With the SMMT International Automotive Summit commencing in London this week, auto and technology are top of mind. The App Business has been looking at the possibilities for 3rd party app developers to contribute to the new wave of “smartphones on wheels”.

App developers are increasingly looking to push software products into non traditional markets and the automobile industry is no exception. With analysts predicting the market for in-vehicle apps to be worth “just short of $1.2 billion” by 2017, many of the car industry heavyweights are already looking to grab a piece of the pie.

The question this raises is how will 3rd party app developers take advantage of this potential goldmine? And which platform looks the most likely to succeed?

Built-in digital dashboards seem to be the way forward for car manufacturers to create a more digital driving experience. BMW has been developing its ConnectedDrive digital interface in time for 2015. It will allow drivers to download a mixture of BMW and third party apps from a custom BMW app store directly to their dashboards. General Motors and Blackberry have also been developing similar digital interfaces, with Blackberry recently showcasing its QNX CAR Platform in partnership with Bentley’s latest batch of cars.

With all of these companies sharing their software building kits the opportunity is there for 3rd party app developers to chip in with their own apps. However, this is only limited to the Android market as Apple has been more protective of its automobile API’s.

Apple’s solution is iOS Drive, which favours iPhone integration over a car manufactured digital dashboard. It enables drivers to control a docked iPhone via a Siri Eyes Free button in the middle of the steering wheel – Ferrari, Honda Motors, Kia, Mercedes, Nissan, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Volvo and Jaguar are all said to be releasing Siri Eyes Free integrated cars in 2014.

All of this sets up another twist in the Android vs Apple battle for digital supremacy. iOS Drive could prove to be a cheaper, more consumer friendly solution as iPhone users will already be using an interface that they are comfortable with. However, offering the bait to 3rd party Android app developers could up the rate of innovation, increasing the opportunity for ground breaking consumer apps to hit the automotive market.

So is the automobile apps market profitable enough for 3rd party app developers to pursue?

This remains to be seen. Currently digital dashboards are going to be reserved for the niche market that is both tech savvy and wealthy enough to buy a high end car, limiting profitability.

Safety is also another potential stumbling block for developers as automobile apps could prove to be a dangerous distraction on the road. One imagines that safety regulations could significantly narrow the scope for the type of app that can be on a car’s dashboard.

Nonetheless it is still early days.

Watch this space…

image source: motorauthority.com

1. Say hello to Jony Ive, Editor in Chief of Apple

If you hadn’t figured that this is now the Jony Ive show from the pre-Keynote soundtrack (Daft Punk, not Bob Dylan), you sure as heck knew two minutes later after viewing Apple’s opening ‘motivational video’. In it, Ive elegantly framed what innovation means at Apple, reminded us of Apple’s enduring values, and made us all feel a lot better about owning [Apple] products that do a lot less than the competition – all with a few simple words and a beautiful animation. This set up a Keynote that was to be about simplification, unification and integration, and – crucially – the collaboration required to execute this.

2. Apple wants to enable *its developers* to take the ‘moon shots’

Apple has been heftily criticised for its failure to take wild moon shots like Google’s self-driving cars. But Apple’s message was clear yesterday. Apple’s gift to the world isn’t going to be a stream of wild experiments. Apple’s gift to the world is a platform that lets you – the developer community – take the moonshots yourselves, at low cost, and with the chance of incredible reward. That’s why the first demo yesterday wasn’t by Apple. It was by a relatively small studio which had developed *its own* self-driving cars that run on iOS.

3. “Apple can’t innovate my ass!”

“Apple can’t innovate my ass!” declared Apple marketing boss “Big” Phil Schiller as he provided a rare sneak peak of a forthcoming Apple product: the new Mac Pro. This is the meanest looking computer I’ve ever seen and Apple’s unveiling was more akin to the E3 Gaming Conference taking place down the road. And whilst I know I don’t need one, I dang sure know I want one. My Twitter stream was filled with people looking for a justification to buy. Take-out: Apple can still innovate and Apple can still generate irrational lust out of thin air.

