Apps

Jesse's Apps Book

The apps book is out! Copies are now shipping to bookstores. Or you can order from Amazon.

It's a concise book about these new technologies designed for people who want to get involved. You'll find out how apps work and how you can become a developer -- whether you want to be a hands-on developer or a designer or someone who uses apps in your business plan.

The first half of the book introduces you to the technologies in pretty basic terms. (I've written other, more technical books on the topic.) Then, in the second half you'll find eight specific strategies for ways in which you can use apps. We've seen this new world explode with activity. Apps are now part of standard business plans, but they're also part of strategies for non-profits and political candidates of all stripes. 

What apps have going for them are their numbers. They can be incredibly cheap to produce and distribute, but with the right design and promotion, they can reach large numbers of people. I also talk about the small/small paradigm: a low-cost app reaching a small number of people and still being profitable and productive.

Tags:

Apps Articles on the Site

iPad App Costs and Pricing

Maggie Shiels reports for the BBC (March 31, 2010) the many iPad apps will be more expensive than their iPhone counterparts. Leaving aside free apps, common price points on iPhone seem to be $.99, $4.99, and $9.99. Although it's early days, common price points on iPad are often $4.99, $9.99, and 14.99.

Tags:

Global Warming Skeptical App (Skeptical of Skepticism)

John Cook at Skeptical Science has worked on an iPhone app (free) that provides a wealth of double-skepticism (skepticism about the skepticism). It's a great consolidation of the arguments, and a wonderful example of how apps can find a very specific role to play in public discourse.

Tags:

New Videos: Building Facebook and iPhone Web Apps

 

Virtual Training CorporationVirtual Training Company (VTC)  has released two new videos that I've been working on to help you get started developing apps. 

iPhone Web apps are the fastest and easiest way to develop for iPhone. Apple provides Dashcode, an authoring tool, that makes it simple to create them and test them with the iPhone simulator. If you're keeping track of the history of iPhone apps, you'll recognize iPhone Web apps from their first incarnation as Dashboard widgets. Yes, there's a VTC training video for them, but Dashcode, widgets, and apps, have come a long way in the last few years.

Facebook apps have also changed in the last few years since they first came on the scene.

Why Apps Failed the First Time

The App DiariesToday's apps in many ways are direct descendants of component software projects from 15 years ago.

The App Diaries

The App Diaries logoWith The Year of the App, we're kicking off The App Diaries - a periodic series of articles and stories about the evolving world of apps.

Pages