Ask HN: Who launched something in December?
I was impressed by the work done for "Launch an App Month" in November: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1773398
and the results: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1962465
So, I thought it might be time to ask again. What products were launched by HNers in December?
It's an iPhone app that does raster to vector conversion similar to Adobe Live Trace. It started out with a friend saying 'I want an app that does this'. My response was 'ok, cool' and then 'wow, I have absolutely no idea how'. It was challenging and lots of fun (what more can you ask for). I used a computer vision library for some of the image filtering but ended up having to write the blob extraction algorithm from scratch. The final version (the one that shipped) came to me in a bout of insomnia.
I actually had it out a few days before Xmas and found a bug that had somehow made it through my testing (and Apple's) and made the unpleasant decision of pulling it until it was sorted. Since they lock down over Xmas I missed the best sales of the year. The fixed version went up just a few hours after iTC went back online (they were graciously fast approving the fixed version).
I launched a business book: "The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business." Basically, business fundamentals for hackers.
Not technically inspired by Launch An App Month; when the story about Delicious broke, I sat down and write a clone that evening. First line of code to launch was < 24 hours.
http://www.carbuzz.co.uk - Not strictly launched in Dec, but v.late November. A site to make it easier for people to choose which new car to buy.
An API based website thumbnail service with Amazon like pricing and without random or account based size restrictions.
http://www.locacha.com A seamless chat room that connects you to the 30 closest people geographically. No sign up and anonymous.
An application hosting platform for any language, any database. We host a whole bunch of HN and YC products.
I launched http://www.cookitlocal.com (serving Metro Vancouver only right now) Dec 21st.
I've got a couple users, but found it much easier to get people to sign up for a newsletter I ran to promote the site. The newsletter offered seasonal recipes and links to find the required ingredients locally.
http://ohboard.com - Basically, a piece of whiteboard, but for Google Chrome.
It is my attempt to learn more about the business aspect because I've been developing stuff but barely handles serious business matter. So I am trying to get better and better on marketing, promotion, customer service, etc.
Heh, I barely missed the mark, but just launched Facto.me (http://facto.me)
I stand guilty of Fresh Faces app http://itunes.apple.com/app/id407376811 for iOS and http://headthirst.com as the rally point.
Have the whole suite of Faces apps waiting approval.
I launched http://www.dealzfull.com in November and http://www.readevery.com in December HNers had a ton of feedback for ReadEvery. Now I am implementing them one by one
I launched http://www.dinnerdiner.com/ It's my very first Rails project: a service that helps you find restaurants close to you (using HTML5 Geolocation API and the very good geokit-rails gem).
Suggestions and reviews appreciated :)
Disposable email accounts.
Give any email@boog.me and go check your inbox for the email you need, then forget about it. We take care of all the spam they will send you. Keep your real inbox spam free!
I created and launched MusicMenu in the last few days of December, it's just a little weekend project.
You design a three course menu of music for others to listen to.
Allows easy autoscaling of heroku dynos and workers. It's in for some major updates in early jan as well (realtime autoscaling, better pricing model).
http://app.timessquareball.net Launched and went off without a hitch. Should be good fun for years to come.. (suggestions for next year welcome!)
We released integrated bill splitting and coupons on the FaceCash iPhone application, soon to follow on Android and BlackBerry.
I hope it will become a place where people can find ready made to do lists for a wide variety of common events and situations.
a Hacker News-like site in Hebrew. Did this as a learning excercise and it's yet to pick up steam. Israeli HNers, where are you?
I launched http://typeroulette.com : a fun way to practice touch typing using tweets. Now, I need to spread the word!
We launched WikiPanda, what we believe to be the best Wikipedia browser for the Windows Phone:
I wouldn't call it a launch but I made it during my break. It's microblogging for haikus.
http://QuickPrez.com Share and comment documents in real time with your website visitors.
http://0x01.in nothing big - just an online sketch pad that looks like an old terminal.
http://flightlite.com - live flight tracker with Google Earth integration.
Not fully launched yet, but it is in private beta: http://www.mubdo.com/
For dog owners: Dogs barking all over the web
http://zuupy.com - Group deals add-on for retailers
Relaunched vBulletin Skins website
Business map creation app