Ajax Girl

After a tumultuous history including lost data, upset users, and seemly endless name changes, TheLinkup (aka MediaMax) has shut its doors. Users of the storage site will be unable to access their files after August 8th.

The company has a long (and extremely confusing) history. In our last post on the site, Charlie Jackson, one of the company’s investors, left a comment explaining the following (we’ve added links to relevant events):

The original entity was Streamload. The product name was changed to MediaMax and it was still the same service. Steve Iverson, the founder, was still CEO. Patrick Harr was brought in to be CEO and to help raise money, Iverson was moved to being CTO.

When a C round investor was found, Mission Ventures, this venture firm wanted nothing to do with the consumer service of MediaMax, only wanted to be in the back-end business. The C investor allowed a spin-out to be done, and the new company was allowed to take the name MediaMax and the consumer customers, but no software, no servers, no data. The front-end software was licensed to the spin-out, but for a limited time. Steve Iverson took over this company, while the existing company, with all the servers and data, was re-named Nirvanix. Virtually all the employees stayed with Nirvanix. Nirvanix is trying to compete with Amazon’s S-3 service.

Around the time this spin-out was happening, Nirvanix engineers screwed up royally and accidentally deleted half the files. Most were recovered over time, but it took months, and there was never 100% recovery (I never got some of files back).

MediaMax wrote new front-end software and recently changed its name to TheLinkup. Nirvanix wrote new back-end software, but had trouble migrating all the MediaMax files from its old software to its new software.

MediaMax/TheLinkup coudn’t make all its customers’ files available, ran out of money, and not having a viable business anymore, had to shut down (the C investors never put any money into the spin-out).

The company’s latest venture, TheLinkup, was supposed to be a social network centered around storage, but it barely managed to get off the ground. This could be considered a blessing in disguise, as a storage-centric social network would have probably had a difficult time building a substantial userbase, and may have simply resulted in more lost time and money.

We’ve added the TheLinkup to the Deadpool.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/332360702/

Tucked away on the iPhone 2.0 version of Apple’s Application Store is a counter for the number of times that each application has been purchased . When this information is combined with an application’s price, and the uniform 30% that Apple pockets on each download, it is possible to know how much Apple is making from the App Store. As of 4PM (PST), that number hovers around $55,000. This is pretty incredible given that the iPhone 2.0 software is not officially available and App Store does not officially open till tomorrow, that bloggers have only been able to access the Apps Store for less than 18 hours, and that the 3G iPhone, with the App store built in out of the box, is not even on sale yet in the United States. If sales of applications stay at the current pace, which they won’t, because they are going to speed up dramatically, the Application Store would still provide Apple with an additional twenty million dollars of revenue per year.

Embedded in the post is a simple revenue model for the App Store, using the fifty most popular applications. We will update this regularly, hopefully including all of the 100 most popular Apps, so stay posted for more data points and more revenue models. That is, unless Apple disables the counter in order to stymie bloggers and stock analysts eager to know how much incremental income Apple is going to make from selling Applications in the App Store.

A few notes on the data are necessary. I stopped updating the data at 4PM (PST), but it was affected by sales that occurred over the ten or so minutes that I spent collecting the data. Also, Apple’s counter has some bugs. In the Application Store, the number of sales does not always correspond to an Application’s position on the Top-50 list. My list is a correct ranking based strictly on the number of downloads. And, while collecting the data I noticed that sometimes the counter would go down, something that makes no sense in an Application download store. However, this is still the best and most accurate data we have on the impact of the Application Store on Apple’s bottom line.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/332340735/

Two huge disclaimers:

1. It’s early. iPhone 2.0 and the App Store are just hours old. Everything below is pure conjecture.
2. “A living” is subjective.

Where’s the market?

Pinch Media just released an initial price distribution chart for the initial 500 or so iPhone apps in the App Store.

There are always going to be more free apps than pay apps, but what’s telling is the initial distribution of prices. Most are $10 or less with the bulk at under $5. If that’s where the market settles out, developers who planned on making a living selling iPhone software may be in for market whiplash.

It is certainly possible to make money selling software at $5 or $10 a pop, but you have to do significant volume to make it pay. $20-$49/pop can add up pretty quickly (as many successful shareware authors can attest to), but $5-$10/pop requires real volume.

OmniFocus Outlier

So far OmiFocus is the only app priced higher than $10 in the top 35 downloaded iPhone apps. There are only four other apps in the top 100 that are priced at higher than $9.99.

