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360iDev – You do Mac apps?

December 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Have you ported your app/game to the Mac Appstore? Thought about it?

The current video on the 360|MacDev home page is Dave Wiskus and Kyle Richter talking about building an iOS app that lead to building a Mac App.

360|MacDev 2010 was pre Mac Appstore and the dialogue was great. Tons of talk about what the future would look like post App store.

Guess what, it’s the future!!! Come talk to Mac app successes, and learn from the best and brightest! Check out the rock star line up and schedule.

Don’t miss out! Register now!

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360iDev 2011 – Survey results

November 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For those who attending 360|iDev 2011, thank you for doing the post conference survey. It’s now closed, so if you didn’t, shame on you! That survey is really important to us in planning the event, and getting sponsorship!

Before announcing the winners and their prize i wanted to post some details of the survey. First, we had 355 tickets sell for 360|iDev 2011. We planned on having 300, but let in an additional 55 people. On the other hand the post conference survey only had 113 responses. About 1/3 of our attendees answered the survey. Hopefully that ratio gets better next year. This survey helps us when sponsors ask how many people are X skill set. How many are designers vs. developers (5% are designers of those who responded). If you attended but didn’t do the survey, well you missed out on helping us, but more importantly, missed out on a chance to win a $500 prize.

Years of Experience with iOS

 

I mentioned this in the keynote too but it’s clear that 360|iDev is NOT a hobbyist conference. In Fact it’s clear that the best and brightest who’ve been around the block since there was a block are attending 360|iDev.

I think a chart like this is really healthy for an event. If it was too heavy on the less than a year of experience side, there’d be too little hands-on knowledge to share.
If there was too much “I’ve been doing this forever”, there wouldn’t be enough people to learn. Part of what makes the iOS community so awesome and healthy is the sharing of knowledge and welcoming of new blood.

This type of distribution to me is healthy and what we aim for with 360|Events. It’s a community, not an exclusive club where only the anointed can hang out, and it’s not a intro to community class where no one knows what they’re doing.

 

 

I love that the iOS community comes from so many places. Many think it’s people who were doing Mac Desktop stuff, etc. but in fact as you can see, it’s people who were doing Flash stuff, other mobile technologies, even Java… :)

Background

 

It’s great to see that there’s no real well spring of iOS developers. Anyone can do it. Anyone can be successful.

 

How many 360|iDev events have you attended

There’s a ton of data in the survey, but I think I’ll end with a really promising bit of information. As you can see, we had a ton of new people show up to 360|iDev 2011. Not only was it the first 360|iDev to sell out, but it had a huge turn out in new blood for the community. Maybe they just haven’t been doing the conference thing, or as we saw above are new to the platform. In either cas that’s awesome. Very very awesome!! We’re very happy to have so many people finding 360|iDev and enjoying it.

 

It’s good to know what we do is being enjoyed by so many! It helps re-enforce why we do it :)

 

Oh yeah and the winners. Did you know when we do these post conference surveys we give away two $500 prizes.

 

Chris Patterson & Nick Bhardwaj are the lucky winners. They’ve got an email waiting for each of them with their prize options.

 

Thank you again to everyone who took the survey, and to those who came to 360|iDev 2011. You’re a part of something awesome, and we’re truly honored to be a part of it, and look forward to even bigger and better things in 2012!!

 

John

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360iDev 2011 – 31 days to go!

August 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You know how many tickets are left? Less than 40.

Yes less than 40 tickets left for 360|iDev 2011. That means we’re closer to selling out than we’ve ever been. EVAR!

 

What’s that mean? Well if you haven’t bought a ticket, better get on it. Not only are tickets running low, so are hotel rooms. We’re gonna own the Crowne Plaza.

If you have bought your ticket, well you’re gonna be in some truly awesome company.

 

Sure there’s lots of other iOS conferences, but none are focused on the community like we are. Don’t miss out!

Register now!

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360iDev 2011 – Not too late to Volunteer

August 3, 2011 By 2 Comments

Can’t quite cover the cost of travel, hotel and conference ticket? Well we can’t help too much on travel and hotel (Though there’s plenty of folks looking for roommates) but we can give you a free ticket. All we ask is that you volunteer to help make 360|iDev rock!

 

We need folks to help work the registration table, handing out shirts, and badges, as well as attend sessions to record the session videos.

 

Yup that means you still get to attend the conference, go to sessions, hit up the parties at night, all that good stuff.

You actually get all the benefits of an attendee, so you don’t miss out, we just assign you sessions to record. We do our best to make sure the sessions you’re recording are ones you want to attend as well.

We need a small army of volunteers, so don’t be shy. Check out this page for more information on submitting to volunteer. Hurry up, 360|iDev is almost here! Spread the word

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360iDev 2011 – Just 39 Days to go!

August 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you a game developer? Want to be? Maybe just want to brush up on your dev skills with a little out of the box development.

 

The Game Jam is for you. And as it turns out, by you. The 360|iDev 2011 Game Jam will take place Tuesday night, sponsored by the iOS community!

The Game Jam is a great place to build your first game, or your tenth. To share what you know and learn new things.

