Apple is rumored to be releasing a tv soon. Here is my wildest speculation about what it might include.
iTv will have a retina display.
iTv will have an app store similar to existing apple tv, but with a more apps, especially games.
iTv will have a microphone and a camera built in.
FaceTime will be included out of the box.
Siri like integration for commands to find shows.
Camera will have motion sensing abilities like kinnect.
There will be a mobile app for iTv for control and navigation, like slow motion and rewind controls.
There will be a separate iTv remote with basic buttons that runs over wifi.
The iTv remote will have an accelerometer like wii/roku remotes for games
iTv will offer a service similar to cable that includes on demand programming and a cloud dvr.
iTv will not allow external devices to integrate. It will have wifi or ethernet as only inputs.
Apple will discontinue external Apple TV devices.
Here are some of the apps:
There will be a ton of content apps. Like the existing iTunes, netflix, youtube, etc. Later including hbo go, espn, hulu, vimeo, justin.tv, etc.
There will be tons of games.
Video conference apps (facetime at first, but later google hangout, skype etc.)
-there will be an app called laugh track that play the real laughter of people that have watched the show.
-there will be an app called mystery science theater 3000 that allows users to record commentary or jokes over media. It also lets users upvote the best comments.
-there will be an app that allows other users to re-edit content you have bought and distribute only the edits. Example: pulp fiction or momento in chronological order, or every scene from scarface where the F word is used.
Naming your startup
Consider a short name, preferably 2 syllables
Google, Apple, Ebay, Yahoo, Exxon, Nike, Levis, Delta, Volvo, Target
It is likely the name will change to 2 syllables:
Federal Express = Fed Ex
General Electric = GE
Pan American Airlines = Pan Am
Los Angeles = LA
Kevin Fedderline = k fed
Volkswagon = VW
Alliteration is catchyTech Brands: Google, Twitter, PayPal, BlackBerry, PayPal, SamSung, BlackBerry, Palm Pilot.
Coca cola, Dunkin Donuts, Best Buy, Chuckee Cheese's, Krispy Kreme, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Ted Talks, bible, Gray Goose, Tater tots, Kit Kat, Roto Rooter, Armor All.
Names: Ronald Reagan, Don Draper, Marylin Monroe, Jesse Jackson.
Here are more examples
Describe the product or benefits
Burger King, Scotch Tape, Krazy Glue, Zip Car, White Out, Zip Lock, Photoshop, Shake and Bake, Die Hard batteries, Intensive Care Lotion, Head and Shoulders, Edge shaving cream
These ideas for naming companies and products are largely lifted from Positioning: The battle for your mind.
Google, Apple, Ebay, Yahoo, Exxon, Nike, Levis, Delta, Volvo, Target
It is likely the name will change to 2 syllables:
Federal Express = Fed Ex
General Electric = GE
Pan American Airlines = Pan Am
Los Angeles = LA
Kevin Fedderline = k fed
Volkswagon = VW
Alliteration is catchyTech Brands: Google, Twitter, PayPal, BlackBerry, PayPal, SamSung, BlackBerry, Palm Pilot.
Coca cola, Dunkin Donuts, Best Buy, Chuckee Cheese's, Krispy Kreme, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Ted Talks, bible, Gray Goose, Tater tots, Kit Kat, Roto Rooter, Armor All.
Names: Ronald Reagan, Don Draper, Marylin Monroe, Jesse Jackson.
Here are more examples
Describe the product or benefits
Burger King, Scotch Tape, Krazy Glue, Zip Car, White Out, Zip Lock, Photoshop, Shake and Bake, Die Hard batteries, Intensive Care Lotion, Head and Shoulders, Edge shaving cream
These ideas for naming companies and products are largely lifted from Positioning: The battle for your mind.
My app store financials
I was watching the Apple keynote in late 2011 when they mentioned a new iOs 5 feature region monitoring and they demonstrated it with the reminders app. I thought that would be a great feature for a time tracking app. So I built OnSite Time Tracker and over the last 16 months I have slowly added features. I have put in about 200 hours of development and purchased a few expensive Apple devices. The app price has varied from free to $2.99. Here are my expenses and revenue. I expect to break even at the end of the month.
