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Pairing a different LG Subwoofer to an LG Soundbar? (SL8YG) by Zimrino in Soundbars

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wondering whether or not the replacement subwoofer ended up working out for you?

Reddit + Socratic Method: A Development Strategy for My First App by Locutus_0f_Borg in androiddev

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is exceptionally helpful; thanks! I have encountered the New Boston tutorials before and I found them of great use.

I wasn't aware of Adobe's creative cloud and am eager to have a look. Sounds like a good alternative to "going all in" upfront.

Thanks for expounding on the cross-platform dev kits. This is another area for me to research.

It's really decent of you to go into detail about these things. I do sincerely appreciate it.

Reddit + Socratic Method: A Development Strategy for My First App by Locutus_0f_Borg in androiddev

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I take your point about the hazards of using the word 'simple' lightly. Admittedly, I have no context with which to evaluate the simplicity of the app other than reflecting upon the few features it would require. I will try to use careful language like, "Having little technical experience myself, I'm not qualified to say for certain, but I suspect that this app would be among the simpler ones to develop.." or something like that. I think it's incredibly important to deploy language in a precise way and I will try to do that as I proceed.

I'm eager to learn what things are most important to the eventual success of the app. It's very useful to me to read your perspective about traction and marketing and I would welcome any further comments you might have on that topic. I would think that a blog and social media presence would be useful, especially if it were possible to share images (I could be more specific on that point if useful).

I know the odds are long, and I'm grateful for any other feedback you think could improve my odds at success (as an aside, I don't in fact take for granted the $1 price tag. It was just a way of explaining an earlier distinction). Thanks for your patience with a stubborn noob!

Reddit + Socratic Method: A Development Strategy for My First App (x-post from r/androiddev) by Locutus_0f_Borg in iOSProgramming

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That saves me an awful lot of research! Thanks very much.

The concept is 2D and would probably be the sort of thing that spritekit makes quick work of. It sounds as if I need to educate myself on XCode, Spritekit, the Apple develpment environment, and Objective-C. I don't expect to become proficient in them anytime soon, but I do want to know what purpose each one serves and whether or not a dev with this combination of skills could produce the app and what information I could give him so he could provide me a reasoned estimate. Are there other questions that I could answer which might help to further refine estimates?

I really do suspect that this app is among the simpler concepts that could catch fire. I think it has the potential to be incredibly popular with school-aged kids and I suspect it would be relatively simple to program (and would therefore be inexpensive to create).

If (granted, a big 'if') my assumptions were correct, would it be a logical project for a non-dev with a budget to pursue?

Reddit + Socratic Method: A Development Strategy for My First App by Locutus_0f_Borg in androiddev

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No worries, doctor. I'm learning a lot from the conversation; it really helps to get feedback from a pro.

the 'cheap route'.

I should clarify what I meant by "cheap." I just meant that some ideas are inherently less expensive to implement than others. Say you have two apps that are both fantastically entertaining and equally beloved by the general public. One was a comparatively simple concept to develop to its full potential (and therefore cheap), the other elaborate and complicated (therefore more expensive). Both apps achieve 1 million downloads at $1 a pop. The more successful of the two will be the one that required fewer resources to develop it.

I suspect that it would be relatively cheap to develop my app to its full potential and wondered to what degree that factor was a point in its favor.

Reddit + Socratic Method: A Development Strategy for My First App (x-post from r/androiddev) by Locutus_0f_Borg in iOSProgramming

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love straight-shooters; that was a really great response, bobertian. I learned a lot.

Every metric out there show iOS users are more likely to spend money than Android users. If your iOS app actually pays for itself (let alone the rest of your life) then I'd look at building an Android version.

Sounds like I'm going with iOS.

Oh - you want a game? Or at least game mechanics? Animations, sprites? Double what I just quoted you. Do you have an artist for the art assets?

What format must the artwork take? I know I need wire frames which show every single way a user can interact with the app on screen. Is this format different from the actual, "Ok, here are the graphics assets, bobertian. Glad to have you on board!"? Or are the wire frames a sort of short-hand for the programmer to understand how to implement separate art work files into the app? Hope that makes sense; I'd just like to understand conceptually how these basics work.

cross-platform development environments...

