document.write('\x3cmeta http-equiv=\x22x-dns-prefetch-control\x22 content=\x22off\x22/\x3e\x3col class=\x22tumblr_posts\x22\x3e\x0a    \x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_text_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_title\x22\x3eDiscontinuing Last Concerts\x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_body\x22\x3e\x0a                    \x3cp\x3eThere are two projects that I hope to finish in this year. Both of them are top secret. Just kidding, of course. I am a believer of the idea that ideas are not valuable as such, and the worth of it is mostly in the execution of them.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eBut that does not mean that it is a good idea to just announce every idea in the open from the moment you start working on it.\u00a0My friend T. kept his iOS-project secret for a long time. I thought it was silly until he told me why he did it.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eHe feared that if he started talking about it and started listening to the feedback others would give he would start doubting. Doubting if he was capable of delivering the product he had in mind. Doubting if it would be the success he envisioned for it. That doubt would soon start nibbling away at his enthusiasm.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eSo better not to talk too much about my plans. The first product I am working on, however, is one that I am not afraid to talk about:\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cblockquote\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eI plan to relaunch Last Concerts, under a new name.\u00a0As from this week Last Concerts is not on the App Store anymore.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3c/blockquote\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eThe goal is for the new iPhone app to be available somewhere in March. It will offer all of the same functions and a little more. More than that, it will be better. A lot better.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                \x3c/div\x3e\x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_text_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_title\x22\x3e2012 - A New Challenge\x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_body\x22\x3e\x0a                    \x3cp\x3eIn the end one grows tired of all the motivational texts that reach you through social media. You know the inspirational mantras that people like to spread while doing a daytime job they do not care much about. \x26#8220;Look yourself in the mirror every day and wonder if this is what you really want to do\x26#8221;. \x26#8220;Fail, fail again, fail better\x26#8221;. \x26#8220;Your ideas are only worth so much, the real value is in the execution\x26#8221;. And so on.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eMaybe it was all this cheap philosophy that got my head spinning, but in the end of 2011 I took a risk. I did not prolong my contract at NiXPS and decided to spend time on personal projects. There are projects that I want to realize and that I can not combine with a full time contract. Some of them I will concentrate on in 2012.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3e\x3ca href=\x22http://nixps.com/\x22\x3eNiXPS\x3c/a\x3e will thrive without me, I am sure. It has been a good five years there, and we built something that will prosper. Nick is a good manager and remains a good friend and I will miss his daily presence in my life. But I want to concentrate on other things for a while now.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eThere is only so much I can do with the money I saved. I will try to economize on my spendings and will maybe search for external funding, even though I am weary of the idea. In the end I will tie the knots together with consulting jobs, doing iOS development or other programming that makes me enough money to live of. It will be an adventure, that\x26#8217;s for sure.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eWhatever will happen in 2012, it will sure be an interesting year. Happy New Year!\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                \x3c/div\x3e\x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_text_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_title\x22\x3eIs There A Future For Last.fm?\x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_body\x22\x3e\x0a                    \x3cp\x3eIt has been clear for a while now that getting the dollars of the music lovers on the internet is a war being fought on two fronts. There are streaming services like Spotify on one end and there is the iTunes digital Music Store on the other end. So far the latter has been the one pushing boundaries but it looks like the action is moving towards the streaming services.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eiTunes is now in the defensive corner. With iCloud Apple has been forced to enter the cloud terrain, a terrain where it is inexperienced and hardly comfortable. With iTunes Ping Apple has shown that it is capable of failing in ventures like that. The imagination to deliver the amazing experience usually associated with Apple\x26#8217;s devices has obviously been lacking in Ping. I would not bet my money that iTunes Match is going to be a game changer either. This service puts all your previously \x26#8220;legally\x26#8221; purchased music in their cloud and provides you with a DRM\x26#8217;ed version of it for a measly 25$ per year.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eNow Facebook is entering the battlefield. Whether they participate in this race as a hobby or are there to win remains to be seen, but it looks that their collaboration with Spotify and other streaming services puts them in pole position either way. The tight collaboration with these services will make sure Facebook will have a big part of the data of your future listening habits.