Company News

2012 Jolt Awards: Mobile Tools

Mildred Foo — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:12:00 GMT

We are delighted to be a finalist of Dr Dobb's Jolt Awards of The Best Mobile Development Tool! Read on to find out more.

Finalist: RunRev LiveCode

Mobile-device developers live in a split-platform world that imposes a difficult choice: Run on just one platform, support multiple code bases, or adopt a development tool that handles the platforms for you. If they choose this last option, RunRev LiveCode, a tool with a decades-long pedigree will be of particular interest. It is a fully modern, productive way to produce mobile applications. It implements the good ideas from its HyperCard ancestor — dead-simple creation of good-looking, interlinked and animated apps — and updates them for mobile technology.

Although developers are essentially writing to one platform — LiveCode itself — it's fair to characterize the system as platform-agnostic. The IDE doesn't care if you develop on Windows, Linux, or a Mac. It's even less choosy about where you deploy; depending on the edition you buy, your app can run on iOS, Android, Windows, OS X, Linux, over the Web (there's even support for embedding logic on a server). Apps that don't make use of platform-specific services can simply be copied over, since there's no compilation step, and they will automatically adopt much of the look and feel of the target. While you must pay for a development license, deployment itself is royalty-free and requires no runtime download.

LiveCode development is a process of building cards, assembling them into stacks, and specifying their interactions with code. The tool includes a visual editor for building the UI components of each card, property editors, code editor, and an application browser for managing all the assets. Because of its simplicity, a user of any modern IDE won't confront a big learning curve here. The card/stack paradigm, visual editing tools, and support for a wide variety of media combine to make a development tool that's simple enough for non-programmers to put together applications, while providing plenty of power for dedicated hackers. LiveCode offers its own object-oriented scripting language, designed to be low-ceremony and reasonably easy for "regular humans" to use. If you need cross-platform app development, and especially if you want to empower non-programmer participation, you should seriously consider RunRev LiveCode.

— Rick Wayne

New RunRev Blog Launched

Kevin Miller — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:28:00 GMT

We're very pleased today to announce the launch of a new blog. In it we will comment on the stories that matter to you, about the industries in which we operate. We'll talk about the challenges our customers face and discuss trends and issues in the tech industry at large. We'll be bringing you thought provoking and exciting blog posts from industry leaders, experts, educators, customers and our own team.

We will continue to post company news, including announcements about what we're doing with the LiveCode platform and here at RunRev here in this section, which has now been renamed as Company News.

Please check out the new blog (and don't forget to subscribe today). If you have something relevant to contribute to either area we'd love to hear from you, contact us by dropping us a note.

Launch of Embedded LiveCode

caroline finlay — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:30:00 GMT

For Immediate Release

Edinburgh, 13th September 2012

RunRev Ltd, a Scottish based technology company and makers of LiveCode, the award winning, high performance, cross-platform programming environment, today announced a groundbreaking new product, Embedded LiveCode. This new product line allows users to embed LiveCode-built components directly in iOS native apps.

Cut Time to Market
This is significant in its potential to cut the time to market for programmers primarily coding in Objective C. These developers can now take advantage of the proven speed and ease of use of LiveCode directly in their native apps. RunRev's customer research indicates that on average a LiveCode project is completed in just under half the time compared with any other development solution including "high level" alternatives such as HTML 5. Now these time saving capabilities can be utilized in those portions of a native-code app where it makes sense to do so.

Create Components
Embedded LiveCode enables LiveCode developers to write components and upgrades that will work within the hundreds of thousands of native apps that are already available. Rather than having to switch development of an existing app to LiveCode and rewrite it in order to benefit from LiveCode, developers can quickly fashion specific feature upgrades that make sense and incorporate those within their existing native-app codebase.

Kevin Miller, CEO of RunRev Ltd. said:

"We're delighted to be able to bring the benefits of LiveCode to a wider base of professional and Enterprise developers. Particularly, we recognize that development houses use a variety of tools and have developed libraries and frameworks in native code. Embedded LiveCode is an excellent addition to that toolbox and will allow developers to significantly cut development times while leveraging existing frameworks."

Embedded LiveCode is currently available as a pre-release product with introductory pricing. This includes:

All pre-release versions
The final shipping version
All upgrades until 14th September 2013
An unlimited license to use with as many apps during that period as you like on iOS

You can learn more about Embedded LiveCode at http://www.runrev.com/products/embedded-liveCode/

About RunRev Ltd.
RunRev makes the LiveCode cross-platform development environment for building sophisticated mobile, desktop and server applications. The company aims to open doors with technology by empowering people to create apps through an intuitive and easy-to-learn programming language. The LiveCode English-like language and focus on instant results appeals to a wide range of users, from individuals and educators to corporate and enterprise developers. Considered a modern descendent of HyperCard, LiveCode offers a robust yet flexible path to cross-platform app creation. For more information visit www.runrev.com.

LiveCode 5.5.1 with In-App Ad Partnership

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:00:00 GMT

RunRev partners with inneractive.

We're delighted to announce the release of 5.5.1 which launches our partnership with market leader Inneractive, bringing you In-App advertising for your apps. Now you can easily embed advertising in your mobile apps, and earn extra revenue. Track the performance of your ads, optimize, collect user data and more.

As well as this important partnership, 5.5.1 brings Address Book support on both iOS and Android. Just for Android we've added no fewer than 5 new features:

	Media Picker
	Save images to the user's photo album
	Native scroller control
	Native player control
	Native field controls

As always, we've taken the opportunity to squish a number of bugs. For full details, download the release notes for 5.5.1 here:

Release notes iOS

Release notes Android

Release notes Desktop

5.5.1 is a free upgrade to anyone with a current 5.5 license. If you haven't yet got 5.5 then you can log in to your account and purchase an Upgrade using the Upgrade button below. If you don't yet own LiveCode, 5.5.1 is a great reason to get your copy today, just click the Purchase button below.

5 out of 5 from Macworld

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Star Rating:

Wow, what a fantastic week it's been so far! We received an awesome 5 out of 5 Editor's choice review from Macworld.

Written by Karl Hodge, his review talks about the simple, drag and drop programming tool that is LiveCode which enables the user to build iOS apps with little more than good ideas and time to burn.

Karl Hodge says: "LiveCode is packed with a library of ready to use features and functions and LiveCode apps can be deployed almost anywhere."

There was also a write up on Ars Technica by Matthew Lasar about 25 years of HyperCard and the missing link to the Web.

This was then summarised in TUAW by Steve Sande.

A summary of LiveCode 5.5 – 5.5 brings near feature parity on Android and iOS. Build an app for one mobile platform and just run it on the other without worrying whether the features used will be supported. Additionally, the Field object has been substantially reworked to make beautifully formatted text a joy to create, even when using unicode.

5.5 also brings paragraph styles, allowing you to control formatting on a per paragraph basis, new powerful options for accessing and formatting text, a textCharged message allowing you to respond to any user action in a field, a scriptable spelling underline, hierarchical lists, the ability to embed tables and much more! You will be able to create even more sophisticated, professional looking applications with this set of amazing new features.

An Update from AnDevCon III

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 31 May 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Our Senior LiveCode Developer, Elanor Buchanan, represented RunRev at AnDevCon III in San Francisco from 14 – 17 May. The focus for this conference was – The Android Developer Conference to learn how to succeed with mobile apps development and deployment.

Attendees check out the full So many networking possibilities!
exhibit hall with 40 exhibitors

The event, held in Burlingame (SF) did not disappoint. AnDevCon III is focused 100% on the users’ need to learn about Android development and is the biggest, info-packed, most practical Android conference in the world and keynotes included Google, Barnes & Noble, and htc Dev, just to name a few. On offer were 80+ workshops and technical classes at all levels, from overview to intermediate to advanced. Sessions were organised into five subject areas:

Development Essentials: Technical classes for all Android developers and covered all programming topics.

Android Business: Classes and workshops for entrepreneurial developers who want to learn the most effective ways of distributing and selling Android apps, including how to maximise profit through the Android Market.

Android Tablets and beyond: Classes and workshops specific to commercial devices beyond smartphones, including tablets, Google TV, and other platforms.

Embedded Android: Classes and workshops for developers working close to the hardware, such as on custom devices, or diving deep into the internals of this flavour of embedded Linux.

Aside from this, within the exhibit hall, attendees could also learn about the best tools, services and resources for Android developers and marketers, mingle and networking during breaks and the evening reception.

There was a steady stream of traffic past the LiveCode booth and everyone was very interested, engaged and keen to push Android development and get as much out of it as possible. The majority of the attendees were experienced developers and there was a good mix of people from different backgrounds, from the very large companies, dedicated coding teams, to smaller companies. There were also a number of people who were interested in using LiveCode for more personal projects outside of their jobs.

Hi from Elanor!

Here’s what Elanor had to say about the value of the conference: “It was a great conference and I think the attendees got a lot out of it. There were many talks and sessions and a real variety of stands in the exhibition centre – App monitization, development products, books, hardware, testing systems and code analysis. Oh……...lunch was very nice too!”

Some Updates from the Malawi Project

Arnaud Bouchot — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:00:00 GMT

It’s been a while now and we thought it is time for an update on the Malawi Project.

Language learning specialists EuroTalk are experts in their field with 20 years of publishing experience and over 10 million customers. EuroTalk uses LiveCode during the authoring process for many of their titles, and has been working for a number of years in Malawi looking at different solutions for delivering education to primary schools.

These are rural schools with no electricity and very large class sizes, and often the teachers have very few resources. All classes at standard 1 and 2 have at least 250 children and this particularly school we’re blogging about has 5000 children. Some nearby primary schools have 18 to 20 thousand children.

A LiveCode created app, the Chichewa Learning App has been a great help to the children and provides the key words needed and a fast, scientific way of remembering them. Described by users as:

“Fun intelligent interactive learning games. Worth the money.”

“Unlike many other apps, this one makes learning fun and doesn’t get boring.”

HOW it works

This interactive product is the result of extensive research into how the brain learns fastest. It uses:

Images – to stimulate both halves of the brains, visual as well as logical

Fun quizzes – because we remember best what we’re interested in

Speech, recording and playback – to perfect your accent by comparing with native speakers

A point scoring system – that gives feedback on progress and rewards success

Here are a few pictures of the children who don’t speak much English but took to the Chichewa Learning App almost instantly.

And this girl typed her name into the device and was so proud to see it on the unit menu.

“If we can use tools like LiveCode to
develop and iterate quickly, and use
handheld devices to deliver, I think
we are on the verge of a revolution in
terms of delivering education.”

We are thrilled that LiveCode has been able to assist with the outstanding success of the Malawi Project. So well done to everyone involved, what an inspirational story!

LiveCode Small Business App Academy Update

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:00:00 GMT

How time flies, we’re already into the second half of the Small Business App Academy!

To recap - The Small Business App Academy is a free 30 day online course for new users and once signed up, you will receive a daily email for 30 days with two new downloadable 3 minute videos covering a particular topic, including step by step lesson materials you can follow along with and copy and paste code from.

We've just added a new introduction video to the site so you can get an idea of what to expect...

Described as the “alphabet of apps”, the Small Business App Academy offers 60 building blocks necessary to create a tailored, full-featured app by the end of the 30 day period. You can either follow the program in 30 days or at your own pace, and will learn the following skills:

- Database and cloud access - Creating user interfaces

- Data manipulation - Deployment to devices

- Monetization - Push notifications

- Working with rich media

And much more….

So, we’re 30 videos in, 50% through the process and as a participant, I'm enjoying it immensely and find myself checking my inbox everyday around 5 pm (GMT) for the next 2 videos. Here’s what some of our fellow participants have to say:

“Hey – I think these videos are great! What I especially like about these videos is that they can be saved and then referenced as needed in the future. What an amazing resource.”

“Congrats to the RunRev team on the quality of the first 2 videos…..…If the rest of the course matches the start, we are in for an exciting journey”

So if this has piqued your interest, then don’t wait any longer, join us today. We look forward to welcoming you to the Small Business App Academy soon!

LiveCode Teacher Training Day in Edinburgh

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Building on the success of LiveCode at Gracemount High, Steven Whyte, Gracemount Computing Teacher and LiveCode Guru, recently held a LiveCode training day for teachers in Edinburgh.

The event was attended by 20 experienced and enthusiastic computing teachers from across Edinburgh, eager to learn about this solution to the issue of getting students excited about learning to programme. I caught up with Steven Whyte and our very own Ben Beaumont, to find out how they felt the day had gone. They told me that the attendees got a lot from the day. The feeling in the room was that LiveCode is a real possibility with the Government’s new focus on teaching programming, and with the course materials already produced by Gracemount, it seems like a sensible move for all involved.

Here’s what Ben had to say about the day: “I think most left with a sense that LiveCode was a very realistic option for them to teach programming with, as well as enabling them to move into mobile programme. This is something their students can definitely engage with, and I suspect all will have left and taken a look at the software!”

Most teachers have since fed back very positively to the Technologies Continuing Professional Development Coordinator who will be investigating the authority wide license for LiveCode over the next couple of weeks. We look forward to hearing from them!

Here’s a short clip of how some of the Higher Computing students at Gracemount successfully managed to export their Higher Computing coursework exercise onto their mobile devices as an app.

The success of this task and Gracemount’s continued use of LiveCode has paved the way for the Computing Department to begin creating a series of innovative and sector leading Mobile Application Development courses as part of the new Scottish Qualifications under Curriculum for Excellence. Next year, computing students of all ages will be able to learn how to develop simple games and animations and will then see them come to life on their mobile phones and tablet computers.

All in all, a most successful outing and here’s to many more!

LiveCode Created App is no. 1 Hottest Educational App on iTunes

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Maths, age 3 – 5 is the new maths app launched by EuroTalk on 5 April using LiveCode. We are delighted to announce that this app has shot straight to No. 1 in the Education listing in the iTunes app store.

This is an app with a set of ten topics for the foundation stage of primary school. It is engaging and fun, and is designed to give children a great start in maths.

Maths 3-5 was created using LiveCode. Here's what Andrew Ashe has to say about using LiveCode:

"If we can use tools like LiveCode to develop and iterate quickly, and use handheld devices to deliver....we are on the verge of a revolution in terms of delivering education."

EuroTalk are experts in their field with 20 years of publishing experience and over 10 million customers and produce education software that can be used by anyone, anywhere.

Eurotalk use LiveCode during the authoring process for many of their titles. They also deliver a number of commercial titles using LiveCode, as well as pioneering a project to assist learning in children in Malawi.

Maths, age 3 – 5 has a current user rating of 4+ with an overwhelming positive response.

“I’m very impressed with the content and quality of this learning app. It’s presented beautifully with high quality animation which really appeals to a visual learner like my 4 year old son. The ways of introducing and building on a topic are simply ingenious. Very very impressed!”

So well done to EuroTalk! We are thrilled that LiveCode has been able to assist with the outstanding success of this app for another of our valued clients.

How to teach programming to students today

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:00:00 GMT

There's a hot discussion taking place today about how to get young students interested in programming. And not just interested, but loving it! Teachers and administrators have been battling this challenge for years, but the fact is that engaging students early in technical areas such as Computer Studies is difficult to impossible, beyond perhaps one or two engineering-obsessed students in the school.

However, with the number of IT-related jobs growing by the thousands every year, and the tremendous need for mobile app developers for the long term, it’s more important than ever to make Computer Studies as fundamental in K-12 curriculum as math, language, or science. While it may sound impossible to get children to grasp the relevance of web and desktop development early on, the abundance of mobile apps and games have created new opportunities for educators.

Children are drawing, playing games, and watching videos on their parents’ mobile phones before learning their ABCs. They begin to show interest in tinkering with devices in grade school. (Remember being the only one in your family who could program the TV remote when you were a kid?) Many students want to create, build and fix anything they can get their hands on, but immediate gratification and relevance to their lives are critical factors for getting and keeping them engaged. And a little fun thrown in helps a bunch.

Students as young as 10 are grasping the fundamentals of technology development, and teaching these young tinkerers to create simple games and mobile apps is helping breath new life into Computer Science curricula. At the core of much of this newfound passion for programming is LiveCode. The easy-to-use platform makes it simple for educators to learn the language, and, for the first time, students just get it!

In response to the growing success of LiveCode in education, we've created a new RunRev Education Microsite. The site offers case studies, course materials for all grade levels, teacher training materials, forums and support, and free trials – everything educators needs to get started with LiveCode.

Take a look at some of the interesting case studies from grade school on through university level where teachers are engaging and exciting students by having them create their own apps. Here's how one K-12 educator and his students are using LiveCode today. We have a few videos on LiveCode in education and encourage you to share your own stories.

Extensive Cross Platform Dev Tools Report Featuring LiveCode

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:00:00 GMT

With Mobile World Congress wrapping up last week, the clear presence of Android, lack of presence of Apple, and continued nudging of Windows Phone demonstrate the critical importance of cross-platform development in mobile. Gone are the days of building solely for the Apple fan. As you know, LiveCode is one of the best at mobile app creation across every major platform and for whatever development purpose -- enterprise or small business, games or educational -- and a new report by VisionMobile features LiveCode prominently as one of the top tools for developers, new and experienced alike.

The smart folks at VisionMobile have spent several months and countless hours digging into mobile development trends and tools, and their new report, Cross-Platform Developer Tools 2012, centers on the development platforms, languages and environments that are "bridging the worlds of mobile apps and the web." With a deep dive into 100+ tools, the report was formed with input from more than 2,400 developers from 91 countries (including many from the LiveCode community), and presents a range of opportunities and perceptions on key issues and trends for both developers and vendors to consider over the next few years.

Some of the key report findings about cross-platform tools...

Addressing real challenges for developers and flattening the playing field for the industry.

Challenging the Apple/Google duopoly: It just doesn't make smart business or productivity sense to develop simply for one platform.

Creating a democratisation of development: Something we're particularly focused on, cross-platform tools like LiveCode appeal to any developer segment, experience level, language, and background.

Have passed the early-adopter chasm and are moving into mainstream.

Have triggered an influx of web developers to mobile: We're seeing a dramatic shift in the profile of our users specifically from this trend, and it's a good one for the entire mobile industry.

Will complement, not compete with native development, with hybrid apps combining the best of both worlds.

Will expand to new verticals as a means of differentiating and catering to the specific needs of developers focused on games, enterprise, media apps or others.

Pushing multi-screen as the next frontier. It's not just about the device, but now screen size and device type, from PC to mobile, tablet to TV.

LiveCode developers gave high marks to the environment over other cross-platform tools for Platform Breadth, Runtime Performance, Learning Curve, Develop & Debug, Publishing, and Support & Service.

Additionally, VisionMobile calls out a host of LiveCode advantages, including:

Rapid development process

Easy learning curve

Visual development environment

Access to additional platforms, both mobile and non-mobile

Higher than average development of education and reference apps

We were very happy to participate in the report and expect it will be a useful guide for those looking at developing mobile apps for the first time, or extending their expertise across a range of platforms and tools.

Take a look at the report and let us know what you think!

LiveCode Meetup during MacWorld - January 27, San Francisco

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Happy new year, everyone! We're kicking off 2012 with a LiveCode Meetup during Macworld in San Francisco, January 27, and hope you can join us!

Macworld Expo takes place January 26-28 at Moscone Center in San Francisco and the RunRev team is bringing LiveCode customers, partners and fans together for a fun San Francisco Meetup. RunRev CEO Kevin Miller will be in town from the UK to host the Meetup, held at a local pub, so if you're in the Bay Area or attending Macworld, it's time to get together with other LiveCode users to dig into the platform, share ideas and talk projects. RSVP at http://livecode.eventbrite.com.

LiveCoders at Cirque du Mac Party

Another great reason to get together is that you'll have a chance to nab one of 50 tickets to the coveted Cirque du Mac party held Friday, January 27, from 8:00-11:30 pm. The annual invite-only Mac Observer bash (open to non-Macworld attendees) will have free drinks, live music and an opportunity to party with other LiveCode fans and industry VIPs. RunRev is an event sponsor this year!

Whether you’re attending Macworld, live in the Bay Area, or just want an excuse to meet the LiveCode community, we hope you’ll join us.

More on Macworld

Macworld is the world’s ultimate fan event for those who use, create and love Apple products. Attendees will experience a unique celebration of Apple technology-infused products, music and film. There will be lots to look at and play with, and lots to learn. The exhibition hall promises to house a shopping mecca filled with products and services for Apple users of all skill levels and interests. From home users, to artistic hobbyists and professionals, as well as the ture technorati, MacWorld 2012 gives you the chance to experience all that the world of Apple-related tools can offer.

LiveCode Built App in Mobile Apps Showdown

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:00:00 GMT

When Princess Diana wanted to send her sons, Princes William and Harry, to weekly musical storytelling sessions as part of their education, she chose Ann Rachlin. Ann created many wonderful characters which went on transcend storytelling to become books and later CDs. But her best loved character, a green faced witch called Heckerty, stayed on paper for over 40 years. The evolution of mobile phones and tablets has set Heckerty free – finally there is the perfect medium to introduce a new generation to this inimitable, 409 year old witch and her mad adventures. And now the world is being given the opportunity to vote for Heckerty in the Mobile Apps Showdown of 2012.

Heckerty is a zany, 409-year-old, upside-down-on-her-broomstick, green-faced witch. Happy, hilarious, helpful – Heckerty enchants and educates kids everywhere.

Bored in the car? Fidgety in the bank? Fractious in line for the TSA? Let your kids tune into Heckerty’s adventures and while they laugh at her mad antics and help her put things right, they learn words, vocabulary and spelling while their little fingers learn precision and coordination.

Love From Heckerty is designed with LiveCode for iOS, Android and Amazon Fire. Rich and interactive, kids follow Heckerty and her cat, Zanzibar, to magical places filled with stories, games, puzzles, as well as dinosaurs, wizards and dozens of cousins.

From Broomstick Productions Inc, Heckerty is the creation of Britain’s Royal story-teller, and comes from a long, literary heritage of wizards and witches. She may have a green face but her heart is pure gold.

Now you can vote for this great app in the Mobile Apps Showdown 2012, a fast-paced contest where you're asked to weigh in on the apps you think have what it takes to make it. The top ten apps will join us at CES 2012 for an action packed event hosted by Jon Hein and Gary Dell'Abate from the Howard Stern Show.

Vote for 'Love from Heckerty' here.

LiveCode 5.0.2 available

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:00:00 GMT

LiveCode 5.0.2, a free update to LiveCode 5, was released yesterday. This update reflects our commitment to continually upgrade and improve the platform and to constantly listen and respond to end user feedback. LiveCode 5.0.2 is available for free to anyone who purchased LiveCode 5.0.0 or LiveCode 5.0.1.

So, what’s new in LiveCode 5.0.1.

AcceleratedRendering property

A new stack property has been added to make using the new accelerated rendering features much easier to use. Instead of setting the compositorType, compositorCacheLimit and compositorTileSize, you can simply set the AcceleratedRendering property of the stack to true. Internally, LiveCode will set the three compositor properties to the best defaults for the platform.

Persistent layerMode property

The layerMode property of objects is now saved as part of the stack and can be configured using the property inspector.

New folder properties

New folder syntax provides readable ways of accessing special folders on the various platforms.

the documents folder

the temporary folder

the engine folder

the desktop folder

the home folder

See dictionary for full details

Player Fixes

A number of desktop player fixes were made as part of the 5.0.1 release. Further fixes to both the desktop and iOS 5.0 player have been made in this release.

Android OpenGL Improvements

A number of OpenGL improvements have been made for Android.

General Bug Fixes

A range of other bug fixes have been made.

More information can be found in the release notes, iOS release notes and Android release notes.

Existing customers who have purchased LiveCode 5 can download 5.0.2 by logging into their account. If you are using an earlier version of LiveCode you can upgrade to LiveCode 5.0.2 in your account. New users of LiveCode can download a free trial here.

LiveCode Game Academy in the Media

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:00:00 GMT

We’ve been delighted this week and last with how much media attention the LiveCode Game Academy has received.

Dave Hamilton got the ball rolling a couple of weeks ago in his MacGeekGab podcast. Dave was telling the story of how he and his son made their iPhone app the previous day. The made the whole app between the time his son woke up and when he had to go to school. How did they make it so fast? Yup, you’ve guess it, using LiveCode of course. Even though he wasn’t familiar with the environment, they still had a simple hello world built in about ten minutes, ready to deploy to his son’s ipod nano after school. Dave’s son is now really excited about the academy, and “at the ripe old age of ten” he will be joining Dave on the course so that they can build their first game together. Our heartfelt welcome to both father and son – I'm really excited to see how they get on.

Todd Bernhard in iPhone Life Magazine said that if you’ve always wanted to create your own apps, but didn’t know where to start, LiveCode and the LiveCode Game Academy, are an easy way to get started. And in his 4 Star Review of LiveCode in the Cult of Mac magazine David Martin says that “LiveCode 5 is a quick and powerful package for app design”. He encouraged his readers to give the Academy a try, saying “You’ve got nothing to lose but your time. Time that might turn you into the next big game or app developer!” Adrian Bridgewater, writing for Computer Weekly tells us just how big a game can be. “We invest three billion hours a week playing online games. So games, as we know, have become mainstream big business and now enjoy as much publicity hype as new movie releases.” You never know, that publicity and hype could belong to one of the apps made during the next two months. It might be even be yours!

Kelly Guimont in TUAW agrees. “If you want to be a mobile developer” she says “you have a prime opportunity to make it happen”. She’s talking about the Academy of course, and tells her readers about how you can learn to make a mobile game: "nothing fancy, just a little fun thing to help you learn your way around LiveCode".

And it's with a quote from Kelly Guimont that I will finish up:

"I'm excited about it, and already signed up. Will you be there?"

Join Dave Hamilton and his son, Kelly Guimont and lots of other eager game developers in the LiveCode Academy. Register Here.

Vision Mobile Cross Platform Development Tool Survey

Arnaud Bouchot — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:00:00 GMT

My working day got off to a great start this morning when I turned on my computer to find this tweet from @Programme_CM

“#LiveCode is insanely great!”

Thanks @Programme_CM, we think so too. We’re really proud of LiveCode, and we work very hard to make sure it delivers everything our developers need. I like to shout about it, so I’m always thrilled when other people shout about it too.

