17 ms·

Pixate (YC S12) and Google

139 points by uptown 11y ago

mladenkovacevic 11y ago
It's been on my to-do list for the last few months to start playing with Pixate. Can someone knowledgeable on this share their thoughts on what this means for the Pixate tools going forward?
- hbosch 11y ago
  According to Pixates own FAQ related to this: * Pixate Studio is now free to everyone * Pixate Cloud is $5 per seat per month, or $50 per year * Pixate Studio licenses will be refunded as a credit toward Pixate Cloud Otherwise, no changes for now it seems. It's a very nice tool for simple prototyping for UX flows, animated transitions, and visual layout. A fantastic tool for designers.
  - fuzzywalrus 11y ago
    So I'm wondering if they'll limit local storage accessibility for the Applications devices as a way of enforcing prototypes.
hbosch 11y ago
Interesting acquisition considering they also bought Form[0]. Would love to see some designer-centric prototyping tools built by Google specifically for Android devices. The OSX/iOS ecosystem is particularly well equipped in this area, and finding good design prototyping tools built for Android is a pain point for many people in UX/UI imo. _ 0. http://www.relativewave.com/form/google/ http://www.relativewave.com/form/google/
- pavlov 11y ago
  I'm involved in Neonto, a startup that makes a design tool that targets both iOS and Android: http://neonto.com http://neonto.com The unique twist is that Neonto Studio generates real native code (Obj-C for iOS, Java for Android), so it's possible to use it even for complete apps, not just prototypes.
  - jtwebman 11y ago
    Is it using React Native?
    - pavlov 11y ago
      No, the generated code uses the native frameworks on each platform. (We basically have separate back-ends for each supported platform: iOS, Android, Apple Watch.) It's "dependency-free" -- there's no intermediate runtime or framework involved. This keeps app sizes down, and also makes the generated UI code easier to integrate with programmers' workflows. We started on this a long time before React Native was announced, so it wasn't even an option... However recently we've been entertaining the thought of generating React Native instead of the native UI frameworks. That would be a major pivot for the product, but if React Native takes off, it might make sense. What do you think?
      - Qworg 11y ago
        I'd far prefer a generator that creates pure native code over one that creates a dependency.
      - tluyben2 11y ago
        As we have discussed before ;) I would think it smarter to allow developers to hook into the code generation process so it can be integrated in their own toolchain and processes.
    - ddon 11y ago
      Please support React Native output! RN is taking off pretty rapidly...
    - guelo 11y ago
      He said it targets Android so its obviously not using React Native.
  - danr4 11y ago
    Looks promising. Can't find any reviews/blog posts of using it. Do you have any example apps that were made using neonto?
- bitmapbrother 11y ago
  Is there a need? Pixate already performs Android prototyping.
Zikes 11y ago
It's refreshing to see a company getting acquired and instead of shutting down they double down on their product/service. Congratulations to the Pixate team!
- jblow 11y ago
  You might want to read ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com. Usually this kind of announcement is followed by another one, 9 months-2 years later, of the service being shut down. This is just the first step of that pattern again.
  - PaulHoule 11y ago
    There is also the announcement that the people who started this company quit Google because they couldn't get anything done there and now they have a new startup...
    - aaronbrethorst 11y ago
      http://www.attendly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/crowley-google.png http://www.attendly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/crowley-g...
  - Nilzor 11y ago
    Funny how everybody is "excited", "delighted" and "ecstatic" about being acquired by a mega corporate.
    - urda 11y ago
      Especially by Google, who has done a lot more damage to purchased companies instead of growing them.
    - bsaul 11y ago
      Your comment made me realize i can't remember seeing promising medium or small size companies merge and make this kind of announcement. I mean, you could very well see this kind of company merge with people doing an advanced IDE, or even corporate frameworks. Maybe they usually prefer to create commercial partnerships rather than merge shares.
aaronbrethorst 11y ago
Here's why I (and jawngee) never used Pixate's products for my apps: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5062868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5062868 Given that I only make iOS apps, and that Google acquired them, I feel vindicated 916 days later.
- adam12 11y ago
  I wonder if they would have been acquired by Google if they had open sourced their software. Don't get me wrong - I completely understand your decision.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > I wonder if they would have been acquired by Google if they had open sourced their software. The software [0] he complained about not having source in the old post he points to was open sourced before Google bought them. So, evidently, it wouldn't have stopped Google. [0] http://www.freestyle.org/ http://www.freestyle.org/
- PStamatiou 11y ago
  Except that Pixate is purely for prototyping in the design phase.. not for actually shipping a binary to the app store.
  - seivan 11y ago
    That wasn't their initial product that I even paid for. Not that I minded, I actually liked their initial product until it got open sourced (but abandoned)
    - jtwebman 11y ago
      What was the initial product?
      - jrnkntl 11y ago
tsunamifury 11y ago
Pixate has a middle term potential to fix the difficulties with designing and deploying UI's which require basic physics or animations. It has the long term potential to change native front end engineering as its currently done. Potentially it could compress design, prototyping, and front-end dev into a single seat -- who is more design-forward rather than coding-forward.
- lebek 11y ago
  I think the missing piece is still how app logic interfaces with the UI code outputted by these design tools. How do you do it so the UI can be updated without breaking interface with app logic? Immediate-mode UI could be part of the solution, but I still can't see a complete solution that wouldn't piss me off as a developer.
cookingrobot 11y ago
Can anyone compare Pixate to PencilCase.io? When I tried pencilcase I found it fairly easy to use, and liked that apps can theoretically be exported and submitted to the app store. What are the strengths of Pixate?
Finbarr 11y ago
Congrats to Paul and the team!
jtwebman 11y ago
Congrats guys! Nice to see hard work pays off.
babl-yc 11y ago
I wonder if this was one of those "if you don't join us we're going to copy you" acquisitions.
- plonh 11y ago
  That's not really a threat, if copying requires taste and wisdom.
antidaily 11y ago
First Form (RelativeWave), now Pixate. Two prototyping apps in less than a year.
abvdasker 11y ago
Strong candidate for http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
- Kiro 11y ago
  Starting a company and being acquired is an incredible journey so I don't understand the humour in this.
  - eloisant 11y ago
    The humour is that they always announce that thanks to the big corp the product is going to sky-rocket, but after 6 months or so they shut it down. It's probably great for the founders, not so much for the customers who trusted them and allowed them to grow to the point of being noticed by Big Corp.
ksherlock 11y ago
Prescient comment in the old TC article[1]: Given the corporate interest, it sounds like Pixate has an easy exit ahead of it, if they so desired, but Colton says that’s not the route they’re taking right now. “We want to see how broad this can be,” Colton says. “It’s really a big change in how you can build apps,” he adds. 1. http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/15/pixate-debuts-a-framework-for-designing-mobile-apps-with-css/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/15/pixate-debuts-a-framework-f...
dadude 11y ago
Was on the "Check it out" list for IOS. Guess I can cross it off as Im sure IOS support will go first then the entire product later to the great google product graveyard. http://www.wordstream.com/articles/retired-google-projects http://www.wordstream.com/articles/retired-google-projects

