One critical irreplaceable part breaks, and they can no longer process payroll or inventory.
All because they don't want to hire somebody to spend a week or two to replace the functionality of that obscene waste of energy with a simple spreadsheet. The simple value of data security, not to mention the inter-operability between the data generated and things like, I dunno... check printing and direct deposit, for example, seems obvious.
I'd also guess there would be a lot less work for their accounting department. Either they could save the expense of one or two peoples' salaries, or at least spread the workload savings among the staff. In any event, it simply doesn't make sense not to modernize it.
Obviously consumers are mostly staying away from Windows 8, which is slowing new PC sales... and in all honesty, there isn't an urge to upgrade PCs every year or two any more. We've reached a point of maturity in desktops and laptops, in terms of memory and drive space... the sweet spot seems to be around 8GB of RAM and 1TB of drive space. 90% of consumers do little more than surf, get e-mail and play games. Gaming hardware really hasn't vastly improved the user experience in a few years, even low end cards deliver nice graphics and performance on 1080p monitors.
Combined with customers' concerns over the "Modern UI" in Windows 8, and there just isn't a lot of compelling reasons for consumers to purchase new equipment.
Likewise... IT departments have likely slowed hardware refreshes in light of Windows 8. Many took a year or two to adopt Windows 7, which was a no-brainer upgrade after struggling with Vista (which many IT departments skipped). Again... nothing compelling to move into Windows 8 and integrate it into their common office environments, and hardware requirements of current software hasn't demanded more ram than most companies already have deployed.
They should have flipped that around. Release an updated X-Wing, with multiplayer, and eventually tie it into an MMO like Galaxies. It might have led to a more successful launch for SWG had they used this game as a pre-cursor to build up a solid online fanbase before-hand.
A new X-Wing series would have been an insta-hit
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Disney Closes LucasArts
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· Score: 4, Interesting
I would have paid full price in a heartbeat for a new X-Wing series and a season Pass for the first 4 major DLCs.
What a cash cow that could be - selling E-Wings or Pirate Frankenfighters for.99 and eventually tying everything back to an MMO. LucasArts should never have ignored the fan's outcry for the past decade for a new reboot of that series on modern desktops.
I would just hope they would make sure not to piece it up too badly, as many games are these days... but the X-Wing series would have been a natural for the trend. Major DLC to add new missions and fleets would be a no-brainer.
Seriously though... you will get a variety of answers here on Slashdot, ranging from "open source it and give it all away" to "put in ads and give it away". Charging for things seems to be a sin to some slashdotters.
I think a CD key, for PC games, strikes a reasonable balance, so long as you have some traceability (online activation is nice). Have you considered Steamworks? You'd have a distribution platform (though it wouldn't limit where you could sell it), and a proven, relatively non-intrusive DRM strategy.
Of course, Steamworks games get cracked, but you can never really stop determined crackers or pirates. All you want to do is encourage legit buyers to remain legit buyers. Steam is a pretty decent ecosystem for developers and gamers.
...and how terribly bad they were over the safety limits?
Also, can you publish the retailers carrying them and prices, so I can surely avoid getting them?/Heading back to the Flashlight Forums to discuss my new hexa-Cree 6000 lumen pen light.
There are plenty of phone watches out there... that is nothing new. What I'd like is something like Pebbl or the Sony Ericsson LiveView that interfaces to my phone (Android or iPhone) with some sort of standard interface for developers.
It can be a two-way interface, relaying video and audio in both directions, as well as have a small touch screen.
$150 is a bit much... LiveViews are available for $30, as they seem to be closeouts... I would like something like this for less than $100, though.
And LED bulbs? Still new enough that you have the uninformed Luddites bitching that they cost $60 each, despite the fact that you can now buy them for under $20 regularly and around $10 on sale
How many $20 LED lamps have you bought? How many $10 ones? ALL SHIT. You must spend real money on an LED lamp to get one that even has current limiting, let alone power regulation.
Microcenter has "40W" house-brand Inland LED bulbs for $6.99, dimmables for a buck more. They work great in my house, and I haven't had a single one go bad or burn out in the year or two since I started getting them. They seem to be well built, and have nice solid heat sinks, though the one here in my desk lamp is cool enough to touch (and by touch, I mean put your fingers on it and hold them there) anywhere on the lamp body.