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eApple joining forces with Facebook is not very probable to happen in the near future, so how they will tackle the social part of music remains a big open question. But as for delivering music to users, they have a head start. They have deals for the biggest collection of music and manufacture the most popular devices that this music is going to be played upon. Not any streaming service is going to match their experience anytime soon.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eWhat about Last.fm? Their position in this race would be the one of the driver that was promising to catch the lead, never did and now has a hard time staying in the race. Their integration with iTunes has never been tight and still isn\x26#8217;t. Scrobbling requires installing extra add-ons which most users don\x26#8217;t even know exist. The pay wall looks like a gamble that lost them a lot of users. The user experience on the social network part of Last.fm is more than three years behind Facebook and the user base of Facebook is something Last.fm can only dream of.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eIf streaming services take off they will also loose a big part of the scrobbles. As all of their business has been built around that data this will most probably mean game over for them. How can they turn their fate around?\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eMe, I am a fan of Last.fm. I can criticize it for not being good enough or for not moving fast enough, but the core idea of a social network dedicated to music lovers, much like LinkedIn is a social network for professionals is valuable. On top of that Last.fm is a big wiki of data about music, all of which comes under a \x3ca href=\x22http://www.last.fm/help/gfdl\x22\x3eliberal creative commons license\x3c/a\x3e. What is there not to like?\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eThere are still opportunities. Consider the difference between music lovers and people that listen to music. As there are gamers and people that occasionally play games, as there are amateur photographers and people that occasionally post photos on a website there is a group of people that wants to take their interest further than most other people do.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eFacebook wants to do everything and in that also lies its weakness. What I would immensely care about is a social network where I can connect with people that are like-minded about music and that social circle will at best only partially overlap with the people I know on Facebook.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eThere is a need for a dedicated social network, like LinkedIn and Flickr. Yet even the biggest music lovers amongst my friends stay on Facebook and have only a vague interest in Last.fm. That is where Last.fm is missing the boat. Those are the hearts and minds that need to be conquered as quickly as possible.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eThis might be too big a shift in focus for a company like Last.fm to take. They pertain to CBS now, and a major commercial television network does not strike me as an structure that will welcome new directions away from pop culture and big dollars.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eBut things are moving quickly, my guess is that we will find out soon enough.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3e\x3cem\x3eThis article was inspired by this \x3ca href=\x22http://evolver.fm/2011/10/31/developers-will-have-access-to-facebook-listening-habits/\x22\x3eexcellent post on evolver.fm\x3c/a\x3e\x3c/em\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                \x3c/div\x3e\x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_text_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_title\x22\x3eBack To Cursing\x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_body\x22\x3e\x0a                    \x3cp\x3eMy story about Steve Jobs is not all that spectacular. I wasn\x26#8217;t going to write it at first, but yet here I am. I guess I have to admit that I will miss the world I used to know, the world in which he was present, more than I thought I would.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eWhen I started my first job it was a programmer\x26#8217;s job on Mac OS at a company called Artwork Systems. They were among the first companies that ported their code from the 68K to the PowerPC and claimed in their folder that it as a technical feat to accomplish.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eWhat did I know? I was a freshman from university and eager to have a job. In university I had used all sorts of operating systems, especially in my last year, where I spent time abroad using whatever computer terminal I could find available to finish the tasks I had been assigned to do. There were all sorts of Unix systems and sometimes there was even a Windows computer.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eBecause of that I was able to adapt to a new system quite easily. I also had the basic programming skills necessary, so I got the job. I ended up in a small company with 5 computer engineers, all of which were Mac fans. And the Mac was, as \x3ca href=\x22http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits/2011/10/steve-jobs-a-personal-remembrance.ars\x22\x3eSiracusa\x3c/a\x3e said, in the ropes. It did not look like it would survive another 5 years so we started thinking about porting code to Windows.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eThen came the point where Steve Jobs came back to Apple. To me he was just a name, but to the developers around me he was God. Even then. I distinctly remember the twinkling light in the eyes of an older colleague of mine. This would get Apple back on track. I was surprised and in disbelief that a rational being like my colleague could actually believe that one guy could turn around a big company that easily. I thought of him as an old nostalgic fool that is about to get disappointed. But it was I, the youngster, that was about to be set straight.