So, LiveCoders, here’s a chance like no other for you to tell the world what you think of us. The folks over at Vision Mobile have just launched the biggest ever survey on cross-platform developer tools and RunRev are delighted to have been able to sponsor it.

The survey examines how developers rate each of 20+ cross-platform tools, including LiveCode. It tracks the developer experience and perceptions in the cross-platform tools market. Everyone who completed the survey will be entered into a draw for an iPad 2 or one of two Kindle Fire devices. The results will be published in Spring as a free download on the Vision Mobile website and available here on this blog and on the RunRev website.

This survey investigates:
- Best & worst of 40+ cross-platform dev tools
- Developer mindshare and the top-5 most popular tools
- Rankings across selection criteria, platforms targeted, learning curve, UI design, ease-of-use
- Entry, cost and exit barriers for tools adoption

The survey is a great chance for LiveCoders to put LiveCode in the context of the overall market. It’s your opportunity to rate LiveCode and many other cross platform development tools. Your feedback and that of other developers will be compiled into a free to download report that will be read by industry leaders, analysts, journalists, developers and decision makers and will potentially have a huge impact on how the cross platform tools market developers. Vision Mobile is “a leading market analysis and strategy firm for all things connected”. Regular readers of the blog will recognize the name Vision Mobile as one that is quoted frequently on these pages. Their Developer Economics Report is a must have for anyone and everyone planning to have a future in software development. The Vision Mobile blog is top of my daily reading list.

The survey takes just a few minutes to complete.

Finally, thank you to everyone who recently completed our own LiveCode specific survey. We promise that after this survey we’ll be completely survey free for the forseeable future.

You can complete the Vision Mobile Cross-Platform Developer Tools Survey here

RunRev at AnDevCon

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Last week Kevin Miller and Ben Beaumont show cased LiveCode at AnDevCon in San Francisco. Kevin told me he was delighted to be able to turn heads and excite programmers in this heartland of Java developers.

Kevin Miller demonstrating LiveCode at AnDevCon

Everyone at AnDevCon was really impressed with how simple LiveCode is compared with Java and were keen to hear about the cross platform development opportunities LiveCode could give them. Conference attendees were impressed with the power of LiveCode and loved playing with the sample 'made with LiveCode' apps we showed off at the conference.

The LiveCode Game Academy, announced at the conference, was a huge hit and everyone was blown away (pun intended) by what this revolutionary new way to learn about app development. The Academy is the perfect way for the typical Java Developer to quickly pick up LiveCode development. Lots of the conference attendees signed up and we can't wait for December 6th when we can start showing them how to make their own LiveCode built games and apps.

The best thing about the Academy was being able to meet customers, both new and existing. Kevin and Ben were delighted when Mark Weider and Dave Simpson, both cornerstones of the LiveCode community, popped by to say hi. Thanks to Dave Simpson for taking the photos for us. Conferences are always a great opportunity to meet developers, get your feedback and found out what you want out of LiveCode - so you can be sure that RunRev will be staying out and about on the conference beat for a long time to come.

RunRev Out and About

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:00:00 GMT

The RunRev team go stateside this week as we sponsor two major tech conferences: MacTech Conference in LA and AnDevConII in San Francisco. Kevin Miller, RunRev CEO, and Ben Beaumont, LiveCode Product Manager flew out yesterday morning eager to meet other attendees, show off what LiveCode can do and get some great insight at the many sessions on offer between the two shows.

MacTech Conference – November 2 – 4

First up is the MacTech conference in L.A. Kevin and Ben arrived at the hotel yesterday afternoon and will be spending today getting ready for the conference itself tomorrow. The 3 day MacTech is synonymous with professional, world class apple development and we’re proud to sponsor the conference. Over 300 attendees, including some of the best known experts in the mac community, will watch while Kevin shows off what LiveCode can do. As well as getting to meet developers and network with other members of the Apple community, Kevin and Ben will be treated to some brilliant sessions in two tracks; the developer track and the IT track. Personally I’m really disappointed that I’ll be missing the session “The Press, and How To Humor Them” in which IT writer Andy Ihnatko promises to give away some trade secrets on how to get technology writers and influencers excited about your products. In “What the…? They Moved My Cheese!” Charles Edge will look at what he thinks is in store for Apple and how it affect developers on the ground. Hopefully Ben and Kevin will take some really good notes for me.

If you’re going to MacTech we’ll see you there.

AnDevCon11 – November 6-9

After 3 days of learning, presenting and networking (not to mention flights and jet lag) you’d think that that Ben and Kevin would want some time off. RunRev staff are made of hardier stuff and when they finish in LA at the end of the week Kevin and Ben will fly up to San Francisco to get ready for AnDevCon11 next week. This is the second Android Developer Conference after the first one sold out in March, and again LiveCode are excited to be able to sponsor this event. Keynotes from Google, American Express, Motorola, Amazon and HTC are the sure to be the high points of the show and are expected to draw in about 800 people.

If you’re going to AnDevCon come along to booth 601 and say hi.

LiveCode 5 Unleashed

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:00:00 GMT

LiveCode 5, launched today, brings 10X faster app rendering speed than ever before to LiveCode built apps. LiveCode developers can now use hardware accelerated graphics to make their apps and games faster than ever before and iOS 5 and In App purchasing support means these developers can maximise revenue by leveraging different monetization options on today’s most profitable platforms. Mark Taoilinn, RunRev Sales and Marketing Manager, talks about how exciting the new launch has been.

I love the run up to the launch of a new product! Talking to our customers to see what matters to them most, scheduling a development cycle to bring it to them, releasing Developer Previews and Release Candidates of the product to the LiveCode Developer Program to get their feedback and improve the product, planning a press release, new website, new mailers, new videos. Every launch we do pushes us to up our game and work even harder than ever before, and the results from that are always really pleasing. With LiveCode 5 we’ve gone even further and I’m proud to say that the results are staggering.

Ten Times Faster

Ben and the development team have been pushing the LiveCode ecosystem to the max. First it was twice as fast, but we knew we could do better, so 5 times faster became our target. When we hit that, we decided to aim for 7 times faster. We weren’t sure just how far we could push it but we felt that LiveCode needed the best we could give it – long nights and weekends of later, today we ended up with a new version of LiveCode whose applications render up to ten times faster than ever before! The development team have done themselves proud, and we in customer service are thrilled to bring you, the customer, our best ever release.

To get these speed increases, we needed to incorporate enhanced hardware accelerated graphics into the LiveCode engine. And once we did, we needed to test it. This is where the real fun started – David made a neat little game to test the engine. Once we realised how much fun the game would be everyone got in on the action – our new web designer Steve made the graphics, Neil made the music and I got to write incredibly corny game descriptions. What fun! We called the game Galactic Gauntlet and it will be shortly be available in the iOS app store. You can take a look at the source code for the game by downloading the stack here.

iOS 5 & In App Purchasing

I don’t know about you, but I was really excited to see last week’s Apple announcement ‘Let’s talk iPhone’, mainly because I knew that we would soon be delivering the iOS 5 ready LiveCode 5 and I wanted to see what new devices you could develop for. With full iOS 5 support, your LiveCode 5 built apps will open up the iPad2 and the iPhone 4s as devices for your apps. The really great news is LiveCode 5 built apps will take full advantage of the faster A5 chips on both devices – you really will build better, faster, smoother apps than ever before.

LiveCode 5 goes farther than just giving you new devices to develop for, it opens up entirely new revenue streams. I’m delighted to announce that LiveCode 5 supports in app purchasing on iOS (with Android following very soon). Did you know that In App purchasing accounts for 72% of all revenue for iPhone Apps that include it. Now that revenue can be yours too. As I outlined in my presentation at RunRevLive.11 free to download apps can become a very profitable business model for developers if you incorporate In App purchasing options in your app make up.
We’re going to include In App purchasing in our Galactic Gauntlet app to show you how it’s done – watch this space.

Quick start centre

We’ve made it easier than ever before to get started with LiveCode with our revamped ‘Quick Start Centre’. Accessible from within LiveCode itself you can now follow along with 6 simple lessons designed to teach you the basics of Live Coding to make sure you get up to scratch in no time. Check it out.

Special Introductory offer

As a special treat you can enjoy a copy of animationEngine, worth $79, free with every LiveCode 5 update or purchase in October. animationEngine offers you functions and handlers to move objects exactly as you desire. Create linear movement, polygonal movement, circular movement, elliptical movement and start and stop the action at any time under scripted control. This is simply the easiest and best way to add animations to LiveCode 5 apps. animationEngine has been fully optimized to work with LiveCode 5.

It’s been a really busy few months getting ready for this launch, but I’m so pleased with the results. Check out or new homepage, our new videos and most importantly your brand new LiveCode. New visitors can trial LiveCode for free here and existing users can upgrade here.

LiveCode.tv

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Hello

I am Björnke von Gierke and I would like to introduce you to LiveCode.tv. RunRev was so nice to invite me to keep you informed, from time to time, about this ongoing project on their blog. Please note that despite its name, LiveCode.tv events are not made or organized by RunRev, but are completely community driven.

What is it?

LiveCode.tv is a community project for everyone, including you. Every Saturday for the past few months we have gathered in ChatRev and watched one or two presenter stream live presentations about LiveCode, Ribbons and other relevant topics. We had a short summer break, but now the events are back in all their glory. So come over, and watch what people are doing with LiveCode.

Why watch it?

Besides the unique possibility to connect with, and learn from, other LiveCode users, these presentations often introduce previews to future projects, and allow you an instant venue to question the presenter about how or why he implemented his tools. For example, MobGUI, the native iPhone widget library, was first introduced on LiveCode.tv, and John Criag, the inventor of MobGUI, made several re-appearances explaining the inner workings of this essential tool for all Mobile developers.

Many of the presentations are basic introductions to LiveCode, or small tricks and tips for getting the most out of everyone’s favorite IDE Mark Schonowille's recent discussion about how to properly use default buttons is a good example of this.

Why participate?

Obviously, as a community driven project, we depend completely on volunteers. Over at LiveCode.tv, we aim to give a platform to all LiveCode users who are interested in sharing any of their experiences. We promote a "No topic is forbidden" policy but still find that it can be difficult to locate people that are ready to invest some hours to talk about themselves or their projects.

So, this is a general call to arms for all budding presenters and/or LiveCode enthusiasts out there. If you'd like to tell other people about the interesting things you've done in your life, hop over to our site and contact us about participating in a future show. We also always need volunteers with the website, organizing events, acquiring participants or simply getting ideas about how to improve the events.

Join us on Saturday

LiveCode.tv took a break for the summer and now it has come back sun tanned and ready to rock.

This Saturday Mario Miele will introduce the 2.0 update to his style palette add-on. It allows the creation and organization of different custom button styles, making skinning your application much easier. He did present about it before, and he will also offer some general hints about working with the graphical features of LiveCode.

David Bovill returns with a presentation on lateral unit testing, highlighting how he aims to implement it in his LiveCode based version control platform.

Join ChatRev to watch live at 20:00 CET on Saturday, 8th October. Download a standalone from
http://bjoernke.com/chatrev/ or enter in the message box:

go stack URL “http://bjoernke.com/chatrev/chatrev1.3b3.rev”

Sat. 8th October 2011
Sat. 20:00 Rome
Sat. 19:00 London
Sat. 14:00 New York
Sat. 11:00 Los Angeles
Sun. 2:00 Beijing

Let's Talk iPhone

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Steve Jobs wasn’t the only thing blatantly missing from today’s Apple announcement – the eagerly anticipated iPhone 5 was also represented by a different model at the event. That said, however, both Tim Cook and the newly announced iPhone 4S looked at home on the Apple stage.

A confident, relaxed looking Tim started off his keynote today with a joke:

This is my first product launch since being named CEO. I'm sure you didn't know that.

Once his sense of humor and mastery of the stage was established, Tim got down to business and ran through some eye watering stats about the uptake of Mac OSX Lion. “Let’s talk iPhone” he said, and then showed more equally impressive statistics concerning the iPhone 4. “More coming up on the iPhone” he teased, just as he was getting to the good bit, and talked instead about the iPad2, the iPod touch, the success of the app store ($3Bn paid out to developers!) and iOS 5 (available to developers 12^th October).

(source: Engadget)

Steve Jobs has taught Tim Cook well. It was only when he the crowd at fever pitch did he return to his big announcement – a new iPhone. And even though it’s not an iPhone 5, the iPhone 4S demonstrated earlier today looks like a solid advance in the product line. It comes with the dual core A5 chip that powers the iPad2 so it will feature 7X faster graphics. Two antennae are included to ensure you get stable connection (no one wants a repeat of the Antenna Gate scandal that marred the release of the iPhone 4). HSDPA connection results in download speeds twice as fast the previous version and the inclusion of both GSM and CDMA will keep you connected around the world. The camera has been updated and video recording has been pushed to 1080p standard. Airplay and iCloud integration have been included.

Next up is a neat little feature that I’m keen to try out for myself. The new iPhone comes with Siri, which Apple say is an “intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking”. It’s certainly not going to be up the level of the computer on Star Trek, but Siri can supposedly understand questions it is asked, find answers to them in the cloud and respond in plain English. If I was the competition I’d be thinking “Shields up, ready phasers, load torpedo bays”.

There’s nothing futuristic about the launch schedule for the new iPhone model – it’s available to pre-order on the 7^th and will be hitting stores on the 14^th!

In conclusion, the new model might not have been the iPhone 5 I was hoping for, and Tim Cook might not be the pied piper of product launches that Steve Jobs was, but in both cases these new models are respectable additions to their product class.

Meet the Team: Ben Beaumont - LiveCode Product Manager

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

I'm not sure if all the other product managers out there would say the same, but it seems difficult to describe exactly what a product manager does in a concise manner for those outside of the industry. I find myself tailoring my answer depending on who I'm speaking to. When someone asks what another person does, the answer of "Doctor", "Electrician" or similar usually result in some understanding of what the person does day to day. However, the answer of "Product Manager" tends to be a somewhat of a conversation killer!

I thought I would turn to Wikipedia, but as you'll see, it is of little help:

"Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with the planning or forecasting or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle."

- wikipedia

While this is accurate, it's not exactly the snappy answer we can use in the situation described above!

My name in Ben Beaumont and I have the pleasure of being the product manager for LiveCode. My guess is that most readers on the RunRev blog are relatively technical and have a good grasp of what a Product Manager does. For those who are not sure, read on.

Being a development tool, LiveCode is used by others to develop their own software products, ideally expressing their full creativity which leads them to push LiveCode in ways that, we, as its creators, never imagined. Our customers are continually pushing themselves to create market leading products. Unlike other consumer products whose users are satisfied with a static unchanging feature set, LiveCode customers need a continually evolving, cutting edge tool to help them stay ahead of the market. It is my job to ensure that we keep LiveCode moving quickly within an industry that arguably moves faster than any other.

However, before I start to give the impression the product manager is somehow the brains behind a product, let me share a little more about those who make up a product team! The development of LiveCode is the result of a large number of talented individuals whose varying gifts and passions feed into the development cycle. The team is made up of programmers, software architects, designers, marketeers, analysts and support specialists, and the job of any product manager is help those individuals to utilize their talents, ideally with the highest degree of creativity, flare and quality.

Generally, a team is effective when the individuals are clear about what they are doing, their responsibilities and how their work fits into the big picture. This requires good planning and communication which is easier said than done! Most people like to just get stuck in and let the creative juices flow and this is really where a product manager comes in. Our job is to help people plan projects that channel their creativity into areas that fit within the big picture. Each team member has to have all the information they need and be kept up to date. If we are successful all the individuals excel and these pieces come together into a product release that raises the bar in terms of features and quality. If this is true for every release you find yourself at the forefront of your industry, surely the goal of any product team! The key however, is not the product manager, but the unity and focus of all the talented team members on the ground researching, designing, developing, refining, testing and delivering the product!

Hopefully you have a little insight into the role of a product manager, any snappy job descriptions welcome!

Can Amazon ignite competition in the tablet market

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Earlier today Amazon announced its first foray into the tablet market with the new Kindle Fire. The much expected tablet is the high point of a new kindle family which includes a lower price replacement of the current kindle model, a kindle touch and a kindle touch 3G.

Price

The most devastating news for Apple and other competitors is undoubtedly the price point at which the Kindle Fire will ship. At only $199 the Kindle greatly under cuts every other serious contender. “What we are doing is offering premium products at non-premium prices,” said Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. “[Other tablet developers] have not been competitive on price” and “have just sold a piece of hardware. We don’t think of the Kindle Fire as a tablet. We think of it as a service.”

Suddenly that $229 8GB iPod touch doesn't look quite as appealing!

Look and feel

The Kindle may cost $300 less than an iPad2, but with only a 7-inch display it's noticably smaller. It's also 30% lighter, weighing in at only 14.6 ounces compared to the iPad2's 21.3 ounces. As such, the kindle is small enough, and light enough, to fit comfortably in one hand or be slipped into a pocket or bag. The screen is an impressive full color LCD delivering 16 million colors and 169 ppi and uses in-plane switching technology for wide angle viewing. However, multi media users may not be satisfied with the smaller screen and the battery life differences (7.5 hours for the kindle, 10 for the ipad2) will disappoint others.

On the outside the Kindle Fire bears a striking resemblance to the Blackberry Playbook - so it might not be as aesthetically pleasing as the iPad2, but the price, size and weight benefits may overrule this.

Under the hood

On the inside an 800MHz (T.B.C). dual-core processor runs a re-skinned version of the Android 2.3 OS. Amazon have completely refreshed the Gingerbread operating system with an easier to use interface and have tied to tablet closely to Amazon's own content libraries. The home screen reflects Amazon's core business by looking like a book shelf...... the menu gives quick access to magazines, movies, music, apps and of course to books. Amazon are providing free, unlimited cloud storage to keep your digital content and have extended the Whispersync service, popular on the original kindle device and mobile app, to include movies and tv as well.

The Fire is running Amazon's new home grown web browser 'Amazon Silk'. The company say this is a "radical new paradigm - a split browser architecture that accelerates the power of the mobile device hardware by using the computing speed and power of the Amazon Web Services Cloud." It certainly sounds like a clever idea. The company will be hoping that with the cloud doing a portion of the work the slower processor of the Fire (compared to other devices) won't be overly taxed and won't result in poorer performance.

So what's the catch?

There are some features blatantly missing from the new release. The underwhelming 8GB of storage would not disappoint me too much (there is unlimited data back up in the cloud afterall) if it wasn't for the lack of 3G. If I'm out and about and I can't get access to that one song I wanted to listen to, the one book I wanted to reference or the very document I was just talking about - suddenly the minimal memory and lack of connectivity could become a major issue.

It's also missing a camera, which is a shame for a tablet small enough to fit into a pocket. This rules out video chatting too.

Finally, it's crucial to note that the Kindle will have access to a much smaller and less successful pool of apps than its main rival, the iPad2.

And in conclusion....

Overall the Kindle Fire looks like an attractive tablet with an eye catching price tag that should appeal to regular amazon consumers of books, movie and tv. But with its slower processing speed, smaller screen, limited storage and crucially its lack of 3G connectivity this new kid on the block has its work cut out for it if wants to knock the iPad2 off the top spot.
It will be interesting to see, however, if Amazon can expand the tablet market by charming new entrants with this very sweet pricing point.

The Kindle Fire is available to pre-order in the US and ships November 15th. And as a regular Amazon consumer of books, movies and tv I can't wait to get my hands on one, cough, in case friends or family are stuck for Christmas gift ideas!

Appropriate IT Skills for the Modern Workplace

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

The current tough economy has made it difficult for job seekers to find work. Perseverance and a qualification aren't enough any more - modern employers increasingly insist on practical experience and relevant skills. In this technology driven world having IT skills is not the exception, it's the norm.

In this white paper, RunRev CEO Kevin Miller examines the question of what IT skills are relevent for today's job market and highlights how easy it is for job seekers with a non technical background to learn the right IT skills.

	Download the white paper "Discovering & Mastering Appropriate IT Skills" here.

Google Wallet to lead NFC payments

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

What do you never leave the house without? For me it’s my phone, my wallet & my keys. Previously I would have included a book in that list, but with e-readers I’m no longer worried about being stuck on a bus with nothing to entertain myself with, I have a virtual library to choose from right there on my phone. And now Google are looking to remove one more item from my list – the need for a physical wallet may soon be a thing of the past.

Google have just launched Google Wallet, a Near Field Communication (NFC) app that allows you to pay for purchases using just your Android phone. Pretty neat, huh! The launch follows a successful trial of the software that Google have been carrying out in New York and San Francisco since May. At the moment Google Wallet is only available on the Nexus S 4G on Sprint, and only in the US, but if it works out it will certainly be expanded from there. The discerning consumer no longer needs to be weighed down by wallet or purse – simply tap your phone to a PayPass reader in store and the cost of your purchase will be debited from your Citi Mastercard or Google Prepaid Card. Personally I can’t wait till it hits the UK!

Google Wallet, as an NFC app, is meant to be used in physical stores but this does not mean that it doesn’t offer exciting opportunities for developers. Google wallet works with Google Offers and with store loyalty cards to enhance user experience and to make for a more seamless consumer journey. There is lots of scope for developers to start thinking about how to use this, especially for their retail clients. Imagine you’re making an app for a restaurant chain – well here’s another way to make your app even better!

Meanwhile, Google Wallet already has a main rival. Isis, a multi million dollar mobile payment platform set up by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile will launch next spring. Jaymee Johnson, head of marketing in Isis, is quoted in PCMAG as saying: "It's safe to say that when Isis launches we'll have multiple payment networks, multiple issuers, multiple handsets, multiple operating systems, multiple manufacturers." Expectations are already high that the iPhone 5 will be one of these handsets – NFC is expected to be an integral part of the next iPhone launch.

Will this spell the end of the purse? Who knows… but it’s going to be exciting to see how Google Wallet, and its soon to be competitors, might change the face of retail payment.

Now all I need is an app to open my front door and I can leave my keys behind as well.

Meet the Team: Hanson Schmidt-Cornelius

Arnaud Bouchot — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Hello, my name is Hanson, I am a senior developer at RunRev and have been with the company for about one and a half years.

The ease with which you can build with LiveCode is one of the first things that attracted me to RunRev. Outside of work I am busy refurbishing my home, which is undergoing a number of major improvement projects. I complete most of the work myself, so between my full time job and all the building work - well, it keeps you busy! Renovation is a bit like software development. You need the right tools and materials for a particular project, and I have a well stocked and varied selection of tools.

LiveCode is very much like a versatile toolkit for building software. You can see the stack as the foundation and use cards to build each floor, with controls making up the furniture and fixtures. The message path is a bit like the cables and pipes. LiveCode is a pretty complete toolkit that allows you to work on a very wide range of small and larger projects. A software skyscraper is certainly a possibility with LiveCode.

I have had a great time being exposed to a whole range of technologies and disciplines during the time at RunRev, working on large and smaller projects with teams of great developers. Using LiveCode in all of its permutations and flavors has, of course, taken up a large part of the time. Having developed embedded technology and experienced the end of the green screen CRT terminals era, I really enjoyed plain text development when using LiveCode Server to build some of our in-house web technology.

My exposure to Artificial Intelligence in both academia and industry has had a significant impact on the way I develop software and the kind of algorithms I like to implement. LiveCode, with its rich feature-set and language structure provides all of the facets required to implement Artificial Intelligence applications. So far I have used LiveCode to explore Artificial Intelligence in the areas of heuristic search in single player and two games, genetic algorithms for survival optimization of autonomous agents in a hostile environment and image exploitation. Very high up on my list of future Artificial Intelligence concepts to explore are Neural Networks. In particular, I will be looking into Kohonen Networks and Hopfield Networks in a LiveCode context.

LiveCode Academy Learn to Make Mobile Apps

Arnaud Bouchot — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

by Heather Nagey

This summer for the first time we ran a beginners course centered around live Webinars and downloadable coursework, to get new users of LiveCode up and running with their first Mobile app. The academy was so successful that we are delighted to announce that we are repeating it this autumn (that's the Fall, for our American friends).

When?

The Academy program will run from 12th September to 26th October. The course registration is now open and you can sign up here. The live Webinars will be held every Tuesday, at 5pm UK time.

Where?
This is an online course, you can participate from anywhere in the world. All you need is an internet connection. If you are unable to attend the live Webinars, you will be able to download them after they have been held, and view them offline at your leisure.

How does it work?
Every week for seven weeks, starting on September 12th, we will hold a Webinar during which you can ask live questions. Each Webinar will have coursework materials associated with it, which you work through to understand the concepts presented. At the end of seven weeks you should have built your first Mobile app.

Sign up a Friend
Do you know someone you think could benefit from this beginners course? Just for you, we have a special "refer a friend" program. For every person you recommend who completes the course, we'll give you a $50 credit to spend in our store. Just email us the details of the person you recommend, and we'll send you the coupon when they graduate from the Academy.

Previous students
Our involvement with you doesn't end when you complete the Academy. We want to know how you get on with LiveCode on your own, and continue to look for ways to help you after the end of the course. We followed up recently with some of the first "graduates" of this course, and we'd love to share some of their stories with you.

The Lawyer's Story

LiveCode is a great way for non programmers to enable solutions themselves, rather than having to wait for the "real" geeks to provide something. We often hear that without LiveCode, a given project just would not have happened because making it in another tool would not be cost effective. Here's what Cees Kniestedt, a brand new user and LiveCode Academy graduate told us.

"I'm not working as a professional programmer, but as a lawyer... We frequently organize seminars for our clients ... I came up with the idea of providing an iPad app for free instead of the regular hand-outs we provide for these meetings. Our marketing department thought this was a great idea but - after consulting with our ICT guys - tried to convince me that it would take to much trouble (time, resources) to develop the app.

So, then I came up with the idea of making the App myself. [After completing the Academy] I made my first App. I'm afraid I only used 1% of the possibilities of Live Code, but even that proved to be more than enough for the app I was making.

A week ago or so I showed it to our marketing department. They really liked it. With my team of lawyers I planned a seminar in October ... this time we will give an update of recent developments and - hopefully - be able to present our Wabo-app."Cees Kniestedt, Lawyer

The Martial Artist's story

Maybe you've got a great idea for an app, that nobody else seems to be making. Caio Siebel is passionate about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and needed an app to keep score. It didn't exist, so in his own words he said "F' All, I'll do it myself."

