Create a Winning iPhone / Android web app in 32 hours or Rapid App Development

The task at hand. Rapidly build an app or tool in 2 days. Deploy said app. We decided to that while the boss was out of town at a conference we would push out a new app. We were a team of two. We knew time was critical, so we knew we had to plan quickly. We didn't even have a product idea yet.

The first step

was to break out the dry erase board. I gave us 5 minutes to shout out ideas. Dumb, too long, whatever. It didn't matter, we just needed to keep the ideas coming. This avoids …more
2 comments

37 Signals does it right with mobile

A perfect example of what should be done. It doesn't take a company with the power of Google to create a proper web app. A small team can recreate a good app too. The need for a native app is just not there. The team at 37 signals have opted to not have 4+ versions of a basecamp mobile (ala 1990's) and instead take advantage of the technology available right now. This is why web apps are where it's at. As a regular basecamp user, I can say this app is good. I'm only missing the ability to reorder the todo lists …more
4 comments

BBC iOS app recreated with HTML5

Not long after I made this post, hacker news posted an expirement by http://whitherapps.com/ that is remaking the BBC news app in HTML5. Looks like he is making some headway. This is just an experiment to prove what is possible. Hopefully this catches on and we quit getting all of these os specific apps instead of websites.
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Quit making apps for every damn website

iOS apss are the new hotness right now. Every website needs an app to represent??? WTF? Wake up people. Apps have a place, it isn't recreating the website for a single platform. I understand how this came about. Three years ago when apple turned the smart phone world around, no one had a website designed for the new touch interface. iPhone didn't have support for native apps yet and everyone scrambled to make web apps. It also didn't have support for html5 and css3 with it's awesomeness of hardware accelerated t…more
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What not to do - 37signals Product Blog: Basecamp becomes more finger friendly

37signals Product Blog: Basecamp becomes more finger friendly. Here is a good example of not to do. 37signals is a great company, and I agree with most of what they have to say about usability and KISS. Not everyone get's it right all of the time. Please don't tout your new iOS interface then put up a video of the demonstration in a format [flash] that I can't e…more