Our kitchen uses two of these bulbs in the fixture, and its as bright as it's ever been with any other bulbs.
On the subject of 'smart lighting' - $50~70 is too much for a bulb, but it speaks to the X-10 enthusiast in many of us to be able to control lighting at the source... but the price needs to come way down. I expect that to happen as production ramps up. Given a cheap interface chip, China could pump the components out for less than a dollar premium on a BOM for a smart bulb. Tie that in with efficient, color-changing LEDs and you could sell them all day long at Wal*Mart for $15 each and make a good profit.
Realistically, "smart lighting" is the way to get people to buy the more expensive LED bulb, anyway.... there is more perceived value in buying a consumable product that can also do cool things. Forget the fact that LED bulbs are far cheaper, in the long run, simply based on lifespan, let alone energy cost, to purchase over any other type of bulb. CFLs don't help the cause of buying energy efficient lighting, since they sometimes last no longer than regular bulbs, yet cost two or three times as much (again, forgetting energy cost savings). Give consumers a neat capability with that expensive cost, and they'll be far more interested as they see more "value" in buying LED bulbs... but that doesn't happen at a $50 price point for 99% of the consumers out there. At $15, yes, it probably becomes more viable for people to start lighting their homes with LEDs.
I expect, given EA's greed, that this will be the "free game" they give to every victim of their ineptitude....that or they'll give away free copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic
Telling the TSA to get the fuck out of your airport and re-installing private security with more common sense than your average peanut shell.
The only reason TSA is pervasive is because it is a government handout, replacing the measures they had in place before 9/11. IIRC, there is absolutely nothing preventing airports from replacing TSA with their own security.
with a cash prize.... but so far, no takers. Again, this is promotion on a budget, but you'd think somebody would like an easy $100 cash prize, just for filming their cats enjoying my product.
That seems on the low end to generate interest, particularly considering a cat could likely do $100 in damage to the touchpad/tablet just playing with it with its claws;P
Well, I can assure everybody that a cat's claws CANNOT scratch an iPad or Touchpad screen. It's a form of glass, and even a pointed metal nail file was unable to scratch either tablet's screen in the least (yes, I took a metal nail file to the screens of my iPad and HP Touchpad tablets). Short of diamonds, how is anything going to scratch glass?
Some possible suggestions:
- People like big reward potential, even if the end result is nothing (see "the lottery"). Obviously your budget is limited, but there are ways to "fake" big rewards without outright offering it. For instance, a scaled reward (such as a progressive jackpot that increases by $10 with every unique contributor).
I thought about this. $100 doesn't seem like much, but it isn't far off from prizes offered in contests from larger entities (like multi-million dollar corporations), and I'm not expecting to draw thousands of entrants.
- People like competitions (see "Kittenwar.com") -- posting updates on the competition progress, or maybe the video that's "in the lead" at the moment, could generate a better response
I'd post progress on my web site (wtflolomgbbq.com), but I've had no entrants so far (though several people have said they'd be submitting a video)
- People like free -- I'm not entirely sure what your aversion to the "free" route is. There are many apps out there that turn a pretty good profit by the free+advertising route. I can tell you that I'll willing to "try" just about anything, but if the price goes up even one dollar, my interest in the product takes a substantial decline. In this product's case, it is especially true, because cats are fickle creatures. My cats could just as easily not react to the product, lose interest in 30 seconds, or play with it for days. I've had mixed success with various popular cat toys (though cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes are always a huge win)
On a side note, ever consider a name change? "Virtual Cat Toys" seems very generic and forgettable (albeit accurate). It's like Twitter marketing itself as "One line chat program":)
I'm not in this to give stuff away. How do I make money by never charging for my product?
I could do an ad-supported cat toy app, but to what end? I'm already concerned about the cats pawing at the soft-keys on the screen and have to take action to mitigate that. If Friskies or their competitors want to sponsor it to be given away, I'd certainly entertain their offers.
Ultimately, the point if to earn an income. I have spent money on tools, devices, training and plenty of my time creating apps. I might add, I have no aversion to "giving away" tech that helps other developers, or giving away the occasional app, but Virtual Cat toys is a unique app that has lots of values for cat owners - why should I not be compensated for this?