Check out the official page, managed by our pal (and speaker) Mike Berg.

The first time Noel Llopis suggested the Game Jam to us, we loved it. Ever since then we’ve been more than happy to have one take place.

The Game Jam starts around 7pm, and goes until around 8. It’s fully hands on, bring your laptop, we’ll supply the red bull, coffee and snacks.

Then if you like, you can show off your hard work during lunch on Wednesday at the Game Jam Review.

 

See you there! Make sure you register before we sell out!

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360idev 2011 Labs

July 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Having trouble with your code? Maybe need some design feedback?

This year we’re launching the 360|iDev labs. Labs work like at WWDC and other events, our awesome speakers have agreed to hang out in the new lab area and help our attendees.

The lab schedule is below the regular schedule. Take a look.

We left a few spots open for drop in lab help.

We how the labs will be a great way for the community to grow and he each other.

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Denver, Geeking Out, Hands-On, Networking, Pricing, Reasons to Come, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev – Speaker Jen Harvey

October 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We’re really excited to have Jen Harvey with us in Austin, I think with the two Jens, Lindsay, and Jessica, we’ve doubled at least our women presenter count, which is always awesome to see! Jen is presenting on “The Reluctant SysAdmin: Managing the Server-side of a Client/Server iPhone app”. Talk about something that many developers probably don’t think about when dreaming up the next mega selling app. If there’s a server side component, whether it’s handling authentication or something more complex like data manipulation, success could be a problem if your back end isn’t set up right. If your app doesn’t stand alone, this is gonna be a good session to check out. Wednesday at 2:50p
Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?

A: Exactly 1 year, hard to believe – the year has just flown by!

Time flies when you’re having fun!!

Q: What do you like most about being an iOS Developer?

A: The community rocks. So much knowledge sharing, so many really fantastic peeps developing quality apps.

Yes it does. The iOS community is why we organize 360|iDev. We love being able to help such a great community of developers in any way we can.

Q: What’s your favorite Game?

A: I’m not a big gamer, but still can’t choose just one. I had a real Swords & Poker II “issue” for bit. Then I got suckered into Chuck Gnome, and now I’ve been goofing with Trainyard like everyone else in the world.

Both of those games really took the world by storm, Swords and poker, i’ve never heard of, will have to track that down, LOL. I love that it was an “issue”

Q: What’s your favorite App?

A: Again, can’t choose just one! I’m a Seesmic addict on my iPod, but really like the native Twitter app on iPad. And *of course* HeyTell on both to send quick messages to friends & family. ;) Skype & Gas Cubby have both been pretty invaluable on the road, in their own special ways. On the work side of things, I spend a little time each day with PositionApp and the Pingdom app has been a life saver (although Push Notification bings now make me twitch just a little bit).

It’s awesome to see folks making tools for the iOS community, LOL. That’s great!! HeyTell looks interesting, checking it out after I hit publish!

Q: Robots or Ninjas?

A: Robots! Robots with ninja star fingernails?

I can’t see how that couldn’t possibly go wrong!

Q: What would change about the iOS platform if you could change just one thing?

A: The complicated keychain…we automate builds, so every time we add a new build, I forget what we did to get it to work the last time…but that’s keychain…you have the same complicated issues with OpenSSL, too…maybe longer expiration for certs. :) All in all, though, our application development for iOS has been a pretty clean and positive experience.

Yeah even tinkering on my own (Yeah that’s where I’m at :D ) the whole keychain, cert, etc process is crazy daunting. I understand it’s probably for the best, but jeez. At least it’s a little easier now with the wizard.

Q: What are you most excited about 360|iDev Austin?

A: Seeing everyone we met in San Jose again, meeting new folks, learning from everyone’s experience, and sharing a few of the crazy things we’ve learned after a year on the road supporting HeyTell.

Awesome! Yup it’s like a family reunion and that’s what we like. It’s a family reunion, that welcomes new members, LOL.

Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone on the fence about attending 360|iDev Austin?

A: Go, go, go! I was on the fence before San Jose – no longer. Great people and talks–we learned so much that was helpful to us. We indies tend to live a little bit in a bubble, and it’s so nice to be able to get together with fellow developers to toss ideas around, validate what we’re doing, and so on–you can’t put a price on that. Also, Rock Band was totally fun and beer every night! The latter probably contributing a bit to me participating in the former. Fun times!

Yeah getting people off the fence is tough, once they’re off, they’re usually off for good, but yeah we have a hard time getting indies to see that value in taking the time, it’s great to hear yet another reformed fence sitter tell their tale LOL.

Don’t miss out on a good time, that will fill your brain beyond capacity. Register now!

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360iDev – Speaker Joe Keeley

October 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Joe Keeley isn’t new to speaking at 360|iDev, and his session, “more Quartz 2D” isn’t one to miss if you’re looking for some hands on Quartz 2D action! Monday 1:30pm, be there!

Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?

A: Holy cow – two years this month! (That happened fast.)

Yes it did! I still remember, and just sold on Ebay, my iPhone 2G. I remember the lines, the launch of the app store, it’s been a whirl wind

Q: What do you like most about being an iOS Developer?

