Recently we have had some bad weather in the UK (OK, a fe inches of snow), and we saw a spike in downloads of our M25 traffic camera App, M25TraffiCams – more info – and then we started getting emails that camera were not available… in fact no cameras were showing up.

At first I thought they had been taken off-line because of the bad weather (traffic cameras do get taken off-line if there is a server accident, or they are broken), but the more I looked at things this clearly wasn’t the case.

What has happened is the free feed from the cameras I was using (I was using a publicly available list of camera image URLs and latitude and longitude coordinates) was no longer available, and the only source of images I could find was from feeds from the Highways Agency, which is, and I quote from their website “an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport (DfT)”, so it is part of the government.

The catch is, the Highways Agency wants money for access to the feeds. Now, I can understand this attitude if the feeds (images) used by company who was then selling them on, but I wanted access for use in a free App. the amount of money the Highways Agency wants for access is beyond my pocket, especially when you consider the App is free.

Now, in fairness to tax payers the feeds are available for free at http://www.trafficengland.com/, but there is no way the information can be used in an iPad App.

As I could no longer get an image feed from the M25 it was decided to withdraw the App.

You can still access traffic camera feeds using a number of our other free iPad Apps:

London Traffic Cams – LondonTC – Available on the App Store – more information

Sheffield Traffic Cams – SheffieldTC – Available on the App Store – more information

Welsh Traffic Cams – WalesTC – Available on the App Store – more information

We also have traffic camera feeds for:

Auckland, New Zealand – AucklandTC – Available on the App Store – more information

New York City, USA – NYCTraffiCam – Available on the App Store – more information

bodyCal2 – a body mass index (BMI) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculator and tracker for the iPad officially went on sale on iTunes App Store 2 days ago, and version 1.0.1 was released fairly quickly so as to deal with a couple of bugs….

So, what next? What should be put in to version 2.0 of bodyCal2?

Version 1.0 was developed quickly as part of a ‘seven days, one app’ challenge, and as of writing is still only one of 5 Apps on the iPad store that can calculate BMI, and the only App that can calculate BMR (see earlier post). However, version 1.0 was never viewed as the final version of the App. It was a version to get in to the iPad App store for launch. Work has now started (actually it started a couple of days ago) on version 2.0.

I will keep a journal of the development of 2.0, but I won’t release the posts until version 2.0 has been submitted to the App store and improved. The reason for this is I don’t want to promise features that I don’t/can’t finally deliver…. However, I will be twitting about programming ‘events’ as they occur, so keep an eye on Twitter.

How much should an iPad App cost? Having looked around the US iTunes store, and looked at the pricing it is hard to tell. Is $2.99 to much for bodyCal2 – home page – download.

As is pointed out in Apps: What prices will iPad users accept? Apps range (list from the article):

1. Pages (Apple) $9.99
2. Numbers (Apple) $9.99
3. Keynote (Apple) $9.99
4. OmniGraffle (The Omni Group) $49.99
5. Scrabble for iPad (Electronic Arts) $9.99
6. At Bat 2010 for iPad (MLB.com) $14.99
7. Things for iPad (Cultured Code) $19.99
8. The Elements: A Visual Exploration (Element Collection) $13.99
9. Plants vs Zombies (PopCap Games) $9.99
10. SketchBook Pro (AutoDesk) $7.99

I will be buying iWorks at those prices, I am an OmniGraffle Profession ($199) user, and love it, but can’t justify $49.99 as I don’t think I would use it that much. The other Apps on the list are not ‘my thing’, so I can’t comment.

Searching the iTunes App Store (US) with BMI (body mass index) I get 5 Apps (one of which is bodyCal2), and prices range from free, to $3.99. And, at the risk of ‘blowing my own trumpet’ I would say that bodyCal2 is the most ‘iPad looking’ of the 5, and the others seem to be oversized iPhone Apps.

Searching the iTunes App Store (US) with BMR and ‘basal metabolic rate’, a key number to know in weight control, only returns bodyCal2….

So, my guess I is I have priced bodyCal2 about right, possibly a bit low as it is the only BMR calculator and recorder out there…

Just looking at an article over at appadvice showing a video of Apps on the iPad App store when I spotted the icon for bodyCal2 go whizzing by…

If you look carefully at 1 minute and 7 secs the big friendly ‘B’ icon of for bodyCal2 can be seen….

Supposedly there will be over 700 Apps on opening day. I wonder what the final figure will be….

Just heard that Apple have approved bodyCal2 for the iPad and it will be available on the iTunes App Store on ‘opening day’… great news.

bodyCal2 is a Body Mass Index (BMI), and Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculator for the iPad.

With bodyCal2 you can calculate your BMI and your BMR using a range of different units – imperial or metric. Height can be entered as feet (ft) and inches (in), or in meters. Weight can be in kilograms (kilos; kg), pounds (lb) or stone (st) and pounds (lb).

