What!?

You heard me right!

The last two year an LA-based company has developed 2.7 mm thin paper that can play video’s. It can hold 40 minutes of video and the battery will last around 70 minutes. After that, you can charge it with a USB-plug. It looks and feels just like a TFT / LCD screen that you can find in most airplane seats.

Wild huh!? Want to read more? Here’s the link:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10313064-93.html

- Michal

Yesterday a small company called ‘Napkee’ launched, that made our process complete.

Here’s how we do it:

STEP 1 – In the ‘idea phase’ we only use a whiteboard and MockupMagnets (www.MockupMagnets.com).

STEP 2 – When ideas stop changing, we move to using Balsamiq Mockups (www.Balsamiq.com).

STEP 3 – We turn our mockups into HTML / CSS / JS / FLEX using Napkee (www.Napkee.com)

STEP 4 – We outsource the development for a small fee, using coders at oDesk (www.oDesk.com).

That’s it!

Now that Napkee has enabled us to turn our Mockups (Balsamiq) into functional prototypes (Napkee), all we need from there is a coder to make it fit our framework (oDesk). It’s a ‘geniously’ simple process. I advise you to look at these websites today!

- Ruven

More priceless development advice?
Read our little book ‘The Unplugged’ (Kindle Book | E-book| Hardcover | Amazon) or simply subscribe to our feed (RSS | E-mail) to get more tips for free!

To enable creativity, we’ve dedicated a couple of rooms as ‘mockup offices’. These rooms are decorated as casual as possible. Everything is built around our GuiBoard, and you can find an endless flow of GuiMags and dry-erase markers in the room. Lastly we have a camera there. It’s perfect for collaboration and drafting your UI.

The only thing that bugs me is the fact that I have to get back behind the computer to order to connect the camera to get our sketches and mockups to our outsourcers. Sure, one can use an iPhone, but they can only send one picture at a time.

Now, we have a solution to the ‘problem’.

The company Eye-Fi, inc came out with wireless memory cards. How it works? No clue, but it does. As you take a picture, the memory card uses your wireless network to stream the pictures and video files over to your computer. You can even set it up to upload your pictures to the internet straight away.

A genius concept, I must say!

It’s one more step closer to a office-less world! And it is essential to those wanting to live the lifestyle of “The Unplugged”

- Michal

• ‘setting up an overseas office’,
• ‘flying back and forth’,
• ‘having long and boring live video calls’ and
• ‘talking with your overseas manager at 4 am’.

Boy was I wrong!

Nowadays, I don’t even bother to write a simple JavaScript script anymore, because it would distract me from doing what I do best: outsourcing!

Here’s 5 myths that kept me in ‘oblivious-land’ for way too long:

MYTH 1: Outsourcing costs a fortune
Nope. It could be ten bucks. Or less. Let me challenge you:

• Think of a small (computer related) task you need to do but you’re not really good at.
• Write down what exactly it is you need to do.
• Go to oDesk.com, start an account and post a fixed-price job.
• Think of the amount of hours it would take you to do this and multiply by 5. Post the outcome as the fee for this job.
• Set the deadline to today.

Within 30 minutes you’ll have at least 3 people bidding. I promise.

MYTH 2: It takes a long time to outsource
Wrong again. It could be done while you’re out to lunch. If you did what I asked you to do at the previous point, you’ll notice how fast it goes. In fact, putting the deadline of a fixed-price job to “the same day” will get you even more people bidding on your job. Because they have time to do it now.

MYTH 3: You have to be a manager to outsource
Allow me to change your thinking. Most people say ‘focus only what you’re good at’. Others say ‘focus on where you need to improvement’. I say ‘take what you’re good at but forbid yourself to do it’. Instead, find others to do it for you. This way, you:

• … still do what you love to do
• … automatically learn the things that used to need improvement
• … become a manager without even noticing it!