Caio had some clear ideas of what he wanted his app to do. It needed to

Help athletes to train closer to the competition conditions,

Train themselves to look to the scoreboard as they fight.

Give Teachers a tool to teach the rules to their students.

Provide small and big tournaments with a good, reliable and simple scoreboard.

And most of all he wanted his scoreboard to help the spectators to understand more about BJJ.

After struggling with Xcode for a while, he told us:

"I found LiveCode on google...The greatest [thing about] LiveCode was the community, nobody treated me as a moron just because I didn't know the simplest things, I hope they still have those good helpful guys around, because I need to learn how to do updates on app store and later on I would love to learn more about iCloud." Caio Siebel, CJJ Instructor

Caio completed our first Summer Academy, and just a few short months later BJJScore is available in iTunes, made entirely in LiveCode. Congratulations!

The Business Analyst's story
LiveCode has been around for a long time, as a desktop tool. We have a fabulous community of users who have been making programs with it for years, but many have never before attempted a Mobile app. The potential of this exploding new market has got lots of you excited, and the Academy course, being based around making a Mobile app, is a great way to make the transition. Here's what Lars Vedo told us about his LiveCode way of life.

Background

Truth be told, I work full time and my partner is in med-school, so all our development is strictly evenings and weekends. We don't have a great deal of time to work on our projects but we have no shortage of ideas and love to use LiveCode to rapidly prototype proof on concepts. We've built tools for SEO, stock market analysis, XML readers, news aggregators, Twitter clients, and more. All of these apps we've just used internally so far but we're starting to put some extra time and polish into our most useful applications.

When we heard that LiveCode was launching mobile platforms we got really excited. That's when we pulled the trigger on purchasing a commercial license and starting to brainstorm what we could create. At first we tested a few of our existing apps in the mobile test environment and could quickly see the potential. Our already developed apps would were largely functional but lacking mobile UI.

The App Itself

For Baby Name Eliminator (BNE) we wanted to create an application that encouraged sharing. The idea behind BNE is to enable an expecting parent to download the application and choose some of their favorite baby names. Then email that list to their partner so they can rate those names as well. At that point they can compare the results and see which names they both liked the most.

The psychology behind it is to remove the friction when going back and forth over baby names. By sharing lists and voting independently, couples can compare notes without feeling pressured.

This is a pretty beta launch of the application. We wanted to go through the whole process of building, designing, and submitting to Apple to see how it went. Now that it's live, we have a huge list of features we're excited to roll out.

You can checkout the website and the application here.

Summer Academy

We've been developing apps with LiveCode for years so we are very comfortable with the general process and making nice UI for desktops; however, mobile is a whole new game so we saw value in the Summer Academy (plus, we got an additional deployment license!). Summer Academy started off a little slow going over the basics of LiveCode, but when it got into the mobile specific issues I was floored. The small details, best practices, and design pointers were extremely helpful in the designing and development of our mobile app. Once we have improved our app a little more, we will work to deploy on Android and cannot wait to see how easily we can manage that through LiveCode.

I was also pleased with the format of the Summer Academy. The combination of take home assignments and webinars was great.

I've even demo'd LiveCode to a .Net developer I work with and he's already downloaded a trial since it was so easy to understand.

Find out for yourself
If you are a brand new user, or if you want to get a head start on making mobile apps, sign up for our academy today!

iPhone 5 what you can expect

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

by Mark Taoilinn

Last July thousands of people waited in line overnight (and some over several nights) to be one of the first people in the world to get their hands on an iPhone 4. Almost a year later, at WWDC in June, the Mac OS X Lion announcement, while exciting, failed to cause the same level of frenzy. Getting the new iOS 5 was nice, but the question of everyone’s lips at the time, and since, was “When will the new iPhone 5 arrive, and what new goodies will it bring us?”.

The rumour mill has been active all summer long, with pundits originally expecting the next generation iPhone to hit stores early September. This now seems premature, and most of us now expect the iPhone 5 to land in early October, with presales being taken from the end of September. Here’s just some of the things that might be included:

1) Not just one new phone, but two!

Steady now, don’t get too excited! Reuters speculated earlier this month that Apple will release a cheaper version of the iPhone 4, dubbed by many as the iPhone 4S, to run alongside the iPhone 5 upon release. Apple’s continued focus on the higher end of the market has allowed main rival, Android, to catapult itself into the number one slot for new smart phone sales. The company will be hoping that the 8GB iPhone 4S will help them fight competition from Android and Nokia in the lower end of the phone market and in emerging markets like China.
"A lower-priced version of iPhone 4 seems to be a necessary evil at this point in the iPhone adoption cycle, especially in emerging markets where the average income of individuals is much lower," Channing Smith or Capital Advisors Growth Fund is quoting as saying in Reuters.

2) Dual-Core A5 processor

There is unanimous agreement that Apple is going to ship the iPhone 5 with the new A5 processor chip. These two powerful cores in one chip was the secret behind the speed and multitasking ability of the iPad2 and would give the iPhone 5 a minimum speed of 1Ghz. However, many in gadget circles expect Apple to boost the speed to 1.2 or even 1.5 GHz, strengthening its position against those Android phones that are clocking in at 1.2Ghz.

3) Body Design and Antenna Improvements

Who could forget Antenna Gate; when the sale of over 3 million iPhone 4 units between June 24^th and July 16 was marred by the “Apple Death Grip” – that is that holding the bottom left hand corner of the handset could cause some signal attenuation. The iPhone 4 was reported to lose reception when held by the antenna band and Steve Jobs’ only reply was “ you shouldn’t hold your phone that way”. Free bumper cases were eventually offered to all purchasers to help eliminate the loss of reception, software upgrades were promised within weeks and Apple were insistent that the whole thing was blown out of proportion, honest, as demands for a product recall were deftly ignored. With the launch of the iPhone 5, and potentially iPhone 4S as well, Apple are sure to do everything they can to make certain that this potential disaster is not repeated.

And it seems that Apple are learning from past mistakes. China Times, quoted in Apple Insider, reports that the software giant will abandon the reinforced glass back of the iPhone 4 in favor of a metal chassis for improved antenna design. Meanwhile Techradar and Engadget believe the phone could be a ‘complete design rethink’ – moving away from Infineon chipsets for GSM and shifting to Qualcomm – to ensure that Antenna Gate is never repeated.

Finally, check out these recent photos from MacRumors which suggest the new phone could have two antenna breaks along the bottoms of the casing to accommodate different frequencies of different mobile technologies. MacRumors also suggest that the iPhone 5 will have GSM and CDMA as standard.

4) Screen Size

Initially expected to sport a 4.2 inch screen, speculation on the iPhone 5 display proportions has been downsized recently to a more modest 3.5 – 3.7 inch display, according to this article from DigiTimes. Their source expects “that the iPhone 5 will adopt a 3.5- to 3.7-inch panel with a design to allow the bezel of the panel to become thinner and make the screen look larger.”

5) iCloud integration

Apple claimed that the iPad2 was the first true post-PC device. With iOS 5 apple were ‘cutting the cable’ so that those who didn’t want to go back to the PC, didn’t have to. Apple will be looking to continue that in the iPhone 5 and changes to the design may even make cloud integration much easier.

6) Near Field Communication

There’s been lots of talk about Apple bringing Near Field Communication into the iPhone 5, allowing Apple to pay for goods out and about by simply waving their phones at shop tellers. There has even been speculation that Apple will be teaming up with PayPal to bring the simplified payment options of NFC into the next evolution of the iPhone.
Personally I don’t think this one is going to be ready in time and would expect that Apple will keep it for a future release.

These are just of the things that I think might be included in the new iPhone 5. Whatever else is present, one key component to its predecessors record sales is sure to be missing – the Stevenote introductory address. Having stepped down as CEO, it is assumed that the pied piper of Apple will no longer be present in blue jeans and black polo to lead the world in a merry dance direct from their homes to the Apple Stores with wallets in hand. It will be interesting to see if Tim Cook can fill these very large boots!

Tell us what you think: answer the question below...

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Meet the Team: Neil Roger

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Hi! My name is Neil and I've been part of the RunRev family for about 3 years. I joined RunRev soon after graduating from a course in Audio Technology with Multimedia at Glasgow Caledonian University. I am part of the filming team and my official role is post production video engineer. This entails me working on all the video related projects within the company. These can range from promo videos to tutorial videos and most recently recording the RunRev11 conference and editing the videos afterwards for DVD and Simulcast distribution. My main focus with RunRev is working with a company called Eurotalk.

Eurotalk is a language learning company that produces a vast range of video based interactive learning products that have all been created using LiveCode. LiveCode applications have been implemented at every stage of production and it has allowed the filming/final stage processes to be streamlined which results in a speedy turnaround from start to finish. I could not imagine trying to complete a Eurotalk project without LiveCode as it would take many days to manually edit the 1000's of individual phrases used on each product whereas with the use of LiveCode it takes a matter of hours.

Don’t just take my word for it: Andrew Ashe, Managing Director of Eurotalk talks about the relationship in this video (which I’m happy to say is one of mine).

Out of office hours I enjoy spending time with my fiancée, walking our puppy Pancake and 'geeking' it up in my own computers at home (much to my fiancée’s dismay).

Recently I attempted a bit of coding myself and was pleasantly surprised at what I could produce using LiveCode with having no previous programming knowledge. I successfully created a small application called 'Target IP' which is an external IP retrieval tool that will send an message containing the computer's current external IP to a specified email address. So, if your computer is ever stolen, you will automatically be emailed the IP address of whoever next turns it on, which you can pass on to the authorities.

Using LiveCode I was able to produce this application in around 45mins.

The app has been picked up by Softpedia, Softoxi and Brothersoft and I’ve had hundreds of downloads already.

I went into this project with the outlook that I wouldn’t be able to get very far but with LiveCode’s easy to use language , in-depth lessons portal and fantastic forum community it was a pleasure to code. I look forward to my next LiveCode project.

Editor’s note:

We’re really proud of what Neil has achieved with Target IP. Neil is, as he himself says, a complete geek, but he’s not a coder, and he’s made a really clever, really useful app in no time at all. He’s looking forward to writing his next app, and we’re looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

The End of An Era - Steve Jobs Retires

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

by Kevin Miller, RunRev CEO

My first introduction to the Mac was as a kid in the early 90s. My parents purchased a Mac LC and I was immediately hooked to its 256 color display. I quickly developed a fascination for computers and for all things Apple. I watched on the edge of my seat as Apple floundered from CEO to CEO and was as amazed as anyone else when Jobs came back and managed the turnaround that he did. I owned one of the first iPods, the model that wasn't yet cool and could still be used as a weapon. And while RunRev has always used a plethora of platforms and devices, no-one to this day has managed to prize my Mac out of my hands.

So I was saddened today to read today about the resignation of Steve Jobs. For me, Jobs was always about leadership, about the power of design, of talent and charisma, combined with obsession and execution. He embodied the management adage that you should never let your company culture design itself. Jobs was the opposite of what many of today's business leaders are: being much more famous for his involvement in the details of design than in his operational prowess.

Of course all leaders of all styles need talent and execution to succeed. But I also believe that in most cases, talent and execution must be combined with good timing and even a little luck. You have to be in the right place at the right time to truly succeed. Yet for me, Jobs flew against that adage as well. There was nothing in my mind particularly fortuitous about the timing of his return to Apple, other than that the company was struggling. He turned it around almost by sheer force of will, redefining Apple as something entirely different: as a creator of, and innovator in, the "post-PC era". And making full use of his reality distortion field to do so. The distortion field was famous for many things, including making people want most things that he demoed, including products that they couldn't imagine wanting…just a few minutes before watching Jobs on stage. But for me the distortion came with one more thing, even bigger than that. It seemingly came with the ability to create luck itself through sheer force of will. Even when things went wrong it worked…That's not the death grip you're looking for.

Jobs was famous for making people want most things he demoed

including products they couldn’t imagine wanting.

Of course we haven't always seen eye-to-eye. RunRev has had its share of ups and downs and as is par for the course for any smaller company operating in the fringes of some larger ones, there has been the odd bump in the road. But we have a strong Apple following in our company and community and I know that if you look at both the big picture over time and at the many opportunities today (particularly on iOS), both RunRev and many of our customers have done very, very well over the years having businesses that operate in and around the Apple ecosystem. So (beyond just wanting the stream of cool toys to continue!) I'm hoping that Jobs’ successor will be capable of taking Apple forward and keep it driving the face of innovation for all of us in the tech industry for many years to come.

The hardest task that Tim Cook has to face right now is the fact that he has to follow Jobs. We have to replace that very familiar Steve icon with a perfectly adequate but radically less well known icon of Tim on our desktops. I'm sure that Apple has solid plans in place for the next couple of years and will do very well over that period. The timing of Jobs’ announcement today was mostly driven by health reasons but one thing is clear: Jobs certainly left Apple on a high. Hopefully some of the other design talent in the company will have a chance to surface and assert itself as Apple rides the wave it has created for itself over the next couple of years. We wish Apple and Steve well.

Strong Employment Growth for Mobile App Developers

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

by Mark Taoilinn

I wrote a blog post recently highlighting data from Freelancer.com which indicated that Android development jobs would surpass iOS jobs by the end of 2012. Well, as ever with the platform wars, it seems that things are not so clear cut or simple as that.

New data from Elance.com shows that iOS is the clear winner on the jobs posting battleground with a 20% increase in new freelance iOS postings, compared to only 15% for Android, in the second quarter of this year. Meanwhile in the UK, new data from the Guru Careers Network, which examined trends in IT jobs also shows Objective-C as the biggest mover of all object oriented languages. The past 3 months have seen a 13% increase in requests for Objective-C as a key skill of potential new programming recruits. Java is still showing strong, consistent demand.

This data supports results found in a survey by RunRev Ltd. earlier this year. In that survey 4 out of 5 developers said that iOS was the most important development platform for growing their business, with Android coming in second (ahead of the likes of Windows Phone, Blackberry and Meego). Rather than choosing between Objective C and Java, these developers favour cross platform tools, like LiveCode, which empowers the creation of apps for both the iOS and Android platforms. Those surveyed reported that one third of their projects would not have been commercially viable using Objective C or Java.

The infographic below charts the thought process for a developer in choosing the right platform.

Click to see in High Resolution

All indications are that there is strong jobs growth for mobile apps developer. We don’t know who will win the platform war – but it is clear that developers need to think carefully about which tools to use and what skills to learn.

Google Buys Motorola - what does it mean for developers

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

I’m sure you heard by now that Google has announced its intention to purchase Motorola Mobility for $12.5BN in cash. What was the motivation behind such a large acquisition, and what does it mean for developers?

In their official press release, Google said “The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.”

Patents

Prior to this deal, the Android platform had a weak patent portfolio, ranking only at number 20 in the list of mobile device patents holders (outlined below); well below its two main competitors, Apple and Microsoft. Earlier this month, David Drummond, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at Google criticized these competitors for running “a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.” He went to outline how Microsoft are demanding a $15 license fee for every Android phone produced and are suing Barnes & Noble, HTC, Samsung and Motorola to get it. These so called ‘patent taxes’ are making the free, open source Android platform more expensive to license than Windows Phone 7.

This means war and to survive Android needed to arm itself, and fast. The Motorola deal, the biggest ever for Google, is meant to give Google the ammunition it needs: 14,600 granted patent as well as 6,700 pending patent applications worldwide. On the new, more level playing field, Google will be hoping that this stock piling of armaments can lead to a cold war style stand-off where each side has too much to lose to impose ‘patent taxes’ on each other.

Ultimately a stronger patent portfolio will help Google defend the 39 OEMs(Original Equipment Manufacturers) making Android devices from potential ‘patent taxes’ as well as insulating suppliers from any fall out. Google will be hoping that it will ensure the longevity of the platform.

Core Competencies and Product Control

Motorola has a strong pedigree in the mobile market; Dr. Martin Cooper, a researcher at Motorola, is credited with making the world’s first analogue mobile phone call and the company released the first ever commercial hand held cellular phone. They were one of the founding members of the open handset alliance in 2007, a group of 84 technology companies, including Google, who went on to develop the Android platform. Motorola committed to Android only mobile devices in 2008 and since then have gone to become one of the top 3 distributors of Android devices, along with Samsung and HTC

When asked in a recent conference call to investors how Google will ensure that Android will remain an even playing field for all OEMs the company were quick to state that they will be running Motorola Mobility as an entirely separate concern. They are keen to ensure us that Motorola will rank no higher than any other Android partner (HTC or Samsung for example) and that Motorola will not get any preferential treatment.

I have to agree with Steve Levy, Senior Writer for Wired and author of “"In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, And Shapes Our World” who was quoted in Business Insider asking the question “Why would you buy something if you intend leaving it alone?”. In purchasing Motorola Mobility Google have acquired a competency that is well outside their core advertising business. Motorola’s skills, infrastructure and experience span the entire life cycle of mobile devices, from device design to software integration to market delivery and have the potential to give Google overall product control to rival that of Apple’s tight control over the iphone and ipad. There has to be a temptation for Google to consider adopting a new standard – the Motorola standard – as the De facto norm for Android devices.

A single standard or specification set would be great news for developers struggling with the fragmentation issue of having so many different Android devices and manufacturers. And it would terrible news for the likes of Samsung and HTC who have committed so much to making and marketing their own Android devices.

Breaking new ground

This acquisition wasn’t just to protect the existing manufacturers or to “supercharge” the current ecosystem. Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google has also stated that the deal “will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem.” The new ground he is speaking of is the home media, video solutions and tv market . “Our Home business is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the convergence of mobile and home environments” says Sanjay Jha, Motorola Mobility CEO (who, incidentally, is poised to make $90M from the acquisition).

With this acquisition Google is now one of the world’s biggest set-top box makers. “Google TV has not caught on yet, and this could be the wedge to get it (a browser for the TV with a big search button) in millions of living rooms” says Saul Hansell in techcrunch. This would of course open another advertising route for Google and may lead to potential app making possibilities for developers.

What are your thoughts?

The deal is still to be approved but all indications are that the acquisition will go ahead at the end 2011 or the beginning of 2012. Will the new patent portfolio insulate Google from potential patent taxes, or will it lead to an escalation in the patent wars where Microsoft or Apple simply acquire an even bigger portfolio from one of the few sources still available? Will Microsoft feel pressured to commit even further to Nokia by buying the whole company, as many are already speculating they must? And will Google keep the manufacturing arm of Motorola Mobility as an entirely separate venture, will they use it to revive the Google Nexus brand or at least forge a new standard for Android specification, or, will they accept that their core business has nothing to do with hardware and sell off that part of the company? Finally, what might the opportunities be for developers as the Android platform breaks new ground?

We want to hear what you think. Get involved in the discussion on our facebook page.

Meet the Team: Elanor Buchanan

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Hi I’m Elanor, I’ve been working at RunRev for 6 years now.

Elanor deep in conversation with Jim Ault, LiveCode Customer,

at the RunRevLive.11 conference in San Jose, April 2011.

I joined RunRev as part of the consulting division and over the years I have worked on a large and varied selection of projects. One thing this has done is prove to me how versatile LiveCode is; the projects we have produced or worked on with developers have ranged from small educational applications to games to media production tools.

I have recently moved into working more on development of the LiveCode IDE. While I still have some on-going consulting projects, I am really looking forward to working on LiveCode itself and being a part of the team delivering the product.

The first major project I have been involved in was the completion of the dictionary and I am currently finishing off the print version of the dictionary, it’s been a big job but it’s great to have an up to date dictionary.

I also recently presented the LiveCode Academy, a series of webinars, coursework and sample code to help both new and existing users get up and running with LiveCode by showing them how to make their first mobile app. It was a really fun project to work on - everyone was so keen to learn and so involved in the project. It was great interacting with our users, especially on something as current and exciting as mobile apps.

Follow Elanor in the LiveCode Academy as she shares her experience and LiveCode knowledge on her way to teaching you how to master mobile app development by making your very first mobile app. Just click here

Clarify Making Communications Clearer. Built with LiveCode

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

LiveCode revolutionized development with its easy to use English-like language and rapid, compile-free workflow. Now one of RunRev’s long-standing customers is bringing that same fast, easy and effective approach to how you communicate online.

Since 2003 Blue Mango Learning Systems have used LiveCode to build great visual communication tools, which in turn help their clients create and deliver fantastic documentation. (The RunRev lessons portal, for example, is built using Blue Mango’s flagship product ScreenSteps and ScreenSteps Live and our customers have always been extremely happy with its performance.)

So we were excited to hear that, building on their earlier success with ScreenSteps, Blue Mango have released a Beta Version of Clarify. Clarify promises to save you time by organizing, clarifying and focusing your communications.

How Clarify Works

Capture images

Capture screenshots, import graphics or add photos. Capture multiple images to create clear communications.

Turn them into communications

Add annotations and text to you images

Annotations include:

Arrows

Rectangles

Oval

Highlight

Sequence tools

Text annotations

Blur

Share online or via email.

It’s easy to share your communications online via clarify-it.com (a free sharing service offered by Blue Mango) or by email.

Built with LiveCode

We’re really proud that Clarify was built using LiveCode. Both RunRev and Blue Mango share a philosophy. Blue Mango tells us that to communicate well we must:

Be organized

Be brief

Be clear

Well, the same has always been true for programming and developing apps.

Stay Organized

LiveCode’s clear process of ‘cards’ and stacks’ keeps your programming organized and structured.

Learn more about Cards and Stacks here

Be Brief

Supercharge your workflow. Make changes in real time. With LiveCode your application is always running, so any changes you make are seen live. This lets you create Apps and adapt to changing requirements in record time.

The Traditional Development Cycle. With each debugging you need to run the cycle again - slowing down your development.

With LiveCode's compile free cycle your chnages happen in real time. No more waiting, no more delays.

Be Clear

Writing in LiveCode is not like using other languages. We use an English-like programming language so unlike other tools there is no arcane symbols, no difficult short hand, no complex syntax.

Your code is readable and understandable – even months after you’re written it.

Why choose LiveCode?

I asked Trevor DeVore, Clarify Developer and BlueMango Director of Technology, why LiveCode was the perfect tool to use when developing programmes of this kind. The reason, was told me, is becuase LiveCode is so versatile.

“Clarify will be released for both Mac and Windows. I need to be able to share as much code as possible between the two platforms if I’m going to be able to provide a quality product for our customers at release as well as going forward. Being able to use 98% of the code on both platforms without modification makes this feasible.

In addition, the ability to instantly test Clarify on Mac and Windows during development without any need to compile allows me to quickly iterate over features and fix bugs.”

- Trevor DeVore, BlueMango Learning Systems

A Mac Public Beta of Clarify is available now. Check it out this great LiveCode-built app!

The Simplicity Paradox

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

By Mark Taoilinn

While speaking with a graphic designer friend of mine recently I was reminded how much work goes into making something look simple yet striking.

Take the Apple iCloud logo for example.

The Apple iCloud Logo

Looking at it you would be forgiven for thinking “I could do that, I’ve been drawing clouds since kindergarden”.

When you examine the image in more detail you come to realize that there's a lot going on under the hood. Take another look at the archetypal image and you'll see that a complex mathmatic formula gives it its balance and grace.

The Golden Ratio, or as some call it, the Divine Section, has been studied by mathematicians, engineers, musicians and even stock brokers for centuries. Its application in art and architecture is said to yield pleasing, harmonious proportions. It has been used in paintings by Leonardo DaVinci, Salvador Dali and Georges Seurat.

This picture by Leonardo DaVinci uses the

same golden ratio as the iCloud image

While we're on the topic of Apple, take a look at their company logo. Again there's much more going on than meets the eye.

To give the logo its sinuos curves and distinctive appeal, the contours of the fruit follow a complex Fibonacci sequence (a numerical sequence in which each number is the sum of the two proceeding numbers). Just like an iphone, the Apple logo is all grace and beauty on the outside and keen science on the inside.

I am very much indebted to this page as the source for this blog post.

Android Jobs to Surpass iPhone jobs by end of 2012

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Android may be the largest mobile platform in terms of units sold, but it has been clear for some time now that iOS still offers developers greater returns than Android (or indeed any other platform). iOS users download more apps and pay more for them than users of any other platform, including Android, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Of course selling apps directly to platform users is only one of the monetization options available for mobile app developers. Instead of selling apps in the app store, many freelance developers are selling their skills to businesses, big and small, to make branded apps that are often free to end users. In their report Developer Economics 2011, the excellent team at Vision Mobile highlighted how big brands are embracing mobile and developing, or having someone else develop, their own mobile apps.

The chart below, from the Developer Economics 2011 report, shows the journey that companies go through to reach their customers via mobile. As outlined, brands go through 3 stages of development: initially outsourcing development for Apple only apps, then using outside developers to make Android and other platforms apps before finally bringing the development in-house and seeking to monetize the mobile route to market.

The opportunities for freelance developers exist in the first two stages, when brands are setting out to get into mobile. Most of the big brands already have Apple apps in deployment and getting ready to move into the ‘street smart’ phase of outsourcing the deployment of multiple platform apps.

Evidence from Freelancer.com, the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace, suggests a shift in freelance requirements from iPhone jobs to Android jobs. Outsourced iOS jobs still saw steady growth at 9% in Q1 2011, but Android jobs are up a solid 20%. “If Android work continues at this growth rate, it will surpass the iPhone category by the end of 2012” in terms of freelance work, the company said.

With more devices than any other platform an Android app is an essential component in any marketer’s tool kit. The fragmentation issues that plague Android make developing those first Android apps too time consuming for an internal team – which makes for an excellent opportunity for freelance developers to offer their services instead.

So, if you’re a freelance developer now might be the time to start polishing up on your Android development skills to corner next year’s Android market.

What do you think? Is iOS still the dominant interest for developers or is there a gradual shift to include Android development as a serious business model? Give us your thoughts on our Facebook page.