However, a closer look at OmniFocus shows that the entry price for the desktop app is already $79 so their customers are used to paying higher prices for their software. It will be very interesting to see how many new players without established products will be able to command prices over $9.99. I suspect there may be some seriously vertical apps (like ForeFlight that will command top dollar.

Are iPhone apps just supporting cast members?

It’s way too early to tell, but besides games, might the big winners be the hybridizers? Salesforce.com makes their money selling web-based software — the iPhone app is just a gateway to their core service. OmniFocus will make the bulk of their money on their desktop app. Will iPhone-only developers build profitable companies or will a combination strategy (web, desktop, or both) be required to justify developing for the platform?

Of course an ad supported model is a possibility too. Twitterific, for example, already runs ads from The Deck (or you can pay $10-15 to get rid of the ads).

Another option is the Tap Tap Tap model which is to release a pile of apps for $2.99 each and make the dollars on aggregate volume.

Time will tell

I’m bullish on the iPhone and App Store. I still believe the iTouch platform will ultimately dominate the mobile space for the next 20 years. The next 3 months should set the market for iPhone app prices. I wonder where it will all settle out and where people’s pricing expectations will settle in.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1135-can-iphone-developers-make-a-living-just-developing-iphone-software

Forgive us while we navel-gaze for a minute, but we were particularly pleased to learn that a mobile app for WordPress will debut in the iPhone store soon. The app will work with both Wordpress.com blogs and on-premise installations of version 2.5.1 and newer. Its announcement comes just over a month after competitor TypePad showcased its iPhone app onstage at the WWDC keynote (you can download it here).

Blogging through Safari is practically impossible on the iPhone due to the excessive real estate taken up by the keyboard. As the demo below shows, native apps have the potential to make the whole ordeal much more manageable, and they could spawn a new trend of bloggers who post while on the road.

Publishers will now have the option to expound on their thoughts while on scene. Before they often resorted to summarizing them in 140-character tweets, or broadcasting them through services like Qik and Flixwagon. The ability to insert photos into posts directly from phone-based cameras will also come in handy.

Perhaps the greatest effect of these apps will be to encourage spontaneous coverage, since most bloggers equip themselves with laptops and EVDO cards when attending planned events. In any case, check out the WordPress demo above and prepare yourself for an even greater frequency of spelling errors in the posts we churn out.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/332310263/

Get thee to the computer screen bright and early tomorrow for we will have a live unboxing and review on CG at 7am EST.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/332249548/

It has not even been officially released yet, and the iPhone 2.0 OS already has been unlocked. In contrast, the original iPhone OS took hackers a couple of months to unlock. But this time they got a head start. Gizmodo reports the iPhone Dev Team has been working on jailbreaking the phone since the beta version went out with the iPhone SDK.

But does it really matter? While it’s exciting that the new OS is unlocked and unauthorized apps can be added, it’s not as useful as when the original version was jailbroken. That’s because there’s this little thing called the App Store, along with the new phone’s tighter bundling with an AT&T contract no matter where you purchase it, and because the phone will soon be available in most countries.

But if you enjoy the sheer sport of watching people hack Steve Jobs’ precious creation, keep an eye on the iPhone Dev Team’s site for the release of their tool. It reportedly will be released “soon.”

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/332148006/

All of us iPhone fanatics are just getting our hands on the new apps, but I’ve already found one that I’m sure to consider indispensable within the next few months: Facebook’s new app.

Why is it so compelling? Because it almost eliminates the need to maintain a separate contacts list on my phone. While Facebook’s web app for the iPhone was cool enough, the native app basically transforms Facebook into a mobile directory with rich information about your friends.

If you’re even semi-serious about using Facebook to keep track of your friends, you may never have to click the “Phone” icon to dial them up. Just hit the Facebook icon and move over to the “Friends” tab. You’ll see all of your Facebook friends laid out, and when you click on their names, their contact info appears in the iPhone’s customary user interface.

Tap a friend’s phone number to call them (or hit their email address to write). The only time this method falls through is when a friend has decided not to enter the requisite contact info into their profile (something unnecessarily cautious, in my opinion, if you’ve set up your privacy settings correctly).

This application has the potential to eliminate the need for two other native iPhone features as well: SMS and Email. The app comes with Facebook Chat baked right in so you can send instant messages to friends who are currently online (either at their computers or on their phones). As soon as Facebook figures out a way to keep you “online” and available for chat even when the app is closed - and hooks Chat to the new push notification service so you’re aware of messages as they come in - I’ll be one step closer to saving that extra $10 per month I pay AT&T to let me send ludicrously overpriced text messages. Facebook should be working on a Chat-to-SMS (or Message-to-SMS) conversion feature that can be used to message with my friends who don’t own iPhones, or any other email-equipped smartphone.