4. iOS 7: hardware and software are finally at peace

Forget the icon design hoo-hah. The breakthrough here is how Ive is constructing an experience in which the software and hardware work in perfect harmony. A device on which the customer doesn’t separate the hardware and software experience.

How’s he doing this? Ive and his refreshed UI now consider the phone as a singular object, with a universal law of physics governing its hardware and software. The phone now consists of panes of content, stacked vertically, that can come to the top and into view. He’s added translucency to the panes – not for design flourish – but to give you a sense of location. And he’s added parallax effects so that the UI moves as you move the hardware, in perfect harmony. Even the apps now run to the screen edges to erode that division between hardware and software.

Ive is clearly working towards a vision of a device that is simply a singular pane of glass that really is just all content. This is an awesome vision for app developers on a mission to create delightful engaging experiences.

5. Apps, Apps, Apps

Apple clearly continues to believe that, for now, superior experiences are delivered via native app software rather than via a web browser. And so, Apple introduced new and updated apps for the Mac including Maps, iBooks and Calendar. Each integrates deeply with with Internet services, much in the same way Google does, but not via a browser. I don’t think that Apple is trying to keep people away from Google per se. Rather, Apple, like The App Business, understands that native experiences are superior experiences.

6. The web is a wormhole to Google and PC audiences

There was one big exception to Apple’s native app strategy. Apple introduced a web based experience to patch Apple’s continuing Enterprise weak spot: businesses continue to prefer to do their work via Microsoft Office and Google Docs. And whilst executives on the move might be armed with iPads, they had no way to effortlessly work on docs between their iPad and PC. Well, until now. Yesterday Apple introduced iWork for iCloud enabling iOS users to continue working on iWork documents in the browser, on their PCs.

7. Apple is in the mobile payments game, big time. They’re just not playing ball yet.

Make no mistake, Apple is putting in place all the ingredients necessary to make your iPhone a wallet. Yesterday they announced that they now have more accounts with credit cards on file than any other Internet store; shared data showing that people are more than twice as likely to spend money via iOS devices than Android; and unveiled a new ecom service: iCloud keychain. iCloud Keychain enables iOS devices to securely store and automatically input your credit card details when shopping via your phone.

8. Archaic filing systems are going away

A lot of Mac software was introduced but one significant thing stood out for me: the introduction of a tagging system for folders, like Gmail or Evernote. Why is this so important? Well, Apple are trying to crack a new filing system that throws out folders and branches and lets people quickly find files via just search or tags. And that’s exactly what Apple needs to crack in order to realise mobile devices as true productivity devices that let people find files fast when they don’t have time or the space to browse extensive filing systems. We can expect to see lots of this stuff coming to iOS soon.

9. The final piece of the puzzle: integration with you

Tim Cook talks repeatedly about the integration of hardware, software and services. But there is a fourth unspoken component to this puzzle: you. Yesterday, Apple announced a range of enhancements to improve the phone’s understanding of you and the value of its help. For example, the phone learns which apps you use most and keeps them updated for you (so no more refreshing Instagram); and the phone now knows where your meeting is and marks ‘travel time’ in your calendar (so no more being late). With wearable computing just around the corner cracking integration with you, and indeed the organic-body, is critical for Apple and a final piece in the puzzle.

10. One more thing: “Does it deserve to exist?”

I just want to leave you with one final thought. Apple said a lot at the Keynote. They also said something pretty profound about what not to say, or rather what not to do. I think it was Tim who said this as one of his more casual remarks during the event: “Does it deserve to exist?” Wow. That’s a pretty brutal question. A pretty brutal filter for what gets signed off at Apple. And it’s a pretty sweet question to ensure you focus on the stuff that matters. Ask it the next time you review, curate and cull ideas.

If you want to talk to us and how we can help you and your business realise the amazing opportunities of software, drop me a line by clicking *here*.

They also said something pretty profound about what not to say, or rather what not to do.

I think it was Tim who said this as one of his more casual remarks during the event:

“Does it deserve to exist?”

