A 360|Conferences event
Show your love and support of 360|iDev with our (mostly) new badges. Got a blog, these fit real nice like in a sidebar :) No blog, scale ‘em down as a twitter avatar.
Let everyone know you’ll be at the only iOS developer conference created for the iOS developer community. Oh and of course, the only one with over 50 sessions, 40 speakers, and free hands-on training :)
Just save-as and away you go!
Well another WWDC has come and gone, my liver survived, mostly. Hope yours did :)
As always WWDC is a week of crazy parties, sessions, more parties, sessions, a beer bash, and a few more parties. And thrown in in-between, meeting new folks, and re-meeting folks you already know.
Of course the nights were packed with parties, some open to all, others not so much. I can’t say what those parties are like, but this post seems to sum up who was at those parties and what they were like. I attended awesome parties aimed at developers and open to all, like the really really fun push.io party! and others by folks like Mobclix, iPhone Alliance, SFMacIndie, and more. WWDC Parties are a ton of fun, and a valuable experience in and of themselves, I wish I had more of me to attend the ones I missed!
This year like last, i opted to not buy a WWDC ticket and simply attend parties and be around all week. I don’t write much code now, so why take a ticket from a dev who really wants to be there for sessions? Didn’t make much sense.
Being outside also gave me time to hide USB drives around for our annual (3rd annual if you can believe that!) WWDC USBHunt. All but 1 drive was found/claimed. The last drive was found or at least moved, but not claimed. Seems to happen to 1 drive a year. Odd.
Other than the missing drive, the USBHunt was a huge hit, no drive was in the wild for more than about 30 minutes, not bad! Having $600 worth of software from awesome indie devs doesn’t hurt one bit! Congrats to everyone who found the drive, and hope to see you in September!
I’ve got to come up with something bigger for next year!
If you haven’t booked your trip to denver this September you should probably get on it. We’re still about 4ish months out, but have already sold more than 50% of our tickets. This is shaping up to be the biggest 360|iDev ever.
Well WWDC is just around the corner… like literally, it’s next week! There’s lots of 360|iDev goodness to be had if you’re around SF. If you haven’t bought your ticket, stop by and find me (usually at the starbucks next to Moscone) for a 30% discount ticket!
I’ll also have lots and lots of moo cards, with 15% off codes on them if you aren’t able to register right there on the spot with me. Sorry to get the 30% you gotta buy it right there during WWDC.
So what can you expect to find on the drive if you find one? Well thanks to our pals Double Encore we’ve got 5 shiny silver USB drives that we’ll be hiding. When you find one, come trade it in for a 2gb Santa Bot. We were gonna hide Santa bot, but were worried they’d be too easy to spot, and we’d find them in the clutches of San Francisco hobos not Apple Developers :) SO find the Silver, come claim Santa Bot :)
So what’s gonna be on Santa Bot? Lots!
Each one will have a free pass code for 360|iDev 2011 (Value: $599)
Thanks to the awesome and supportive indie iOS dev community, we’ve got a ton of app promo codes available, and some some free eBook codes. (Value: $188)
Check out what we’ve got in store (so far).
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Terminology (and Terminology Ph) (iTunes Link) | |
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Stereomatic (iTunes Link) | |
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News Anchor (Mac App Store Link) | |
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Cloud Pull (Mac App Store Link) | |
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ScoutTrail (iTunes Link) | |
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Lock Screen V2 (iTunes Link) | |
| Flashlight (iTunes Link) | ||
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Funeral Notebook (iTunes Link) | |
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Clock Radio (iTunes Link) | |
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Onetime (iTunes Link) | |
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Geronimo (iTunes Link) | |
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Calc 12c (iTunes Link) | |
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Wild Fables (iTunes Link) | |
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myLight (iTunes Link) | |
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Monkey Business (iTunes Link) | |
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Code for 1 free eBook | |
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Inner Ear (iTunes Link) | |
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Swivel (iTunes Link) | |
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Property Evaluator (iTunes and Mac App Store) | |
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Galcon for iPhone and iPad (iTunes Link) | |
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FoodCombo (iTunes Link) | |
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Plane Finder HD (iTunes Link) | |
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Objectify (Mac App Store) | |
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Disc Golf Scorekeeper (iTunes Link) | |
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Mathemagics (iTunes Link) | |
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Equalizer (iTunes Link) | |
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The Bond Mixology (iTunes Link) | |
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Colorflys HD (iTunes Link) | |
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Photo Lapse (iTunes link) | |
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.
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!
See you in Denver, in September!
We’ve been working on finding the right place to hold 360|iDev here in Denver and think we found it. The Crowne Plaza Downtown. Yeah, DOWNTOWN.
We know the Austin location was not right downtown, so getting around was a cab or shuttle ride, and a kind of pain in the ass. SO we’re right downtown. 2 blocks off the 16th St Mall, tons or bars and restaurants, and lots to do!
We’ll be updating the Hotel page with details and the room booking link today or tomorrow, but the dates (September 11-14) and location (The Crowne Plaza Downtown) are 100% locked in!
What’s next?
What’s this mean to you?
Well mostly it means, if you didn’t buy the faithul ticket already, it’s gone. Sorry we told you, the moment we lock in the details that ticket goes away. Starting now, and for the next 3 weeks, the early bird ticket is on sale. This ticket will be the last chance to save some coin. If you’re not sure it’s gonna be worth it, ask around.
If you’re wondering why September, I’ll tell ya. We’re only doing 1 360|iDev this year. That’s it, just the one. We’ll be packing the awesome of 2 into 1 bad ass event. We’re waiting until after WWDC so that we can all talk about the awesome stuff we’re working on, that’s likely to be NDA until then. Plus early September in Denver is awesome. Great weather, great time of year.
See you in Denver!
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
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?
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!!!
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!!