MYTH 4: I don’t have an outsourcing budget
Well, that might be true. But think about this. It will take you a minimum of two weeks to make a WordPress template if you’ve never done HTML before. A trained freelancer can do that in two hours. You do the math… See, you don’t need a budget, do you? You just need fifteen bucks.

MYTH 5: I need to be an expert before I can delegate
It helps if you know a little bit about the subject matter, but being an expert may actually slow you down. If you’re in the details, it makes you trust your freelancer less, resulting in too many revisions and particulars, taking more of your time and your freelancer. The key is: don’t worry. You can fix everything with another job. This is about you saving time.

Well, there you have it. Of course, these are only five myths. There is a lot more, I’s sure. Let me know what you think is missing and should be up here!

Yours,

-Efraim

More priceless outsourcing advice?
Read chapter six of our little book ‘The Unplugged’ (Kindle Book | E-book | Hardcover | Amazon) or simply subscribe to our feed (RSS | E-mail) to get more for free!

Right now, we’re in the process of building a 3d game for Wii, Mac, PC and web. The entire game series is done by freelancers from all over the world. We did not write any line of code, did not do any art pieces. We just manage the process.
The project is a monster.
So far, we have had to create (individual) jobs for:
42 concept art jobs
25 2D art jobs
19 3D modeling jobs
14 programming jobs
8 legal document jobs
That’s a humble 108 jobs for one project. I cannot even tell you how many hours that is in total.

When people hear about this, they think we’re dropping millions on this project. The truth is, our outsourcing budget for this project hasn’t crossed 10k yet. That’s an average of 93 dollars per job! Not impressed? That includes lawyers!

The secret of getting things done well for little, is:
1 – Setting a start-price that is ridiculously low.
2 – Knowing exactly what you want

Our western-minds by default think $30 USD per hour or more, but there’s a whole bunch of people that don’t think that way. Those are the ones you’re trying to reach. On top of that, there’s are millions of professionals that are used to high wages that look for a job well thought through. All of the sudden the price doesn’t matter much anymore.

Alright, let’s get to it. Here’s your start-bid-shopping-list:

A Custom WordPress Template with widgets
Fee: $45
You deliver: A photoshop document with the exact look & feel you’re after
Days to deliver: Two. Revisions can add one more.

An internet research job “Find 100 …”
Fee: $50
You deliver: An exact description of what you’re after and excel file setup
Days to deliver: Two. Ask to send the first 25 in for review before continuing.

A low-poly 3D Character
Fee: $50
You deliver: Exact concept art from 3 angles (model sheet)
Days to deliver: One. Revisions can add one more.

Writing blog posts
Fee: $10 per post
You deliver: Exact description per post and maximum amount of words
Days to deliver: 2 hrs per post

Translation job
Fee: $10 per letter size page
You deliver: The pages
Days to deliver: 1 day for 4 pages

Legal document
Fee: $100 per 4-page document
You deliver: Exact description of what you want. Find someone in the same country or state as the document’s law-base you’re after. Stay in good, constant communication.
Days to deliver: 3 days.

I know these prices are ridiculously low, but they serve to start the bidding. Professional translators usually want to charge you per-word and such, I never go into that. I love having a fixed fee per project, no stings attached. If the professionals ignore you, there will be students that are just as good.

Outsourcing has to be a win-win deal for both you and the freelancer – internet allows the two to meet.

Let me know what else you need in this list and I’ll add it!

Yours,

-Efraim

More priceless outsourcing advice?
Read chapter six of our little book ‘The Unplugged’ (Kindle Book | E-book | Hardcover | Amazon) or simply subscribe to our feed (RSS | E-mail) to get more for free!

In our world today, we’ve seen a move from hardware to software. Take music for example. Synthesizers – the great ‘new’ technological instrument – are a story of the past. Nowadays a synthesizer is a software plugin. It’s not a heavy box with buttons, but a dialog box with virtual knobs. It’s just as good… No it’s better, because it doesn’t weigh anything.

