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.

Gold's Gym iPhone App

We're pleased to announce that the Gold's Gym iPhone App has been released into the App store.

Commissioned by Equinox Apps, utopia 365 provided the coding for the App (and a few other bits and bobs).

The App features our own in-app updating engine (newly updated), an RSS reader/Blog parse, image libraries, GPS Gym lookups / find my nearest Gym and Gym class scheduling via external sources... basically there are some clever technologies being used under the hood.

iChoose v3

The (somewhat) radical update to iChoose is coming soon. iChoose 3 will be available shortly on the iPhone App Store for free to new & existing iChoose lovers.

You'll notice an improved design and the introduction of music and speech - it's classic iChoose as you know it, but with some "attitude"! You'll either LOVE it or hate it... iChoose 3 will now act as our base for future updates - we plan on adding some additional decision makers, such as to-do lists (done the iChoose way) in the new year. Anything else you want added then let us know and we'll give it a think through....

utopia solitaire update

Due to huge demand for our development and design services this year, our happy clients have monopolised pretty much all of our time. This has meant we simply haven't had the chance to get utopia solitaire finalised for launch. In some ways that's maybe been a good thing - we've re-visited it a little now, improved the UI and are (finally!) close to releasing it.

As you can see from the screenshots below, it's looking nice - and the utopia theme is optional! :-) You can choose from 100's of different combinations of card and table designs to create your own favourite look.

All things being equal (and assuming Apple's acceptance) utopia solitaire for iPhone and iPod touch will be available on the iPhone App Store this month! We're hoping to get it to Apple for review by 12th September.

utopia solitaire will run on 1st gen iPhones and iPod touches and above (unless things change over the next week). We don't want to limit it to later models only. You will require iPhone OS 3.0 though.

'The internet in your pocket'?

Taking the web by storm

There is no doubt that the iPhone has decimated the mobile internet with around 80% of web traffic on mobile devices coming from the iPhone. That is an impressive feat to achieve in such short time.

How did this happen? Well, the iphone has an amazing interface which when added to their wonderful safari browser finally made browsing websites on an phone a joy rather than a headache. Being able to render a page quickly, pan around, zoom in etc. on a normal page "just worked".

When you read Apples own website we see that they state:

"And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. iPhone 3G. It redefines what a mobile phone can do — again."

That is some statement to make for a mobile, but mostly I agree with it - having been a user of nokia, samsung and sony smart-phones I can safely say the iPhone finally made browsing the internet easy, and more to the point I could see what I would see on my desktop or laptop. The internet was in my pocket.

Telling us how to browse (we're trying to be helpful)

When the stats started rolling in on the iPhone web usage people suddenly took it seriously. Wow they said "we're getting loads of traffic from a new device"! It was then that they (the people who know best) decided to 'help' our browsing by the introduction of 'iphone mobile optimized web-pages'.

Surely this is a good move though? We get the content all formatted in a nice way that suits our device. Mostly I will agree, but I have some issues with it.

Lets look at the BBC website on my mobile:

That looks ok, I don't mind it and I get access to the information I want. However, there might be times that I want the 'proper' website, after all I am using a mobile browser with a desktop-class web browser. When I visit the bbc on my phone they automatically take me to the mobile-optimized site. Thankfully if I scroll to the bottom of the mobile site I see I can have a choice by clicking on the desktop site.

There is still a slight issue; with the ease of implementation surely would it not be wise for the site to store which version I want as my default instead of forcing me to the mobile version? I know they are trying to help, but give me the choice.

So what do CNN do?

Well we get the same auto-detect telling me that I want to see their content in an optimized fashion, but from what I can see they do not give me the choice to access their content other than the 'mobile optimized' version.

    

To me, this is poor design - here I am on my desktop-class web browser and they are forcing me to view their site in what I consider a poorly designed layout. At-least the BBC gave me the option.

What are we asking for? Choice, simply the choice. It's sometimes very appropriate, and very nice to 'auto-detect' the browser being used and set the content appropriately, but please let there be a way to get to the standard desktop content (and ideally let me store my choice with a cookie).

On my experimenting I came across a site that I really did not think would block me on my iPhone....MobileMe.

Right, so I am on Apples iPhone which they claim is a 'desktop-class web browser', using a service that is aimed at mobility and they auto-detect and block access to me! Surely this cannot be right? According to the web-page I can access all of the features on my iPhone or iPod Touch? Firstly that's incorrect and secondly so what? Let me access the content from my web-browser! I cannot access 'my account' on the iPhone unless Apple have secretly rolled out a 'my account' iPhone App? Did I miss that? I can't use 'locate my phone'? Ok, so you might say if you are on your phone why would you want to locate it? Well, if you have a couple of phones under the same mobileme account then it shows them all, handy.