As for the name, you might be right, but I had settled on the name to make it simpler to find in app searches (and it does work). My target audience is narrow enough that I don't want them to miss my app on the markets. Odd names demand name recognition for a product... who would know what "Twitter" was if you jumped into a time machine to 1995? Sure, people would recognize the concept, but the name wouldn't mean anything to them.
Until I get better recognition, I am probably better off having the "generic" name that makes it easier to find.
Doesn't the Amazon app store permit you to make your app free for the day? And if so, why didn't you go there instead of leaving Android?
Amazon has "App of the Day" for free, but the best a developer can do is say "allow my app to be free for a day" and hope Amazon deems your app is worthy enough to actually promote it that way. In the Amazon dev forums, people ask about this, and the best response they get is "Check the little box... blah blah... and our marketing people will consider your app (unsaid: along with the thousands of other apps available to us for the program)"
Does your app have an option to record cat activity with a front-facing camera?
I have considered such a thing, but the camera is too close and off center to be useful. I may have a feature to let you take a picture of your own flooring, to use as a background, though.
The current version will get more "toys" as I make more enhancements. There are also several more collections planned, with different environments - those will be in-app purchases, a couple of bucks per collection, while the original collection will continue to grow. I have definite plans for this app, as I don't plan on standing still. From what I've seen, none of the other apps in this genre have the interaction mine does, or the realism, but those who remember me from the days of the original Xbox, when I was in the homebrew scene, know that I like to keep tinkering with my stuff, making it better.
To update what I said above... I have one whole paid sale since the giveaway, on all my markets. Ugh. Again, it's a long game though,... hopefully, some of the recipients of the freebie will post reviews, suggestions, criticisms (the latter two will give me feedback to make improvements). I can also hope for some attention in a major publication, which would definitely give me a boost in sales.
As I said before, I'm pretty confident that cat owners will buy my app when they see it. Everybody I've personally demoed it to who owned a tablet and a cat has bought it, but that's a pretty small number of people so far. I can demo it on my iPhone, though its targeted on the iPad (its unplayable for cats on a phone form-factor, obviously)... but opportunities to show it off are sporadic, at best.
I'm in a trial-by-fire for this right now. I have zero budget... and promoting a product that stands head and shoulders over its relatively few competitors.
A little history here.... I developed "Virtual Cat Toys HD" - yes, an app for your cat. Back when the HP Touchpad was still a hot item, I released a version on the webOS platform, and considering the relative size of the market, I did OK. Like "lunch money" OK... for about 8 months (falling off because many people converted their touchpads to Android, and the fact that it's the ONLY webOS tablet, and a very small market). My marketing effort was basically to give the product away through a promo code, and because a lot of people had just gotten their Touchpads and wanted apps for it, the giveaway did the magic I needed to boost awareness of my product and create follow-up sales.
A little over a year later, I finally got an enhanced version of the app out on the Android platform... Of course, to celebrate this accomplishment, and promote the product, I had hoped to do the same thing. I ran into a major stumbling block - Google Play doesn't have a mechanism in place for self-promotion through free copies. No redemption codes, and you can't temporarily make your app "free" (that's a one-way change for your app). Having seen Amazon do "app of the day" giveaways, I brought my product to their market... only to find their tools were just as lacking, and there seems to be no easy way to get your app to be seriously considered for "app of the day".
So, after getting out on the Android market, I brought my app to the Apple iPad, and again, was struck by the limitations of "Promotional Codes" on their app store. You are limited to 50 single-use codes, both a severe limitation in quantities, as well as a nightmare to manage. Fortunately, there was an option - iTunes allows you to change back and forth between "Free" and "Paid" - so yesterday, I gave my app away for the day. I still don't know what sort of success it will be... but I managed to give away over 700 copies of my app yesterday, and comments on several deal forums were very favorable.
Of course, I still have to wait to find out if my strategy of marketing my product will pan out; will a promotion giving away iOS versions of the app have any effect on sales of the same app on the Android platform? Will it have any effect on sales of the app for the iOS platform that I gave away? Will it gain any attention for consideration of reviews at top sites (which are more than happy to "upgrade your priority for review" for a tidy sum of money)?
