Announcing WordPress Plugin: Elegant Tweets

by

I recently starting working on making my own WordPress plugins. The twitter feeds you see on this site are a result of that – I creatively call it Elegant Tweets. When I starting working on Ascendly, I wanted to make further use of plugins, so as practice, I tried to polish up my first plugin and share it with everyone. Although I want to add more features, it does work as-in, and does not have any known bugs, so enjoy.

This plugin allows you to configure the tweet stream the way you want it. Specifically, it creates a widget for use in your themes that will display zero or more tweet feeds. You can, for example, add your own Twitter username, but, more uniquely, you can also have certain Twitter feeds show based upon the categories assigned to the current page being viewed.

Motivation: I developed this plugin because I occasionally make apps for the mobile phones. Some of my apps have their own Twitter account to announce things like updates. I wanted visitors to my website see my primary feed (@jjrohrer), but to also see the feeds for the apps, but only if they were on pages related to those apps. Now, my posts that relate to a certain app are assigned to a category related to that app. So, when a user views a page, they will see several Twitter streams depending upon which categories are in view.

 

Open App Market is a Potential New Distribution Channel

by

I’m quite interested in learning the impact of different distribution channels on the bottom line.  Elegant Words was my first Web App and was a staff pick by Apple.  Since it was listed in the Apple directory, I’ve been continually impressed by the number of users funneled through there versus organic discovery.

openappmkt.com is a new distribution channel for webapps on iPhone. 30 minutes to push Elegant Words as test. http://bit.ly/ewOnOpenAppMktThu Aug 19 14:11:24 via webJ.J. Rohrer
jjrohrer

We’ll see what happens here. The screen shots below got a little messed up, not sure why.

Oh, I need to add another 15 mins for this write up.

Elegant Words WebApp on Open App Market (Desktop View)

Elegant Words Listing from Phone

Elegant Words as Web App on Phone. Note to self: Fill blank spot on bottom

Nightlight now on the iPad – first impressions.

by

Happy iPad day. I picked up my iPad at Pentagon City this morning. We made it a family outing and my six year old son was at least as excited as I was. We got in and out of the Reserved line a in about 20 minutes, so really a pretty good experience.

I like the iPad so far. Nice screen. Nice keyboard. Nice heft. Very few things to complain about.

Here are my complaints. My home button is a bit loud. A little too loud if you are typing in bed and don’t want to wake your partner. It would be too loud for a meeting, too. I seem to recall, though, that my last iphone had a loud home button, but that it quieted down with use, so take this complaint with a grain of salt.

I also resent that I can’t seem to use my old iPhone cable to charge my iPad. It’s like a big loyalty tax. What is is up with that? Correction: The problem wasn’t with the cable, it was with what it was plugged into. If I plug into my older MacBook pro, then it won’t charge, but it will charge if I lug it into the wall. What is up with that. More correction: charges sometimes on the MacBook a maybe when the iPad is turned off?

All in all, a great product, though. I’ve had a lot of fun with it so far.

I launched an upgrade to Nightlight for the iPad – check it out. Although I was stoked to have that out on opening day, I’m really bummed that I’m still having issues with getting my Powernap upgrade out the door. It’s seems to work fine for me, but apparently crashes on Apple’s test rig – arghhh. [Update: Powernap: Forty winks anywhere is doing just fine.]

I also launched a simple, but useful upgrade to Elegant Quadratic and launch a Pythagorean equation solver and generic math expression solver called Lil Math. These three are using a new technology that I’m developing to streamline app development – especially cross platform stuff. More about that later.

Wallet Zero Launch

by

I got a wonderful email from Apple today telling me that my “app is ready for sale.” So, Wallet Zero launches today. My partner, a very sharp HBS grad, has really helped guide this along. This app could be quite successful.

Wallet Zero is designed to solve the problem of the physical wallet. The problem, other than the dearth of money in it, is that is just too thick. Among things that fill it, are a plethora of loyalty cards, gym membership cards, frequent flyer cards, etc.. Wallet Zero tries to get as many as those, as possible, out of your wallet and onto your iPhone. It is just that simple.

The technology:
For cards that have a barcode, we reproduce that barcode. For those without a barcode, we just show the account number. We also show the support phone numbers for each of the cards.

I’ve had pretty good luck with scanners being able to scan the barcode, but your mileage will vary. Scanner technology seems to vary by region. The CVS by my old house in Florida could read it just fine, but the CVS across the street from me here in Boston can’t scan the barcode, so the clerk enters it manually.

Each barcode is different. We’ve been steadily going through every popular loyalty card and matching the bardcode. This process includes matching the barcode “font” as well as check digits and a few other tricks. It’s a hassle and a lot of work, but it’s great once it’s built.

This is my first free app that isn’t meant to drive sales to another product. The business revolves around back end sales to businesses. This should actually also provide an even better experience to the end user. This first release of the app is mainly a reality check, but I’m hopeful of launching some great upgrades in the near future.

[Update] Wallet Zero is now a Top 50 Lifestyle application!

[Update] The coolest part here: When on the iPhone’s App Store, if you start typing ‘wallet’, it auto-completes to Wallet Zero!