
Pixate (YC S12) and Google - uptown
http://blog.pixate.com/post/124673189563/google
======
Zikes
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
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.

~~~
Nilzor
Funny how everybody is "excited", "delighted" and "ecstatic" about being
acquired by a mega corporate.

~~~
bsaul
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.

~~~
notahacker
Buying a smaller company gives the owners control over a resource.

Merging with a similar sized company means relinquishing control for no
immediate return.

~~~
jessaustin
A company that is well-capitalized and having trouble growing might buy a
similarly-sized company just for the next couple quarters of revenue. Of
course that isn't a _good_ reason but it is an "immediate return".

------
hbosch
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
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
Is it using React Native?

~~~
pavlov
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
I'd far prefer a generator that creates pure native code over one that creates
a dependency.

------
tsunamifury
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
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.

------
abvdasker
Strong candidate for

[http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/](http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/)

~~~
Kiro
Starting a company and being acquired is an incredible journey so I don't
understand the humour in this.

~~~
eloisant
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.

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

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

------
ksherlock
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-f...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/15/pixate-debuts-a-framework-
for-designing-mobile-apps-with-css/)

------
mladenkovacevic
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
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
So I'm wondering if they'll limit local storage accessibility for the
Applications devices as a way of enforcing prototypes.

------
cookingrobot
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?

------
dadude
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)

------
jtwebman
Congrats guys! Nice to see hard work pays off.

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

------
Finbarr
Congrats to Paul and the team!

------
aaronbrethorst
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.

~~~
PStamatiou
Except that Pixate is purely for prototyping in the design phase.. not for
actually shipping a binary to the app store.

~~~
seivan
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
What was the initial product?

~~~
jrnkntl
CSS for iOS / Android elements Renamed to Pixate Freestyle
[http://www.freestyle.org/](http://www.freestyle.org/)