On top of that, getting my app into iTunes and Google Play has brought a number of schemes to my attention through my e-mail, as offers for "5 star reviews" and "Search Engine Optimization on market searches" come in... some for more manageable amounts, perhaps, but I hate the idea of cheating. My product stands on its own, and I am confident that once people SEE my app, they'll buy it.
Since "Virtual Cat Toys" can result in some rather entertaining behavior in cats, I also launched an effort to get people to record their cats playing with it, with a cash prize.... but so far, no takers. Again, this is promotion on a budget, but you'd think somebody would like an easy $100 cash prize, just for filming their cats enjoying my product.
I realize it's a long game. Marketing sometimes takes months to result in significant sales increases... and that makes some of the schemes and questionable review site practices even more tricky to navigate. You could spend a lot of money to no effect whatsoever, and not realize it until the money is long gone.
The smart phone has retreated from shrinking for good reason - all things, no matter how advanced, reach a limit to their usefulness as input and display devices.
Ideally, a watch-like "smart phone" would be better as a peripheral, ala the Pebble, acting with a smart phone for additional freedom (and to replace an actual watch with something more flexible in function).
I can see a future where people throw their hand up to the side of their face with a "phone handset" gesture, speaking into their pinky, listening into their thumb, with a watch-style interface on their wrist to handle it (and some implants in the hand), while a smart phone stays in your pocket or on your belt, ready for more "heavy duty" functions.
This is the same reason why optical discs have not shrunk... and why sellable media will probably remain no smaller than a typical DS cart or SD card. Too small, and it's easy to lose, even if it handles the volume of data it needs to carry out its function.
Here in my small town, the locally-owned cable company ran fiber and whatever else they needs back in 1997, ready to plug in the equipment and throw a switch for broadband.
Then Charter bought them out.
Since Ameritech wasn't offering anything beyond expensive ISDN, Charter didn't feel the need to enable broadband for 4 years. Likewise... Ameritech didn't feel the need to upgrade to DSL. It was a stalemate of stubborn stupidity, with the residents of our town being the victims.
Local utilities commissions need to hold the threat of bringing in competition to get broadband providers to start playing fair. It's the only thing that will work.
OK, for testing apps, this would be nice, since the Android SDK's emulator sucks for most anything people do in apps these days. The emulator doesn't handle OpenGL ES, and probably a lot of other details I haven't bothered with.
Egads, why? That thing looks horrible to use, and expects people to learn crazy combinations, when most users still hunt-and-peck keyboards and spend half their time looking down at them to type.
There simply isn't a problem that exists that needs fewer buttons and large complexity to type.
Gun opponents are quick to say that, like sex offenders, gun owners are a threat to society. One problem: None of those registered gun owners has ever been convicted of a felony. None of them have been proven to be threats to society (or they wouldn't be allowed to own a gun).
The wrong-headedness of this sort of blatant, vigilantist journalism betrays everything real journalism is about - delivering objective news. It's sad when so-called journalists do this, because it paints their entire profession in a bad light (and their news organization)
Somehow, I don't think a government that is quick to persecute an individual because of the lawful choices they make would be one the journalists would ultimately thrive in - yet these "journalists" probably congratulated themselves on how clever they were in doing this to others, simply because they didn't share the same opinions on gun ownership.
Ultimately, they have nothing to fear from lawful gun owners... but those who would do harm to others might be more than a bit interested in their names and addresses, if nothing else, as potential burglary victims. They didn't think about the consequences of their actions when they published this list - though the hoped it would harm, in some nebulous way, gun owners. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they cry foul and hire armed guards. What a sad statement on what sort of people they are (the creators of the map, the editors and publishers who allowed it). They never thought about their co-workers, their families, or even themselves... all to make an ill-conceived political attack on innocent people.
Slashdot Mirror
One critical irreplaceable part breaks, and they can no longer process payroll or inventory.
All because they don't want to hire somebody to spend a week or two to replace the functionality of that obscene waste of energy with a simple spreadsheet. The simple value of data security, not to mention the inter-operability between the data generated and things like, I dunno... check printing and direct deposit, for example, seems obvious.
