InterpoCalcLt provides engineers, scientists, business analysts, or anyone else who uses tabulated data with an extremely useful tool for quickly performing single- linear, double- linear, and single-parabolic interpolations and extrapolations.  The app includes visual confirmation graphs (single-linear and single-parabolic) and easy data entry using a custom numerical keypad.  Results and input can be e-mailed for later use, sharing, or documentation, in either table format (HTML), or plain text format. Optionally, a .csv file may be attached.  This file can then be imported into a spreadsheet.

PsychroCalc allows inputs in either SI (metric) units I-P (English) units, and converts from one to the. other.  The app uses industry standard ASHRAE equations, supports convenient sharing of results via e-mail and has broad application in meteorology, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning.

New in Version 1.1:

• Added the option to email in HTML (table) format, and to attach .csv files.
• Changed the input of variables to use a custom numerical keyboard, rather than sliders.
• Fixed minor bugs

InterpoCalc provides engineers, scientists, business analysts, or anyone else who uses tabulated data with an extremely useful tool for quickly performing single- linear, double- linear, and single-parabolic interpolations and extrapolations.  The app includes visual confirmation graphs (single-linear and single-parabolic) and easy data entry using a custom numerical keypad.  Results and input can be e-mailed for later use, sharing, or documentation, in either table format (HTML), or plain text format. Optionally, a .csv file may be attached.  This file can then be imported into a spreadsheet.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, InterpoCalc

Heisler Calculator provides an accurate numerical solution, eliminating the need for tedious graphical results from Heisler charts.  We decided to make the app completely free to encourage academic use in the study of heat transfer.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, Heisler Calculator

PsychroCalc allows inputs in either SI (metric) units I-P (English) units, and converts from one to the. other.  The app uses industry standard ASHRAE equations, supports convenient sharing of results via e-mail and has broad application in meteorology, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, PsychroCalc

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Alphabet Morpher, a new Education / Entertainment App from BluMtnWerx, Now Available on Apple’s App Store

Alphabet Morpher, an innovative tool for teaching the alphabet to preschoolers, is available for immediate download on Apple’s App Store.

Los Altos, CA — July 24, 2010 — BluMtnWerx, a developer of leading edge applications for mobile devices is pleased to announce that Alphabet Morpher, its first education/entertainment app, is now available for download from the App Store.

Alphabet Morpher is an innovative and extremely engaging iPhone™ / iPod touch™ app that teaches the alphabet while entertaining the preschool set.  Each colorful upper case alphabet letter from “A” to “Z” smoothly morphs into its lowercase counterpart, creating a strong visual association for a child learning the alphabet.  Familiarity with the letters is reinforced by an accompanying song and memorable image for each character.

“While we’d never want one of our apps to be characterized as ‘cute,’ Alphabet Morpher comes pretty close,” says Dean Stevens, founder of BluMtnWerx.  Mr. Stevens continues, “Autoplay mode allows you to entertain little learners for hours with minimal interaction, while the interactive mode really helps develop letter recognition and familiarity.  This is a powerful teaching tool targeted directly at those impressionable young minds.  It’s fun, it’s engaging, and it might even be (at least a tiny bit) good for the little folks.”

Alphabet Morpher is available on Apple’s iTunes App Store at:
        http://itunes.com/app/alphabetmorpher

The Alphabet Morpher web page is:
        http://www.blumtnwerx.com/AlphaMorph.html

About BluMtnWerx:

We believe that the nexus of interaction with computing is moving to the very edge of the network.  With this in mind, we assembled an elite team of engineers to develop applications at the edge.  We build software to bring the universe to you, wherever you are and whenever you want to connect.

We currently have a number of applications available on the Apple App Store, and several more in the pipeline.

For further information on BluMtnWerx, please visit our website. For direct inquires, please contact:

Dean Stevens, Founder
BluMtnWerx
408-461-9913

dean (at) blumtnwerx.com
http://www.blumtnwerx.com
http://www.blumtnwerx.com/blog

Technorati Tags:  iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, Alphabet Morpher

“This prospective client wasn’t looking to hire TapBots for any development work, they were looking for confirmation that a development firm out of India did the coding on ConvertBot, a popular TapBots application. The client had found Trucid, the supposed coders of ConvertBot, on the Rentacoder.com website, a virtual cork board where companies can hang their business cards. Trucid quoted a sum of $2,400 for an application similar to ConvertBot. The only problem? TapBots designs and writes all of its applications entirely in house.

Curious as to just what was going on, Haddad decided to e-mail Trucid pretending to be interested in their services. In the e-mail, he requested information about the company and a list of examples of its work. It wasn’t long before Haddad received an e-mail back from Trucid’s Chief Marketing Officer explaining who the company was, what it did, and its experience on the iPhone platform. Sure enough, ConvertBot was on the list of the 14 apps the company had supposedly developed. In the correspondence, the CMO reportedly claimed that his company had worked on 14 iPhone applications, the majority of which were coded under nondisclosure agreements. The CMO did say that the company hadn’t signed an NDA for two of their contracted projects: ConvertBot and BillMinder. Those two apps are popular though, and look like jewels in a portfolio. Yet, as it turns out, neither application was touched by Trucid.”

