In case you missed today’s news, uTest announced an exciting new partnership with Acquia, the enterprise guide to Drupal. As part of the deal – which provides their customers with unique access to uTest’s full suite of testing services – Acquia was legally obligated to write a guest post for our blog. Actually, that wasn’t part of the deal, but we were able to get a great guest post from them anyway.

Meet Stellina McKinney – Acquia’s Director of Engineering Services – who is here to discuss how Acquia leverages the uTest community. That’s right, not only is Acquia a uTest partner, they’re also a very active uTest customer. Enjoy the post!

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I started at Acquia 6 months ago, having previously worked for larger, process-heavy corporations that sold packaged proprietary, software with long release cycles. Our QA teams consisted of over 50 people (sometimes a lot more), and were always the long pole in the process, whether it was Agile or Waterfall.

Not so at Acquia.

At Acquia, I manage a lean QA team of 4 people (we have another team that tests usability), and we support 5 products. We work in an Agile environment, release every 3 weeks, and meet our quality goals for each sprint.

Our QA testing strategy at Acquia is to perform tests on agile user stories (akin to use-case tests or acceptance tests in Behavior Driven Development). Our goals are to:

• Define the behavior of the system, and not have a previously-coded system define the behavior for us
• Test failure cases so that they won’t affect production
• Stress systems through performance and load automation
• Mix automated and manual testing methods, as they’re complementary (machines are fast and consistent, but people have brains and are unpredictable)

We do this by:

• Listing the scenarios that must succeed for a product to be complete
• Writing automated tests to perform basic success and failure operations
• Engaging a crowd-sourced manual testing platform to examine our product in more depth

How can we do this with only a team of 4?  uTest’s crowdsourced testing platform lets us leverage over 45 testers a month, without exceeding my start-up budget.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford

Our relationship with uTest started in the fall of 2009, with approximately one test cycle a month. During our initial engagements, we learned how to work together in an Agile environment where code changes occurred throughout the testing cycle. Then, with each test cycle iteration, we began to synchronize our efforts, and become more successful. uTest started by being only a manual testing platform; to being a service that could execute test cases, analyze a product, and write test cases; to having mature test team leads that make our engagements quite “effortless”.

uTest puts a lot of effort into our relationship, which is evident in how they listen to our feedback, respond immediately to our concerns, and collaborate with us on solutions to our problems. I feel like they’re extensions of our QA team, working together with us to ensure that common and expected user-performed tasks succeed 100% of the time.

Currently, we have a dedicated team of testers (that includes a test lead and a project manager). Our testers test our products, in addition to our regular test cycles. Dedicated testers develop test cases, perform functional testing, and provide bug-fix verification.

We’ve learned the following lessons while we’ve worked with uTest:

1. Make sure you know what you want, and articulate it well to others.
2. You can have the most passionate testers in the world, but they can’t read your mind. (See #1)
3. Good testers will learn and adapt to your testing methodology.
4. You’re never as ready for a release as you think you are. We run with the expectation of being able to release more or less any time, but when we prepare for a uTest cycle, we come to realize there’s more work to do.

As Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” Our relationship with uTest is just the lever we need as we meet our current testing requirements, and as we look forward to more products and services to test.

Editor’s note: To learn more about uTest and the Acquia Network, the companies will be hosting a live webinar on “The Importance of Testing Your Website Under Real-World Conditions” on December, 1, 2011 at 1:00pm ET. Register here.

In the second installment of our Usability Testing series, Inge De Bleecker offers some valuable advice for getting to know your users. Enjoy! 

There are many aspects involved in making a user-facing product successful; one of them is to know your user.

Companies developing a new user-facing product often aren’t sure who their target user is, or they attempt to target ‘everybody’. Companies think that by thinking of ‘everybody’ as their audience, the product will sell better, since there are more bodies to sell the product to.

When it comes to designing a solid product user experience however, ‘everybody’ is not a good target user. It is not feasible to design a product so that it is user-friendly, appealing, and easy to use for everyone. The result of such effort may very be a product that doesn’t appeal to anybody in particular; and this in turn may make the product unsuccessful.