Another example: phone calls. Skype is starting to take over from phones. With Skype, there is no need to hold a piece of plastic in your hands, instead you’re clicking on a green button that says “call”. (You may ask “What about the iPhone?”… well, isn’t an iPhone a small computer that runs software?)

Software has been taking over from hardware. We must conclude that there has been a movement going on: the hardware-to-software movement.

Yet, now that we’ve come to discover this movement, this is also passing. The hardware-to-software movement is starting to come to a close. Dawning on us today is the movement back to hardware. We now want hardware with a software solution that drives it. We want software with a touchable shell.

Allow me to explain.

Millions of innocent people find themselves captured behind a desk from 9 to 5 or even longer. Their magic-wants are the keyboard and mouse which, by the way, were both invented over 25 years ago. Their eyes stare at a world that’s made up of graphic metaphors, metaphors of the hardware they once knew (or the hardware their parents knew). They live in a world where the word “work” means “being handcuffed to the mouse and keyboard”. No wonder there are so many meetings. No wonder perfectly sane people organize one useless event after another. They simply want to escape manning the tool that promised it could do it all. The computer.

The computer stimulates their visual senses and audible senses, but numbs the other three. It keeps them captured in one place, connected to virtual friends that cannot even help carry their groceries.

Friends, what would the world look like if we can wield the power of software, without being bound to its limitations?

That is the world of the Unplugged.

A brave group of product developers have broken the chains of input controls, and freed their mind, escaping with entrepreneurial solutions. They are not bound to one location and have discovered and engineered new ‘magic-wants’ that are changing their world for the better. They are waiting for you to join them.

Being unplugged doesn’t mean you don’t use technology. It means technology doesn’t use you.

It means you use its advantages while escaping its disadvantages. It means you need to unlearn certain well-known habits, and learn new habits that will free you.

The movement of The Unplugged is spreading and leaves you with a choice:

Stay in the past or help shape the future.

-Ruven

PS: If software developers can be Unplugged, anyone can. Share with us some blog posts or links to ideas and tools you use to escape “the computer”, “the cubicle” or “the meeting”.

More Unplugged tips?
Read our little book ‘The Unplugged’ (Kindle Book | E-book | Hardcover | Amazon) or simply subscribe to our feed (RSS | E-mail) to get more for free!

But when we start something, we go to the extremes to make sure it’s done right. And I think we nailed it. Here are the topics we’ll cover:

ONLINE HIRING (THE NO-BUDGET WAY)
There really is no need to touch a computer to be able to develop cutting edge media. iPhone Apps, movies, 3d games – someone else is dying to make them for you. And we know how to find them for a penny.

MAGNETIC PROTOTYPING
Yep, there’s a term for it now. Tons of people are leaving Paper Prototyping and other tools from the 90’s behind as they jump aboard. After we invented it in 2006, we’ve seen it all over the place. Now it has a home.

NERD VERSUS WORLD
Before computers, the term ‘nerd’ was used for smart and fashionable people. It’s time to bring it back. After all, we’re pretty much ruling the world, no? Join the revolution of fashionable nerds and develop better, smarter and unbelievably beautiful products.

ENDVISIONING
This mind-blowing technique will cut your development budget in half. No human can see the future, but by utilizing endvisioning you can come pretty darn close. Your development team will love you and your CFO may just hug you. That’s a promise.

REAL INNOVATION
Isn’t it funny? The people who constantly talk about innovation are most likely to stop new ideas. Innovation has become a buzzword because of these “wannabes” and it’s time to set the record straight. We will give you the secrets to how we radically innovate.

HELP US INVENT
We’re working hard on the GuiMags iPhone kit and GuiPanes. Your feedback will steer us in the right direction.

So what are you waiting for? Subscribe (Monthly e-mail or RSS) and forward this blog to everyone that develops something and let them join the movement!