Apps are looking better and better!
I’m currently in the middle of putting the final touches on my first BIG mobile app. By BIG I mean it’s for a big, recognizable company, not a personal project. The sheer amount of brainstorming that went into that, along with ever-changing mockups and UX drafts led me to a conclusion that live app testing is crucial to have something stable and production-ready without too much hassle with updates. From platform UI paradigms to general aestethics mobile app design is no easy task. Sure the canvas is smaller and supposedly easier to do than say a web page, but there’s a lot more that can go wrong.
Maybe that’s because we’re a little used to things going wrong on the web and can look the other way, but we tend to criticize apps that don’t work as advertised. Exciting times ahead, since the mobile space has evolved with apps being able to do more and look better, even using platform specific components (if used creatively and with some twist).
If you want examples try Path and Foursquare for iOS – each uses the basic styles and elements, but with a twist that makes it both original and pretty.
Fun fact: A British band – 
First the Voltaic AMP arrived. It’s a small, portable charger that’s a foldable case, so it’s easy to carry around. Two panels give out about 4Watts of energy, and that in turn is supposed to charge the internal battery (3,000mAh, 11 Watt hour capacity) from 0 to 100% in about 6 hours. It turned out that even in Eastern European sun on my field trips, I was able to get it charged in between 6 to 7 hours. That resulted in a full battery and the ability to charge my iPhone 4S once, and then to about 50%. Not bad! The case is durable and looks like it can survive plenty of damage, so for anyone doing some outdoor survival this charger would be perfect. It’s so tough you can easily hit it with a rock and break the rock ;) They also offer iPad chargers, laptop chargers and solar backpacks!
The second one is the newest of all – a Solar Charging community, with uploading your Wh and CO2 grams to a social website to share. It’s called changers, and it does make a change by introducing the social aspect to solar power. I found out that I’m actually uploading the data every day and it’s really awesome to have saved over 50 grams of CO2 by doing this. Since I’m using both chargers, and both are 4Watts, I’m probably saving twice the amount actually. The solar panel has the Holstee Manifesto on the back, some suction cups that can be reversed (to place it on the inside or outside of a window), and this time the battery and the panel are separated. The panel is light and quite flexible, but pretty big and hard to pack (unless you strap it to the outside of your backpack), and the small, beautifully designed battery (looks like an Apple designed elephant a little bit) can power two iPhones a day. On their promo materials they also said it could give some juice to the iPad, but unfortunately Changers doesn’t seem to work with either iPad1, or the new iPad (I have both for testing apps). On the upside I think it takes a little faster for the battery to charge, so in 4-5 hours of sun a day you can have two iPhones ready to go.
The title of this entry is of course ironic, but we’re seeing lots and lots of valuations of companies that don’t turn up any profit, and it makes us wonder – does the world turn idealistic all of the sudden? Or maybe someone sees hidden potential in monetizing Instagram someday? Facebook tries to keep up with “the cool” as it has lost the cool about a year ago. Changes come barely noticed, people just move on and go back to playing whatever social game is at the top right now. A nicely packaged idea can bring millions (or billions), sure, but innovative things can be overshadowed by bells and whistles and a touch of hipster retro. 