Perhaps it's because mobileme is put together in Flash? Nope, it's solidly built web/javascript and CSS wizardry. It should and would work on my iPhone. I am not given the choice though and I for one think that's a poor show Apple.

Views?

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.

Spread The Cheer With Your iPhone

Over on iPhone Nuts (www.iPhoneNuts.com) is the nicely titled: Best Christmas Application For Your iPhone

We agree.


"Well as I sit here typing this wishing I had a caramel apple spice drink, I’ve got the perfect iPhone Christmas app to let you know about. This app really has it all under one roof. The app is called MyChristmas, and for everything this app will do for you this Christmas it still comes in at a cheap $1.99. "

"My favorite part in the entertainment section was the Bells. There are seven sleigh bells you can tap and play your own Christmas song."

- Ryan Ray, iPhoneNuts.com


You can continue reading more of Ryan Ray's post on the iPhone Nuts website.

Christmas is nearly here, so get into the spirit right now with MyChristmas.

More information about MyChristmas (including additional screenshots and videos) is available from the Talee Talee MyChristmas website:

www.taleetalee.com/MyChristmas/

iChoose still going strong - it must be update time then!

It's quite amazing really, when you think about it. Despite the fact that iChoose has been knocking about since July now, it is still going pretty strong and is currently the 52nd most popular entertainment app on the USA iTunes store.

We're still getting reports of quite a lot of downloads, and that's brilliant.

We believe in updates, so you'll be pleased to know that yet another iChoose update will be winging it's way to you shortly. What's new we hear you ask? Well, we'll tell you...

1. We've updated the UI a bit

2. A lot of people wanted 'shake' to make a decision, rather than just touch the screen. It's in now.

3. iChoose is now integrated with some of our other apps. MyChristmas and iChoose play together nicely, so that you can use MyChristmas to ask iChoose what music to play, what game to play, what entertainment to use and what carol to sing along to, etc. We think you'll like it very much. And, vice versa, from within iChoose you can ask it to choose an aspect of MyChristmas for you to see. (Obviously you will need to have both MyChristmas and iChoose installed on your iPhone or iPod touch for this functionality)

4. The same functionality integrated with uSnap! Can't decide which type of game to play? Let iChoose decide for you.

5. Following on from a wonderful comment from a bloke that downloaded iChoose, we've added in Turn Left or Turn Right decision making. This guy deliberately drives round getting lost so that he can learn the area and the streets! What a concept. Now you too can get lost with iChoose. It's sort of like a reverse sat-nav.

OK, so that's on its way in a few days when it gets through the App Store process - updates to iChoose (v2.1), MyChristmas (v1.1) and uSnap! (v1.1)

And, we have one more idea for another iChoose update before the end of this year. We're going to put in some GTD stuff - the iChoose way.

Christmas Bells for your iPhone

Talee Talee bring you Christmas Bells, for your iPhone or iPod touch.

Christmas Bells is a free introduction into the joys of MyChristmas, available now on the iPhone App Store.

Christmas Bells has been released and should appear in iTunes later this week. Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! :o)

New review

Just a little post to mention a new review of MyChristmas.

Head on over to AppleiPhoneSchool for a look. There is lots of other great info and reviews on this site if you're an iPhone/iPod Touch fan.

Enjoy.

Announcing MyChristmas (iPhone Christmas app)

Hot of the press we can announce that MyChristmas, our latest iPhone app has been successfully added to the iPhone App Store.

MyChristmas is a collection of great little apps, all rolled into one (like iChoose) to create your 'Christmas Compendium'. 

FEATURES:

- Christmas Music: 6 fabulous Christmas music tracks (courtesy of Kevin MacLeod) that can be played and stopped whenever you want them to be. They are: "Deck the Halls", "Jingle Bells", "Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem", "Oh, Christmas Tree", "Silent Night" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

- Christmas Games: Snow Solitaire and Christmas Match. Snow Solitaire is a twist on Klondike solitaire and Christmas Match is a traditional 'match 2 pieces from the grid' game with a Christmas flavour and saved scoring.

- Christmas Countdown: A visual countdown to Christmas and a 'Sleeps till Christmas' for young Children, we fully expect the immortal phrases of "How many more sleeps until Christmas, mummy!" and "Is there anymore sleeps to Christmas, daddy?" to bring much joy to parents and children alike.

