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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!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Denver, Geeking Out, Networking, Reasons to Come, speakers Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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360iDev 2011 – Awesome icon assets from Tapptics

August 30, 2011 By 1 Comment

Click to Enlarge.

This post has been really tardy in coming. The awesome sauce Jen Gordon has offered up some incredible free icon assets from Tapptics.

You can download the sampler here.

This is a cool offer for 360|iDev attendees/fans. Check ‘em  out.

You can click the image right over there on the left as well to see the full size sample.

Gen has spoken at 360|iDev in the past and is great! You should definitely check out the sampler and take advantage of the coupon that’s included.

 

Go do it!

 

See you in Denver.

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360iDev 2011 – Just 58 days to go!

July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You know what’s in 58 days? 360|iDev 2011. The only 360|iDev this year.

Space at the hotel is almost gone, staying elsewhere is always an option, but we’ve got a good rate with the hotel might as well save some money… Don’t ya think?

This post is the beginning of a series of posts I’m gonna write counting down to the conference. Not daily or anything, but often. Each will have things you should know about the conference.

 

The first and most important thing you should know about 360|iDev is why we do it. We do it because back in 2009 we recognized that the iOS developer community had no central event to come together around. We launched 360|iDev to offer that. We found speakers via forums like Touch Arcade, and the Apple Dev forums. We reached out to people we knew or had heard of via twitter.

We didn’t make any money, but we didn’t expect to either. Making money is a huge plus and we wouldn’t have been upset if we had, but it wasn’t the goal. Nor was filling a conference center with 600 people.

 

In fact the first 360|iDev in 2009 only had 166 attendees, some 30 of which were speakers. We jumped to 222 in Denver in 2009. Our return to San Jose in 2010 brought 301 attendees. Our most recent 360|iDev in Austin TX saw a slight decline in numbers, 235.

We never wanted to be a 600+ person conference. The community can surely support that, and based on the popularity of iOS conferences this and last year, surely there’s interest in events. But what we always thought was special about 360|iDev and our other events was that we don’t want to be the biggest conference ever. We want to be the one where you can walk the halls and say hi other developers and know that those people know the pains of Cocoas2D, or Gamekit, etc.

We wanted to be the conference where rockstars in the community are eating lunch with a developer who’s just getting started, maybe he’s just decided to go indie and live his dream. The conference where the speaker from the session you were just in is sitting next you in this session, because while she’s a bad ass at OpenGL ES maybe she’s still wrapping her head around something else.

 

From the start we believed that providing an event that brought the community together was reward enough, we still do.

 

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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!

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360iDev 2011 – Call For papers open!

February 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s that time! Got something you want to share with the iOS community? Here’s your chance! Submit a talk or three to 360|iDev 2011!

The submission window will be open until noon on March 4th. Don’t dilly dally. You can submit as many session ideas as you like. We prefer new fresh cutting edge stuff, no sloppy seconds from other events, etc.

Sometimes we select 2 topics from 1 speaker, so don’t worry about submitting just 1 or anything.

LASTLY. If you’re submitting a team presentation (that’d be you and 1 or more other folks) we can only provide 1 room per presentation, so you’ll have to share, or split the cost of the second room.

OK, go submit your topics!

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360iDev – Speaker Tom Frauenhofer

October 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Tom has been a friend of ours for a long time! It’s great to have him onboard as a speaker!! We’re really excited to have him presenting “Introduction to Cocos2D for iPhone” on Monday morning!
  • Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?

A: Almost 2 years, mostly for small projects for others.  Recently we released a game, Chromatic Cosmos (iTunes Link) using Cocos2D.

That’s awesome! Congrats! Seems like a common path, working for someone else until the time is right.

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

A: iOS users are very demanding.  Apple and the other developers have set a very high bar for the quality and usability of applications.  It’s very challenging to get it right, and it’s a lot of fun.