Sometimes companies have a vague idea of their target user based on customer input, assumptions, or theoretical data. User research can be used to validate these vague ideas, and further define the details.

It’s always fun and engaging to do user research for a completely new product. Startups often have novel product ideas, yet knowledge about the end user is often based entirely on assumptions. The goal of user research is to identify any and all target users groups and learn about their behaviors and expectations so that the product functionality and design will be appealing to those users. On a number of occasions, I have found that user research has brought very interesting insights to the table. I’ll describe one example below.

A couple of years ago, a few smart people had an idea for an intelligent application that could help users with shopping. The application was thought to primarily be a voice-driven mobile client with a secondary web-based client.

We defined a number of assumed target user groups, and set out to do a round of interviews with people who fit those groups, as well as people who specifically didn’t fit those groups. We wanted to learn about their current behavior related to shopping, and wanted to see if they might be interested in using an application such as the one that was going to be developed.

From the first round of interviews, we learned that our target groups were wrong. We also learned a lot about the behavior of our new target users. We used that information to whip up a canned demo. Next we interviewed some folks from the first round again, both the new target users and a couple that didn’t fit the bill, just to be sure we still got it right, and we interviewed some new folks.

The second round of interviews confirmed that our adjusted target groups were the right ones. Also, interestingly enough, we learned that the mobile application wasn’t perceived as interesting at all. The voice interface didn’t resonate well either. And the ‘intelligent’ approach was met with lots of doubt. However, some specific features of the web application were very popular.

So what did we gain by doing user research?

• We understood what users wanted, and realized it was different from what was about to be built. Both development money and time was saved by not building an application that people didn’t really want
• Moreover, we were able to very clearly define the functionality and design for the application
• And we understood who to market the product to

Dropping the voice-driven mobile client and the intelligent side of the application removed all ‘coolness’ that was initially envisioned to be the signature of the application. But at least the new product idea had a shot at being useful to real people.

Any user research I’ve done has always provided guidance for product design and functionality. When I am not able to do user research, the product often feels weak and ‘unguided’ in functionality and interface design. Users sense this weakness when they are using a product.

Doing some user research may take a little bit of time. But in the end, it will end up being a great investment. For sure.

We were most impressed with the speed it took Kenx Leong to guess the correct answer, which of course was none other than Prince William. Clearly, Kenx was watching the royal wedding through Hopper’s magnifying glass. Congrats Kenx, a brand new iPad 2 is on its way to you!

Our fourth and final campaign gets under way this week. For this one, you will really have to go all out. We have asked our uTesters to submit photographs of themselves magnified and the 5 entries with the most likes will go through as finalists with the winner to be picked by our wonderful judges. The winner will be based on originality and creativity so if ever the term ‘Go wild’ was appropriate, it is now!

Ready to join in the fun? Visit our Facebook page to get started.

(This post was written by the blogging team over at Blonde2.0)

If this contest has taught us one thing, it’s that uTester’s are amongst the most creative people in the world! We had entries ranging from the source code of Facebook (not sure Mark Zuckerberg will be happy about that one) to Charlie Sheen’s blood (at least someone wants him) to suggestions for a hairy mole (not sure what to make of that one)! As for the incredible amount of votes cast in this contest already…well, let’s just say they would make a politician green with envy.

So who took home the second iPad 2? That would be Fernando André. Congratulations to another deserving winner!

As one contest ends, another begins! This week you need to think hard and guess which celebrity is hiding under Hopper’s magnifying glass? Simple you say? Not so fast! Hopper has made it his lifelong ambition to look beyond what the human eye can see, so you really going to have to put your thinking caps on for this one!

So head on over to our Facebook page for your chance to win one of the two remaining iPad 2′s! Good luck, you’re going to need it!!

(This post was written by the blog team at Blonde2.0)

We’re happy to announce another new series to the uTest blog (in case you missed it, we introduced the Tester Challenge last week). This series will be devoted entirely to usability testing, and will be hosted by uTest’s very own UX expert, Inge De Bleecker. We’re still working on a series title, but for now, you can find it under the category of Usability Testing.