Woh. That’s a pretty brutal question. A pretty brutal filter for what gets signed off at Apple.

It’s a pretty sweet question to ensure you focus on the stuff that matters.

Ask it the next time you review, curate and cull ideas.

The team at The App Business sees apps as ‘products’ that earn real loyalty – not just gimmicks for short term novelty.

Increasingly, we also see our clients’ business in the form of software products, as software becomes the interface for all around us. With that in mind, here are five of The App Business’ principles for successful “app as product” thinking:

1. Stop making slogans, start making software.

Software is consuming the world. It’s time to build a software product that enhances your proposition, rather than a slogan that just says it.

2. It’s about commitments, not just campaigns.

Campaigns come and go. Products launch and live. That means long-term responsibilities. Plan and resource accordingly.

3. Software experience is the new brand experience.

Software increasingly defines your audience’s interaction with your brand. The User Experience experts are the new brand ambassadors.

4. Apps are just the tip of the iceberg.

Get ready to go under the hood: you will need to invest in web-services, databases and other technologies to make your app come alive.

5. Big data makes apps smarter.

Configure your app to understand your audience in real-time, inform business decisions and help you meet their needs, all before they lift a finger… or thumb.

Wherever you are in the mobile journey, The App Business can help you navigate it. Click here to get in touch and discuss.

For a quick overview of the 150-chart-deck, check out Dan Joseph’s summary of his favourite 10 charts from the super deck, and here is my run down of the top data points:

#1. Mobile = 15% of total Internet traffic.
The share of Internet traffic coming from mobile has been growing 1.5x each year since 2008. Mobile is set to make up 30% of all Internet traffic by the end of next year!

#2. In China, more people use mobile to access the Internet than PC. In Korea, people already search more from mobile than from PC.
Asia and Lat Am – not North America – are leading the way into this new era and give us a glimpse of what’s just around the corner for us.

#3. Mobile = 12% of time spent with any media in the US; already 20% in China.
12% of all time spent but only 4% of advertising budgets. That gap is worth $12b each year in the US alone.

#4. Tablet sales overtook Notebook sales in the last three months of 2012, and are still higher than Desktop PCs sales today.
Unsurprisingly global tablet shipments receded a bit from their Christmas peak, but they continue to outsell Desktop PCs.

#5. The amount of fitness data shared from mobile and wearable devices is doubling each month.
The next big wave of content uploaded from mobile devices (after photos and videos) will be personal data: fitness data, location, user reviews, check-ins, etc. This is fuelled by the rise of wearable and drivable mobile devices such as Jawbone, Nike Fuel, Google Glass or Waze-enabled cars.

#6. The typical smartphone user reaches out to their phone 150x a day.
This really helps us understand why wearable devices have a big stake in the future: most of these 150 interactions could be hands-free.

#7. Brits, Americans and West Europeans have a much lower tendency to share than countries like China, India, and Brazil.
You probably have a good idea of how much you and your friends share on social networks: well, most people on the planet share a lot more than that. This is worth keeping in mind if you want your app to scale globally.

This data speaks volumes about the staggering momentum behind mobile computing. At The App Business we’re excited to help lead this change and enable businesses to leverage software and technology to disrupt markets in this new era.

If you’re interested to know more, drop me an email here

But aside from all the mega-datapoints, I’ve pulled out 10 x charts that jumped out when I flicked through her deck.

Here they are, and here’s why they get my brain buzzing with all the amazing opportunities we all have in front of us:

1. OK, well this is kind of a datapoint, but it’s the visual that is mind-blowing. Tablet take-off is so fast it looks like a rocket has taken off. No wonder no one could accurately model or predict the trajectory. And that left room for people with guts and nerve, like Flipboard, to back the platform and steal a march on the traditional incumbents who were too slow to move. Why did they take off so fast? People love using software to get stuff done, tablets sit at a magical price point, and amazing companies like Apple and Samsung are churning them out at high-quality. Lucky us. What will the wearables trajectory look like? I’d love it to be near vertical. And I can’t wait to see who’s gonna disrupt and who’s gonna get disrupted, when wearables arrive proper.