I'd also guess there would be a lot less work for their accounting department. Either they could save the expense of one or two peoples' salaries, or at least spread the workload savings among the staff. In any event, it simply doesn't make sense not to modernize it.
Google Fiber will engulf the US in a mere 4,378 years!
It's pretty easy to get the QuickLaunch bar back in windows 7.
HowToGeek.com has a good article on it.
I'm not sure what you are talking about anchoring... it moves to the right side of the screen just fine.
The addition of pinned tasks and multi-window support is a nice addition.
Obviously consumers are mostly staying away from Windows 8, which is slowing new PC sales... and in all honesty, there isn't an urge to upgrade PCs every year or two any more. We've reached a point of maturity in desktops and laptops, in terms of memory and drive space... the sweet spot seems to be around 8GB of RAM and 1TB of drive space. 90% of consumers do little more than surf, get e-mail and play games. Gaming hardware really hasn't vastly improved the user experience in a few years, even low end cards deliver nice graphics and performance on 1080p monitors.
Combined with customers' concerns over the "Modern UI" in Windows 8, and there just isn't a lot of compelling reasons for consumers to purchase new equipment.
Likewise... IT departments have likely slowed hardware refreshes in light of Windows 8. Many took a year or two to adopt Windows 7, which was a no-brainer upgrade after struggling with Vista (which many IT departments skipped). Again... nothing compelling to move into Windows 8 and integrate it into their common office environments, and hardware requirements of current software hasn't demanded more ram than most companies already have deployed.
They should have flipped that around. Release an updated X-Wing, with multiplayer, and eventually tie it into an MMO like Galaxies. It might have led to a more successful launch for SWG had they used this game as a pre-cursor to build up a solid online fanbase before-hand.
I would have paid full price in a heartbeat for a new X-Wing series and a season Pass for the first 4 major DLCs.
What a cash cow that could be - selling E-Wings or Pirate Frankenfighters for .99 and eventually tying everything back to an MMO. LucasArts should never have ignored the fan's outcry for the past decade for a new reboot of that series on modern desktops.
I would just hope they would make sure not to piece it up too badly, as many games are these days... but the X-Wing series would have been a natural for the trend. Major DLC to add new missions and fleets would be a no-brainer.
It's going to be a heck of a commute, from the UK to Sunnyvale.
Shiver their timbers.
Seriously though... you will get a variety of answers here on Slashdot, ranging from "open source it and give it all away" to "put in ads and give it away". Charging for things seems to be a sin to some slashdotters.
I think a CD key, for PC games, strikes a reasonable balance, so long as you have some traceability (online activation is nice). Have you considered Steamworks? You'd have a distribution platform (though it wouldn't limit where you could sell it), and a proven, relatively non-intrusive DRM strategy.
Of course, Steamworks games get cracked, but you can never really stop determined crackers or pirates. All you want to do is encourage legit buyers to remain legit buyers. Steam is a pretty decent ecosystem for developers and gamers.
...and how terribly bad they were over the safety limits?
Also, can you publish the retailers carrying them and prices, so I can surely avoid getting them? /Heading back to the Flashlight Forums to discuss my new hexa-Cree 6000 lumen pen light.
There are plenty of phone watches out there... that is nothing new. What I'd like is something like Pebbl or the Sony Ericsson LiveView that interfaces to my phone (Android or iPhone) with some sort of standard interface for developers.
It can be a two-way interface, relaying video and audio in both directions, as well as have a small touch screen.
$150 is a bit much... LiveViews are available for $30, as they seem to be closeouts... I would like something like this for less than $100, though.
And LED bulbs? Still new enough that you have the uninformed Luddites bitching that they cost $60 each, despite the fact that you can now buy them for under $20 regularly and around $10 on sale
How many $20 LED lamps have you bought? How many $10 ones? ALL SHIT. You must spend real money on an LED lamp to get one that even has current limiting, let alone power regulation.
Microcenter has "40W" house-brand Inland LED bulbs for $6.99, dimmables for a buck more. They work great in my house, and I haven't had a single one go bad or burn out in the year or two since I started getting them. They seem to be well built, and have nice solid heat sinks, though the one here in my desk lamp is cool enough to touch (and by touch, I mean put your fingers on it and hold them there) anywhere on the lamp body.
