Last fall I mentioned that I contributed to an e-book entitled iOS 5 by Tutorials. The book assumes some knowledge of iOS software development, and proceeds to give a whirlwind tour of the new application programming interfaces (APIs) included in iOS 5.
The book was well received, but many customers expressed interest in a hard copy. Today, I’m happy to announce that the paperback version is available for purchase from Amazon. It was so large that it had to be split into two separate volumes! You can read more about it here, or you can purchase them directly:
Today I’m happy to announce App Store availability of komorka’s latest original title, Edgewise.
Because komorka focuses primarily on client work, this is only our second original app (StereoMatic is the other). I’ve always wanted to add additional titles to the portfolio, but it’s been difficult to decide what makes the best use of my time and energy. Sometimes an idea seems unique, then you find that there are already many high-quality incumbent apps available in the App Store.
Early last summer I asked David Smith, an independent iOS & Mac app developer that I respect, how he managed to be so prolific. He suggested that I focus on building something:
- useful / fun for myself
- well defined and realistically shippable
- that does at least 2 things ‘unique’ to differentiate itself
I reflected on this email exchange during Ride The Rockies last year. I was collecting my ride data during each day of the ride, but I could not find a suitable iPhone alternative to the Garmin Connect website.
In case you don’t know, cyclists tend to be technophiles – they ride bikes made of carbon fiber, wear clothes made of high-performance materials, and use GPS-enabled devices for capturing training & performance data, etc. A leading maker of these devices is Garmin, with its Edge product suite. These devices are mounted to your bike and use a built-in GPS receiver to track the route you travel on your ride. The device can also capture speed, ambient temperature, elevation, cadence, heart rate, and other data. Once your ride is complete, the collected data can be analyzed to your heart’s content. This requires connecting your Edge (or similar device) to your computer and uploading your ride data to Garmin’s training-oriented website, Garmin Connect.
Garmin Connect is a nice platform, but it has a few crucial limitations. First, the website is not formatted for mobile devices, and second, its charts are Flash-based (or were, until recently). Both of these are non-starters for an iPhone user.
Edgewise was inspired by these shortcomings – I simply wanted an app that allowed me to review my data on my phone. There are admittedly other platforms in this space – some nice alternatives include Strava, Training Peaks, MapMyRide, and RunKeeper – but most of these seek to displace Garmin Connect rather than supplement it. Edgewise allows Garmin Connect to remain as your canonical data source.
The app focuses on presenting your ride data in a compelling fashion. You can view a list of your historical rides, sorted in reverse chronological order. The Ride Profile provides additional summary information, as well as a detailed map of the route you traveled and an interactive chart reflecting your performance. Your base activity data is retrieved and stored in a local database; your detailed ride data (GPX for charts & maps) is also stored locally as space permits. If you use a platform other than Garmin Connect, Edgewise also expedites the process of exporting your GPX-based activity data.
You might say that Edgewise scratches a personal “itch” of mine – if it fails to sell a single copy, I’ll continue to invest in it for my personal use. Currently I’m using it to train for the Triple Bypass in July.
I hope that you find it as useful as I do, and I welcome your feedback.
Yesterday marked the five-year anniversary of the iPhone, and it’s led me to wax nostalgic about an earlier time in my career. Without that seminal event, komorka wouldn’t exist today.
Five years ago, I was working a contract-to-hire engagement as a software engineer for a prominent financial services company. I was actually in the middle of a career shift. I’d begun work on an MBA, with the naïve idea that I’d transition away from the monotony of “enterprise” software development to something else – a financial analyst, perhaps.
After watching the iPhone announcement, I simply had to have one. The device that was characterized as a convergence of “an iPod, a phone, [and] an internet mobile communicator” could become the substrate for much more. I transitioned our phone numbers from Sprint to Cingular to expedite the purchase when the device launched in June. When launch day came, I was in line to buy one. I opened the box, and it was clear – something big was afoot.
Later that summer, I was presented with an opportunity to return to broadcast media. I accepted a position in The Office of The CTO at Comcast exploring “the future of interactive television”. I was part of a three-person team at Comcast – we spent most of our time coding embedded Java, working with hardware parters like Samsung & Motorola on next-generation set-top boxes (STBs), and preparing proof-of-concept demonstrations. It wasn’t iPhone development per se, but it felt closer to where I wanted to be.
I worked on a lot of interesting prototypes, but the most fun demonstrations were iPhone apps of some sort. One “app” wasn’t even an app – it was basically a web clip that allowed you to tap on rows in an HTML program guide to change channels (via MoCA, Tomcat, and some other network trickery). Once the SDK was released, we worked on another app that let you watch video on your device and “flick” the playback timestamp back & forth between your DVR – the idea being that you might sync video from your DVR to your iPhone, watch it during your mass transit commute, and resume playback on your TV once you returned home.
