Hi from sunny, 80 degree F Monterey. Don't worry, we got punished badly before Christmas. Super duper rainy and cold for weeks it seemed. Today's sunshine is long overdue! I'm excited to get the new year started and wrote this post to list a few coming-soon items, changes-coming items, and updates about my whereabouts and plans. As many of you may suspect, I've been busy earning a living on non-BT projects for the past few months. Lots of you are under the misconception that BT is "my living". It never has been. I hope to change this. The biggest news for 2015 is that I AM GOING ALL IN with BT and hope to make it my fulltime living. I've been procrastinating this crazy-scary-risky decision for 5 years. This will not be as easy as some of you may think. We / I have been balancing the free / open-source idea with the for-profit business idea for a few years now. In some regards we've done well. In other regards, not so much. Fundamentally nothing has changed, however, there is ONE BIG EXCEPTION - in 2015 David's full time job will be "all things Buzztouch". I realize this decision (it was mine) will naturally change some things on the site. The messaging on the About Us page, the tenor of my forum posts, and the overall feeling of the site / product will change slightly as I transform into full time Buzztouch guy. So, there it is, I'll be kickin' some BT butt in 2015. Let's get on to some more concrete changes... - Control Panel: Members will begin to see big changes to the way the BT Control panel looks, feels, and works. Some changes are substantial, some subtle. I expect some positive and negative feedback when the new and improved BT rolls out. - Forum changes / Getting Help: You'll notice some changes in the way the forum works. I am working on ways to make it easier for BT members to ask Buzztouch (me) questions directly. I am stoked about an "Ask Buzztouch" process I've been working on that allows Members to post fun and interesting questions that will be answered and discussed in the soon-to-be-released Ask Buzztouch Podcast. Yes, I'm learning how to make Podcasts. Woo Hoo. - Members only forums: In the not-too-distant future the Buzztouch Forum(s) will be members only. This means non-members will be able to see the topics but not the conversations. - Video Links: I've been creating short (:05 mins max) videos that you'll begin to see in the BT control panel. Themes, Screens, Core, etc. Sections / Features in the control panel will begin to show links leading to short videos about each concept. - BTU Updates: Buzztouch U is outdated. It's pre-historic in internet years. I understand this. Prioritizing updates to this content has been difficult for many reasons. Expect some updates to this content early in 2015. I've made this promise before and hope to deliver on it this time. - Buzztouch Glossary: What is a dataURL? What is JSON? What is a UIViewController? The BT Glossary helps explain some common development terms and ideas. Some BT specific, some iOS specific, some Android specific, some random. - BtGo!: I have not given up on the core idea behind BtGo! However, as many of you realize, it's been painful trying to get BtGo! to do what I want (think approval process). Expect the next BtGo! version to more tightly integrated with your BT Control panel. - Developer Meetings: Our weekly developer meetings are changing. I am working on a better approach to help aspiring devs understand some core iOS and Android concepts and no longer think a weekly meeting is the best approach. I will NOT BE ATTENDING WEEKLY DEV MEETINGS until a new approach, schedule, strategy is determined. Developers will receive an email / survey asking some simple questions about how to best move forward in this regard. I'm hiding a few more changes (gotta keep something up my sleeve) that you'll have to wait for. In the meantime, I'm sending a sincere best-wishes for your up and coming 2015 and as usual, stick with it, it's worth it! David

thank you, David...looking fwd to updates and changes!

Sounds great! Let us know if we can chip in. Cheers! -- Smug

I already like how this year is going. ;)

Yeehaw! We right here ready to pitch in! -- Niraj

Awesome this is the news we have been looking for:) let us know if there is anything that you need!

Looking forward David :-) thanks a lot for your hard work behind BT core for all these years.

Great to hear from you David!

:)

This is BIG news! This is GREAT news! It's great to see the community eager to help David in this endeavor. Simply showing this much excitement is probably the best help you can all provide right now. Yay 2015!

Rock on! It's going to be an AMAZING 2015! Mark

Outstanding news David - looking forward to the new start - I am sure it is going to be awesome

Glad to be sporting my year 3 badge!! Looking forward to the year ahead!!

Great news. Looking forward to the new Buzztouch site!

App Awesomeness !! Excited to see how powerful BT can become with David full time in the game. D, you let us know where and when you need us !! You have our support :) Kristen

Very excited to see what you have in store. It's always nice to see your face on the forums :) Happy New Year!

Sounds great... ;-)

Unexpected! Very happy to hear that!

Exciting news. All the best :)

Yeah....waiting for Buzztouch U....further learning lessons!!

David that's great news! Let us know what we can do to help!

This is the best news for Buzztouch

That's great news David. I think Buzztouch will benefit greatly with your full commitment to the platform (not to say you weren't committed, but you know what I mean). One of the main frustrations with BT at the moment are the out of date tutorials. I dating those will probably reduced the consistent and same old questions that are asked every other day, such as integrating PUSH on Android, hint hint! Anyway, fantastic news all round, BT can now take move to the next level, now that you are full-time. HAPPY DAYS!

Super!!!

