If you haven’t noticed, the last few weeks have been a flurry of activity for us here at Metranome.  It’s great to be able to showcase the results of a few months of intense work and get the ‘thumbs up’ from our partners and users.  Nothing better than making people happy

Let me quickly summarize what went on so far this month:

A couple weeks ago we launched our first two Poptiq Powered apps for the iPhone/touch.  We partnered with DadLabs (those creative guys out of Austin) and 60Frames Entertainment (those talented producers out of Beverly Hills) and created for them their very own video app.  These apps are completely focused on the content from those producers and provide a great way of staying on top of the videos they create.  Just like Poptiq, you can search their video libraries, rate, and share videos with your friends.  Be sure to check these apps out in the App Store!

DadLabs App download

60Frames App download

Early last week we released an upgrade to Poptiq – version 3.0.  If you haven’t upgraded yet, here’s some of the key things you’ll find in the new release:
-    Carousel sorting.  You can now sort the new and saved carousels by category or by delivery time.
-    Faster navigation.  When you’re on the details screen, you can now simply flick the screen to move between the videos in your carousel.
-    Quicker rating bar.  You can tap the ‘love’ or ‘hate’ icons on the rating bar to move the rating right to the ends.
-    Improved graphics.  Cleaned up a number of areas in the UI to make it easier to use, added some fresh icons to brighten things up a bit.

Late last week we released an update to the Poptiq.com website.  Normally a website upgrade wouldn’t be much to talk about but this time we’ve added a few new features specific to Poptiq users.  The website now shows some of the top videos and channels available on Poptiq.  Users who login (using their Poptiq account) can dig deeper into the Poptiq library and have videos sent directly to their device.  Poptiq users can see videos they have rated, saved, and shared and choose to make those lists public so they can share them with friends.  There are a couple other features in addition to these, best way to find out is to login and explore.

That’s it for now, but as they say - plenty more where that came from…

Watch it!

Dave.

It’s pretty much impossible to not get caught up in (or at least exposed to) the swell of media hype that starts as a trickle at the dawn of the new year, turns into a torrent by end of January, and peaks tonight as the Oscar for Best Picture is handed out at the Academy Awards.  While the Oscars have a ‘Short Film’ category, it’s lost in the myriad of the other statues handed out, and certainly overshadowed by the top categories.  Luckily for those of us who love short form content there’s an increasing number of awards and festivals that are recognizing that the videos we watch on the web or on our mobile are just as creative, inspiring and worthy of recognition as the Oscar contenders.  Since Oscar is getting all the attention tonight I wanted to highlight some of the other awards that are out there - just in case you want to check out these winners during tonight’s ’speeches’.

The Webby Awards celebrate the best of the web and include categories in online film and video.  Nominees for the ‘Webbies’ will be announced in April so be sure to put that on your ‘watch’ list.  Last year MTV included a UGC video category in the MTV Video Awards - further evidence that the big guys are starting to care more about what we’re all doing online.  I haven’t heard whether they’ll be doing the same this year, can’t imagine why they wouldn’t with all the great stuff out there.

There are also awards dedicated to those creating content for mobile audiences (quite deserving!).  The Meffys, given out by the Mobile Entertainment Forum, celebrate top achievers in music, games, video, applications, and other mobile entertainment categories.  Last week at the Mobile World Congress (the worlds largest and perhaps most important wireless tradeshow) the MOFILM awards were handed out.  MOFILM is a film festival dedicated to short films created specifically for mobile viewers.  Taking the top prize on Thursday was the short film “English as a Second Language” produced by Frank Chindamo and directed by Jocelyn Stemat.  Congrats!

So tonight, while you’re skipping commercials or acceptance speeches and replaying the red carpet slip-ups,  think of all the great talent behind the videos you watch online or on Poptiq, and nominate those you love for some of these other awards.  Let’s give the people who bring you joy the recognition they deserve!

Dave.

I can’t believe we’re already a few weeks into 2009, and I haven’t had the chance to reflect on how great 2008 was!  I’d better get to that right now.  Some of our highlights of 2008 were:

- We had some fantastic people join the Poptiq team - all super smart, wonderfully talented, some more skilled than others at foosball…

- We were one of the first companies accepted into the Apple Developer Program - which gave us a head start on our iPhone/touch app.

- We had lots of fun working with Michael Buckley and the Venetian Princess on the Poptiq Intro Videos.

- We received funding from Tech Capital Partners - yay!

- We launched Poptiq v1.0 in Sept and followed up with v2.0 in December.

- We started our media research project with Ryerson University - very cool, you’ll see some great things from this later in the year.

- We launched our Poptiq applications for MySpace and Facebook, and plugged Poptiq into the Twittersphere.

- We consumed more caffeinated beverages than we probably should have (New Years Resolution anyone?).

- We expanded the office to make room for new team members joining us in ‘09.

As you can see, it was a pretty busy year for us.  We made many new friends and had a great time in ‘08 - and we’re all looking forward to another great year!

