Seth Porges is a magazine editor and the creator of Cloth, an iOS fashion app for iPhone and iPod Touch. His Twitter handle is @sethporges. App appeal is obvious. The barrier to entry? So low! The upshot of producing the next Angry Birds or beer-chug simulator? So high! Heck, with just a small investment of time and cash, it’s not hard for would-be mobile moguls to turn a concept into a steady stream of cash. And thanks to today’s app stores, it’s never been easier to try your hand at becoming the next tech tycoon. Here’s (almost) everything you need to know before you get started on your own app — and what I wish I knew before I got into the game. 
If you’re new to the app game, prepare for some sticker shock. Making an app will cost you, at the very minimum, around $10,000. This is for a Read More

by The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Quick Pitch: Create an easily accessible catalog of your favorite outfits. Genius Idea: In the App Store, there are more than a few solutions for snapping, saving and sharing your outfits with others. None, however, offers as clean a user experience as Cloth [iTunes link], nor (in most cases) as many privacy options. Unlike Fashism, Pose or Go Try It On, Cloth has no built-in social network and no registration is required. By default, any photos you take of your clothing are saved in the app alone — ideal for those of us who want to remember and organize our outfits, but don’t always (or ever) want to broadcast them to the world. Still, those who Read More

Picking out the perfect outfit can take hours. Whenever I start to get dressed up, I always think, what did I wear this time last year? I’ll even go through old photo albums on Facebook or Flickr to remind myself of the combinations I put together in the past to save myself some time in the present. One morning, Seth Porges, a Brooklyn based tech writer was watching his girlfriend, Wray Serna, the co-founder of the fashion line Ambit, try on outfit after outfit, snapping photos of herself in the mirror each time. “What are you doing?” He asked. “Taking photos of my outfits so I’ll remember them,” she answered. Porges thought, “There’s got to be an app for that”. Turns out there wasn’t. So he hired developer Pablo Quinteros and designer Keith Vincent and a few months later, Cloth was born. At its core, Cloth is like combining the technology of Cher’s closet Read More

My wife tells me I dress like a hobo. So, when I actually dress like an adult ready to face the world, it's sort of a big deal. Cloth will help me remember the outfit my wife picked out for me and share it with my friends. Because there's no way I'm going to remember what pants I was wearing. Wait, was I wearing pants? While clearly marketed for the ladies, Cloth is actually quite helpful for slobs like myself. Find a outfit that works, take a photo of yourself wearing it, and tag it up. You can track how often you've worn the outfit, what event the outfit is suitable for, and share the outfit with your friends on Facebook. Hopefully your Facebook friends will tell you if something isn't working. You know, before you embarrass yourself in front of your boss or a date. [iTunes] Read More