sumukh1

Just for anyone who won't be able to go, the event was livestreamed and recorded last year (and I would presume this years would be too)

As someone who learned iOS development by myself in high school, I wish I had something like makegameswithus to help me along the way. There were plenty of resources available to learn Objective-C, but I found that one of the major pain-points was getting through the stuff that's not related to code (managing certificates, publishing, managing artwork/copy). Those are still valuable skills to have, but something mgwu seems like it would help a lot for someone who is starting out. Games are a powerful tool to inspire students to create something really cool. Good job!

Check under the reviews tab. It's under the FB section of this page: http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new/#facebook-gallery-like

This is awesome news (though it's been known for a while) for the top publishers who have: large download numbers, good AppStore SEO, and good screenshots.

While I think that this is bad on whole for developers/discovery as we knew it, it might just help users. Most of the time, users are either window shopping or looking for a very specific product.

Window Shoppers: "I want a photo editing app", chances are you are going to look at the first result and scroll down and see if a icon stands out. With the new model, you see the screenshots too. Could save time over, tapping into an app, tapping into reviews, and then tapping back twice. This means that the icon is downplayed in sales and the first screenshot has become extremely important.

Very Specific Product: "I'm looking for Gmail" It's quicker to just get the first result and confirm that it's actually what you are looking for. This however means that Apple has to be really confident in their search results (which aren't as great as they can be).

Net effect for developers: 1. App Store SEO is important. (It always was, but now I think developers will start to see it now in their app sales)

2. Your copy on the sales page should also grab users attention.

3. Your first screenshot is very important. Your screenshots should be good. (Link: http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mobile-design-tutorials...)

4. Also note, categories have been removed from the app tab bar.

5. Ratings seem to matter a lot for the search algorithm but not for Featured apps

6. This is the "Chomp" update, and Chomp has been known to get content from Blogs and various sources, so you should be mentioned off the App Store too.

7. Facebook Likes also help since those are displayed.

Here's a cheat sheet that seemed useful: http://www.apptamin.com/ASO_Cheat_Sheet-v2.pdf

If I remember correctly, one of the AngelHack winners did shared browsing paired with video chat. http://sharebrowse.com/

Is video something you want to integrate or would you rather keep it to only browsing sessions?

I don't have those numbers off hand, but contact us with any specific questions you have and we'll see what we can pull up. team at goalhawk.com

My startup is focused on building habits and we've found that doing one thing daily is extremely effective. In terms of forcing yourself, we decided to use peer pressure. The user chooses a few people that we can notify if the user doesn't do their daily step. These people then reply back with positive advice/feedback to the user if the user fails to do their daily step.

I created a custom goal called "Do 10 Pushups a Day" and it's been pretty good at making me actually do the pushups.

We launched recently and we'd love to hear your feedback. Link: http://www.goalhawk.com

While there are some tools and apps that do this (AppSalesMobile), it is important to gain and then read those reviews. Good or Bad, ratings/reviews drive sales

There are some pretty spammy ways of getting reviews. Popup an alert that says "Show us some love" which redirects to the app store review page and "leave feedback" which sends an email to developers. (I think that article was on HN a while back)

Another example of a hybrid app is the iOS (and Mac) App Store. A significant amount of the views are basically HTML.

By far, the biggest improvement one can do is to get rid of the 300ms or so delay on a UIWebView

It's also interesting to see how certain companies use the lack of attention control to their advantage.

>Curious/Want to share? Type in Facebook.com

>Bored? Open up the Twitter app

>Don't feel like working? news.ycombinator.com

>Need to check on a quick fact? Type it into Chrome/Google Search bar

The best companies leverage this to their advantage. They tie human emotions/behavior into their own products. Once you've reach that kind of penetration, it's takes a lot of effort for a competitor to build that kind of "integration".

When I started seeing how many times I visited HN/Facebook/Twitter I made a concerted effort to at least cut it in half. Did I miss out on a lot? Not really. Did I get a lot more work done? Yeah.

I told myself I would cut down many times before, but it never really worked since I didn't fully commit to it. If you 're in that position (or just want some motivation), I'd more than happy to help you stay on track (It's something that I'm really interested in). Just shoot me an email (hnusername - gmail.com).

One possible solution is having apps ship with 1x graphics with an optional download to have 2x. That solution, however, is not something I would like as a developer or as an user.

Over the next few years, we'll probably go back to having just two screen sizes (Retina iPhone + iPad). This is just a side effect of the transition to retina, and it will go away soon.

Though from Apple's perspective it would make more financial sense to have you go buy a 64GB iPad. :)

Just a quick point: AT&T (GSM) iPads were always unlocked.