139 points by uptown 11y ago

It's been on my to-do list for the last few months to start playing with Pixate. Can someone knowledgeable on this share their thoughts on what this means for the Pixate tools going forward?

hbosch 11y ago
According to Pixates own FAQ related to this: * Pixate Studio is now free to everyone * Pixate Cloud is $5 per seat per month, or $50 per year * Pixate Studio licenses will be refunded as a credit toward Pixate Cloud Otherwise, no changes for now it seems. It's a very nice tool for simple prototyping for UX flows, animated transitions, and visual layout. A fantastic tool for designers.
- fuzzywalrus 11y ago
  So I'm wondering if they'll limit local storage accessibility for the Applications devices as a way of enforcing prototypes.

hbosch 11y ago

Interesting acquisition considering they also bought Form[0]. Would love to see some designer-centric prototyping tools built by Google specifically for Android devices. The OSX/iOS ecosystem is particularly well equipped in this area, and finding good design prototyping tools built for Android is a pain point for many people in UX/UI imo. _ 0. http://www.relativewave.com/form/google/ http://www.relativewave.com/form/google/

pavlov 11y ago
I'm involved in Neonto, a startup that makes a design tool that targets both iOS and Android: http://neonto.com http://neonto.com The unique twist is that Neonto Studio generates real native code (Obj-C for iOS, Java for Android), so it's possible to use it even for complete apps, not just prototypes.
- jtwebman 11y ago
  Is it using React Native?
  - pavlov 11y ago
    No, the generated code uses the native frameworks on each platform. (We basically have separate back-ends for each supported platform: iOS, Android, Apple Watch.) It's "dependency-free" -- there's no intermediate runtime or framework involved. This keeps app sizes down, and also makes the generated UI code easier to integrate with programmers' workflows. We started on this a long time before React Native was announced, so it wasn't even an option... However recently we've been entertaining the thought of generating React Native instead of the native UI frameworks. That would be a major pivot for the product, but if React Native takes off, it might make sense. What do you think?
    - Qworg 11y ago
      I'd far prefer a generator that creates pure native code over one that creates a dependency.
    - tluyben2 11y ago
      As we have discussed before ;) I would think it smarter to allow developers to hook into the code generation process so it can be integrated in their own toolchain and processes.
  - ddon 11y ago
    Please support React Native output! RN is taking off pretty rapidly...
  - guelo 11y ago
    He said it targets Android so its obviously not using React Native.
- danr4 11y ago
  Looks promising. Can't find any reviews/blog posts of using it. Do you have any example apps that were made using neonto?
bitmapbrother 11y ago
Is there a need? Pixate already performs Android prototyping.