LiveCode 4.6.3 launched

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:00:00 GMT

What a busy time it’s been! Last week we launched LiveCode 4.6.3 with important updates to Android and Desktop as well as a complete overhaul of our Server and On-Rev Platforms. Here’s some of the highlights:

	A complete dictionary LiveCode 4.6.3 boasts a full and complete dictionary of all LiveCode commands, keywords, properties and built in functions. Entries include examples from LiveCode users on the best use of each keyword and tips to avoid using them in the wrong place. Stay on the right track with this essential coding tool.
	Android Updates LiveCode for Android just keeps getting better and better. LiveCode 4.6.3 brings you these Android features. Fullscreen Video Playback, for enriched user experiences Improved Camera Support: take and pick photos from your album, library or camera Manifest Support, to control important details of your apps requirements and functionality Device orientation support
	LiveCode for Server Launch The most exciting part of the new LiveCode 4.6.3 is the full release of the LiveCode for Server Product. In pre-release since June of last year, LiveCode Server has proved extremely popular with LiveCode users. Andre Garzia, LiveCode user and network expert, refers to LiveCode Server as ‘The Miracle aka Andre’s Dream’.

LiveCode Server lets you use the English-like programming language of LiveCode to run server side processes. You can:

Support Cloud applications

Process Web forms and other web related input

Provide back end support for multi-user games

Work with on-line databases

Create on-line learning resources

Build blogs, CMS systems or social networks

Create customized email marketing

...and more

LiveCode Server works on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. For the first time ever the full release now supports LiveCode stacks – so that you can save hours by re-using your code libraries.

LiveCode Server can be bought as an add on to your existing account or as desktop & server commercial bundle for new customers.

Everything you need to know about LiveCode Server can be found here

Update to the Server Engine on On-Rev

All of the upgrades we made the server engine have been rolled out to On-Rev, our online programmable hosting solution, as well.

What you may not know is that in addition to LiveCode, RunRev also offers top of the line hosting as well. But at RunRev we always try to do things a little differently, and On-Rev is not just hosting, it’s a whole back end server solution - a stand alone hosting with a pre-installed LiveCode Server Engine that allows you to write cloud apps and we programs with the minimum of fuss and hassle. On-Rev, which has been in Pre-release since April, 2009 and went into full release last week, has also been really popular with LiveCode Users. Here’s what one user had to say:

“The service/support is one of the best compared to the providers we had in the past. The people at Runrev are always friendly and helpful. All our support request were handled fast and solved successfully. What shall I say more? We can warmly recommend the on-rev service. Moving to on-rev was a really good decision.”

- Mathhias Rebbe,

On-Rev has been completely updated with the new LiveCode Server engine, and, when combined with LiveCode Mobile it is the perfect solution for making your own cloud apps. Or you can purchase On-Rev as an annual subscription or monthly subscription product.

Everything you need to know about On-Rev can be found here

Phew… see what I mean about a busy week. We’re proud of all the work we did last week and all the new and improved products we were able to bring you. As always, we’ll keep striving to take LiveCode from strength to strength so that your apps and programs can continue to exceed the expectations set by yourself, your students or your clients.

Save on AnDevCon with RunRev

Arnaud Bouchot — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

RunRev are excited to be sponsoring AnDevConII this November in San Francisco. We can't wait to get back to the Bay Area, see our customers, reconnect with developers we met in April and hopefully meet up some new developers interested in making Android Apps.

Hopefully we'll see you there! We've gotten together with the organizers to give RunRev customers a great deal on tickets. Use coupon code 'runrev' during booking and save $200.

Read below to find out more.

The first AnDevCon, held last March, sold out early - and despite our bigger quarters, we anticipate a full house again this Nov. 6-9. That's why we recommend that if you develop Android applications, you should register early for AnDevCon II. Use the code 'runrev' during registration to save an additional $200!

From Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich, from sensors to APIs, from styling your app's UI to consuming enterprise Web services, AnDevCon II is 100% focused on developer education and training. Whether you're new to the Android platform or are already experienced at delivering software through the Android Market, AnDevCon II is for you.

AnDevCon is 100% focused on developing Android applications - it's not watered down by sessions for sys admins, venture capitalists, marketing people, or curious onlookers who want to check out the Android ecosystem. At AnDevCon you'll find hundreds of experienced developers and engineers - just like you.

Register for AnDevCon by Friday, July 15, to save $500 PLUS use the code 'runrev' during registration to save an additional $200!

AnDevCon is a trademark of BZ Media LLC. Follow AnDevCon on Twitter.
BZ Media LLC. 7 High Street | Huntington | New York | 11743

Meet the Team: Mark Taoilinn

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Hi there, my name is Mark Taoilinn, or, as I’m better known in RunRev: Markety. You see, we have two Marks in RunRev, myself and Mark Waddingham, our Director of Technology. When I started at RunRev a few months ago Mark Waddingham was very much The Incumbent Mark… so everyone referred to me rather dismissively as ‘other Mark’ or worse ‘lesser Mark’. It simply wouldn’t do for a member of the marketing team to have such poor branding, so over time ‘other Mark’ got upgraded (slightly!) to Marketing Mark which was slowly shortened to Markety Mark and finally just Markety. I have to admit that I quite like it – clear strong branding is part and parcel of what I do here, and Markety seems to sum me up quite nicely, thank you very much!

Markety by name – Markety by nature. I’m the Sales and Marketing Manager for RunRev, so I’m responsible not just for our sales but also for how we communicate with our users: this blog, our twitter page, facebook page, youtube account, mailers, white papers, articles and of course the website. My background has always been sales so I’m very business focused – I’m one of the few team members who is not fluent in the language of ‘code’. I used to think that money made the world go around…. since joining RunRev I’ve started to realise that technology does.

Working in IT has really opened my eyes to how we use technology for every aspect of our lives. After returning from holiday I wrote this post about how I couldn’t cope with data withdrawals on a recent holiday. I find myself stopping in the supermarket to think about how I would sell an app that tracks where the meat produce comes from (for Mad Cow peace of mind). When I heard that a cousin of mine was researching ways to improve pace makers I phoned him up to discuss the possibilities of getting real time data via current users’ mobile phones. When the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival launched their new website I had well-formed opinions on how they should have incorporated social networking and social calendars to greatly improve the user experience.

I was reading about Pottermore recently – J.K. Rowling’s new online reading experience. Rather than just giving us basic web 1.0 access to audio books and e-books, Rowling has worked with creative developers for the past year to ensure that users get a fully digital experience that takes advantage of all the unique characteristics of the web. Pottermore users will have a smorgasbord of digital treats to choose from, including a Sorting Hat, wand choosers and, most cleverly of all, full social media interaction where Harry Potter fans (myself included) can connect and collaborate with other devotees, with the publishers and possibly even the author herself. The creative team are working on tablet integration so the Pottermore app is surely not far behind.

The differences between the user experiences of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival website and that promised by Pottermore just go to show that in order for any industry, not just software development, to grow in today’s world they need to embrace all the opportunities that our rapidly changing technologies allow. That’s what I’m trying to do at RunRev, to enhance the users experience by thinking outside the box and communicate with you all in fun, interesting and interactive new ways that benefit us both.

If you ever have any ideas on how I can do this better, if you have any feedback, or if you there’s something you’d like me to say on your behalf to the LiveCode community – just drop me a line.

And don’t forget to start your email with “Hi Markety”…

Go native with iOS and LiveCode

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Today saw the launch of LiveCode 4.6.2, the latest upgrade of the LiveCode engine for writing cross platform apps.

We have two great announcements to make to support this launch.

Externals support – call native APIs and write your own added functionality.

Here’s the announcement the LiveCode community have been waiting for: LiveCode 4.6.2 has full support for externals in iOS.

We're committed to helping you build outstanding iOS apps that take full advantage of all the amazing native features. Today's release of LiveCode 4.6.2 lets you add to the LiveCode engine by writing your own code for added functionality in iOS applications.

What all this means is that LiveCode 4.6.2 provides and iOS externals interface which allows you to extend the existing iOS feature set using a lower level language like C, C++ or Objective C. If LiveCode’s built in feature set does 90% of what your app needs, you can now wrap any API to add that last 10%.

We’ve provided a full page of documentation to help you get to grips with this and Michael McCreary, LiveCode technical lead, will walk you through the process in his helpful video.

By supporting externals LiveCode can now access hundreds of native iOS APIs. Our SDK includes examples of some of the most popular:

Simple socket support

Airprint

Sound recording

Text to speech

Canvas an image.

Access to mail

New Plug-in brings native look and feel – free for one month

That’s not all. We’ve partnered with MobGui to bring you an even more native iOS feel than ever before. Get MobGui free with every LiveCode purchase, upgrade or add on for the next month and save $50.

MobGUI, a new plug in for LiveCode, is aimed at rapid iOS app development. This hot new plug-in has a growing set of custom controls that you simply drag and drop onto your projects to give them that native iOS look and feel. Controls include: browser, movie player, scroller and text and option fields.

This powerful little plug couldn’t be easier to use. I was amazed at how quickly I could make my work in progress look like native iOS apps. Let me tell you, prototyping an app will never be the same again.

The great news is that we’re giving away a copy of MobGui free with every LiveCode for iOS purchase, upgrade or add on for the next month and save $50.

That’s right… Free! Simple to use drag and drag iOS controls, yours, for nothing.

Revolutionize your iOS apps in minutes with LiveCode and MobGui.

The new plug in, combined with our externals interface, means that your LiveCode apps will be even better for iOS than ever before. We’re especially excited about our new externals interface and are really keen to hear what sort of external features you’re going to write first. Let us know on our twitter or facebook page.

First Review of LiveCode Summer Academy

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Thanks to @alansgandy of the TechPinata Blog for our first review of the LiveCode Summer Academy. Alan starting looking into iOS a year ago but was struggling to grasp Apple’s X-code and found the learning curve too steep on Objective-C. He shelved his plans for making an iPad App.

Fortunately, Alan ‘stumbled upon some rapid development tools’ suitable for a non-programmer like Alan. So Alan joined the LiveCode Summer Academy, our free online course to help non-programmers like Alan learn to write iOS and Android apps easily.

Here’s what he said about it:

“I plunged into LiveCode by enrolling in a promotion dubbed the Summer Academy. This free program is designed to introduce novice developers to the LiveCode platform. Weekly webinars with coursework are assigned to the participants in this 8 week program. The course culminates with a finished application fit for publishing. Along the way, the learners have a message board for discussions and helpful support from the RunRev staff. I really enjoy the amount of work that RunRev has put into this program, hopefully others can follow this model.”

Unlike Objective-C or X-Code, LiveCode uses an English like programming language that is intuitive and easy to learn. As Alan says “This makes interpreting what a program does easy for a beginner. It also makes that learning curve much flatter.”

We started the LiveCode Summer Academy program because we recognised how difficult it is to learn a new language, for novices and experienced programmers alike. Every LiveCode Summer Academy lesson had a clear structure and purpose and each week built on the knowledge that had gone before. Lots of background reading was provided and we even made available notes from Brigham Young Universities LiveCode course and from Gracemount High Schools LiveCode course.

“Overall, I like LiveCode for developing mobile apps. The interface is intuitive and the scripts are easy to edit. Not having to decipher the various symbols involved with a lower level language makes for a pleasant learning experience. The staff and community is very involved and supportive. It seems like there is a place for experienced and non experienced coders to co-exist and learn from each other."

Thanks TechPinata Blog, I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Meet the Team: Heather Nagey

Arnaud Bouchot — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

It's a question I get asked a lot: what exactly is it you do all day? This seems like a good place to attempt an answer!

Hi, I'm Heather, and I am the Customer Services Manager for RunRev. I've worked here for ten years or so now, and I find the job rewarding, fascinating, and endlessly varied. Working with customers from all over the world is my favourite part of the job, I now know people in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Europe, the US (of course) and even Tristan da Cunha. You name it, we have customers there! Obviously, I answer a lot of email, but that's not all I do, by a long chalk. Maybe the easiest way to explain what I do is by taking a look at what I've done today specifically.

I usually work from home, in beautiful Wales, and I commute to Edinburgh once a month or so, for real life interaction with the team. The rest of the time we network via skype, chat and email - we're a very integrated team. Picture me at my desk by the window, with my cat Jasmine on my lap or comfortably perched on her special cat shelf above my screen.

First thing in the morning (around 7.30am) I get stuck in to sorting out the incoming email into categories ready to answer, and make the "today" list on the back of an envelope, detailing priorities for the day. Next a quick break to get breakfast, send children off to school and feed the chickens, then I start up iTunes, select a playlist and get properly started on the day. First a quick check in with our hosting servers to make sure all is running smoothly and to answer any customer queries about on-rev. Next, the routine emails about LiveCode. Questions cover everything from "how do i apply my new LiveCode license" to "does LiveCode Android support access to call, SQLite and Camera features" (yes, it does). Today the queues were relatively short, so I was all done with the routine mail by 10am, just in time for a meeting, to discuss various plans for the coming months. Great meeting, ran until 12.30pm. I've missed my morning tea and cake, so I'm starving and knock off for an early lunch, after dealing with a couple of phone messages that have arrived during the meeting.

Lunch, a quick trip out to the greenhouse to water the tomatoes, check on the chickens, and back to work for the afternoon. I've still got some technical questions waiting, which I need to get answers on from other team members. I work through these with Michael, file a bug report and send out the responses. Answer the fresh mail that has arrived, then check up on the progress of the RunRevLive.11 DVD production. After a chat with the shipping firm, the filming team and the designers of the artwork, I'm very pleased to find this appears to be on track to ship by the end of the month, as projected. I'm finished with this just in time for my next meeting. This is an interesting discussion of the various ways we can promote our Marketplace products and vendors - we come up with lots of ideas. Great! I add to my todo list for Monday to create an integrated process for managing Marketplace promotions. A look at the clock - its 5.30pm. I go back to your emails, answering any new queries that have come in, and send out a couple of emails to authors of upcoming newsletter articles, to ensure we will have these in time for next Thursdays edition of revUp. That done, I start to write a blog post for our company blog...

I love my job. I'm never bored :)

From Cheetah to Lion; LiveCode and Mac OS X.

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

by Mark Taoilinn

Yesterday Steve Jobs announced the July launch of Lion – the eighth generation of Mac OS X. At RunRev we’re always working hard to make sure that you can use the latest and best operating systems available. So we’re proud to announce that RunRev is Lion compatible already and that we’re working hard to integrate the new lion features into future LiveCode releases.

Steve Jobs, wearing his trademark jeans and black turtle neck, took the stage yesterday as James Brown’s ‘I Feel Good’ played in the background. Expectations were high, not just in San Francisco’s Moscone Center West. Twitterers, facebookers and bloggers the world over were all eagerly waiting to hear if Apple were going to deliver. “Looking forward to Steve Jobs telling me what I've been missing all my life without realising it” said @blueskies on Twitter. I felt just the same! Well, Steve delivered, and by the time he was finished every one of us felt good too.

Mac OS X – Lion

The big news yesterday was the July launch of Lion, the new version of the Mac OS X, with over 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs. That’s not all – Apple have set the upgrade price at only $29.99. Lion can only be downloaded via the App Store but any purchase can be used for 4 machines.

LiveCode versions 4.5 and above are already compatible to work with Lion so you can continue to work on your existing projects after you upgrade your OS. Of course some of the 250 new features and 3,000 new APIs have not been worked into LiveCode yet but we’re working hard to include the new features in future updates.

Lion is packed with innovative new features aimed at increasing user experience by providing a consistent look and feel across all Apple devices. As such we see desktop converging towards the iOS experience and Apple are moving towards seamless wireless integration across all Apple devices. Multi touch gestures: momentum scrolling, tap to zoom and swipe gestures for example; along with full screen capabilities deliver that iOS feel – you can now swipe between full screen apps on your desktop. Mission Control is the new OS command centre, integrating Snow Leopard’s Dashboard, Expose and Spaces, and a clever new 3 finger swipe gesture gives you instant access to Mission Control from anywhere within the OS. With Autosave you never need to worry about remembering to save your data again- all data is automatically saved and Versions will remember every change and each iteration of your file. Continue exactly where you left off with Resume - a system wide feature which puts you just where you logged off everytime you log back on. Easy peer to peer sharing is available with Airdrop and the new Mail application looks just like iPad mail and has a new Conversation function to group messages of the same conversation together.

Lastly the Mac App Store is baked right into Lion, further highlighting Apple’s desire to move away from physical software distribution (even the OS itself can only be purchased via the App Store).

iOS 5

Apple, we were told yesterday, is the King of the Mobile Market with 44% market share of the combined smart phone/mobile device market. 200 Million iOS devices have been sold to date and the 425,000 apps in the App Store have resulted in pay outs of more than $2.5 billion to developers.

Apple are hoping to better this with iOS 5, out in the Autumn, and LiveCode will be compatible with iOS 5. iOS 5 is available in beta now for registered iOS developers and our dev team are excited to get their hands on it and to integrate the new features into future releases of LiveCode.

With iOS 5 Apple have taken a few lessons from Android and integrated many of the features that I love about my Android phone: Android-style Notification Center that swipes down from the top of the screen, Android-style Twitter Integration with camera and browser, and contacts are stored and restored via the cloud. Safari, Mail, Photos and Reminders have all been improved.

The best new feature about iOS 5 is its wireless integration with the cloud. You no longer need a PC to set up the device or to update it. iOS devices can now be completely standalone. If you do have a PC or multiple mobile devices, data (contacts, photos, music and apps) is now automatically synced between devices via the cloud. "Perhaps iOS 5's paramount feature is that it's built to seamlessly work with iCloud in the post-PC revolution that Apple is leading" said Steve Jobs.

iCloud
The last announcement at yesterday keynote was delivered by Steve Jobs himself. Apple have introduced the iCloud, a Free new product which syncs content – music, documents, photos, calendar etc – from one Apple device with the rest of a user’s Apple devices and is a much needed replacement to the less than popular MobileMe service. My favorite element of this is in iBooks – if you bookmark a page on a book on your iPad that bookmark will also exist on your iPhone (where a copy of the book was stored automatically through the cloud) so you can continue reading across different devices without any interruption. It’s clever thinking like this that keeps Apple at the top for user experience.

Developers will be pleased to hear that an API will make iCloud available on PCs, Macs and devices. We look forward to seeing how our customers integrate iCloud into their LiveCode apps.

iTunes has also been integrated into the cloud, so any music purchased on iTunes on one device will be back up at no extra charge to any other Apple device. iTunes Match will scan existing music collections, even those not purchased on iTunes, and download an iTunes version of that track onto a users entire set of devices, for $24.99. A clever way for Apple to monetize pirated music!

iCloud is available immediately.

LiveCode is excited about the advance announced by Apple at WWDC. We are proud to be Lion and iOS 5 compatible and look forward to integrating the exciting new features announced yesterday into future versions of LiveCode.

Image credits: Endgadget

Geek it up - Geek Pride Give Away

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 25 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Yesterday was Geek Pride Day – that red letter day for technophiles, Sci-Fi Fan boys/girls (I refuse to bow to populist pressure and refer to it as SyFy) and gadget groupies everywhere. It’s that day when we can all wave our Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal towels in the air, shake our light sabers and give thanks for the second coming (of Steve Jobs, naturally).

For the uninitiated, Geek Pride Day, celebrated on the Glorious 25^th of May each year, is a day originally chosen to worship George Lucas remember the anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars film. The day is remembered by fans of Terry Pratchett’s Disc World as The People’s Revolution of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May – resulting in the shortlived People’s Republic of Treacle Mine Road with “Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably-Priced Love and a Hard-Boiled Egg!” for all. Don’t Panic, I’ve not forgotten Towel Day – celebrating the brilliance of Douglas Adam and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Here at RunRev we geek it up all year round – at the weekend we can organize a W.O.W love in faster than you can say bazinga! We pride ourselves on helping you get your geek on with LiveCode, a cross platform IDE to make apps for iOS, Android, Desktop, Web and Server to WOW all your friends (see what I did there?) with your nerdy brilliance. So we’re thrilled to offer a little competition in support of Geek Pride Day.

Now I know they say “Beware of geeks offering .gifs” (yes, yes, groan!) but this one is easy. We’re giving away one free LiveCode personal license of your choice. To be in with a chance to win just tweet the message below, or like our link on facebook.

"I want to win #towelday and #geekpride stuff from @runrev and @livecode. RT and read this to enter http://tinyurl.com/3uxmmy8"

Now then, time for a break. Tea – Earl Gray – Hot!

A Passion for Data

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

by Mark Taoilinn

I have just returned from a two week vacation in Gran Canaria, the largest of the Canary Islands just off the northwest cost of mainland Africa. Sipping a cocktail on a sunny beach my friends and I got to talking about the harsh volcanic beauty surrounding us. While we chatted every single one of us reached for our mobile phones, certain that this conversation could only be considered replete with Wikipedia’s definitive input. Alas, only one of us had the foresight to purchase worldwide data roaming, and no one else wanted to risk the excessive charges for international data roaming (not at that early point in the holiday). Suddenly the man embracing the data revolution was chief amongst us. And it struck me – mobile phones really are our second brain!

This wasn’t a new revelation to me. My first round of jet setting in May brought me to RunRevLive.11 in San Jose, where Mike Gualitieri from Forrester Research presented on Mobile Megatrends. It was he who referred to mobile phones as our second brains… and my recent holiday made me realize just how correct he is. It’s not just google and Wikipedia of course – I quickly noticed that my phone wakes me up in the morning, tells me where to be and when, keeps me entertained while I’m bored, gives me something to do if I’m left alone for more than a minute in a coffee shop. And in a foreign country I rely on my phone to recommend what coffee shop to choose, and what restaurant, to tell me the weather, to show me how to get around. During my vacation I started to pine – yes, pine! – for my phone so much that eventually I was happy to give in and pay those crazy roaming charge (there was a conversation about 80’s children’s TV shows and no one could remember the names of the He-Man’s companions… “By the power of 3G!”). I literally could not live without my phone for two short weeks.

Second brain or no I couldn’t understand this overpowering need for technology. I went on holiday to get away from data overload – I handle communications for a software company after all, data overload is my default position – and I ended up craving it. It was only when I got home and watched a BBC program “Secrets of the Superbrands” that I started to understand what’s going on. Professor Gemma Calvert, a Neuroscientist with the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, examined an Apple fan in an MRI machine. He was shown photos of apple products and non apple products. The test found increased activity in the visual cortex of the brain, showing enhanced attention, when Apple products were shown versus when he was shown a rival’s products. And the research has found more examples of the same thing with all sorts of technology products. “Technology brands have harnessed, or exploited, the areas of the brain that have evolved to process religion” says Prof. Calvert.

So there you have it! The withdrawal symptoms I was suffering from were not those of a data junkie craving his info-fix but rather a religious passion to worship at the techno-altar of the information super highway.

Well, whatever it was, landing in Scotland and realizing that my data limited jet setting was over for a few months brought such a sense of euphoria and peace of mind that I was immediately motivated to sign on to Facebook and proclaim “Home Sweet Internet Accessing, Data Loving, I-have-an-app-for-that Home”.

And I vow, hand on heart, never to be without data again.

Jigsaw Puzzle App Built in 10 Hours at RunRevLive.11

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 11 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

By now you all know that RunRevLive.11 was a great success, and now we want to extend further recognition to LiveCode customer Colin Holgate for standing atop the podium in our Build-an-App Competition.

We challenged attendees to create an app from start to finish by day three of the conference. Colin turned a few hours at RunRevLive into a development environment for a fantastic cross-platform mobile app, and so is the proud recipient of a new Acer Icononia A500 Tablet as a result. Congratulations, Colin!

Colin's app wowed conference attendees, not only because it's a fun and practical puzzle that appeals to the puzzle fan in all of us, but also because he built it in just under 10 hours.

"I had in mind that I would take the opportunity of being at the conference to finally try to make a jigsaw puzzle app that I've wanted to do for some time," said Holgate. "So as soon as Kevin announced that there was to be a contest, I started working on it right away. I was tracking down and downloading images during the conference that looked like they would make nice puzzle pieces. I stayed in the sessions for all of the conference days, but made continual progress on the app, even editing significantly from my original concept from day one to achieve my final contest entry."

Colin's app allows you to take a photo with your iPhone or iPad, or use one already in your library, select the level of difficulty of your puzzle, and then scramble. Your photo becomes a jigsaw puzzle with photo pieces strewn randomly across the screen. You can use one or all ten of your fingers to drag pieces around until they fit the other pieces accordingly. Level of difficulty determines how closely in range related pieces need to be before they snap together. Colin admits he's working on other features to expand the options and difficulty levels. But we can testify that it looked and worked brilliantly!

"The significant thing isn't so much that I managed this app in a couple of days, but that it doesn't take hard core programming to achieve these types of apps," said Holgate. "As an example, my jigsaw app allows you to drag up to ten things around the screen at the same time, which I created from just a single line of code in LiveCode. That capability is one of the unique aspects of my app, and would take significantly longer had I tried to create it using other tools."

Colin began using multimedia development tools in the late 80s, programming a lot of projects in HyperCard, Director, and Flash, and considers himself an expert in all three. But his success with LiveCode comes from the simple fact that it's easy to use. "HyperCard doesn't work on modern computing environments, Director cannot publish to mobile devices, and Flash is a far more complex syntax than LiveCode," he said.

Next for Colin is to fine tune his app for broad distribution, port to Android and submit to the App Store and Marketplace. Using LiveCode, it won't take too long. For all of us who saw the app at RunRevLive, we're anxiously awaiting its release. I hope to be one of his first customers!

Great work, Colin!

Winner of the iPad2 give away with LiveCode 4.6

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:00:00 GMT

by Mark Taoilinn

Congratulations to Christine Woelk, Germany, who is the lucky winner of our iPad2 competition.

I gave the good news to Christine (and her husband Christopher) earlier today. “I bought my wife an iPad for Christmas”, Christopher joked “so it’s great to get another one in the house.” He went on to speculate about who would get to keep this newest version…. but seems resigned to the fact that his wife will have the iPad2, and he’ll be given the older one. It just goes to show that some things are the same no matter what country you live in.

Psychotherapy 2.0

Christine works as a psychologist and psychotherapist in Lohne, Germany. Along with her husband Christopher, also a psychotherapist, Christine has a keen interest in E-Mental Health provision – that is, in providing mental health solutions to her patients via the internet and mobile devices. Christine will use LiveCode to write what she calls ‘little helpers’ - programs that can deliver mental health solutions to her patients through their PC or mobile device. The couple already have a number of these products for sale and see LiveCode as an essential tool to expand their product line.

