Zuckerburg Authorizes $6 Billion Facebook Stock Buyback
Big news is coming for social media giant Facebook in the first quarter of 2017, as founder Mark Zuckerberg has authorized a huge stock buyback. To the tune of $6 billion, the move is being reported as a reaction to Facebook’s slowed growth (to be fair, most people in the world use the platform at […]
What’s better for developer productivity: music or silence?
The question of what music is best for triggering app developer productivity — if any at all — is a debate that has raged on since, if not the dawn of time, at least the introduction of the iPhone. Every developer is likely to have their own answer, but there are a few trends that […]
What the Last.Fm Security Breach Says about Mobile Privacy
“We are currently investigating the leak of some Last.fm user passwords. This follows recent password leaks on other sites, as well as information posted online. As a precautionary measure, we’re asking all our users to change their passwords immediately.” This statement was released way back in 2012, but it’s just this week that the full […]
Alleged NSA Leak Raises Alarms over Digital Security
While users often think of their phones and laptops as digital safe deposit boxes, the truth is that data is frequently more vulnerable than we’d like to think. In the wake of security contractor Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, a group of hackers claims to have obtained even more critical NSA data this past week, and […]
On-demand Service Startups Start Targeting the Suburbs
Food delivery startup Farm Hill announced their intention to expand into San Francisco last week, which doesn’t sound like hot news until you look at the context — specifically, the expansion “into” rather than “out of” a city. Farm Hill is backed by high-profile VCs like SOMA Capital and associated with Standford’s accelerator StartX. Regardless, rather […]
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 […]
Uber Trying to Win Back Their Most Valued Resource: Drivers
Uber, like any sharing-economy mobile app developer, has two main resources: workers and customers. This may sound simplistic, but it’s actually a tricky and unique balance in the on-demand startup industry, compared with worker and consumer relations in more traditional companies. When a mobile app becomes the interface between employer and employee, efficiency increases — […]
How to Reach Evangelist Users by Breaking All the Rules
This year’s Apple Design Awards are live, featuring as usual a diverse mix of iPhone app developers across a variety of markets. While the apps themselves couldn’t be more different, they all have one thing in common — a design tied directly to their core mission and a marketing strategy that effectively reaches their ideal […]
Top 10 Reasons Your App Might Be Rejected from the App Store
Making apps is hard. Waiting for apps to be approved by the apple app store? Nerve-wracking. For developers, the biggest frustration with the App Store review process is that apps are often returned as soon as an issue is found, rather than receiving a top-to-bottom check the first time around. For example, an app returned […]
The Importance of Scalability in Minimum Viable Products
Validating a business model is more important than ever for startups in today’s mobile app marketplace. Over a thousand apps are added to the Apple App Store alone every day, meaning stiff competition for even the most cutting-edge concepts. iPhone app developers have to remain flexible and nimble as they build out a minimum viable […]