Yeah the bar is pretty darn high. Consumers, Apple, and the Dev community, don’t let B-Game apps get any sunlight

Q: What’s your favorite Game?

A: Chromatic Cosmos (laughs) – I’m also playing Angry Birds, and I love Plants versus Zombies and Harbor Master (iTunes Links).

Have you been playing with my iPhone!? I just got Angry Birds the other day, but it’s already sucked hours of my time. I’m on level 4 something I think. Crazy! Harbor Master and PVZ are also long time favorites! They all still have places on my iDevices. Chromatic Cosmos is going to be in good company!

Q: What’s your favorite App?

A: I drive a lot, and I get a lot of use out of Copilot North America – it’s improved so much since the first version, and they added an upgrade to provide traffic information, which I don’t know how I managed without that.

My second favorite app is Flipboard on my iPad – I suffered through the initial problems they had satisfying the demand, and now it’s a first-class magazine replacement.  And it’s so beautifully done!

I don’t know what we did before live traffic!! I tried Flipboard and was put off by the overhyped fail/launch, but have recently re-installed it and it’s better than I thought. Quite impressive.

Q: Robots or Ninjas?

A: Pshaw – Ninjas all the way, baby!

HA HA

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

A: Make it easier for small business/small enterprise deployments.  There are a lot of apps that will go to competitors because it’s just painful enough to do a limited run.

Yeah the iOS platform, while touting business support with exchange and such, is very not ideal for business uses. It seems odd to deploy internal applications to the App Store.

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

A: 1) Spending several days hanging around with some of the best and the brightest developers on Earth.  I always learn a lot at 360 conference events.

2) Austin is amazing – the music scene is great, and the barbecue is even better!

Agreed! We want 360|iDev to be all about fun and mind blowing experiences :)

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

A: This is THE BEST conference to learn about building software for iOS devices from actual developers!  It’s a very intimate environment, and by the end you will come away knowing a lot more about building and marketing apps.

Couldn’t agree more!! The community is all about helping each other out!

Don’t miss out! Register now for what will be the best 360|iDev ever! Don’t forget to book your room at the Marriott before the room block ends!

Filed Under: Austin, Community, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come, speakers, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , ,
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360iDev – Speaker Collin Donnell

October 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Collin, the world’s sexiest programmer has been a speaker at every 360|iDev, and is always a blast to have with us. Collin is presenting on Tuesday ‘Blocks and Grand Central Dispatch’. This ain’t no intro session, he’s bringing his A-Game, make sure you do too :)

Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?

A: Two and a half years since around April of 2008.

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

A: Working on a totally new thing. It kind of feels like the future.

The future is grand, that’s for damn sure. I admit, seeing everyone at 360|iDev, and hearing what they’re working on, and seeing apps released throughout the year, is awe inspiring. The future pretty much rocks!

Q: What’s your favorite Game?

A: Right now? The Incident (iTunes Link).

I love that in every interview, this question is prefaced with “right now” it’s so cool to see casual gaming taking off. I never thgouht I’d be a fan, but even back on my Moto T720 flip, i’d fire up lemonade tycoon when waiting in lines, etc. It’s great to see gaming taking off, and to see so much cool stuff happening, that favorite games are “right now” only.

Q: What’s your favorite App?

A: 1Password (iTunes link) with Dropbox sync is really great.

I admit, I’ve never been able to put 1Password into my mobile workflow. I think because of the lack of browser integration. I never think ahead to open 1Password, then spawn a browser with the form fields populated, i just don’t work like that, so it’s never caught on.

Q: Robots or Ninjas?

A: Primitive mammal like robots.

Like rats, and possums?

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

A: I’d love it if there was a way for developers to interact with their users more directly, such as responding to comments. It’s frustrating when you know you can solve a dissatisfied customers problem but have no way to help them.

Like on iTunes with rating and comments? Yeah it’s odd that Apple has made it largely a blind process for all concerned, I know as a consumer, sometimes your only option at expressing yourself is the ratings and comments in iTunes, which usually isn’t the best forum for that type of thing.

