timer countdown at the end of each session. You will be assigned to either the desk or a session.
  • Sunday and Monday you will need to arrive at 7:30.
  • Tuesday you will need to arrive at 8.
  • Wednesday you will need to arrive at 9.
  • Everyone needs to regroup at the end of each day to put all the reg desk stuff away, and Wednesday to do final wrap up and boxing of all left over supplies.

We need everyone to stay in the hotel – due to complication with other volunteers at other conferences, we can’t risk traffic, over sleeping etc…  Chat with us if this is an issue.

What do you get to do?

  • You get free admission to the conference and all the swag!
  • When you are not assigned to a specific session or the reg desk – you are free to do as you wish.
  • You get lunch!
  • You get to mingle at all the parties (unless you are working the desk on sunday)
  • You get to meet a ton of people during registration!
  • You get a cool badge
  • You get to say you know the guys that run 360 Conference

We really want you to get something out of the conference! We want you to have fun and learn a ton!

If you think you can hack it – apply by emailing us with all the information below. (info AT 360idev DOT com)

Name:
Email:
Local:  Y/N
Phone Number:
Where are you in iOS development? (apps in the store? Just learning? etc)
Reason for wanting to be a volunteer:
Availability Sat?
Availability Sun?

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Denver, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come Tagged With:
post

360iDev 2011 – Session descriptions!

April 25, 2011 By 2 Comments

I slaved away all easter weekend to create this… ok no I didn’t :) But I’m no less happy to give everyone a nice big document to read and highlight. Ok maybe not highlight, but you can do that in preview!

 

Any how, you’ve seen the schedule, now you’re wondering what those titles mean? Should you go to “Networking and Web Services with iOS” or “Put a bird on it: Prettifying User Interfaces with Core Graphics and UIKit”? Now you can read the description of the sessions and get a better picture of how awesome this line up is.

 

Download the session description PDF here.

 

Don’t miss out. This is the only 360|iDev this year, and it will sell out! Register now!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Denver, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come, speakers Tagged With:
post

360iDev – iOS developer Magazine

April 19, 2011 By 15 Comments

Yeah there’s some print stuff, but really. Print IS dead. At least for magazines.

This idea started as a joke, about a way to build an email database for conferences, but the response was really surprising. Then it got me thinking. There actually isn’t (that I know of) a magainze (online or off) dedicated to the iOS developer community.

 

There’s awesome blog projects like iDevBlogADay that we have no interest in competing with, and really wouldn’t since the goal is different. BUT there’s no single place to get top quality articles ON and ABOUT development. That’s (it seems) about to change!

 

So consider this our formal announcement of intent (whatever the hell that means). As we work on 360|iDev 2011 (which you should definitely attend!!) we’re gonna start working on this new idea. There’s a few things to iron out but below are the details we’ve got.

  1. It’s gonna start out free. But will eventually follow a model like Ars.technica, and be like $5 a month. Maybe there’ll be a free component forever, but the good stuff will be $5/mo. The reason it will eventually be a pay thing, is that I’m not Arianna Huffington, and those who contribute to the magazine will get paid. I don’t know how that will work yet, but we’ll figure it out.
  2. It needs a name (that’s where you come in. Leave a comment with the name you’d like to see this thing have.)
  3. It’ll be a completely transparent endeavor (as is everything we do) so you’ll know who the writers are and you’ll know how the magazine is doing
  4. it WON’T be like some lame ad supported thing, where reading the content is second to assaulting you with ads for shit you don’t care about.

That’s it for now. Leave a comment with your idea for a name, and if you’re interested in contributing, email us at info AT 360idev DOT com.

We’re looking to get this bad boy launched ahead of 360|iDev 2011, so if you’d like to help get it off the ground, we’d love your voice to be a part of it!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Geeking Out
post

360iDev – Community goodie give away!

January 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As we approach 360|iDev 2011, we’re cleaning house. Literally, it’s my house and all the conference ‘stuff’ is in the garage. You may or may not know we’ve had the shirts from Austin available for purchase since we got back, they’re an awesome deal, and a great wa to get a one of a kind shirt even if you missed the conference.
BUT we’ve got a lot of them. Oh and we’ve got 360|MacDev shirts too (You can buy one here if you’re so inclined) in case you weren’t able to make it. Both shirts are one of a kind, and other than the ones I’ve got in my garage, won’t be made again.
So…
If you run a cocoaheads, or other NSsomething group, and want some give aways for your members, and have about $11.00 to spend, we’ll stuff as much as we can in a USPS flat rate box and ship you shirts and maybe a koozie or two, and whatever else we’ve still got laying around that is 360|iDev. Even some books.
Why $11? well shipping ain’t cheap, and while we love and support the iOS community, 360|conferences doesn’t make enough money yet to pay my salary, so shipping boxes around the country just ain’t in the budget I’m afraid.
However the Flat rate USPS boxes are a great way to cram as much as i can into an affordable package for User Groups. If you want 2 boxes, it’s $22, etc, etc.
No strings, we just don’t want the shirts, etc to go to waste, and figured it’d be a cool way for User Groups to have more raffle goodies and giveaways.
All we need is an email with the following information.
Group Name:
Shipping Address:
Attention:
Paypal Email address:
How many boxes:
Send that to. info AT 360idev DOT com.
When we get the email we’ll send a paypal request and the box will be on it’s way.
We’ll do a random sampling of sizes and qty in each box, sorry it’d be too much overhead to allow groups to customize the order.
Of course if  you want a specific size, you can still order one :) At least until we’ve shipped them all out.
Please spread the word. We hope to get rid of all the shirts and make room for new ones :) We like having them around, but they take up space, and we figure it’s better to give them to anyone who wants them. Plus I won’t lie, better on the backs of iOS developers than in boxes in my garage!

