BigForge and LocalBeacon

We’re happy to announce that we now support Push Notifications on our custom applications. We’ve been working on a lot of features behind the scenes, including some cool tour guide and medical apps. We’ll be releasing more features soon.

Let us know what you need, and we’ll add it to the list!

We’re getting ready to launch our SXSW Party Planner. The app has been submitted to the app store, but since LocalBeacon doesn’t REALLY need to go through the App Store to be usable, why not try it out right now by visiting http://www.bigforge.com/sxsw/

If you have events that you want to publish in the app, please submit them to http://www.bigforge.com/sxsw/post/

More importantly, we’ll be giving away an iPad to a lucky person that tweets about our app. All you have to do is tweet the following:

I’m using the #SXSW Party Planner from @bigforge! Check it out, and enter to win an iPad! http://bit.ly/cTQ3nv

LocalBeacon 2.6 has been released.

This version adds photo galleries and tons of minor bug fixes! UI Improvements too. Check it out.

We’ll be working on push notification support next. Watch for it!

Since I was recently given a hard time for having more content in my TOC than in the blog, I’ve decided to put this space to good use. I’ll be posting various short posts about things that I’ve run into and my workarounds.

First one… I recently installed Snow Leopard. Since all of the web development is done with Python and Django, I installed 64 bit everything, including Python and MySQL. How I did that is a whole other post, but tonight, I realized that the python hash function now can return VERY large numbers. If you’re developing in 64 bit, and you store the hash of any object, make sure that the column type in the database is BIGINT, or you’ll get warnings with every save.

The next release of LocalBeacon is pretty close. For the next release some of the key features are:

• Facebook -> iPhone App. Turn your Facebook fan page into an iPhone application with just 2 clicks (one to login, one to create the channel)
• Tighter integration with YouTube and external content. Will keep your users in the app longer.
• More options to organize your content, including using a bottom tab bar instead of the buttons on the home page to navigate from category to category.

We’re also looking for a newspaper partner to try a more robust integration strategy so everything gets published automatically. If you’re the publisher of a newspaper of any size (college, community, etc.), let us know!

LocalBeacon is live on the Apple App Store. You can download it at this link.

By installing LocalBeacon, you can build channels locally and try them out right on your iPhone immediately with no waiting. It is free to try! Sign up now!

While we wait for Apple to complete their review of our core application, we’re beginning a limited beta for up to 100 users. Users will be able to install a pre-release version of their application on their iPhone, use our web tools to create content, and have us manage the publication of a custom application for their organization.

If you’re interested in the Beta, here are some answers to common questions:

How long will the Beta last?

It will end immediately when Apple approves our application.

What is so important about the base application?

The base application is important because it allows you to deploy content to users without waiting for a custom application. The users of your content get a fully customized experience that makes them feel they are really using your own branded application. See how we do it by watching the screencast at http://www.bigforge.com/screencast/

Do Beta users give up any other functionality?

No, not all. In fact, they get more attention since those will be our only customers, and we’ll use this time to refine the product and make it better. Our hope is to create an excellent content management product, and for that, we need a variety of content to test.

What will Beta users have to pay?

Beta users will still be charged the monthly service fee, but will not have to pay for the additional fee of publishing an application. Also, you won’t have to pay until your application has been accepted by Apple.

What if I have customizations I’d like to my application?

Tell us what you want. If it’s something that helps the greater application, we’ll try to get it into the system. If it’s very specific to your needs, we can discuss customizing the application and the very reasonable associated costs.

I have more questions!

Great! Send me an email at bigforge@bigforge.com. We’ll answer them quickly.

I want to sign up!

Even better! Go to http://www.bigforge.com/localbeacon/ and choose signup. Please remember that you need to be an iPhone user to be a part of this Beta. We expect to support other platforms in the near future.

Update: Beta is over. 1.0 is released!

Sept 25th – Our application has been approved by Apple and will be online in a few hours. We’ll post a link to it shortly.

The primary use of this blog is to provide help content to users of LocalBeacon. LocalBeacon is BigForge’s first product. It provides a simple content management system that lets you rapidly create branded iPhone applications with your content. LocalBeacon is in active development and should enter Beta in August of 2009. You can follow this blog and see the help content get created. If you have any questions, please send us an email at bigforge @ bigforge.com

Thanks for visiting!

Update:

I’m waiting for the Apple to approve the application. Everything else is ready to go!

When you’re entering in all of the information for an item, it’s used to properly display the item to the end user. After a user selects a category, they are taken to a screen to browse the items in that category. The screen looks like:

[APP IMAGE 1]

In this table, the summary is built with the following elements:

• Headline (up to 2 lines)
• Item Detail (first 2 lines)
• Subcategories that were selected to show as subdetail.
• Rating
• A thumbnail of the first Image link from the Links section of the item editor.

Once an item is selected, the detail page is displayed and looks like the page below:

[App Image 2]

This page is built in two sections:

1. The detail page – This is built by placing the following items in order:
   1. Image number 1
   2. The Headline
   3. The Item Detail
   4. Images 2-4, if applicable
   5. A callout with Event Date/Time and Location
2. The toolbar. This has buttons for the user to do the following:
   1. View map. If an address is set, the map link will be available to show the item in Google maps. The user will also be able to view their location, and the location of other items in the category.
   2. View Video. If a YouTube link has been set, it will automatically launch YouTube from the application.
   3. Listen to Audio. The application will play the audio clip that was set in the Links section.
   4. View Web Site. Open a web site that is defined in the links section. If you add a web link in the item detail, the link will open in the application. A Web Link will open in Safari.
   5. Call/Add to Contacts. Will allow the user to call or add the phone number to their contacts.

Future versions of LocalBeacon will permit you to modify the template that is used to create the items.