The Best Camera Thanks You. Big Big Bigtime.

I slept 4 hours in a 65 hour stretch.

...that was in the couple days before and after launching The Best Camera ecosystem. But I loved it, because working hard to create stuff feels good. It’s not everyday that you get an opportunity to launch a book, or an iPhone app, or an online community, let alone all three. The experience has been exciting, humbling, scary and energizing all at once, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to you.

Thanks in large part to this community, in the first 24 hours after launch:
_Best Camera app debuted at #12 of all paid apps in the app store.
_The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You book, debuted at #172 of all titles on Amazon
_ www.thebestcamera.com saw 200,000 sets of eyes.

...And since that first 24 hours, it’s been getting better by the hour. Wow. I am humbled. And I Thank you thank you thank you.

Launch is fun, but it’s where we want to go with this thing now that’s important in the big picture.

Overall, I want to continue to celebrate pictures. I want to continue to grow thebestcamera.com and the visualizer in the app, into a seriously remarkable place for viewing pictures. I am blown away by what I see there everyday as you’ve been choosing www.thebestcamera.com in the sharing menu. There are currently hundreds of pictures being added there every hour. If you haven’t stared at that thing, and if you haven’t been voting from your phone (ie giving the thumb’s up) to images you like, the community has been missing your input. Give it a shot...[click the 'continue reading' link below]
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For those of you who were rightly concerned about the Facebook captioning issue, apologies abound. It was an unintended hiccup that inserted a placeholder caption ‘uploaded with Chase Jarvis’ Best Camera’. We missed removing it during testing. You should know that we fixed it within 24 hours of launch and subsequently re-submitted the refreshed code to the app store for approval. Simple work arounds are listed in the FAQ’s.

For those who want to upload to Flickr: every Flickr account has an email addy for uploading. Send to that address from the share menu in the app. More elegant solutions soon ;)

Of course there are a million ways for us to improve what we’ve created, many of which we’re already aware. If you’ve got ideas or suggestions, I want them. I am listening. That said, please don’t put them in the comments below. We’re collecting your ideas via the submission form on the support page.

While we’re gathering feedback, I don’t want to look too far into the future or into the past. After all this ecosystem is still only 2.5 days old. What I’m really hoping for is that we focus on using this shiny new toy. Just like your mobile phone camera has one button and you can have lots of fun and discover what’s possible with that one button, I’d love for you to crank on our version 1.0 of Best Camera and see what you can make it do for you. Have fun with it.

For those in this community who have written me asking how you might help this app further succeed, the answer is pretty simple: 1. tell your friends online and in the real world; and 2. rank the app and write a (hopefully glowing ;) review in the iTunes app store. That’s in large part how other people in the world discover and buy apps.

And the same goes for the book....the initial rounds of The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You are beginning to arrive on your doorstep from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders. For those of you who sent email and asked to further help out...just like the app, please tell your friends and rate/review on Amazon, B&N, Borders. Thank you thank you.

Lastly, wanted to remind you that on Monday, September 28, I’m choosing my favorite picture that’s been uploaded to www.thebestcamera.com and giving its creator a brand new, unlocked (yes unlocked) iPhone 3Gs loaded with the Best Camera app. I’ll ship it anywhere in the world. Hope to see your photos there this weekend.
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