That was it – I was hooked. I could not leave technology. I continued work on my MBA, but I had to find some way to do this on a full-time basis. After completing my MBA in May 2009, I remained at Comcast until leaving Denver later that year. My family was attracted by the growth underway in Oklahoma City, so we took a chance and returned “home”.
Two years ago this month, I started komorka as an entity to support my freelance escapades – initially Ruby / Rails & enterprise Java development, then development with the iPhone SDK. The backlog grew until I could pursue komorka on a full-time basis. I left my “day job” one year ago, and I haven’t looked back.
As komorka enters its third year, I’m excited about its potential. We have more clients and deliver higher quality solutions. We continue to develop apps for others, but we are also working on more original apps. I don’t know how the next five years will unfold, but I am genuinely excited by the possibilities. John Gruber characterizes that excitement in this excerpt from his keynote speech at the 2011 Çingleton Symposium:
‘This is an extraordinary time to be an Apple developer’. This is the right time and the right place. This is a once in a career opportunity. This is like being a rock & roll musician in the late sixties. This is like being a filmmaker in the seventies following Scorsese, Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas (when he was a saint). If things go right, if things go the way I think they are going to go, these next five years, we are never going to work harder, we are never going to be under more pressure, we’re never going to be more stressed, we are never going to feel like we have to work faster and we are never going to have to solve tougher problems. We’re never going to have to move this fast. But the only thing any of us are going to regret is if we don’t aim big enough. If you don’t feel that you’re now in a position to do the best work of your entire career, to look back and say, ‘This was the time, I was there, I did this, I helped make this thing a reality’, then you need to find a new position. This chance will never come again. And we are lucky, we’re so unbelievably, incredibly lucky that it even came this once.
Posted January 10th, 2012
Many of komorka’s clients are “local” to the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As a supporter of local businesses, imagine my excitement when Keep It Local OK approached me about building an iPhone app for them.
If you’re not familiar with Keep It Local, it’s an affinity program that encourages patronage of local businesses. Consumers can purchase a card that entitles them to rewards at participating merchants in the OKC metro area. These rewards might include discounts on goods & services, free appetizers at a restaurant, or other benefits.
With an idea of what Keep It Local is, I’d like to discuss both what the app does and how it does it in more detail.
The App
I am happy to announce that the app is now available in the App Store. As you can see in the screenshots below, it’s a utility app that allows you to quickly identify participating Keep It Local merchants. Some of my favorite features include:
- View participating merchants in a list or on a map
- Search participating business by name, or Filter merchants by Category / City
- Quickly view merchant profiles, which includes: reward, location, and menus (for restaurants)
- Share your presence via Facebook or Twitter
- Invite a friend by phone, email or SMS text message
- Create a list of Favorite merchants
As if that weren’t enough, the folks at Keep It Local created a promotional video highlighting the app. Check it out here.
The Project
With an idea of what the app does, I’d like to cover how we did it. Because this project was such a team effort, I’ll focus on how enlisting a local service provider contributed to the project’s success.
First, the app takes advantage of existing content. Keep It Local works with another OKC business, Studio FJ, for web development & hosting services. Because Studio FJ uses Drupal as the content management system (CMS) for its websites, we made an architectural decision to rely on the CMS as the canonical data source for the app. komorka worked with both entities to cleanse its existing data, identify additional “app-only” data (e.g., GPS coordinates and the like), and expose this information via web services for synchronization with the iPhone app.
Second, the project benefitted from “sweat equity.” The folks at Keep It Local have an artistic background, and expressed an interest in contributing to the project. We worked together to identify the graphics collateral necessary for the project, and integrated those assets into the final project.
The project went through a few design iterations based on feedback from user testing. Throughout the process we were able to meet face-to-face, by phone, and via email as the situation dictated. The app is deceptively complex, but as far as the user is concerned, it just works. It’s already earned a place on my home screen!
Wrapping Up
So there you have it – a glimpse at one of our latest projects: helping a local client that supports local businesses.
If you haven’t already joined Keep It Local, I encourage you to purchase a membership card and check it out. If you’re a local business that would like to talk about your own app idea, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Posted December 15th, 2011
If you or your clients have apps in either the iTunes App Store or the Mac App Store, chances are that you spend a bit of time dealing with iTunes Connect. Reporting and payments for app sales are processed according to Apple’s Fiscal Year; the dates for this calendar are visible as HTML in iTunes Connect, but I’ve often found myself wanting to view them in an actual calendar.
To that end, I’ve re-created Apple’s FY2012 calendar in iCal, and shared it via iCloud here. Please contact us if you find it helpful, or if you have any suggestions to make it more useful in the future.