Onsite Expenses:
$303 = logo (99 designs)
$218 (2 years of apple developer program)
$190 (3 & ½ years of web hosting at godaddy)
$60 (5 year domain registration onsitetimetracker.com)
$30 (2 month subscription appcodes)
$25 = (graphics work related to iphone 5)
Total Expense: $826
OnSite Revenue:
12/2011 $20.77
2/2012 $49.93
3/2012 $38.51
I made the app free for 2 months
6/2012 $42.11
7/2012 $57.58
8/2012 $72.11
10/2012 $82.62
11/2012 $101.89
12/2012 $119.04
1/2013 $79.29 (got kicked out of app store over christmas)
2/2012 $103+ (as of 1/14/2012, not collected yet)
Total Revenue: $766
Grand Total: -$60
Onsite Expenses:
$303 = logo (99 designs)
$218 (2 years of apple developer program)
$190 (3 & ½ years of web hosting at godaddy)
$60 (5 year domain registration onsitetimetracker.com)
$30 (2 month subscription appcodes)
$25 = (graphics work related to iphone 5)
Total Expense: $826
OnSite Revenue:
12/2011 $20.77
2/2012 $49.93
3/2012 $38.51
I made the app free for 2 months
6/2012 $42.11
7/2012 $57.58
8/2012 $72.11
10/2012 $82.62
11/2012 $101.89
12/2012 $119.04
1/2013 $79.29 (got kicked out of app store over christmas)
2/2012 $103+ (as of 1/14/2012, not collected yet)
Total Revenue: $766
Grand Total: -$60
First screenshot is critical on new iOS App Store
Site shows estimated downloads for apps
xyo.net allows you to search for apps and estimates the number of downloads per app. Here is my app Onsite Time Tracker. It's close to accurate.
The Super Productive Programmer
One of my goals is to be a super productive programmer. Lately I have been logging notes about bugs when I get stuck. Here are a few entries:
“I made a change. Then I made a second change, and found a bug. I falsely assumed the bug was from the second change.”
“Today I had a bug that a confirm box wasn’t showing. The debugger confirmed it was calling the show method... but was getting cleared because it was running other code, that I didn’t expect to run.”
It goes on like this, one faulty assumption after the next. So I started thinking... these assumptions are bad. I am getting stuck by making these faulty assumptions. However, as became aware of it, I noticed I make these type of deductions regularly and 99% of the time they are correct. Often times solving “trivial” mistakes because I quickly deduce what the problem is.
As a simple example, if I just made a change and there is an error, the changed code is more likely the problem, than say, a bug in the operating system. So about 1% of the time these deductions and assumptions fail. Usually there is an iterative process of inspection, perhaps with the debugger or logging, and I adjust my deductions. Sometimes I google for error messages. Sometimes I use “confessional” debugging, when I explain the problem to others and the error becomes obvious when I articulate the problem. Occasionally I post on stack overflow. Typically these problems don’t last very long. I would guess it’s a long tail graph. Most errors are solved in less than a minute. Once every day or two a problem that stretches 15, 30, 45 minutes... once every month or two a problem that takes an hour or more, once every year or two a problems that stretch into days.
Is this other programmer’s experience?
Is this getting stuck issue a good way to think about and judge programmer productivity?
What else can be done to reduce this wasted time and become a super productive programmer?
“I made a change. Then I made a second change, and found a bug. I falsely assumed the bug was from the second change.”
“Today I had a bug that a confirm box wasn’t showing. The debugger confirmed it was calling the show method... but was getting cleared because it was running other code, that I didn’t expect to run.”
It goes on like this, one faulty assumption after the next. So I started thinking... these assumptions are bad. I am getting stuck by making these faulty assumptions. However, as became aware of it, I noticed I make these type of deductions regularly and 99% of the time they are correct. Often times solving “trivial” mistakes because I quickly deduce what the problem is.
As a simple example, if I just made a change and there is an error, the changed code is more likely the problem, than say, a bug in the operating system. So about 1% of the time these deductions and assumptions fail. Usually there is an iterative process of inspection, perhaps with the debugger or logging, and I adjust my deductions. Sometimes I google for error messages. Sometimes I use “confessional” debugging, when I explain the problem to others and the error becomes obvious when I articulate the problem. Occasionally I post on stack overflow. Typically these problems don’t last very long. I would guess it’s a long tail graph. Most errors are solved in less than a minute. Once every day or two a problem that stretches 15, 30, 45 minutes... once every month or two a problem that takes an hour or more, once every year or two a problems that stretch into days.
Is this other programmer’s experience?
Is this getting stuck issue a good way to think about and judge programmer productivity?
What else can be done to reduce this wasted time and become a super productive programmer?
App store search update explained
The upshot of the latest app store search update appears to be it searches the title or the keywords, but not both at the same time. Take my app Onsite Time Tracker as an example.
A search on the title "Onsite" the results are the same (position 3).
A search on some of my keywords (location timesheet) the app has gone up from (6 to 2).
A search on a mix of title and keywords (onsite location tracker) the app has gone down (from 1 to not listed).
These results came from appcod.es
Edit: On June 29th, this issue was resolved by Apple.
A search on the title "Onsite" the results are the same (position 3).
A search on some of my keywords (location timesheet) the app has gone up from (6 to 2).
A search on a mix of title and keywords (onsite location tracker) the app has gone down (from 1 to not listed).
These results came from appcod.es
Edit: On June 29th, this issue was resolved by Apple.
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