A quick post to let you all know that the Iphone application has been submitted to Apple. We keep our fingers crossed that it will be accepted before the NFL season starts.
We will keep you all posted! Thank you to all our testers who've been so helpful in this long process!
We've released some improvements on the Oleboo web application which makes Oleboo the perfect companion on your Ipad or laptop while watching a game on TV!
First of all, we've improved the feed itself: it is now real time, we added the time stamps, and all the commenting is done directly from that screen. We also added the number of points each shout give you. As you know, with Oleboo, you don't earn points based only on what you're doing. You earn points if other people do similar things than you. It's like being in a real crowd. You clap alone, you look like crazy. But if everybody claps with you, it's awesome!
Secondly, and thanks to Charlie, we added some stats on the right side of the screen. OK, the format is not ideal right now (we're improving that right now), but it helps you see how many boos and oles each team got (and you'd better be pissed off if your team has less oles than its opponent!). It also shows you your personal stats. There's a lot more to come in that space in the weeks ahead.
Thirdly, we now have a real time leaderboard so you can keep track of where everybody else is. For the purist, we also changed the icons (based on your feedback) and made them much more "button" like. And finally, in case you comment while you shout, your comment will now appear first, and then shout second.
That's all for now - we're back to work. We have some great announcements coming soon, so stay tuned!
Looks like Apple is trying to patent Iphone app in the travel, hotel and high fashion shopping category. This is really, really scary in my opinion. Note that I'm not a lawyer, and therefore I'm not an expert in this field.
I totally understand why you would patent a technology, but I don't understand why a "service" would be patented. It's basically killing competition, and therefore will hurt what matters the most: the user experience.
I have no problem with competition. I actually like it, and I usually take it as a good sign when several entrepreneurs try to have a go at the same market. If you're alone at doing what you do, there may be something wrong with it. What's great with competition is that it forces you to differentiate, to be smarter, and at the end of the day, the one(s) with the better user experience will win.
Because that's really what it's all about: user experience. Patenting a service means you don't want other people to provide this service. But what are you really afraid of? What is Apple really afraid of here? That someone will create a better travel service? Well, yeah! That's the whole purpose of a platform and a developer community.
Apple is playing evil here, and it could get quite ugly.
We've had a great FIFA World Cup with lof of feedback from all of you. We've been hard at work in the past 4 weeks to implement as much as we could and prepare for the launch of the BETA version of Oleboo. We're currently expecting the BETA to be out mid august, just in time for the NFL regular season, the european soccer leagues and the MLB playoffs!
So what's in this BETA?
Well, first of all, the Iphone app. The original idea behind Oleboo was mainly centered around mobile phones. Reality and practicality pushed us to launch a web app first to make sure we could put it in your hands as soon as possible, but we've been testing the app for the past month or so, and we feel pretty good about it. If you want to help us test it, just send me your UDID ([email protected]) and I will create a build for you.
Second, a redesign of the web app. As some of you know (and you're still laughing about it!), we've put the web site together super quickly, which forced me to use my good old html 3.2 skills. We've had some helps from friends who tried to make things look better (thanks Carrie and Louis!), but the task was way too big :). So we've now hired a real & talented front end expert (hello Christopher!) who's going to make all this look better. Here's a sneak peak of what you can expect. As usual, do not hesitate to send us your feedback!
We've also started to improve the in app experience (that's how we call the screen you use to boo or ole teams during a game). As you know, we've added Twitter noise (a feed of all tweets about the game you're watching), but we're also testing a real time feed of oleboo. No need to reload anymore to know what's going on. There are still some frontend glitches with what's currently live, but we'll fix all that in the new design. In the meantime, you can still try it and let us know how it goes.
We have more surprises in this BETA launch, and I want to keep some quiet to create a tiny bit of "amazement" (can you actually say that?) in 3 weeks.
Thanks for all your feedback and support. It means the world to us, and we really hope you'll have fun using Oleboo.