Press Release

Established brands such as K12 Inc. benefit from partnering with an experienced mobile developer as they build their in-house expertise. “K12 offers a range of Web-based learning tools for kids that tie into their award-winning curriculum, and they hired us to develop one of those tools as a native iPhone app,” says Hawk Ridge Consulting CEO, Julie McCool. “By partnering with Hawk Ridge Consulting, K12 got a quality iPhone app to market quickly and cost-effectively.”

“We tapped Hawk Ridge Consulting to develop the K12 Timed Reading Practice app because of their established product and technical expertise in the iPhone market,” said Corey Maender, Senior Director, Product Development at K12 Inc. “We had innovative courseware that we knew would appeal to kindergarten through 4th grade educators and students using mobile devices, and wanted a partner with experience launching multiple, quality iPhone apps. Hawk Ridge Consulting worked closely with our design team to translate our existing eLearning Timed Reading assets into a compelling user experience for the iPhone,” said Maria Szalay, Senior Vice President, Product Development.

Previous Hawk Ridge Consulting client apps include the popular FanGraphs Baseball sports app. Hawk Ridge also creates and markets the Snow Globe Maker app series, including Snow Globe Maker Beach, Winter, and Spring, all available from the iTunes App Store for $.99 each. Inspired by Ms. McCool’s time as an executive at AOL where she saw how people love to mix and match art to express their personality and passions, Snow Globe Maker brings creativity, expression and family interaction together on the iPhone. All three Snow Globe Maker apps were recently updated for Apple’s new iOS 4.0 operating system.

About Hawk Ridge Consulting

Hawk Ridge Consulting is an iPhone app developer offering custom iPhone services for every product phase from planning and design, to development and testing, to launch and marketing. Company founder, Julie McCool, applies a consumer-centric approach and practical management to the iPhone app market, drawing on her 20 year career leading products at major software companies including AOL, Symantec, and Lotus. Hawk Ridge Consulting created the Snow Globe Maker apps for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, delivering family-friendly entertainment that encourages creativity and fun (learn more at http://SnowGlobeMaker.com ).

About K12 Timed Reading Practice

K12 Timed Reading Practice, available now from the iTunes App Store (download at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/k12-timed-reading-practice/id374985358?mt=8), lets readers in levels K to 4 practice fluency by reading short, timed stories. Improving fluency allows readers to read smoothly and quickly so they can focus on comprehension rather than on decoding words. The app include 250 short, engaging stories for young readers, categorized by Flesh-Kincaid reading level.

Hawk Ridge Consulting provides iPhone app services to companies that want to extend their brand to the growing iPhone and iPod touch markets, but don’t want to invest in becoming iPhone experts themselves. As FanGraphs.com put it

“By partnering with Hawk Ridge Consulting we gained invaluable product and iPhone experience and built a great app for baseball fans. Hawk Ridge Consulting put together an expert team and led every phase of the iPhone app creation process including product planning, design, development, and testing.”

FanGraphs Baseball received rave reviews, including a 4-mouse rating from MacWorld who called it “a must-have application for any fans interested in learning more about the game they love.” Hawk Ridge Consulting recently developed an update to the app that adds one-click linking from Box Score player names to full player stats.

Last winter, Apple featured the Snow Globe Maker Winter Edition app, another Hawk Ridge Consulting creation, in its store holiday promotions. Visit SnowGlobeMaker.com to learn more about the creative Snow Globe Maker app series.

The new Snow Globe Maker Winter Edition app gives iPhone and iPod touch users over 120,000 ways to create and share beautiful custom snow globes. Mix and match high-quality art to reflect any mood or occasion–holiday parties, winter birthdays, ski getaways–or just to celebrate winter’s beauty. Email your finished globe or save a snapshot for posting to your online profile or blog.

Snow Globe Maker Winter Edition iPhone app

At SnowGlobeMaker.com, we’re celebrating winter with an update to our family-friendly Snow Globe Maker entertainment app — available soon on the iPhone app store for $0.99 . SnowGlobe Maker Winter Edition is a fun, creative, snow globe app; perfect for adults and kids who love to create and share.

With SnowGlobe Maker Winter Edition, iPhone and iPod touch owners can combine high-quality art in over 120,000 combinations to create globes that celebrate an occasion, express a mood, or are just for fun. Snow Globe Maker’s simple mix-and-match interface makes it easy to create custom snow globes for friends and family.

“Snow Globe Maker users have applauded our ‘terrific graphics and music’ and ‘great customization choices,’ so we added even more options to our newest Winter Edition update. Parents and kids have so many more ways to express and share their creativity,” said Julie McCool, Founder, SnowGlobeMaker.com. “Snow Globe Maker Winter Edition is the only app that lets users create and customize a complete, beautifully realistic, snow globe in so many ways.”

SnowGlobe Maker includes:
- a library of beautiful inserts, backgrounds and bases
- an editable text label
- two zoom levels
- integrated email and snapshot menus
- a Random button for auto-customizing
- auto snow, shake to snow, and no snow options
- a custom winter theme song
- support for Shake, Touch, Tap, and Pinch gestures on both the iPhone and iPod touch

Hawk Ridge Consulting provides iPhone app services to companies that want to extend their brand to the growing iPhone and iPod touch markets, but don’t want to invest in becoming iPhone experts themselves. Small to medium-size companies in particular often find it impractical to devote full-time resources to mobile development.

“FanGraphs.com has a popular website with a ton of great content that is ideal for the mobile market,” says Hawk Ridge Consulting CEO, Julie McCool. “By partnering with Hawk Ridge Consulting, they get a quality iPhone app to market quickly and cost-effectively. We know how to make the most of the iPhone’s unique features and how to shepherd apps from concept to launch in the App Store.”