Posted December 11th, 2011
One of the things I appreciate about developing for iOS is the tight-knit technical community. Even developers with directly competing apps are often friends, and many developers bend over backwards to help their peers. A number of them maintain valuable blogs or similar sites to share their knowledge with others.
If you’ve ever used Google to search for help with iOS, chances are you’ve seen Ray Wenderlich’s website, which features tutorials with an emphasis iOS & gaming with cocos2d. Ray’s site is unique because he “polls the audience” – the topics he covers are chosen by his readers.
I’ve often thought that “I need to blog more”, but I’ve struggled to identify relevant topics to focus on. So when Ray announced a search for people to join his iOS Tutorial Team, I jumped at the chance to participate. It seemed like an ideal opportunity to give back to the community.
Today I’m happy to announce my first contributions to the site. I collaborated with other members of Ray’s team to author iOS 5 by Tutorials, an eBook focused on what’s new & improved in iOS 5. The book employs the same approach used by the site – explaining concepts with detailed tutorials. Some of the topics covered in the book include:
- Automatic Reference Counting (ARC)
- Core Image
- GLKit
- iCloud
- Newsstand
- Storyboards
- Twitter Integration
- Turn-Based Gaming
- UIKit Customization
- UIPageViewController
- UIViewController Containment
- and more!
The book is available in beta form today, and will be updated as it progresses to completion. Perhaps more importantly, it includes a 60-day Money-Back Guarantee! So if you are seeking a valuable resource covering the latest that iOS 5 has to offer, click or tap the banner below to purchase it.
Finally, if your project could benefit from komorka’s expertise with iOS 5, contact us today.
Posted October 12th, 2011
In an earlier post, we shared an update on the progress of StereoMatic, our jukebox app for iPad. In that post, we indicated that we were actively working on Version 1.2, and that we would work diligently to ensure the app would continue to function on iOS 5.
As promised, Version 1.2 was released in September; in fact, it was even showcased at MobileBeta.
With today’s release of iOS 5, komorka is announcing the release of StereoMatic v1.3. This version is a maintenance release, with an emphasis on iOS 5 compatibility. One new feature in this update is the ability to search for songs by Genre (e.g., “Rock”, “Country”, etc.). Please contact us if you have any questions about the app, or if you encounter any difficulty with this update.
Finally, if you like StereoMatic, please consider reviewing it in the App Store. The feedback truly helps support the app.
Posted October 12th, 2011
komorka was an exhibitor at MobileBeta last night – it was great to meet both companies and individuals active in the Oklahoma City mobile scene. Two of the most common questions we heard were as follows:
- “Do you do Android apps?”
- “Do you do enterprise apps?”
The answer to both of these questions is a resounding “yes.” I’ll elaborate on the former question in a future post, and entertain the latter question here.
komorka has extensive experience with enterprise development. Prior to beginning mobile development in 2008, I worked for about a decade leveraging enterprise Java and related technologies as both an employee and consultant. I’ve worked on projects for one of the world’s largest payment processors, contributed to multiple Keynote presentations at the Consumer Electronics Show, and even worked on streaming video projects for a prominent subscription television channel.
Although my focus has shifted to mobile apps from web apps and desktop software, my interest in the enterprise has never wavered. komorka was quick to recognize the potential of mobile devices in the workplace, and komorka has delivered a number of projects in that space. In fact, komorka recently completed a successful enterprise app for a local client in the energy industry — this project was secured by referral from a previously satisfied client.
It’s worth discussing the characteristics of an enterprise app, but first, it might help to consider what doesn’t qualify as an enterprise app: games, fitness apps, sports-related apps, music apps or reference apps typically don’t fit the “enterprise” designation.
Enterprise apps, on the other hand, directly facilitate the operations of a business. They might help with any of the following:
- Business Processes (e.g., expense reporting or project management workflow)
- Collaboration Tools (e.g., secure messaging or file sharing)
- Training & Reference Materials (e.g., Material Safety Data Sheets, instruction manuals)
- Field Sales & Service (e.g., field data-gathering or payment processing)
- Business Intelligence (e.g., executive dashboards)
Some of these apps may actually be products or services suitable for use by multiple enterprises, and as such, might be sold via a “retail” distribution mechanism like Apple’s iTunes App Store or the Android Market. Still other apps may be suitable for only your enterprise. In that case, Apple’s iOS Developer Enterprise Program is a great fit for you. The Enterprise Program allows you to securely host, distribute, and update in-house apps to your employees. komorka has experience administering the enterprise program to configure & deploy enterprise devices and the apps which are installed on them.
