A few weeks back, we told you about some exciting changes that were coming to the Red Foundry platform — and we have been working feverishly to get these new features and functionality into your hands.

Today we’re proud to announce that we are releasing VIZ v.2 into beta and are looking for developers that are interested in joining the beta.

Here’s what you’ll see in VIZ v.2:

• Increased Performance – 55% or more increase in performance.
• User Widgets – Think “WordPress plugins”, but for mobile apps on Red Foundry.
• Typography – Killer features that will make typography snobs jump for joy.
• Barcode and QR Code Scanners.
• SMS and Calendar Composers.
• OTA (Over The Air) distribution – Provision and distribute internal apps from the web.
• Hundreds of other smaller features, enhancements and fixes.

If you’re interested in participating in the VIZ v.2 beta, head on over here and let us know you’re interested.

We’re looking forward to your feedback!

It’s been almost 3 months since we last released an update to the Red Foundry platform, and I must say we’re long overdue for another one! The reason it has taken so long is not because we’ve been taking our sweet time, but because of the sheer breadth and complexity of new features we’re going to be introducing very soon. I’m very confident this update will finally put to rest any thoughts that people might have towards thinking Red Foundry is “just a toy”. We’re building some very serious apps for some very serious customers with Red Foundry (more to come on them at a later date), and this update will soon make this functionality available to the rest of our users. So let’s dive right in and explore some of the new features and enhancements!

USER WIDGETS

User Widgets are by far the most game changing feature of this new release. If you are familiar with the Red Foundry Markup Langage (RFML), you’ll know that all Red Foundry apps are comprised of individual widgets (like buttons, text, images, text inputs, repeaters, etc.). These individual widgets are extremely powerful when used together, but what if you have a common set of functionality that you want to reuse over and over again, like a rating widget, or Facebook wall integration? In previous versions of Red Foundry you would have to essentially copy and paste snippets of RFML throughout your app in order to accomplish this, which was a very inefficient and error-prone way of doing things. Now with User Widgets, you’ll be able to “package” up RFML and resources into reusable components. In a nutshell, you can make  your own widgets! You can think of these User Widgets like little applets or plugins that can be used anywhere within your app (or other people’s apps). Now why is this so important? Well for starters, it’s going to make the lives of RFML developers much easier, but the REAL excitement is what it allows us to provide you in the (hopefully near) future— a marketplace of User Widgets! Imagine the ability to choose from tens of thousands of widgets built by other users and include them within your app. If you’re familiar with the WordPress plugin model, you’ll certainly understand the power this provides.

ENHANCED TYPOGRAPHY

Red Foundry already has great support for fairly complex fonts and layouts of text, but this new version is going to open up a whole new realm of possibilities. Here are just a few examples of new features for typography geeks:

• Adjustable kerning
• Wrapped multi-column layouts
• Full flush justification
• First line head indentation for paragraphs
• Adjustable line height and line spacing

Here is an example of some of this at work:

BARCODE SCANNER WIDGET

The platform now includes a widget which you can use to give your app the ability to scan a barcode or QRCode! Currently it includes support for EAN-13/UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, Code 128, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5 and QR Codes.

EVENT AND SMS WIDGETS

Now your apps can send SMS messages or create events in the user’s calendar.

IN-APP PURCHASES & SUBSCRIPTIONS

You can enable certain content or features to be unlocked by having the user pay extra for them. You can also charge recurring monthly subscriptions for your app.

INCREASED PERFORMANCE BY 55%

Pretty much self explanatory. Most apps should run slicker-than-snot now.

REGEX DATAPROVIDER

A new data provider that can be used to parse text of arbitrary and unknown formats and display it within the app.

ADD_WIDGET & DELETE_WIDGET ACTIONS

Now in RFML you can programmatically add and delete widgets on the fly.

All of this is in addition to hundreds of other enhancements and bug fixes. Most of these new features will be highly visible to RFML developers as soon as the new version is released (hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks), with Red Foundry Studio template users seeing features rolled in as templates get built to take advantage of them.