“We knew we wanted to make the popular FanGraphs.com baseball stats available on the iPhone, but it was too time-consuming to develop iPhone expertise in-house. By partnering with Hawk Ridge Consulting we gained invaluable product and iPhone experience and built a great app for baseball fans,” says FanGraphs.com founder David Appelman. “Hawk Ridge Consulting put together an expert team and led every phase of the iPhone app creation process including product planning, design, development, and testing.”

Previously, Hawk Ridge Consulting released the SnowGlobe Maker Winter Edition and SnowGlobe Maker Beach Edition apps, both available on the iTunes App Store for $.99 each. Inspired by Ms. McCool’s time as an executive at AOL where she saw how people love to mix and match art to express their personality and passions, SnowGlobe Maker brings creativity, expression and family interaction together on the iPhone.

Hawk Ridge Consulting will be introducing additional custom apps, as well as updates to the SnowGlobe Maker app series, later this year.

About Hawk Ridge Consulting

Hawk Ridge Consulting offers custom iPhone development services for every product phase from planning and design, to development and testing, to launch and marketing. Company founder, Julie McCool, applies  a consumer-centric approach and practical management to the iPhone app market,  drawing on her 20 year career leading products at major software companies including AOL, Symantec, and Lotus. Hawk Ridge Consulting created the SnowGlobe Maker apps for iPhone and iPod touch, delivering family-friendly entertainment that encourages creativity and fun (learn more at SnowGlobeMaker.com).

About Fangraphs

FanGraphs.com, which has been online since 2005, is one of the Internet’s premier websites for game and player analysis, in-depth stats, and baseball fan discussion forums. Sited by the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, LA Times, and sports bloggers, FanGraphs.com and FanGraphs for iPhone delivers in-depth statistics on every MLB game since 1974, every major league player in history, and 16 minor leagues. FanGraphs.com offer in-depth statistics for the thinking baseball fan.

Live MLB game stats on FanGraphs Baseball for iPhone

Game graphs calculate win probability

Includes every major league player in history

New SnowGlobe Maker Beach Edition is the best family iPhone app for summer. Create an iPhone beach globe for Father’s Day, tropical travel, summer vacations, and family reunions. Choose from high quality art–like a beautiful conch shell, a sporty surfboard, or a relaxing beach chair–to reflect any mood or occasion. With SnowGlobe Maker, creativity, expression and family interaction all come together. 

Reston, VA, SnowGlobeMaker.com kicks off summer beach travel with the release of a new, family friendly entertainment app that’s available on the iPhone app store for $.99. SnowGlobe Maker Beach Edition is fun and entertaining for adults and kids who love to create and share.

With SnowGlobe Maker Beach Edition, iPhone and iPod touch owners can choose from high quality art to create globes that celebrate an occasion, express a mood, or are just for fun. The Beach Edition’s simple mix and match interface makes it easy to create custom snow globes for friends and family.

“As a Mom to twins, I wanted to create a fun entertainment app that we could use to occupy our time creatively. Parents and kids can build a globe together, or take turns creating and sending globes to each other. Our love of summers at the beach inspired the new Beach Edition,” said Julie McCool, Founder, SnowGlobeMaker.com.  “As an executive at AOL, I created the Expressions features that let people personalize their instant messaging experience. I saw how people of all ages love to mix and match art to express their personality and passions. With SnowGlobe Maker, creativity, expression and family interaction all come together.”

Additional product information and a video demonstration of Beach Edition are available at http://SnowGlobeMaker.com.

SnowGlobe Maker includes:

• a library of unique, lifelike inserts, backgrounds and bases
• an editable text label 
• two zoom levels
• a custom tropical theme song
• auto or shake snow styles (with beach sand instead of snow)
• a random option for auto-customizing
• an integrated snapshot menu
• support for Shake, Touch, Tap, and Pinch gestures on both the iPhone and iPod touch 

SnowGlobeMaker.com is created by Hawk Ridge Consulting, which develops family-friendly iPhone and iPod touch apps that encourage creativity and fun, and offers custom iPhone development services. Company founder, Julie McCool, has over 20 years experience leading products at major software companies including AOL, Symantec, and Lotus.  

- improved stability

- a faster interface

- a new Customize design which will allow us to easily add more art in future updates

Please add a comment on our Support page if you have any feedback or suggestions for this new update. Stay tuned for a new art collection (coming soon) and thank you for supporting SnowGlobe Maker.

“Every now and then I find a really fun and interesting product. The iPhone SnowGlobe Maker is a great example.”    Examiner.com

“Fresh ideas are precious commodities in this space, so developers tend to keep mum about exactly what they have in the works.

Julie McCool, a former AOL executive who lives in Reston, designed a program in which you create your own virtual snow globe. Shake your iPhone, and you set the program’s virtual snowflakes in motion.

Good idea, right? Well, she wasn’t the only one who thought of it. “When I first started thinking about snow globes, there was already one in the store,” she said. “By the time I started working on it, there were 10.”

McCool’s start-up, Hawk Ridge Consulting, has a few projects in the works in which she has paired up with entertainment companies wanting to connect with consumers on the popular App Store. You’ll understand if she keeps the details of those projects to herself, for now.”

Mike also gives a few examples of local developers who have hits big enough to turn into a full time occupation. Todd Moore, for example, hit it big with the White Noise app which made it to the top 20 list. Getting featured in the top 20 is key and tends to drive apps into the thousands of downloads per day region.

The get rich quick stories make good press, but this article also captures the reality of what a crowded market the App Store has become. It’s hard to break out of the pack and get noticed, though if you make it to the top 20 the momentum will carry you.