Our kitchen uses two of these bulbs in the fixture, and its as bright as it's ever been with any other bulbs.
On the subject of 'smart lighting' - $50~70 is too much for a bulb, but it speaks to the X-10 enthusiast in many of us to be able to control lighting at the source... but the price needs to come way down. I expect that to happen as production ramps up. Given a cheap interface chip, China could pump the components out for less than a dollar premium on a BOM for a smart bulb. Tie that in with efficient, color-changing LEDs and you could sell them all day long at Wal*Mart for $15 each and make a good profit.
Realistically, "smart lighting" is the way to get people to buy the more expensive LED bulb, anyway.... there is more perceived value in buying a consumable product that can also do cool things. Forget the fact that LED bulbs are far cheaper, in the long run, simply based on lifespan, let alone energy cost, to purchase over any other type of bulb. CFLs don't help the cause of buying energy efficient lighting, since they sometimes last no longer than regular bulbs, yet cost two or three times as much (again, forgetting energy cost savings). Give consumers a neat capability with that expensive cost, and they'll be far more interested as they see more "value" in buying LED bulbs... but that doesn't happen at a $50 price point for 99% of the consumers out there. At $15, yes, it probably becomes more viable for people to start lighting their homes with LEDs.
that or they'll give away free copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic
No shame there. That might very well be the best game in their portfolio :)
Well, take a look at how much they charge for that game, though. I'm not sure EA can afford to do that.... oh wait....
I expect, given EA's greed, that this will be the "free game" they give to every victim of their ineptitude. ...that or they'll give away free copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic
"'removes the need for the enhanced pat-down?"
Telling the TSA to get the fuck out of your airport and re-installing private security with more common sense than your average peanut shell.
The only reason TSA is pervasive is because it is a government handout, replacing the measures they had in place before 9/11. IIRC, there is absolutely nothing preventing airports from replacing TSA with their own security.
That seems on the low end to generate interest, particularly considering a cat could likely do $100 in damage to the touchpad/tablet just playing with it with its claws ;P
Well, I can assure everybody that a cat's claws CANNOT scratch an iPad or Touchpad screen. It's a form of glass, and even a pointed metal nail file was unable to scratch either tablet's screen in the least (yes, I took a metal nail file to the screens of my iPad and HP Touchpad tablets). Short of diamonds, how is anything going to scratch glass?
Some possible suggestions:
- People like big reward potential, even if the end result is nothing (see "the lottery"). Obviously your budget is limited, but there are ways to "fake" big rewards without outright offering it. For instance, a scaled reward (such as a progressive jackpot that increases by $10 with every unique contributor).
I thought about this. $100 doesn't seem like much, but it isn't far off from prizes offered in contests from larger entities (like multi-million dollar corporations), and I'm not expecting to draw thousands of entrants.
- People like competitions (see "Kittenwar.com") -- posting updates on the competition progress, or maybe the video that's "in the lead" at the moment, could generate a better response
I'd post progress on my web site (wtflolomgbbq.com), but I've had no entrants so far (though several people have said they'd be submitting a video)
- People like free -- I'm not entirely sure what your aversion to the "free" route is. There are many apps out there that turn a pretty good profit by the free+advertising route. I can tell you that I'll willing to "try" just about anything, but if the price goes up even one dollar, my interest in the product takes a substantial decline. In this product's case, it is especially true, because cats are fickle creatures. My cats could just as easily not react to the product, lose interest in 30 seconds, or play with it for days. I've had mixed success with various popular cat toys (though cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes are always a huge win)
On a side note, ever consider a name change? "Virtual Cat Toys" seems very generic and forgettable (albeit accurate). It's like Twitter marketing itself as "One line chat program" :)
I'm not in this to give stuff away. How do I make money by never charging for my product?
I could do an ad-supported cat toy app, but to what end? I'm already concerned about the cats pawing at the soft-keys on the screen and have to take action to mitigate that. If Friskies or their competitors want to sponsor it to be given away, I'd certainly entertain their offers.
Ultimately, the point if to earn an income. I have spent money on tools, devices, training and plenty of my time creating apps. I might add, I have no aversion to "giving away" tech that helps other developers, or giving away the occasional app, but Virtual Cat toys is a unique app that has lots of values for cat owners - why should I not be compensated for this?