There are a number of different ways to run a usability test, but all usability tests should consist of the following 3 steps:

1. Test participant recruitment: a usability test is a test of the product or application using people that are representative of the target population for the application or product. For instance, an application that helps runners keep track of their progress should be tested by runners, and an application that allows mothers of young babies to log information about their babies should be tested by new mothers.
2. Task plan creation: a usability professional identifies the most important actions that users are expected to perform when using the application, and creates tasks that reflect these actions. For instance, on a web site that allows users to create photo collages, some of the actions include uploading pictures, choosing a collage template, organizing the pictures and saving the collage. Those actions are turned into tasks that are aggregated in a task plan. Each test participant is asked to complete all tasks in the task plan. After each task, the participants are asked some questions about the task. The questions are carefully crafted in order to gather as much relevant information from the participants as possible.
3. Data analysis: once all participants have completed the usability test, a usability professional draws on his or her background in interface and interaction design, cognitive science, and statistics to analyze and aggregate the data. The result is a usability report that includes a summary of the data as well as design recommendations.

As a tester, you may be asked to do usability testing. Unless you have a group of target users hanging around, and you yourself are a usability professional or you know one sitting around the corner, you’ll be hard pressed to run a true usability test.

It’s always a good idea to explain to those who ask you to do usability testing what usability testing entails. Chances are that a true usability test does not fit within the project parameters. Even so, you can still provide value and contribute to improving the usability of the application or product by doing some ‘exploratory usability testing’. This type of testing can bring to light at least some of the more prominent usability issues.

And now, some tips for exploratory usability testing:

1. Start your session with a fresh mind whenever possible. If you’ve already done other testing on the application, you may already have become accustomed to or learned how to use the application, and you may not notice certain issues anymore.
2. Identify a couple of main actions users would want to perform using the application or product. For instance, if you are testing an e-commerce website, an important action is to select a product and purchase it.
3. While you explore the different actions, write down anything noteworthy that you encounter. For instance, it may not be clear to you how you proceed from one step to the next in a workflow, or perhaps you can’t easily find a button you expect to see in a certain location on the page.
4. Some things are more valuable to report than others. Some aspects of a user interface, such as color schemes or fonts are subjective. A font that is not very readable or a link color that makes it impossible to read the text are great things to report. If you’re simply not a big fan of the color scheme on the other hand, there is limited value in reporting that.
5. You are probably only getting only a limited amount of time to spend on exploratory usability testing. Use it wisely by exploring the most common actions and by exploring these actions in a way that most users will want to use them. For instance, if you are exploring an email application, enter subjects that are of a length that is expected for an email subject, rather than trying out the corner case where you try to use an unusually long subject.

Exploratory usability testing can’t replace a true usability test, but it will yield some useful anecdotal feedback. And usability testing is actually kind of fun, or at least I think so…

Our featured uTest guest blogger this month is Elena Houser. Originally from Russia, Elena got her start in IT with UUNet Technologies. Eventually, she caught the testing bug and has been testing for the last 7 years.

She studied software testing under the guidance of James Bach (Satisfice) and Matt Heusser (Miagi-Do School of Testing). Shortly thereafter, she was named a winner of the 2010 uTest Bug Battle and achieved “Gold” status in the uTest community.

You can learn more about Elena by reading her blog, following her on Twitter or by checking out her uTest public profile.

In this post, Elena covers her recent fascination with mobile app testing. Enjoy!

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When I was growing up in Siberia I dreamed of becoming either a ballerina or a painter. I have always loved ballet and dancing and I also enjoyed painting Siberian landscapes in watercolors. For the longest time I thought that I was more of an artistic or right-brain type person. I am still not sure how I ended up working in the Information Technology field.  At some point, I found that I loved breaking websites (aka testing) and haven’t stopped since.  I catch myself testing my son’s electronic toys, neighbor’s coffee machine as well as countless smartphones…which brings me to my latest passion: mobile app testing. In fact, I’m writing this post on a break from a very intense work week, during which I tackled 7 uTest projects – with 5 of them being mobile projects!

Testing mobile apps is interesting, fascinating, challenging and frustrating. It has been an amazing and eye-opening experience for me. I am still very new to it and have more to learn. I tested my first mobile application during the uTest Bug Battle last November. Since then, I have participated in over 30 mobile test cycles through uTest and reviewed a variety of applications from games to browsers to enterprise resource planning (ERP) apps.