Don’t forget too! You can register now for 360|iDev 2011 in Denver, CO. The price will never be lower than right now. The moment we lock in the exact dates, the price goes up. Don’t worry, tickets are completely refundable if the dates don’t work for you once we announce them.

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Geeking Out Tagged With: , , ,
post

360iDev – Goodbye Chris Walker

December 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One of the downsides of organizing 360|events is that I meet and become friends with so many people. That’s not the downside actually, the downside is when bad things happen to those people. This is a few months late, because like so many connections we make at 360|iDev, many end up being primarily twitter friendships, and it’s hard sometimes to notice things.

Christopher Walker (@Yixinmke) came to 360|iDev San Jose 2010 because the welcome page had the word “shit” on it. I don’t remember the sentence, but when Chris was looking for an iOS conference to attend and read that sentence, he said he knew he’d enjoy the event because clearly it was organized by real people. That conversation really resonated with me, because that’s really a large part of why we do 360|events. Too many conferences are organized by publishers, marketing companies, etc. They’re faceless and certainly don’t take the time to get to know attendees, let alone hang out with them. I hate that.

Chris was a hoot, we hung out during the stragglers dinner on Wednesday night, that was the first time I had a real chance to talk to him. It was cool, his company did Microsoft tech, but was looking at other things too and sent him to 360|iDev. He was very nice, and he and Cory Smith (@smixx) were pretty much inseparable most of the conference.

Chris told me at dinner that one day he got to ebay and the parking lot was full, so he went to see ‘How to Train your Dragon’ and then came back, LOL. Great movie by the way. I finally saw it a while back. Good pick Chris.

After 360|iDev I didn’t talk to Chris online, beyond following his check-ins on twitter. Sadly following so many, i didn’t notice that his tweets and check-ins stopped on August 10th.

It wasn’t until months later, when Cory tweeted about his passing that I learned that Chris had been killed in a motorcycle accident. I especially feel terrible because I had wanted to reach out to Chris before Austin and make sure his company was sending him so we could hang out, and in the hubbub I totally forgot. Had I remembered I would have found out (maybe?) sooner.

I’ve put some videos at the bottom of this post, if you were at 360|iDev San Jose, I’m sure you’ll remember seeing Chris walking around, laughing. He played a mean rockband guitar too! I wish I had had a chance to get to know Chris better, to see what cool things he did with the iOS platform.

Chris in the background in the yellow shirt

Filed Under: Community, Geeking Out, San Jose Tagged With: , ,
post

360iDev – Speaker Michael Simmons

November 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Michael Simmons (Long lost cousin to Brent Simmons) came to us late in the planning for 360|iDev, but is such a great guy we just had to have him with us!
He’s got a ton of experience in the iOS community from helping launch successful apps to now running his own shop!

Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?

A: Since Apple officially launched the SDK, back in March 2008. Actually, even longer than that! Back in August  2007, I was helping some friends with an app prior to the SDK (when jailbreaking was the only was to do native apps).
Ah the good ol’ days :)

Q: What do you like most about being an iOS Developer?
A: The freedom and flexibility to create pretty much whatever you want. Plus, the community is great. I enjoy the people I work with and get to collaborate with on both a professional and personal level.
It’s certainly easy to eat your own dog food as it were as an iOS developer.
Q: What’s your favorite Game?
A: At the moment, it’s Cut the Rope from Chilingo/ZeptoLab, which is a lot of fun and challenging, too!
On my purchase list! Man! Running 360|iDev is expensive!
Q: What’s your favorite App?
A: No way could I narrow it down to a single favorite! So I’ll say Mail. After all, it’s the “killer app”. :)
Oh yeah. killer indeed!
Q: Robots or Ninjas?
A: Ninjas for sure. Particularly since Steve Jobs is one (since he purportedly tried to smuggle shuriken into the US) :)
I think he’s still at the padawan stage of ninja-hood, but yeah if Steve wants to be a Ninja who can argue!
Q: What would change about the iOS platform if you could change just one thing?
A: Improving the App Store app approval time (specifically for bug fix updates).
It’d be cool if there were two channels. New apps went thru one, maybe more indepth, updates go thru another. Or at least worse case, an emergency channel for bug fixes.
Q: What are you most excited about 360|iDev Austin?
A: Giving my first speech that’s not product-specific. I’ve always spoke and presented products. This time, I get to share my experiences and knowledge with developers, something I think will be very rewarding.
w00t! can’t wait!
Don’t miss out! Register Now!
Filed Under: Austin, Community, Content, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , ,
post