What do you think? Are you as excited as we are?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Red Foundry Named Finalist for Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS Award
12th Annual CityLIGHTS Awards honor companies and individuals
whose innovation and success drive growth in Illinois

CHICAGO, IL – April 21, 2011 – Red Foundry has been selected as a finalist for a 2011 Illinois Technology Association (ITA) CityLIGHTS award, in the Best New Concept of the Year category. Red Foundry empowers organizations, corporations and individuals to imagine, design and develop a mobile ecosystem that seamlessly integrates with their existing systems. This new paradigm shift allows everyone to become mobile in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional mobile application development without sacrificing beauty and quality.

Winners will be announced at the CityLIGHTS Awards Gala Thursday, May 12, 2011, in the Great Hall at Union Station in Chicago. The gala attracts more than 700 people from 400 organizations including business owners, investors, legislators and policymakers.

A panel of more than 40 judges representing the Who’s Who in Illinois technology reviewed nominations and selected the finalists. Judges hail from major organizations including Microsoft, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, New World Ventures, and World Business Chicago, and newer entities including Technori, Viewpoints.com, Marchie Enterprises, Inc., SmartSignal and midVentures. The list of past winners includes companies like The Point (now known as Groupon), GrubHub.com, NAVTEQ, Model Metrics, Smart Signal, Mayor Richard M. Daley, and Jack Noonan.

“Red Foundry is honored that the judges of the 12th Annual ITA CityLIGHTS Awards have recognized our innovation and achievements by selecting us as a CityLIGHTS finalist. We’re in good company among this group of finalists, and we look forward to connecting with our peers and fellow nominees at the event May 12.” said Jim Heising, Red Foundry’s CEO.

“There is a growing energy and momentum in the Illinois technology industry, and this is reflected in the record number, more than 200, and the quality of the CityLIGHTS Awards nominations this year,” said ITA CEO Fred Hoch. “Nominees range from start-up companies to industry leaders, and we are extremely excited to see the organizations and individuals that rise to the top in 2011.”

Public voting runs from April 18–29, 2011. Winners will be determined by composite score (50 percent judges; 50 percent community voting) in all categories except the CityLIGHTS Award, which is determined solely by the ITA Board of Directors. Votes can be submitted through end of day on April 29, 2011.

About Red Foundry
The Red Foundry Mobile Platform is like no other. Launched in 2009, Red Foundry is built on the idea that all apps should be beautiful, unique, and relevant. The Red Foundry Mobile Platform makes building a mobile app accessible to anyone regardless of technical skills, and provides a comprehensive set of tools to support complete apps. For additional information about Red Foundry visit www.redfoundry.com.

About the ITA
The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) is a driving force behind the growth of Illinois’ vibrant technology industry. We are relentless in championing the development and application of technology, from start-up companies to industry leaders, leveraging the transformative nature of technology to revolutionize industries. ITA uniquely capitalizes peer-to-peer collaboration, networking, and access to experts across the breadth of business to cultivate the Illinois technology industry. The unique and powerful integration of these valuable and experienced resources differentiates the ITA as a source of accelerated growth for the technology industry of Illinois. For more information about ITA, please visit www.illinoistech.org.
Contact the ITA at headquarters@illinoistech.org, follow the discussion on Twitter at @itabuzz, and visit www.illinoistech.org to find out more about how ITA supports the growth of the local industry.

Media Contacts:
Dorothy Radke, Marketing & Communications, ITA, +1.312.924.1044, dradke@illinoistech.org

Jeff Hamilton, VP of Marketing, Red Foundry +1.847.247.0656, jhamilton@redfoundry.com

CHICAGO, (March 21, 2011) – Red Foundry is pleased to announce that its Mobile App Platform, which enables anyone to build beautiful, relevant, and unique apps without the code, has been named a 2011 Mobility Award finalist. The Mobility Awards honor the best mobile and wireless products and services in the industry.  Red Foundry’s easy-to-use platform, which has been notably recognized by industry analysts and influencers for its cutting-edge approach to custom mobile app creation, is nominated in the Award’s “Application Development” category.  The winners will be announced at the Wireless Innovators Dinner, hosted by leading market research firm MobileTrax on March 22, co-located this spring with International CTIA Wireless 2011.

“Red Foundry is committed to bringing innovative solutions to the mobile and application development industry,” said Jim Heising, CEO and founder of Red Foundry. “Whether trying out mobile for the first time or ramping up an existing mobile marketing strategy, the Red Foundry Mobile App Platform makes it easy for individuals and businesses, alike, to create custom apps and successful mobile businesses.”

