Live Blogging the LAUNCH 'PAD Tablet Event Today -- Oct. 21
Our sold-out LAUNCH 'PAD Tablet event at Microsoft's Silicon Valley Conference Center today will showcase 25 awesome companies -- four will launch new apps and six will unveil new features. Learn more about these companies in the speaker list.
Check out who's launching at the event today here.
The live blog will begin at 9 am PDT/12 pm EDT.
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Live video for mobile from Ustream
This concludes the live blog for the LAUNCH 'PAD tablet event.
[4:48] Audience members voted on the best companies. Jason is about to reveal the winners.
Best in Show -- Condition One
Second -- Stuck on Earth
Third Place: Drcrhono
[4:47] Is the iPad perfect or is there something you wish it could do better?
Arvind says he is looking for a high resolution screen. Taek wants more APIs.
[4:44] It seems like the overwhelming majority here are going with the iPad, so what could Android do better?
Taek says that testing takes far less time for Apple because there is only one unit. Android is a little difficult because there are so many varieties of tablets. Robb says that they encountered the same thing, but there is a whole market for accessories that doesn't exist for Android.
[4:35] Are photographers being reborn through the Stuck on Earth app?
Trey says that beautiful things on the iPad brings out the childlike behavior in humans. People need more apps and more web content to share beautiful photography.
Trey says that Facebook has softly pressured people into trying to post better and better photos than their friends. At the same time cameras are so good that photos are all so literal, filters bring back the mystery of images.
[4:32] There has still got to be a bottle neck, but how do the apps address better customer service?
Robb says they are adding more upsells in the table confirmation in the app, but they are looking to find more engaging ways to retain guests. NoWait tracks how many people leave the restaurant who don't put their name down on the list.
What is the time that makes people leave?
Some people will wait an hour and a half some won't wait 30 minutes. NoWait also tracks quoted wait times versus actual times and customer loss.
[4:30] Can you tell us budget and resources to create the eHarmony app?
Arvind says they worked with a design outfit called Jackson Fish Market, development started in the first quarter and it took a lot of time. But interactions they drew up on paper didn't really work. Arvind says it took about six to eight months. It did not take millions of dollars to build.
It took about a year to build.
Is this in double digit revenue percentage?
Arvind says he can't disclose revenue numbers but mobile represents more than 30% of new registrants.
[4:27] How big was the shake compared to the data and the gimmick of the shake for restaurant discovery?
Kara says it was big, but the quality of the recommendations have been excellent. Close to 50% of the traffic on the app comes from the what's nearby function of the app.
[4:25] The final Q&A session is about to begin.
[4:22] NoWait can be synced on multiple devices and can help the restaurant with their table turns as multiple users can be monitoring the wait list and available tables.
[4:20] The cutomer gets a text message with their wait time and they can see their place in line. As they move up in the queue they can see the change on their phone and receive a text message when their table is finally ready.
[4:18] NoWait is targeting casual dining restaurants and are avoiding the segments that Open Table and other competitors already occupy. NoWait is table management that texts guests when their table is ready so they don't have to wait in ridiculous lines to get a table at their favorite casual dining restaurants.
[4:17] Robb Myer, CEO of NoWait, is about to take the stage in the last presenation of the day.
[4:15] Kara says that they have a transparent pricing structure. They only charge if it comes off of their network and are about 20% to 40% less than Open Tables pricing. Kara says that when they first launched the app in Seattle they went to their top customers in the market to help UrbanSpoon develop the product.
[4:12] Jason walks into the restaurant and demands a table for 150. It turns out Jason is in the database but there is a diner note that is in their permanently that says he is a loud and is prone to innapropriate behavior, but he is also a VIP. No Klout integration though to Jason's shigrin. Host's can also take down relevant information to identify the diner and can even send a text message to the diner that their table is ready.
[4:10] For restaurant owners the UrbanSpoon iPad app emulates a paper reservation book. They can see where they have open reservations and can even push out open time slots for reservations to the app or website and fill the table.
[4:08] Kara says they just passed their 1B shake. UrbanSpoon is now trying to take discovery to the next level and introduce restaurant committments with through reservations. UrbanSpoon makes making a quick reservation quick. Kara says there are many advantages for restaurants, but today only about 20K restaurants are using online systems.
[4:07] Kara Nortman, GM of UrbanSpoon, takes the stage.
