Zhephree

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to give you guys a quick heads-up about my availability soon.

Since I have four apps out in the Catalog, I figured I should let my users know that I will most likely not be available to respond to tweets or e-mails over the next week and a half since I’m getting married next weekend.

I will absolutely respond to support requests via Twitter or email once I return from my break.

Here’s where you can get support:

foursquare: if there is a problem with the foursquare service (i.e., not connecting, wrong points, improper mayorship, etc) you can contact foursquare’s support (as you should always be doing in these cases) on Twitter at @4sqSupport or on their support site: http://support.foursquare.com/home. If you have problems with the foursquare app, you can use the in-app contact form to send me a message and I’ll get to it as soon as I start handling e-mail again.

growlr: As with foursquare, if you have problems with the Untappd service, you can contact Untappd via twitter: @untappd or their support site: http://help.untappd.com/ And if you have a problem with the app, shoot me a tweet at @zhephree and I’ll respond sometime after the 16th.

neato!: Shoot me a tweet at @zhephree or @neato_webos and I’ll respond sometime after the 16th.

incredible!: Shoot me a tweet @zhephree or @incrediblewebos and I’ll respond sometime after the 16th.

Just wanted everyone to know so you won’t freak out if I don’t respond in my usual timely manner.

Enjoy a Zhephree-less week!

After HP effectively killed webOS devices and made webOS’s future uncertain, they launched a “firesale” this weekend, pushing TouchPads out the door at $99. They’re sold out almost everywhere. This has lead to thousands of new webOS users itching to download apps. I figured it’d be cool to see what happened with my apps over the weekend.

foursquare
This is by far my most popular app and it continues to be so. In its heyday, about a year or so ago, it would average about 400 downloads per day. In the last 8-12 months, that number has steadily decreased to about 250 per day. Sunday saw 511 downloads, almost double my daily average. TouchPad users went from a handful, around a couple hundred, to over 1700 users checking-in on a TouchPad (including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday downloads). There are now 70% more TouchPad users than Veer users.

neato!
neato! has always had low, but very steady download numbers. Enough cover my monthly cellphone bill, with some spending cash after that. Sunday had a 70% uptick in sales from Saturday, which had a 10% increase from Friday, which also had a 10% increase from Thursday. neato! is a very niche app and it’s hard to explain it in text, so it doesn’t get the downloads it should. It’s also a phone-sized Mojo app, so it doesn’t get top billing like TouchPad-specific apps, making downloads less common on a TouchPad (it works perfectly though). There are now 4 times as many TouchPad users as Veer users, and by the end of the week, I suspect TouchPad users will overtake Pixi users, to put the TouchPad in the number two slot for neato!.

growlr
I don’t track individual downloads for growlr, but from total downloads, it looks like about an 8% increase in users, which is good for such a niche app.

This is all very encouraging to me, and has given me new energy to work on incredible! and get it out the door for the new users. The response from my beta testers has been overwhelmingly positive (with bug reports as well, naturally), so it feels good.

I encourage other webOS devs (even those that gave up) to look at their stats if they can and see how their apps are doing. It might be encouraging!

As I mentioned last week, I’m working on a quick app for Untappd, called growlr. I didn’t quite make my goal of a weekend launch, but I did submit it to Palm last night, so it should be available today. 

First, you’ll need an Untappd account, which you can get from inside the app, or by visiting the Untappd website. On their website, you can login and link your Facebook, Twitter, and foursquare accounts to your Untappd account. This will allow you to share your beer checkins on Twitter and Facebook, as well as check-in to foursquare simultaneously.

After you’ve logged in, you’ll be able to search for a beer, or choose one you’ve recently checked-in to, or one that’s currently trending.

Once you’ve found the beer for which you’re looking, go ahead and tap it (ha!) to view some detailed info about the beer, such as the style of beer, the ABV (if available), how many times you’ve had it, and how popular the beer is.

From here you can check-in to the beer by tapping the button, which will bring you to this scene:

If you’re a foursquare user, this step will be very familiar to you. Simply enter in a comment about the beer, if you wish, then select where you’d like to share your check-in: Facebook or Twitter. You can optionally attach a venue to your Untappd check-in by tapping the “Add Your Location?” button. You don’t even have to be a foursquare user for this. If you aren’t a foursquare user, Untappd just associates the venue with your beer check-in, and this allows you to earn location-specific Untappd badges. If you are a foursquare user, you can toggle the Share with foursquare button to have Untappd check you in on foursquare as well. (You only need to share with foursquare on your first check-in to a location).

Once you’re all checked-in, Untappd will show you some info about your check-in, alert you to any Untappd badges you earned, and list 5 recommended beers to you. And, if you checked-in on foursquare, it’ll show you who the mayor of the venue is, if you stole the mayorship, how many days from the mayorship you are, how many points you’ve earned, and any foursquare badges you’ve earned.

This is only the beginning. Growlr will be a full Untappd client in the end, but for now, it’s focused on the check-in. I’ll add profile views, a feed of your friends’ check-ins, check-in comments, and everything else. I’ll keep you updated!

I like beer. I’ve got beer I love and beer I hate. Breweries that always delight me, and ones that always disappoint. I also love trying new beers and seeing what beer other people are drinking. And that’s where Untappd comes in. Untappd is the foursquare of beer — search for a beer, “check-in” to it to let your friends know what you’re having. After each check-in, Untappd recommends three other beers for you to try based on what you selected, what you’ve had before, and what your friends have had.

You can also rate beers, comment on them, and say where you’re drinking it (which will check you in to foursquare at the same time!). You earn badges for drinking at different places and drinking different beers, or drinking on certain days. Just like foursquare, only, with beer. 

So, if you’re a beer drinker, Untappd is essential. I’ve accepted friend requests from people I’ve never met just to see what beers they drink. I’ve been on the lookout for new brews ever since. 

Untappd launched as a web app — this allowed them to launch on all major smartphones (including webOS) quickly and cheaply, essential for a bootstrapped startup like themselves. They’ve recently launched an API to allow others to build off of their data, which is pretty awesome since I think they’re only 2 guys. I had the pleasure of meeting Greg Avola (one of the founders of Untappd) at the Palm Developer Day in NYC last year and we talked webOS and Untappd (and he was one of the first people to see incredible! in action, too). These are good guys, so, give Untappd a try!

Anyway, their API is pretty new, but already powerful. Remember that feature I said that let you say where you were drinking your beer? Well, it requires a mobile browser that supports geolocation, which, sadly, the webOS 1.4.5 web browser does not. This means the majority of webOS Untappd users can’t add their location to Untappd check-ins.

So, I took it upon myself to build one of the first native Untappd apps, and do it for webOS. This will allow fast loading (no waiting for the web) AND it’ll allow geolocation for venue adding. Plus, with foursquare opening up their venues API, things are easier than ever. 

The app? growlr. (As in “growler”, a type of beer bottle)

There’s your login screen. (minor spacing adjustments have already been made) 

So, what will growlr do? My plan for initial launch is for you to be able to search for a beer, view the beer and check-in to the beer (and attach your location). Future versions will add user profiles, your friends’ activity feeds, commenting, and more. But for now, I want to get the check-in function out because that’s the most important thing that I’m trying to improve upon (geolocation, anyway).

My aim is to launch by this weekend, so if you’re doing your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations this weekend instead of Thursday, you should be good to go!

BTW, speaking of this weekend and St. Patrick’s, check this out and maybe donate a few dollars!