DIY Swimming Pools by Polypool

Following on from the recent release of the utopia 365 designed and developed Polypool website, comes the newly launched DIY Swimming Pools website.

As you can see below, it shares a common(ish) look to the main Polypool company website, but with a few twists, additions and things (that’s a technical term that is).

We’re sharing common content between the two sites as part of our "Polypool Shared” project, within both associateMe and Rails directly.

Here it is.... almost as lovely as the main Polypool site from last month!

Polypool website

Big concepts. Cute designs. Clean looks. That's the new Polypool website, just about launched at www.polypool.co.uk today.

We're still working together on some content so expect a few changes over the coming days/weeks.

We'll be working with Polypool on more future developments and designs than you can shake a stick at over the coming months! Big thanks especially to Ryan and Karen at Polypool - we're glad you're loving it all as much as we are.

Below is a massive preview of how it all looks. Nice isn't it! :o)

Gorgeous Galleries

Polypool.co.uk makes extensive use of our gorgeous galleries, through our own 'Media Block' system (dubbed UTMediaBlock, for our use only) - built directly into associateMe. We can also utilise UTMediaBlock independently of associateMe in other Rails websites we develop. As well as images, it can also handle: Video, Flash Video, Flash Movies, Silverlight, YouTube and audio (such as MP3).

Our famed in-line contact forms

We use these a lot - our famed in-line contact forms, and Polypool has one! Click the main 'contact us' link and it drops down from the top of the page ready to fill out... nice, smooth, functional and pretty much universally adored by our customers.

Beautiful Case Studies

Another advantage of UTMediaBlock is that we can utilise it as a method of navigation. That's just what we do for Polypool with their Case Studies, Completed Projects and Live/Current Projects. A large UTMediaBlock shows a pretty picture for each entry and you select between them using the Next and Previous buttons. UTMediaBlock then loads in the correct content for each entry as you work your way through. It looks and works beautifully.

associateMe

Polypool.co.uk is the first website to be built from the ground-up with associateMe and with associateMe in mind. We've used associateMe with a fair few earlier developments, but it has often been a case of trying to hack concepts and ideas into existing developments - never ideal. Now? We can start building our sites from day one with associateMe - and instantly gain access to much of the power it offers.

Playing with iPad

Unfortunately we don't have an iPad yet (Apple, Mr Steve! can we have one please???) but, what we do have is the beta of the new SDK for iPad development. And.... it's beautiful.

We are of course under an NDA regarding new features so I cannot say much. However, I do think I am able to share the following with you.

The iPad is of course (at its most simplistic) a giant iPhone device, although the larger screen and improvements/additional features Apple are providing allow for much richer software experiences and usability for a lot of applications that could never function properly on an iPhone. This is mainly down to the physical size and the resolution of the screen you have to work with. That sounds obvious, and it is. 'Serious work' on a display the size of the iPhone's is difficult. The iPad make it not only feasible, but also useable, and in many cases, probably pretty enjoyable. That is massively important.

One thing that I'm sure you can understand Apple are likely to encourage with the iPad is the way applications adapt themselves to the physical handling of the device by its users. Many iPhone apps only run in a portrait mode because it is more useable for viewing lists of information or data entry and more often than not offers a better user experience for non-media content than landscape views do. This is mostly negated with the iPad because of the high resolution. In practice, for the first time with an iPhone OS device, you can have landscape views that are more useful than their portrait cousins for all kinds of applications. Showing more information and alternative information in a useful manor. I'd suggest that all iPad applications (except maybe games) should work in whatever orientation the user is holding the device in, and give the power back to the user.

Porting an existing iPhone app to the iPad can be either a relatively simple task, or a more complicated task - depending upon what the app is and what resources it contains and needs to work with (especially image resources e.t.c. which must be provided in much higher resolutions). This is mostly obvious because of the massive difference in the physical resolutions of the displays. The iPad does allow you to run existing iPhone apps natively at either their original size (smaller rectangle in the middle of the iPad screen), or zoomed in to fill the iPad's screen. This does not automatically gain you any advantage in terms of the actual screen space you have to work with because you are ultimately just looking at exactly the same as you would be on an iPhone.

iPhone apps which consist mainly of table views and lists of information (which so many do) are far easier and more efficient to port to the iPad. Other apps will likely require much tweaking, additional resource provision/creation and even more thought because you now have an iPhone OS device which is close to the screen size offered by your laptop. That's much more than a phone and you need a different mindset when thinking of the possibilities.

With some of our current 'play time', I have ported most of one of our client's apps to the iPad (I won't tell you what app it is because they don't know yet and now isn't the time!). As it's largely a data entry app, the process was more trivial than most ports are likely to be, but there is still much to do in terms of images used and the original assumption of an iPhone's 320x480 pixel display when designing, preparing and developing the app.

Whilst I have a few personal doubts about whether many people will feel an absolute need to own a product that fits neatly between their iPhone and MacBook/PC laptop, there is no doubt that the iPad is a lovely thing - and I'm sure anybody with an income that allows them to purchase a lot of new shiny things will be snapping one up. We're looking forward to getting our hands on a real iPad ASAP (whether Apple or Mr Jobs send us a freebie or not remains to be seen - come on Steve, go on..... you know it makes sense).

iPad App Development

Unless you have been incommunicado for the past few days then you'll know that Apple have released the iPad.

