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).

Tim Collins Interviewed

We've been working with Tim for several months now, seeing Second Shootr evolve from an idea to a successful and popular iPhone App for professional photographers.

We caught up with Tim to ask him some questions:

Q) What do you do for a living?

I'm a wedding photographer who dabbles occasionally in software testing to supplement my income.

Q) What made you want to create an iPhone App?

I've had an iPhone since they were first released in the UK. Since then, I've wanted an application to help improve my photographic workflow. In essence, I wanted to create the application for purely selfish reasons.

Q) Is this your first venture into something like this?

I do have experience of the software development cycle, but I've never commissioned work like this before.

Q) What made you choose utopia 365?

Three main reasons:

1. They are based in the UK. I prefer to meet with people face-to-face... build up a strong relationship and to get clarity on exactly what I want.


2. They use Agile methodologies. Whilst I appreciate that the majority of people won't know/care about Agile, I am very much an Agile convert and it works well for this type of development.


3. Their skill is in iPhone app development. The iPhone is a unique device with a unique user interface - you NEED someone who knows exactly how the iPhone works in order to build an application that works well on the device. If your application doesn't work well, you're left with an application that nobody wants.

Q) How did you find working with them?

The guys are great. I left them with some VERY specific requirements, but they went above and beyond what I asked for.

Q) Are you pleased with Second Shootr?

Very much so. It's far better than I imagined.

Q) What are your plans for Second Shootr?

Honestly? I have no plans. Second Shootr fulfilled all my business needs in version 1.0. What I've been doing from here is listening to user feedback and asking the utopia 365 guys to implement the most requested features (if I can afford it). It sounds like a pretty rubbish business model on the face of it, but if you give your users what they want, then they'll use your app!

Q) How have you found the marketing / App store process?

I'd describe myself as very computer-savvy person, but the app store is a strange little place! Setting up your seller account can be challenging (lots of tax forms and stuff), but the guys at utopia 365 talked me through everything. I still don't know anything about code signing or uploading updates to the app store... I just leave it all up to them.

Marketing an iPhone application is hard. Especially a niche application like mine. If I was going to offer advice to anyone it would be to have a good marketing budget. If you can afford it... split the cost of development and marketing 50/50... otherwise your app won't be seen by your target consumer and you won't make money!

Q) Knowing what you know now, would you do it again?

Yeah... I'd do it again. At times its been hard (testing an application over and over again isn't exactly fun, but its important), but its been very rewarding to see an idea be released out into the big, wide world.

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.