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

A: I’ve never been to Austin, but I’ve heard it’s amazing there. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the great people and learning from amazing developers and designers.

Yeah Austin is a pretty kick ass city, I hope everyone gets a chance to get into downtown at some point. We really enjoyed our site visit!

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

A: Every 360iDev has raised the bar over the last one; this is going to be the best one yet. The quality of presentations and the level of technical content has gone up a lot and I can honestly say this is a great conference for developers of all levels.

That’s what we like to hear! We strive to offer the best and most technical talks. We love the Rock Band, the beer bashes, and everything else, but by and large the main goal is to make the sessions be the focus and make sure they deliver a level of technical awesomeness that isn’t matched at other events (even WWDC, yes I said it :D)

Don’t miss out, Collin is right, this 360|iDev is on track to be better than those that came before it! If you’re an iOS developer, you owe it to yourself to join us in Austin. Whether you’re an indie or working for someone else, the networking and learning opportunities at 360|iDev, are beyond compare! Register now!

Filed Under: Austin, Community, Content, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come, speakers, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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360iDev – Speaker Bob Koon

October 1, 2010 By 1 Comment

We’re really happy to have Bob koon on board as a speaker! He’s talking about App piracy (he’s against, just FYI) and data snooping on Monday at 10:20!

Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?

A: We have been iPhone developers ever since the SDK was made available to the general public, but our first title didn’t arrive until late in 2008

Ah, nice. It’s been a long road since then!

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

A: Developing for iOS gives us the ablity to put our games into the hands of millions of people without a major investment in software or hardware.

The barriers to entry are very low for iOS, which is nice. There’s still a sense of “I can make it on my own if I work hard, and make cool things” and that’s totally true!

Q: What’s your favorite Game?

A: It’s really just a tech demo at the moment, but I think the most exciting potential game I have right now is Epic Citadel. (Rage looks amazing too but that’s not out yet.) These games are inspiring in many ways because it shows us what is possible. Exciting times!

Dang! Can’t wait to see them! Game play has evolved so much since the launch of the iPhone, and it’s so cool to see the unique and clever games and game play that iOS developers come up with!

Q: What’s your favorite App?

A: I’ll have to go with the official Twitter app for iPhone. It’s a bit of a cop-out but I don’t spend much time using apps. When I do, I’m out of the office so I look for ways to connect with my friends.

Well twitter’s been on more than one reply to this question so it’s a good cop out :) I do wish they’d give it a bit more love feature wise, keeping my fingers crossed!

Q: Robots or Ninjas?

A: Definitely robots, no question! I’ve been hooked on robots ever since I first saw Robby in Plan 9 From Outer Space. (Marvin is a very close second.) 3PO and R2 is the easy answer (almost a given), but I wanted something a bit more exotic.

I dunno. Hard to beat Summer Glau for exotic robot choices… of course she’d likely try to punch through your chest and pull your heart out, but still, Summer Glau… But yeah Robby is a great mainstay when talking about Robots!

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

A: I’d love to stop the infusion of cruft in the App Store. It’s flooded with very low-quality apps that just make it more difficult for the good apps to shine through. There needs to be a way to cut through that.

Agreed. No offense to the fart app folks and the flash lights, and lighters, etc. but you guys aren’t trying hard enough, I’d love to see Apple put a bit more of it’s draconian scrutiny towards those types of apps.

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

A: This will be my first 360|iDev, so I’m really looking forward to networking with all of my friends and colleagues from Twitter and developer mail lists, many of them I will be meeting in person for the very first time. I’m also looking forward to attending as many sessions as possible!

Yeah 360|iDev is always a great time to connect and re-connect. It’s great to put faces and beers to the twitter avatar!