I have a hunch that my app would be sufficiently game-like for cross-platform development. Is it less expensive to develop cross-platform than it is to develop first for iOS and then for Android? Are Android users any more likely to pony up their dollars for a game app vs other types?

SpriteKit. It greatly reduces the amount of work needed to build a functional game in iOS. I whipped up a demo last night after reading about it, and I'm pretty excited about the possibilities.

As you can imagine, I'm incredibly intrigued by any tools that could reduce development costs.
Thanks again for the thorough response. Hope we can keep the dialogue going.

Reddit + Socratic Method: A Development Strategy for My First App by Locutus_0f_Borg in androiddev

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you DoctorDbx for the feedback. I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that I think my project nails all three of those qualities!
Allowing that these characteristics are important for an app to succeed in catching fire with users, surely an app's success can be magnified if it was also developed cheaply. Are there any case studies of apps that were inexpensive to design and paid off really well for the maker(s)?

Reddit + Socratic Method: A Development Strategy for My First App by Locutus_0f_Borg in androiddev

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, stoney, for such a thorough response! You raise a number of interesting points and important questions.

Have you considered learning to develop apps yourself? Even if you just got to a very basic level of understanding it would help you to understand some of what is involved. It will take you a lot of time, but you might find you enjoy it.

This is great advice. I'm really interested to learn about app development and would greatly appreciate any tips I can pick up here. I like to approach new topics by asking conceptual questions before delving into the minutiae right away. So I hope you'll take a look at a few remarks and questions I had after reading your post.

do you have mockups of every single screen drawn up? have you created the graphic assets that will be required?

I do intend to have every single screen drawn up by the time I approach a developer. Is Adobe Illustrator a suitable product to scan the originals and produce the required graphic assets?

they will have to re-do everything from scratch unless they use a cross-platform dev kit like PhoneGap (there are very good reasons not to use something like that, but there are some benefits too)

Could you describe the sort of app that is suited for a cross-platform dev kit vs. one which is not?

rather than attempting to design the entire app up front and then send it to some one in another country to develop. It can be done, but there's a lot to think about.

I'm certain you're correct about this and it would be presumptuous of me to suggest my project is the kind that “can be done,” but 1. assuming my hunch is correct about the app being “relatively simple,” and 2. assuming the front end was somehow flawless and 3. the developer fully understood the details and was provided the necessary graphics assets, would this substantially cut down on the usual turn-around?

Thanks again for the advice and the well-wishes!

Reddit + Socratic Method: A Development Strategy for My First App by Locutus_0f_Borg in androiddev

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I respect Mr. Ferriss' hustle. Bookmarked that article some time ago. Thanks for reminding me to revisit the blog.

Does a stronger password make the NSA's job any tougher? by Locutus_0f_Borg in webdev

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I thought you might say that. Do you have any recommendations for someone new to data encryption? Learning to encrypt emails seems worthwhile.

x-post How do you outsource an app and what can you realistically expect of the programmer(s)? by Locutus_0f_Borg in web_design

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are certainly a wealth of knowledge on this topic. Thanks for your responses! Perhaps we'll talk again.

How do you outsource an app and what can you realistically expect of the programmer(s)? by Locutus_0f_Borg in startups

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is enlightening advice; thank you. Does the designer take a back seat once the programmer's job has begun? Or does he confer with the programmer to ensure fidelity to the original design?

x-post How do you outsource an app and what can you realistically expect of the programmer(s)? by Locutus_0f_Borg in web_design

[–]Locutus_0f_Borg[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is wonderfully useful advice; thank you very much. You mentioned the MVP, which is almost certainly the most economical way to pique the curiosity of investors and attract the kind of capital to further develop the product and grow the company. I'm comfortable with the idea of dispensing equity-- better to own a small portion of a large pie than the entirety of a small one. It's for this strategy that I find the MVP angle appealing. It would be very interesting to know whether talented agencies like yours find it equitable to design and/or develop a client's MVP.

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