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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Makers of applications eye iPad

City designers keen to get on board

By: Melissa Martin

8/02/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 1

The device? Not out yet. The capabilities? Still, partly, hopeful fantasy. The people who are going to buy the thing? Hypothetical.

But mere days after Apple honcho Steve Jobs stood in front of a monolithic logo and held up the iPad, and months before anyone actually puts a hand on the tablet, Mike Berg's brain was buzzing.

"Something the size of the iPad is unique because you have enough space to have both hands on there, moving around quickly," says Berg, 30, who runs his We Heart Games design company from his West Kildonan home.

"That lit off a lot of lightbulbs in my mind. I'm really excited to see how far I can take that and just try to put out really action-oriented, fast-paced games."

In fact, Berg already has one in the works: He won't give too much away but it's going to be a survival game that makes the most of the iPad's multi-touch finger tracking.

Don't count on seeing it the day the iPad hits shelves... but soon after, maybe. Hopefully. "It would be nice to get into the iPad app store while there aren't 140,000 apps like the iPhone store has," sighs Berg, who released a quirky, camera-based iPhone party game called Face Race last year.

"But there will be another gold rush of apps... but that doesn't do good things for the quality level of the apps. I'd rather have something that I can be proud of and that will get noticed on its own merits, not just because there's only a handful of games in that category."

Berg isn't the only Manitoban itching to get in on the ground floor of the iPad. There are about 40 iPhone application developers in Manitoba, and with iPad buzz at a fever pitch, most of them are expected to jump in on the new platform.

That local initiative won't boost only the province's development community, says New Media Manitoba director Kevin Hnatiuk, who points to the potential of the iPad's 24.6-centimetre high-definition screen.

"Why it's important that we hop on this right now? Look at the potential for Winnipeg's art community," Hnatiuk says. "The iPad is such a tactile device. If Winnipeg artists start working with developers... that could be huge. We've got such an amazing arts community, and that could be an amazing connection." Plus, when it comes to all things Apple, what hipster doesn't want to be on board?

"We had a little shrine going," jokes Rick Fillion of Jobs' messianic Jan. 27 iPad unveiling.

Fillion and partner Phil Letourneau, who build Mac software and iPhone applications as Centrix.ca, have their own iPad application in the works.

Although nobody has actually held an iPad yet -- Fillion and Letourneau plan to head to the U.S. and get in line for the WiFi version when it drops in late March -- that isn't holding designers back from delving into the software development package, released last week.

Or, for that matter, from doing a little investigative work.

"We saw it, we all got excited, then we all started digging," Letourneau laughs. "We have sources. We know people... who have come in contact with the device. This is an exciting platform because it's not like the evolution of the computer. It's like a new computer entirely."

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 8, 2010 B4

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