As for the name, you might be right, but I had settled on the name to make it simpler to find in app searches (and it does work). My target audience is narrow enough that I don't want them to miss my app on the markets. Odd names demand name recognition for a product... who would know what "Twitter" was if you jumped into a time machine to 1995? Sure, people would recognize the concept, but the name wouldn't mean anything to them.
Until I get better recognition, I am probably better off having the "generic" name that makes it easier to find.
I think you're right on with the demo angle t
Doesn't the Amazon app store permit you to make your app free for the day? And if so, why didn't you go there instead of leaving Android?
Amazon has "App of the Day" for free, but the best a developer can do is say "allow my app to be free for a day" and hope Amazon deems your app is worthy enough to actually promote it that way. In the Amazon dev forums, people ask about this, and the best response they get is "Check the little box... blah blah... and our marketing people will consider your app (unsaid: along with the thousands of other apps available to us for the program)"
Does your app have an option to record cat activity with a front-facing camera?
I have considered such a thing, but the camera is too close and off center to be useful. I may have a feature to let you take a picture of your own flooring, to use as a background, though.
The current version will get more "toys" as I make more enhancements. There are also several more collections planned, with different environments - those will be in-app purchases, a couple of bucks per collection, while the original collection will continue to grow. I have definite plans for this app, as I don't plan on standing still. From what I've seen, none of the other apps in this genre have the interaction mine does, or the realism, but those who remember me from the days of the original Xbox, when I was in the homebrew scene, know that I like to keep tinkering with my stuff, making it better.
To update what I said above... I have one whole paid sale since the giveaway, on all my markets. Ugh. Again, it's a long game though,... hopefully, some of the recipients of the freebie will post reviews, suggestions, criticisms (the latter two will give me feedback to make improvements). I can also hope for some attention in a major publication, which would definitely give me a boost in sales.
As I said before, I'm pretty confident that cat owners will buy my app when they see it. Everybody I've personally demoed it to who owned a tablet and a cat has bought it, but that's a pretty small number of people so far. I can demo it on my iPhone, though its targeted on the iPad (its unplayable for cats on a phone form-factor, obviously)... but opportunities to show it off are sporadic, at best.
I'm in a trial-by-fire for this right now. I have zero budget... and promoting a product that stands head and shoulders over its relatively few competitors.
A little history here.... I developed "Virtual Cat Toys HD" - yes, an app for your cat. Back when the HP Touchpad was still a hot item, I released a version on the webOS platform, and considering the relative size of the market, I did OK. Like "lunch money" OK... for about 8 months (falling off because many people converted their touchpads to Android, and the fact that it's the ONLY webOS tablet, and a very small market). My marketing effort was basically to give the product away through a promo code, and because a lot of people had just gotten their Touchpads and wanted apps for it, the giveaway did the magic I needed to boost awareness of my product and create follow-up sales.
A little over a year later, I finally got an enhanced version of the app out on the Android platform... Of course, to celebrate this accomplishment, and promote the product, I had hoped to do the same thing. I ran into a major stumbling block - Google Play doesn't have a mechanism in place for self-promotion through free copies. No redemption codes, and you can't temporarily make your app "free" (that's a one-way change for your app). Having seen Amazon do "app of the day" giveaways, I brought my product to their market... only to find their tools were just as lacking, and there seems to be no easy way to get your app to be seriously considered for "app of the day".
So, after getting out on the Android market, I brought my app to the Apple iPad, and again, was struck by the limitations of "Promotional Codes" on their app store. You are limited to 50 single-use codes, both a severe limitation in quantities, as well as a nightmare to manage. Fortunately, there was an option - iTunes allows you to change back and forth between "Free" and "Paid" - so yesterday, I gave my app away for the day. I still don't know what sort of success it will be... but I managed to give away over 700 copies of my app yesterday, and comments on several deal forums were very favorable.
Of course, I still have to wait to find out if my strategy of marketing my product will pan out; will a promotion giving away iOS versions of the app have any effect on sales of the same app on the Android platform? Will it have any effect on sales of the app for the iOS platform that I gave away? Will it gain any attention for consideration of reviews at top sites (which are more than happy to "upgrade your priority for review" for a tidy sum of money)?
