daniel bigham.ca

This section lists all blog posts, regardless of topic.

The Importance of App Videos
July 9, 2012

Typically I don't create any kind of video to demonstrate my apps, either as a sales pitch, nor as instructions.

But I do wonder: If I got proficient at creating videos, would they help sales? Would they improve the user experience? Would it help me market my apps? etc.

I may start giving this a shot.

Open Source?
July 9, 2012

I've spent about 5 hours working on my first BB10 app, which is an implementation of my Baby Names app. Every time I learn a new mobile platform, this is the first app that I implement. I have now implemented Baby Names for PlayBook, BB Phones, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Chrome Web Store, and BB10, and it has served as a great way to get up to speed with the basics of each platform. (For devs, I'd highly recommend this approach of implementing the same simple app on each mobile platform you learn)

I'm considering making the app open source, even though I intend to sell it on BB10. (it has earned > $2000 on App World for BB OS 5/6/7) I wonder if there are other people doing that sort of thing in the mobile space?

My reason for making it open source is that I want to help encourage new BB10 developers, and having sample code can be a real help when you're new to a platform. RIM really seems to be trying to make as much sample code available as possible with BB10, which I think is smart.

I've also considered making the Windows side of my Send To PC app (written in C#) open source to demonstrate to BlackBerry devs how easy it is to create an app that requires a Windows component. I'm a bit shy to do that, however, since I will admit that the lack of such apps creates lots of opportunity for me to fill that niche. So there is definitely a tension (or at least a perceived tension) between making one's code open source and not wanting to kiss your revenue goodbye.

b10dev.net
July 9, 2012

bb10dev.net is a place for me to share the experiences I have developing for BB10, as well as share various thoughts and opinions.

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