Will this prototype prove to be a viable product? It’s impossible to predict, but one thing is certain: it took a long time and a lot of money to just produce the prototype. What if the prototype doesn’t pan out, what do you do with the team you hired to create it?

These are difficult questions for any company to wrestle with.  Fortunately, this is an area where Little Green Software can help.

One of our clients is developing the next generation of hi-tech fitness tracking.  Because of the sensitive and proprietary nature of the technology we cannot reveal the name of the client or details about their products.  What we can share is that the solutions they are building combine the best of multiple worlds: GPS, heart rate monitors and other electronic fitness sensors, timing devices, smartphones, and applications for web and mobile.

Our client is working on R&D of products that will be ready to bring to market in the next year or two.  At this stage, the devices serve as “proof of concept”.  They are exploring innovative concepts and pushing the limits of what’s possible with their new products.

Little Green Software was hired to bridge the gap between the company’s existing product and the proof of concepts they would like to explore. Our client uses these prototypes to explore what has potential and what should go back to the drawing board. They keep only the best ideas, which they pitch to internal product and marketing teams and test with consumer focus groups with the hopes of ultimately green-lighting new products.

Companies need new products to continue to grow and compete. To create new products, you need the freedom to explore new ideas to see what works (and possibly more importantly what doesn’t). Little Green Software is ready to jump right in and help you start prototyping these products today.

Energy Balance is a fast paced matching game where the player picks the most appropriate activity to burn the calories associated with a particular food.  It teaches kids to balance the calories they get from food with appropriate activities. Energy Balance allows players to compare scores and unlock achievements for speed and persistence. Energy Balance was developed in conjunction with Duke University Medical Center researchers and physicians.

“Childhood obesity is arguably one of our most pressing public health challenges,” says Dr. Bernard Fuemmeler, a pediatric obesity researcher at Duke.  “Children need to be equipped with the tools to help them navigate through the energy-rich environment in which they live and teaching children about health needs to be a fun and engaging enterprise. That’s why we are excited to be working with the excellent software engineers and game designers from Little Green Software. We hope that games like these can play a role in combating the obesity epidemic.”

Little Green Software partner Robert Taylor says: “Unfortunately, most people don’t really think about the calories associated with the foods they eat throughout the day. The goal of Energy Balance is to build relationships between foods and their associated calories in the minds of players. For example: if I eat a hamburger for lunch, then I really should go for a bike ride today instead of watching TV to burn those calories. As players begin to remember the relationship between calories and activities, their scores improve in the game. I know I’ve learned a lot from play testing the game.”

Energy Balance is provided free of charge by Little Green Software. This game allows players to jump in and start building healthy relationships between foods and activities as they try to best their previous high score and unlock achievements.

Tally-O searches for nearby destinations from the app’s 1,000+ unique, personalized travel guides and scavenger hunts. Players win points for visiting and interacting with destinations, and for creating their own adventures. Tally-O is the only app on the App Store that allows players to publish adventures to Facebook for their friends.

The app is an ideal travel guide, far superior to a typical guidebook. Recommendations are unique, reflecting the personalities of Tally-O players and their friends. In addition to travel guides, the app is perfect for interactive adventures like scavenger hunts, pub crawls, adventure racing, geocaching, and family outings.

Each adventure features multiple destinations with a location and description, a photo gallery, trivia questions and answers, and integrated Google maps with Show My Location. Built-in GPS detects the player’s arrival at the destination, and an optional Homing Sensor on the 3G and 3GS provides an extra challenge on the scavenger hunts.

New features in Tally-O 1.1 include: Google maps, Facebook status updates, 3GS compass support, and auto-save. Adventures from partner site iwannagothere.com are now synced daily, ensuring there is always something new to explore. The new companion Facebook app allows Tally-O players an alternative platform for viewing and creating adventures.

More information on the application is at www.Tally-O.com and on the App Store.

Tally-O searches for nearby destinations from the app’s 1,000+ unique, personalized travel guides and scavenger hunts.  Players win points for visiting and interacting with destinations, and for creating their own adventures.  Tally-O is the only app on the App Store that allows players to publish adventures to Facebook for their friends.

The app is an ideal travel guide, far superior to a typical guidebook.  Recommendations are unique, reflecting the personalities of Tally-O players and their friends.  In addition to travel guides, the app is perfect for interactive adventures like scavenger hunts, pub crawls, adventure racing, geocaching, and family outings.

Each adventure features multiple destinations with a location and description, a photo gallery, trivia questions and answers, and integrated Google maps with Show My Location.  Built-in GPS detects the player’s arrival at the destination, and an optional Homing Sensor on the 3G and 3GS provides an extra challenge on the scavenger hunts.

New features in Tally-O 1.1 include: Google maps, Facebook status updates, 3GS compass support, and auto-save.  Adventures from partner site iwannagothere.com are now synced daily, ensuring there is always something new to explore.  The new companion Facebook app allows Tally-O players an alternative platform for viewing and creating adventures.

Tally-O was developed by Little Green Software, based in Carrboro, NC, USA.

Tally-O, an iPhone app that lets friends create and share their own travel guides, has partnered with iwannagothere.com so that the hundreds of travel guides from the site can now be enjoyed on the iPhone.

“Tally-O allows travelers to find the best tips & guides wherever they are, whenever they want.  We believe in open knowledge. Using our API Tally-O can offer our guides & tips.  iwannagothere.com content + Tally-O app are the perfect combination for your trips.”

—María Martínez, founder & CEO of iwannagothere.com

Infinitely more credible than traditional guidebooks, these social travel tools both allow friends and fellow travelers to share guides and personal recommendations.  While the big tour guides cater to the general tourist audience, Tally-O and iwannagothere.com are perfect for travelers seeking unique destinations and experiences they can share with friends.