As for 2009, this is where it starts to get real exciting.  Here’s a couple things to watch out for:

- Poptiq finding it’s way onto few more smartphones.

- Some really great content partners coming on board (I wish I could tell you now…but you’ll have to be patient).

- Poptiq 2.5 that’s currently “in the works”.  We just won’t stop making it better

So stay tuned for the details and announcements of these and the other things we’re working on.  Friend us on Facebook or MySpace, follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our blog.  Drop us a note anytime, we’d love to hear from you!

And most of all, keep watching!

Dave.

So after a whirlwind week and some ‘last minute’ cramming we pulled the trigger on Poptiq v2.0 and are extremely pleased that it is now available for download in the Apple iTunes App Store.  As I said in my last post, I think you’ll be happy with what we focused on for this release.  Here’s the short summary of what we did, but the best way to find out is to download it and try it yourself.

Improved UI on almost every screen - new icons, smoother action, better help, easier set up, improved account creation, etc.

Faster video downloads

Video download progress bar

Selective sharing (choose which method/social network you want to use when sharing a video)

Email sharing.  Also, if sharing by email to another Poptiq user, they will get that video in their carousel !

Video search - find videos in the Poptiq library and get them sent to your carousel

New and improved ‘Topics of Interest’ to let Poptiq know what you like, plus you can now create your own topics !

Much more…

The new 2.0 version is the result of a lot of work by the team here at Poptiq, which I’m extremely proud of and thankful for.  But this release really wouldn’t have turned out as good as it has without the feedback and comments from all of our users over the last 3 months, and especially the fine contributions of the members of the Poptiq User Panel - thank you all.

As always, please don’t stop sending us feedback.  If you like it, tell us (and certainly tell your friends).  If something doesn’t work for you or you don’t like it, please take the time tell us so we can keep making it better.

Enjoy, and keep watching!

Dave.

Wow, I think we’re in the middle of a caffeine fueled super session.  Many late nights, blurred weekends, and frequent code reviews can result in some pretty amazing things.  And that’s just on the development side.  We’ve also been feverishly working on some new partnerships and are really excited about how things are shaping up for our ‘2.0′ release.  If you’re a Poptiq user I think you’ll be quite impressed.  If you’re not a Poptiq user, I think you’ll be motivated to become one.

I haven’t had a chance to introduce the rest of the team here at Metranome - so I’ll take this opportunity to tell you about one of the guys who’s probably put in more than his share of late nights these past few weeks…  Florin is one of our resident iPhone experts and has been churning out feature after feature since he joined us.  He’s successfully proven that you can make the transition from Windows Mobile to iPhone development - although I suspect he sometimes relishes his old days, particularly when those v2.2 firmware bugs started popping up…  Florin’s caffeine source of choice is green tea - specially imported from a foreign country I’m not sure I’ve heard of, and of course, brewed with pure Romanian H2O (whenever possible).  A bit of an eclectic fella he is - but a hell of a coder, and we’re sure glad he’s here during these crazy times.  I’ll let you know later what features he’s been working on so you can show him your appreciation

Time to get back to work and take care of a few things before we can get 2.0 out the door.

Stay tuned!

Dave.

The last few weeks seem to have just flown by. Everyone here is ‘nose to the grindstone’ working on their own part of the puzzle, building the pieces of our next release. Things are starting to look really good - to the extent that we are debating whether to make the next one a point release or just call it version 2.0. We’re getting pretty excited.

We have done a couple other things in the last few weeks that I should probably mention. We released a minor update to Poptiq (v1.2, available today in the App Store) which includes a few small ‘behind the scenes tweaks’ and a new intro video by the Venetian Princess. She’s another one of our favourite web personalities, and someone who has shown what hard work and talent can accomplish on the internet. Aside from her singing/acting/song writing she’s an amazing set designer - if you haven’t seen her Halloween video you must!

We also kicked off our Poptiq User Panel last week. We’ve invited a group of users to help us with defining and evaluating future versions of Poptiq. If you missed the invite and you are interested in giving feedback on proposed features, providing input on videos for our library, or checking out pre-release versions, send an email to support and we’ll get you the details.

Keep watching!

Dave.

We’ve come to that time in the development cycle to ask for some help. We are looking for a few more beta testers for our next major release. This is the one with the new features, the new UI, and a few other tricks that we’re pretty sure we can squeeze in. We are looking for existing Poptiq users and those who have not used it to give us a hand trying these things out. If you are interested in getting a sneak peek at what we’re making and are willing to provide feedback on what that is, send an email to beta (at) poptiq (dot) com and include the type of device you have. We’ll respond with details on how to get involved.

If you want to get even more involved then we have that option too! We are looking for some super smart and fun people to help think up, design, and create Poptiq’s next set of features and future releases. Details on open positions can be found here.

Regardless of what your interests are, you can always leave us clever suggestions or insightful feedback on the support page or by email. You can do that from here.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Dave.