360idev – Speaker Mike Lee

November 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mike Lee is… well he’s Mike Lee, BMF. Mike is one of those larger than life guys, that’s at the same time the coolest dude you’ll meet. We’ve been honored to have Mike Keynote and do regular sessions at 360|iDev… Oops sorry, not Keynote, general session ;)

Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?

A: For as long as there has been such a thing. I was already an experienced Mac developer, so when Apple first announced the iPhone, I knew I had to be on it, and have been ever since.

That’s right! Mike is also presenting (Keynoting!) at 360|MacDev, our Mac Desktop Developer conference in December!

Q: What do you like most about being an iOS Developer?
A: In general, I love being able to express myself creatively, making things that haven’t existed before, and programming is better suited to my abilities than painting. With iOS specifically, I love the way the iPhone and iPad are small enough to get out the way, bringing programming to the next level, where it becomes less about being hosted on the device, and more about transforming the device itself. It’s the closest thing we have to programming the atoms of some future nanotool.

Creatively said! Totally agree. I try out lots of devices, and so far find myself coming back to iOS time and again. I’m not fanboi enough to ignore a better device or better apps, but have yet to see the right combo exist. A true testament to Apple and the iOS community.

Q: What’s your favorite Game?
A: That’s like asking what my favorite song is! There are a lot of games I love for a lot of reasons. Of all time, probably Puzzle Pirates. These days, I’ve been playing a lot of Angry Birds, but ask me again later.

To True. It’s one of those (and maybe should be phrased this way), “what’s your favorite right now?” questions.

Q: What’s your favorite App?

A: Keynote, hands down. It was the app that most inspired me to get into the business of writing apps, and continues to be an inspiration on the fine art of making your users look amazing.

Interesting! That’s the first time that app has been mentioned!

Q: Robots or Ninjas?
A: I suppose it really depends. I rely on robots on a daily basis, and spend a lot of time thinking about robots I want to build. On the other hand, when you need someone assassinated—for using a splash screen, for example—it’s hard to beat a ninja.

Hard to beat a ninja in both senses of the word! Plus Robots, at least for now, are easy to hear sneaking up on you, or your enemy.

Q: What would change about the iOS platform if you could change just one thing?
A: I would make it trivial to use the 30-pin adapter so we could expand the devices in hardware the way we currently do in software. I would love to use my iPhone to control robots.

Yeah it’s a bummer the 30-pin is so locked down. I too would love to see more devices act as docks for iDevices. I think (I Hope) it’s a future evolution of the platform that my iPhone or iPad, can be the driver of my media center, or an auxiliary monitor without extra steps and “server” apps

Q: What are you most excited about 360|iDev Austin?
A: The crowd at 360 is the most passionate I have ever experienced. They leave me as inspired as I can only pray to leave them.

Having seen your last 360|iDev general session, i can say that’s a high bar. Your talk was very inspiring and left us all wow’ed. I agree, I go to a lot of events and have yet to see a community like the iOS community.

Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone on the fence about attending 360|iDev Austin?
A: What kind of pussy sits on the fence hemming and hawing over meeting great people who can only help them in the longrun?

I dunno, but they’re out there! And I want to meet them and convert them :)

with just a week to go, if you’re on the fence, tell us why? What’s keeping you from coming and being a part of something so much bigger than you. You’re career (indie or corp cube monkey) will thank you on Wednesday night. Leave a comment if you’re on a fence, we’d love to hear from you!

Otherwise, Go register!!!

Filed Under: Austin, Community, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
post

360iDev – Game Jam sponsored by you, the iOS Community!

November 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I can’t say how awesome the community is! Apple is freaking lucky to have such cool folks, who can go above and beyond for each other, building apps for the iPhone. Not to diminish the iPhone but truly, any platform would rock with folks like you behind it!

The 360|iDev Game Jam, sponsored this time around by non other than our awesome community members is ON! Whether you’re a veteran game maker, or newb looking to get a start at games, the Game Jam is for you! It’s a great time!

It’s simple, the game jam starts around Tuesday night 8ish. It ends, Wednesday morning, around 9ish. Anyone who’d like to present their game is welcome to join me during the Wednesday keynote to show off their game. Past Game Jam efforts have landed in the app store!

We’ll have plenty of Red Bull, and soda, and red vines and what not to keep everyone going.

Whether you’re gonna get yur game jam on our not, thank all these folks for making the Game Jam possible!

See you in Austin!!

Filed Under: Announcements, Austin, Community, Drinks, Geeking Out, Hands-On, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , , , , ,