The relatively new mobile group Mobile Twin Cities, self described as “a group of technology enthusiasts…meeting to discuss trends and software on all mobile platforms.”gathered last night at the Refactr offices in Minneapolis. This group founded and organized by local developer Justin Grammens of Recursive Awesome (Full disclosure; Justin and I are also partners at Localtone Systems) hosted a night of mobile platform demos which was dubbed “Demo-licious”. Judging by the larger than normal crowd, that included developers, designers, marketers and mobile enthusiasts it was a great success. The mantra that Justin continues to chant “No programming experience needed! Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile enthusiasts are all welcome.” seems to be working.
The evening was chocked full of demos of apps and projects that leaves little doubt that mobile development in the Twin Cities is more than warm, if not downright HOT! I would like to have seen more apps that reach more phones and platforms than just iPhone and Android, but the evening didn’t disappoint in highlighting some useful or potentially useful tools.
Following Breon Nagy’s demo of the latest Android device, the Motorola Droid (which I finally got to play with…nice phone, slide out keyboard ain’t great.), from the evening’s sponsor Verizon. Here’s the run down of demos...
MixMobi-Lisa Foote and developer Kelly Heikkila presented this DIY mobile couponing application. You can see a complete Minnov8 walk-through in our earlier post about MixMobi.
Sudden Deals-Julian Reytel walked the group through this SMS based discount service. Based on geographical location a user can be alerted about special discounts from participating businesses. It’s currently limited to restaurant and bar businesses. I would suggest there is much more potential opportunity awaiting Sudden Deals beyond these two verticals. Perhaps malls, shopping areas or even shopping circulars offer a more diverse number of consumers.
3D Light Racer-Robert Green the group’s gamer extraordinaire and owner of Battery Powered Games (fun t-shirt as well) showed off just one of his latest game apps. Think Tron for you Android device. I heard many hushed comments behind me about how addictive this game is.
iGarage Sale-Aaron Kardell shared an iPhone app that will make the garage sale junkie, no pun intended, thrill with delight. This app will “quickly locate garage sales of interest near you on an iPhone or iPod Touch.” It’s heavily reliant on Craigslist for data at this time but will include more sources soon. Though this app is actually making him money (I get downright giddy when one of our local developers or start-ups is seeing revenue.) I think there is a great opportunity to partner with weekly shoppers and offers a host of possibilities beyond it’s already very useful feature set.
hLog -Gangadhar Sulkunte, owner of 4th Main Software showed off this app that tracks your health stats, exercise regimens, sleep patterns, medicines, etc. It can offer this data in charts to be referenced by you while exercising, during a doctors visit, or whenever you want to track patterns formed by the input provided. This one still seems in it’s infancy though 4th Main notes that it’s going open source with this app. They clearly have yet to answer how to handle the data beyond the personal experience. Running the gauntlet of HIPAA regulations is an ever changing and daunting process, one that doesn’t seem to have been addressed by the developer. During the presentation I got the distinct feeling the developer doesn’t have a true appreciation for the complexity of regulations governing the sharing of private health information across public channels.
(Update 12/7/09: Gangadhar Sulkunte of 4th Main Software took the time to call me to discuss my impression that he didn’t “have a true appreciation for the complexity of the sharing of private health data.” After our conversation, though I can’t say what the result will be, I can say he does indeed take the sharing of private health data very seriously.)
Pitchr-Michael Valentiner and his partner presented this application for presenting images and presentations remotely via your Android device. The app allows you to display these images from the mobile device to the desktop PC and works with Microsoft PowerPoint and OpenOffice Impress. (Perfect for those moguls who want to run a meeting from their beach-side cabana.)
ActionChess Martin Grider’s game presents the combination of two games, or as they say on their site; Chess meet Tetris. This combination of games offers multiple levels to challenge your gamesmanship. (I have visions of chess players in smoking jackets drinking Red Bull instead of wine…) The iPhone game is available in multiple versions and at different price points via the app store.
There are still more demos to come and Mobile Twin Cities would love to see yo at the next meeting. I’ll repeat Justin’s invitation by saying you don’t need to be a programmer. Anyone who’s interested in mobile is invite to attend Mobile Twin Cities. They meet on the third Tuesday of the month.