I want to know what kind of devices, applications and providers my friends and neighbors are using. I bombard them with questions on what they do and don’t like about their smartphones and providers, what kind of apps rock their world or make them want to throw their phones against the wall. Do they use mobile vs. native apps? How do they figure out navigation and flow, what do they think about a particular page layout, colors, sounds, portrait vs. landscape view, web-surfing and social media experience? Many of them check their bank statements and pay their bills, write memos, take snapshots, watch movies, use it as FiOS remote control, listen to the radio, play Angry Birds, Stupid Zombies and other games. I take notes. I try those apps myself. I install some of them on my Motorola Xoom even though many are still not optimized for it. It’s fun to launch an app and try to figure out how it works, what buttons to tap, and also picture the data moving behind it.

Just as with a web site the following three things matter the most for mobile apps – presentation and page layout, organization (flow and structure) and interaction (what happens in response to user actions). The difference is that a phone screen is very small and the capacity of a mobile device is not the same of a web site, which makes functional testing pretty challenging. Not to mention that some mobile applications may work on iPhones but then fail on either installation or launch on Android phones.

Being familiar with your bank or another web application certainly helps navigate through a mobile app. However, things like small screen size, and a lack of “physical structure” with familiar sights that you can use to orient yourself (this is true for the Internet in general), present a challenge in figuring out how mobile apps work. Well-designed applications will not only tell users what they can find within the app, but also where they can find it. If the app is organized well, then guessing where to look for additional functionality is easy. There are still many applications which have a great page layout, presentation and interaction features but they are not well-organized and thus confuse users which may result in the user un-installing the app and leaving unfavorable feedback. As a tester, I am trying to analyze and capture all the pros and cons and report them either as issues or feedback and also write a usability review.

I have recently added an iPad2 to a family of Android and Palm devices that we share in the family. I am now determined to learn how to test applications build for iOS. I don’t have any regrets that I did not become a ballerina. And when I feel like dancing I can swing by a local dance studio and dance my heart out. I did not make a Prima Ballerina but I can compete with Napoleon Dynamite. Or I can use my smartphone to watch the Swan Lake ballet on YouTube while waiting for my doctor’s appointment. The most important thing is that I am doing what I like most – testing and learning about different technologies and enjoying the unlimited potential of human creativity.

Editor’s note: If you would like to contribute to our Guest Blogger series, email your entries to me at mikeb@utest.com. Thanks for reading!

But what happens when your primary client is on hiatus? Let’s say that they might be having a light month, or the work that the client generates comes in cycles, due to the nature of their industry. What do you do at that point, when your cash cow isn’t in the barn?

Well the simple answer is ‘find other work’, but it isn’t that simple in reality, now is it? The reason that certain testers gravitate towards special clients is because those clients pay well, and the tester has a very specialized set of skills. If you find other work, it’s most likely going to be less reliable hours and for less money.

My first piece of advice is: Think like a bear. A bear gathers resources and fattens up during the plentiful months, and is prepared for those lean winters. In your case, don’t spend your contracting money just because you have it. Instead, start pinching pennies and saving money a couple of months before any expected ‘lean’ period. Make sure that you always have a couple months worth of income in a savings account, just in case the well runs dry.

Secondly, when looking at replacement work, err on the side of having too much work rather than too little. For example, if you have the option of picking up a 6 week project to fill your 4 week downtime, take it. Yes, it might mean that you’re working double time for 2 weeks, dropping all social and recreational activities for that period. But take the contract, grit your teeth, and get it done. You need to cover the gap in your income, and you can’t afford to turn a project down because of a short overlap.

Finally, when filling a work gap with your usual clientele, pick guaranteed pay projects (over ‘per bug found’ projects) if they’re available. You’re used to the security of a somewhat regular paycheck, and in your case that’s more important than the higher risk, higher reward piece-work projects. In your position, a steady stream of test cases beats the bug hunt scene.

