5 Tools to Improve Your Idea Before You Write a Line of Code In my last post on ReadWriteStart, I talked about how, in many cases, it wasn't an advantage to build your start-up in stealth mode. As a continuation of that theme, I thought it would be interesting to explore five tools you can use to iterate and improve your startup idea before writing one line of code. There is nothing worse than building a tool no one is interested in, so I'd encourage you to consider these options before starting down the path of building your next startup. Specifically, these five tools can help you do three critical activities before starting to write a line of code: create a wireframe, get feedback from the target market and test value proposition through multiple landing pages. iMockups for Wireframing Concepts If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a good mockup is worth 1,000 lines of code. Feedback on Concept from Target Market Once you've got a concept put together, it's often valuable to get some early feedback from your target market. Conclusion
Design for iPad Emulator iPad Peek Test your web pages in the iPad browser emulator. Click on the top iPad border to rotate. LiveView for iPhone & iPad LiveView is a specialized remote screen viewing application intended as a tool to help designers create graphics for mobile applications Getting Started Web Development For The iPhone And iPad The iPhone operating system makes up 50% of the worldwide smartphone market, with the next-highest OS being Android at 24%. The iPad Web Design & Development Toolbox The main focus of this article relates to designing websites for the iPad. Useful Design Tips For Your iPad App Think about the device in terms of lifestyle rather than features and technology. GUI & Templates iPad GUI PSD The PSD was constructed using vectors, so it’s fully editable and scalable. iPad Stencil for Omnigraffle OmniGraffle template for folks designing iPad apps Collection Vol. 1 Here's a list of free iPhone & iPad templates and stencils. Collection Vol. 2 Library of UI elements at your disposal. Icons
Diseño y lectura: un nuevo reto para los libros digitales Quienes venden libros electrónicos dicen que, al menos, tienen dos ventajas fundamentales sobre los soportes vegetales: que son capaces de almacenar muchos textos y que el lector puede alterar a su gusto y convenencia el cuerpo de la fuente y, en consecuencia, el tamaño de la caja de composición, por si no tuviera a mano las gafas de ver. La primera de las hipotéticas ventajas se desmonta fácilmente: una vez escuché decir al gran José Afonso Furtado que si en un país como los nuestros (Portugal y España) en que las personas que adquieren más de veinte libros al año no pasan de puñado, de unos pocos miles, no parece tener demasiado sentido invertir en un aparato que nunca va a amortizarse, porque apenas se aprovechará para descargar una decena de libros a lo largo de una vida. Algunos proponen una solución aberrante (y que me perdone Steve Jobs): diseñemos todo para los IPad, que son el soporte digital que nos enseña el camino del futuro.
Interactive Experiments Focused on HTML5 iPad Mags Need A New Blueprint Ever since the iPad came out, print media companies have been feeling their way in this new medium, but so far they’ve just been stumbling over themselves. They are latching onto the iPad as a new walled garden where people will somehow magically pay for articles they can get for free in their browsers. But if they want people to pay, the experience has to be better than on the Web, and usually it’s not. This sorry state of affairs is true for both magazines and newspapers. The New York Times iPad app, for instance, is gorgeous but crippled. All the links are stripped out of the articles, even from the blogs. Despite the poor reviews and uninspiring number of downloads, media companies sold millions of dollars worth of advertising last year for their iPad apps because advertisers want to be associated with anything shiny and new. However, I am not holding my breath. At the very least, Apple should fix the subscription problem in iTunes.
Los futuros del libro En defensa de las librerías En el marco del día mundial del libro y las librerías, el 23 de abril, el CERLALC publica En defensa de las librerías. Recomendaciones en materia de políticas públicas, gremiales e individuales para el fortalecimiento de las librerías en Iberoamérica. Este documento fue escrito por el editor y autor español Joaquín Rodríguez, ganador del Premio de Comunicación Científica de la Comunidad de Madrid en el año 2011 y creador del portal web de análisis editorial Los Futuros del Libro. Ante la crisis del tejido librero en relación con las plataformas de venta de libros en línea, el CERLALC considera urgente ofrecer a los gobiernos y libreros mismos ideas, propuestas y recomendaciones para fortalecer lo que se ha venido a conocer como el eslabón más débil de la cadena del libro. El documento busca propiciar condiciones que posibiliten la continuidad de estos espacios y la adaptación a cambios en formatos de circulación y acceso a los libros ya publicados.
REST API - Evri Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Registration and API Use Limits 2 URIs and Response Types 3 Versioning 4 Resources 5 Core Concepts 6 Example Scenarios 7 Code Samples 8 Feedback and Troubleshooting 9 Known Issues Introduction The Evri API gives you programmatic access to Evri’s rich mapping of the entity web, or the web of people, places and things connected to one another via language itself. Entities located in an article or body of text Popular entities on the entity web broken down by various categories like politician , actor or film . Structured information about an entity including things like birth date , death date , universities attended , children , etc. How entities are related including the news, blog, or web language that links them on the entity web How entities or combinations of entities are related to documents, images and video found on the web Media recommendations for entities, or combinations of entities, based on a specific news, blog, or web article mention. Versioning Resources
Opinion: Why The Daily Is So Yesterday Imagine my surprise when I received personal email from someone at Rupert Murdoch’s just-announced iPad app and national news publication, The Daily, encouraging me to post “info, images, video, and more” from their news release. Those who aren’t interested in the inside baseball of new publishing ventures probably missed or ignored the announcement—after all, we’re talking about just another iPad news app, which isn’t exactly news beyond the publishing industry. So why am I telling you about it? A few reasons. Also, in this celebrity-focused age, any move by a billionaire must be interesting, no? Finally, with a few exceptions, The Daily has a business model that hasn’t been available to other publishers selling in the App Store, a recurring subscription that costs $0.99 per week or $39.99 per year. So, a whizzy new iPad app, funded by the deep pockets of a publishing magnate, with Apple’s direct involvement—what’s not to like? Of more concern is the content side.