On top of that, getting my app into iTunes and Google Play has brought a number of schemes to my attention through my e-mail, as offers for "5 star reviews" and "Search Engine Optimization on market searches" come in... some for more manageable amounts, perhaps, but I hate the idea of cheating. My product stands on its own, and I am confident that once people SEE my app, they'll buy it.
Since "Virtual Cat Toys" can result in some rather entertaining behavior in cats, I also launched an effort to get people to record their cats playing with it, with a cash prize.... but so far, no takers. Again, this is promotion on a budget, but you'd think somebody would like an easy $100 cash prize, just for filming their cats enjoying my product.
I realize it's a long game. Marketing sometimes takes months to result in significant sales increases... and that makes some of the schemes and questionable review site practices even more tricky to navigate. You could spend a lot of money to no effect whatsoever, and not realize it until the money is long gone.
...I have a burning urge to repackage my current apps and make a few special for this phone, and charge $599 per app.
The smart phone has retreated from shrinking for good reason - all things, no matter how advanced, reach a limit to their usefulness as input and display devices.
Ideally, a watch-like "smart phone" would be better as a peripheral, ala the Pebble, acting with a smart phone for additional freedom (and to replace an actual watch with something more flexible in function).
I can see a future where people throw their hand up to the side of their face with a "phone handset" gesture, speaking into their pinky, listening into their thumb, with a watch-style interface on their wrist to handle it (and some implants in the hand), while a smart phone stays in your pocket or on your belt, ready for more "heavy duty" functions.
This is the same reason why optical discs have not shrunk... and why sellable media will probably remain no smaller than a typical DS cart or SD card. Too small, and it's easy to lose, even if it handles the volume of data it needs to carry out its function.
Too Old.
Besides, he's not in the Abrams 'posse'
Gordon Freeman will be played by Zachary Quinto, obviously.
It will have to involve time travel in the plot, right?
The portal gun will end up malfunctioning at the end, delivering Chell to the Black Mesa laboratories, just before Gordon Freeman arrives?
Here in my small town, the locally-owned cable company ran fiber and whatever else they needs back in 1997, ready to plug in the equipment and throw a switch for broadband.
Then Charter bought them out.
Since Ameritech wasn't offering anything beyond expensive ISDN, Charter didn't feel the need to enable broadband for 4 years. Likewise... Ameritech didn't feel the need to upgrade to DSL. It was a stalemate of stubborn stupidity, with the residents of our town being the victims.
Local utilities commissions need to hold the threat of bringing in competition to get broadband providers to start playing fair. It's the only thing that will work.
OK, for testing apps, this would be nice, since the Android SDK's emulator sucks for most anything people do in apps these days. The emulator doesn't handle OpenGL ES, and probably a lot of other details I haven't bothered with.
Egads, why? That thing looks horrible to use, and expects people to learn crazy combinations, when most users still hunt-and-peck keyboards and spend half their time looking down at them to type.
There simply isn't a problem that exists that needs fewer buttons and large complexity to type.
Gun opponents are quick to say that, like sex offenders, gun owners are a threat to society. One problem: None of those registered gun owners has ever been convicted of a felony. None of them have been proven to be threats to society (or they wouldn't be allowed to own a gun).
The wrong-headedness of this sort of blatant, vigilantist journalism betrays everything real journalism is about - delivering objective news. It's sad when so-called journalists do this, because it paints their entire profession in a bad light (and their news organization)
Somehow, I don't think a government that is quick to persecute an individual because of the lawful choices they make would be one the journalists would ultimately thrive in - yet these "journalists" probably congratulated themselves on how clever they were in doing this to others, simply because they didn't share the same opinions on gun ownership.
Ultimately, they have nothing to fear from lawful gun owners... but those who would do harm to others might be more than a bit interested in their names and addresses, if nothing else, as potential burglary victims. They didn't think about the consequences of their actions when they published this list - though the hoped it would harm, in some nebulous way, gun owners. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they cry foul and hire armed guards. What a sad statement on what sort of people they are (the creators of the map, the editors and publishers who allowed it). They never thought about their co-workers, their families, or even themselves... all to make an ill-conceived political attack on innocent people.