Considering that a lot of employers state that they want a CS Degree OR equivalent experience you should be fine.

-Instead of leveraging your network for recommendations, ask for advice and tips on your product (then go out and execute on them).

I think they are trying to optimize the wrong things. I'd much rather they spend a few days testing your business model and hacking on the business than the YC app itself. You'll probably learn more that way. Plus if your business model is successful and you have traction, it's really helps your app.

Chances are you won't find a spot into YC, but you'll probably still have your company in a few months. Which one do you really want to optimize? I'd go for optimizing the business with less of a focus on the YC app.

Here's a direct link for anyone who hasn't seen the comic yet. Try it on your mobile network and on different browsers

Valid for today: http://xkcd.com/

It wasn't actually 30 seconds. It just was timing out. I got one in the first six minutes or so. and as of 7:26 PDT there are still regular tickets left.

FullContact does something similiar. http://developer.fullcontact.com/

The hosts file is your friend

127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com

> "I feel like Ycombinator in particular takes too much ownership stake from such a low investment (10% of your company for $6k/founder of investment? That seems insane)"

I wonder if this is actually an issue. I don't see any founders complaining about YC's equity (perhaps due to self-selection). Have founders ever needed more money than what YC and Start Fund but not enough to justify raising a round?

That is pretty cool. Didn't get it as I don't actually need it, but my advice is to put this in front of Schools. Education sales could really help.

To sell it to schools, Drew might want to add practice problems or send out promo codes to schools with iPad programs. Good luck!

Clickable: http://www.fourthdimensionapp.com/?ref=hn iTunes ($2.99): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-fourth-dimension/id504201...

But if you lift the curtain behind that statement, what they really care about is their own success.

>"... if we serve our clients well, our own success will follow."

Then a few lines below, they essentially define what success looks like for them and say that profitability critical to achieve those goals. It seems like that profits are a more direct way to achieve "success" for them.

> "Profitability is critical to achieving superior returns, building our capital, and attracting and keeping our best people"

This should serve as a reminder that you can talk, talk, and talk some more, but ultimately, you need to "walk the walk" for your words to carry a significant impact.

Try the iPhone App Store (assuming that's not what you tried before). If you create something even moderately useful and charge for it, you should more than makeup the cost of Dev free. (personal experience)

What can you do in the mean time before you get the $99 to publish? Not quite sure, but blog/write a book about building an app and see if someone will sponsor your dev fee? (or sell the book?)

The article is long but the main lesson behind is to identify success paths and failure paths. Then make the changes so that the path of least resistance is the path to success.

I love this and his other posts about goals. I've been researching this topic/field (relevant to what I'm doing) for the longest time and it's better than most other blogs about goals.

It very well could be, but according to other it's polling Apple servers. http://gsp2.apple.com/tile?api=1&style=slideshow&lay...

I'm not sure if you are talking about the right thing. They take the store down to update the products (so they don't leak a product and not a spike in traffic)

In terms of scale, maybe it's just not on their list of immediate concerns.

If you people are buying your product such that you sell-out and get flak for running out so quickly, you would focus not on making your point-of-sale more efficient. In fact, it might even not be worth the extra millions that it'd cost for scaling on the one day of an announcements.

How would you? Use the power of a distributed CDN and cache everything.

Just curious, who are you hosting it with?

Is this open source? I'd love to implement some of the changes mentioned above.

Correct me if I'm wrong (IANAL) but I don't think this is allowed by Pintrest's terms.

> You agree not to do any of the following:... Use the Site, Application or Site Content for any commercial purpose or the benefit of any third party or in any manner not permitted by these Terms;

>Encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing.

Interesting idea. You could probably get a lot of interest from users if you offer cloud based editing instead of relying on MS Word/PDFs. (offer templates, analytics, and coaching etc)

Alternatively you could tailor to companies, provide them with an API for accepting/reading CVs. Something they can white-label.

Or maybe you could do both ;).

It seems eerily accurate. Some quotes that caught my eye.

>Equipped with radio links, a pda can serve as an appliance-control remote, a digital wallet, a cell phone, an identity badge, an e-mail station, a digital book, a pager and perhaps even a digital camera <- iOS/Android

>One can imagine driving in the car, asking our WIDGET [Smartphone] for the name of the nearest Thai restaurant, getting an answer, asking for reservations and then for directions.<- Siri

>Privacy will come at a premium. Enormous quantities of data about our daily affairs will flow across the Internet, working to make our lives easier. Despite our penchant for giving up privacy in exchange for convenience, our experiences online may make us yearn for the anonymity of the past.<- Facebook etc.