I hope that my advice helps get you over the gaps in your regular contracting work. Just keep plugging away, and with luck your primary client will have plenty of work for you in no time at all. But if they don’t, my advice has the side effect of establishing yourself with new clients. And in this industry, you never can tell when you’ll stumble across your next long term patron.

Bill Ricardi is uTest’s ‘Load Tester of the Year’ of 2010. He is also the author of ‘Living Cheaply in the U.K., one of the top DIY, lifestyle, and home business books for the U.K. Kindle. His next book, ‘The Economy of Green’ is due out in the summer of 2011.

Readers of the uTest Blog should know that ecommerce software (retail apps in particular) are a familiar topic of discussion. We also recently published a whitepaper on the subject, see Optimized E-Commerce. Today, guest blogger Michael Koploy of SoftwareAdvice.com offers up a list of the most useful retails apps for the iPhone and Android operating systems. So without further delay, here is this month’s guest post. Enjoy!

Whether you own a small retail chain or sell items out of your brother’s apartment, there’s an app for that. Developers are beginning to produce mobile tools to help retailers operate their businesses. These apps help with everything from clocking in to checking out a customer to creating sales reports.

But sorting through hundreds of apps and finding those true gems that can help run your business is difficult. iTunes doesn’t have a retail category — in addition to being far from search friendly. Meanwhile, the new web-based Android Marketplace is a little more search friendly, but the lack of a retail category again stands as a roadblock.

So, we put together a list of the best mobile apps for retailers. This list was the product of multiple keyword searches across various app categories, from productivity to business. Data of how many reviews, star-ratings, and approximate number of installs are provided, as available.

Be sure to let us know if you’ve found a helpful retail app that we’ve left off the list.

iPhone / iPad Apps

Cash Register (MyAppIdea) – 3.5 stars with 33 ratings | $1.99
Developed for iPhone. Keeps track of your inventory and acts as a virtual checkout. Simple interface tracks all transactions so you can easily total your sales and e-mail them to customers. Sales can also be exported to Excel. Can supports multiple businesses.

LightSpeed Mobile – 3 stars with 6 ratings | $4.99
Developed for iPhone. Mobile retail extension of the LightSpeed Point of Sale system for Mac. Connects with LightSpeed database to act as a mobile checkout. Works jointly with Linea Pro hardware to scan barcodes and swipe credit cards. Can support multiple businesses.

Ring it Up – 4 stars with over 300 ratings | $29.99
Developed for iPhone and iPad. Point-of-sale application that interfaces with numerous popular credit card applications and the RedLaser barcode app to act as a complete checkout terminal. Can send HTML & .PDF receipts/invoices to customers, import/export .CSV files, and backup/restore data. Can support multiple businsses.

Retail Math – 5 stars with 6 ratings | $1.99
Developed for iPhone. A useful tool for retailers looking to better understand the factors influencing their financial success. Contains a monthly sales and inventory tracker, financial planner based on past results, and can analyze monthly and seasonal factors. Formulas are accompanied with both explanations and calculators. Supports multiple companies.

SelBuk – 3.5 stars with 89 ratings | $19.99
Developed for iPhone and iPad. Provides the ability to email order receipts and analyze inventory, sales, and expenses. This app has the ability to import and export .CSV files so you can create and edit files on your computer and send them to the SelBuk mobile app. Product catalog, inventory, and order documents can all be backed up (and restored) to prevent data loss.

Intuit GoPayment Credit Card Terminal – 3 stars with over 1900 ratings | Free*
Developed for iPhone and Android. This app offers two different pricing models based on processing more or less than $1000 a month: no monthly plan and higher rates for under $1000, and a monthly plan with reduced rates for over. Provides the option for both swipe and keypad data entry, and offers support for a couple different card readers. Users can qualify for a free card reader on the Intuit website.

Pay Anywhere – Credit Card Machine – 4.5 stars with over 700 ratings | Free*
Developed for iPhone. After applying for a Merchant Account from North American Bancard, users receive a free card reader to pair with the app. Requires no monthly minimums or frees, and can be canceled at any time. Has the option to e-mail receipts to customers after transactions.

Square – 3.5 stars with over 7900 ratings | Free*
Developed for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Requires no monthly fees or contract and provides free Square credit card reader by mail after sign-up. Membership does require providing date of birth, SSN, and passing a credit check. Per transaction and weekly charge limits are determined by your credit score.