As for email, Facebook’s messaging system is also built right into the app making it unnecessary to send lengthy messages through email (who wants to keep track of friends’ email addresses anyway when you can look them up by name?).

Joe Hewitt has also suggested on Facebook’s blog that the application will also become location-aware within the next few months:

The first version of Facebook for iPhone is just a glimpse of the future. For instance, the iPhone has the ability to find where you are located, and we are looking for ways to let you opt-in to share your location and discover nearby friends. We’re developing this and several other exciting new features that we’ll release in the coming months.

Looks like Loopt and all of the other location-based social networks are going to get a run for their money by the biggest player in town.

I have no fear that Facebook will thrive in the iPhone 2.0 world given this strong start. It’ll just need to find a way to get its developers involved since the platform is noticeably absent from the first version of this app.

Learn how to install the new iPhone software (which works on both the old and new models) here. Cross your fingers that you won’t lose any data during the update (I had no problems, however). Also check out the new MySpace iPhone app which, while quite functional, doesn’t replace the contacts list or provide chat.

Update: If you want to take a screenshot of an iPhone app, follow the instructions here.

Update 2: It looks like Facebook’s iPhone app doesn’t know how to properly render messages with quotations in them. Hopefully such obvious bugs will be worked out over the next few days.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/332137287/

As of now (about noon California time) the iPhone 2.0 software update hasn’t officially launched yet, but everyone who cares knows that for the last five hours they could download v.2.0 anyway and access the App Store.

Early download stats are coming in on the most popular apps. We’ve divided these into two lists, one for paid apps and one for free apps (there’s a big difference in download numbers). We’ll update for comparison purposes in 24 hours or so.

We’ve listed some of our personal favorites here. And the sleeper hit is clearly PhoneSaber, which I deftly demo here and here. With just 2,229 downloads, though, it doesn’t make the top ten list for free apps.

In early download voting, Facebook is beating MySpace hands down with nearly 3x as many downloads. One thing Facebook has that MySpace doesn’t - the chat feature is enabled, which is a really nice feature.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/331989750/

Some iPhone apps we’ve been discussing in our Campfire chat room:

Mobile AIM lets you chat via your phone.

TypePad for iPhone lets you blog directly from your iPhone.

PayPal lets you check your PayPal balance, send money or request payment.
OmniFocus does location aware to-do lists. When you are near the grocery store your grocery list pops up. Neat.

Remote turns iPod touch and iPhone into a remote control for iTunes and Apple TV.

Which app(s) are you excited about?

Related:
iPhone SDK, Apple’s Touch Platform, and The Next Two Decades [SvN]

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1132-enter-the-iphone-apps

James Coglan has updated Ojay, the chaining wrapper for YUI that we posted on a few months back.

The new release features really simple keyboard and form scripting and couple of new UI widgets, a new event system and a stack of other improvements:

Ojay.Forms. By far the biggest new package, Ojay.Forms sorts out a real pain point for me in terms of app development. It does two things: it provides unobtrusive replacements for the YAHOO.widget.Button family of classes, and it provides a DSL for handling form validation and Ajax submission.

Ojay.Keyboard. The new keyboard package is an abstraction over YAHOO.util.KeyListener that lets you say what mean without worrying about character codes, for example:

Ojay.Keyboard.listen(document, 'ALT SHIFT S', function() {
    // handle key press
});

It lets you group sets of keyboard commands together so you can make context-sensitive keyboard controls, and gives you easy access to enable/disable key events and their default browser responses. Not much more to say except that you should check out the documentation.

We have two new UI packages, Ojay.Overlay and Ojay.Paginator. Overlay gives you a bunch of classes for positioning content on top of the document, producing lightbox effects and the like, and Paginator implements the content slider effect that’s got a lot of attention recently, including the ability to lazy-load pages of content via Ajax, and easy integration with Ojay.History. Both packages come with a collection of events to allow your code to react to changes to the components, just like you would for DOM elements.

Speaking of events, this release introduces Ojay.Observable, a JS.Class module that allows any class to support the on() method used for listening to events. This module underlies the custom events published by all the Ojay components. More information and examples are in the documentation.

Source: Ajaxian » Front Page
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/331835814/ojay-02-easy-keyboarding-a-validation-dsl-and-two-new-ui-widgets