Sadly, the Washington state House of Representatives is close to passing legislation that would apply the state sales tax (currently 6.5%) to professional “custom software” and “customization of prewritten software” services. This goes far beyond just us “geeks;” any company in Washington that uses software customization services (e.g. hires someone to design or tweak their website, their student record system, their electronic medical records, etc.) will now have to pay sales tax for those services.

Here are the two scenarios that HB 3191 inflicts on all Washington companies that hire contractors for their software-related needs:

Scenario 1. If they hire an in-state consultant or consulting company, the in-state consultant or consulting company will have to collect the sales tax and pay it to the state.

Scenario 2. If they hire an out-of-state consultant, they will have to pay use tax (paid in lieu of sales tax) on their next tax bill. Again, ANY company in Washington will suddenly have to pay at least 6.5% more for these services.

Damaging the long-term health of our state economy is not an acceptable solution for remedying short term problems. In order for Washington’s economy to thrive, our businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, need the support from our elected officials.

The  Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) has been lobbying hard to delete this provision since it came up last Monday. As members of Washington’s high-tech community, all of us here at Übermind would like to express our adamant opposition to the proposed  House Bill 3191, Part 15 (starts on page 90), again, which proposes to apply sales tax to “custom software” and “customization of prewritten software.”

To be abundantly clear, any company in Washington will suddenly have to pay at least 6.5% more for custom software services. Here are a few of the important points that surround this thoughtless bill:

• “Professional Service,” not “Retail Sales” – custom software is a professional service no different than the services rendered by attorneys, engineers, management consultants and other similar professions; reclassifying custom software to a “retail service” is simply not logical
• Increases an Already Heavy Tax Burden – requiring custom software companies to charge their customers state sales tax will increase the costs and taxes for all types of Washington businesses
• Increases Offshoring – large customers of custom software companies will seek to avoid cost increases from state sales tax by using offshore providers, which will lead to job loss among Washington’s custom software providers
• Businesses Will Leave – custom software providers may decide to relocate their offices to a neighboring state to avoid the burden of collecting sales tax revenue for the state
• Headache for Consumers – companies that use out-of-state custom software providers will be burdened by use tax, which must be paid in lieu of state sales tax that out-of-state providers do not charge
• Endless Ambiguity –  the Dept. of Revenue and taxpayers will find themselves looped into endless discussions and arguments over tax liability; for example, should a web design firm be considered a “custom software” provider?
• Poor Classification – unlike sellers of “digital goods” (e.g. MP3’s from Amazon), the majority of custom software providers are not set up to receive payments from clients via credit card; implementing new e-commerce systems allowing sales tax collection will, again, be burdensome and costly

Not only is House Bill 3191 bad for all consumers of custom software services, it is also highly out of line with the positions of all the other 49 states. Although we are not tax attorneys here at Übermind, our research was unable to find any state currently charging sales tax on custom software services.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this important information. If you share our belief that this legislation would be damaging to the people of the great state of Washington, then we and the WTIA humbly ask that you please contact your state Representative and state Senator today to express your opposition to taxing custom software programming services.

In addition, please pass the message on to the sponsors of this bill: Representative Hunter (hunter.ross@leg.wa.gov) and Speaker of the House Frank Chopp (chopp.frank@leg.wa.gov).

Here’s hoping that we Übies won’t have to move to Oregon!

- The Übermind Blog Team

So why are we talking about this app now? Because all six of the highly popular Rick Steves’ apps are now on sale for just $2.99 on the App Store!

It’s easy to see why so many people love these apps – what’s not to love about having European travel expert Rick Steves in your pocket and being able to easily navigate some of Europe’s most popular destinations?

So, if you’ve been wanting to go to Europe but would like to avoid a fiasco like Clark Griswold, simply download the app for the cities you plan on visiting. The six apps include:

• Ancient Rome Tour - Rick highlights the best of Ancient Rome, taking you through the Colosseum’s exterior and interior, under the Arch of Constantine, and into the Forum’s Main Square. See the temple of Julius Ceaser, the Curia (Senate House), Caligula’s Palace on Palatine Hill, and much more.
• St. Peter’s Basilica Tour - This tour guides you through the best of this grand church, including the basilica’s atrium, nave, main altar, apse, and the history of Pope John XXIII and St Peter’s Square. Cap off your tour with a climb to the dome where you’ll take in a spectacular view of Rome and Vatican City.
• Versailles Tour - Trace history’s royal footsteps as Rick guides you through the best of Versailles including the Royal Opera House, the Chapel, the King’s and Queen’s Wings, and the Hall of Mirrors. You’ll bask in the expansive Greco-Roman themed Gardens and visit the the Domain de Marie-Antoinette.
• Louvre Tour - This tour guides you through the best of the Louvre Museum, including Greek and Roman statues, Medieval alter pieces, ancient artifacts, and French Romantic and Italian Renaissance paintings. You’ll view such famed pieces as the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa and get an interactive history lesson.
• Orsay Museum Tour - This tour guides you through the art of the Musée d’Orsay with in-depth coverage of the museum’s wings of Conservative Art, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Primitives, and Art Nouveau. You’ll view famed works by Whistler, Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh (to name a few).
• Historic Paris Walk - This tour guides you through the best of historical Paris, including Notre-Dame, Saint-Chapelle, Medieval Paris, St. Séverin, the Latin Quarter, and the Pont Neuf, Paris’ oldest standing bridge. Your tour ends where Paris began — on the Seine River — the perfect place to relax after a long day of walking.

Whether you’re searching for a hotel, restaurant, the nearest bathroom (or WC as our European friends call it), or looking for the best tour information around, these apps should be your favorite pocket tour guides, as they are for so many other iPhone and iPod touch users. All six apps are entirely self-contained on your iPhone or iPod touch, meaning that they do not require a cellular or Wi-Fi connection and save you from roaming charges of other internet-based travel apps.

We hope all you Über-Blog readers will take advantage of this sweet deal. If not, just remember that unlike our Rick Steves’ tour apps, the local Italian or French tour guides don’t come with user reviews.

- The Übermind Blog Team

The audience was mostly comprised of investors, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists and analysts [yawn], but we suppose we need those business-minded types to keep the lights on and the latte coming for us bloggers. It seems like the business guys had fun though; take a look at the picture below and you see Über Biz Dev VP Donald Brady on a panel with some other business folk you may recognize:

Could you name them all? Well, just for the record, you’re looking at CEO of Pandora, the COO of Zillow, VP of Marketing from Flurry, and the CEO of JumpTap. If you’re not excited about the thought of all that tech sector brain power in one place, just forward the post on to your biz dev team and they’ll certainly get a kick out of it.

Without going too deep into a widely debated topic, we here at Übermind see room for both free and paid apps. Some apps are products in and of themselves, some are merely brand extensions. Take Best Camera for example. This high-powered iPhone photo editing and sharing app lets you do something (edit and share photos) that you could not easily do before. Best Camera is product (in spite of the fact it extends our friend Chase Jarvis’ brand).

Now, take a look at Dinner Spinner, an app we developed for Allrecipes.com, the world’s largest social network of food and entertaining enthusiasts. Dinner Spinner helps to extend Allrecipes’ brand in an already crowded space, thus, Dinner Spinner is free.

That’s all making sense to you, right?

Time for a coffee!

- The Übermind Blog Team

WithinReach is committed to the cause of ensuring optimum health for all families in Washington. Through their work throughout the state, WithinReach is able to offer a number of valuable services that enables all families in Washington to have the resources necessary for optimal health.

WithinReach helps connect families with health insurance, nutrition resources, family planning, child care, and immunizations. The importance of this kind of assistance cannot be understated as Within Reach is currently serving more than 160,000 families in Washington every year!

Working with the great people at WithinReach is one of the many ways we at Übermind show our appreciation and support for organizations making a difference in our community. To learn more about WithinReach, visit their site.

- The Übermind Blog Team

Just kidding, guys (interns can be so sensitive).

Jeff is a top notch design student from Lake Washington Technical College and Adam is an ambitious young business student from Seattle Pacific University and is here as our marketing intern.  We’re excited to have them both in the office and, judging by their picture, they’re really excited to be here as well.  They’ll be with us for the next ten weeks or so in what promises to be a learning experience for everyone involved.

That’s enough from us, below are short bios from each of them to introduce themselves:

Jeff Kindred (Design Intern):

I was born and raised in Snohomish and that’s where I spent most of my days just relaxing and whatnot. One day I was shooting some hoops outside my school when a couple of guys who weren’t up to much good, started making trouble in my neighborhood…

Seriously though, I have lived in Washington my whole life.  I got interested in graphic and web design in high-school however I never really pursued it until a little while ago.  I enrolled myself in classes at Lake Washington Technical College and took courses to update my skills from what I knew 10 years ago.  I got asked to be an intern here at Übermind and hopefully the rest is history, or present, whatever!