Hi, I’m Crystalle, the community manager for Poptiq.  I spend a lot of my time talking to users, listening to suggestions, helping people if they have problems, and trying to be the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose of Poptiq out on the web.  I’m also a mom, and if you have school aged kids you know that life is all about the “hurry up and wait”.  First you “hurry” your kids to their activities and then you “wait” while they are there.  This whole experience has made me a true fan of Poptiq.  I must admit that I was a little skeptical that watching internet videos would be something I would find myself doing.  But with all the “hurry up and wait”, Poptiq is my new best friend.  Now when it’s time to wait, whether it’s at the kids music lessons, their hair appointments or a doctors appointment, I pull out my iPod touch, turn on Poptiq and the time flies by.  I love getting caught up on the latest Hollywood gossip, learning a new yoga move, and even discovering a new way to manage my OS X windows on Tekzilla Daily.

One problem I am finding however, is that while one of my kids is at their activity my other son/daughter is sitting and waiting with me.  So now I have to share my touch with them so that they can watch too.  Their favourites are the Just for Laughs hidden camera videos.  My kids have told me there should be cartoons and videos for kids.  Hmmm, something for us to look into here at Poptiq?  Ummm, maybe not, cause if they get to watch kids videos then I will never be able to watch mine!

Here’s to Poptiq being a parent’s new best friend, Cheers!

Crystalle

Three weeks ago we started asking our users what they thought Poptiq was worth. Our goal was to get real users’ opinions on the value we provided, so we could proceed with a service pricing model that was fair. Specifically we asked whether users thought Poptiq should be an ad-supported or subscription based service. If they thought it should be subscription, we asked what rate. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have been extremely pleased with the number of responses to the question – both in terms of opinions and comments. As we expected, this is a topic users seem to care about. So, here’s a summary of the results:

78% of the responses were in favour of a service supported by ads. These users didn’t want to pay a monthly fee for the service, but were willing to accept being shown highly targeted ads matched with the videos. This is great news, as the mobile advertising industry (current state of the economy aside) is starting to take shape. Advertisers are recognizing the value of mobile engagement and with Poptiq’s personal relevancy model, the ads will be well targeted.

22% of the responses indicated that Poptiq shouldn’t have ads. These users were willing to pay a monthly fee for the service; suggestions ranged from $0.99 to $20.00. The distribution was trimodal: a cluster of users in the $2-$3 range, a cluster in the $5 range, and a cluster at $10. There was a ’smattering’ of users above $10, but not enough to be statistically significant. Now this is interesting. Here’s a group of users who may have found the Poptiq experience compelling enough to exchange it for some of their hard earned cash, or they are offended by the idea of mobile advertising and will pay to make it go away. Perhaps there are other reasons which we might never find out, but regardless, this is still a large enough group of users to suggest that there is a market for a subscription based mobile video service.

There’s a deeper level of analysis that we are working on such as correlating the duration of use (how long they have been using Poptiq) and the frequency of use (how often they use Poptiq) to better understand how these opinions on value line up with varying degrees of engagement. Drop me a note if your interested in hearing more about this, once we’ve crunched the numbers and examined the patterns I’d be happy to share some of those details.

So now what? I guess that means we’re going to have two different versions of Poptiq! The dev team has already started working on changes to the app and changes to the service to make sure we can properly deliver on both. Shawn and I are going to spend a lot more time with our ad partners to make sure that we have appropriate ads to deliver. And we’ve still got a number of new features to roll into the mix for the next release. In the mean time, we’ll leave Poptiq as a free app in the App Store.

Finally, those of you who’ve provided feedback and opinions on what you thought Poptiq is worth, thank you. We’re listening, and we’ll do it right.

Dave.

The dev team here at Poptiq has been pretty busy these last few weeks cranking away at a number of changes you’ll see in the next release. I’m not about to give away all the details, but we’re rolling in a number of improvements ranging from UI changes, download speeds, and improved video relevancy results. Many of these changes have come from suggestions and feedback by our users, while a few of the others are the result of our ongoing goal to continuously make things better.

Which leads me to my next introduction… Tudor is our resident graphics and user experience champion. He’s the talent behind the look and feel of our websites, our icons and images, and the Poptiq app itself. He’s one of those rare breeds that spends as much time thinking about art history as reading up on the latest changes in OpenGL. When he’s not working on new designs or debating the role animated gifs had in computer graphic design, he can be found honing his reflexes at the foosball table. We’ve recently discovered he has a weakness for chocolate, which on some occasions may have allowed some of us to actually beat him at the table. Tudor’s working on some fantastic concepts for our ‘2.0′ release, here’s to hoping there’s enough horsepower in the iPhone to push the 3d engine in ways it was likely not meant to. In some way’s he’s like the Genesis Device - able to turn the unliving into a flourish of creativity - although sometimes hard to contain. We all can’t wait to set it free, so stay tuned for more details as these concepts come to fruition.

Dave.