[4:07] We're in the second generation of iPad apps. They need to be functional, they need to be beautiful but they need to connect to the user.
[4:05] The app also lets you navigate through large photos to explore more about where a person comes from and if the user decides to initiate communication.
[4:03] The main dashboard allows the user to see other users who are checking out their profiles. The match view is set up in a basic polaroid style view like a baseball card, Arvind says. He says that they are trying to teach users not to just make snap judgements based on their photos. They are trying to train them to read more information about the person scattered with photos.
[4:00] Bound in a leather book the famous eHarmony quiz to find their match. The app doesn't let you race through questions and will slow you down with messages that say "Slow down, it's not a race." Once people join eHarmony they need to make sure their profiles look good. They can snap photos, upload photos from storage or import photos from Facebook.
At eHarmony they are now seeing about 30% of their photos coming from Facebook.
[3:59] Arvind Mishra, senior director of product management for eHarmony introduces his company's new iPad app.
[3:56] On Wednesday, the company announced Dolphin connect to store your add-ons and preferences in the cloud. The Dolphin browser was first released in 2009 for Android and only released their iOS versions a few months ago.
Taek says that they asked their Android users to promote their iOS release.
[3:52] Taek Chung, GM of MoboTap the creator of the Dolphin browser. Taek shows how the app allows him to connect to blogs he likes like Jason Calacanis' blog. So by simply drawing a 'JC' on the screen he can pull up the blog.
Dolphin browser allows users to use more than 60 different add-ons like from the shake add-on which allows you to switch tabs by shaking the device. The goal of Dolphin browser is designed to create more intuitive interfaces. In the Japanese market the company has added custom add-ons for their customers who wanted Evernote add-ons and Facebook add-ons.
[3:51] Trey says that you should just focus on building one awesome product. The app will be available in about two weeks.
[3:48] How much does the app cost? $4.99, $3.99, $2.99? It's a free app without ads. It's not too good to be true it's just too good.
[3:46] There is contextual information, maps and the photos to help guide you while you are on your trip. How do you find awesome stuff? It's hard and a mess. Stuck on Earth does all of that in one place so you can get to amazing places. There are hundreds of 'top 50' lists, from the top 50 best college campuses on Earth. For each thing you discover with the app you can add it to your someday list.
[3:44] Based on crowd sourcing, curation and algorthims in unison populate the most amazing places in the world and allows you to make a bucket list. Famous photographers all over the world are curating data. Trey says the data is available for you to experience on a "trip" which include awesome places to visit.
[3:40] Back from break. Trey Ratcliff is about discuss his new product, Stuck on Earth app. A travel photographer by trade Trey started a blog Stuck in Customers. Life is about collecting awesome experiences, that's why Trey created the app, to create more beauty in the world. The app changes based on your personal preferences.
Stuck on Earth, uses one of the top three voice over artists in the world and uses a more seductive tone if you are a male.
[3:15] Final break before the last session which will include Trey Ratcliff, founder, Stuck in Customs, Stuck on Earth app; Taek Chung, GM, MoboTap, Dolphin browser; Arvind Mishra, senior director of product management, eHarmony; Kara Nortman, GM, UrbanSpoon, Rezbook app; Robb Myer, CEO, NoWait.
[3:11] How did you decide to release the 47th product design after the first 46? Kiran says that they wait until it feels right and must follow the foundational principals of their products. From the removal of loading screens to touch reaction gets right they don't even consider publishing to the app store. While they are building it they use it. When they are ready, they put it out.
Woody does focus groups with his 5-year-old, 3-year-old and 1-year-old. They are very formal meetings -- iPads and pizza.
[3:10] Has Sencha thought about building an HTML 5 store? Michael from Sencha says they're not even thinking about getting into that game.
[3:02] How do you manage the risk of a release after so many iterations and how do you decide between releasing quick versus slow?(To Kiran 955 Dreams).
Kiran says that its the wrong idea to release a MVP and before they release something they know they will have some failures being a direct to consumer company. But the company embracing the idea that you live and die by a product.
Vince says there is a difference between releasing an MVP versus just releasing crap. You can polish your core principal and snowball your product as you grow.
[3:00] Would Ubersense consider licensing their technology? Amit says they have thought about it, but releasing APIs is something they will consider later next year but for now they are focused on building their own app.