Zikes 11y ago

It's refreshing to see a company getting acquired and instead of shutting down they double down on their product/service. Congratulations to the Pixate team!

jblow 11y ago
You might want to read ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com. Usually this kind of announcement is followed by another one, 9 months-2 years later, of the service being shut down. This is just the first step of that pattern again.
- PaulHoule 11y ago
  There is also the announcement that the people who started this company quit Google because they couldn't get anything done there and now they have a new startup...
  - aaronbrethorst 11y ago
    http://www.attendly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/crowley-google.png http://www.attendly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/crowley-g...
- Nilzor 11y ago
  Funny how everybody is "excited", "delighted" and "ecstatic" about being acquired by a mega corporate.
  - urda 11y ago
    Especially by Google, who has done a lot more damage to purchased companies instead of growing them.
  - bsaul 11y ago
    Your comment made me realize i can't remember seeing promising medium or small size companies merge and make this kind of announcement. I mean, you could very well see this kind of company merge with people doing an advanced IDE, or even corporate frameworks. Maybe they usually prefer to create commercial partnerships rather than merge shares.

aaronbrethorst 11y ago

Here's why I (and jawngee) never used Pixate's products for my apps: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5062868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5062868 Given that I only make iOS apps, and that Google acquired them, I feel vindicated 916 days later.

adam12 11y ago
I wonder if they would have been acquired by Google if they had open sourced their software. Don't get me wrong - I completely understand your decision.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > I wonder if they would have been acquired by Google if they had open sourced their software. The software [0] he complained about not having source in the old post he points to was open sourced before Google bought them. So, evidently, it wouldn't have stopped Google. [0] http://www.freestyle.org/ http://www.freestyle.org/
PStamatiou 11y ago
Except that Pixate is purely for prototyping in the design phase.. not for actually shipping a binary to the app store.
- seivan 11y ago
  That wasn't their initial product that I even paid for. Not that I minded, I actually liked their initial product until it got open sourced (but abandoned)
  - jtwebman 11y ago
    What was the initial product?
    - jrnkntl 11y ago

tsunamifury 11y ago

Pixate has a middle term potential to fix the difficulties with designing and deploying UI's which require basic physics or animations. It has the long term potential to change native front end engineering as its currently done. Potentially it could compress design, prototyping, and front-end dev into a single seat -- who is more design-forward rather than coding-forward.

lebek 11y ago
I think the missing piece is still how app logic interfaces with the UI code outputted by these design tools. How do you do it so the UI can be updated without breaking interface with app logic? Immediate-mode UI could be part of the solution, but I still can't see a complete solution that wouldn't piss me off as a developer.

cookingrobot 11y ago

Can anyone compare Pixate to PencilCase.io? When I tried pencilcase I found it fairly easy to use, and liked that apps can theoretically be exported and submitted to the app store. What are the strengths of Pixate?

Finbarr 11y ago

Congrats to Paul and the team!

jtwebman 11y ago

Congrats guys! Nice to see hard work pays off.

babl-yc 11y ago

I wonder if this was one of those "if you don't join us we're going to copy you" acquisitions.

plonh 11y ago
That's not really a threat, if copying requires taste and wisdom.

antidaily 11y ago

First Form (RelativeWave), now Pixate. Two prototyping apps in less than a year.

abvdasker 11y ago

Strong candidate for http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/

Kiro 11y ago
Starting a company and being acquired is an incredible journey so I don't understand the humour in this.
- eloisant 11y ago
  The humour is that they always announce that thanks to the big corp the product is going to sky-rocket, but after 6 months or so they shut it down. It's probably great for the founders, not so much for the customers who trusted them and allowed them to grow to the point of being noticed by Big Corp.

ksherlock 11y ago

Prescient comment in the old TC article[1]: Given the corporate interest, it sounds like Pixate has an easy exit ahead of it, if they so desired, but Colton says that’s not the route they’re taking right now. “We want to see how broad this can be,” Colton says. “It’s really a big change in how you can build apps,” he adds. 1. http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/15/pixate-debuts-a-framework-for-designing-mobile-apps-with-css/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/15/pixate-debuts-a-framework-f...

dadude 11y ago

Was on the "Check it out" list for IOS. Guess I can cross it off as Im sure IOS support will go first then the entire product later to the great google product graveyard. http://www.wordstream.com/articles/retired-google-projects http://www.wordstream.com/articles/retired-google-projects