Why LiveCode

Until now they have used simple multimedia tools, they told me, but they have reached a point where those products are now too basic. It was when they started working on “Family Affair”- a ‘little helper’ program to encourage their patients to visualize their social connections and the importance of their family - that they were introduced to LiveCode by a colleague. “We needed a tool that could keep up with us, which responded instantly to new ideas and which let us write programs that grow quickly to encompass the full depth our mental health projects” Dr. Woelk said.

Their new iPad 2 will be used in testing these new mental health initiatives and I know I speak for the entire office when I say how pleased I am that our prize is going to such a good cause.

If you like to win an iPad 2 there’s still time to take our LiveCode Usage Survey – everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a drawing for the another iPad2. To take the survey click here

LiveCode #1 Cross-Platform Mobile IDE in survey by DevProConnection

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:00:00 GMT

“If I had to pick a favourite … I’d case my vote for RunRev’s LiveCode”

- Mike Riley, DevProConnections

Welcoming me as I arrived into the office this morning was a boon for LiveCode. Just after the release of LiveCode 4.6 (and all the media excitement that went with it), my week got even better as I read this article from DevConPro naming LiveCode #1 in a survey of Cross-Platform Mobile IDEs, out performing all other competition including Adobe Flash Pro CS5.

Mike Riley’s article opens with a fact that we at RunRev have been confident of for some time: “smart mobile operating systems are expected to eclipse desktop OSs in prevalence and importance within the next few years.” Absolutely! This raises a challenge, of course, for application developers – which platform to develop for, or how master different SDKs for each mobile platform.

“There has to be a better way” Riley declares.

And there is… rather than learning to achieve “Zen-like specialization” (as he puts it) for a raft of different platforms, it is a far easier and more efficient to use a cross platform, cross device IDE that lets you write code will run in any environment. One of the reasons LiveCode is so popular is because it lets you deploy to multiple platforms from a single code base.

Not only is it easier and more efficient from a development perspective to be cross platform, it’s also essential from a marketing perspective. App users expect to able to use the tools they like (i.e. apps) on whatever device they happen to have. Neilson reported recently that 4 of the top 5 apps on each mobile app store are all completely cross platform. The 5^th most popular app for each platform was also available on at least one other platform. If you want your app to get noticed, you have to develop it for more than just iOS OR Android. It needs to be both!

With LiveCode Mobile it can be both! Try it for yourself.

Why is LiveCode #1 Cross Platform Mobile IDE?

“Easy learning curve, supported by LiveCode documentation, active forum participation” and informative lessons

“Support for native hardware features on both iOS and Android platforms (eg. Accelerometers, multi-touch displays, GPS)”

“Simple syntax” – with LiveCode write your apps in a simple English-like language that is easy to learn, remember and read back.

Creating multi-device apps “is fast and straightforward”

“Intuitive, easy-to-use form design tools.”

“Useful for both prototyping and end-product delivery.”

LiveCode “delivers a consistent UI to several popular desktop and mobile platforms from the same code base”

Don’t just take my word for it, the independent experts agree: you need to get into mobile, you need to be cross platform, and LiveCode is the #1 way to get you there.

LiveCode 4.6 Not Just Another Number

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:00:00 GMT

I started with RunRev a little over a month ago as Marketing and Communications Analyst. Let me tell you, I couldn’t have started at a busier or more interesting time for the company. LiveCode for Android had just been pre-released to huge success and resoundingly positive reviews. Today we launch LiveCode 4.6, the culmination of not just a month’s work for the marketing department, but many many more months’ effort from all the guys (and girl) in the development team.

Check our ‘What’s new in 4.6' page to learn more about all the new features the development team have been able to put into this release!

Win an iPad 2

Buy within 7 days for your chance to win a iPad 2 - we'll email you after purchase with a simple quiz. Answer the multi-choice question correctly and you will be entered in the prize draw to win an iPad 2.

Find out more here

Terms and conditions may be read here.

LiveCode 4.6 – 20 new mobile features: better data management, better multimedia, better apps.

The area that has fascinated me the most since starting with RunRev is the rapidly expanding mobile space. This really is a marketers dream… a vibrant, much talked about, fast paced market that calls to mind the phrase “to the victor go the spoils”. For the past month I’ve watched with a growing sense of pride and excitement as the developer community, interested educators and eager hobbyists alike have all taken the tools we’ve given them with LiveCode and deployed hugely impressive apps to the app store. With LiveCode we can all be the victors together, and we can all reap the rewards.

LiveCode 4.6 builds on this success by bring 20 new features to make even better apps. Amongst these features are native text controls to give your apps that iOS look and feel; support for SQLite so that you can manage data in your apps; native video control and multi-channel combined to elevate your apps to a new level of multi media interaction.

LiveCode 4.6 for desktop – bringing you the top ten most requested desktop refinements.

Since starting with RunRev I’ve been most impressed with how closely our dev team work with the developer community. The Dev team keep a constant eye on the Rev Forums, mailing lists and developer program, answering any queries that anyone has and fixing any problems.

LiveCode 4.6 grew out of this interaction. The reason I’m happy to sell LiveCode as having the top 10 most requested desktop refinements is because I’ve been in those meetings where the team have debated how to make LiveCode do what the customer needs it to do and not what we think it should do. So LiveCode 4.6 now handles support for very large images on the Mac because our customers have been asking for this. We’ve improved our encryption support in response to our developers’ need to protect their customers and their customers’ data. We were asked for easier, quicker ways to make great interfaces so we’ve brought you the ability to snapshot objects with (and without) graphic effects and blending.

American Heart Association, American Academey of HIV Medicine app made with LiveCode

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:00:00 GMT

A new iOS app has been developed using LiveCode that is so good I just had to share it with you.

HIV and Your Heart was codeveloped by the American Heart Association and the American Academy of HIV Medicine. “HIV and Your Heart exists to help people living with HIV make positive changes in life for better heart health and overall wellness” they say.

Having HIV increases your risk for heart disease . This informative app has over 90 minutes of positive, uplifting videos, from personal stories to advice from leading physicians, to help those living with HIV enjoy a long and healthy life. You can interact with the app’s planning tool to set wellness goals and the built in tracking tool lets you follow the steps you need to take to reach those goals. One of my favourite features of the app is how the user can chose to share the information via facebook, twitter or youtube and engage with others interested in or affected by HIV/AIDS. Alternatively, the app has a full suite of confidentiality features; the desktop icon is just labelled ‘Your Heart’ and users can password protect the information if the wish to.

“This is a perfect example of how mobile apps are becoming part of everyday life,” says LiveCode Product Manager Benjamin Beaumont. “Mobile computing is one of the best ways for communities to share experiences, knowledge and ideas; the American Heart Association and the American Academy for HIV Medicine have done a brilliant job doing just that with this wonderfully instructive and interactive app. LiveCode are proud of the small part we have played in its development.”

HIV and Your Heart is a free app available to download from iTunes now.

Do you have an app you're proud of? Send it to us and you never know, we might blog about it.

Android Welcomed to LiveCode Family!

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

RunRev is delighted to announce that it is bringing its popular LiveCode software development environment to the Android platform. This pre-release compliments the already hugely successful LiveCode for iOS which was released last year. LiveCode Mobile is now cross platform.

As a cross-platform development solution, LiveCode Mobile allows you to use the same code base to develop both iOS and Android Apps, or deploy across multiple platforms. Port your apps easily and quickly from iOS to Android, and vice versa. Build live prototypes that use the full capabilities of iOS and Android Devices; deploy to whatever platform your customers need. Take advantage of our compile-free workflow to iterate quickly and create stunning user experiences that your customers will love.

Whether you're just starting out in mobile app development, or are a seasoned mobile app developer, LiveCode allowsLiveCode Mobile allows you to:

1. Achieve your project goals in a fraction of the time with our compile-free workflow – changes that happen in real time to slash debugging and maintenance time.

2. Deliver to multiple devices and platforms from a single code base – for a quick & easy cross platform experience.

3. Take advantage of native platform features on each supported platform –port from iOS to Android and vice versa with simplicity and ease.

4. Write code in an English-like language that makes sense – so quick to learn that even non-programmers can use it.

5. Leverage the same programming language for code re-use across all platforms - save time and money in the development cycle.

LiveCode for Android is available as a pre-release now. LiveCode for iOS (full version) is also available.

To read the press-release about our Android Pre-release Click here.

For more information about LiveCode Mobile for Android and iOS click here.

Whether you're just starting out in mobile app development, or are a seasoned mobile app developer, LiveCode allowsLiveCode Mobile allows you to:

Achieve your project goals in a fraction of the time with our compile-free workflow – changes that happen in real time to slash debugging and maintenance time.

Deliver to multiple devices and platforms from a single code base – for a quick & easy cross platform experience.

Take advantage of native platform features on each supported platform –port from iOS to Android and vice versa with simplicity and ease.

Write code in an English-like language that makes sense – so quick to learn that even non-programmers can use it.

Leverage the same programming language for code re-use across all platforms - save time and money in the development cycle.

LiveCode for Android is available as a pre-release now. LiveCode for iOS (full version) is also available.

To read the press-release about our Android Pre-release Click here.

For more information about LiveCode Mobile for Android and iOS click here.

"Whatever software you want to create, LiveCode will make it possible" - MacUser Magazine, Editor's Choice

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

We're very happy to confirm that MacUser Magazine, the UK's preeminent technology magazine focused on Apple products, has awarded LiveCode 4.5.2 its coveted Editor's Choice Award for scripting languages. We're thrilled with the award, which recognizes the hard work we've put into the entire platform and ease in which developers can create iOS apps today.

Published in the January 2011 issue, the review sites LiveCode's ease in software creation and building apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows, along with no licensing restrictions.

Reviewer Keith Martin states: "LiveCode is truly an unusal application. How do you categorise software that can let you do pretty much anything? In a nutshell, Runtime Revolution's LiveCode makes it easy to create applications, using a plain-English scripting language and a DTP-like set of interface and graphics layout tools."

For iOS developers, Martin points out: "Yes, you can create your own iPhone and iPad apps without sweating a single line of Objective C, and, yes, you can even submit these to be included in Apple's App Store."

Take a look at the January issue of MacUser to see why they see LiveCode as "a truly exciting product..."!

BuildAnApp: Day 3 & 4: Optimizing

Arnaud Bouchot — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:00:00 GMT

"Are you optimizing your coding style for Mobile devices?"

After a couple of days of coding we are starting to see a prototype App resembling the design work earlier in the week. Developing something as complicated as our Faces in just a couple of days is somewhat of a challenge and at all times we've been aware of the risk of biting off a little more than we can chew. I must admit that after our first day of coding we did wonder if we might have fallen into that trap. However, in the morning of our second day of coding we found our stride and managed to run a little more fluidly.

Our coding journey has not been as smooth as that of the design and we'd like to share a few thoughts on the barriers we hit and the eventual solutions. The biggest lesson has been this:

"Mobile development requires optimization from the start"

LiveCode is a wonderful tool for a number of reasons, my favorite being that I can just get on and build my App without having to think much about what it's doing to the processor and system resources of the target machines. It's very easy in LiveCode to drag on your images and controls and start scripting without thinking about whether your method is particularly efficient.

However, in the mobile world, the resources available are much more limited. Processor speeds are slower. Memory capacity is smaller. If a developer does not think carefully about the implementation, they can quickly find themselves with a sluggish app on their hands. And a slow app is a bad app. So it pays to be thinking about efficiency and optimization throughout the development process.

"Only draw what is needed"

This needn't be taxing though. It's mostly just common sense. Only render the controls that are needed. The more objects on the screen, the slower your app will be. Are all your background images and graphics needed? Can similar effects be achieved by setting the background color's of your controls? Are there any objects you have created that are hidden away or no longer in use? Remember, all objects which are set to be visible will be drawn, even if they are masked behind others. If an object is not in use, hide it.

Minimize the number of effects in use. Are you needlessly antialiasing square edged objects? Are you using unnecessary graphic effects? Each effect applied to an object requires extra processing time to render, slowing down each redraw. Test to see if each effect used is needed or worth the trade off in speed. Can the effect be included in a background image? This will save the computation on each redraw.

Are you computing the same things multiple times? When you render a particular state, you shouldn't need to do any re-computation until that state changes. And even then, you should try to limit the re-computation to the elements which have changed. Once you have calculated the position of an object and set it's content, you don't need to continually re-calculate. Are you repeatedly reading from a data source? Could the pertinent data be cached? Or do you even need to be polling this source continuously?

"Our mistakes"

Our listing of these tips is somewhat hypocritical though. We went eagerly from the design straight into coding, testing only in the iOS simulator. We didn't think about efficiency or how best to implement our graphic rich design. We only realized we had issues when we first deployed to an iPhone. One of our scrolling lists was a little sluggish to say the least.

Luckily for us, we have a lot of expertise in the office. We quickly realized that we were antialiasing a few rectangles and drawing a bunch of unnecessary objects. We also had a large background image, much of which wasn't ever being displayed - our scrolling group was overlaid directly on top of it. A few lines of code later and we had a nice group shaped hole cut out of our background image. Our scroller was flying along!

Hopefully us making these mistakes means that you don't have to. And remember, only draw and compute what is needed and test regularly on the target device.

Overall Progress

We have all but finished the App. There are a number of things that still don't work quite right and aspects of it we intend to improve. There is also a lot more to talk about here on the blog about the implementation details. We'd like to post the source stack to what we've done so far so you can see our progress. Check back over the next couple of days as we drill down into the implementation in more detail and polish the App a little more. You can download the App so far here. To play it, you'll need a friend with an iOS device who also has a Facebook account. Both of you need to log into Facebook using the App and it will choose pictures, you can then both choose which one you want to be the "Criminal" and ask each other questions to track them down.

To build this App you'll need to select your provisioning profile in Standalone Settings, then create a standalone App to deploy to your device (requires LiveCode for iOS and the Apple Developer Program).

BuildAnApp: Day 2: Design

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:00:00 GMT

"Simple is always better"

The focus of day two of our build an App project is design. It's actually taken a little more than a day to get the design done but as with most projects, getting your concept right at this stage saves you a huge amount of time in the latter stages. That at least is our hope! We should be about on schedule with Michael having investigated Facebook integration and started work on a LiveCode library that we'll use later in the project.

Interface design is a tale of two halves, each of which should be given equal priority. A good App will be easy and intuitive to use, as well as look great. There are plenty of Apps out there that achieve one or the other, but getting both right is the secret to a really great App. This applies when building Apps for general release in the App Store and when working on tools for in-house use. No matter who uses it, you want it to be really great to use.

UI Design

There are no golden rules to mobile UI design, save that simple is always better. It may be a cliche, but less really is more when it comes to mobile Apps. Anyone can design a complicated App, but taking the time to make it simple is what will make it shine. There are plenty of blogs http://db.tidbits.com/article/11744, books and other resources that provide lots of useful rules, hints and tips, but nothing beats your intuition and a little user testing. Taking time at the start of any design process to sketch out your interface screens and discuss the useably is a must. As you'll see from our first time-lapse video, Michael and I spent quite some time sketching out each screen on our whiteboard, constantly tweaking as we discussed how we thought a user would naturally choose to interact with the App. Of course, until you have it on a device and in front of real users you can never know for sure, but you will catch the obvious flaws in your concept if you take time to judge and rejudge your interface at this stage. Remember, if you are torn at any point between two options, always take the simpler one!

With only 5 days to complete this project we don't have the time to do a proper prototyping phase to get our interfaces in front of real users, observe their behavior and tweak. However, this is one of the best ways of confirming that your designs are indeed truly user centric. LiveCode lets you build basic versions of your App screens in such a short space of time that it makes it feasible to do real prototyping even on relatively short projects. This will almost certainly increase the quality of the user experience and help you to produce an App that fulfills the requirement of being 'easy and intuitive'. We'll look into showing some of those capabilities in action in a future series on this blog.

Visual Design

The second aspect to the design of a great App is the visual interface. We live in a consumer culture where, for better or worse, we literally judge a book by its their cover and decide how tasty a food product will be (at least in part!) by its packaging. Packaging and brands have the power to inspire confidence, increase trust, or even build an atmosphere. Take the most successful App in the App Store, Angry Birds. Packaged in it's current form, we are given the impression that it will be fun, that it's of high quality and that it's likely to be good from the screenshots alone! The design of your App communicates a lot about your view of the App you are making.

Now, not everyone is a graphic designer or has access to one. Does this mean that it's not possible for you to fulfill the second design requirement? Of course not! There are wonderful Apps out there that are incredibly simple. Choosing the type of interface you want to create should be based solely on the end user of your Application. Rich visual interfaces are perfect for Apps aimed at general consumers, but utilities and in-house Applications often benefit from the most simplistic clean design. What sets good design apart from bad is not how many drop shadows and glows it has but attention to the simple details:

Do your controls line up?

Is your text the same size and font?

Have you kept to the some color palette?

Is there consistency in the way you are framing your controls on each screen?

Does each screen feel like it belongs to the same App?

Reading up on basic design principles such as 'grid' or 'color' theory may be useful for those who enjoy building interfaces but have never ventured into the world of design. A good blog that has plenty of interesting lessons can be found here: http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/web/50-totally-free-lessons-in-graphic-design-theory/.

Our App is a game intended for a general audience. As a result we've taken the time to design a complete theme. We want to give the initial impression that this App is fun and perhaps a little mysterious, hence the detective theme. Each screen is framed in wood with an old ornate wallpaper background, alluding to the detectives of old like Sherlock Holmes. I picture him in an old Victorian London town house sitting in a dark room lit only by a fire surrounded by dark oak beams, rich colorful wallpapers and ornate homely decorations. Capturing a little of that in our designs helps to bring our Application to life! I will of course have to let you all as the end users be the final judge.

The design screens

For those of you who are interested in how we went about creating this interface we've created a second time-lapse video here. All the work was done in Photoshop (Download PSD File) and took roughly 10 hours.

The next stage is to export the various images and start to build our interface in LiveCode! We'll be linking to LiveCode source files in the next couple of posts so if you would like to have a look at the source then sign up for a free 30 day trial of LiveCode here.

Until tomorrow.

Ben, Michael and Neil

PS: Thank you to all those who have written in to us. All the encouragement has been much appreciated! Keep your comments and suggestions coming, especially regarding the designs.

BuildAnApp: Day 1: The idea

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:00:00 GMT

BuildAnApp: Day 1: The idea

"Does your App idea really entertain or solve a genuine problem?"

Our task is simple, come up with an iPhone App concept, design it and deliver it in one week. With tea in one hand and a whiteboard pen in the other Michael and I set out to come up with our idea. However, as I'm sure anyone who built an iPhone App before will tell you, this is easier said than done. There are more than 300,000 Apps already in the AppStore and 10's of thousands of talented developers working every day on new concepts making it increasingly challenging to be original and to get there first!

For many of our customers this thought process isn't as directly relevant, as you have a specific need in your business you know you need to fill with an App, such as a sales or inventory management tool. But we thought that if we are going to create an App to demonstrate the process from start to finish, we would put ourselves in the shoes of someone coming up with something creative that appeals to the typical App Store customer.

Only a small number of those Apps ever make it to the ranks of the truly popular. What is it about the top 50 Apps that gets them there? If you take a moment to look through the list you'll notice that perhaps 75% of them are games and 25% are utilities. The one thing they all have in common is that they were all built with the golden rule of mobile App development in mind.

"Does your idea truly entertain or solve a genuine problem?"

Games MUST be truly entertaining and utilities MUST solve a real problem. How does your App idea measure up against this rule? If we take it to heart and measure our ideas against it honestly, we'll prevent ourselves wasting time developing an App that we later realize is not what our target audience wants.

Take a second look at the App Store and you'll see that most of the 300,000 games and apps don't come close to having lasting entertainment value or solving any meaningful problem. Those top 50 Apps are there because they obeyed the golden rule to the letter. Occasionally someone chances upon a brilliant idea but most of the time we'll have decent ideas that with hard work and refinement over a few versions, can become great. If you have a decent idea, measure it and refine it against this rule. In time you might have a brilliant App idea that makes it into the top 50.

With all this in mind we set out to come up with our idea. With only 5 days for the whole project we decided that only 1 day could be given to the forming of the idea. A host of ideas were bandied about the office from book/DVD lending to a program to remind you to buy something when you passed a particular store using GPS.

After much deliberation we came up with an idea we liked. We propose to build a game that allows two iPhone users with Facebook accounts to play a guessing game using their mutual friends faces. The game will be called "Faces - Detective Agency". This idea is also a great showcase of LiveCode on iOS as it allows us to create a beautiful rich interface, tie in to social networks via Facebook, use web connectivity and also interact with other iPhone users.

Each day we'll post screenshots, videos, design files and code to give you an idea of what we are doing. At the end we'll submit the App store as a free app and make the code available. We invite you to follow along. We put together a short time-lapse video of the process at the end of the day yesterday after we had decided to produce this game. We'll be posting new videos throughout the process.

I hope you enjoy following along and pick up some useful tips you can apply to creating your own App.

Please check back here tomorrow to see our progress!

Ben

"Does your App idea really entertain or solve a genuine problem?"

"Does your idea truly entertain or solve a genuine problem?"

I hope you enjoy following along and pick up some useful tips you can apply to creating your own App. If you haven't already got a license, you may want to sign up for a free 30 day trial for LiveCode so you can follow along.

Please check back here tomorrow to see our progress!

Ben

LiveCode Development Pack for iOS released today - A new, unique opportunity for iOS application developers

Arnaud Bouchot — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:00:00 GMT

We’re excited to announce the availability of the highly-anticipated LiveCode Development Pack for iOS. With lots of enthusiasm from customers and industry influencers alike, LiveCode for iOS launched today. On the heels of a successful exhibition at Apps World in London, with keen interest from attendees, we’re continuing the momentum with broad availability of LiveCode for iOS. This eases the way folks develop applications in the following ways:

Create stunning rich-media apps for distribution to the App Store;

Build powerful enterprise, IT and business productivity apps for in-house use;

Create active prototypes for exploring and designing using full-functional apps;

Use an iterative development environment to view changes in real time;

Leverage a high-level language, for writing code that makes sense;

Reuse code to write applications once and deploy across multiple platforms and devices.

The RunRev community is passionate about LiveCode and is eager to talk about how their experience has been changed for the better. We continue down the road of making tremendous productivity gains possible for application developers on all platforms, and are pleased to include iOS in the mix.

LiveCode BuildAnApp Showcase 2010

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:00:00 GMT

LiveCode BuildAnApp Showcase 2010

From inception to the AppStore in a couple of weeks

In the run up to the final launch, LiveCode iOS is providing a new way for developers and enthusiasts alike to create true iPhone and iPad apps with unparalleled ease and efficiency. It sounds good but is this just ‘marketing speak’ or does LiveCode live up to all the hype? Is LiveCode really the fastest way to produce mobile Apps? Is it really possible to test out that App idea of yours in a few hours? One sunny afternoon at RunRev‘s head office in Scotland the suggestion was made that we put LiveCode to the test, sharing the entire experience right through from inception to AppStore acceptance. What better way is there to find out if this tool is all it claims to be and if it’s for you than to see it in action! So we would like to invite you to join us and follow along as we take on this challenge. We want you to get involved at every stage of our BuildAnApp project. This is our brief:

“Build a useful/desirable iOS app to the highest of standards for acceptance into the Apple AppStore. The entire process should be documented at every stage from inception, design, implementation, testing and polishing and through to submission. The project should take no more than a few weeks”.

Myself and Michael were keen to take on the challenge. We’ll be joined by one of our colleagues Neil who will be your eyes and ears throughout the process with all three of us posting thoughts, sketches, design files, source code, videos and anything else that helps us to share the whole experience with you. Be a part of our team for the next few weeks! If you’re not already subscribed to this blog you can do so via the link at the top of this page.
We are really looking forward to working on this and we would love you to get involved as well. Please send your thoughts, suggestions and comments on any aspect of the project to buildanapp@runrev.com. You may even find that you help to shape the direction of the entire project!

Until next time,

Ben, Michael and Neil.

	Benjamin Beaumont Designer / Programmer / Wannabee Sportsman >Ben is the Product Manager at RunRev and has his finger in lots of different pies. He started with the company 6 years ago and has worked as a programmer, graphic designer, project manager, in marketing and most recently as the company's Product Manager on RunRev’s LiveCode product line.
	Michael McCreary Software Architect / Programmer / Printer Football Champion Michael is a senior programmer at RunRev. His talent as a software architect makes him the ideal developer and team lead with a keen interest in well structured carefully considered software projects. His proven track record of delivering quality products makes him the perfect choice for the BuildAnApp project.
	Neil Roger Multimedia Production / Musician / Car Boot Sale Specialist Neil works in RunRev's media team and is the creative talent behind much of the company's video media. With drums, guitar, bass and piano also in his musical repertoire you begin to get a feel for how valuable an asset he is to our team.

Apple relaxes rules for Enterprise; competition in the tablet space

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Following Apple's recent, very welcome clarification and improvements to the iOS Developer Program, it seems they are making some similar progressive changes for members of their Developer Enterprise Program.

They have quietly dropped the requirement that members of this program have a minimum of 500 employees. I know from discussions I've had with some of our customers that this restriction has affected them, so this change is good news. It seems Apple are serious about growing in the Enterprise space, a market in which they have not traditionally been strong.

It's clearly in Apple's interests to do everything they can to encourage Enterprise developers. With tablets expected to outsell desktops by 2013, a significant slice of which will be in the Enterprise, the iPad is well placed to retain a significant market share. As we're seeing from some of the applications our customers are developing, the potential for vertical applications that take advantage of the device's unique capabilities and form factor is huge.

The question of course is how much market share Apple can hold onto? It's going to be a competitive space, with the Samsung's Galaxy Tab being the first tablet to have been called the iPad's first real rival by Walt Mossberg at WSJ.

Competition is a good thing, and as you would expect, LiveCode customers will be well placed to take advantage of all these opportunities, regardless of which platform comes out on top.

Kevin Miller

RunRev CEO

LiveCode 4.5.1 released today - minor new features and stability improvements

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 22:00:00 GMT

We're very happy to introduce LiveCode 4.5.1 today, a general maintenance release for all users. The new release brings added stability across all the platforms LiveCode supports, including Desktop, Web and Mobile.

This latest release is free for all LiveCode 4.5 users, and new features and updates include:

Enhanced keyboard layout handling

Improvements to MySQL database access and database security

Enhanced support for XML namespaces

Improvements to embedded Web browser object

Security protocol enhancements

Over 60 other bug fixes and minor enhancements

LiveCode 4.5.1 also adds support for the accompanying LiveCode iOS Mobile plug-in pre-release for building iOS apps for the Apple App Store.

