Andrew "Andy" C. Stone is an American computer programmer best known for his iOS app Twittelator,Albuquerque Journal, 4/22/2009, Fleck, John. "Twitter Guru". Page 1, above the fold. Twitter GuruLeVitus, Bob. Incredible iPad Apps. 2011. . Wiley Publishing Inc. Pages 158-159. which to date has sold over a million units for the iPhone and the iPad. The founder, director, and principal programmer for Stone Design Corporation, Albuquerque, New Mexico. In his 25 plus year career as a programmer, he has published over 35 software titles for Hypercard, the NeXT workstation, Mac OS X, and for iOS iPhones and iPads. He retired from software development in 2015.

Hypercard Andrew Stone was a contributing author to the Waite Group's Tricks of the HyperTalk Masters the Waite Group. Tricks of the HyperTalk Masters. 1989. . Hayden Books. Chapters 11 and 12

Stone developed software for Sandia National Laboratories called ProtoTymerMiller, Dwight P. and Stone, Andrew C. 1989. "ProtoTymer: Human Performance Instrumentation for HyperCard Prototyping." Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 33rd Annual Meeting 1989 Pages 249-253 which allowed physical interfaces to be trial tested in a software version.

NeXT Fascinated by Steve Jobs’ vision for the personal computer, Stone was the first independent developer for the NeXT Computer to ship a shrink-wrap product, TextArtPhilip Robinson. Fall, 1991. "Brick by Brick". NeXTWORLD. Volume 1, Number 3, Page 10Bruce F. Webster. 1991. "Key Software". NeXTWORLD. Volume 1, Number 1, Page 59 in October 1989. TextArt allowed designers to manipulate PostScript text with virtual knobs, dials and sliders. By 1990, TextArt had evolved into Create,Rick Reynolds. 1991. "TouchType and Create!". NeXTWORLD. Volume 1, Number 1, Page 79 a drawing program which shipped in 1991. At the same time, Stone Design developed a multimedia database manager called DataPhile.Ben Calica. Spring, 1992. "Flat and Sharp". NeXTWORLD. Volume 2, Issue 1, Page 57

Stone Design was a leader in electronic software distribution on NeXT and was a constant advertising presence on the first ever app store which was also invented using NeXT tools, The Electronic AppWrapper. According to an employee at the Paget Press (the startup responsible for the first app store) it was originally AppWrapper #3 that was first demonstrated to Steve Jobs and showcased Stone Design Apps. where applications like Create and DataPhile were selling along with 3D Reality and other Stone Design Apps. Stone Design Apps can still be found on the iOS App Store today, making Stone Design perhaps the longest running developer actively using electronic distribution via any app store service.

Stone was known for the rave partiesLt. Sullivan. February 1993. "Rave On". NeXTWORLD. Volume 3, Issue 1, Page 8 he organized with John Perry Barlow over a three-year period. The first party was held at the Exploratorium in October 1992. The party brought together LSD and NSA.

Stone's participation with the first government sanctioned Dimethyltryptamine research with Dr. Rick Strassman in Albuquerque in the early 1990s led to a collaboration in the underwriting of DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences,Strassman, Rick. DMT: The Spirit Molecule. 2001. . Park Street Press. Page xii. documenting the research. Andrew Stone was a featured DMT volunteer in the documentary film DMT - The Spirit Molecule.Schultz, Mitch. Joe Rogan. DMT - The Spirit Molecule. Time Warner. 2010. DVD, streaming Netflix and iTunes Andrew Stone serves on the board of the Cottonwood Research Foundation with Dr. Strassman, which provides scientific research into the nature of consciousness.

Between that time and Apple's purchase of the NeXT Corporation in December 1996, Stone Design developed a number of other products for the NeXT, including 3DReality, a 3D modeling and rendering package and CheckSum, a personal finance application.

Macintosh OS X When NeXT became part of Apple on December 20, 1996,cnet. Kawamoto, Dawn, et al. 12/20/1996. Apple acquires NeXT, Jobs. Andrew Stone was asked to help introduce NeXTStep to Mac usersAlibi Weekly. 07/14/1997. Silfer, Kyle. "The Hacker & The Heretic". Albuquerque. Cover Story. and developers. He demoed Create in the keynote presentations at both MacWorld Boston and WWDC in 1997. He was a contributing editor for Mactech for several years Stone, Andrew C. 1997. "Porting to Rhapsody from OpenStep" MacTech Volume 13, Issue 7

Stone Design began to develop for the pre-OS X Macintosh, turning out a healthy number of products for a small independent company, including PhotoToWeb, a slideshow & photo application for the Web; SliceAndDice, a tool for making javascript navigation bars; PStill, a conversion utility for turning PostScript and EPS files into .PDF files; TimeEqualsMoney, a time/expense tracking and invoicing application; PackUpAndGo, a cross-platform archiving tool; and GIFfun for making animated .gif files. All of these applications were eventually bundled together as Stone Studio, but the company continued to develop software, 16 applications in all, which eventually found their way into a single package called Stone Works, which included all the titles above plus eight additional applications including: FontSight, GlobalWarmth, iMaginator, Stone Studio widget, PreferenceCommander, VideationNation, StarMores, and Xaos – Videator Enabled.

iPhone & iPad In 2008, Stone began to release apps for the iPhone. His first product, Twittelator, became one of the best selling apps for the micro-blogging service Twitter. Other products included , TalkingPics, Gesture, MobileMix, Soundbite, Pulsar, , TweetTV and Intentionizer. He has contributed to other apps such as 140Characters, The Daily, Wine.com for iPad, WeGetIn, Trekaroo and Bandojo.

Personal life Since his retirement in 2015, Stone spends his time working on his organic farm, doing yoga, reading, hiking, and advocating for solar energy. He's married to internationally syndicated children's public radio producer Katie Stone, and has four children and four grandchildren. He has written an extensive number of articles on programming with the Cocoa code base. He also spearheaded a group called “the Cocoa Conspiracy,” a loose knit ad hoc professional organization for iOS app developers based in New Mexico.

Interviews with the Press

Mac Observer Interviews Andrew Stone Wired UK Interviews Andrew Stone Business Week article features Andrew Stone Software Design Magazine Interviews Andrew Stone arsTechnica Video + Transcript Interview with Andrew Stone MacVoices audio Interview with Andrew Stone

AppCraver Interviews Andrew Stone macNN reviews Videator

Notes

ZDNet acclaims Twittelator Neue ABQ Journal 'Twitter Guru' Andrew Stone

Complete 1991-1994 NeXTWORLD Magazines Archive

References

External links

Cottonwood Research Foundation DMT - The Spirit Molecule Movie