Last Saturday, March 17th, the Tampa Bay art community gathered with the whole team from HD Interactive to celebrate the launch of our iPad App, Artbook Tampa Bay at the Studio@620 in downtown St. Petersburg.  We had a such great time meeting all the artists and checking out their fantastic work!

We invited all 86 artists in Artbook to display and hang one piece of their work. To our delight, we had over 80 artists attendance! The show was an 80-artist, 80-piece event, transforming the parking lot next to Studio@620 into an amazing display of art, music and people. At 5pm, artists were invited to come early and enjoy beverages while hanging their work, checking out the work of others, and getting a special preview of Artbook Tampa Bay, which will be available in the iTunes store this week.  We were also proud to show off Artbook Archive Lite, available on iTunes now.  This app is a smaller, free version of Artbook Archive and is meant to give people a taste of the Artbook experience.

By 7pm, the party was in full swing! Throughout the night, more than 600 people came out to show their support and celebrate with us. Much of the art on display was for sale and we are happy to say that several pieces sold!

As the sun went down, we turned on the projectors, provided by local lighting powerhouse, Industrial Strength, to showcase all the work in Artbook on a huge scale! Art covered walls 30 feet high and 100 feet long. The display attracted dozens of downtown passers by, curious to what was happening.

It was wonderful for us to get to meet and talk with the tremendously gifted artists who were included in the book and get to see their work first hand.  We would also like to thank Nick Hinckley of Realizing Media and all the folks at Studio@620 for help in putting on this event for us. We are already working on Artbook Tampa Bay Vol. 2  and many other Artbooks that will be announced later.  To learn more, check out Artbook Archive.

Below is a video of the event, taken as artists were coming in early to set up the show.

The book features high definition images of some of the fantastic folk art created in the sixteen years that Creative Clay has been servicing the St. Petersburg community.  Chief Strategy Officer at HDI, Kevin Hohl, who volunteers as a board member at Creative Clay, thought creating the iPad book would be a great way to increase awareness of the program.

We developed the Creative Clay book as a pro bono project and all proceeds go to help fund Creative Clay.  Please check it out in the app store and enjoy the beautiful work of tremendously gifted artists while supporting a great cause!  To learn more about the wonderful work Creative Clay does, visit their website www.creativeclay.org.

We completed a prototype of artists and artworks, listed out submissions guidelines, and then built the “Submission” page on our website to make an easy, streamlined application for artists. This launched yesterday and we want to invite you to take part in this special project!

If you are a local Tampa Bay artist and would like your work to be available in the iTunes store, accessed by people all over the world, please visit http://www.hdinteractive.com/artbooktampabay for more information and to submit your work.

Apple TV

This little gadget is only $99 with free shipping.  Hook it up to your TV, and you can wirelessly log into your iTunes account and watch shows, movies, and more.  And now, iPad2 and iPhone 4S users can use AirPlay Mirroring to wirelessly stream videos on your iPad or iPhone directly to the big screen, even if you rotate your phone or zoom in and out.  Apple TV makes it easy to stream Netflix or watch videos on Vimeo or YouTube as well.

Price: $99

WD TV

A competitor of Apple TV, WD TV is nice if you have a lot of digital movie files in a variety of formats, while also getting Netflix and a bunch of other cool digital media tools in one little box that you hook to your TV / entertainment system.  If you have the room, I also recommend a projector to enhance the viewing experience. Your tech friend will love creating their own in-home theater!

Price: Depending on the system you choose, this gift will run anywhere from $89.99 – $129.99

Mac Mini

Speaking of cool entertainment toys, if you have a nice TV or projector with HDMI, I also recommend hooking up a Mac Mini with a wireless keyboard and trackpad to your TV. My family and I have made great use of ours. When you use the computer as much as we do, there are times when you just wish you could put a particular streaming video, website, or something else on your TV. With an iPad 2 and Apple TV, you don’t need the computer as much as you used to to stream great content to your TV (or play Angry Birds on a big screen).

Price: From $599

Fun Flash Drive

These little portable drives make great stocking stuffers. Amazon.com has a huge assortment of cool flash drives, including animals and Star Wars characters.  We love R2D2!

Price: $19.99

AR.Drone Parrot

Though it’s a year old now, I still think this quadro-copter is super cool!  Your loved one will love flying it indoors and out, all controlled with their iPhone, iPod, or Android phone.  Two onboard cameras stream to your phone as well, giving you views in front of and below the Parrot! Available on Amazon.com.

Price: $299.95

Solio Bolt Solar Charger

Help stave off the dead battery blues with a solar charger.  The Solio Bolt Charger uses solar power to charge batteries in all types of USB-connecting devices like phones, iPods, cameras, and more.

Price: $65

Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet

Techies love the latest and greatest in technology gadgets.  Surprise them with the new Kindle Fire coming to Amazon on November 15^th (available now for pre-order). The tablet offers a full color, 7” multi-touch screen and comes WiFi ready.

Price: $199

GoPro Camera

This camera is so small and versatile, you can do almost anything with it. Our lead developer loves his, using it to film surf sessions, wake boarding, skateboarding, and even scuba diving. It’s easy to use and customize with different lenses and accessories and a plethora of nifty mounting possibilities (including helmet mounts, surfboard mounts, wrist mounts, poles, chest mounts, and more). Video can be uploaded to a computer and easily manipulated to create time lapses, stills, and more. Your technology-savvy friend will have a great time finding uses for this handy little camera. And the accessories make great stocking stuffers!