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eNot much more than a year after that the first product from the \x26#8220;new\x26#8221; Apple arrived in our offices. The \x3cem\x3eiconic\x3c/em\x3e iMac, that came in different candy colors got everybody enthusiastic again. Not only the computer engineers, but the secretary and the people in the accounting department. The women! That was unheard of, women being enthusiastic about a computer.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eSuddenly it seemed that the fact that you had to restart your Mac every other hour or so did not matter anymore. This was not a great device, but it was a beautiful one and it seduced everybody. It opened my eyes to the fact that I had been using uninspiring beige boxes. I had not noticed that the computers I loved already were too ugly to be loved by other people. By normal people. Now I did.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eAnd then came, year after year, new products and iterations of products, some revolutionary and some failures. When Mac OS X was introduced I found back my old love for the Terminal in a computer that was beautiful to look at and also easy to use. I guess that is where I flipped from being an avid user to being a fan.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eWhen the iPhone got introduced I was happy to finally have someone that is trying to kick the collective butt of telcos. Finally there was a phone that I \x3cem\x3ewanted\x3c/em\x3e to use, not just some piece of crap that I put up with and throw away when it\x26#8217;s broken. I was not confident that the iPhone would become a big success, but I was rooting for it, heavily, and here we are.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eThat is what I will miss the most: the fact that there is someone that has the power, the charisma and the will to kick established butts. The printer industry could use some butt kicking. The banks could use some butt kicking. The publishing industry is getting some butt kicking as we speak, as is the music industry.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eIt seemed that if Steve took you on, your con game was over. They say Apple was the greatest product he made, and it will thrive even without him. I\x26#8217;m pessimistic about that. As I see things, if Steve asked Tim to walk around one day on the Apple campus, on hands and legs and barking like a dog, Tim would have done it on a whiff. If Tim asks Ive to do such thing, I\x26#8217;m sure some egos will start to get hurt.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3ePeople are people and without a great leader they believe in, it becomes a play of human emotions. Power games will start, compromises will be made and wrong decisions will be pushed. It\x26#8217;s the way things go in the absence of religion.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eSteve Jobs was the personification of that religion, the True Great Undisputable Leader, and Apple will evolve back to an ordinary company without him. We won\x26#8217;t see it tomorrow and we won\x26#8217;t see it next month. There are brilliantly functioning teams at Apple that have ideas and prototypes and roadmaps for a couple of years to come, and they will produce excellent output for a while still. It\x26#8217;s after that that we as outsiders will see the results of the crumbling that is starting now.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eSo this is where we are. It feels like the speed at which the universe is expanding was bigger last week than it is now. It is a matter of time before the universe stops expanding, and starts contracting.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eAs to Steve, he can do no wrong no more. He is like Kurt Cobain: he died on a peak and we are unable to see if the road with him would have lead us towards higher peaks or towards a valley. We will assume there is an unexplored and forever unreachable mountain range after that horizon where paradise is and that he would have lead us there.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eThat we must remain here, without him, is an ill fate to carry. With printers that don\x26#8217;t work and banks that go bankrupt and no hope for a quick fix. We\x26#8217;re back to cursing instead of wishing. And to fix things ourselves, the best we can.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3e\x3ciframe width=\x22420\x22 height=\x22315\x22 src=\x22http://www.youtube.com/embed/g55Rnc92KWI\x22 frameborder=\x220\x22 allowfullscreen\x3e\x3c/iframe\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                \x3c/div\x3e\x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_text_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_title\x22\x3eTrying to boost the sales\x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_body\x22\x3e\x0a                    \x3cp\x3ePeople ask: what are the sales of \x3ca href=\x22http://www.lastconcerts.com/\x22\x3eLast Concerts\x3c/a\x3e like? The answer basically is: \x3cem\x3edepressing\x3c/em\x3e. Let me be blunt about it. Since the launch of version 2.0, now one month ago, I have been selling \x3cstrong\x3e17 copies\x3c/strong\x3e. That makes that Apple owes me 18.05 euros according to iTunes Connect. Party time.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eSurely I am doing a lot of things wrong. It can\u2019t be just one thing, right?