New look for the website - we're in the middle of a proper redesign, but this should give you a flavor.
We've also been working on our first customer projects - details shortly. And we'll be putting our first solutions into the market place.
blog
Good Blog Post from Funambol...
Excellent post here from the CEO of Funambol who have a solution which does different things to ours but works on the same principles.
Needless to say that we agree with their conclusions.
Mobile NW
We're going to be showing demos at Mobile NW on Monday and we've also supplied a prototype of our new Event Management Solution. Unfortunately the App is only on Windows Mobile at the moment, but you can download it and try it from the Mobile NW site mirror here.
After that we'll also be at the Mobile Marketing Association Forum event in LA on Tuesday.
Symbian Expo
After an excellent CTIA and a great Wipjam session we're on the road again, back to the UK to sample curry, a decent Bacon sandwich and the Symbian Expo 2009.
Its going to be a busy week!
CTIA Reminder and Symbian Expo Notice
Another reminder, we'll be at CTIA in San Diego this week, I can be reached at david@viafo.com for meeting requests. We're also attending the WIPJAM event at CTIA too.
At the end of the month we're going to be in London at the Symbian Show.
CTIA San Diego October 2009
Just a quick note to say we'll be attending, but not exhibiting at CTIA in San Diego in October. Contact us for a meeting!
Moving onwards and upwards...
So, after a fairly significant pause, we've started showing more details about what it is we're actually doing. In addition to the consumer news reader app, we've been busy through the summer building a number of working demos of the technology in a variety of spaces. These have been driven partly by customer demands and also by topics that are of interest to us.
An example of the later is the Event/Convention Management demo we now have. I go to a fair number of events and I'll be honest, configuring the information that I want to have with me at the event is an absolute pig. I want to know what items I'm going to, what the program actually is, what is going on in terms of press released and news feeds, where I should eat and a dozen other items.
That's where ViaFo comes in. Using our off-the-shelf components we can rapidly build a convention access system that interacts with the event CMS and gives the event managers opportunities for advertising and other revenue generation. We can pre-integrate a Twitter and News service client that will event allow for Tweeting with pre-embedded #tags and other similar services. All of this with a simple web interface to drive the mobile client.
Additionally we've built demos for the healthcare industry, travel, logistics and CRM fields.
There will be a more professional look and feel for the website coming in the next couple of weeks and we're getting ready for the formal launch of the News Reader App.
Contact me if you want Beta access, we're still testing.
New Features Coming
We've been rushing to add new backend features into the web-app, and also into the client. The next version will be able to handle Podcast RSS with the options of delivering the podcast to your PC to save or listen to or download them to a WinMo device via the browser.
Fingers crossed with a following wind we'll be releasing the fully public client soon.
We're also making great strides with the enterprise version ready for our first customer launches.
Rushing to get the Public Launch Ready
Getting a product finished can be a right royal pain in the behind. No matter how much fun the process is, it is constantly shocking me the number of things we keep finding that have slipped through the net.
We're getting close to the launch version for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone of the public client, and, by extension the same product for the enterprise market.
Once that's complete we're going to be turning our attention to Android.
It's great to be in the final stretch but I'm sorry at how long this is taking over the original plan. For those that have signed up for the beta program. We are going to be getting to you shortly!
Interesting Take on the Browser
Fabrizio Capobianco has an interesting take on the Browser Wars - one which I hope to come true.
New Client!
We're now up and running on Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition... and rather good too.
Interesting view on the problem we're looking to solve
An article on porting the Amplitude app from iPhone to Windows Mobile.
While I hesitate to say this is quite a simple app, it is. The problems get worse as you have to work with interactions and other functionality.
Checking in from the Sweltering Northwest
Seattle is currently basking under the weight of a high pressure system that has brought record temperatures. This is something of a problem. As a startup and something of a virtual organisation we are all working from home which is challenging in the temperatures we're seeing in our homes at the moment.
Next week things should return to normal.
We've a lot of stuff underway at the moment and one legal wrangle we're working on before putting up the Public Beta. Keep watching.
Taking it on the road
Off travelling next week while we still focus on getting the Beta ready for the full public launch. There's some slight changes in strategy we've come up with along the way, but that's the cool thing about a Start Up - it's a living, dynamic thing and you need to keep changing things while you go.
We're getting 2 enterprise demos ready for customers for delivery next week and we've got another prospect in the pipeline now.
Anyway, back to working on the demos, I'm currently exercising long dormant coding muscles and I think I need another gallon of coffee.
New Website on the way
We've been working with a designer for a few weeks now to get a more professional look and feel to the web-site and things are coming together. I'm really excited by the mock ups we've seen so far and I'm looking forward to integrating the "look and feel" elements into the Public Client.
With that, and a swathe of new features we integrated back into the main tree this week we're looking good for a public launch in a few weeks. At least for Windows Mobile, we're behind where we'd like to be on other platforms but catching up.
We've also dramatically improved the way that we create and manage enterprise customer demos - so shortly we'll have a suite of examples for potential customers and also showing in screen shot form on the website.
So. I'm cutting for the day to the Seattle Beerfest, and I've given the dev team - such as they are - the day off too.
Have a good holiday. See you Monday!
Busy week ahead of us
We are preparing for 2 major enterprise customer demos of the new code build, plus we have some potential investor meetings lined up.
We're getting ready to expand the Beta Trial to include new members, once the current bug list is fixed.
On the job front: we're looking for some CSS, Javascript and Python people part time for a few weeks.
Big Thanks to Nathan Kaiser for the nPost Event
And to Bing for the free drinks.
A good event and we felt we were in exhaulted company there. The demo seemed to go well, and thanks for those that have signed up.
nPost Event Tomorrow Night
I'm presenting at the nPost Event in Seattle tomorrow night. Details here.
Lots of preparation for it taking place tonight. Reminds me of college actually.
Hope to see you there.
We are now part of Bizspark
See Us at the nPost Networking Event for Start Ups
ViaFo is going to be giving a demo at the nPost Networking Event for Tech Start Ups on June 23 2009 at the Columbia City Theatre.
Details here.
We're going to have a busy week ahead of us preparing for what we're going to show in the demo!