iPhone App: Windsock takes off

Windsock Screenshot of Dynamic mapsWindsock app iconWindsock, my latest iPhone app is live in the App Store. It’s a clean, easy-to-use app that lets you check the wind forecast remotely and up to 4 days in advance. I built it because a hobby of mine is remote control plane flying but often there are days when the wind is too strong or in the wrong direction and packing the flight gear, driving down to the park only to find it is too windy to fly was frustrating (the plane has a wingspan of 56″ which is tricky to get out of a car at the best of times let alone when it is windy also strong wind is likely to make you lose control of your model and fly it into a tree or worse).

Instead I built this app to drop windsock markers down on a map and get the latest wind readings for a near-by location so I know if it’s great weather to fly. You can also save it as a site and with a quick glance see the best park or field to fly in. It is also iCloud ready so will sync your sites between devices and has a relative compass mode to help you discover the wind direction – beats throwing a bit of muddy grass in the air!

The app uses high resolution data to give high-resolution readings every 3 hours up to 5 days in advance. Tapping on the detail view within the app will condense the rows to give you a daily overview of the wind readings. I’ve tried to design it to work in two modes, the first mode is more of a quick overview so you can compare sites and decide the best one to go to, the other mode lets you drill down and view the forecast for a particular site.

It’s also a handy app if you do other outdoor activities, such as kitesurfing, windsurfing, paragliding, kite flying or just fly model planes. Please check it out on the App’s website or on the App Store.

Pub Darts now with Facebook Support

Richard Warrender's photo in Pub DartsHey, just to let you know Pub Darts 1.2 is now up in the App Store.

The biggest feature this new version supports is Facebook integration. Yes thats right… you can now log in and pull a “friend’s” profile picture straight onto the dartboard ready to let off some steam. Mmm, now if only you could download and try it out for free… wait you can because I made it free for a short while!
Here’s the link for Pub Darts.

So what else is in this free update?
Well I’ll tell you. This is what some people have been begging me for…

  • Ability to refresh dartboard
    (You can now remove the tiny dart holes)
  • Dart sound effects
    (Satisfying thuds as a dart hits the board – woop!)
  • Bug fixes related to using camera and albums
    (Needed fixing particularly for large images)

Just in case you can’t find it, to access Facebook navigate to…
Settings > Boss Image > Camera > Grab From Facebook

Let me know what you’d like to see in the next update. Either in the comments or an email. Of course, you could always leave a really positive review if you enjoy it :D

Pub Darts now with Instructions!

Pub Darts iconWhen I first launched Pub Darts last March, I got many great positive messages from people who love throwing darts at their boss’s picture! I also got much negative feedback from people who found the throwing mechanism difficult or not as intuitive as I thought it was. Therefore adding instructions to version 1.1 was very important to avoiding those 1 star reviews!

However due to work commitments it has had to sit on the back-burner but with the recent release of the iPhone 4, I couldn’t help but update Pub Darts with gorgeous high resolution artwork. I also managed to add in some instructions, make a new icon, fix a few bugs, allow games to save themselves when you quit and completely redo the shadows to be more ‘iPhone-like’. This free update can be grabbed immediately from your iPhone by updating in the App Store application.

More updates are coming soon. Feel free to suggest some features you’d like to see. If you’ve yet to experience Pub Darts on your iPhone, grab it for free now.

Pub Darts Screenshot Pub Darts Screenshot

Take Audi iPad Magazine for a Drive

It’s such a good feeling when something you’ve worked so hard on gets unleashed onto the App Store. It’s even more of a great feeling when you find out your app has already broken into the Top 50 chart of most-downloaded free apps. Achieving more than 15,000 downloads in the first two weeks, I’m immensely proud to have been the lead developer of Audi Magazine for iPad. Download it for free now!

As a team, we spent considerable time making sure the rotating mechanism worked just right and making sure the app loads in less than half a second. I’m looking forward to starting on the next issue soon!