Swipe Credit Card Terminal – 3.5 stars with over 1000 ratings | $0.99
Developed for iPhone. PA-DSS certified, this app is one of the most secure credit card applications that supports most major credit cards. Offers rates as low as low as 1.74% + 24¢ per transaction at a $24.95 monthly fee. AppNinjas’ Credit Card Swiper (available here) for iPhones and iPod Touches is $79.99.
Android AppsPoint of sale (POS) – 3.5 stars with 33 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | Free
This application acts as a simple point-of-sale solution for android devices. Has the ability to manage goods, complete transactions, and process returns.

Inventory Droid – 4.5 stars with over 160 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | $4.99
Packaged with a free PC extension, Inventory Droid is a great app for managing store inventory. Can use the integrated barcode scanner to quickly upload and update inventory information. Comes with the ability to backup and restore data.

CHARGE Anywhere® Payment App – 4.5 stars with 7 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | Free*
Accepts cash, credit, check, or ACH payments for $9.99/month plus per-transaction fees. Can integrate with optional Bluetooth module to swipe credit cards and print receipts. Also features reporting, the ability to tax and tip, and QuickBooks integration.

Credit Card Machine – 4 stars with 20 ratings | 5,000 – 10,000 installs | Free*
Can swipe credit cards and print receipts via external device (not included). Processes all major credit cards and creates a viewable transaction log with history details. Includes option for touch screen signatures. Requires Paynet Systems Merchant Account.

Credit Card Terminal – 4 stars with 25 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | Free*
Allows user to process credit card transactions at a rate of $25.00/month, 24¢/transaction, and 2.09% qualified. No termination fees for cancellation.

Intuit GoPayment – 4 stars with 68 ratings | 10,000 – 50,000 installs | Free*
Developed for iPhone and Android. This app offers two different pricing models based on processing more or less than $1000 a month: no monthly plan and higher rates for under $1000, and a monthly plan with reduced rates for over. Provides the option for both swipe and keypad data entry, and offers support for a couple different card readers. Users can qualify for a free card reader on the Intuit website.

Square – 4.5 stars with over 4,000 ratings | 100,000 – 500,000 installs | Free*
Developed for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Requires no monthly fees or contract and provides free Square credit card reader by mail after sign-up. Membership does require providing date of birth, SSN, and passing a credit check. Per transaction and weekly charge limits are determined by your credit score.

USAePay – 4 stars with 14 ratings | 1,000 – 5,000 installs | Free*
Can integrate with bluetooth devices for card swiping and receipt printing. Includes mobile POS option that can sync inventory with sales transactions. USAePay account required for use.

Ratings and prices were found from the Android Market and iTunes App Store, respectively.

This guide was provided by Michael Koploy of Software Advice, a free resource that provides reviews and comparisons of point of sale systems. The original guide can be viewed at Best Retails Apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android Devices. For more, be sure to visit www.softwareadvice.com/retail/.

So if you’re worried that you’ll only get to the store in time to get a bunch of wilted roses, melted chocolate or crumbled cookies, here are some iPhone applications to make you look more like Clark Gable, and less like Clark Griswold.

1. Cookie Doodle ($0.99) – This app allows you to prepare virtual heart shaped chocolate chip cookies covered in sprinkles. There’s even a text tool that allows you to write a special message for that special someone. This app is ten times better than burning the house down trying to bake… and a hundred times better than accidentally poisoning your girlfriend.

2. Instant Poetry ($1.99) – Do you find yourself tongue tied every time you see the girl of your dreams? Instant Poetry helps you out – tap a button and rearrange the words that pop up on the screen until you’re happy with your poetic masterpiece, and then send it straight to your Valentine. They’ll be blown away by your romantic words. Just don’t panic when they expect you to be romantic in person as well…

3. Star Walk ($2.99) – What could be more romantic than gazing at the stars? But how much better would it be if you knew which constellation was which? Star Walk allows you to point your iPhone at the sky, and see which constellations and stars you are looking at. Now you can be romantic and smart at the same time!