2. At The App Business we’ve always seen mobile computing as much bigger than phones. For us, mobile computing basically means ubiquitous computing. In other words, there will always be a computer on your person (phone, wearable) or near enough to you (in-car, in-store etc.) .. wherever you go. So we were pretty pleased to see Mary’s near naming of this forthcoming era as just that: ‘Everywhere Computing’. Start to look around you and notice how often you are in reach of a smart screen, big or small. High-street banks are basically becoming walk-in computers with friendly staff to help you press the right buttons. And we’re going to see so much more innovation on people and on the high street here.3. Talking of wearable computing, this insight is awesome. Here is a list of the number of things you turn to your phone for, and the frequency that you do that at. What a great data point! And just think how many of these are currently performed by that big clunky object you have to pull out of your pocket, unlock, tap into. True wearables could be seen as pretty impolite, but so are big distracting phones. Maybe someone can get the balance right with a new interface approach that gives you the data you need but doesn’t get in the way of the person you are talking to?

4, 5, 6. “Drivables. Wearables. Scannables”. Love this terminology. Software is infecting pretty much everything around us that can’t run away from it. And it’s time to start getting used to looking at your car as a computer, on four wheels. Or that clothing, as a computer that’s on your back. Or that QR code, as .. well still not sure about that one. But seems like there may be life in them yet.

7, 8. It’s easy to look at China as chaotic cause it sure as heck looks that way. But having ventured into their Sillicon Valley – Shenzhen – a few times, and felt the insane buzz of innovation there, I love Mary’s typically reductionist characterisation of China as simply “Volume” + “Innovation”. The volume is obviously the people, supply of labour and range of ideas; and the innovation is the sheer will to innovate (including innovating other people’s pre-existing ideas) at pace, and without a care for convention. For me, this culture spawns so much more new stuff that just feels so exciting and brazen: like a taxi app that lets you push to talk to the driver and bribe him to pick you up first. Hailo! looks tired in comparison.

9. Every generation has its formative years, moments, defining memories. And as Steve Jobs said, it’s easier to connect the dots looking back than forwards. But it is dead interesting to see what global events have spawned the intense sense of entrepreneurialism that surrounds us today. Sure it’s inspired by big IPOs, $1b apps and tech-biz glamour. But it’s also inspired by the fact that this gen have grown up during a period of rapid change, disruption and destabilisation in which anything is possible with a phone (or – worse – pair of box cutters). And whilst the hate figures of the last ten years include deranged ‘terrorists’, greedy bankers and dodgy politicians, there’s a new generation of role models emerging like Zuck who appear to be genuinely driven by a desire to change the way the world works for the better. Let’s hope these guys and girls get better with age, not worse.

10. Finally, some finance. The stuff that keeps it all together. LinkedIn’s gross margins are off the chart. This is what tech can do. And deep down, whilst we’re in it for the love, not the money, it’s the money that lets us do what we love. And the amazing thing about technology is that when it gets it right it really does create wealth at an extraordinary pace and scale. And from my limited understanding of politics and economics, wealth lifts people out of poverty and that’s a good thing.

So there you have it. For me, Mary’s presentations are always a cause for optimism about all the opportunity ahead. And this one is no different. Sure we need to tread carefully – there’s lots we need to be careful about. But for a moment, let’s let our minds wonder and consider all that can be in the exciting world greased by innovation and volume.

If you want to talk to The App Business about how we could help you take advantage of all the opportunity ahead, and steal a march on your competition through business-changing software, feel free to drop me an email: Click Here

What possible link could there be between philosophy and software engineering?

As a philosophy graduate turned developer, it’s a question I get quite a lot, and one that bothers me for two reasons: Firstly because it implies a fundamental unconnectedness between the two disciplines and secondly, because it’s impossible to answer without providing a well-considered 500 word summary. Hence this blog post.