Happy building!

RunRevLive.11: Call for Speakers, Show off your Apps!

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 22:00:00 GMT

RunRevLive.11: Call for Speakers, Show off your Apps!

Our annual RunRevLive developer’s conference has been extremely popular not only with our core community, but with folks looking for a powerful, cross-platform development environment that allows for real-time, compile free software creation. LiveCode does just that and with iOS support in the latest version, our 2011 conference will be a mobile app developer’s paradise.

We’ve released the tentative schedule and encourage you to consider presenting a topic or showing off your projects in our Developer’s Showcase. Several tracks this year will give the LiveCode community plenty of practical tips, hands-on workshops and deep dives into LiveCode from Mobile to desktop, Web to Server.

If you have expertise that will benefit the community, stand up and show us. We’re looking for interesting and dynamic speakers for the event. With mobile app development headlining, we are anxious to hear from mobile developers, but are also looking for shared insights across all aspects of programming with LiveCode — from UI design to tips and tricks to marketing your products. (*Sessions must have useful and relevant programming content, rather than act as a promotional platform for your particular product or service.) Take a look at the conference schedule to see where your expertise might fit: http://www.runrevlive.com/schedule.htm.

To submit a proposal, provide a 300-word summary of your proposed presentation, intended audience (beginner, enterprise, mobile, etc), preferred presentation length (30 or 50 minutes), and previous speaking experience by 31st November 2010 to email: revlive.speakers@runrev.com.

Mark your calendars and register now for RunRevlLive.11, April 26-29, 2011, Dolce Hayes Mansion, San Jose, California.

See you there!

RunRevLive.11: Early Registration Benefits

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:00:00 GMT

RunRevLive.11: LiveCode Everywhere Conference and Early Registration Benefits

RunRevLive.11 planning is underway, and the theme of next year’s conference is LiveCode Everywhere! We released the tentative schedule this week and will be filling it out with great content over the coming weeks — including presentations from you! We announced our call for speakers this week as well, and we hope you’ll submit a proposal. You’ll find submission guidelines on the RunRevLive.11 Website. Entries are due by 30th November.

RunRevLive.11 will be split into various tracks with a central focus each day. Join us for in-depth sessions on LiveCode for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and learn how LiveCode 5.0 will make your life easier across the board with sparkling new features on the Desktop, Web and Server. Day Zero will have hands on training for beginners, covering the LiveCode platform and the mobile deployment packs. Core days One and Two will cover in-depth aspects of the entire LiveCode product line, including mobile app creation and sessions devoted to the version 5.0 feature set. Day Plus is the ever popular non-disclosure day, when you get a sneak peak at the road ahead (you’ll hear it first).

We encourage our community to register early to take advantage of great freebies and benefits. Register by 25th November to receive:

The complete conference DVD with all sessions for free! (A $399 value.)

If you can’t join us live at the event, register for the simulcast and watch from your living room. Register in November and enjoy six months free acceptance to the LiveCode Developer Program.

RunRevLive.11 will feature tracks tailored to beginners, advanced developers, mobile applications and a developer showcase for putting your products, projects and apps in the spotlight.

Whether you join us in person, via simulcast or from the DVD, you’ll experience the most in-depth LiveCode training possible. We hope to see you there!

RunRevLive.11
April 26-29, 2011
Dolce Hayes Mansion
San Jose, California

LiveCode applications accepted in iOS App Store

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:00:00 GMT

As readers of this blog will be aware, ever since Apple reversed its decision on 3rd party development tools on the iOS we've been hard at work to get our platform ready so that our customers can submit their apps to the store. I'm pleased to be able to report that the first LiveCode based application has just been accepted into the app store and that as a result we will be rolling this feature out to all our pre-release customers within the next couple of days.

Apple's New Mac App Store - A Resurgence for Desktop Apps?

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:00:00 GMT

If you sell software to Mac desktops you'll have heard Apple's announcement that it is introducing an App Store for the Mac, focused on selling desktop applications instead of mobile applications.

First things first: we'll ensure that applications built with LiveCode can comply with Apple's store requirements. So if you want to submit your applications to the store you will be able to do so with LiveCode.

Some of our customers have asked what they (or we) will need to do in order to ensure their applications comply with Mac App Store policies. At this stage it's still too early to say. We've read the app submission guidelines but it's unclear how strictly Apple will enforce each of the guidelines. We will be monitoring the situation closely and as we come to a full understanding of what is required we will make any necessary changes to the LiveCode platform and publish any advice that might be appropriate to our community. In order to ensure compliance we will be submitting an application of our own and working with key customers to submit applications to the store as early as possible. We understand Apple's policy document is a work in progress so we expect it will evolve and will be following it closely.

I believe that if the Mac App Store is well executed it will present at great opportunity to Mac software publishers small and large. As the Web has expanded we've witnessed the reduction in physical software sales. Online sales of software have grown and if you're a small company it's possible the only place you'll sell your software is online. That directness has had many consumer benefits, the biggest of which has been the convenience of instant access to downloadable software and a reduction in the traditional costs associated with the channel. However it has left each vendor responsible for setting up complete infrastructure and end-to-end marketing for their products.

The Mac App Store has the potential to bring rapid exposure to any high quality product from any developer both large and small, while providing an outstanding installation and upgrade experience to customers. The single click purchase-install process demonstrated by Steve Jobs brings a level of convenience to the application installation process previously reserved for Web applications. Indeed we may find a resurgence in Mac desktop applications (complete with their ability to take advantage of the full set of native OS and UI features) as a result of this new store and one-click installation process. That can only be good news for LiveCode developers who deliver desktop applications. And I suspect that this new infrastructure may bring an increase in the number of lower priced applications for Mac, similar to what we have seen on iOS.

There are potential pitfalls with this approach. As we've seen with the iOS store, Apple don't always get it right in deciding what to accept and reject. We hope that Apple have learned from that experience and will work to continue to increase openness and clarity in the submission process. We welcome the publication of guidelines right from the start and look forward to any issues in those guidelines getting worked out.

I'm also convinced that it will be neither desirable nor possible for Apple to make the Mac App Store the only point of sale for Mac OS applications. There are far too many applications that modify the OS experience, do not fully comply with interface guidelines or are simply too niche to benefit from this consumer-centric business model. These applications have been an important part of the Mac experience for decades. But even more importantly from Apple's perspective, this diversity contributes to ongoing sales of Mac hardware. I'm quite sure Apple recognizes this. The app store is aimed at consumers who want to install a new game or photo-editing application with a single click, not at geeks, hackers, developers or technology blog editors all of whom are vital to the success of the Mac platform.

We'll keep you updated on our progress as we start to submit apps to the store.

Kevin Miller

CEO, RunRev

RunRevLive.11 Conference Dates Announced

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:00:00 GMT

We're delighted to be able to announce the dates for RunRevLive.11 conference over on our conference website. The theme this year is LiveCode Everywhere and we've had really strong interest and registrations for it already. Its safe to say that this will be our biggest conference ever, by a mile! I'm really looking forward to the conference and I hope you can join us for 4 days of intense LiveCode coding, networking and fun.

Progress on Apple app store submission

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:00:00 GMT

As soon as Apple reopened the iOS platform to 3rd party tools, we got to work on the app store submission features for our LiveCode iOS Deployment Pack. After a number of modifications we've got the binaries that LiveCode creates in the correct format today to pass the initial stage of automated app store submission. We've now got two apps at the "Waiting for Review stage", so with a little luck we'll be able to bring this feature to customers soon! More when we have it.

revMobile: Great News - Apple iOS Restrictions Removed!

Arnaud Bouchot — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:00:00 GMT

We've just received some very good news which we'd like to share with everyone: Apple have removed their licensing restrictions on development of iPhone apps by third party development tools:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/09/09statement.html

From this statement:

"In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code."

This means that the revMobile technology will be allowed to create iPhone/iPad/iTouch apps for deployment in the Apple App store. Please stay tuned for further announcements. We're working hard to bring you details of our plan for this www product.

Warm Regards

Kevin Miller CEO

Innovation on Android

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Innovation on Android

I was very pleased to read Google's recent announcement of their App Inventor for Android. It seems to me that this is the latest in a series of announcements that demonstrates just how much Google values innovation at all levels. In another pointed example just two months ago at the keynote introducing Froyo at Google I/O in May, Vic Gundotra, Google VP must have managed to mention openness, inclusiveness and innovation just about every two minutes during the presentation! It seems that Google are making a big commitment that's very much in contrast to a certain other mobile OS vendor. They are putting up neon signs around their platform that shout out that all developers are welcome.

One of the features that has slipped into Froyo that may not have garnered as much attention as some of the headlines, is the ability to draw directly into a bitmap from their native code interface. In plain English, that makes it much easier for native code platforms such as Rev to support Android with good rendering performance. There is no question that Google are looking closely at the detail when it comes to attracting as many as possible to the platform.

App Inventor looks like a great way for new developers to get into the platform. It clearly has the potential to inspire a new group of non-programmers into developing Android apps. Some may argue that it could flood the Android Marketplace with "junk" and thus reduce the quality of the end user experience. Of course that's possible, but on the flip side I would argue that surely it's more likely that we can simply rely on market forces to weed out the good and the bad as happens in just about every other industry? Who is to say that one of these App Inventor Apps won't become the next killer app?

There is a certain irony when you consider all of this in a historical context. I recall back in the 80s and 90s, Apple was the platform with the easy-to-use HyperCard programming environment that attracted non-developers and entry-level tinkerers, prosumers and enthusiasts, anyone who wanted to create their own software or get under the hood of their machine and learn how it worked. With the iPhone firmly closed to this sort of creative user it's great to see a new platform open up that positively invites that sort of innovation and learning. It's a major shift in the way-things-are-going-to-be during this next decade.

I'd agree with those commentators who have suggested that many of those starting out in App Inventor are going to want to go on to learn a full programming language such as Java later. The key thing from Google's perspective is that those developers-to-be will all be very much into using Android devices. After having initially been attracted to the Android platform they are likely to stay there. That may not matter much to the more typical Android end-user just now, but as more and more high quality applications get developed for the Marketplace that has the potential to change. Apple should be worried.

The final reason that I'm so excited by App Inventor is of course a little more self serving. Over the last decade we've watched many point and click programming tools come and go and we know they are great for getting people started and certain types of cookie cutter application, but users often outgrow them over time. I'm sure that Google knows that too and is expecting many to step on up to Java or another programming language when they want to do a bit more. However it seems to me that there is an excellent fit for a Rev for Android product here, as a more gentle step up to a fully featured programming language, without the learning curve associated with a language such as Java. We'll be watching App Inventor closely and looking for ways we might be able to interoperate with it in the future.

All in all very exciting times. Stay tuned for more on our Android strategy soon.

revSelect Continues Growth Surge

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:00:00 GMT

In recent months revSelect, our marketplace for affiliated vendors and Rev addon products, has signed no fewer than three new vendors and gained five fine new products to add functionality to Rev. We're delighted to welcome on board Andres Martinez of baKno Games [link to http://bakno.com/], Curry Kenworthy [link to http://curryk.com/consulting/] with his excellent Wordlib, and Hugh Senior from The Flexible Learning Company [link to http://www.flexiblelearning.com].

Andres Martinez is originally from Colombia and worked at Apple Colombia for five years before moving to Miami to study for an MBA. After 10 years working for a networking technology distributor he founded baKno Games. He brings his newly created external, IntelAble to revSelect. This allows Rev developers to easily publish their apps to the Intel App store, a growing new market.

Curry Kenworthy is a seasoned computer software developer and shareware publisher with a wide variety of applications under his belt. He provides web page design, SEO, data manipulation, and other technical consulting services. His WordLib library for importing Word and Open Office files into Rev is already proving popular in the Rev community.

Hugh Senior is an educationalist, software architect and already known in the Rev community as the author of The Scripter's Scrapbook, an invaluable utility for programmers everywhere. We're delighted to welcome his latest library ChartMaker 2 into the revSelect family.

[optional additional sentence] To celebrate all these new products RunRev are offering a Summer Kit [http://www.runrev.com/mailers/RS/rs-2010-7-summerkit.html] throughout the month of July.

In recent months revSelect, our marketplace for affiliated vendors and Rev addon products, has signed no fewer than three new vendors and gained five fine new products to add functionality to Rev!

We're delighted to welcome on board Andres Martinez of baKno Games, Curry Kenworthy with his excellent Wordlib, and Hugh Senior from The Flexible Learning Company.

We also welcome in revSelect the latest new products by existing vendors. NativeSoft this month added the great new utility GeometryManager. Also new is Franklin 3D, from Mirye, a powerful external that adds a complete, professional 3D game engine to the Rev development environment.

To celebrate all these new products RunRev are offering a Summer Productivity Kit throughout the month of July, including all of these products bundled at a discounted price.

RunRev CEO Kevin Miller on revMobile and Apple's new iPhone SDK Agreement

Arnaud Bouchot — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:00:00 GMT

NOTE: This is an OLD blog post, dated May 2010. Since then, Apple have again revised their license agreement, removing the restriction on third party development tools. The LiveCode iOS deployment option is alive and well, and there are numerous LiveCode built apps in the Apple App store.

revMobile and Apple's new iPhone SDK Agreement

As you may know, on the 8th of April, Apple changed the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, which impacts our development of revMobile. The new agreement added a clause which required that applications be originally written in Objective-C, C++ or JavaScript. As revMobile applications are originally written in revTalk, not in one of these languages, their policy changes effectively prohibit revMobile on the iPhone/iPad. The new clause also prohibits frameworks and compatibility layers, which also describes revMobile in its present form.

This change took us, and thousands of other iPhone developers, by surprise. We greatly value our customers and we know how much you depend on us to provide an outstanding and reliable service. Since this announcement, we have been working around the clock to develop a strategy for that will allow us to continue to provide you with the service that you expect and deserve. The surprise from Apple’s announcement is heightened by the fact that Apple’s policy seems to be at odds with recent comments from Steve Jobs himself.

In response to a question in a recent Apple shareholder’s meeting, Jobs said that a HyperCard-like product for the iPad would be a good idea “though someone would have to build it”. Many blog posts suggested that Apple's intention with this change was to ban cross-compilers and ensure high quality, fully native iPhone apps. Jobs all but confirmed [http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/10/steve-jobs-responds-to-iphone-sdk-complaints-intermediate-layers-produce-sub-standard-apps/] the analysis on John Gruber's site [http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331]. The Mac platform in particular has a long legacy surrounding HyperCard and as virtually the last man standing in this space. We believed we were in a position to offer Apple something they wanted.

It makes perfect sense to have a high quality, rapid application development system available for the iPhone and iPad. Our customers agree. revMobile, even its pre-alpha form, received some of the strongest and most positive feedback from our customers that we've ever seen. We are aware of numerous exciting applications being developed even at this early stage. For example, one of our customers, EuroTalk interactive, have government funding to deploy thousands of iPads to schools in Malawi [http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2010/03/18130728] in a pilot project that will expand to tens of thousands of users. They intend to deploy hundreds of small teaching applications to iPads. It makes no sense for those applications to be developed in Objective-C or JavaScript, and EuroTalk will be looking seriously at other tablet manufacturers if they are unable to use revMobile.

Our Pitch to Apple

In order to support our active and growing revMobile customer base, we submitted an in-depth proposal to Apple that we create an iPhone-only product that uses native Cocoa objects, supports 100% of their API, works perfectly with multitasking and battery life, but uses a variant of the revTalk language to use these objects and APIs, and then translates those into native code. While a significant engineering departure for us from the current revMobile path, this solution would have resulted in perfect-quality iPhone-only applications impossible to distinguish from native applications. It would have been impossible to tell these applications apart from native iPhone applications because they would be native applications. As native applications running directly without a compatibility layer, there would have been no battery life issues, multitasking and iAds would work perfectly, and new APIs would be supported as they came out. In other words, we set out to offer Apple what they wanted by raising our game in response to their stricter requirements, while dropping the other mobile platforms we originally intended to support.

Apple's platform would have benefited immeasurably from a high-level, iPhone/iPad-only development tool that is 10x more productive than Objective-C and honors the HyperCard legacy still present on their Mac platform today. So strong is this platform legacy that millions of applications are shipped using Rev technology, and one of the investors in RunRev was himself a co-founder of Apple. With our proposed solution, tens of thousands of our customers would have been able to continue to use revMobile to develop these exciting applications and solutions in much the same way as was possible with our existing Rev product line, albeit at the cost of cross-device compatibly. There would have been no risk to Apple in any such agreement as we would comply with their terms in their entirety. Apple approves applications all the time for their store; ours simply would have been one more.

Steve Jobs has now rejected our proposal and made it clear that he has no interest in having revMobile available on the iPhone or iPad in any form.

Obviously, this is a huge disappointment for us and our customers. The analysis we read both on Apple.com [http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/] and on many blogs [http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/] suggest that their main target might be Flash. Clearly this is not the case. We know that like any other company, Apple has the right to make decisions they deem necessary to maintain their competitive edge and protect shareholder value. However, had they made their decision public earlier in the evolution of the platform, it would have saved us and thousands of other developers what must add up to millions of dollars of wasted engineering budget. Their strategy makes it impossible for us to provide revMobile at the same feature set and service level currently in use by our loyal customers.

The Path Forward

Some of our customers have suggested that we continue to develop the version of revMobile that outputs entirely native code (as detailed above). However such a solution--even though it would create perfect applications--would be in violation of Apple's agreement, which states that code must originally be developed in one of their approved languages. As such, we cannot risk hundreds of thousands of dollars of further engineering budget to create a solution that does not guarantee Apple acceptance to the app store.

We will continue to offer revMobile as an excellent prototyping tool for iPhone and iPad applications. A large proportion of development time is spent during the design phase of any application and revMobile offers an unbeatable solution for that. We will also continue to offer revMobile to those who are members of the Apple Enterprise developer program (including educators who are part of the program) who want to deploy applications to their own devices and in-house.

However we cannot make any guarantee, now or in the future, that revMobile will be in compliance with Apple licensing provisions. It is impossible to make such guarantees as Apple reserve the right to change their terms at any point, and have clearly demonstrated their willingness to exercise this right to make sweeping changes without notice. It is up to individual customers to satisfy themselves of Apple requirements.

While we will be shipping revMobile as a product, we reluctantly have no choice but to scale back development on it. We can no longer create the native interface objects layer, but rather invite our community to develop a set of emulated objects. We also will no longer build the native-code compiler, as this is a vast engineering project that’s purpose was to facilitate submission of applications to the app store.

Given these business changes, we are pushing back our RunRevLive.10 conference to April next year, and are focusing on developing significant and exciting enhancements to the Rev platform. We have many exciting projects in the pipeline including an overhaul to our Unicode support, enhanced text display, improvements to the revWeb plugin, the rollout of revServer and much more. We are turning our mobile sights to the Android platform, and will unveil an aggressive strategy for supporting Android development projects. We will also roll out the updated Rev platform roadmap for our revEnterprise customers shortly.

The industry we work in moves quickly and we have always worked tirelessly to make sure the Rev platform enables you to take advantage of new and innovative technologies. That change has been particularly quick over the past month. But there are many new opportunities out there and we look forward to finding ways to enable you to take advantage of them. And all these changes notwithstanding, we still believe that revMobile remains the most sophisticated iPhone/iPad prototyping and Enterprise development tool in the world. We’ll be posting more updates and lessons for it shortly.

We have always worked hard to be a trusted partner for the many thousands of customers and businesses that use Rev. We’re going to continue to take care of everyone in our community. We will be redoubling our efforts to move forward in a new direction that enables you in new ways. I hope you’ll stay with us through this transition. Our customers are the reason we are here and we thank you sincerely for the unwavering commitment and support you’ve shown us.

Keep your eyes on exciting new developments from us in the coming months.

Kevin Miller

RunRev CEO, 10th May 2010

As you may know, on the 8th of April, Apple changed the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, which impacts our development of revMobile. The new agreement added a clause which required that applications be originally written in Objective-C, C++ or JavaScript. As revMobile applications are originally written in revTalk, not in one of these languages, their policy changes effectively prohibit revMobile on the iPhone/iPad. The new clause also prohibits frameworks and compatibility layers, which also describes revMobile in its present form.

This change took us, and thousands of other iPhone developers, by surprise. We greatly value our customers and we know how much you depend on us to provide an outstanding and reliable service. Since this announcement, we have been working around the clock to develop a strategy that will allow us to continue to provide you with the service that you expect and deserve. The surprise from Apple’s announcement is heightened by the fact that Apple’s policy seems to be at odds with recent comments from Steve Jobs himself.

In response to a question in a recent Apple shareholder’s meeting, Jobs said that a HyperCard-like product for the iPad would be a good idea “though someone would have to build it”. Many blog posts suggested that Apple's intention with this change was to ban cross-compilers and ensure high quality, fully native iPhone apps. Jobs all but confirmed the analysis on John Gruber's site. The Mac platform in particular has a long legacy surrounding HyperCard and as virtually the last man standing in this space. We believed we were in a position to offer Apple something they wanted.

It makes perfect sense to have a high quality, rapid application development system available for the iPhone and iPad. Our customers agree. revMobile, even its pre-alpha form, received some of the strongest and most positive feedback from our customers that we've ever seen. We are aware of numerous exciting applications being developed even at this early stage. For example, one of our customers, EuroTalk interactive, have government funding to deploy thousands of iPads to schools in Malawi in a pilot project that will expand to tens of thousands of users. They intend to deploy hundreds of small teaching applications to iPads. It makes no sense for those applications to be developed in Objective-C or JavaScript, and EuroTalk will be looking seriously at other tablet manufacturers if they are unable to use revMobile.

Our Pitch to Apple

In order to support our active and growing revMobile customer base, we submitted an in-depth proposal to Apple that we create an iPhone-only product that uses native Cocoa objects, supports 100% of their API, works perfectly with multitasking and battery life, but uses a variant of the revTalk language to use these objects and APIs, and then translates those into native code. While a significant engineering departure for us from the current revMobile path, this solution would have resulted in perfect-quality iPhone-only applications impossible to distinguish from native applications. It would have been impossible to tell these applications apart from native iPhone applications because they would be native applications. As native applications running directly without a compatibility layer, there would have been no battery life issues, multitasking and iAds would work perfectly, and new APIs would be supported as they came out. In other words, we set out to offer Apple what they wanted by raising our game in response to their stricter requirements, while dropping the other mobile platforms we originally intended to support.

Steve Jobs has now rejected our proposal and made it clear that he has no interest in having revMobile available on the iPhone or iPad in any form.

Obviously, this is a huge disappointment for us and our customers. The analysis we read both on Apple.com and on many blogs suggest that their main target might be Flash. Clearly this is not the case. We know that like any other company, Apple has the right to make decisions they deem necessary to maintain their competitive edge and protect shareholder value. However, had they made their decision public earlier in the evolution of the platform, it would have saved us and thousands of other developers what must add up to millions of dollars of wasted engineering budget. Their strategy makes it impossible for us to provide revMobile at the same feature set and service level currently in use by our loyal customers.

The Path Forward

Some of our customers have suggested that we continue to develop the version of revMobile that outputs entirely native code (as detailed above). However such a solution--even though it would create perfect applications--would be in violation of Apple's agreement, which states that code must originally be developed in one of their approved languages. As such, we cannot risk hundreds of thousands of dollars of further engineering budget to create a solution that does not guarantee Apple acceptance to the app store.

Keep your eyes on exciting new developments from us in the coming months.

Kevin Miller

RunRev CEO, 10th May 2010

RunRev Initial Response to Apple's iPhone OS 4.0 SDK announcement

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:00:00 GMT

As part of Apple's iPhone OS 4.0 SDK announcement last week, Apple have posted updated iPhone Terms of Service. The specifics of these changes are under NDA so we cannot discuss them at this point. We have an excellent relationship with Apple and we will be working with them to address any specific issues that may need clarification in relation to their proposed changes. We will do everything possible to ensure a speedy and positive resolution that allows our customers to deliver outstanding apps on the revMobile platform in full compliance with Apple policies. We will communicate further information over the coming days as our discussions develop.

revMobile Development Proceeding Fast

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Today we bring you the revMobile pre-Alpha 7 for iPhone, with several great new features:

• 'launch url': Now you can place voice calls, open the 'Maps' application or launch URLs in Safari using this feature

• 'beep': performs an alert based on the user's settings

• 'the beepSound': configure the sound to use for 'beep'

• 'play': basic support for playing sound files has been added, so you can play a single sound once or as a loop.

These features have been added to our new iPhone & iPad Supported Features page.

The new pre-Alpha also implements the following useful and important items:

• 'the fontNames'/'fontStyles()': find out what fonts are installed

• system date/time: use the user's configured locale to format dates and times

• uniEncode/uniDecode: convert between different text encodings

• specialFolderPath('engine'): get the folder containing the engine and other bundle resources

Today is the last day to get our very special pre-order revMobile package including revLive 2010 Simulcast access and the 2010 conference DVD box set. If you haven't already signed up you can do so here. Read more about revMobile at our newly updated revMobile Website.

revMobile Competition. Win an iPad!

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:00:00 GMT

This week RunRev launched an exciting competition to win an iPad. If you've been having a ball playing with our revMobile pre-alpha, here is your chance to show off your work and possibly get a nice reward for it.

Entry is really simple, just send us your application, and we'll judge it on

   •   Application or game concept
   •   Aesthetics
   •   Number of iPhone OS features used
   •   Fun factor (games) or Usefulness (apps)

You have until 21st April to enter. First prize is an iPad, second prize an iTouch, and third is $100 of iTunes vouchers. Read full details here:

http://www.runrev.com/products/revmobile/competition/

To help you along, we're producing a video series showing step by step how to use the features in the latest pre-alpha. You can see the first videos here:

http://www.runrev.com/products/revmobile/overview/

We'll be adding more throughout the week so check back often. So what are you waiting for? You have to be in it to win it! Get coding and we'll look forward to judging your entries!

