Why Apple’s Force Touch technology was Monday’s most interesting announcement

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There was a lot of interesting aspects to Apple’s Monday keynote. The Apple Watch is compelling, although I still have not decided if the first generation is for me. The new Macbook is exciting. The only thing we ever plug into our family laptop is the power cord. The idea of lighter, simpler and smaller really appeals to me. And the ResearchKit SDK is fascinating. I hope it really helps us solve some of life’s most troubling diseases. Given all that, though, the minute or two spent on Force Touch technology was the most interesting.

When Apple introduced the iPhone, one of the biggest innovations was Apple’s touch layer. For really the first time we could use a finger to scroll around a screen, zoom in with a tap, gesture with a pinch motion and more.

All of these gestures, though, were two-dimensional across the surface of the device. With Force Touch, Apple now makes touches three-dimensional. The force applied to the touch will also have meaning.

Think of all the ways this could be used by developers:

  • A game could use Force Touch to indicate how hard to throw a weapon
  • Drawing apps can thicken the line based on the force used to touch the screen
  • Note-taking apps with pen input can use force to distinguish between the pen and the wrist resting on the device, significantly improving palm rejection (and opening up true pen input)
  • Buttons can take on additional meaning, revealing power user functionality based on the force of a tap

There are already rumors that Apple will be integrating the technology into iPhones. This is a no-brainer and hopefully Force Touch will be a standard iPad feature as well. Adding a third-dimension to touch interaction could open a world of fascinating possibilities, one that no other device manufacturer has.

Introducing DEWALT Mobile Pro for Android

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I am proud to announce that we shipped DEWALT Mobile Pro for Android last week. It is available from both Google Play and Kindle Appstore.

While the basics are the same, a wonderful scientific and unit calculator, a few free templates and a number of additional packs that can be purchased in app, the Android version has been completely re-written from scratch using some of the technology we’ve developed for Equals. The app itself is much cleaner and, hopefully, much simpler to use.

If you are interested in where we are taking our products, you might want to take a look. Even if you don’t have an Android or Kindle device, there are multiple screenshots available to review. And if you do have an Android or Kindle device, please download the app and give it a nice review!

Four stages of shipping

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I’ve experienced the four stages of grief — denial, depression, anger, acceptance — but recently realized that there are four stages to shipping, too:

  • Relief
  • Exhaustion
  • Fear
  • Acceptance

In relief phase we are all just happy to be done. The product is out the door. There’s a little adrenal kick that goes along with it. This phase never lasts long.

Then exhaustion sets in. It’s been a long road and invariably the hours have been tiring. 6, 7 days per week, 10 plus hours a day, dreaming about code when asleep, awake early, asleep late. The exhaustion mutes the brain, though, and lets a day or so pass with some rest.

Once the brain starts to recover a little then fear sets in. What’s broken? If it’s broken am I going to be able to fix it? Is anyone going to care? Will we have downloads? Did I remember to do this or that? Did that last minute change cause a problem? I never did retest this one section. I’m sure that was broken! The reviews are going to be horrible.

Finally, with time, acceptance sets in. Well, it will do what it does. If there are bugs we will fix them.

And that’s when we start planning the next build.

Indie Game: The Movie

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Indie Game: The Movie is an incredible documentary on the making of indie games. (I saw it on Netflix.) This documentary followed a couple of game developers as they worked toward release. They each worked on their games for years, often five or more. These aren’t fail fast inventions. They are full of love and attention, a craftsmanship that we have lost in other fields.

I love this quote from Jonathan Blow:

Part of it is not trying to be professional. A lot of people come into Indie games trying to be like a big company. What those game companies do is create highly polished games that serve as large of an audience as possible. The way that you do that is by filing off all the bumps on something. If there’s a sharp corner make sure that’s not going to hurt anybody if they bump into it. That creation of this highly glossy commercial product is the opposite of creating something personal.

Things that are personal have flaws, they have vulnerabilities. If you don’t see a vulnerability in somebody than you probably are not relating to them on a very personal level. It’s the same with a game design. Making it was about, let me take my deepest flaws and vulnerabilities, let me put them in the game and see what happens.

I spent years worried about appearing small. But I’ve come to understand that being small is fine, and in some ways has its advantages. We are small. Being who we are is perfectly fine.

Contingency planning

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My brain whirls all the time. I can hardly make it stop, even at night. It wakes me up at 3 or 5am and I have to read a book for a while before I can fall back to sleep.

What does my brain work on all the time? Plans and contingency plans and contingency plans for my contingency plans. They are ten levels deep, at least. I think through so many cases that I often come across as unflappable. That’s because I’ve already figured out what I would do in every situation. In the moment all I have to do is execute.

—

This is a big year for Infinity Softworks. The question we have to answer is whether Infinity is a full-time job for Rick and myself or whether it is a part-time job for one or both. There is revenue coming in but not enough to support both of us full-time at anything close to market wages. While neither of us are expecting to get to market wage this year, this is the year we need it to show promise.

In particular, that promise has to come from Equals as the other products are what they are at this point.

—

So I make plans. When will Equals be released? What revenue do we expect from DEWALT Mobile Pro? How about our deal with ETS? Will that change next year? Is the powerOne revenue sustainable? Any way to grow it? What do we need to make from Equals? Where do Rick and I need to be financially? When? What other expenses are we expecting? Any we can cut? Any we missed?

When all is said and done, I see revenues with modest raises this year for both of us. That’s a start, especially considering I (hopefully) low-balled DEWALT revenues and have no income from Equals this year on the books yet. But a sizable chunk of this year’s income comes from contract work and one-time payments, something I don’t want to do after this year. Equals needs to replace that.

Which inevitably leaves me contingency planning January of 2016. What happens if we have the incomes? What if we don’t? But this one needs to be pushed away for now.

All this planning can be a big distraction, too, especially at 5am. Enough planning. I need to execute.