Philosophy and IT criss-cross in all kinds of ways, but the one I’ll focus on here is how a philosophical style of thinking can be brought to bear on the problems of application design.  To “philosophise” about something is simply to think clearly about it, questioning assumptions and resolving ambiguities. A classic example is the problem of personal identity: think about what the word “Elvis” refers to. On the surface, the answer seems obvious – it refers to the human being with the quiff and sideburns who sang “Hound Dog”. But let’s don our philosophical hats and consider what would happen if we were somehow able to switch Elvis’ brain with mine. Where is Elvis now? The fat guy in the jumpsuit or the tall one with the glasses? Suddenly, it isn’t obvious what a “person” is at all – some kind of animal? A brain? A soul?

I’m not going to attempt to resolve this issue here, and raise it only to exemplify the kind of assumption-busting philosophical mindset under discussion. In many professions this kind of thinking isn’t necessary – everyone, from physicists to fishermen, tend to work within a fixed paradigm, with only the occasional trailblazer daring to ask “What if the Sun doesn’t go round the Earth?” or “What would happen if we chucked a stick of dynamite in the water?” And now we reach my central thesis: software professionals do have to ask these kinds of questions, and they have to ask them all the time.

Let’s suppose that we’ve been asked to build a website that displays information about superheroes. Our requirements state that we need to display the name of each superhero’s alter ego (if any) as well as a summary of the superhero’s life. We could take the spec at face value and hack out a naive solution in a few hours… or we could ponder the problem in a little more depth.

Consider Zorro. Zorro has appeared in numerous films, books and comics over the decades, which raises immediate problems for our “life history”, as we can assume conflicting accounts of Zorro’s life across the various portrayals. The Antonio Banderas incarnation complicates things further as he has a different alter ego to other Zorros and shares his Zorroverse with the Anthony Hopkins version (watch the film if you’re confused). Clearly there are a bunch of interrelated entities here but can we isolate an essential Zorroness in a single one of them and figure out how they all hang together? Superman is even worse, with something like five parallel Supermen spread across co-existing multiple realities in the comic book world alone.

Clearly there’s a lot more to this problem space than meets the eye. Just as with the Elvis example, an apparently simple problem conceals assumptions and ambiguities that demand resolution, and both problems have corresponding problem spaces of entities and relationships to be broken down and analysed. To make headway with either requires the high-level ability to understand a problem space and uncover its subtleties, and the low-level analysis skills to then resolve them i.e. the skills of a philosopher. And every time we are faced with a new project, we have to deal with these issues all over again – there is no comfy paradigm to fall back on.

Who should actually take on this job within a project is an interesting question in itself, but it’s clear that someone of a philosophical bent is required. Looked at this way, software is the obvious career choice for the philosophy graduate and I for one would welcome any philosophers looking to work on The App Business engineering team.

(NB: applicants may also be required to be really really good at computer programming).

We’ve all seen the show. And, love it or hate it, The X Factor continues to be the biggest series on Saturday night TV. As sponsors of the X Factor, TalkTalk wanted to create the latest and most challenging instalment of their user-generated strategy across web and mobile, giving fans the chance to take part in their very own music video production. The website, Facebook and iPhone app gave users the chance to create and star in their own music video which they could then share with friends via Facebook, Twitter or Google+ and the best of which could even star on TV.

With CHI as the creative lead and MPC running the TV production, The App Business’ challenge was to design and develop the Web platform, giving fans the opportunity to create their very own music video – via the Web, iOS or Facebook – and then view a high-quality video composition of it in real time – all of this in just 8 weeks.

Concepting, designing and building a product of this kind, in such a short turnaround, was never going to be easy, so we had to make sure our efforts were focused on the areas that mattered most. Here are five benchmarks we set ourselves for success:

1. Performance at scale and speed: Saturday night viewers are a demanding lot so making sure the system was lightning-fast was our top priority. Working with Brightcove Video Cloud, we developed a custom solution which allowed us to deliver high definition user videos in real-time. A scalable system ensured we could deliver a consistently flawless user-experience, with no buffering on playback.