Did you start with the app idea or did you have the technology first? (To Ubersense). They say the app idea came first. Using your iPhone to play a video and step through a frame you miss what your trying to fix. So they created the video codec to address that need.
[2:58] Kiran says that for their Band of the Day app they went through 46 complete front to back design forms before they settled on the product they released for consumers.
[2:54] The panel discusses native versus HTML 5 development. Vince says that if you build an app that engages a consumer wait times and loading screens are forgivable. Kiran says that loading screens are unforgivable. Woody says that they have built a product in HTML 5 and he thinks its a good experience because its a consistent experience. But the lag on the high resolution images you need to play with the sizes to maintain the best kind of experience.
[2:50] Kiran says that he thinks that carriers will never be able to help you with billing -- Verizon can't even bill its customers correctly can you imagine controling your sales. He says that the real way to make money is to focus on consumers who have their credit cards ready to buy your apps if you build them correctly.
[2:48] Woody says that the world isn't so much a tablet marketplace as it is a iPad marketplace. He says that on the Nook 60% -- as much as 20% of their sales -- of the owners are moms and they are book readers, but most people don't know it's an Android tablet. He has high hopes for the Kindle Fire.
[2:45] Q&A time. An audience asks about Vince's lesson about how not all devices are created equal. Vince says that all the promotions are not equal. A lot of people assume that if you get featured by Apple you are going to get thousands of downloads. If you're free, maybe. If you charge $10 like TripLingo, not so much.
[2:44] Michael shows us one site that has taken advantage of Sencha's technology. The Orea Hotel magazine allows you to swipe through pages. Sencha provides the raw materials to do all the work to make sure that it's not about better content presentation, but better data presentations.
[2:42] On the web there are no house rules, no one is going to charge you rent and you can't get kicked out. But there is a problem using touch-based devices on the web like sites like the New York Times. The Financial Times has made some efforts to include touch navigation but it is still limited. That's where Sencha comes in.
[2:40] Michael Mullany, CEO of Sencha is about to take the stage. Sencha makes the leading tools for creating web apps that look and feel like native applications on touch-based devices. Developing for native platforms is a lot like being a house guest. If you stick along too long you will get kicked out. One out of every five iPad apps gets rejected their first time being submitted.
[2:38] Amit says their goal is to help all athletes be able to use the same type of technology professional use for just $5. Ubersense has also just sign on two winter Olympics teams to use the product -- here's hoping they win some medals.
[2:36] Amit Jardosh, co-founder of Ubersense, is about to take the stage. Ubersense lets amateur golfers and other athletes to analyze things like their golf swing -- an area they initially focused on. Ubersense helps users see the angles they are taking on their golf swing to a professional athlete -- one on top of another or by turning the iPad sideways they can do side-by-side comparisons.
[2:35] Vince says they chose the Nook because it was a product they knew consumers would actually purchase the app. iPad app....soon. He almost named a date, but caught himself.
[2:32] TripLingo also includes travel situations for things that you just need to know now, about dining, shopping or even how to catch a taxi. Another huge benefit: TripLingo doesn't rely on the Internet. And if it doesn't work out in Mexico there are nine other languages.
[2:30] Imagine if you will, Vince says, he is about to go on a trip to Mexico but he doesn't know any Spanish. TripLingo lets him choose what type of phrases he would like to learn. Define the audience for his conversation, food restrictions etc to create a personalized phrase book. So while he is on the plane he can study the phrase list. The benefit of TripLingo includes a patented slang-slider, which includes the formal way to say something or the way to speak with friends on the street. It also includes phonetics and audio.
[2:29] Vince Baskerville, co-founder of TripLingo, takes the stage to present his app for the Nook.
[2:27] Woody says that they always have to keep in mind who their end users are. Mom, dad, children and distributers so they need to be careful so that they create an engaging experience for the child but also the educational qualities parents will like and maintaining high design standards.
[2:25] Woody says that they are not just making apps they are a 21st century publisher and they are currently working with major publishers like Harper Collins. The product isn't format specific and can be migrated to wherever app purchases are. He also demonstrates a beta version of Puss and Boots, which will be released soon. In addition to the linear storytelling it allows the viewer to go deeper into the film or book and includes audio from the movie with touch animations.
[2:23] As a parent, when you open up zuuka's new app parents can read the book together with their child or they can choose to have the book read to their own child. The app also includes animations and games for children to engage with the content.
