‘Understanding Picklets’ at the Wheeler Centre in October

Posted on 2011-09-14 by Stewart

For professional illustrators interested in self-publishing interactive picture books for iPad.

The Picklet Platform is an end-to-end solution for creating and selling interactive books for iPad and iPhone/iPod touch.

This session is pitched at writer/illustrators who want to self-publish digitally but don’t want to make their own app.

Two free presentations (same content Monday and Tuesday, limited seating) demonstrating the Picklet Platform; from creating picklets to content discovery in the Picklets app.

Monday Evening

  • Wheeler Centre Boardroom
  • 5:30-7:00pm October 3, 2011

Tuesday Evening

  • Wheeler Centre Boardroom
  • 5:30-7:00pm October 4, 2011

The boardroom at the Wheeler Centre seats 12 comfortably. You’ll find the Wheeler Centre at 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne. (It’s in the State Library building, but the entrance is round the side.)

This is a free information session, after which you’ll be eligible to attend a follow-up workshop ‘Making Picklets’ where you’ll learn the basics of the picklet creation workflow.

RSVP

Please RSVP to stewarthaines@gmail.com specifying which session you’d like to attend.

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The Three Baddest Bandits of the Wild Wild West

Posted on 2011-09-14 by Stewart

By Ben Hutchings, Arran McKenna and Jase Harper

This is the 5-panel preview as it will appear in the Picklet Store within the Picklets app on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The full picklet consists of 23 panels.

I’m back in Melbourne and starting a final development push to finish the iPad ‘Picklets’ app.

5-panel Preview

(interactive content requires Webkit-based browser: Safari or Chrome)

About the Artists

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Hamburg workshops

Posted on 2011-08-25 by Stewart

The 'Picklet Review' slide in Hamburg

I was in Hamburg for a few days this week as a guest of Joachim Knappe who acted as my host, tour guide and event organiser for two picklet workshops at Atalier Amaldi on Monday evening. Thanks, Joachim and everyone!

I presented the Picklet Platform slides, handed around an iPad with the beta version of the Picklets app, showed ‘The 3 Baddest Bandits’ picklet, then demonstrated the Picklet Builder workflow and helped a few people set up their laptops. Total time for each session was about two hours.

So now there are 30 more German illustrators who know what picklets are. At least some of them are quite excited about self-publishing digital picture books.

If you know a group of illustrators who would be interested in a live demonstration of the picklet project please get in touch. I’ve had such a good time in Germany I am planning to go on the road with picklets again early next year.

Understanding Picklets Hamburg edition

I also had printed a new set of Understanding Picklets (pale green cover, Hamburg edition) in English and German. Joachim has kept some to distribute at the next Hamburg Illustratoren Stammtisch so look for him there, or you can read it online.

Now it’s holidays for me until I’m back in Melbourne in a week or so, in time for spring!

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First Picklets iPad beta

Posted on 2011-08-15 by Stewart

I’ve just sent a first beta of ‘Picklets’ for iPad to five testers!

It’s really rough around the edges, and perhaps shouldn’t have been released into the wild in its present state, but tomorrow I leave Berlin for a Swedish road trip holiday before heading home to Melbourne. So, I’ll be taking a break from development for a while and wanted to have something to show for the Berlin phase of Picklets development.

Thanks to Ive, Judi, Mic, Paolo and Charles for volunteering to beta test.

The iPhone version is even less ready than the iPad, so I haven’t sent it out this time.

If you have an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and would like to get in on the next beta, simply visit this link from your device to register;

https://testflightapp.com/join/efda1b2bb04e65b9a8294e3bd619f389-MjI4Mg/

Cheers, Berliners. It’s been a blast!

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Sometimes there’s a man

Posted on 2011-08-08 by Stewart

This week being my last in Berlin (for now) I have some technical goals I’m determined to hit.

At the end of this week I’ll send out the first beta of the Picklets app to any testers who’ve registered their device here;

https://testflightapp.com/join/efda1b2bb04e65b9a8294e3bd619f389-MjI4Mg/

So if you have an iPad (or iPhone, or iPod touch) and want to see what I’ve been doing these last 12 months, sign up and you’ll soon know.

I’ll be giving a demonstration of the picklet project in Hamburg later in August and I will have my iPad with a functional Picklets app, picklet store and content to demonstrate. This is what I’ve been working towards for the last two months.

For posterity here’s some technical detail about specifically what I’ll be working on this week. These are things that I’ve started but don’t have working properly yet;

  • robust, resumable download of picklet content
  • progress bar on picklet icon while downloading content
  • background completion of unfinished downloads
  • indicate in Store listing if a picklet is already installed
  • transferring picklet archive via iTunes Documents folder
  • deleting picklets from library (for completeness, not because anyone will want to delete a picklet)
  • the iPhone version

That’s still quite a list but getting the bandits picklet readable is the goal.

The Dude abides. I take comfort in that.

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