- Christmas Entertainment: Musical Bells is a great deal of fun and you can use the seven bells to play your own Christmas tunes (such as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star). Snow Scene is, well, a Snow Scene. Our very own Christmas Candle, it looks great and you can zoom in/out for 3 different sizes. Mistletoe is a virtual sprig of mistletoe, complete with 'sounds', and Christmas Sounds provides a bit of amusement with a Honking Rudolph and a Merry Santa.

- "A Christmas Carol": An eBook that let's you read the classic Dickens story on your iPhone or iPod touch, complete with a single bookmark feature to remember where you were! A little hint, always remember to use the 'Update My Bookmark' button every now and then to save where you are, you can then get back to that point from the 'My Bookmark' option in the eBook menu screen.

- Christmas Carols: A collection of words (and Wikipedia information links - internet required) for popular Christmas Carols.

- iPhone New Year: A countdown to New Year, the words to Auld Lang Syne (Auld Lang Syne music coming soon) and a Fireworks display!

- And more.....

More information, some screenshots and QuickTime video can be found on the Talee Talee website.

We're going to try and get version 1.1 out soon also! 

For less than the price of a Big Mac you can get all festive!

A little quiet.....

We've been a little quiet lately, not because there is anything wrong, but because we've been so busy.

Firstly, let's just say a quick 'Hoorah!' for Lewis Hamilton.  Well done, but don't do it like that next year please!

So, where is the app we kept saying we would release (utopia Solitaire). It's really, honestly almost done. However, we have another 2 apps nearly, honestly done also as we are deciding to release 3 apps together. Without being biased, they are great! 

Keep an eye on things as we will be releasing very soon.......

iChoose 2.0

We asked iChoose if it wanted to update itself. It did. We asked iChoose if it wanted to go all 2.0, and, guess what? It did!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you iChoose 2.0. Coming to the iPhone App Store real soon.

iChoose will always remain free. We will not (as so many others have) suddenly start charging for our free apps in some vain, crass and stupid attempt to gain popularity. You will, however, be given the opportunity to make a donation towards the future development and evolution of iChoose, should you so desire.

"The Swiss Army Knife of choice"
(source: the UK App Store iChoose reviews)




What's new?

* iChoose Settings (in the iPhone Settings App)
+ Turn animations on/off when making decisions (the initial 'flip' from the '?' button is retained)
+ Individual settings for certain decision makers (choices)

* iChoose interface
+ New 'improved' look
+ Added a 'Hold' button to let you hold your choice until you've finished with it
+ 'Additional' button for some decision makers - e.g. 'Roll All Dice' for Dice ROLL (see below)

* Coin Toss
+ Added 'Real Coin' graphics option (A £2 GBP coin to be precise)

* Dice Roll
+ Choose to have 1-6 dice on screen
+ Roll each dice individually, or roll all dice at the same time
+ On-screen 'total' of dice values, e.g '= 7'
+ 'Hold' dice rolls

* New (More ...) decision makers (choices)
+ 'Let iChoose Choose' - iChoose will take you to a random decision maker/choice
+ Rock/Paper/Scissors
+ Loves Me/Loves Me Not
+ Red/Black
+ Boy/Girl
+ Quit/Stay
+ iPhone/iPod touch
+ Mac/PC
+ Weather (rain, sun, snow etc)
+ Random Number (range of numbers defined by you in the settings - defaults to between 1 and 100)

Getting free video content onto your iPhone and Touch

I have been using YouTube to get some guitar lessons for my acoustic - there are some excellent resources available and some of the top tutors will post lessons on there.

That's fine for when I'm sat in front of my computer and have a web connection - but if I am out and about I don't have that luxury.

This is where TubeTV steps in....

TubeTV allows you to search, play and download YouTube videos. When you download, it converts them into an iTunes format where you can then sync onto your iPhone or iPod Touch. Great - I can now go anywhere - plug my headphones in while watching the lessons.

Of course - there is enough on YouTube to keep anyone entertained. If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and a Mac then TubeTV is a nifty bit of software worth having.... oh and it's free! (Donation Ware).

There is a nice piece of software out there to do the same with the excellent BBC iPlayer service, but unfortunately after a few changes at BBC the developer has to re-do some parts to get it working again. I hope this happens as again, this was a great bit of software that really works well for the iPhone and Touch.

I am not currently aware of a similar solution for services like HULU - let me know if there are any.