Adam Daniel (Marketing Intern):

I’m a senior at Seattle Pacific University majoring in International Business with a Spanish minor. I was born in San Diego but have lived all of my memorable life in Washington, primarily in my hometown of Tacoma. I’ve studied abroad twice in both Spain and Central America and am particularly interested in social business in Latin America. I am a man of many talents and soon to be marketing guru under the tutelage of the Übermind marketing team.

Having Jeff and Adam around has been awesome, they’re showing lots of promise in design and marketing respectively.  We know what you’re probably thinking, but don’t be getting any ideas – they’re OUR interns.

- The Übermind Blog Team

So, the iPad. If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, well, you’ve come to the right place! A few of our Übies were sought out by the likes of Ad Age and CNN, before and after Apple’s iPad announcement, to shed some light on the “tablet computing” platform.

Prior to the iPad, many were speculating what other e-book / e-reader makers had up their sleeves in order to bring their devices up to par with Apple’s offering. Marketing and Media news giant, Advertising Age, spoke with Donald Brady, VP of Business Development here at Übermind, for their article, “App Developers Cautious on Kindle“:

The biggest problem: Amazon refuses to divulge the number of Kindles it has sold. In an analyst report, Citigroup estimates Amazon sold at least 2 million Kindles in 2009, accounting for about 70% of all e-reader sales. That’s a small fraction of the number of iPhones and iPod Touches in circulation. For that reason and others, Donald Brady, director-business development at apps consultancy Übermind, is doubtful that many developers will rush to make apps for the Kindle.

“The market size would be too small unless Amazon was underwriting it,” Mr. Brady said. “Plus, there’s too much demand for iPhone and Android apps right now.”

Speaking of Ad Age, be sure to check out their Digital Conference in New York City (April 13 & 14) where Übermind will be presenting on… you guessed it, the iPad!

Feeling sorry for the Kindle? Yeah, we are too; when you compare the Kindle to the super-chic iPad, which makes almost all hardware from the past few years look like something from the stone age, it’s not even close given the iPad’s overall usefulness and wow-factor. Here’s what you need to know about the iPad:

• Bigger is better – 9.7-inch LED-backlit widescreen (vs. iPhone’s 3.5-inch display)
• Viewing for one or more – 178 degree viewing angle thanks to IPS (in-plane switching) technology
• For the business user – PDF creation functionality built into the operating system, open to third-party apps
• For the home user – books, games, and more
• Think “longer” – up to 10 hours of battery life means allows for extended user experiences beyond what the iPhone has offered to date
• Make ‘em move – responds to motion using the accelerometer, making apps more engaging
• Sharing simplified – desktop file syncing for third party apps

Here at Übermind, we see a lot of opportunity for the iPad to establish a new niche in the personal computing segment as well as the “shared-computing” segment. For example, families might use their iPads to bring all their favorite board games along when on vacation, or perhaps creative technology companies will give their blogging teams (hint-hint) an iPad or two in an effort to foster total weblog-domination from anywhere in the office thanks to the iPad Dock accessories!

Seeking to better understand what app developers see in this new outlet for development, CNN reached out to Ryan Peterson, Über-marketing guru, after the launch of the iPad. Here’s a little something-something from “iPad apps likely to be bigger, pricier” on CNN.com:

Ryan Peterson, a spokesman for the app-development company Übermind, said developers at his company went to work on iPad apps as soon as they heard about the announcement. “It’s been a hotbed of activity,” he said.

Apps for doctors, financial apps and shopping apps will work especially well on the larger screen, he said. “This is going to open up worlds of apps and things and new processes — and things we never even considered doing on a device like that,” he said.

This has certainly been one of our longer posts, but hopefully you found a few takeaways, especially if you’re the person your company is looking to for some thought-leadership in the form of an iPad strategy. If you’re still a little overwhelmed, feel free to send us an email – pr (at) ubermind (dot) com – we’re here to help!

- The Übermind Blog Team

Welp, we can’t really blame you – just look at this app!

Golfr is the easy-to-use golf course information app that turns the iPhone or iPod Touch into the ultimate course directory for over 15,000 courses – a truly useful tool for all golfers, at all skill levels. Think of Golfr as your handy-dandy golf course concierge; always there to give you the course details you want, when you want them. For more reading information, view the official Golfr press release.