2. Seamless multi platform experience: Creating a seamless user-experience across web, mobile web, Facebook and a native iOS app was essential for success. Given the time pressure, we had to identify the right balance of native app technology and re-usable web technology to create a high quality experience that could scale cost-effectively across devices. And it meant working with trusted partners including Amazon Web Services, Facebook and New Relic to ensure easy integration. In particular, using Brightcove’s video technology allowed us to create and upload video assets across desktop and mobile as soon as possible.

3. High-quality user-generated content: User-generated content, while obviously a fantastic way to drive engagement, also comes with a quality challenge. We wanted to create a high-gloss final product that would give users something they were genuinely proud to share, and of course, something worthy of a primetime TV spot.

The first step was to control the area in which the content was pushed (the TV screen head) and wrap that with a high-production value layer (the music video). Then with high definition source content and adaptive HTML5 video playback, we could ensure that users were always viewing the best quality content that they could support.

4. A scalable solution: We knew that we’d see big traffic spikes during the shows, but we could only guess on the volume. The system was designed to be extremely flexible, having the ability to easily scale upwards of 1000 percent during peak periods but importantly coming back down just as quickly thereafter. Managing the service levels in this way meant that budgets could go that much further too.

5. Effortless user experience: The X Factor audience is as broad as they come. We wanted the experience to be simple and intuitive for users, regardless of whether they were eight or eighty years old. With a platform-sensitive strategy, we remained focused on the core features, we said no to the unnecessary and endeavoured to make the creation process as straight-forward as possible.

The results

After several late nights at The App Business and a lot of hard work from everyone involved, we launched on schedule and were really chuffed with the results.

- Over half a million visits served, with 40,000 app downloads.

- 130,000 videos were submitted, with 300,000 video views.

- 67,000 minutes of earned viewing off the back of a TV sponsorship.

We love a high pressure challenge at The App Business and TalkTalk X Factor was certainly one of those. By working agile, focusing on a seamless user-experience and working with the right partners, we were able to pull together and deliver a multi-platform integrated solution, for Saturday night’s biggest TV show, in 8 just weeks.

Strategy intern José Carbajo shares his first impressions of life at The App Business (TAB).

How I found myself at TAB

Like many arts students before me I found myself lost in the limbo of post university life armed only with vague intentions to work in a ‘cool’ industry. The world of marketing and advertising seemed like the best place to start but after speculatively applying to several graduate schemes I wasn’t really getting anywhere.

I had heard some useful hints along the way that the world of mobile technology was the future - and sensing the allure of a ‘.com’ style gold-rush, I changed my tactics and applied to several digital agencies to try and get a piece of the action. Soon enough I found myself interning at TAB.

My first impressions of the TAB culture

My first impressions were that this was a company that had embraced a David versus Goliath mentality – poaching and coercing the world’s biggest brands and blue-chip companies into reinventing their businesses though technology. Big players like Unilever, News International and Sony were not only trusting TAB to create industry-changing apps but also fully revamp their back-end systems to make these products ready for today’s mobile world. Pretty looking UI it seems, was only the tip of the iceberg.

I quickly learned that TAB is not concerned about being the first at what they do, but about being the best at what they do. This culture of self improvement is evident in TAB’s weekly talks, during which a different member of staff shares something new that they’ve learned – all with the aim of sharing knowledge to improve the way TAB does business.

My role at The App Business

Unlike my previous work stints in larger companies, I didn’t suffer the hum drum of photocopying duties and feeling bad for continuously nagging my supervisor for more interesting work to do (a condition I like to call ‘intern guilt syndrome’).

Instead I was quite literally thrown into the thick of it, and given a place in the middle of the strategy desk. Not only does this discourage mindless internet procrastination, but it means that I’m privy to senior discussions that an intern in a larger company would not be. This gives me a 360 degree view of how TAB is run.

Learning the ropes of The App Business

Although I was completely alien to the language of software development when I started, my colleagues were more than willing to patiently explain the ins and outs of how an app is made, from the initial exploration session through to building and testing. After a couple of months I was getting to grips with writing business-driven development tests and feature design discussions.

