Cognited

The Most Profitable iPhone App, EVER

Warren — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:46:04 +0000

OK, this is more of a assumption than a fact. If one plotted revenue and development time on an app, the
I’m Rich” app would have the highest profit margin of all. I don’t know how many apps were sold, but at least one is believed to be on a special iPhone. Here’s the “proof”:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

I feel for this poor guy, but thats a pretty creative way to make a buck. I’m sure there are plenty of individuals out there looking to make a point with a thousand bucks just laying around. With that said, shame on you developers for trying to take advantage of us Apple Fanboys.

Updated!

According to the LA Times, 8 people purchased the “I am Rich” app. $8,000 for a few minutes of coding? Sounds like a win to me.

Time Machine Works, Part 1: Migration Assistant Chronicles

Warren — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:45:53 +0000

My last post was discussing my hesitations on buying a new iMac 24 inch 3.06ghz. Apple’s sextastic hardware wooed me into buying the mother of all iMacs. The unboxing of an Apple product is almost a ritualistic ceremony. The packaging is so meticulously done, you almost want to save it (on one occasion, I actually did). Setting it up was simple, as expected:

Unrwap the iMac, plug in the power cable.
Plug in keyboard and mouse.
Look amazed at how easy that was.

Typically, one would simply hit the power button and in 15 minutes be browsing on the net. However, I have a MacBook and I have no interest in reinstalling the 50 or so applications all over again. As well as setting up application settings, email accounts, instant messenger accounts, etc… So I thought. *I wonder if I could just hook up my Time Machine backup drive and migrate everything saved on my MacBook.* I decided to research this on the web. I looked at my calendar and verified that I was free all Sunday for damage control.

Starting out as a PC Enthusiast, I’m used to things working “in theory,” but not in practice. I checked out this link on Apple’s website, and it seemed to be a pretty straight forward process. Therefore, I gave it a shot.

Steps to migrating Time Machine backup on an old machine to a new machine

Make sure to have your source computer backed up on the time machine drive.
Connect drive to new computer.
Go through the cool intro video (hey, it is cool!).
Select Time Machine Migration Assistant
It should find all Time Machine backups connected to your computer. Select the appropriate drive.
Check all the boxes displaying the information categories you are restoring.(applications, home folder, etc…). The “Calculating size” process might take a while (mine did), so be patient.
Everything from here on out should be easy enough.

After the restoration process was over, everything worked. I mean everything. All my applications worked. All information was imported over. You might say “Well, duh, Apple said it works seamlessly.” But remember, I come from a PC world, so I just assumed I would have applications that didn’t launch or some kind of spinning beach ball of death explosion on my screen. It didnt happen. Everything worked as organized. Tomorrow, I’ll be continuing my log on the iMac experience.

Rumor: Apple portables get aluminum makeover and custom chipsets

Warren — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:12:29 +0000

I’d be lying if I said I don’t get excited about Apple hardware rumors. However, this one seems to be too good to be true, check below. I’m in the market for a new computer. I’ve settled on the 24″ iMac 3.06. I’ll be selling my homemade PC, and it will be the first time I have a completely PC free household. Currently my PC is pretty much nothing more than a gaming rig. Although, these days my gaming has been cut to a minimum. WoW is pretty much the only game I play, and even that is a casual activity when time permits.

The iMac 3.06ghz is plenty for casual gaming with a 8800GS 512MB video card. However, these rumors make me want to wait for the next update. The last iMac I purchased for my wife ended up becoming obsolete 6 weeks after its release due to the switch to Intel. Im not looking for a repeat.

At the conference call for Apple’s third quarter earnings, repeated mention was made about a “future product transition” that would impact margins for the current quarter. What was not mentioned was the immediate impact it would have on Apple rumors. Rumors of price cuts, iTablets, MacBook touches, and more have resounded across the Internet tubes and into the cocked ears of Apple fans everywhere. The latest comes from Computerworld and Seth Weintraub, whose summation of “insiders” talk for the MacBook includes:

Thinner, rounded design
Glass trackpad—no, seriously
Aluminum case
Late September release
And those are the serious rumors. He also speculates about the Pro laptops, talking crazy about the MacBook Air using Intel’s Atom, and the rumored MacBook Pros using Intel chipsets. Centrino 2 and Montevina in Apple laptops, how crazy would that be?

[From Rumor: Apple portables get aluminum makeover and custom chipsets]

Twitter Submergence

Warren — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:58:14 +0000

I fought the Twitter craze for a while now, but the time has come to take the plunge. I tried to convince myself “Its just endless Facebook status updates, why do I need this?” The truth is, I don’t but its pretty fun. I downloaded Spaz, this new Adobe AIR app and Twitterrific for the iPhone. Its pretty fun and quite addictive. I haven’t truly had the time to explore the app, but I’m convinced that Twitter will be playing a larger role in my life in the days to come (whether I want it to or not). For you Twitter veterans out there, should I stop before its too late? In the mean time, follow me.