\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eMy guess as a programmer is always that my program is not good enough, but this time that can\u2019t be it. Bad programs still get downloaded and then cursed upon and receive bad reviews. I have two extremely positive reviews on the App Store. It is because good friends wrote them (without even trying the application). The \x3ca href=\x22http://pocketfullofapps.com/2011/09/13/app-spotlight-last-concerts.html\x22\x3eone review that appeared on the web\x3c/a\x3e was moderately positive as well.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eNo, if my program was bad but the promise was good it should have downloads, the website should have a decent number of hits and I should get feedback. None of that is happening, so that is not it.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eMaybe people just don\u2019t find it? Looking on the App Store I see that Last Concerts is getting buried in tons and tons of music related applications and you have to search for \u201clast.fm\u201d before it gets to a visible position in your search results. That is probably not a good situation to be in.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eSo what I started doing is actively go out to where the users are. I have been emailing (spamming if you want) users on Last.fm about Last Concerts. It is the only means I have as Last.fm does not allow for paid applications to be entered on their \x3ca href=\x22http://build.last.fm/\x22\x3eown showcase website\x3c/a\x3e.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eSo far the feedback from that has been positive. I was afraid that people would come back at me aggressively, saying I am a spammer (which in this case I am, albeit on a very small scale), but no: they love the online demo and they are trying out the app.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eSo I will be patient and wait for their feedback. In the mean time I will continue my dreaded marketing campain. It is a little challenge I set for myself and I am not giving up yet.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                \x3c/div\x3e\x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_text_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_title\x22\x3eLast Concerts 2.0 Released\x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_body\x22\x3e\x0a                    \x3cp\x3eSo I released \x3ca href=\x22http://www.lastconcerts.com/\x22\x3eLast Concerts 2.0\x3c/a\x3e. It is on the iTunes store, the website has been updated and I am trying to create some buzz about this release. Doing the press release dance, adding a \x3ca href=\x22https://www.facebook.com/pages/Last-Concerts/241506069225599?sk=wall\x22\x3eFacebook page\x3c/a\x3e and \x3ca href=\x22http://vimeo.com/28359680\x22\x3eshareable videos\x3c/a\x3e and all that bonanza.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eThis is the part of the job that I have neglected with previous versions and am determined not to neglect this time around. As a matter of fact, I have set myself a minimum number of sales that I have to reach before I will start programming again.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eReal programming I mean by that. Of course there will be bugs to fix. I know some already, and I am sure initial user testing will bring up loads more. Hopefully they will not be too embarrassing, and hopefully I will be able to fix them soon enough.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x0a\x3cp\x3eSo I hope to reach that number of sales I have in my head ASAP. I will not get rich from it, but I will be able to start programming again. There are still so many features that I have in my mind that would make this app from good to great to perfect. And this will sound cheesy but I mean it: being able to program on Last Concerts makes me feel rich already.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                \x3c/div\x3e\x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_link_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x3ca href=\x22http://www.markj.net/hjcache-iphone-image-cache/\x22 class=\x22tumblr_link\x22 \x3eHJCache\x3c/a\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_description\x22\x3e\x0a                        \x3cp\x3eThis is good stuff. If you want to put images in your UITableViews, you need this.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                    \x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_link_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x3ca href=\x22http://www.significantpixels.com/2011/04/04/the-iphone-tab-bar/\x22 class=\x22tumblr_link\x22 \x3eThe iPhone Tab Bar\x3c/a\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_description\x22\x3e\x0a                        \x3cp\x3eInteresting thoughts about the design of iPhone tab bars.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                    \x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_link_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x3ca href=\x22http://www.inappsettingskit.com/\x22 class=\x22tumblr_link\x22 \x3eInAppSettingsKit\x3c/a\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_description\x22\x3e\x0a                        \x3cp\x3eFeatured in 321Run, looks like a cool framework.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                    \x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a\x0a        \x0a            \x3cli class=\x22tumblr_post tumblr_link_post\x22\x3e\x0a                \x3ca href=\x22http://mur.mu.rs/\x22 class=\x22tumblr_link\x22 \x3eAppsterdam\x3c/a\x3e\x0a                \x0a                \x0a                    \x3cdiv class=\x22tumblr_description\x22\x3e\x0a                        \x3cblockquote\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eWhen a community settles down, the world takes notice\x3c/p\x3e\x0a\x3c/blockquote\x3e\x0a\x3cp\x3eGreat idea. Let\x26#8217;s hope it works out.\x3c/p\x3e\x0a                    \x3c/div\x3e\x0a                \x0a            \x3c/li\x3e\x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a        \x0a\x0a                        \x0a    \x0a\x3c/ol\x3e');