[2:21] Woody Sears, founder of zuuka creator of Smurf Book, is about to take the stage. Kids are great but they can be a lot of work and we are always looking for ways to entertain, educate or just simply occupy your kids time.
[2:19] Kiran says that he has a 7 second rule. That's all the time you have to wow me, he says.
[2:16] Touch is a new paradigm Kiran says. The company's first product, the History of Jazz gives users a fluid and dynamic experience when using the product over layers. Each level and the physics of the product were carefully thought out, which is what makes it different from the web.
[2:14] Kiran of 955 Dreams says the company started 11 to 12 months ago, and since that launch they have put out three products. They have had five consecutive Apps of the Week. 955 Dreams build emotive products Kiran says. He says that they are always trying to capture and measure a users emotive response after using a product. They don't do focus groups.
[2:10] The next session is about to begin, featuring Kiran Bellubbi, CEO, 955 Dreams (Band of the Day, History of Jazz); Woody Sears, founder of zuuka (Smurf book); Vince Baskerville, co-founder, TripLingo; Amit Jardosh, co-founder, UberSense; Michael Mullany, CEO, Sencha.
[2:06] Sam Levin, of AppMinute, says Showyou in intriging but his favorite is Plizzy, but he says he wants to do Plizzy parties, how does Showyou differentiate from competition, how will you monetize it?
Mark of Showyou, says that people get caught up in the interface of Showyou. There were 4.1M links from user feeds in one day -- 70 videos a minute -- but the idea is being really thoughtful for the content that is available. He says that advertising is the way. Possibly through promoted tweets or sponsored brand grids.
Sam Levin says they should do "Showyou kid" that would display content just for kids. Users pay for the app after a certain amount of time. Then after it goes away the kid starts crying and then the parents will run and purchase the app.
[2:00] Jason asks Ole if they've thought about creating content for someone to provide criticism to go along with a film.
Ole says he could see that use happen -- saying even a Silicon Valley startup could take the idea to curate that type of criticism to create commentary for existing films that could be built.
Ryan of MoPix says that the assets his company was built on was simply from what was provided from the film universe. MoPix was originally created for individual content creators, but now they are in talks with major distributors who are looking for a new medium to make profit on their existing collections.
[1:55] Danfung says that using Condition One really changes the traditional rules of framing and compostions because users will decide the view of the protaganist. He says that the camera system is not something he can talk about but it's cheap and easy for immersive filmmakers to use Condition One.
[1:52] Q&A time. Seth Cohen, a developer, asks if Condition One has done tests with standard news casts with music background, or even the Condition One app without music versus with.
Danfung says in one situation he made the person put on some headphones and watch a 15 minute clip they prepared from footage made in Libya. Without music after a few moments the person had outbursts of swearing and totally immersed in the experience. Music is good for previews but its not something that he particularly uses.
[1:50] Whenever a new hardware device is introduce into the gaming space it takes a while for developers to come to grips with the device and often resort to sticking to what they know, shoehorning it in. He says to think about the device and controls within the device because when you are introducing a new concept of control because it needs to be clear from the start. Developers should also think about the situation where users will be playing their games. Developers have a really small release window for their tablet creations so they should create nice preview videos beyond the few images they are allowed on the app store. Final piece of advice: roll the dice. Angry Bird's was Rovio's 51st game and a majority of their games were less casual so they really branched out with Angry Birds.
[1:46] Joe says one Unity developers, mikamobile -- which originally started as one guy, his cat and his girlfriend -- produced a game called Zombieville USA, Oh My God Pirates and Battle Heart. Another, Madfinger Games creation SHADOWGUN is basically current generation platform graphics on a tablet.
[1:45] Unity is a game development environment but can be used for any form of 3D content as well, Joe says. The unity build settings allows users to choose different deployment targets like Android or iOS mode to make it as simple as possible to create a game. Unity also allows developers to actually play the game and polish their games really fast. Joe says that they are also trying to democratize game development and empower individuals and larger companies when creating games.
[1:42] Joe Robins, community evangelist for Unity Technology, takes the stage to talk about creating tablet games.
[1:41] He says they struggled to come up with a lesson because they are learning 50 or more things a day. But to get people to tweet and share about an app they really need to connect to it.
[1:38] Ole says that in order to create the four apps that are available to users to download they created an indepth framework to be able to release the apps soon after the movie releases and also push out a Japanese version as well.