RunRev Expands its Edinburgh Office

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:00:00 GMT

It's with great pleasure that we welcome two new staff members to RunRev HQ in Edinburgh. David Cox (pictured right) is an experienced software developer having worked in the industry for more than 10 years. The variety of programming languages he has worked with and the diversity of responsibilities make him an excellent all-rounder and the perfect addition to the team. Hanson Schmidt-Cornelius (pictured left) is also an experienced developer with a background in artificial intelligence having completed a PhD in the subject. He is a proven software architect with a track record of repeatedly delivering quality solutions as well as offering technical writing expertise.

2009 was a great year for the Rev technology with major advancements made in a multitude of areas. More people than ever before are using the technology and the number of people adopting it is growing month on month. In 2010 we have exciting and ambitious plans to extend our platform even further. We'll be working on our desktop development products, revWeb (browser plugin), revServer and of course the all-new revMobile product for mobile devices.

When delivering products of any nature it's important to have the right team in place and capacity to not only excel, but to be innovative and creative in doing so. We are excited about what 2010 has in store for the Rev platform and with the addition of David and Hanson, we continue to build on a team that has the ability to drive forward and deliver on our exciting agenda.

revMobile iPhone Pre-Alpha: One week on

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Last week we were excited to announce the release of our revMobile pre-alpha for the Apple iPhone, and from the response we've had over the last few days, so are the Rev community: we've had some great and helpful feedback from users getting to grips with our new mobile development platform.

revMobile of course allows mobile development for several platforms, including Windows Mobile and Nokia Maemo, however the feedback from our community was that the platform they were most excited about was the Apple iPhone, which has been evidenced by some of the reactions we've had to the pre-alpha! Apple's higher standard of software and hardware design has clearly revolutionized the smartphone market across the world - and the Apple ecosystem looks to become even more appealing for developers with the introduction of the Apple iPad.

Our Youtube video "Create an iPhone App in 3 hours 16 minutes" has now hit nearly 11,000 views at time of writing, and has been re-posted on tech news sites and blogs across the world, leading to a lot of new interest in the Rev platform. We've been covered by MacNN and The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), and it's been great to see the buzz generated by the unique offer of being able to develop for the iPhone without learning Objective-C - one of the greatest barriers to entry in creating software for the iPhone.

Today we've released the third edition of the iPhone pre-alpha, including new features for display of Unicode text and non-ASCII characters, an expanded and improved handbook, and plenty of bug and stability fixes. If you already have revMobile, you should receive an e-mail with the details shortly - if you don't have revMobile, you can find out more about it here.

We've had great fun at RunRev HQ developing for the iPhone, and to see that our community are getting excited by the opportunity is very rewarding. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

New Website Launched

Arnaud Bouchot — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Over the past 5 years we've seen a number of changes to www.runrev.com and today we launched the latest revision of our websites. This change is one with a difference because it is not just a 'facelift'. We have worked hard to redesign the layout, flow and usabiity of the site and also added a host of new sections aimed at serving the community.

Perhaps the most exciting change to the site is within the developers section which now includes three new 'mini sites'.

Documentation

Our first mini site sees the product documentation move to the web. Why is this good, I hear you say? Well, apart from providing another way to access the Revolution documentation it displays links to tutorials and sample stacks for many of the most used keywords. This is perfect for those of you wanting to do something new (like transfering a file by FTP) and want a quick start quide. You can also comment on any documentation entry and include sample code snippets. The usefulness of the documentation will only grow as we all post helpful comments and samples.

Lessons / Tutorials

This is perhaps the most exciting of our new mini sites. Lessons.runrev.com is the new home for our visual lessons and tutorials. Developers and members of the community will post answer to other users questions in the form of 'visual tutorials'. Relevant lessons are cross linked with the documentation making it easy to find the lesson that is relevant to you. A great search feature also allows you to search for specific tutorials. If you are new to Revolution or simply want a quick guide to getting into a certain aspect of Rev this is the place to go. If there isn't a lesson for the task you want to do, simply write into support and one of our team will create it.

revOnline

By popular demand we have now created a web interface to revOnline. We have also added the ability to comment on uploaded stacks.

We are really happy to launch not only Revolution 4.0 but also our new community focused website. We hope you enjoy using it! If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact us.

Warm regards,

The Revolution team.

Petrol or Revolution 4.0?

Arnaud Bouchot — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:00:00 GMT

In sunny Scotland it now gets dark at just 5pm and of course that only gets worse as we head towards winter. To remedy the winter blues the RunRev staff took an afternoon off in search of some good Scottish fun. It was time to exchange Revolution, VisualStudio, Photoshop, keyboard and mouse for some overalls, helmet and a go-kart full to the brim with speed inducing petrol!

It turns out that software developers are a particular breed of driver... Highly aggressive and prone to multi-kart pile-ups! Safe to say we all has a lot of fun and came back to the office refreshed!

The Taint RevPod style.

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

After a hard morning fine tuning my presentation – “The Apps Market, Making Money” – for the upcoming RunRevLive.11 conference I decided it was high time I gave myself a little treat. Time to venture out in the April showers in search of a McDonalds.

This lunchtime trip reminded me one my favourite books featuring software development. In ‘JPod’, author Douglas Coupland – best known for coining the phrase ‘Generation X’ – gives a tremendously funny account of life at fictional game development company Neotronic Arts. Six very different but equally talented programmers are forced to whittle their lives away on pointless projects, having been group together not because of complimenting skillsets but instead based purely on the statistical glitch that they are the only developers in the company whose surnames start with the letter J.

What has this got to do with McDonalds you’re wondering (or indeed what has it got to do with software development?). Filling my office with the strong smells of McDonalds’ Big Mac and Fries reminded me that employees of ‘Neotronic Arts’ referred to this as ‘The Taint’ and offending colleagues were shunned by their co-workers for the rest of the day for polluting the hallowed working environment. I’m still new to RunRev….. what if my new co-workers would feel the same?!?

Fortunately RevPod employees have more in common with each other than mere coincidental initials (Coupland fans will be relieved to hear that Rev Surnames are representative of a plethora of letters from B through W) so my naughty but nice Friday treat was welcomed by everyone in the office --- who immediately descended upon it and scoffed all my fries!

I have thus returned to my presentation half fed and only half satisfied. Between the British weather and my fry stealing cohorts, is it any wonder that my thoughts turn to the exquisite dining experience I have been promised in the Dolce Hayes Mansion Hotel for RunRevLive.11. I’m certain the whole Rev team will earn their lunches there – but I’m equally certain that the hotel staff will not be as forgiving of ‘The Taint’ as my new colleagues are. Good thing their Silver Creek dining room leaves nothing to be desired.

My verdict: in programming, just like every other industry, we all need the occasional lunch time treat. But if you hear someone whisper “Oh no... The Taint” next time you bring yours to the office now you’ll know why. And you’ll know what to do with them – banish them to banality in the JPod.

LiveCode Developers Save Nearly Two Months in Development Time using LiveCode

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

In March 2010, we conducted an in-depth survey of our customers to better understand their use of LiveCode and the advantages the platform brings to their development projects.

In addition to information about their specific development work and timelines, we asked about their experience using other languages, and how LiveCode compares. The results were astounding.

And while not a complete surprise given what we already know about LiveCode's performance and strengths, the amount of time savings over more traditional development languages was quite eye-opening.

Here's what we found:

The survey included input from 670 developers, with 415 development projects currently in play.

On average, developers saved nearly two months -- 51 days -- in development time using LiveCode over Java, Objective-C, BASIC and C/C++.

Developers used 47% less time over traditional development environments.

One-third of all projects simply would not have been viable without LiveCode.

Here's what we heard:

“LiveCode is very easy to use and learn. I created my first Android application in just four days without prior knowledge of LiveCode.”

“This tool is so intuitive and at such a high level that it tackles major projects with ease without the requirement of the learning curve of Objective C or even BASIC.”

“If it weren't for LiveCode I would have had to use two different programming platforms to deliver my solution. Other cross platform tools were simply lacking significantly in functionality. LiveCode made it a breeze.”

“With traditional coding practices, the project would have been abandoned.”

“Very rapid application development AND upgraded features made it easier with LiveCode than (what would have been) possible with C/C++/Basic/Java.”

“This was my first project using LiveCode, I would probably not have done the project if I had to use Java or VB.”

We're thrilled to know that LiveCode is delivering exactly the benefits we designed it to deliver, and we appreciate the thoughtful input our community provides to help us crystalize the benefits further.

Click to see in high resolution.

For those who haven't yet tried LiveCode, we encourage you to start out with a free trial, or tap our forums to engage with our community directly and ask questions or share your ideas.

Thanks again to all who participated!

The Importance of Prototyping

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

We've been in many discussions lately about the importance and benefits of prototyping. Several customers have shared examples recently on the value LiveCode brings to their prototyping efforts, and the advantages over other development environments. It's critical. Particularly in today's race to the mobile app store, competition and commerce are driving developers to work even harder and faster than ever. Getting to the prototype is the theme, because only then can you see if you're on the right track with your app and get that much closer to completion.

Prototyping gives you a visual representation of your idea in hours, letting you realize the vision you had for the software, app or utility without having to fully develop to the finish. The value isn’t just for proving that you’re on the right track, but also for getting to those features that make the end experience special and delightful. So many software features just can't be explained on paper.

Many Web and app design firms we talk with say that they're constantly driving to "get quickly to prototype" because they have an idea that just doesn't resonate on paper. It's much cooler in their minds. They need to touch it, see it, feel the subtle impact that design element has on the consumer experience. You really do have to see it to believe it.

LiveCode helps developers see it faster than any other environment. Our customers tell us constantly that it's the best development platform for protyping. Here's just a snapshot of what we've heard recently:

"LiveCode gives us the ability to prototype many ideas instantly!"

"LiveCode has enabled me to rapidly produce prototypes for potential customers, and I've already been approached by SMEs to develop their first app iterations."

"Without LiveCode, I would not have the resources to test the mobile app and certainly I would not be in a position to pitch for third party business."

"I designed and prototyped the (software) with LiveCode, and in less than one week was able to present a full running demo to the customer."

"I use LiveCode almost entirely for prototyping becuase I can almost immediately take an idea and see it in action. I'll dig into development later, but just getting to the prototype so I can edit my idea in real-time, that's the tremendous value of LiveCode."

Tell us how your project or business has benefited from prototyping, and if LiveCode helped you get there faster than you could have with other tools. We love these stories, as they bring your projects to life for us.

Or try LiveCode for yourself and see how powerful a prototyping tool it is.

Clarify in Ten Best Mac App Store Apps 2011

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Trevor and Greg DeVore. Their Clarify App has been listed as one of the “10 Best Mac Apps of 2011” by Mashable.com.

There’s been lots of buzz lately about how great LiveCode is to make mobile apps and games and the LiveCode Game Academy has received lots of attention from budding developers seeking to try something new. But let’s not forget our roots. Right from its beginning, LiveCode was and is a professional development tool that allows you to make applications for lots of different platforms and purposes.

So we’re really proud to announce that Clarify, by LiveCode users BlueMango Learning Systems has been listed as one of the “10 Best Mac Apps of 2011” by Mashable.com. “Clarify from Blue Mango Learning is a great app for individuals that frequently need to create and annotate documentation using screenshots or photographs” the website says. “Like it's older brother ScreenSteps Desktop (also built in LiveCode), Clarify is easy to use and has powerful built-in annotation and resizing tools.”

How Clarify Works

Capture images

Capture screenshots, import graphics or add photos. Capture multiple images to create clear communications.

Turn them into communications

Add annotations and text to you images

Annotations include:

Arrows

Rectangles

Oval

Highlight

Sequence tools

Text annotations

Blur

Share online or via email.

It’s easy to share your communications online via clarify-it.com (a free sharing service offered by Blue Mango) or by email.

I asked Trevor DeVore, Director of Technology at BlueMango, why he chose LiveCode to make Clarify.

In addition, the ability to instantly test Clarify on Mac and Windows during development without any need to compile allows me to quickly iterate over features and fix bugs.”

- Trevor DeVore, BlueMango Learning Systems

Read all about Clarify’s journey from idea to app in this article from Trevor DeVore: “Clarify, A Fresh Start. How to learn from previous successes to make an even better app!”.

Clarify costs just $29.99, starts with a free trial, and is available here.

Bucking the Trend

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

Reading the news these days, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the End is Nigh, and no person, household, or business can be thriving in the current economic climate. Greece is going bust, the US economy is in dire straits, London is burning and full of rioters...

Strange, because looking out of the window here, while the sun is not actually shining (this is the UK! Of course its raining!) all seems to be calm, and our office is humming with activity and suppressed excitement. RunRev is on a roll, and LiveCode is very much alive, kicking, and looking forward to a bright future.

Why is this? I think there are multiple factors at work. For one thing, in hard times people are forced to be resourceful, innovate, find solutions without throwing a lot of money at the problem, and when you have a programming problem and you can't hire a programmer, what do you do? Program it yourself of course. With LiveCode, because it is such an easy solution for people who are not traditional programmers. We are definitely seeing a rise in the number of people looking for a "roll your own" solution who might in the past have either bought expensive off the shelf solutions or hired a programmer to do the job.

Another big factor has to be the huge growth in the Mobile market. LiveCode is perfectly positioned to be your mobile solution and the numbers of people wanting to write their own mobile app is exploding exponentially. iPads are appearing everywhere - even in the cockpits of aeroplanes - and more and more people are excited about not just using them, but putting their own special app in the app store. These again are often people who do not have a programming background, but are drawn in to a brand new genre of app creation. Its almost like the early days of computers, when people were very much writing the programs they were using, rather than just consuming programs other people had written. Mobile is a new blank sheet, for the next generation to program.

Hand in hand with the growth in Mobile, is a new excitement in education. School boards, universities, individual teachers and lecturers are recognizing the need for the next generation to be equipped for the technology future. Students want to write apps. Teachers want to show them how. The traditional tools for this purpose are hard to use, boring to learn with and not engaging. We are seeing more and more sales into the education market as LiveCode is recognized as a great way to teach and engage students.

Overall, we're pretty happy. The future's bright. The future's ... LiveCode.

New LiveCode Linux Extensions Available

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

For our LiveCode Linux community, you should rejoice in a new set of extensions for Linux developed by the fine folks at HowSoft. You can download the following new extensions from the HowSoft site today:

Rev/Linux UTF-8 Stack Template

Case-Blind International Bubble Sort

UTF-8 Text Editor

Shell Without Wait

Web Browser (Mozilla Web Kit)

Web Browser (Firefox-based)

UTF-8-Compliant Picture Chooser

The fifth extension noted -- web browser fired by Python scripts -- should be of particular interest. As HowSoft's Bob Warren says, "it points the way to a revBrowser for Linux that could be implemented at the drop of a hat, were you so inclined."

We think our Linux community will be so inclined, Bob. Thank you very much!

Now go build some killer Linux apps!

LiveCode shortlisted for Education Award

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

RunRev are delighted to announce that LiveCode has been shortlisted for a BETT Award, the most prestigious education technology award in the UK. The BETT awards are chaired by BESA, the British Educational Suppliers Association. They will be announced during the annual BETT exhibition and conference and judged by a panel of education professionals. The awards go to products or companies that excel at delivering classroom based technology solutions.

LiveCode has been shortlisted in the 'ICT Tools for Learning and Teaching' category. This category rewards innovation in and commitment to the development of learning and teaching tools for the primary, secondary and further education sectors. LiveCode was shortlisted because it answered 'Yes' to all these questions.

Is it easy to use?

Does it provide valuable user guidance and information?

Does it stimulate interactivity and collaboration?

Does it promote creativity?

Is it accessible and inclusive?

Does it promote learning across the curriculum?

Is it distinctive and innovative?

LiveCode would never have been shortlisted for this award without the support and help of UK teachers and educators. One teacher in particular, Steven Whyte of Gracemount College Edinburgh, has given unwavering support to RunRev and has even developed his own LiveCode programming course for his secondary school students. Steven kindly shares this course with his fellow educators - you can download it here. Our heartfelt thanks go out to Steven Whyte and our other educators for all their support this year

Winners of the BETT awards will be announced on January 11th 2012. Watch this space...

The iCloud Silver Lining

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

by Mark Taoilinn

In its press release earlier this week Apple did something completely out of character – they preannounced a new product. Apple’s new service iCloud is to be launched by Steve Jobs at Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Coneference (WWDC) this Monday, sparking rumour, speculation and excitement this week about the computer giant might pull out of the bag. It’s also refueled the debate about cloud computing in general and shone a light on this year’s biggest new trend.

It can be argued that iCloud is perhaps Apple’s work kept secret. Rumours about a new Apple cloud service, which have been circulating for quite some time, were driven to fever pitch at the beginning of April when Apple acquired the domain name iCloud.com from Swedish cloud services provider Xcerion for $4.5Million. Ad that to the $1Billion data centre that Apple are building in North Carolina and you get a market poised and waiting for a ‘surprise’ Apple announcement about their slant on this year’s hottest new IT craze. But what is the iCloud, and exactly what services will it offer. Well, in Apple’s typically secretive style, we don’t know! But that doesn’t stop everyone guessing. We pundits have it that the iCloud service will be Apple’s new music offering to rival the music lockers available from Amazon and Google. The Wall Street Journal has confirmed that Apple has signed deals with major studios and record labels to allow Apple users stream content directly from the cloud. The clever bit, we expect, is that Apple may scan your computer to ascertain what music you currently own and then make those titles available to you to stream 24/7 to any apple device via the iCloud, saving users the messy and time-consuming task of selecting music and uploading it to their phone or device. Clever eh!

Spas, Shopping and Students - a day in the LiveCode Life

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

The countdown to RevLive.11 has really begun. Jo Hernandez, RunRev Event Organizer Extraordinaire, is winging her way to San Jose today to get started on making this event as great as all the other seminars and conferences she’s done for us. To be honest I’m jealous. A week in sunny California, staying at the lavish Dolce Hayes Mansion in the heart of Silicon Valley – what’s not to like? Jo’s there to make sure that we get the best from the hotel, confirm the route from San Fran and other important locations to the hotel and check out the local amenities. Hopefully she’ll find time for some spa pampering, shoe shopping, coffee drinking and generally much deserved R&R. She’s promised to send me some photos and updates while she’s there – keep an eye out for our tweets (I’m really looking forward to hearing about her scouting mission to the San Jose Technology Museum).

Meanwhile, back here in wet and windy Edinburgh the office entertained some students yesterday with pizza and beer. Don’t worry, it was all in the aid of research - the students were here to do product testing on the LiveCode user experience. They were all really keen (we had a hard time getting them to leave) and they loved LiveCode. They had brilliant feedback for us and made some excellent suggestions on how to make LiveCode even better and even easier to use. I don’t want to give anything away, but there will be some game changing enhancements coming soon to the LiveCode UI. Watch this space…..

RunRevLive.11 Forrester Keynote on Megatrends Shaping App Development Open to All Developers -- Bring a Colleague!

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

We're gearing up for our annual RunRevLive Developer's Conference in San Jose, Calif. the week after next. It's always an exciting time for us and our customers, and sharing time, strategies and ideas with fellow LiveCode developers is the greatest part.

We're especially excited this year because we'll identify how sweeping changes in mobile app development are bringing new opportunities for app creators. At the same time, we'll welcome Forrester Principal Analyst Mike Gualtieri who will deliver the Wed. evening keynote address on "Three Megatrends Shaping Your Future in Application Development." We are also very pleased to welcome three technology industry visionaries Robert Cailliau, Mike Markkula, and Bill Atkinson to the event!

We want to remind our friends, colleagues and customers that the evening keynote address from Forrester's Mike Gualtieri is open to the public and free with registration. We're hoping you'll bring a colleague who will benefit from the topic and might like to learn more about LiveCode -- at no charge to them. Please ask them to register by emailing support@runrev.com. And let us know that you've shared the invitation, as there may be a surprise bonus in there for you!

See you on the 26th in San Jose. Until then, happy coding!

About RunRevLive.11

Hosted by RunRev and in its 5^th year, RunRevLive blends LiveCode development techniques and tutorials with industry trends and research to benefit all developers. This year’s event will feature new LiveCode deployment packs that ensure incredibly fast cross-device development across all major computing platforms—with particular focus on the mobile device. Past years have been sold out, and the same is expected for 2011.

The event will be held at the stunning Hayes Mansion in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday-Friday, April 26-29, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with a Wednesday evening keynote at 6:30 followed by a reception. Attendees can register for full conference, or to the (free) evening keynote by emailing support@runrev.com. More information and registration details are online at www.runrevlive.com.

Android Attacks!

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

A look at the meteoric rise of the Android platform in recent months

With the pre-release of LiveCode for Android deployment pack available to purchase now, Mark Taoilinn, RunRev marketing and communications analyst, examines the meteoric rise of Android and shows you why it's so important to get behind it.

Android’s recent momentum has captivated the mobile industry; worrying competitors,fascinating analysts and inspiring developers. Taking a quick look at the statistics it’s easy to see why: Android is now available on over 170 devices, through 169 carriers in 69 countries worldwide. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt announced at the Mobile World Conference last week that they are seeing more than 300,000 new activations per day. It's easy to get lost in figures like these so let me illustrate by giving an example: assuming Android were to launch on Christmas day as a completely new platform and given those daily sales, every high-school kid in America would have a brand new phone or device, powered by Android, in time to text their sweetheart on Valentine's day.

RunRev at AppsWorld

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

We're just back from a very busy, very enjoyable few days at AppsWorld London. We got to meet lots of really interesting people and everyone was amazed at just how simple, powerful and robust LiveCode could be.

We kicked off the two day event with a developer panel discussion entitled "Challenges of design, creation & distribution of multi-platform apps." Ben Beaumont, LiveCode Product Manager, was joined on the panel by Andrew Ashe, LiveCode Customer and Managing Director of Eurotalk Limited. Also on the panel was Joe Stagner, Sr. Program Manager of Mozilla. The panel discussion was extremely well attended and we really impressed with how focused and engaged the audience were. There weren't too many really tough questions, and it was great to be able to talk about LiveCode and our competitors in the context of the overall market.

Ben Beuamont and Andrew Ashe at Apps World

In the afternoon we had another opportunity to present. This time Kevin Miller took up the mantle and led a workshop for Small Business owners on why they needed an app and waht options they have to get one, or better yet, make it themselves. Kevin was again joined by Andrew Ashe, LiveCode customer and Eurotalk Managing Director, who was able to share his personal experiences of app development; its challenges, opportunities and how best to overcome them.

Andrew Ashe taking questions at Apps World. Kevin Miller looks on

Meanwhile, at booth 80 the rest of the RunRev team were hard at work talking to delegates and visitors to the conference from all over the world. Easily the most popular aspect of the two days for everyone who came to visit us was our quick 'Make and app in 3 minutes demo".

Captain LiveCode announcing the next "Make an app in 3 minutes" Demo

We gave this quick presentation every hour and always got a big crowd of people to watch. Kevin set himself a challenge: in under 3 minutes he was to make an ipad app that allowed him to take a photo of the audience with his iPad. Then, the app randomly selected from the photo who would win a commercial LiveCode bundle.

A crowd gathered to see an app made in 3 minutes with LiveCode

So popular was this demo that we've asked Kevin Miller to record it for our web page - watch this space.

Congratulations to all our winners over the two days.

And our heartfelt thanks to Andrew Ashe from Eurotalk who really brought our presentations to life by sharing his real world experience of app development and using LiveCode.

LiveCode 4.6 Delivering on what Developers Need

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

It’s been a great week for us here at RunRev. The much anticipated LiveCode 4.6 was launched last Tuesday and we could not have asked for a better response. We’ve had journal entries and blog posts, people have liked us on Facebook, customers have emailed with feedback and there’s been tweeting galore!

With LiveCode 4.6 we wanted to keep our customers on the cutting edge of the exciting mobile space. We’ve packed in over 20 new iOS features to make sure that our developers stay ahead of the game. I’ll let @oab from Twitter give you his feedback, because I honestly couldn’t have put it better myself:

“@runev I have to say v 4.6 is 100 times better for mobile development. Amazed how polished this version really is. Bravo work guys.”

It’s not just about mobile of course. We worked really hard to bring you more than a dozen desktop refinements too, and overall LiveCode 4.6 had more than 100 bug fixes too. We know how important it is to be cross platform these days, so our releases always bring the very best we can give you on all the platforms we support.

Stephen Barncard, another LiveCode customer, sums it up nicely:

“A lot of stuff is going on under the hood. Stability and bug fixes are always a big feature. Improvements to mobile eventually work their way back to the desktop (and plugin and server), as the team are revising major parts of the engine as they go along, so we developers can truly 'write once, use anywhere.”

What our developers have been most pleased about is that we delivered on our promise to bring them the features and changes that they had asked for. “Ask and you shall receive” says Edward Cawley, LiveCode customer. “Loaded 4.6 today and my problems were solved. … Thanks to the whole team.”

The successful launch of LiveCode 4.6 wasn’t the only great thing to happen this week. Even before we brought out an updated version, LiveCode was named Best Cross-Platform Mobile IDE in a survey by Mike Riley of DevProConnections. What Mike listed as the best features of LiveCode are:

excellent platform-specific support from a single code base

adequate documentation and active, company-sponsored forum participation

intuitive, easy-to-use form design tools

We’re thrilled with this accolade, and proud of the respect we’ve earned by listening to our developers and by enhancing our products based on their feedback.

“Over the years I’ve gotten more and more confident in Kevin and his team in providing the continuation and expanding of a platform that works for me and many others.” Stephen Barncard, LiveCode customer tells us. “I trust these guys to stay on top of the changing landscape and to keep improving the core product. I see a great future for this company and I’m here for the long haul.”

And that’s exactly how we see things, and precisely what we want to bring with LiveCode 4.6. We’re working together with our developers to bring mutual gains over the long haul. Along the way do we hope to gain more titles, win more prizes and garner more media reviews? Sure we do! But it’s the relationship with our developers that matters to us most. It’s their feedback that drives us forward.

The LiveCode Developer Program

Are you a professional developer? Our LiveCode Developer Program gives you close contact with our dev team and executive management via the LiveCode Developer Program Mailing List. This is the best place to give us your feedback and to get your questions answered the guys in the Dev Team.

We’ll give you access to the pre-release version of whichever LiveCode deployment licenses you hold and listen to your feedback when making changes and corrections to the full product.

We want LiveCode to do what our customers want it to do, not what we want it to do. On the list they’re already chatting about what’s coming next - the LiveCode Developer Program is the best way to stay informed and get your input heard.