“iwannagothere.com is the perfect partner for Tally-O.  Both are social travel tools that let real people share personalized travel guides.  Now all of our users get the best of the both worlds.”

—Ed Holzwarth, President of Little Green Software, creators of Tally-O

With this partnership, existing users of Tally-O can enjoy exploring the guides created by iwannagothere.com users.  Existing users of iwannagothere.com can download Tally-O ($1.99 in the App Store) and view all the Tally-O and iwannagothere.com adventures on their iPhone or iPod Touch.  The app uses the built-in GPS on the device to find nearby destinations.

If those questions have you pondering, here’s another: What if any time someone used the app to visit one of your destinations, their Facebook status was updated to share your content with their friends?  With the 200+ million Facebook users, how would status updates expand your influence?

Let’s just say: A lot of new people would be introduced to you and your content.

And the kicker: What if you could get all of this for free?

Now before going too much further, if you don’t yet know what Tally-O is, I recommend reading a brief introduction as well as my article on how to promote a website, blog or business with Tally-O.  I received a ton of emails about that article, and many of you with travel websites and blogs wrote to ask:

• How can I get my site’s content into Tally-O automatically?
• What more can be done to promote my brand within Tally-O?
• Can you make an app that has my site’s content exclusively?

Great questions!  I think you will like our answers…

Get your site’s content into Tally-O automatically

This is easier than easy.  Become a Tally-O partner and we will import your destinations automatically, for free. The only requirement for partnering with us is that your website must have at least ten adventures we can import.

Promote your brand within Tally-O

This too is easy as can be.  Each Tally-O adventure has a theme — a 64 x 64 image.  You can create your own theme with your logo, and it will be displayed prominently next to the description of each of your adventures.  Add a link to your website in the destination descriptions and voilà, you’ve got a strong association with your site and brand identity.

Create a an exclusive, branded iPhone app with the same content as your website

Little Green Software can do this too!  Sorry, this part isn’t free, but it may cost less than you’d expect.  Contact us and we will explore the possibilities.  If you already know your requirements, tell us what they are and we’ll be happy to send you a proposal.

I look forward to hearing from you.  Until then: Happy Adventuring!

Last week we announced how you can get paid to create adventures on Tally-O. This prompted many people to say: “nice promo, but I want more! How can I use Tally-O to make money and get more business or visitors to my website?” Glad you asked. Here are four easy ways you can do just that.

Get more business: Create Tally-O adventures to your destination

This is the fun part. Be creative! Include photos. What sort of adventure will people enjoy? Use the “ask a question” feature to make your adventure interactive.

Get more business: Reward customers with Tally-O coupons

When a customer visits a destination and correctly answers the question you’ve asked, a completion message is displayed. This is a perfect place to reward customers with a coupon or exclusive deal!

Get more website visitors: Include a link to your site

Add your website URL to the description of the adventure or destination so that customers who want more information can visit you on the web!

Get 5 percent commission for Tally-O App sales

When you link to Tally-O on the App Store from your website you earn 5 percent commission on app sales. Read Apple’s iTunes Affliate Program guide to get started today!

Still not convinced?

Talk to us about your ideas! We’d love to hear how we can better help you promote your business.

Eligible adventures must:

• Be created on the Tally-O iPhone app between 9/24/2009 and 10/13/2009.
• Have 2-10 destinations, descriptions, and photos
• Be published to Everyone
• Be promoted on Twitter (mention @tally_o) and/or Facebook (write on our wall)

You get:

• $2.00 for each destination with photo(s)
• $0.50 extra for Q&A
• $50 BONUS if you are the highest scoring adventure creator on 10/13/2009!

To register, email info@tally-o.com with:

• your Facebook name (so we can find your adventures)
• your Paypal ID (so we can pay you)

Need ideas for adventures? Read our FAQ or start a dicussion on Facebook.

The fine print: we reserve the right to reject any adventures that violate Apple’s Terms of Use.

Tally-O lets you find and create real-world adventures, everything from scavenger hunts and geocaching to self-guided tours. Each adventure has a set of destinations with a location and description. Photos, trivia questions, and a “homing sensor” can be added for an extra challenge.

All adventures are created and rated by the players themselves, giving Tally-O high-quality, personalized content for a diverse audience. A cyclist might search for bike tours, while a parent might look for kid-friendly entertainment. Any player can create their own adventure to share with their Facebook friends or with the world.

Little Green Software created Tally-O for people who enjoy going out to play in the real world. The app allows you to share your adventures with other people and discover new adventures at the same time. There’s not anything out there quite like it. We are eagerly looking forward to see what people create!

More information about the app is online at Tally-O.com. The app is currently being reviewed by Apple. We’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we hear it’s been approved!

A huge thank you to our partners QuickBrownFox Studio for designing Tally-O’s excellent logo, icons, artwork, and overall visual appearance. The app looks great!

Update July 30, 2009: Tally-O 1.0 is now available on the iPhone App Store!

I’ve spent most of the past ten years working for Emergent Game Technologies, a company of great people and an excellent product, the award-winning Gamebryo game engine. Over the years I worked on everything from artist tools to the PLAYSTATION®3 renderer to a redesigned geometry system API. As an engineer and a technical lead, I had the opportunity to work with a variety of internal teams, external clients and partners.

Now, I’m excited to apply my experience to this new venture. Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android are powerful platforms with amazing potential for new innovative applications. The mission of Little Green Software is to leverage these platforms to develop applications that make a positive impact on the world.

Over the next months, we will be releasing the first of our own applications. Subscribe to our RSS feed to learn about our latest news.

If you have an idea for an application, contact us! We can help you build it.