Mobilefest 2013 - Short Report

This article presents a short story about Mobilefest 'e that took place on March 22-23, to which my friend and I managed to get a free ticket as information partners (we represented MobiTree magazine ). Unfortunately, I managed to collect my thoughts and write this text not immediately after the festival, so I apologize.

“Mobile technologies” are two magic words, in terms of their diversity, comparable only to “nanotechnologies” and the prefix “quasi” (about which no one knows what it is, but everyone knows that this is very, very cool). So, "mobile technology" is something like that. This can mean both the new Nvidia’s one hundred and twenty-core processor, and smartphone control technology using the eyes, and a program that helps you determine the contents of the bottle that was just empty with the camera. Therefore, it is worth saying that it was not very clear to us what to expect from Mobilefest 2013. No. We absolutely was not a damn thing clear, the only thing we knew for sure was that there were cookies, coffee and mulled wine waiting for us there. And before the start of the first presentation, no one explained anything - we saw only some people who obviously did not care for us - everyone knows each other, and we pass by. So everything is dedicated to the kind people who gave us cookies. And the guy with the emoticon on the back of his head - he really made our day. Who cares what happened next, please under the cat. Careful, pictures!
')

The first day

It all started in the morning. The subway train rumbled past somewhere into the darkness, as if Charon had taken me through the Styx and headed back for the next miserable one.
Sorry, did not want. But it’s impossible to refrain from saying that in the best traditions of the magazine we were looking for a bus that stood under our nose for half an hour and almost were late. However, oddly enough, it was the only case in two days when we did not have time to go somewhere. An hour later, we were in Yakhroma, a ski resort near Moscow, an absolutely unexpected center of civilization in the middle of the countryside, where even Wi-Fi was, and fast ... In any case, until a few dozen conference participants started using it.
As soon as we entered and registered, we were given a voluminous package with various printed materials from information partners. Of course, we did not have time to print our leaflets, so we could not push ourselves.



Calling what came next was not entirely correct. As we were immediately announced, the norms of behavior can and should be violated, only it is not worth offending anyone. That did not stop immediately quarreling representatives of Google and Yandex. Although it would seem, well, what is it that forty-odd percent of Yandex search queries fall on Android devices? But the face of Google in Russia was not happy about this state of affairs. Although a person who looks like Mavrodi, you can forgive the inability to lose.



The first hour (the first twenty minutes are available in two parts here and there ) the event was generally the richest in amusing situations. Everything - Microsoft, Google, Yandex, RIM - proved their superiority over their opponents, and all by their strange methods. It turned out, perhaps, only at Evil Corporation aka Google - and that, it seems, due to the self-confidence and the Hawaiian shirt of their representative. But it also looked strange against the background of the fact that half of those present were not only iPhone / iPad, but also various versions of the MacBook.

Although nothing particularly new to us at this moment did not say. RIM is expected to continue to develop BlackBerry as a media platform (as opposed to the initial orientation to the business), and their new smartphones notice the movements of your eyes. It is not clear whether it is necessary to prepare to pretend to be an innocent look, so that the interlocutor does not suspect you of lying in the chat, although it’s still far from complete control - the maximum that is worth counting on are applications that notice when you don’t look and show the language ... Uh ... Suspending work. Blind-print lovers are indignant.
Google is still preparing a redesign for the Play Market, although this is no longer news now. And about Google Glass almost do not speak. In general, the first hour, their representative was limited to snide remarks to all and everyone and clearly enjoyed the superiority.
Microsoft is doing something weird. No, this is definitely not news, but still surprising. And now - their representative assured that a small number of applications in the store is a positive side not only for developers (this is just understandable), but also for users - for them, you see, it's easier to choose. Especially this statement looked at against the background of the firm confidence of all those present that at the moment the main thing that the mobile platform has is the application.
The position of Yandex seemed to be the most adequate: yes, of course, Google is still inferior, although take a look at the statistics - yes, half of the requests from Android devices, and in Russia, even more, etc., etc. Simple and clear plan to capture the world.

Then, after the next coffee break, donuts and other pleasures of life, all went to three chalets. They were divided by topic, and we went to GameDev - the subject of the magazine obliges. And yes, right near the entrance to the chalet, hung a huge icicle, which, fortunately, no one broke the skull. And also there was a Koshak spinning around, which also entered our little photo report. We walked in, took off our shoes and ... it was here that we finally saw that we could associate with the word “conference” - some serious uncle came out and told how all is well with him and how bad everyone else will have if they do not heed immediately his commandments.



The first speaker, a representative of the publisher GameInsight , had seven ... That is, eight, but in fact, still seven, for the eighth is so, not a commandment, but just some unwritten rule. And everything would be fine, but there was no point in identifying eight separate parts - everything was logical, everything flowed from one another, it was possible to make one whole text. However, the “Seven rules of earning on mobile games” sounds more pathetic than ... Than anything that could be used as a title to the report. Especially to the report explaining why management should be adapted to the touch screen, and copies of a variety of successful games (such as Angry Birds) do not bring a lot of money. Also, it was said that the freemium model leads in the amount of money collected.
Then a Google representative came and told the same thing, but with a lot of technical details about the need to be present in the store screenshots of different sizes and adapting the application for a bunch of screens (such is the harsh Android). He was also puzzled by the inability to make a screencast without a root and promised to talk with colleagues on this topic.

Oddly enough, it took most of the day. More that day we could not hear anything interesting, and we left, looking forward to the second day.

Second day

The second day began very funny. Briefly outline the picture: we are standing with a friend, next to a young man with a blue sign "Mobilefest Transfer". We were the only ones who paid attention to him, not counting the old woman, who was very interested in the color of the tablet and saw the propaganda of homosexual relations in it. After five minutes and a couple of meters of nerve fibers of the happy owner of the tablet, she left, and we were left alone with thoughts of the radical attitude of Iranians towards sexual minorities. Then, finding the bus without incident, we went to Yakhroma, hoping that the second day would be no less interesting than the first.


So far, almost empty conference room.

After the morning coffee we were again gathered in the conference room. And the first topic was “Gamification”. Its essence is to force the user to do certain actions with the help of badges. The first speaker was taken quite seriously. He represented the generation service of these very badges (who are interested, welcome ). Further reports were received coldly. The public actively stated “this is not gamification, but simply a geosocial game,” and so on. There were even caustic questions like “Where do badges end, and life begins?” Or “When you get up in the morning and wear slippers, do you give yourself a badge?”.


Test badge issued to participants of the festival.

Further it was more interesting. Of course, after all, investors came out and began to talk about how they invest, where they invest, and, most importantly, how much they invest. I especially remember the company i-Free , which also played the iPad Mini. And then the long-awaited final of the hackathon began and the winners were determined. Each team submitted an application, which she managed to write in 48 hours of continuous coding. Many interesting things were presented, for example, a Wingsuit simulator written in Unity, an application for creating audio and video notes (an example of work can be seen here ), an application for borrowing money from friends ... After the presentation of the applications, the jury retired to a meeting room, and we were forced to wait 30 minutes. Having sat on bash with this time, we were looking forward to announcing the winners, who were given iPads.

Well, a few mountains in the end:


This Mobilefest 2013 is over. He brought a lot of emotions, information, and, of course, a lot of positive :) I would like to say a huge thank you to the organizers for the tickets provided and wish them success in holding such wonderful festivals in the future.