You can find out more about the LiveCode Developer Program here.

If you are new and would like to trial LiveCode click here

New Breed of Aye-Phone Developer at RunRev

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

Let’s all give a big welcome to RunRev’s newest addition, Angus, my new pet Haggis. We already have 3 pets in RunRev HQ – Jo’s ‘best friend’ Tio Pepe, Neil’s puppy Pancake and Dave’s dog Meg, so we thought we knew what to expect from having animals in the office, but boy did we get a shock with Angus!!

A haggis, for those of you who don’t know, is a small creature from the Scottish Highlands. Some may think that Angus is an odd looking animal: he was made to withstand the wilds of mountain life so his left legs are shorter than his right (to make it easier to stay balanced on the steep slopes) and his hair is longer on one side than the other (to keep out the chill from the bracing highland gales). I rescued the haggis on a recent hiking trip to Ben Nevis, took him home and named him Angus – a good solid Scottish name meaning unnaturally strong and singular of character.

It was only when I got him to the office that I realized quite how singular Angus really was. I was worried about him causing trouble in the office. With one set of legs longer than the other he can’t walk in a straight line – he runs for his bowl, swings in a wide arc and bangs into the wall – so it’s better for everyone that I keep him by my desk. Last week we were coding a simple user interface to teach basic geometry to kindergarten students. I turned my back for no more than a minute and when I looked back, Angus was using my mouse to manipulate the interface. I think he wanted to make an app to calculate trajectories of his new, flat environment. They do say that necessity is the mother of invention.

“LiveCode is so quick to learn that even non-programmers can use it” commented Kevin Miller, RunRev CEO. “This is just another example of how, with a little bit of ingenuity, anyone can use our natural programming language to develop rich, problem solving apps with real world potential.”

It turns out haggis are surprisingly good coders. He's struggling a bit with Apple's submission process, but I have faith he'll get through it – Haggis have a keen intelligence. We made a lesson to help him along.

Keep your eyes peeled the world’s first Haggis-made app to hit the iOS App Store and Android market place soon!

iPad 2: Apple have done it again.

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

I don’t know about you but we’ve been really excited about the new iPad 2 launch all week. Now that it’s here we see that our excitement has not been in vain. The iPad has been all the talk of the office here at RunRev.

“It’s great to see Apple raising the bar, yet again, for mobile computing” says RunRev Director of Technology Mark Waddingham. “With the new iPad 2 the mobile device market is better poised than ever to overtake desktop and laptop computing, not just because of convenience but with a complete user centric feature set”.

Rather than re-inventing the wheel Apple have upgraded and improved upon the feature set of the first iPad. They are quite right to do so; with 15 Million units and $2 Billion worth of revenue in just 9 months the iPad has created a new market for tablets. With its dual core and faster processing this next phase of iPad is sure to make this ‘magical user interface’ that little bit more charming. 33% thinner, 15% lighter and with a 10 hour battery life the iPad 2 is going to be a must for every Professional, Student or Child-about-town.

“Apple have done it again. An outstanding product at the same price point as its predecessor. The iPad 2 is entering a more crowded space this time around, as the market that Apple created is becoming increasingly filled with Android-based competitors. We’ll support the latest features on both platforms so our developers don’t have to choose” said Kevin Miller, RunRev CEO.

I can’t wait to get my hands on one.

Can you really build an iPhone app in just 3 minutes?

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

With LiveCode, yes you can!

The RunRev crew is out in California this week at the MacTech Conference and Kevin Miller wowed the audience by building an app from start to finish in less than three minutes! Now, he did save a few links to speed the process, but the actual build is all live, incredibly fast, and results in a visual, useful and fully-functional app in 180 seconds.

Watch the video!

RUNREV ANNOUNCES FORRESTER KEYNOTE - RUNREVLIVE.11 26TH - 29TH APRIL

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

For more than 25 years the name Forrester has been synonymous with high quality, forward thinking research into all things technological. Forrester is the market leader at providing game changing advice to IT professionals and developers. RunRev are proud to announce that it is bringing theForrester experience and insight to RunRevLive.11. Senior Forrester Analyst Mike Gualtieri will be giving a keynote address in San Jose in April. We are proud to able to bring our customers this chance to gain invaluable advice on how to succeed in application development

BACKGROUND

Senior Analyst Mike Gualtieri is a technology leader from one of the most respected research houses in the US, and we’re very excited that he’ll be joining us at RunRevLive.11. Mike’s a software developer himself – he holds 3 patents for inventing an expert system to train air traffic controllers that is used all around the world. He has more than 20 years’ experience in software development and architecture. Prior to Forrester Mike worked with Bank of America, as well as an independent consultant providing development, architecture and strategy services. His clients have included eBay, Fleet Bank, NASA and Thomas Publishing, to name but a few.

Mike’s focus is on application development & delivery and on User Experience.. This is a perfect fit with the theme of RunRevLive.11 where we plan to explore the exciting mobile space. Mike’s research looks primarily at the tools and practices needed to develop and deliver high-quality applications, faster – something RunRev pride themselves on with LiveCode. Take a look at his blog “The Seven Qualities of Wildly Desirable Software” to get a taste for what his talk will be like.

THE FUTURE OF MOBILE

Mike’s evening talk on Day One of RunRevLive.11 is set to be one of the highpoints of the conference. Mike is sure to be a crowd pleaser, his informative and entertaining article "Java is a Dead-End for Enterprise App Development" was Forrester’s most read blog post of 2010.

Whether you’re a hobbyist or seasoned professional, this is a great chance to hear a Senior Forrester Analyst outline where the mobile market will be going over the next few years and what strategies you need to take now to come out on top. We'll be publishing more details about his talk soon so watch this space.

The RunRevLive.11 conference is being held at the Dolce Hayes Mansion in the heart of Silicon Valley. In addition to Mike there will be a panel of LiveCode professionals giving a wide variety of lectures, workshops and speeches about how to maximize your potential in the mobile and desktop application space.

Find out more about RunRevLive.11.

How to Create Mobile Apps? LiveCode Summer Academy Shows You How in 7 Weeks

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

Are mobile apps replacing your use of the Web? For many consumers, mobile apps are their first stop for news, games, shopping, local services, social communications, photo sharing and more. Apps are the new web for many, and with hundreds of thousands of apps in the top two stores, app developers are in high demand. A quick visit to LinkedIn Groups on mobile/iOS/Android development will give you a glimpse into the opportunities that exist for app developers today. If you're looking for a future in app development, you're looking in the right place.

LiveCode has long been used as the fastest way to create apps, and our foray onto the iOS and Android platforms gives developers the fastest way to create and deploy their apps to either or both Apple's App Store and the Android Marketplace. If you've spent most of your development time on Websites or desktop software, or haven't spent any time on development at all, give us seven weeks and we'll make you a mobile app developer. Our new LiveCode Summer Academy will take you from app concept to store distribution before the heat of summer kicks in!

The LiveCode community is already creating incredible apps for mobile devices, as well as the Web and desktop platforms across Mac, PC and Linux. The topic on developers' minds at our annual RunRevLive conference last month was taking their projects mobile. We're happy to help them get there. Now how about you?

The LiveCode Summer Academy kicked off today and runs through June 27. If you missed it don't worry, all sessions are available on demand. Each week features a one-hour course on a different development topic, with opportunities to ask questions and engage with the course instructor and other developers. Even if you miss the live webinar, you can ask questions of our expert development team in the LiveCode forums.

Here's where we'll focus each week:
Week 1 - May 9 – Basic Coding
Week 2 – May 16 - Building User Interfaces
Week 3 – May 23 - Manipulating data and text
Week 4 – May 30 - Mobile Fundamentals
Week 5 – June 6 - Multimedia Concepts
Week 6 – June 13 - Using Databases
Week 7 – June 20 - Deploying to your device

As if learning mobile development skills in less than two months isn't compelling enough, we're also throwing in some great prizes to celebrate our LiveCode for Android launch last month!

Be the first to get a LiveCode-built Android app in the Marketplace and we’ll give you ou r complete LiveCode Gold license. (Includes nearly platform under the sun!)

Not fast enough to be first? Don’t worry, get your LiveCode-built app in the Android store by June 30th to be entered into our Prize Draw to win a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Double Prize Give-Away! Enter to win two fabulous tablets – iPad and Android - simply by completing the full course.

Earn points redeemable for LiveCode software and services by going deeper into the course, completing it, recommending a friend, etc.

The LiveCode Summer Academy is a FREE course with the purchase of a LiveCode license. If you don't like what you learned, we'll simply cancel your license. If you're already a LiveCode customer, you can sign up for the course for only $50 through a special registration page.

Now let's go write some apps!

LiveCode Android: Early Fan Base

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

It's only been a week since LiveCode for Android was (pre)released and already the response has been terrific. Everybody is really excited about writing cross platform apps, or leveraging existing iOS apps to the Android market for an increased revenue stream. I've been getting lots of positive feedback from journalists, emails from customers and even from twitter. My favorite response was from a customer over the phone who simply said: “Wow”. We feel the same.

Here’s what some other people said:

"This is an excellent development, made even more so in that the installation

was quick, painless and the thing just works! Thanks, LiveCode Team, another great milestone met!”

- Jim Lambert, LiveCode Customer.

You’re welcome Jim, we’ve worked really hard to make it as easy and as powerful as possible.

For anyone who struggles we have some quick and simple Android lessons to get you started.

"Now that Android is supported LiveCode looks interesting as a quick and easy route to cross-platform mobile apps"

-Tim Anderson says on his blog.

He's quite right, having a cross platform development strategy is hugely beneficial to mobile developers. RunRev are thrilled to bring you just that with LiveCode Mobile.

“The challenge has always been trying to develop for many different platforms with a single code base. They must support a rich back-end system.”

- Bola Rotibi, research director at Creative Intellect Consulting, quoted in the SD Times

LiveCode does indeed have a rich back end system that allows you to deploy to multiple devices, not just mobile, from a single codebase.

“Applications can be delivered and developed very quickly because LiveCode is a compile-free program, the application is always running even as new functionality is added, “

- Victoria Reitano, SD Times

“Also compliant with iOS, web and desktop operating systems, LiveCode is positioned as an iterative compile-free coding environment with the option to view changes in real time”

- Adrian Bridwater, Dr Dobbs

One of the best things about LiveCode is that it allows dynamic development with changes happening in real time.

“I hope to have some android apps built with LiveCode to show off at Google IO in May”

- Erik Schwartz, LiveCode Customer, via twitter

We hope Erik does too, and we’ll give him all the help we can to reach that goal.

With the rise in Android popularity and the monetization options offered by Android apps stores now is the time to get started on those Android Apps.

“It’s looking impressive for the first pre-release – well done! Looks like I’ll have to start shopping for an Android Device ”

- John Craig, LiveCode Customer.

Thanks John! We’re really proud of the new pre-release. Buying an Android device now will be a sound investment! With LiveCode for Android you’re sure to be selling Android Apps in no time.

If you haven’t tried LiveCode for Android yet don’t miss out, get it here.

LiveCode, recommended by 89% of our customers.

Meet the Team: David Williams

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

We thought it would be a nice idea for all you good folks out there to get some idea of the people behind the RunRev company, so we have invited our team members to start making blog posts here. This one is from David Williams, our newest member.

Hi! Since this is my first blog post for this, I guess I should probably introduce myself. My name is David Williams, and I have been working as a software developer for Runtime Revolution for a little over 9 months now. I personally have a huge interest in programming and computer-ish things in general, but my other interests include playing bass guitar and guitar, music in general, and gaming. Recently, I have been working on a project to deliver educational apps to children in Malawi, using mobile devices such as the iPod Touch.

The whole team has been back from the conference in California for some time now, but it still seems like we only arrived back yesterday (probably due to the mountains of work I've been working through since getting back). It was a great experience for me personally, and I met so many interesting people doing so many fascinating things, it seems a little odd all of a sudden being back in 'sunny' Edinburgh. The trip back was fairly smooth, apart from the loss of several random pieces of baggage (since returned), and damage to a G5 desktop tower that looks like it was caused by being dropped from several storeys up, then subsequently used as a landing mat.

On the bright side of being back, and returning to some semblence of a normal routine, there has been a little more time for gaming. I have spent pretty huge amounts of time recently playing and running a Minecraft server. I had a problem however, in that it was quite awkward to keep an eye on what was going on on my server while doing anything else. So, I decided to write a program to deal with this by displaying me a real time feed of my server log, and giving me growl notifications when anything interesting happens (thus making me Big Brother, and therefore the winner).

I achieved this by setting up a quick irev script on the server to copy the relevant log out of the password protected server area to a place where I could grab it with one line of code in LiveCode, for processing. After an hour and a half, the code came to a grand total of 81 lines (with whitespace), and worked pretty perfectly. Well, apart from the occasional wall of growl notifications when it decides to notify me of the contents of the entire log file, but I'm pretty sure I know why it does that now.

LiveCode 4.6.4 Released

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

Today we're thrilled to announce the release of LiveCode 4.6.4. This point release focuses on the most requested new features, fixes and enhancements that you, the customers, have asked for. We’re proud that we've been able to put out so many of these releases, which of course are free to 4.6 license holders. In particular, in this release we’ve really been able to deliver on the great feedback we get via the LiveCode Developer list. You tell us what's important to you, we listen, and we get it out there as quickly as we can in these .0X releases. This particular release brings you several much desired Server features, some really useful iOS additions, and an essential fix to the Android deployment option. Those Android guys inconsiderately updated their SDK recently and changed the file path we need to put things in. All sorted in 4.6.4.

Cookie support we know will be warmly welcomed, as well as forward compatibility with iOS 5.

We're also very pleased that in conjunction with the release, we have provided a number of new lessons showing you how to use the introduced features - there isn't a lot of point in having features that no-one can figure out how to use! Take a look at our lesson on the Multi Line Native Text for example.

You can read all about the release here:

http://www.runrev.com/products/livecode/new-in-464-/

Be sure and download the latest from your LiveCode account, and check it out for yourself!

LiveCode in The Times Educational Supplement

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

LiveCode was reviewed in the Times Education Supplement last Friday. This, just days after being shortlisted for a BETT Award, clearly reflects the emphasis we are putting into our education products and highlights the potential of LiveCode as a teaching tool.

"Complex programming languages have turned pupils off computing studies, but a user-friendly option could breathe new life into this vital area for creativity" Douglas Bane of the TES says in his article. He goes to explain how computer studies at school are teaching how to use Microsoft Office only. Or, if they are teaching programming, they are using out of date langauges like Comal or Visual Basic. He tells us that students are getting frustrated and bored and that teachers are feeling the stress. What can be done to rescue ICT curriculum?

"LiveCode is the answer" says Gracemount HighSchool teacher Steven Whyte. “It’s simple and appealing. There’s no jargon and it’s highly portable,” says Mr Whyte. “If pupils are using a Mac in school, they can email their work to a PC at home and continue working there.”

LiveCode is more than just desktop though - most students these days have a smartphone. "Designing and programmning games and apps for those will give students a real buzz" says Steven Whyte.

You can read the full article here

Smarphone Sales to Surpass 1 Billion Units in 2015

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

Worldwide sales of smart phones are expected to reach a staggering 1.1BN in 2015, according to a recent report by Gartner Inc. As early as the end of 2011 it is expected that smartphone sales will be 468 Million units, a 57.7% increase on last year. This growth should continue over the medium term culminating in the 1.1 billion units expected to be sold in 2015.

Android are expected to consolidate the dominance they set in the market at the end of 2010, growing their current 23% market share to authoritative 49% in 2015. “As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers” said Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner. “Android's position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in the mid- to low-cost smartphones, above all in emerging markets.”

Meanwhile iOS are expected to remain the second biggest platform worldwide through 2014. Without a direct competitor on its own platform, Apple will not be under pressure to reduce profit margins in favour of increasing market share. Their expected static price will result in a stagnated growth, from a 15.7% market share in 2010 to only 17.2% in 2015.

The biggest loser of market share is of course expected to be Symbian, declining from market leader last year to negligible share in 2015. Following the partnership of Microsoft and Nokia this was expected. What was less expected was who Gartner expect to pick up that share as Symbian wanes. The meteoric rise of Android will naturally account a portion of Symbian's loss, however much of it will stay within the confines of Nokia influence. Gartner expect Nokia to push Windows phone into the mid tier of its portfolio by end of 2012, driving Microsoft into a surprise second place for expected market share in 2015.

What do you think? Will the new NokSoft partnership be able to take on the might of Android and even beat iOS in the market that apple helped to define?

Get involved on our facebook page

Join Us at The Education Show

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

LiveCode is a highly effective development platform for teaching programming in Computer Studies, ICT and Computer Science courses around the world. Educators from primary/elementary schools through high school and at the university level are using LiveCode to engage their students in app development and teach them to love programming. We're excited to present LiveCode to a range of educators -- from administrators at the school district level to classroom instructors -- at The Education Show in Birmingham, UK, March 15-17. Come see us in booth E82!

We're moving forward in 2012 with a strong commitment to education. LiveCode is easy to learn, easy to teach, and the right tool to help teachers build the relevant skill-set of the future -- both in themselves, and their students. Our goal is to give educators the tools they need to inspire students to learn programming and build apps they love, and had fun building.

One of the most powerful examples of the effectiveness of LiveCode in teaching programming can be seen at Gracemount High School in Edinburgh, UK. Gracemount ICT Teacher Steven Whyte will give a 40-minute presentation at The Education Show, Saturday the 17th from 2:00-2:45 pm on his work with the platform. We'll record Steven’s session and post clips to the RunRev YouTube page after the show.

To coincide with The Education Show, we're launching a new Education Microsite to showcase the benefits of LiveCode in education. Keep an eye out for that next week. The site will include a variety of resources, case studies, videos, and pricing options – everything educators need to get started with LiveCode. We welcome your input and feedback as we develop materials and resources to support your instruction.

About The Education Show
The Education Show is the UK’s leading event in the promotion and development of all learning and teaching. The event offers seminars, workshops, training courses and over 400 leading suppliers in the education arena. More than 12, 000 education professionals attend the show, all looking for the resources and ideas they need to help pupils develop and raise standards within their schools.

We hope to see you next week!

Students around Edinburgh Ready to Dive into Programming with LiveCode

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

We are very excited to announce that East Lothian Council has adopted LiveCode with plans to deploy across all secondary schools in the Edinburgh region. This new initiative is one of the larger deployments of LiveCode in an education environment! With LiveCode, the East Lothian education authority plans to revolutionise the way computer science is taught in secondary schools by ensuring students gain a practical insight into computer studies.

East Lothian is a high-achieving education authority, with students equalling or exceededing national averages for qualifications gained in 2011 (per the Scottish Qualifications Authority). School administrators want to ensure students acquire practical skills that can be used in a commercial environment, and therefore ways to enhance their computing courses.

Jack Tennent, a computer studies teacher at Knox Academy and Preston Lodge High School, discovered LiveCode and saw its potential for helping teachers develop new course materials and teaching aids, and also for students to create apps and learn software development. He said, "The familiarity and comfort factor that young people have with mobile and computing devices means that any computer science course has to be that much more appealing and engaging if it is to be taught successfully." And LiveCode fits the bill.

Welcome to the LiveCode community, teachers, students and administrators! We're very happy to have you and look forward to seeing your projects emerge in the coming months!

LiveCode has the answer to Dr. Dobb's Android Vs iOS Dilemma

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

Adrian Bridgewater from Dr Dobb's outlines the new dilemma for mobile developers: with the growth of Android and the entrenchment of iOS how do you know who to develop for?

"For one British software development company, the answer seems to be: Do both." With the launch of LiveCode for Android this week, to compliment our hugely successful LiveCode for iOS deployment pack, developers no longer need to chose between platforms; LiveCode's MultiPlatform Mobile deployment empowers developers to "tap into the lucrative apps market" - both Android and iOS, with a write once, deploy anywhere model. This means that "developers can create apps for Android and then port them to the iOS platform without recoding.... development time can be dramatically shortened."

This announcement was greeted with excitement and applause by developers at RunRevLive.11 - LiveCode developers and new LiveCode users are as excited as we are about leveraging the growth of Android while at the same time deploying to the already hugely successful iOS market.

Developing for Android phones and tablets? You'll love LiveCode 5.5

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

Developing for Android just got a lot more exciting! Welcome LiveCode 5.5, available today with more than 15 new features that will punch up your Android and iOS apps. You will now experience native browser control, text field enhancements, push notifications, GPS and a slew of other benefits. Time to bring your Android apps to new heights!

This release features a major rework of the field objects across all platforms. You can create sophisticated text with most of the features of a modern word processing app. Paragraph styles give you control over formatting on a per paragraph basis, along with powerful new options for accessing and formatting text, a scriptable spelling underline, hierarchical lists, and the ability to embed tables.

We’ve been listening to your feature requests and trying to prioritize our updates accordingly. Whether you’re developing for mobile, web or desktop, LiveCode 5.5 will help you make your apps more engaging and exciting.

Quick snapshot of what's new:

Native browser control

Push Notifications

In App Advertising

Compass

Gyroscope

Modal pick wheel support

Date picker support

Multi-channel sound

Busy indicators

Local notifications

Custom URL schemes

Vibrate

Beep

Text messaging

As always, pricing begins at $99 for a single seat license and it's available online now. Your killer app is only a click away! Have fun!

Getting Started With Elanor

Arnaud Bouchot — Mon, 01 Jan 1900 00:00:00 GMT

A lot of effort has gone into the LiveCode 5 release, and the limelight so far has fallen on the new hardware acceleration and graphics rendering speed. The new engine features are very exciting, but to my mind almost as important are the new learning materials we've been producing.

Features are only as useful as your ability to use them. That's why I'm delighted that Elanor Buchanan has spent the last couple of months working on a brand new set of Getting Started videos. Whether you've only just come across LiveCode, or you've been using it for a while but are still a bit hazy on some of the basics, this course is invaluable. You don't have to watch it from A-Z if you just want a refresh on a particular area. For example, if you are already confident with manipulating Data and Text, but you are unsure how to get your data into and out of a database, skip right ahead to Lesson 5, Using Databases.

If you are a complete beginner this course is a fantastic way to hit the ground running. Download the lesson materials and work along with the videos. Start with a tour of LiveCode, then build your interface. Learn to manipulate data and text, skin your app, use databases and finally deploy the app to the Mac, Windows and Linux desktop platforms, plus iOS and Android.

With a bit of attention and application, you should end up with your first sample app with miminal effort and just a few hours of your time. Let's hear it for Elanor, and her clear, easy explanations of the basics of application development. An added bonus is listening to what has been described as "her charming scottish accent". Thanks Elanor!

Company News

2012 Jolt Awards: Mobile Tools

Finalist: RunRev LiveCode

New RunRev Blog Launched

Launch of Embedded LiveCode

LiveCode 5.5.1 with In-App Ad Partnership

5 out of 5 from Macworld

An Update from AnDevCon III

Some Updates from the Malawi Project

LiveCode Small Business App Academy Update

LiveCode Teacher Training Day in Edinburgh

LiveCode Created App is no. 1 Hottest Educational App on iTunes

How to teach programming to students today

Extensive Cross Platform Dev Tools Report Featuring LiveCode

LiveCode Meetup during MacWorld - January 27, San Francisco

LiveCode Built App in Mobile Apps Showdown

LiveCode 5.0.2 available

LiveCode Game Academy in the Media

Vision Mobile Cross Platform Development Tool Survey

RunRev at AnDevCon

RunRev Out and About

LiveCode 5 Unleashed

LiveCode.tv

Let's Talk iPhone

Meet the Team: Ben Beaumont - LiveCode Product Manager

Can Amazon ignite competition in the tablet market

Appropriate IT Skills for the Modern Workplace

Google Wallet to lead NFC payments

Meet the Team: Hanson Schmidt-Cornelius

LiveCode Academy Learn to Make Mobile Apps

iPhone 5 what you can expect

Meet the Team: Neil Roger

The End of An Era - Steve Jobs Retires

Strong Employment Growth for Mobile App Developers

Google Buys Motorola - what does it mean for developers

Meet the Team: Elanor Buchanan

Clarify Making Communications Clearer. Built with LiveCode

How Clarify Works

Capture images

Turn them into communications

Share online or via email.

Built with LiveCode

Stay Organized

Be Brief

Be Clear

Why choose LiveCode?

The Simplicity Paradox

The Apple iCloud LogoLooking at it you would be forgiven for thinking “I could do that, I’ve been drawing clouds since kindergarden”.

Android Jobs to Surpass iPhone jobs by end of 2012

LiveCode 4.6.3 launched

Save on AnDevCon with RunRev

Meet the Team: Mark Taoilinn

Go native with iOS and LiveCode

Externals support – call native APIs and write your own added functionality.

New Plug-in brings native look and feel – free for one month

First Review of LiveCode Summer Academy

Meet the Team: Heather Nagey

From Cheetah to Lion; LiveCode and Mac OS X.

Geek it up - Geek Pride Give Away

A Passion for Data

Jigsaw Puzzle App Built in 10 Hours at RunRevLive.11

Winner of the iPad2 give away with LiveCode 4.6

LiveCode #1 Cross-Platform Mobile IDE in survey by DevProConnection

LiveCode 4.6 Not Just Another Number

American Heart Association, American Academey of HIV Medicine app made with LiveCode

Android Welcomed to LiveCode Family!

"Whatever software you want to create, LiveCode will make it possible" - MacUser Magazine, Editor's Choice

BuildAnApp: Day 3 & 4: Optimizing

BuildAnApp: Day 2: Design

BuildAnApp: Day 1: The idea

LiveCode Development Pack for iOS released today - A new, unique opportunity for iOS application developers

LiveCode BuildAnApp Showcase 2010

Apple relaxes rules for Enterprise; competition in the tablet space

LiveCode 4.5.1 released today - minor new features and stability improvements

RunRevLive.11: Call for Speakers, Show off your Apps!

RunRevLive.11: Early Registration Benefits

LiveCode applications accepted in iOS App Store

Apple's New Mac App Store - A Resurgence for Desktop Apps?

RunRevLive.11 Conference Dates Announced

Progress on Apple app store submission

The Apple iCloud Logo

Looking at it you would be forgiven for thinking “I could do that, I’ve been drawing clouds since kindergarden”.