Tapulous

Update: Check out some of coverage we’re getting on New York Times, BoingBoing, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, and TechCrunch. Thanks guys!

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With the AppStore launch just around the corner, it’s time to let you know who we are. We call ourselves Tapulous, and we love iPhone.

We love to build things, so we got together to build a family of fun, social apps for iPhone and share them with the world. Thing is, we’re not the most patient of folk, so some of us have been building iPhone apps since way back when (like way back when, back in the summer of ‘69 before there was an official SDK).

Turns out our early apps, including Tap Tap Revolution and those from iApp-a-Day, found their way onto over a million iPhones and iPod touches (yeah, it kinda blew us away too). But that was then. Over the next few days, we will introduce our first three apps for the AppStore:

• Twinkle: The app that connects you with people nearby and your friends
  on Twitter. Discover, connect and chat with people in your area, or just update your Twitter status. And of course you can attach pictures to your messages.
• Tap Tap Revenge: The sequel to Tap Tap Revolution, the wildly
  successful (700,000 users!) pre-AppStore app. This rhythm game lets you tap and shake your iPhone to the beat of the included tracks and challenge friends in head-to-head two player mode.
• Friend Book: This “super address book” helps you find and manage the
  contact information for all of your connections. And since our apps are all about helping you find new connections nearby, we’ve incorporated “Handshake”, the feature that lets you hold two iPhones together and shake them to exchange contact information.

But that’s just the beginning. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out more apps, and you’ll see us be very active in the iPhone community:

• iApp-a-Week: Did you follow Sean’s iApp-a-Day project? Get ready for the sequel, iApp-a-Week. The first of those apps should land over the next week or so.
• Summer of iPhone: Kyle Macomber and Chris Clark have dropped their vacation plans to spend the Summer with us, hacking on cool iPhone apps that they’ll be getting out by the end of the Summer. We’re open to bringing on more talented iPhone and Mac lovers who have ideas for killer social iPhone apps they want to hack on with a little help from our crew.
• iPhone Dev Camp: Tapulous is sponsoring the iPhone Dev Camp in early August, and we’re also doing a Social Apps contest there. Come meet us there!

Most immediately, we’re gearing up some cool contests and tournaments starting Friday!

We’ve assembled an awesome team of iPhone and Mac developers. Mike Lee, our Chief Architect, won an Apple Design Award for his work on Delicious Library; Sean Heber is the brilliant mind who ran iApp-a-Day (30 apps in 30 days!) last November; Louie Mantia makes delicious, lickable graphics for the Mac and the iPhone; Tristan O’Tierney has worked on many of your favorite Mac apps; Sean Fannan is a one-man backend team; and Bart Decrem and Andrew Lacy are the resident entrepreneurs. In our extended family we count Nate True, inventor extraordinaire and creator of Tap Tap Revenge; Guy English, of Rogue Amoeba fame; and Layton Duncan of Polar Bear Farm.

We are backed by a fantastic group of angel investors, including Andy Bechtolsheim, Marc Benioff, Jeff Clavier, Katrina Garnett, Khosla Ventures, Rajeev Motwani, Ben Smith and Rob Theis.

What it all adds up to is passion. We are passionate about iPhone. We love to see what it can do. We believe it’s the Next Big Thing in the digital revolution. We want to build awesome social apps that let you connect with your friends. Enjoy – and welcome to Tapulous!