Our review of E3

Normally, a convention like E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) would be outside of what we normally cover for BabbleOn5. However, We have wanted to go for years and finally had a chance. Since I am already crazy for convention experiences, I knew this would serve to inspire me in many ways. While I love video games, I am not an habitual gamer like many of the attendees.  This year’s E3 theme was ‘Exceeding imagination’ and that it certainly did. E3 is a ‘professionals only’ video game expo which means all of the displays are designed to impress. There are no rinky dink ‘mom and pop’ booths at this convention. Everyone brings their A game trying to overshadow their competition. It’s estimated that 50k will be in attendance over the course of 3 days. If you are allowed to attend, it costs $500 for the 3 day pass (so you SDCC fans stop complaining!). There are no panels but pretty much every booth is interactive with SWAG-o-plenty. (More of my thoughts after all the pics):

These guys were dying to get in!

There were multiple foyers filled with promos and advertisements.

We finally get to the showroom floor.

For context, there were two showroom floors, each about the size of the SDCC one. Immense.

The lights, sound, and videos were crazy intense. It was like being at a nerd nightclub.

Bizarre plant life spewing toxins into the air.

The inside of the Activision booth also had screens for a 360 degree experience when inside.

Nintendo generated the most buzz announcing their new Wii-U. An iPad/game controller type device.

All kinds of innovative gaming products were being demonstrated like this dome gaming screen.

The were all kinds of lounges like this Disney cafe that gave out free gourmet coffee.

Ahhh, now I was feeling more at home

My favorite display was for the Warhammer 40K Space Marine game with real soldiers standing in front of a huge drop pod. I was in awe.

Even though I am not a crazy gamer, going to E3 was an incredible experience. The level of excellence did ‘exceed my imagination’ and really did give me a vision for how a showroom could be presented. I was super inspired and look forward to returning next year. It also was good training in preparation for SDCC next month!

Realizer (app)

Here’s a new way to design layout for iOS app (or fool your friends into thinking you have your own app). Check out Realizer at http://realizerapp.com/.

You create an account (id/pw) and you can create a mock up of an app.

You can add screens (320×480 images) and add ‘links’ – select what image to go to when it’s tapped (drop down list).

I made one for b5 in about 5 minutes including creating an account, capturing the images from the site and edits, etc.

Then you download the app, log in and tap the name of your app in the list.

The first page shows up. The ‘link’ on that page is the image and ‘Enter’ text which, when tapped, loads the second page (an image of the About Us from this site).

Pretty easy – I’d post the id/pw I used so you could get the app and see it for yourself, but I don’t trust you rascals. Check it out and see if you can do some April Fool’s jokes on people that you created your own app! Post details in the comments.

I plan on using this for my clients (brainwashinc.com – iOS development) when applicable along w/ mockapp.com which I have recommended to clients ever since I heard of it… I can’t remember – a while back.

They’ve got some room to grow with it in adding landscape support, animation for the navigation would be nice, auto-scaling images would be helpful, etc. but it’s quick, easy and does the job (I see it as a quick view into what your app will look like). I’d also like a ‘viewer’ option – allow others to view the output w/o needing the id/pw.

I give it 4 babbles:

<img src=”http://babbleon5.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/ratings4of5.jpg?w=122&h=22″&gt;

Amazon PriceCheck App

Just in time for Black Friday, Amazon has a cool new PriceCheck app out. It lets you search for items in a variety of easy ways, compare prices and, of course, buy items.
As you can tell from the pic you can search by typing, UPC (via the camera), pic (camera) or speaking.

I wanted to test it out so first I did the UPC test. I didn’t even both w/ the text search – too easy. I grabbed a book (“Me, Myself and Bob” by Phil Vischer – great book). I thought I’d take a pic of the UPC, but before I could look for the button, it detected I was over the UPC and found the book! I had to do it again just to get that screenshot. Boom!

Next I wanted to try the pic search. I used the same book and it worked great! So I decided to put it to the test and use a Booples DVD. Found it! I did the audio search and skipped the easy options and tried “Booples” again. It searched for “pupil.” I tried a few more times, but it the kept searching for “google.” I assume it has a dictionary it searches and doesn’t have “Booples.” So then I tried “Lord of the Rings” and it found tons of stuff, of course.

The details it finds include price comparisons, description of the product and reviews. You can share your findings via email, text, facebook and twitter. And you can buy the product thru the app. This can be a great tool when shopping for Christmas this year to see if what you’re finding is a good deal or not. There’s also the RedLaser app that pioneered this type of functionality and is also a free app. For some reaons though, people are less intimidated when it’s from Amazon though it is a more limited app (RedLaser is owned by eBay so maybe that’s just the same???).
So enjoy your Christmas shopping this year and be sure to -PLUG- buy plenty of Booples DVDs (always free shipping) for all the kids!

iPhone Dev Conference: 360iDev

I haven’t been to ComicCon – my version of this is 360iDev. We don’t have super heroes… well, we kinda do. We have saurik (Jay Freeman)!
Jay gave a great talk to wrap up the conference. It was about jailbreaking – what it’s all about and not about. It was fairly eyeopening to me because I haven’t had much reason to look into it and was fairly ignorant to what it is.
Jailbreaking is not pirating apps. It’s not really apps at all. It’s opening up the device to customizing parts of the OS that Apple doesn’t normally allow. Consider having an email/phone/SMS/etc. summary as your lock screen instead of just an image.
Cydia is the appstore and it’s mostly apps that aren’t allowed in the Apple appstore. But they aren’t pirated apps.
We also have Mike Lee who gave a great talk on developing quality apps. And while not a pirate, he dressed as one…

He made some great points about how “the crap market is full.”
David Whatley opened the conference with a great keynote about work environment all around: mentally, physically, performance, etc. Great info on ROWE and the Dan Pink talk animated by RSA Animate that I’ve always loved. Must watch.
But the greatest thing about 360iDev is the people and the presenters which are the people. It’s great to watch people present and then hang out with them for a few days (or vice versa). It’s great to talk with people doing what you do, doing what you want to do or wanting to do what you do. It’s an awesome community of support and encouragement.
Unlike WWDC, 360iDev is small which, to me, is it’s power. You get to know people. You attend presentations by people who have been where you are… and they want to help. Also because it’s small, there aren’t tons of separate parties spread across a city. There’s one party every night, everyone is invited and pretty much everyone goes. Free food, beer and Rock Band – geek heaven.
On top of all that, it’s cheap (compared to most conferences) and therefore extremely valuable for what you get. I have serious doubts if I’ll go to WWDC next year although I feel like I somewhat “have to go.” But I will do what I can to make sure I make it to 360iDev wherever it is next.