The BitMethod Blog

BitMethod, Developer of BNO News iPhone App, Announces Knych Platform

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:11:00 -0600

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BitMethod contact:

Daniel E. Shipton
CEO, BitMethod
(515) 460-3618
dan@bitmethod.com

BITMETHOD, DEVELOPER OF BNO NEWS IPHONE APP, ANNOUNCES KNYCH PLATFORM
Push-notification breaking news app evolves into full-fledged threaded update system

(DES MOINES, Iowa – Monday, November 23, 2009) – BitMethod, developer of the push-enabled BNO News iPhone app, is excited to announce Knych (pronounced "nitch"), a revolutionary micro-update driven information platform. Knych will give content providers a powerful, threaded, and multi-media enabled way to communicate with their audience across the web, desktop, and mobile.

Updates pushed through the Knych platform will reach users wherever they are at any time. Brandable distribution channels include the web, mobile apps, SMS, and desktop. Information can also be pushed to social-media endpoints such as Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter.

"The defining feature is context," said Daniel Shipton, CEO at BitMethod. "With streams like Twitter, there's no context. Streams are just that - lots of pieces of information flying by as fast as people can update. Knych guides those pieces into threads and categories and creates a clutter-free experience that you're always connected to, wherever you are. You don't follow Knych, it follows you."

Development of Knych began with the well-reviewed and critically acclaimed BNO News iPhone application. BNO News built a 1.4 million strong Twitter account providing breaking news coverage from a global team of editors. BitMethod's BNO News iPhone application back-end allows the editors to pump categorized updates through the iPhone's push notification system. The application provides one of the fastest ways to learn about major news events in human history.

Despite growing by nearly half a million followers since the launch of the app, BNO recently announced they are selling their Twitter account to MSNBC and transitioning their business to the role of a breaking news wire. BitMethod will continue to support users of the BNO News app, though the nature of the news alerts provided by BNO may change.

"We're disappointed that BNO is choosing to leave behind their 1.4 million Twitter followers, but we're excited for the possibilities the future of this platform holds," Shipton said. "We'll be transitioning the BNO app to the Knych platform and BNO will have the same opportunities as other providers as this platform develops. News is only one possible type of information that can be distributed through Knych and we're looking forward to building new opportunities in the future as this system evolves."

Shipton encourages brands and partners interested in distributing information through Knych to visit Knych.net. Partners interested in using Knych should contact Daniel Shipton at BitMethod no later than December 11 to be part of the next rollout. He can be reached at dan@bitmethod.com.

***

About BitMethod

BitMethod is a Des Moines, Iowa based app development firm focused on building interactive applications delivered on a variety of platforms. It specializes in building interactive applications for the web, mobile devices, and the desktop. Web standards are at the core of it's technology expertise which includes Javascript, HTML, and RESTful service oriented APIs. Their focus is on simple, scalable systems architecture and clean, reusable code that enables rich user experiences. They make heavy use of technologies present on almost every device to provide cost effective cross platform development solutions.

NOTE FOR EDITORS
For any questions or interviews related to BitMethod, journalists can contact Daniel E. Shipton at dan@bitmethod.com.

ON THE WEB

Knych Platform - http://knych.net

ReadWriteWeb - BNO News App Launch Coverage - http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2009/08/03/03readwriteweb-breaking-news-online-the-iphone-app-is-live-13260.html

TechCrunch - 1.1 Update Coverage - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/01/bno-news-updates-its-great-iphone-app-lets-you-harness-stream-of-push-notifications/

TechCrunch - Apps for News on the Go - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/17/3-nifty-iphone-apps-for-news-consumption-on-the-go/

MobileCrunch - October Apps of the Month - http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/11/02/apps-of-the-month-best-iphone-apps-of-october-2009/

BNO News: http://www.bnonews.com

BitMethod: http://www.bitmethod.com

BitMethod on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bitmethod

BNO News and BitMethod release breaking news iPhone push application

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:00:00 -0500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BNO News contact:

Michael van Poppel
mpoppel@bnonews.com
www.bnonews.com

BitMethod contact:

Daniel E. Shipton
dan@bitmethod.com
www.bitmethod.com

BNO News and BitMethod release "breaking news" iPhone push application

(DES MOINES, Iowa – Monday, August 03, 2009) – BNO News, in conjunction with BitMethod, today announced the release of an iPhone push application that will provide users the latest "breaking" news stories from the United States and around the world. The move to the iPhone market is another important milestone for BNO News, which is currently providing services on Twitter, FriendFeed and via e-mail. Combined, BNO News reaches nearly 1,000,000 people globally and is quickly growing on all platforms.