Want to see Golfr in action, but not sure about paying for it? Well, we’ve got some good news for you! Golfr is 100% free and one of our Über iPhone developers was nice enough to make us a spiffy video, check it out:

Be sure to check out the Golfr website, aptly named www.golfrapp.com. Everyone knows we Übies do a lot of iPhone app development, but that’s just part of what we do here at Übermind. Web application and backend system development have been our bread and butter since 1999; one of our first clients was Apple, who we are still working with to this very day!

Golfr is also on Twitter and Facebook for all you tweeters and frienders out there!

Here’s to hitting ‘em straight and long!

- The Übermind Blog Team

2010 – well, at least the first month or so – will certainly be the year of Android, but not necessarily the way some have predicted. 2010 is the year where companies / brands will look at the Android platform and wonder, “Is Android ready for our product(s) / service(s) / clients?” A total valid question in the opinion of us humble Über-bloggers. The estimated first week sales from the mobile metric masters at Flurry paint an interesting picture:

With regard to the data above, Flurry points out that:

Nexus One was outsold by Droid by more than 12 times, myTouch 3G by 3 times and iPhone 3GS by a staggering 80 times, it’s worth noting there are significant differences in the marketing, distribution and perception of the device as revolutionary vs. evolutionary. In short, key business decisions and other factors related to the Nexus One launch make an “apples-to-apples” comparison difficult.

Google took a totally different, but totally Google-like, approach than many of its competitors by offering the Nexus One through a “soft” launch and web-only ordering. Though Google could have dropped the $100M that Verizon did for the DROID launch, they let bloggers and search engines control the marketing effort. Did it work? Well, it’s really too soon to tell, but given Google’s penetration on non-Android platforms, we think they are doing okay regardless of the seemingly low number of first week Nexus One sales.

If you’re reading this, we’d love to hear your questions and / or thoughts; drop us an email at pr (at) ubermind (dot) com if you’d life to talk more about this unique season for mobile apps.

As always, thanks for reading, we hope you learned something and / or found this data-driven post helpful!

- The Übermind Blog Team

A few Übies from the business development, marketing, and management teams made the trip from Seattle to Las Vegas for the event, which is basically tech heaven.

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably also been tracking all the CES tweets, reading up on gadget announcements, or have even watched some of the videos covering the event, which also means you share our excitement for the technology coming our way in 2010!

The myriad of ebook readers and “slates” at CES can’t seem to counter the anticipation and feeling that there must be something better coming, and that only Apple can deliver it. Though in the wake of CES, Apple’s “special” January 26th event will most likely center around Steve Jobs revolutionizing the way we work and communicate… yet again.

If you’d like a recap of the the biggest, best, and / or related news from CES, here are a few of our favorite links below for your reading and viewing pleasure:

• CruchGear, “Best of CES 2010“

• Fast Company, “Why Does Everything at CES Look Like an Android Phone?“

Sure, the iPhone has made touch-operation a gimmick often copied in the last couple of years. But for 2010, we’re starting to see OEMs take touch seriously into their design philosophy with more refined enclosures and smarter software integration. (Sorry, stylus-lovers. Your era is waning.)

• Mashable, “Parrot AR.Drone in the Air at CES” (Includes a really cool video!)

“For now it’s iPhone/iPod controlled, but Parrot plans to work to make the device available to other mobile platforms as well. What we couldn’t pry out of Parrot was a price, but the AR.Drone will launch sometime later this year.”

Also, for those of you thinking about getting a Nexus One, iPhone, etc., check out BillShrink’s infographic, “Nexus One vs iPhone, Droid & Palm Pre – Total Cost of Ownership“.

2010, you haven’t been around for very long, but you’re certainly shaping up to be one heck of a year!

- The Übermind Blog Team

In their “20 Favorite iPhone Apps of 2009“, Wired includes Best Camera for its ability to make photos from even the first- and second-generation iPhones “look awesome.”

They vision behind the development of Best Camera was to make shooting, editing, and sharing great photos easy; after reading Wired’s take on our app, we think it’s safe to say, “mission accomplished.” Check it out:

Best Camera grabs pictures from your iPhone camera roll, lets you process them and then share them via Twitter, Facebook and e-mail. A slick interface makes the process easy: A rolling strip of icons at the bottom of the screen contains your editing tools.

From all of us here at Übermind., your friendly Seattle iPhone developer, happy new year!!! We’re looking forward to continuing the conversation with you and bringing even more amazing, innovative, and game-changing software to you in 2010!

- The Übermind Blog Team

P.S. ~ You can always reach out to us – via email, pr (at) ubermind (dot) com, or Twitter, @ubermind – if you would like to ask a question, learn more about Übermind and our work / services, etc.