What I’m looking to learn next

After four months at TAB I still feel that I have so much to learn. The beauty of this line of work is that although I am surrounded by experts, the relative infancy of the app industry means that they too are learning to adapt to the new challenges presented by our increasingly tech-driven world. And I’m content knowing that TAB are here to train me, not entertain me.

We were interested to see what Facebook will offer with its latest SDK and what this means for the development and user experience of apps that integrate with Facebook in the future.

Facebook is clearly putting a lot of effort into providing pre-built user interface elements that mobile developers can readily use. These new elements provide a slick, clear and effective user experience. The only downside is that they feel like Facebook and not like your app, often taking the user out of your app and into Facebook.

Here’s the low-down on each new feature specifically, and what the new SDK means for apps and mobile developers:

1. Pre-built Facebook ‘share’ screen is a smart way to save on costs, if you don’t mind the inconsistent look & feel.

With the new SDK, a pre-built ‘Facebook share screen’ can be pulled up from directly within an app. Facebook calls it the Native ‘share’ dialog box. This screen will allow users to preview their Facebook post, add a comment, tag friends from their friends’ list, tag places from Facebook’s location-picker and select who’s going to be able to see their post.

All of this was possible before, but app developers had to build the interface themselves using Facebook’s Open Graph API. The new screen means that there are now three ways app users can share something on Facebook.

a. The iOS6 Simple Share Sheet doesn’t require an app to be logged-in with Facebook, but doesn’t support friend and location-tagging or app attribution, so the story will not be attributed to your app when it appears on Facebook.

b. A Native Share Dialog (new in SDK 3.5) doesn’t require an app to be logged in with Facebook and does support friend and location-tagging, and app attribution. The downfall with this option is that the dialog box looks like Facebook and not like your app so it makes for an inconsistent user-experience.

c. Facebook’s custom-built share interface requires a bit of extra work but supports app attribution, tagging and you can use your own app interface.

Essentially, the new Native Share Dialog box is a useful pre-built element for your app. Use it when you can. However, we would still recommend creating a bespoke interface if you want your app to offer its own consistent user-experience, or for example, if your app concept requires the Facebook stories to be published from the back-end app server rather than from the iOS app itself.

2. New Facebook permission boxes are converting 5% better, however, we still prefer the old one.

A lot of users drop out of apps when asked for permission to access their Facebook data or publish stories on their behalf. Facebook has re-designed these permission boxes to provide a clearer, more ‘trustworthy’ experience for the user and is seeing a 5% increase in conversion rates.

One thing to note is that Facebook has now separated ‘access data’ and ‘publish’ permissions. You can’t ask for all permissions on the same screen any more. Our advice here is to ask for the ‘publish’ permissions in context: as the user is about to post something rather than upfront.

These new boxes look great, but like the old ones, they don’t keep the user in the app. When you ask for Facebook permissions, the user is automatically taken out of the app and into the Facebook app, and then back into your app again.

A simpler option, now available on iOS6, is to ask for Facebook permissions directly from within your app with a pop-up dialog box.

3. You can now post documents to Facebook, making a lot of new app ideas possible.

Facebook is introducing a Google Docs-like feature where users can create, host and share documents directly on Facebook. This means that your app will be able to create, edit and share these documents on the user’s behalf.

4. New Object Application Programming Interface (API) means you no longer need a back-end to post bespoke stories to Facebook.

Until now, apps needed a back-end server to publish custom Open Graph stories on Facebook, but with Facebook’s new object API, these Open Graph actions can be posted without a back-end server.

5. New object browser provides a nice view into what your apps are posting to Facebook, but you still need a content management system.

The new admin interface will let you see a list of all the Open Graph actions that users have published on Facebook through your app. You can browse the list, but not delete or moderate content, so it is by no means a full Content Management System but is still quite helpful.

It’s good to see that Facebook is updating its SDK to enhance the integrated app experience and make developers lives a little easier. And while Facebook is not quite there yet in terms of a consistent and seamless user experience, it’s definitely on the right track with these new features.

Post your thoughts and comments on Facebook’s new SDK 3.5 for iOS below.