4. Send eFlowers ($0.99) – What girl doesn’t love to get flowers? Using this app, you can send her flowers virtually. They may not be quite as good as the real thing, but they’ll keep you out of trouble until you pick up real roses for her later!

5. Valentines Radio (Free) – Check out this collection of romantic radio stations. This app gathers together radio stations with the best compilation of love songs – and if your favorite isn’t here, just email them and have them add it. This is way better than just putting your iPod on shuffle and hoping that “Baby Got Back” doesn’t come on.

6. Be Mine Lite (Free) – Did you forget to pick up a card? Don’t panic… until you make it to the store later, have some fun with one of these cards from Be Mine. Choose a background, choose your text, and email it to whoever you want. Or you can post it on Facebook and make all those singles green with envy.

7. Say I Love You – In Different Languages (Free) – Check out this app for an international approach to Valentine’s Day. Ever wanted to be able to say “I Love You” in Italian, the language of love? How about in Cambodian or Swahili – you never know, it could come in useful. Pick a language to express your love, or shake your phone for a random language.

8. Valentine Photo Free – Picture with Love (Free) – Pimp your photos with this Valentine’s Day themed photo app. Add hearts, cupids, and even rings to your photos for a romantic love theme.

9. Chocolatier ($6.99) – Who doesn’t love chocolate? And heart shaped candy for your Valentine is a sure way to their hearts. With this app you can build a chocolate empire of your very own. Pick your ingredients, find the best recipes, look after factories… and see how much money you can make as a chocolate entrepreneur!

10. Tiffany & Co. – For a big declaration of your love, use this app to help you find the perfect engagement ring. Ever since Audrey Hepburn stared longingly through the window in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, women everywhere have dreamed of getting their hands on some of that bling. Use this app to help you find the perfect size, and browse styles. And then leave it open where your boyfriend can see it, and see what happens…

We wish you luck with your Valentine’s Day plans. We’re sure that with all these apps to help you out, you’ll sweep your loved one off their feet. We can already feel the love in the air!

This post was written by Joanna Ezekiel of the Blonde2.0 writing team.

In order to keep quality high, Binpress only accepts code from professional web developers. Amateur developers cannot register. They can only be invited. More on their business model in a second, but first, some details about a cool contest they are now running.

Programming Contest

As part of their launch – and to kick-start their inventory – Binpress is running an amazing programming contest, with a prize-pool exceeding $40,000. The competition is sponsored by over 30 top companies, including Google, Microsoft, PayPal, Amazon Web Services, Conduit, O’Reilly, Tropo, Media Temple and yours truly, uTest.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the prizes:

• First Prize – valued at over $17,500
• Second Prize – valued at over $8,000
• Third Prize – valued at approximately $5,000
• 6 individual category awards for best submission per language (PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Java, ASP.net, Python) totaling $10,000

We would love to see some of our fellow uTesters in the race, so click here for all the competition details. The competition has already begun but will accept submissions until February 24th, so if you have quality source code lying around somewhere, send it in now and you may be taking home some fantastic prizes!

If you’re not interested in the contest, but rather want to know more about how Binpress can help you and your business, here are some benefits to consider:

• Developers can add a passive income channel by selling mature and tested source code. They can leverage Binpress’ marketing and distribution efforts allowing them to focus on their expertise – software development.
• Too often quality source code has been left unknown and unappreciated. Not anymore! Addressing the discovery challenge of finding a fit-for-purpose open-source solution is of benefit to both developers and consumers. By providing increased source-code visibility, complete with documentation and installation procedures, software ventures and development projects can purchase suitable, feature-sized code packages, reducing time and costs and allowing them to focus on the unique problem they are trying to solve.
• Buyers can be assured they are purchasing quality, tested code from professional web developers, and have access to solutions in a variety of platforms and frameworks. They receive a money-back guarantee as well as all future updates and fixes of the source code and the opportunity to contact the developer should it be required.
• Development time and costs are significantly reduced by leveraging professional, ready-to-use application code, allowing web projects and startups to focus on their unique problem domain.

For more on this unique business model – as well as the competition – be sure to visit Binpress.com.

(This post was written by Marc Luboff of the Blonde2.0 marketing team)