[1:36] Ole says that the app MX created has about 1500 images is probably one of the best digital coffee table books you have ever had. The real bonus though: when you are watching the film on your device with the app open, the app displays galleries of images used to create the scenes and other background information. Users can also explore at their own will or re-sync to the movie.
[1:33] Ryan says that they are looking to grow their team. Having done film apps and previously doing book apps he says that developers should price their content at what people are going to pay for it. If your content is that good that you can charge $20.99 or $14.99 then go for it.
[1:32] Ryan shows the film, "The Tunnel" which has all of the items that used to make up the criterion collection that used to appear on DVDs, but since the advent of Netflix there are fewer and fewer films that include these features.
[1:31] The DVD is dead. Blu-Ray is dead, Ryan says. MoPix is here to make it easy for any level of creator to build their very own app to distribute their product. Users can choose what type of platform they want to make their app for from the iPhone, Kindle Fire to the iPad.
[1:30] Ryan Stoner, CEO of MoPix, takes the stage to talk about MoPix's content platform to replace DVDs.
[1:28] A lot of people look at the app and say that even though it's a beautiful interface, couldn't anyone do it? But power to create such a product comes from hours and hours of data management. Showyou has been featured by Apple multiple times.
[1:26] Yesterday, 4.1M videos through user feeds on the Showyou app. Mark says that users can find videos from authoritative sources like your favorite blogs.
[1:22] Mark Hall, CEO of Remixation creators of the Showyou app takes the stage. Mark says that over the next week there will be more video uploaded to YouTube than you can watch in your entire life. He says the tablet should be the best device to consume this content, but we are already overwhelmed by it. How do you make sense of it?
Showyou lets you sign up with Twitter or Facebook with one touch signup on iOS 5. Showyou shows videos from friends and other sources right away. Users can respond retweet and share videos with their friends.
[1:20] Danfung says he is talking to Bloomberg, National Geographic and Frontline on pricing and using the product for their own purposes.
[1:19] He says that Condition One sees other companies moving in to this same space but they are just repackaging the material. They are using it in journalism, but it can be applied for use in extreme sports and travel. Condition One is purely a B2B model and is looking to license the software to other companies. They provide consultations on how to record the videos and embed their fully immersive video on the company's app. Condition One will be released in the app store soon he promises.
[1:17] Danfung then demonstrates the power of the app, by moving left or right the window pans and puts the viewer in the scene. Then by holding the device and moving up, down, left and right the viewer is immersed in Condition One scenes that are fully viewable from all angles. He says that the idea is to create an emotional connection to the actions as they take place by putting the user in control of the scene as if they were there.
[1:15] Danfung has been working in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001, but even though his images were being printed. In July 2009, he was embeded with a helicopter company dropped back behind enemy lines. He turned that footage turned into a 90-minute film. But even that film doesn't really do the actual event justice so he developed a new camera to capture the action and put togther a team to build the software.
[1:10] We're back! The first presentation after the lunch break will be Danfung Dennis, CEO of Condition One.
[12:45] Mingling at lunch. The next session should begin in about 15 minutes.
[12:00] Lunch break. The next session begins at 1 pm and will feature Danfung Dennis, CEO, ConditionOne; Mark Hall, CEO of Remixation, Showyou app; Ryan Stoner, CEO, MoPix (Transcendant Man); Ole Lutjens, chief creative officer, MX; Joe Robins, community evangelist, Unity Technologies.
[11:57] So you have brought the patient doctor relationship together, increased awareness, but where do you see the future into the medical device space? an audience member asks Drchrono and JiffPad.
James Currier of JiffPad says, that they're opening up an API to facilitate the usage across multiple devices and once the interface becomes simple enough for everyone to use there will be high adoption.
[11:50] Will Mason, of Vibe.Me, asks if Idea Flight is WiFi based technology or if it can be done on a grander scale.
Peter says that Idea Flight currently only works on WAN or Bluetooth but they found that the WiFi network between several of their own company's building were able to present to another person in a different building over the phone using Idea Flight.
Peter says they are still learning about their product and what they will do next so the possibility of licensing the technology to incorporate it with other apps.
[11:48] How do these companies get user testing together? an audience member asks.
Jason Baptiste of OnSwipe says companies should bring in a child to play with your product because it's basically the same as having beta testers. You'll find out what people can discover on their own and how simple your product actually is.
