atomicbird

You haven't seen it on this web site, but it just so happens that I've completed version 1.0 of my first iPhone application, which is now available in the iPhone app store. The reason it's not here is because, as I described briefly back in March, I developed the app on a contract basis for someone else.

The application is called AirMe (which is also the client's name). In simplest terms it's a network-enabled camera application. You take a photo with the built-in camera, and the application immediately uploads it to the web. Right now it supports Flickr and AirMe's own photo-sharing site. The app also does some cool auto-tagging and titling of the photos-- like getting your location from the phone and doing a reverse-geocode lookup to get the name of the place the photo was taken. That information is used both for tags and for a generated title for the photo. It also finds the local weather conditions ("sunny", "83F") for use in tags. It can also automatically create Flickr photosets based on location, meaning that if you're in San Francisco, you can have photos automatically go into a "San Francisco" set.

You can of course disable the weather, location, and photoset stuff if you choose. Or add your own custom tags.

And it's free. If you have an iPhone, go and get it, OK?

It's been an interesting development process, enabled by great tools and frameworks from Apple, and simultaneously hampered by the slow process of getting into the iPhone developer program and by a bizarrely draconian non-disclosure agreement. For that last reason I can't actually discuss the development much. I will mention that, if you do go and try the app, keep in mind that there's already a bug-fix release just waiting to get posted to the store. I uploaded it to Apple a couple of days ago but so far it's just sitting there waiting for Apple's blessing. Rumor has it that updates can be very slow in processing.

The most interesting thing about getting this app into people's hands is that, unlike other software I've worked on, I can get a direct, personal insight into how people are using it. Flickr uploads have been a popular choice, and most people are making their photos public. As a result I can go over to Flickr anytime I like and see exactly what people are doing with the application. You don't get that with most software. You design expected use cases, you get feedback from a few people, but what people do with your software still often seems like a remote, almost abstract reality. This direct connection is a new, amazing experience.

I could sit and look through those pictures for hours. A woman walking her dogs in California. Two guys having beer in Germany. A family at a restaurant in Australia. A woman with straws up her nose in the UK. A rainy day in Tokyo. All of these people using software I wrote to share their pictures. Of course it's not my software per se since I wrote it for a client, but after putting this many hours into it I can't help feeling proud of my surrogate-child app.

More on this, and iPhone development in general, to come.