Price: $149.99 – $299.99

 Gift Cards

If you’re still not sure what gift will please, grab a gift card and let them choose their perfect gift.  Amazon.com is a great, versatile card that allows them to buy almost anything.  An iTunes gift card gives them the option of purchasing movies, music, games or even digital magazines.  Or consider Panera or Starbucks.  These places offer free WiFi, and your friend or family member can enjoy a nice coffee or snack while working remotely.

Price:  Any

Day 1

The conference started with a keynote focusing on the new Creative Cloud, Adobe Touch Apps, Typekit, and Digital Publishing. Some of our developer friends thought it was too design-centric and focused too much on designers, but day two brought more developer topics.  Watch the keynote below:

Creative Cloud sounded super interesting.  You can learn more about the product by clicking here or watch the video below:

Adobe’s Julieanne Kost has a great blog with information and videos detailing Adobe Touch Apps for iPad and Android tablets.  Check that out here: http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2011/10/announcing-adobe-touch-apps.html

Adobe also announced the acquisition of Typekit. Typekit.com is an excellent, affordable resource for web designers to embed custom fonts from the cloud.   Click here to read an excellent blog about Typekit.

We love Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite and now see great applications for ourselves and our clients using the new ‘single edition’ feature.  Read more about it here.

In the afternoon, I attended a session about an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) by MIT, called Vanished. I’ve been a big fan of ARG’s for a few years and will produce one someday. You can read about Vanished here: http://vanished.mit.edu/about or watch the session below:

Day 2

I was really excited to see that some of our apps were featured on the big screen and at the Adobe booth and lounge, shown in the picture here.

Flex developers creating iOS and Android apps, definitely want to learn about and start using AIR Native Extensions.  Watch the video below for more:

In the evening of day two, we attended the Award and Sneaks hosted by Rainn Wilson. View a list of the award winners here. Click here to read a nice blog post about the sneaks. Rainn Wilson was hilarious and some of the sneaks were amazing! Here is a collection of videos of the sneaks and here is a video that featured our game, Pyramix!

After the awards and sneaks, Adobe hosted an awesome outdoor party that included the band Weezer, candy world, LA food trucks, free alcohol, hanging out with lots of Adobe folks including: Greg Wilson, Holly Schinsky, Christophe Conreats, Michael Chaize, and Piotr Wierzgala.

 Day 3

On day three, I went to a session by Sanjay Patel from Pixar on storytelling.  Later I attended a session called ‘Designing game interfaces’ that you can watch below:

Whether you’re an author, book lover, or casual reader, our latest published iPad app, Autography, is big news for you!

As an author, picture reaching out to your readers no matter where they are and connecting with people you otherwise never could have.  Autography can do that!

Imagine attending your favorite author’s book signing from 1,000 miles away. Thanks to Autography, you can purchase your eBook straight from your favorite author with an included personalized signature page and receive it in seconds any time of day, no matter where you are!

The Autography app works on all eReader platforms by inserting a blank page into an eBook that authors can customize with an image or logo.  Authors can then sign that page, creating a personal keepsake for the reader. Once complete, the author emails the reader a link to download the book with the personalized picture and signature included. Readers can easily share these pages on Facebook and Twitter with the click of a button.

This project encouraged us to learn and use new technologies necessary for conveying accurate signatures and branded pages to any eBook format.

If you’re an author and you want to use Autography to reach out to your readers, you can download the app on iTunes.  Readers can contact their favorite authors and request signed eBooks or encourage them to download Autography on iTunes now! You can learn more at www.Autography.com.

Check out this recent testimonial from an author using Autography: http://jonfmerz.net/2011/10/14/autographed-ebooks-and-more/!

We also took the time to collect a huge range of stats (stored locally), that allows the user to make bigger words, score more points, and compare stats with fellow players.

I’m also very proud ofthe thoughtful work of our design team.  The eye-catching visuals and rich sub-aquatic sounds are very impressive and let you escape into the game.

Check out the trailer, featuring a scenic view of the St Petersburg waterfront:

Download today and let us know your thoughts!  We always appreciate your feedback.

Kung Fu Battle Slots, released only last week, is super fun and we have high hopes for it.  Pyramix and Mr. Mixit are two of the most popular games we’ve made, and they are available on multiple platforms. People are also having a great time  insulting their friends, impressing the opposite sex, and communicating while abroad.

Thanks to everyone for helping make our games and apps successful!  We hope you will continue to enjoy everything we produce and share with your friends!

Our creative team has truly outdone themselves by crafting rich, authentic Kung Fu graphics and original music. Another unique feature is the two-player, head-to-head mode. There aren’t a lot of two-player one, device games, so we thought it might be fun to share gaming experiences with a friend. You’ll also like the one-player mode with A.I. features that get better/worse as the user does.

In KFBS, we meshed a slot machine game with the card game War, to create this fast-paced action/reflex game.  Players must attack, block and death-match opponents to win a seven round slot battle.  With the win comes bragging rights, and that’s always more fun when you can see the look on your opponent’s face.

To promote the game, we created two fun YouTube trailers.  Watch them now and tell us which is your favorite! Share the fun with your friends!