Finding Time and Yoga/Pilates

Warren — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:17:20 +0000

In a class this quarter taught by Andrew Nelson I read an interesting book, “Finding Time” by Leslie Perlow. The book discusses the impact of technology and the new economy on work/life balance. This year for the first time I enrolled in Yoga/Pilates for 2 reasons.
Reason 1: I have a bad back and I heard from multiple credible sources that this would strengthen and stretch my back muscles. This turned out to be dead on and my back hasn’t felt so good in a long time.
Reason 2: I am so consumed by technology/work, and I rarely have anything to keep me away from all my information flows.

Thanks to my trusty iPhone, I have access to all 7 of my email accounts as long as I’m awake, whether I’m at my computer or not. Google Alerts keeps me hooked into all relevant news articles that contain keywords I specify. Pageflakes provides me with a 1-stop-shop to read all of my online news. The list goes on and on. I find myself working in some way, shape, or form as long as I am awake. Furthermore, I see sleep as a necessity that is simply a detriment to my productivity.

What creates this mentality? Leslie Petrow argues that its our socio-economic system that rewards endless work, rather than balance and productivity. Deep down I believe this to be true. I truly feel that downtime allows for more engaged work and improved productivity, but within society one is pressured to always be working and showing ones dedication to their job.

This quarter, I decided to add an activity to my life that does not rely on technology to give me at least one hour every 2 days to relax and refocus. Unfortunately, I let my work get the best of me and missed more of my yoga/pilates fusion classes than expected.

Nevertheless, the classes I did attend left me feeling relaxed, invigorated, and motivated. I was also happily surprised to notice that my back has never felt so good. I almost got suckered into an expensive chiropractic treatment process, but I’m fairly certain that continuing these classes will suffice as a treatment for my back. I would definitely recommend yoga/pilates to anyone looking for an activity to assist with relaxation, strength, flexibility, or all of the above.

Facebook News Feed or News Feast?

Warren — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:53:46 +0000

One of the things recently talked about in our Facebook class is the news feed. The consensus was that its an Ace in the hole for Facebook. I’m not going to argue with that, but how much is too much? Sure, I’m glad that Facebook gives you the ability to control what shows up where on mini feeds and news feeds, but I am beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed with all this “control.”

One of Facebook’s strengths (atleast in my mind) is the UI. Its clean, simple and attractive. reading the information relativ to your network is easy and the format is great. Now I feel like I have to defend myself from so much information so I can still make out the important stuff.

With the news feed being opened to Apps, and now the feature Project Beacon which includes products your friends have purchased from partner sites in your feed, The clean interface might be a thing of yesteryear.

Could Microsoft be rubbing off on Facebook already? Check this video out to see the a possible evolution of Facebook. Replace “iPod” with “Facebook”

Respect Facebook Apps…

Warren — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:40:30 +0000

I’m fully aware of all the lame apps around, but creating a good app is a lot of work. My entire team definitely underestimated the amount of time required to develop an app that is useful to users. Our app is aimed at the car enthusiast community, therefore we’ve performed some “field” research to get feedback on what kind of features they would find useful. Obviously, we had our own ideas previous to the research, but the feedback was great. We got a lot of awesome suggestions(along with some entertaining ones). If you are developing an app for a specific community, I highly recommend speaking directly with people who will likely be using your app to get great ideas. Obviously, user comments on the app are effective, but it is definitely a different type of feedback than feedback “in the wild,” or sites where your users congregate en masse.

WordPress Database Explosion

Warren — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 10:44:49 +0000

Despite my love for WordPress, I am apparently not immune to technological misfortunte. The WordPress database exploded 3 weeks ago, and school has been so intense that I haven’t had a chance to debug it. Its up and running and in good shape now. Activity will resume, and an update on our Facebook app is due tomorrow. Stay tuned.

The Stanford Facebook Class

Warren — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:44:30 +0000

This year Stanford is offering a class for designing, developing, and implementing Facebook Apps. As far as I know, this is the first class offered on this subject. I’ve decided to take on the other members of my team in this class as authors for this blog. We’ll be posting our experiences and anything that has to do with Facebook Apps related to our experience.

Is Channel Surfing Dead?

Warren — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:08:36 +0000

I could be jumping the gun here, but I cant remember the last time I channel surfed. I’m sure part of this has to do with a simple lack of time. However, I do find the time to watch some TV. In fact, I’m watching Heroes as I type this (great show by the way). Only, I’m watching it through my Xbox 360 Media Center via Amazon Unbox. All of the TV I watch is On-Demand. Our web desiger at work doesn’t have cable. He just purchased a brand new HDTV, but has no plans on buying cable. For the first time in my life, that doesn’t seem so unreasonable. I actually considered doing the same thing. I get all my news from the internet(http://www.pageflakes.com/warren.colbert) and podcasts. Between all the Movie Download services, DVD renting services like Netflix and Blockbuster, and the IPTV services on the rise (Joost), channel surfing may just be on its way out.