This is sad, but not unexpected.  It reminds me of a story from my days as a rep for Chinese outsourcing companies, which I’ll get to later in this post.  First, I want to highlight the project quote:  $2.4k for something similar to ConvertBot.  Those of us that have been toying with the idea of doing contract app development had better be very frightened by this.  While we can talk all that we want about the quality and the real value of our work, the truth is that the folks at Trucid (no link — I don’t want to reward bad behavior) have set the price.  By the way, I checked on Elance and they’re quoting $15 per hour.  I love developing apps as much as anyone, but $15/hr isn’t much incentive to develop someone else’s stupid idea.

This is a good place to stop reading unless you really want to hear an embarrassing (at least to me) story about one of my past ventures.
 

We had a contract to do sales and marketing for a company founded by a very well known Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was originally from China.  In the interest of making this a good story, without getting myself sued, let’s call this company “Phantom.”  Phantom had a beautiful office overlooking the south end of the San Francisco Bay, more than 100 employees working in a new building in the Shanghai Pudong Software Park (with an option on another floor and a commitment to build a whole new building in the park), along with a large operation in Dalian (>400 resources) [at least that was the story that we were given].  When I visited the Phantom Shanghai facility everything was bright and shiny, but there weren’t many people around.  Their president (he was based in their U.S. office) assured me that this was a sign of their tremendous success — almost all of their resources were onsite with clients.  About two weeks into the engagement, the wheels just came off.

Apparently, representatives of a large Japanese consumer electronics company that we were trying to win over were visiting Dalian.  Unfortunately, they decided to make an unannounced visit to the Phantom facility there.  They showed up at the correct address (prominently posted on the web site).  Sadly, the receptionist had never heard of Phantom.  She called the site general manager over.  He had heard of Phantom but told the Japanese visitors that there was no relationship.  The GM was telling the truth.  The people in Dalian were employees of another company that had previously been managed by Phantom’s founder.  He simply listed the facility, and counted the resources, to make Phantom seem more substantial.  There was absolutely no involvement with Phantom.

Shortly after this, the founder decided to shut the company down.  After the dust settled, I cornered the president to demand an explanation.  His only claim was that he had also been duped.  Needless to say, we never made a nickel.  They didn’t even cover the expenses that we incurred.

As a result of our continuing efforts to enhance the experience, v1.0.1 now has its own Scoreloop leaderboard.  This app highlights the unique user interaction model of the iPhone™ / iPod touch™ platform — the accelerometer is your only control.  Tilting the device moves your ball so that you can guard your net, while trying to knock the other ball past the smart defender and into the opponent’s net.  The more you tilt, the faster your ball will move.  You have to be quick to score the highest possible number of points in thirty seconds, but now you’ll only be playing against others with the same time limitation.  TiltBallLite is more physically challenging than some of our other apps, but that’s part of the fun!

TiltBallLite fully supports the Scoreloop game network.  This means that you can play as part of a global community!  The competition and sense of community fostered by Scoreloop truly enhances the TiltBallLite experience.  Being able to compare scores, challenge other players and participate in the Scoreloop community make playing TiltBallLite even more compelling.  It’s hard to overstate the additional challenge and excitement that Scoreloop brings to our game.  When I’m trying to win a challenge, or get to the top of the high scores list, it really takes me to a whole new level!

Let’s see how many goals you can score with TiltBallLite v1.0.1!  As of this morning, “lawa” had scored 9 goals — very impressive!

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, TiltBall, TiltBallLite, iPuck, iPunt, RingDance, Scoreloop

Like its sibling, iPuckLite is a fast paced casual arcade game that’s simple to play and extremely engaging.  The objective is the same, to score points by getting the puck in the defender’s net, while guarding your own goal.  With the 1.1 version, the app’s welcome screen presents brief gameplay instructions.

iPuckLite is a fully functional version of iPuck, that simply plays to a lower final score.  Otherwise, all of the functionality and features of the original are also in iPuckLite.  The app provides a great way to try iPuck’s gameplay to reassure yourself that you’ll enjoy it.

 
Why not take a shot?

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, iPuckLite, iPuck, Scoreloop

RingDanceLite provides a soothing audiovisual encounter with your iPhone™ or iPod touch™.  The colored rings dance randomly about your screen.  When they touch, they exchange colors and make a gentle sound.  The calming melodies produced by the dancing rings create a relaxing environment that enables you to either focus your thoughts, or completely surrender to the otherworldly music.

The music produced by the dancing rings may be almost hypnotic, in spite of the distraction presented by the crass commercial imagery.  We hope that the truly evolved will be able to look beyond the logo and use the app as a tool for meditation and concentration.  Of course, we’d be just pleased as punch if these folks went ahead and bought the paid version of the app.  That way, they could avoid all exposure to the logo.  To be honest, though, I created the logo, and I’m not really sure why they’re so offended by it.  I guess that therein lies the difference between the engineer and the artist…

Technorati Tags:  iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, TiltBall, iPuck, iPunt, RingDance, RingDanceLite