Michael Nusimow says that they use Test Flight to test their product that 100 doctors will use and give them feedback. So after three or four product tests they can go to the app store with confidence.
[11:45] The Q&A session begins, with an audience member asking about the death of the presentation and the way Drchrono and JiffPad are changing the way people interact?
Peter says that in using Idea Flight people are able to keep stronger eye contact and he can know that each person in the room is actually seeing each piece of information he is trying to highlight.
[11:43] Jason asks Peter if they ever thought about recording the lesson. Peter says that all of the ideas you think should be in the app are a part of Idea Flight's roadmap. Peter says that even though they are under the Conde Nast brand, like David Temkin of AOL, they say that it is possible to create in a big company.
[11:41] The team really thought that the app would be perfect for business, but they were surprised to find out that educators were more excited for the app. That way they could keep their students on track and keep them away from using Facebook.
[11:36] Peter Ciccotto, director of product, and Dan Wells, senior developer for the Idea Flight app for Conde Nast. The app lets one person control a presentation on another app, controling the flight. By unlocking the seatbelt the other users can skip through your slides and look ahead in your presentation, but if he needs someone he can bring them back. Idea Flight can connect to LinkedIn in case you forget a persons name, you can look them up.
[11:34] Jason says he saw some important people in the crowd like Robert Scoble, so he made a call to his teammate to OnSwipe his site. Jason says that over the past few months that advertising on a tablet is different. "It's the tv of this generation," it's what they wake up with, what they go to sleep with and advertising will become beautiful ads.
[11:32] But now using OnSwipe, the app recognizes the user is on a tablet and lets them use their tablets capabilities to swipe through articles, enlarge photos, and even see what people have said on Twitter or find other articles. Even the adds are preloaded so that the publisher doesn't miss out on potential revenue from advertising.
[11:30] Jason Baptiste CEO of OnSwipe takes the stage. He says that OnSwipe is building for the iPad with HTML5 in mind. He says that companies are generating more traffic because of tablets and he wants to maximize the publishers experience. He begins by showing what one of his favorite online content companies, Slate looks like on a regular browser.
[11:28] Aya says that they have been trying to re-think the traditional search and change the way users interact. Jason asks if Bing users will be able to have the same experience on their desktop as the tablet. Aya says that he imagines that Bing will work as a shell and will download new bits of data.
[11:25] Aya Zook, SPM for Bing, takes the stage to demostrate the new Bing tablet experience. There will be no jarring jumps to Safari or outside browsers the new Bing experience keeps everything in app. Bing also stores news data from the past seven days so in case you have an off day and need to catch up on what happened you can use the app.
[11:22] James says the lesson they have learned has been with pricing models. THe natural pricing model is 30-90 day free trials. Culuturaly Apple is focused on consumer models and not enterprise models so entrepreneurs need to be mindful.
[11:20] Doctors can use the camera function to create new slides of injuries. Patients just need a computer to watch their Jiff talk from their doctor. They can also choose to share the data with other doctors or their family members. Doctors can also suggest other apps the patient they think they may want to check out. James says that they had to shutdown their app after the first 48-hours of launch because the response was too overwhelming.
[11:18] Doctors can choose slides that correspond with explanations they need to give to their patients. When they are completed the whole explanation is turned into a video that the doctor can send to the patient. Jiff pad has more than 200 pre-licensed slide decks and doctors can add images they need.
[11:15] James Currier, executive chairman of Jiff, takes the stage to demonstrate Jiff pad a tablet based application that aims to solve communcations issues between doctors and patients. There are about 10M clinical visits per day, where the revenues are for the medical industry the only issue is that 80% of what is said to a patient is forgotten.
[11:12] The app for doctors also shows them side effects of drugs and interactions with other drugs. The app also lets the doctor take any CT scan and mark it up and show you the image as a learning tool or for their own personal notes. Drchrono takes all of the information for the app and creates medical records of the visit and makes the billing process easier. Michael says that he learned that if you put a lot of effort into design and and usability doctors will adopt the new technology. Michael say 11K doctors currently use Drchrono.
[11:10] Doctors are going digital, Drchrono is building apps to help doctors and enhance care. Their OnPatient app replaces paper and pen information submission, which is locked down, and lets them update your information digitally so that there is no delay during the input process. Drchrono has also created an app for doctors which lets them do patient visits and clearly -- for once -- show their handwriting and allow them to record voice notes on the app.