A new device that sits nicely between the iPhone and Mac range, we are anticipating a new range of customers utilising this smart device (along with existing Apple users enjoying it).

Based upon the iPhone OS most Apps can be natively run out of the box on the iPad. However, to make use of the new screen-size updates can be made to give a nicer user experience. The iPad also introduces some new features which will only function on the iPad (you can either build explicitly for the iPad or universally for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch).

We're looking forward to porting and creating new Apps for this marvellous little device. If you want an App for the iPad then contact us to find out more.

p.s. Just in-case you have missed it watch the promo Apple iPad video.

Second Shootr launches

Today sees the official launch of Second Shootr - the wedding photographers App for iPhone and iPod touch.

utopia 365 were commissioned by Plinkk Photography to produce the iPhone App and the Website - providing many development and design services along the way.

Palm pre webOS - go get your Mojo on - but, is it an iPhone Killer?

The Palm pre (US) (UK link here) has caused a minor stir and lead to inevitable comparisons with the iPhone. Just Google Palm pre vs iPhone.

So, is the pre an iPhone killer? No, of cause it isn't. Is it a rival? Well, maybe. Or, probably more likely, maybe not.

When you think about it, Apple created a new market with the iPhone. They haven't really taken over or dominated the 'smartphone' market per se. They haven't really impacted on the the Nokia masses and haven't really impacted on the Blackberry crew - 'smartphones' are very niche.

The iPhone isn't just a phone, it's a super phone with cool bits and bobs for the iPod generation. It wasn't made as a smartphone, it wasn't made to compete with Nokia, it was Apple engineered to appeal to exactly the same people that buy iPods and Mac's. Clever, and only Apple have the brand to do it - copy Apple and you loose. Microsoft and many others have continually failed when trying to do the same thing.

It is my belief that the reason the iPhone took of so was purely because Apple made it and iPod owners and the 'cool' people bought it, and more importantly craved it, lusted over it and actually used it. The success of the iPod should never be underestimated when looking to the success of the iPhone. Everybody that tells you they don't want Apple kit is either lying or in self-denial. Mac vs PC = Mac everytime, iPod vs Zune = iPod every time and sadly for Palm, iPhone vs pre = iPhone every time.

Although, credit where it is due. Palm appear to have a lovely phone on their hands with the pre. I've only 'seen' it in the developers simulator, but it has a nice looking and snappy feeling UI that I'm sure will appeal to a lot of people, and developers. Of course as things stand, developers are limited to coding web apps for the pre, but that's no bad thing for a new platform. Palm provide the Mojo SDK which allows developers to produce apps using web standards such as HTML 5, JavaScript (heavily Prototype although you can use other frameworks such as jQuery as well, which is a huge plus) and CSS. They give you widgets for most of the controls you'd want to implement and CSS styles and what not for implementing a proper pre UI with your app - I am actually really impressed, honestly. It's a platform that many web developers should be able to get into with a bit of tuition and practice - although, as ever, the pro's will always get the most out of it.

One big plus point for Palm is that they appear to be far more open and approachable than Apple are from a developers point of view. Working with Apple is often not a nice experience, and very often a hugely frustrating one. But in practice, developers troubles will have little impact upon consumers so it matters very little in the grand scale of things. We can't dictate what to develop for if nobody buys the said hardware.

We will certainly be keeping an eye on the pre and look forward to working with our customers on apps for it, but as an iPhone rival we feel it's unlikely that Palm can re-create the success of the iPhone and in particular the App Store - nobody else has.

I'm sure you'll be hearing much more from us about the pre and any pre developments we get into in the future, so please feel free to come back and visit us, or drop us a line if you want some work done.

Media Training 101

We're pleased to announce the launch of Media Training 101

for jackAnaCommunications.



We were commissioned by them to produce an iPhone App which would be effective at delivering their content.

Media Training 101 provides the user with invaluable information when dealing with the Media. This can be TV, radio, newspapers etc. In-fact, we think it provides great information for anyone that does any speaking - be that public or presentations.

Powered by UTBookReader the App has the ability to deliver interactive content whilst allowing the user to choose their own reading styles and themes. The addition of multiple bookmarks and notes allow you to study and assimilate the information.

Want an iPhone App?

Do you want an iPhone App?

No, it's not an offer of a free iPhone App download or anything (for a free download you need to look to iChoose).

"Want an iPhone App?" is our offer to all of you companies out there that are looking to out-source iPhone development for your wonderful products and ideas.

Maybe you don't have the time to develop iPhone versions of your existing products? Or, maybe you're primarily a design/advertising company/agency that doesn't have the in-house skills required? Or, perhaps you're a great ideas person that needs a hand?

Whatever your situation, get in touch and ask about our iPhone Development Services.

utopia 365 and EquinoxApps

We've recently been working on a number of iPhone projects (some that we can't talk about just yet) - including working with EquinoxApps on some of their iPhone Apps.

For Aphrodite, TransJakarta and Vibrazor, we have been putting the projects together in Xcode, building the framework and writing the actual code, working with specs and designs from EquinoxApps. It's been a positive agreement for both companies (with a few late nights thrown in!) and we look forward to working on more projects together.

An example of how we can work with you to get your iPhone App ideas and projects developed.