"Solid, innovative technologies such as the push notification service on the iPhone are enabling new ground breaking business models," said Daniel E. Shipton, BitMethod's Director of Business Development. "Our partnership with BNO News combines their rapid growing business and audience with our ability to expand their reach through new platforms like the iPhone."

The iPhone application will let users choose from several options to fit their needs, 24 hours per day and 7 days a week, no matter where they are. BNO News' iPhone application was released at midnight today and is now available in the iPhone App Store, at only $0.99 a month (after a download fee of $1.99).

BNO News' iPhone application is the number one choice for customers to stay informed of breaking and developing news stories "on-the-go." As our online-based news service has become known as a leader in breaking news, BNO News will have the advantage compared to other news-related applications. "Our decision to move to the iPhone market is only the first of several markets we intend to explore over the next year," said Michael van Poppel, founder of BNO News. "We are currently significantly expanding our original news reporting even further to provide our users with more in-depth content. We are excited to hear feedback from our iPhone customers, both positive as well as negative, so we can enhance our iPhone application further to provide an even better experience."

The iPhone application syncs user preferences via Wi-Fi or the user's cellular network and then downloads the latest news directly to the device. Users of the BNO News application are able to be notified of all our news updates or choose to only receive major news alerts. In any case, users are able to read back all the news updates in the application or suspend alerts for a certain period of time.

BNO News editors will be careful in the selection of news items, for both news streams, to ensure our users get what they ask for and trust us to do - enable them to stay "in the know" but without getting overwhelmed by news updates. "While BNO News has already seen extraordinary growth in the last few months, launching the BNO News iPhone application will enable us to provide our service to even more journalists, "news junkies" and anyone else who wants to stay informed," said Rodrigo Javier Aguiar, co-founder of BNO News. "We look forward continuing to work with BitMethod to explore other platforms to expand the reach of our services."

Updates to the iPhone application will become available over the next few weeks and BNO News is currently also considering an expansion to other mobile markets, such as the BlackBerry and Google's Android.

***

About BNO News

BNO News is a popular Internet-based news service which provides a combination of original news reporting with sourcing to credible news outlets at time. Overall, it now reaches about 1 million people around the world, most of them in the United States. In a December, 2008 survey, the majority of BNO News' members described themselves as journalists and "news junkies." To compare, in early March, BNO News only reached around 30,000 people. On this day, BNO News continues to grow rapidly with between 5,000 to 10,000 new users a day. Over the next few months, BNO News will announce further details regarding the future of its service.

About BitMethod

NOTE FOR EDITORS
To receive a free copy of the application, intended for reviews, publications are able to send a request to press@bnonews.com. Please state your name and the publication you work for. Further, users are able to submit questions, problems, suggestions or any other feedback on http://tinyurl.com/pdhnvx.

For questions and interviews related to BNO News, journalists can contact founder Michael van Poppel at mpoppel@bnonews.com. For any questions or interviews related to only BitMethod, journalists can contact Daniel E. Shipton at dan@bitmethod.com.

ON THE WEB

BNO News: http://www.bnonews.com

BNO News on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BreakingNews

BNO News on FriendFeed: http://www.friendfeed.com/BreakingNewsOn

BNO News via e-mail: http://www.bnonews.com/email/

BitMethod: http://www.bitmethod.com

BitMethod on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bitmethod

Special Note From BitMethod

The BitMethod team would like to publicly thank Jeremy Harrington who, in a compressed time frame, helped develop the visual style for the BNO News Application. Jeremy is the founder and senior designer at crawlspace|media located in Des Moines, Iowa.

BitMethod Opens for Business

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:23:00 -0500

We silently opened our doors a few weeks ago but we spent that time working on many internal products and systems that will allow BitMethod to grow. Even without a formal announcement of our beginning operation we encountered opportunities for partnerships, development and growth. This soft launch opens the doors to start announcing what we have been secretly working hard on. Bring it on....we are ready to change the world with you!

Our plan for this blog is to share insights into our operations, business philosophies and technical tidbits for the developers out there. Stay tuned....this ride is just getting started!