[11:08] Ten minute break turned into a 20, but Jason has wrangled everyone back into the room to start the next session. Michael Nusimow, CEO of Drchrono, a platform for healthcare providers, is up first in the second session.
[11:00] The break after the first session is just about over.
[10:50] The first session of the day at the LAUNCH 'PAD conference is complete, we will return at 11am. The next group, to take the stage will be Michael Nusimow, CEO, Drchrono; James Currier, executive chairman, Jiff Inc., JiffPad app; Aya Zook, senior product manager, Bing; Jason Baptiste, CEO, OnSwipe; Peter Ciccotto, director of product, and Dan Holly Wells, senior developer, Idea Flight app, Condé Nast.
[10:40] Most people buy their subscriptions for Evernote through their website, but they offer in-app purchases. Conversion rates are low in the first few months but after a year they jump so they typically are subscribing on the website. Their conversion rates are higher among Apple users.
[10:37] An audience member asks Phil Libin about being surprised by screen sizes. He says that it happens often with Android because there are so many releases and there is not a whole lot of warning. But he says he believes Google understands that companies are trying to provide the best experience for each device so that may change.
[10:35] The presenters are asked about publishing images and content. Dave from Aol says that they basically scrape the content for the app, but they do provide a view to the site where the original content appeared.
[10:32] All of the apps at LAUNCH 'PAD are free, but KNO charges for the books. Osman says that they are adding value to the product and it's still cheaper than a physical book.
[10:30] Phil Libin says that it's not about being at the top of the App store for a few days it's about consistency. He says it's better to do a great app after a lot of soft launches to get it right because Apple and Android all promote apps that are actually good.
[10:29] The Q&A sections begins. An audience member asks about softlaunching versus creating a MVP. Mark says that you really need to get a critical mass of users on your product. The era of the soft launch is over he says. Some are even launching on Android first so they can test their product.
[10:24] Zite CEO Mark Johnson takes the stage and begins by setting up a profile with the audience. Mark announces a new release for Zite, somethign they are calling Sybil -- the story of a woman with multiple personalities -- because in the typical household there are many people sharing one device. About 10% of stories on Zite are shared or saved via email Twitter or Instapaper
Zite was bought by CNN about a month ago, but Mark says you learn that you have really only one chance to get to the top of the App Store. We have 120K downloads and were at the top for 24 hours, but he says that you should try and get your app right before really going for it.
[10:22] It is actually possible to create an innovative app inside of a big company. He asks the audience how many work in big companies -- he is in the minority. Classic big company issues, the innovators dilema. It took 10 people to create the app, but at the same time they could have spent their time other places and increasing revenue, Editions is still niche.
There are people inside the company who don't get it still, Dave says. Then the product needs to be compromised to fit in with the overall goals and ideas of the company, he says you have to fight it.
[10:20] David Temkin, AOL Editions, takes the stage to talk about Editions. Each edition of the AOL created magazine are customized for each user, each day. It comes once a day and begins with the mailing label. But AOL is also using an algorithm to find what is actually important each day. AOL has just recently added interactive 3D advertising to Editions -- if you haven't noticed yet. One thing users really love is that Editions can be completed. There is a beginning, middle and and an end.
[10:16] When we were building cheg the learned that everything has problems. But, KNO has been able to address these issues because they are maniacal about service. We are messing around with their grade if we have problems in the iOS 5 ugrade. KNO wrote special software to import all of the students data when the upgrade lost some of the students data. KNO has licensed its original tablet hardware -- which it started creating before the launch of iPad.
[10:15] As students highlight things from their books in the app, KNO creates a journal stream that you can find all of your important notes in one place. Students can take pictures and add them to the app. Osaman says KNO will add the ability to write directly on to the screen soon.
[10:10] With all of the textbooks in the app, KNO has taken all of the pieces from the textbook like diagrams, photos and can create a quiz based on diagrams. Textbooks will go from being bodies of knowledge to assesment based systems, he says. Osman says that KNO has gone ahead and added elements to books to fully integrate the learning experience for the students. Moving the book from analog to digital.
[10:07] Osman Rashid, CEO of KNO, takes the stage to talk about his education based software and to introduce Textbooks and the KNO course manager. The idea is to keep all your notes, pdfs and other important materials in one spot. Highlighting is a major function that all students need to do. Texbooks allows the user to use their finger as a highlighter, gone are the days of the dragging from one word to another and trying to highlight the right sections.