Other notable nominees this year include Apple’s iPad, Foursquare, and the Android. 

For additional information about Red Foundry, visit www.RedFoundry.com

MOBILETRAX | MobileTrax is a leading market research firm that focuses on the mobile and wireless market. Dr. Purdy writes and publishes Inside Mobile weekly that is read by over 130,000 people. MobileTrax conducts proprietary consulting services such as writing white papers, making strategic introductions and assisting clients with strategic planning. Finally, MobileTrax produces Wireless Innovators Dinner twice a year for leaders in the mobile and wireless market. More information can be found at www.mobiletrax.com.

RED FOUNDRY | The Red Foundry Mobile Platform is like no other. Launched in 2009, Red Foundry is built on the idea that all apps should be beautiful, unique, and relevant. The Red Foundry Mobile Platform makes building a mobile app accessible to anyone regardless of technical skills, and provides a comprehensive set of tools to support complete mobile businesses. For additional information about Red Foundry visit www.RedFoundry.com.

Red Foundry was featured on NowPossible.com yesterday, as the first in a series about “disruptive apps.”

Why disruptive?

This is the first in a series of quick profiles on potentially disruptive apps. This one qualifies because it removes the “ignorance factor” that often confronts technologically unsophisticated managers. Instead of being stuck by confusion over what it would take to build an app in terms of money ($25,000? $50,000?) and time (two to six months?), managers can literally invest a few hours and see for themselves what it will take. The answers for most will likely be far less than anticipated.

Thank you for the great review NowPossible.com. As we were creating Red Foundry, this was always our main goal – to provide a mobile app platform that put app technology in anyone’s hands.

Read the entire article here: http://nowpossible.com/2011/03/01/red-foundry-is-a-disruptive-app/

Red Foundry was featured as the “Start-Up of the Week” on www.techflash.com

The interview with CEO and founder Jim Heising included information about Red Foundry and why we started the company — so that anyone can access a simple app development platform — and some interesting facts about the company, like this one:

The oddest thing about our company is… “The three original founders (myself, Ron Franczyk and Andrew Newman) have been working together for 12+ years, through 3 different startups (1 IPO, 1 acquisition and 1 failure). The oddest thing is that for a good portion of that time we all lived in completely different states (Red Foundry is no exception). We’ve proven that you can create a successful startup and exit with people working in a virtual fashion.”

Learn more about our company and our product here: http://techflash.com/seattle/2011/02/startup-of-the-week-red-foundry.html

Ranked the #1 radio show in the Boston Market, and with more than 4,000,000 downloads, Tech Talk With Craig Peterson is the top tech show nationwide. Craig interviews top industry insiders and explains the technology secrets everyone needs to know.

Red Foundry’s CEO Jim Heising joined Craig to discuss the state of mobile apps and how businesses are becoming more mobile. With people wanting easy access to businesses in the most convenient way possible, mobile apps allow businesses and organizations to connect directly with their audience like never before. Find out more about Jim’s interview by listening to the clip from the show below.

Tech Talk With Craig Peterson
[audio src="http://redfoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/TTWCP-591-07-jim_heising-redfoundry.mp3"]

Are you a small business building an app to connect with your customers? We would love to hear about it in our community forum!

As you might know, Red Foundry has been in beta testing for the past few months, but we are proud to announce that we have officially launched today! We want to thank everyone for the positive feedback we have received so far and for all of the enthusiasm surrounding our mobile app platform.Red Foundry was started to let anyone experience building an app and eliminate the idea that only a privileged few could create something beautiful and relevant. We know a lot of you have creative ideas for apps, and we know that Red Foundry will help you get it out there!

We started our launch today with a great article written by Jonny Evans, the Apple Holic columnist for ComputerWorld.com. He highlighted some of our unique features, including RFML, user-generated content, hundreds of social networking and API connections, and push notifications. Read the article here:  http://blogs.computerworld.com/17721/red_foundry_is_this_app_development_for_the_rest_of_us

Also, check out a quick interview with Jim Heising, founder and CEO, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbJXCCvX_5Q

Thanks again, and keep those killer apps coming!