Depending on the needs of the end user, these apps may target either a phone or tablet form factor. komorka has a great deal of experience with iPad apps in particular.
When you’re ready to talk, we’ll listen carefully to your needs and share examples of our previous experience with you. komorka won’t show you case studies of apps someone else has worked on, nor will we show you pictures of web apps running on iPads. We’ll provide evidence of successful iPhone & iPad apps — apps featured on the Apple website, apps featured at multiple trade shows, and perhaps most importantly, apps valued by our clients.
Regardless of the type of app you need, rest assured that komorka can help you bring your idea to fruition, contact us today.
Posted September 30th, 2011
komorka will a Presenting Sponsor at MobileBeta, scheduled for 7:00pm tomorrow (September 29) at the Oklahoma City Coworking Collaborative. MobileBeta is a showcase event for the best mobile apps created right here in Oklahoma City.
Looking at the current roster of apps, I’m particularly excited to check out both JoinSpeaker and PigeonMe. komorka will be highlighting StereoMatic, but if you’d like to see more examples of our work, just ask. I’ll have a number of devices on hand for you to explore.
This brings me to another topic – aside from questions about quality mobile apps produced locally, I’m often asked more broadly about some of my absolute favorite apps.
Two new apps that merit consideration include Magical Weather and Glassboard.
Magical Weather is the latest offering from Sophiestication, a previous Apple Design Award Winner. Apple notably omitted a Weather app from the iPad, so a number of apps have tried to fill that void. Magical Weather is one of the best attempts so far – the app
presents a grid of weather around the world, including conditions for your current location and up to eight additional places of your choosing. From this grid, a user can access detailed forecast information for each individual location, including current conditions, an hourly forecast, and an extended forecast. The graphics and animations are beautiful – it’s a standout iPad app.
Glassboard is a group sharing app from the team at Sepia Labs, a spinoff of NewsGator (Taplynx & NetNewsWire). Glassboard allows you to share conversations, photos, and other content via private “boards”. Unlike some social networks, you never have to worry that your posts are shared without your knowledge, or that your content has become “more visible” due to arbitrary changes to privacy policies or related settings on the host platform. If you value simplicity and privacy, check out Glassboard for iPhone, Android, or Windows Phone 7.
We’d be remiss if we failed to mention that two of our favorite apps were updated last week: Instagram & Gowalla.
Instagram is a fantastic iPhone app that makes it easy to take photos, process them with special effects filters, and conveniently share with friends via services like Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr.
Gowalla has been refashioned a bit with its latest update, transitioning from a checkin-centric usage model to more of a social travel guide. Users can view beautiful guides highlighting the best places in cities around the world, as well as colleges & universities, and even national parks and other venues. Gowalla is available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry.
So there you have it – a list of some of komorka’s favorite apps. If you’d like us to help you create your next favorite app, find us at MobileBeta and say hello, or contact us directly.
Posted September 28th, 2011
In my recent post, On Technical Vitality, I discussed the pride we take in both honing & applying our craft. That post was prompted by a recent trip to Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that we play fairly hard as well.
One of my pastimes is cycling. I follow the ProTour enthusiastically, and I ride quite frequently as well. I have both road & mountain bikes, I track my mileage and performance, and I typically watch what I eat. Each year I typically set a mileage goal, and identify a few “touring” events that I want to participate in, either for the challenge they present, the scenery, or perhaps a fundraising goal.
The “event” aspect of my goal for 2011: to enter and finish Ride the Rockies (RTR), an annual bicycle tour through Colorado. In its 26th year, RTR is a popular event that employs a lottery to cap participation at 2,000 riders. Last year I entered and was not selected; this year I entered and learned of my selection in early March. I was excited about returning to Colorado in June, but that enthusiasm was tempered by the rigors of training for six days & 400 miles in the saddle, at altitude.
Things became complicated when I learned that WWDC was scheduled for the week immediately before Ride The Rockies. Still, I was committed to doing both, so I set out to revise my training & travel plans accordingly.
Ultimately I drove my bicycle & luggage to Colorado, flew from Denver to San Francisco and back for WWDC, then participated in the tour. In addition to the physical challenge of that week, I was continually reminded of Colorado’s beauty. I lived in Colorado for eight years, but most of the roads along our route from Crested Butte to Georgetown were new to me.
Atop Rabbit Ears Pass, Day 5, Ride the Rockies
After six days of riding, it was a relief to pedal past the finish line. Here is a brief “tale of the tape” from my trip:
- 414 miles over six days
- 30,070 ft of elevation gain, including six mountain passes
- 31:11:13 in the saddle
- 18,847 calories expended
So, hopefully this gives you a glimpse of some of our extracurricular pursuits at komorka. If you’re ever in the area, we’d be happy to join you for a ride some time.