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

A: The iOS development community is a fantastic group of folks! Everyone is eager to share their knowledge and experiences! You get real-world information straight from the people in the trenches. If you want to learn about iOS development, 360|iDev is where you want to be!

As far as we’re concerned, there’s no better developer community out there! Whether supporting each other with code or collaborating on projects or even helping make noise about a new release, I’ve never seen a more friendly and open community! It’s my hope that 360|iDev helps embody and enhance that vibe!

Don’t miss out on what is often referred to as the best iOS developer gathering around. Sure you could go elsewhere, but why? Don’t miss this chance to be among the most awesome developers around, sharing stories over beers and helping expand the community! Register now!

Filed Under: Austin, Community, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come, speakers, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev – Speaker Steven Hugg

September 28, 2010 By 1 Comment

Want to learn from actual iOS developers? 360|iDev is all about actual developers, building apps, and doing awesome things. It’s really that simple, there’s lots of other events, and when you look at the speaking roster, just think to yourself, does she/he even write iOS apps? Everyone one of our 30+ speakers, DOES!

Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?
A: About a year. Never touched Objective C before that.
Fair, same here. Prior to the iPhone i’d never even thought about Mac software other than really enjoying using it!

Q: What do you like most about being an iOS Developer?
A: Besides the freedom of being independent, the excitement of being involved in computer history. The App Store is like a revival of shareware, but at lightning speed and in your pocket. I remember the diverse and experimental gameplay of the early days of computer gaming, and many iOS games remind me of that aesthetic. And there are some apps I can’t live without anymore. I don’t even use the phone part of my iPhone.
Right now, it seems that being an indie iOS developer is a pretty good path to financial independence, the gold rush hasn’t ended, though it has slowed in my opinion, it’s still a good time to start writing awesome games and apps, and staking your claim!
Q: What’s your favorite Game?
A: Hmm. There have been a few standouts. Sword & Poker was an addiction awhile back. Helsing’s Fire is very well done, as is Spirit HD. Sometimes I just like to be silly and launch gnomes in Chuck Gnome.
Nice! The best part of these interviews is getting an idea of games and apps I’ve never played! I’ll be checking these out for sure!!
Q: What’s your favorite App?
A: Twitter and NY Times are frequent. When traveling, Yelp, TripAdvisor, HotelsByMe. When sleeping, White Noise :) PositionApp to check on our global App Store dominance.
I’m a huge yelper! Great app! Elite ’10!
Q: Robots or Ninjas?
A: Well, robots can be programmed to be sassy. Ninjas can’t.
I think ninjas are just sassy on their own. I mean if you could will with a touch, why NOT be sassy, who’s gonna stop ya?
Q: What would change about the iOS platform if you could change just one thing?
A: I’d love to browse the source code! :D
HA HA. Good luck with that!
Q: What are you most excited about 360|iDev Austin?
A: 360iDev seemed like a reunion of old friends even at first attendance. It’s great to be able to tune into the wavelength of so many like-minded developers at once. I’ve refined my Rock Band chops to a fine point, so beware. And speaking will be a blast! :)
We try to keep that vibe going. 360|iDev almost always starts out Sunday night with lots of handshakes and hugs, and beer bottles clinking! It’s like a class reunion, without the awkward “you use to beat me up moments” and no one is fatter!
Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone on the fence about attending 360|iDev Austin?
A: It’s important to have perspective if you’re working as an independent, and 360iDev gives you that perspective in a relatively short period of time. There are some things you just can’t learn on Twitter.
We love seeing people leave on wednesday, eager to get back to coding. Fresh with new app/game ideas, and new ways to finish the project they’re working on. It’s great to know that within months of 360|iDev there’s gonna be some awesome new releases!
Make sure you register sooner rather than later. We’re planning on this being the biggest 360|iDev yet and sure, you can go to one of the imposter events, but why, when the real deal is coming up so soon, and is (in almost every case) cheaper with more actual iOS developers as speakers and attendees.
Filed Under: Austin, Community, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come, speakers, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev – Speaker Justin Williams