[10:04] Immersion is licensing the Haptic software to other companies so they can incorporate life-like feedback on their apps.
[10:02] Jason plays a pinball game and can feel the machine shaking when you hit the bumpers. "Pocket Pinball" Jason says.
[10:00] Christophe Ramstein, CTO Immersion, takes the stage to talk about working in the gaming space. Christophe is going to show some demonstration of Haptix tactile tablet experience. He shows a guitar strumming app, and strumming his fingers across the screen he feels the vibrations of the strings, the thicker the stronger. It would feel the same vibration as a real guitar Jason says as he plays with the application.
[9:58] You have to do full native for ever tablet device you support, there is no cross platform development.
[9:55] Phil shows off the original iPad specs they worked with to develop their software. They cut up pieces of cardboard and would photoshop buttons and put them on and lived with iPads made of cardboard. Then Apple released a simunlator. But Phil didn't even see Evernote running on the iPad until after standing in line himself -- and it was pretty good, maybe even better than on cardboard.
[9:52] Since Evernote had 20 years of experience with developing for tablets -- moral of the story, nothing is the same as it was 20 years ago, they have no advantage. Today's tablet is the most unforgiving design because no one really needs a tablet. Everyone needs a phone so you're willing to put up with compromises. People need a PC -- or they think they do -- but there is a history of poor UX. The tablet is a big enough screen and you can't get away with doing a half-assed job on the app -- or even fully assed, even though many are.
[9:50] Phil Libin of Evernote takes the stage to talk about creating Evernote, which they began on the Newton.
[9:47] Apple can accomplish the retna display because they quadrupled the resolution. It was still managable, less than SGA. The panel is the most expensive part of the iPhone 4 and 4S, but the technology does not reallyexist to expand the display size on its phones. It's probably not happening in the next year, maybe 2012.
[9:46] How will Siri change things? Jason asks. Ryan says he can't wait for the API to be released. Ryan thinks that Apple will revolutionize the product.
[9:45] It will be challenging for iPad to drop its price to compete with newer tablets like the Fire which will retail for a few hundred dollars. Jason asks if the iPad 3 will have solar panels. Ryan says it will also do your laundry, but Siri could probably already do that.
[9:42] The Kindle represents a new class of lower end tablets that will actually expand the reach of tablet consumers. Cut the price of the iPad in half, increase sales. That's a dramatic price drop, but the Kindle Fire will probably sell a lot regardless.
[ 9:40] 'What does the future hold?' Ryan asks. Ryan thinks that the Kindle Fire is the best competitor for the iPad and it isn't even playing the same game. He thinks that in the last 5 years no one has been able to compete with the iPad. It's not a specs war, they don't need LTE or high resolution displays so what product can touch the core criteria of the iPad. Sleek design, beautiful interface, aggressive pricing and answering the question of why should I buy this.
[9:34] It all really started with the Windows tablet PC, where the pen took the place of the mouse. But now we can actually see that Microsoft was a real pioneer in the tablet space. This was their vision for tablet computing would look like. They were close, they missed the mark and didn't quite get there.
Allen Kay said that the Mac was the first PC worth criticizing. Steve Jobs invited Allen Kay to the iphone event, and asked if the iPhone was worth critizing. His advice, make the screen 5x8 and you will rule the world.
[9:31] Ryan says the joke is that there are no small expectations what tablets are are supposed to do for us. It all started with PDAs and slowly started to taper off with the advent of smartphones. Now every major platform runs on a platform that was run on a platform that was supposed to be for a smartphone. We think of Apple as the tablet leading platform, but that wasn't always the case. The whole ecosystem just wasn't ready yet at the time.
[9:30] The stuff you are going to see today is truly cutting edge. We have created a format where folks will come up for 3-5 minutes to show what they have built for each type of app. Then they will share their big takeaway from building tablet app.s Then all five will return to the stage for a Q&A.
[9:28] Host Jason Calacanis welcomes the audience to LAUNCH PAD. The point of this event is to really have all creators in the room, quick poll. (Most of the audience raises their hands -- same for how many are founders).
[9:18] The audience is slowly making its way to their seats in the conference room. The first scheduled speaker of the day is Ryan Block, co-founder of GDGT, who will open the LAUNCH 'PAD event with a state of the tablet industry from a hardware perspective.