In addition, bodyCal2 can also be used to track changes in your BMI and BMR, with the results displayed on a graph. This is ideal for weight watchers, people monitoring their diet, and people in training.

bodyCal2 – a BMI/BMR calculator and tracker for the iPad – available on the App store from Saturday 3 April, 2010…

The iPad isn’t even out in the US, and looks like it won’t be in Europe for another 3 weeks or more (MMISoftware is UK, therefore Europe), but already I am thinking of version 1.1 of bodyCal2… but what to do….?

Also, there may be a 1.0.1 release if users discover any bugs or problems with the current 1.0 version of bodyCal2…..

Sitting here, waiting for news from Apple on whether or not bodyCal2 will be in the App store for the release of the iPad and surfing the web (I am supposed to working on another couple of iPad Apps, but can’t seem to get down to it)….

Lot of iPad related stuff out there on the Internet… this one caught my eye – iPad and Screen Real Estate for Music Making: bleepBox Developer on Process – interesting piece. Looks like the developer has encountered some of the problems I had when working on bodyCal2. That is, there is a lot of screen space on an iPad, and it takes a slightly different mindset for writing an App on the iPad, i.e. it is not a giant iPhone.

Good to know I am not alone…

This morning I heard that bodyCal2 had ‘cleared the first hurdle’ on the way to being accepted in to the iPad App store in time for iPad launch day…. however, bodyCal2 is not ‘out of the woods’ yet….

bodyCal2 was produced as part of a ’7 days, 1 app’ challenge, and you can find a summary, and links to the full-story in an earlier post. The App was submitted on Thursday 25 March, 2010, and a rejection was received on Saturday 27 March, 2010 – the rejection was my own fault, I had left some test code in place. The App was resubmitted on Saturday 27 March, 2010, and I heard this morning (Tuesday March 30, 2010) that it had been accepted. HOWEVER, to make it on to the iPad App Store the App needs to be recompiled..

bodyCal2 – a body mass index (BMI) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) calculator and tracker for the iPad

Full Screen Shot

Why a recompile? Well, the App was produced using a beta version of the software development kit (SDK) for the iPad. In fact, all the Apps for the iPad that have been produced to date, by all the different developers, were compiled using the beta SDK. Apple has said all along that Apps would only make it on to the iPad App store IF they were compiled with the final ‘gold master’ (GM), and the GM SDK was only released yesterday, Monday 29 March, 2010. So, any developer that said they had an approved iPad App before yesterday were not, in fact, telling the truth. No Apps had been fully accepted.

This means that all developers that hope to get Apps in for ‘launch day’ now need to recompile and test their Apps. I have no idea if there were major changes between the beta and the GM of the SDK, but it is possible that some developers may run in to problems. The deadline for getting recompiled Apps back to Apple is Wednesday 31 March, 2010 at 5PDT. What I do know is Apple is going to have a few busy days testing Apps….

bodyCal2 and the recompile: All went fine. The App compiled and passed internal testing…. bodyCal2 was sent back to Apple on Tuesday March 30, 2010 at 10:03:46 BST.

Last week I took a ’7 days, 1 app’ challenge for the iPad. The aim was to develop and submit an App for the iPad in 7 days. You can read all about the ‘adventure’ on the blog, and there is a summary page here – bottom line, I completed the challenge and bodyCal2 was submitted.

The earlier post finished with a conclusion in which I said that the biggest difference between writing Apps for the iPhone and writing Apps for the iPad was the change in ‘mind-set’ required. The more I have thought about this, the more true I think it is.

Writing for the Mac: Big screen, multiple windows open at a time, drop-down menus.

Writing for the iPhone: Small screen, single window, no drop-down menus.

Writing for the iPad: Big screen (well, bigger than an iPhone), single window, no drop-down menus.

So, iPhone v. iPad comes down to screen size… and what you do with it.

iPhone Apps tend to be ‘stacked’, that is, if multiple windows (or views) are required for the App then they are ‘stacked’ one on top of another and you navigate between them. On the iPad there is much more space, so you don’t need to stack the views, you can have multiple views open at a time (although you shouldn’t think of them as windows as you would on a Mac) displayed in a split view.

This change of approach/interaction with the device effectively needs a change of mind-set for the developer as they plan and solve the user-interface for App. Porting an App from the iPhone to the iPad may not necessarily just be a straight port. This can be quite tricky… The iPad is not a giant iPhone!

Just received an email from Apple stating that bodyCal2 for the iPad had been rejected. Why?

What I call a ‘Doh!’ moment. A piece of code I had deactivated during testing was still deactivated and it was needed for part of the App to function correctly…. Doh! The code has been reactivated and the App recompiled, and resubmitted to Apple.

Date: Saturday March 27, 2010 – 5:39:40 AM