September 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I’ve never met Justin in person, but we’ve exchanged tweets on Mac vs. iOS events, and tracks within events etc. I’m super happy he’s on board as a speaker, and has submitted for 360|MacDev as well! He’s a great model of ‘the successful developer’
Make sure you check out his session ‘Punching Out: Selling Your iPhone Apps To Someone Else’ on Monday.
Q: How long have you been doing iOS development?
A: I started toying with the SDK when it was released given my Mac background, but I only just got in the App Store with my own products full-time in the past few months with the release of Elements and MarkdownMail (iTunes Link).
Awesome! It’s cool to have long time Mac Devs get into iOS, I think it’s a neat perspective.
Q: What do you like most about being an iOS Developer?
A: The Mac is still my preferred development platform, but iOS is turning into a really fun diversion since it allows me to build such focused apps. Little apps like my MarkdownMail product wouldn’t make much sense on the Mac, but they turn out to be pretty useful on iOS because the goal is to build simple, focused apps rather than cramming in as many features as possible.
Well said. I think the Mac platform for apps has a lot going for it (obviously as I write this on my Macbook, LOL). Exactly right on the being specific and purposeful, iOS is a very narrow platform, and best served by apps that do one thing really well.
Q: What’s your favorite Game?
A: The only game that has kept my attention is Angry Birds (iTunes Link).  I’m really not much of a gamer, but it’s a great way to kill a few minutes with mindless fun.
Q: What’s your favorite App?
A: QueueUp is a new app from the fine folks at BitBQ that I’m really enjoying lately.  It’s a really focused Netflix app that’s sole purpose is adding items to your disc queue.  I’ve never liked the other Netflix apps on the phone because they try to wrap every aspect of their API when all I really ever want to do on my phone is add discs to my queue or rate what I just watched.  QueueUp gets me halfway there.  It’s awesome.
Nice, will have to check it out! I’ve all but given up on the queue manager apps, most try to do too much, poorly!
Q: Robots or Ninjas?
A: Ninjas.  If I had a private plane like Steve Jobs, I’d try to bring ninja stars back from Japan too.
Shoot, i’d bring ninjas back. They’re better at throwing them, I suspect!
Q: What would change about the iOS platform if you could change just one thing?
A: I’ve got a laundry list and Apple has been slowly ticking items off of it.  My current dream is that they allow for sideloading applications onto the phone like is possible on Android.  I don’t expect it to ever happen, but it would silence a majority of the critics of the App Store platform and would give users an outlet to get those apps that Apple doesn’t deem appropriate for their storefront.
Yeah as an owner of an Android phone, the sideloading feature is nice. I’ve always wished that Apple would put a toggle in the settings app to pretty much accept “I’m a savvy user, please let me make some decisions for myself and my device. I accept the responsibility”
Q: What are you most excited about 360|iDev Austin?
A: I haven’t left Indiana since February, so I’m looking forward to getting out of state.  :)  I’m also really looking forward to the technical sessions.  While I enjoy WWDC, I find smaller conferences like 360, NSConference and C4 (RIP) offer a much more varied and rich amount of content because its from people who are using the tools in the real world.  WWDC is great for getting up to snuff on the new stuff coming soon.  360 will be great for learning how to really take advantage of what’s available today.
Yeah we try to not compete with WWDC (impossible) but make it clear the technical aspects of 360|iDev far outweigh what you’re get at bigger events that have a wider focus.
Q: Lastly, what would you tell someone on the fence about attending 360|iDev Austin?
A: Come to Austin.  The sessions are going to be great, but the real benefit of events like this is the camaraderie with your fellow developers.  It’s like drinking a giant jug of iOS Kool-Aid.
HA HA. so true!! Kool-Aid, with beer in it!
Don’t miss out! 360|iDev is gonna be awesome! Click here to register!
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