A: Freedom. And needing to have all the latest Apple toys for, you know, testing.

LOL, yeah it makes it a little easier to justify buying the latest laptops and iOS devices :D
Q: What’s your favorite Game?

A: Wish I had more time to play games!  I do have fun playing Doodle Jump and Harbor Master HD with my four year old daughter.  Well, actually, watching her trounce my best scores consistently is more like it.

Both awesome games by awesome folks! Love ‘em both! I can’t wait to play the FrankenDoodle update that Igor just released.
Q: What’s your favorite App?

A: Lately I’ve really enjoyed using Star Walk on the iPad when we go camping.  It’s nice to actually be able to see stars and know what you’re looking at!

That’s an awesome idea!!! Dang! Can’t wait for spring and summer to get here now!!! Stupid winter!

Q: Robots or Ninjas?

A: Hmmmm….depends on whether the robots obey Asimov’s laws. Probably robots since theoretically you can shut them off.

Well thanks to scientists, we’re now teacing robots to break the Asimov laws… why, i can’t even guess.
Q: What would change about the iOS platform if you could change just one thing?

A: If only you could merge changes to an XIB file – that would make team development a bunch easier.

Yeah I’ve noticed that Apple has a thing with binary files and files that are packages. Ever tried using SVN or GIT to manage pages files? ya can’t!!! It’d be so awesome to share and be able to merge iWork docs. Oh yeah I guess XIBs too :)

Q: What are you most excited about 360|iDev Austin?

A: Learning all sorts of unexpected new things!  And hanging out with the best iOS devs around.  It’s a great and humbling experience.

Humbling in a good way I hope :) But yeah I’ve never met anyone who left saying, “I didn’t learn anything new.”

Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone on the fence about attending 360|iDev Austin?

A: Fences are uncomfortable to sit on.  Try the nice green grass on the 360|iDev Austin side!  It’s much better.

You know it! I sat a wrought iron fence for an hour once, I was off as fast as I could!!

Don’t miss out. Register now!

Filed Under: Austin, Community, Content, Geeking Out, Hands-On, Networking, Reasons to Come, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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360iDev – Worth every penny and more

June 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Conference pricing is funny.

You see events that cost over $1000, and think (at least I do) “what will I be getting out of this conference? Will it be worth $1000? Will I be wasting my money?” I especially have those thoughts as someone who doesn’t have a company expense account to draw upon. But even in my days as a cube monkey I felt weird when I’d return from a conference and 1. have to make up what I learned to report back to my boss, and 2. submit expense reports, etc for thousands of dollars of company money.

What about when a conference has an early bird price that takes $550 off the price? I mean the savings in the early bird price is more than the actual cost to attend 360|iDev. I wonder if they think they provide over $1000 in knowledge and networking?

Why do events, with similar formats as 360|iDev cost so much more? They’re “enterprise” I guess is the only explanation. Meaning nothing but they want to milk attendees (who are typically on the company’s dime) for as much as possible. I certainly hope “enterprise” attendees don’t get suckered into this thinking, but looking at conference history, those events with “enterprise” anywhere in their name or description, tack on at least an extra $500 just because.

These events are obviously not aimed at indie developers. Ever wonder if you get 2-3x the value? They’re not 2-3 times the length, or the number of sessions, or anything else that would be a good metric, so what’s the difference?

I know that every attendee or potential attendee has a choice in the events they attend, and I show my gratitude in organizing an awesome event that blows their minds. At least a few times every event, someone walks up to me (I’m the guy at the reg desk, or walking around saying hi) and tells me that they’ve already gotten their money’s worth.. ‘Already’, and it’s usually lunch time on day one!

360|iDev Austin is still a ways away, but why wait? Waiting will cost you $100 if nothing else, and it’s not like you’re not gonna have a good time, and get more information from 3 days than you’ll get anywhere else. Go register, worse case you can get a refund if you can’t make it (Make sure it’s before the cut off though!)

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360idev – Hang out/recharge during WWDC

May 11, 2010 By 4 Comments

I’ll be in San Francisco the week of WWDC with a room at the Marriott.

This year I won’t be attending the conference, but will be still doing the USB drive Scavenger hunt.

I’ll also be making my room available during the day for anyone that wants to hang out, take a break from WWDC, grab a red bull or granola bar, etc. Hopefully this is useful for the folks who’s hotels aren’t as close to Moscone. Maybe you want to drop your bag off for a little while, etc.

Think of it as a small hospitality suite across the street from WWDC.

I’ll post some more details, but wanted to get the word out, that my door would be open.

The USB drive scavenger hunt is gonna be fun. Last year we had 8 drives, and all but one were found. Each drive has a free pass to the next 360|iDev, as well as tons of promo codes for apps. They’ll be hidden around Moscone center, during the week, and I’ll be tweeting clues and pictures about the locations.

Also, we’ll be selling super early bird, half off tickets to the next 360|iDev, so if you’re thinking of going, this is a great way to make sure you get the best price!

See you in San Francisco!

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