Great news! My best wishes to you in your new endeavour, David. -- John

Great and exciting news, David. Congratulations! I´d like to know if you still have plans to implement some basic plugins to do Windows Phone apps, at least simple ones like RSS and so. That would be great. I have no problem on paying extra per year if this is available here :) Wishing you the best!

Cool.. Time to update David Book's profile pic as well... its outdated... :-) Cheers and Happy New Year to the BT Community. Miguel

Super excited! Thank you for "risking it all" to go full time at Buzztouch. This is a huge leap of faith on your part and it's not unnoticed. Can't wait to see new changes here at Buzztouch. Thanks David! Dave

David, You da man. I'm behind you all the way. Sam

Great stuff!

The future is bright. The future is BT! Happy 2015 all, good times ahead for sure.

Change is good ;) Thanks David

You the man!!! BT to the top

This is a great decision, David! I know Buzztouch can grow dramatically with more TLC. Buzztouch is an amazing product that is changing the lives of the developers who use it.

Thank you David! LA

Cool!

Wow, this all sound great! I'm diving back in for the New Year too. Looking forward for the new changes.

Thank you for the update David! I look forward to any changes you care to make. Buzztouch exceeds my expectations and the forum community is Number 1! Mike

Thanks for taking the plunge, David. I look forward to seeing BT grow under your hands-on leadership.

we need delete buttons for accidentally refreshing the thread and not knowing what to write ;-)

Let's Rock n' Roll !!!!!!

Hi David, Good luck on your brave move. Hopefully it will be successful, and I would surely be happy to bring my modest contribution to it. Here is a suggestion : so far it's either free for everything up to 3 apps, including the forum, or USD 75 /year for members. Right now I am shamefully not a member and I'm gonna explain why. If in the future I have to be a member to access the forum it's gonna become tricky for me. I'm no developer, no coder nor computer-genius guy. I just wanted to create an app or two because it was a good way to share something very specific in my kind of field. It doesn't make much (USD 50/year) and never will. So it's only a low-level involvement for me, but it is fun ! I've learnt a lot, I'm very happy with the simple app I've created and want to improve it, and I trully fell in love with buzztouch system. I had looked at a lot of options out there for that simple project and I'm glad I went for BT. The right spirit. And for the fun I've had, and the help I've got from the community, it's fair that I contribute financially in return to make things grow. Still I haven't. I haven't because USD 75 a year is just way too much for my involvement. I'm a mechanical engineer, traveling the world for motorcycle racing, and neither my job nor my passion involves coding. Still do I have to be a computer nerd to be accepted by BT ? I hope not, since it's the perfect platform for misternobody to try himself at something new. I just like learning stuff, and I did it about apps thanks to BT. So I'm stuck between becoming a member, which is too much for me, and make the best of what I can get for free, but ethically it doesn't feel right, and I would like to contribute. So may I suggest this : _ free at the start for 3 apps, like now, and let's say 3 forum new topics, so people get to know how it works. Because it was free, I got onboard. Otherwise I would have never known what BT is all about. _ the full membership thing as you want it _ AND an itermediate position, for people like me who do very little but want to keep a light foot in the loop. The best solution then is a ONE-TIME fee. A per year deal is too scary for somebody like me who doesn't make money with a one-off app-project. Let's say USD30, and it gives access to everything (unlimited forum, still 3 free apps) that the current free system offers. This way I feel I could contribute to the community at he level that concerns me. And even why not an extra for an extra app, up to 5 ? People like most of you who spend a lot of time on BT making all kind of wonderful stuff (apps, plugins etc.) would still want and need the full membership status. Hopefully my position makes sense. Like all of you I want BT to work, and like all projects it needs money to grow. Just please keep in mind the little guy like me, who doesn't understand a tenth of what you guys do, but still want to be a small part of it. Because it's fun, because open-source is the right spirit and is so creative-productive. Thanks for considering. On this, I wish you all a Happy new Year. Nico

Great to hear from you David. Happy New Year! Jake

This can only be good for us and BT. Thanks.

Thank you very much, David! Looking forward to these changes. :)

Sounds great! Thanks for the update.

Awesome news. Anything you can add to the BT core to deal with all these new device sizes and controlling rotation per screen would set BT apart from any of the app making services I've seen out there. That's really become the biggest challenge developing these things IMO.

Great news David! Looking forward to all of the changes. Here is to an awesome 2015 for you and all of the BT community.

David- here is my wish for 2015: A tool BT-Hosted tool (for members only) that enables us to duplicate a project. BT would assign all of the needed changes to the screen/JSON info. Include a how-to document for what the developer needs to replace in code after they copy there local project files. ==== This would save TONS of hours in starting a new project! Thanks

@NCBuzz - I use https://www.buzztouch.com/plugins/plugin.php?pid=93D709C2D88A587EEBC4A5C and it works great for duplicating your apps. Self hosted only. Hope that helps. -- John

Thanks But Not Self Hosted :(

Great move and wonderful to see all the support from everyone. Very happy and excited..2015 is going be a great year! :-)

You're on fire D.