Bots on Kik Pass the 20,000 Mark: How Will This Affect Apps?
While there are just over 100 bots actually featured in the much-publicized Kik Bot Shop, developer on the platform have created well over 20,000 to-date. The catch: most of these bots are invite-only, accessible only through direct invite from creators. That said, major brands like CNN and Funny or Die have embraced the platform. Kik’s explosive […]
How Can Code Bootcamps Make App Development More Accessible?
According to a study from Inside Higher Ed, coding bootcamps have major economic barriers that are stopping low-income students from enrolling. The result: most coding bootcamp graduates are already members of the middle class, going against President Obama’s recent praise for bootcamps as a “ticket into the middle class.” iPhone app development companies need more […]
Outsourcing App Development: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
“Go ahead and outsource.” People are always surprised when we tell them this. We get dozens of questions about offshoring every week, and the people asking always expect us to steer them away from it. After all, we’re an LA-based app development company — why would we encourage someone not to work with us? The […]
Will the Erosion of Online Advertising Hurt Apple & Google?
Apple and Google couldn’t be more different. On the one side, premium hardware with an emphasis on encryption, security, and brand quality. On the other, cloud services, budget hardware, and a suite of free services that rely on data marketing. Most of us, and certainly most iPhone and Android app developers, use a combination of […]
Y Combinator to Build “ultimate Full-Stack Startup”: A City
Y Combinator made a controversial announcement last week that their nonprofit arm would begin research towards building an entire city from scratch. The accelerator’s mobile app development projects have raised record-setting returns for the group, fueling a multi-million dollar nonprofit fund which Y combinator president Sam Altman hopes to grow to 100 million in coming […]
Google Launches Hardware Initiative to Teach Kids Code
Google just launched a new hardware initiative, Project Bloks, with the aim of expanding youth exposure to coding principles through “tangible coding.” Unlike the software-based coding systems mobile app developers who work with kids might be familiar with, tangible coding systems represent coding concepts — objects, binaries, if/then statements — as physical objects that can […]
How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App?
Short answer: anywhere from $25,000–500,000. Long answer: building an app is like building a house. Who is it for? Bricks or beams? What’s the neighborhood like? Tree houses and penthouses are both “houses,” but serve radically different purposes at radically different price points. The team here at Dogtown has launched over 100 mobile app […]
Brexit Vote Sends Shockwaves Through Startup Community
The United Kingdom’s Brexit vote in favor of leaving the European Union (EU) has sent shockwaves through the business world, and tech is no exception. Surging stock prices only 24 hours before the historic vote saw Wall Street place their bets against the UK’s departure, making Friday’s 52:48 near-tie all the more bitter a pill […]
Dogtown Works for Edtech at First Youth Technology Town Hall
Dogtown Media joined Microsoft, Facebook, Pandora, and other leading tech companies in Chicago last week (June 17) for a historic first Youth Technology Town Hall. Congressman Danny K. Davis and community leaders organized the event to promote STEM and computer science education in the Chicago area, tapping the expertise of technologists and iPhone app developers […]
Why Would Apple Drop the Headphone Jack from New iPhone?
Apple has a history of making their own rules rather than following consumer expectations. In most industries — especially high-overhead ones like hardware — this approach would be disastrous. In spite of this, Apple has clearly gone on to become an iconic brand, dominating the mobile marketplace and supporting the premier platform for mobile app […]