utopia 365 Blog

Amusing Apple icon choices

2009-12-26T19:41:00.001Z

I don't know if Apple choose these icons, or if they are automated, but I did found this quite amusing when browsing the App store.

I won't spell it out - see if you can spot the obvious.

Personally I am amazed this happened. However, once you see the App you can understand it... I'm still not sure about using it as a main App icon though in the store knowing the viewing audiences though.

utopia 365 LLP
worldwide iPhone development

Northview Computing rebrands as Pure IT

2009-12-22T18:38:00.006Z

Southampton-based IT company Northview Computing have re-branded themselves (with a little utopian helping hand or two) as Pure IT.

The new website is now available at www.pureitgroup.co.uk

Pure IT offer complete IT solutions for businesses, schools and charities throughout Hampshire. You can even get a free 30 min IT session with them.

Gold's Gym iPhone App

2009-12-21T17:06:00.002Z

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.

The not-so subtle advice from the utopia 365 public services and sanity commission regarding the usage of Internet Explorer as a viable browser

2009-12-20T15:14:00.005Z

Subtle enough advice do you think?

[Click pic for full-sized version]

PS. Yes, I know the screenshot shows it running in Safari and not IE - but that is simply to demonstrate without having to go through the hassle of getting Parallels booted up on my MacBook - thank you!

MyChristmas makes tiny appearance on Apple iPhone Advert

2009-12-17T22:07:00.001Z

We know there are lots and lots of Apps in the iTunes store, and there are many, many Christmas/Holiday Apps (just search for Christmas in the iTunes Store) so it's hard to get recognised or even noticed.

Well Apple have just released their lovely 12 Apps of Christmas advert and whilst MyChristmas is not directly featured it's been spotted that we at least are in the advert - even if it is an old icon. We like that. Thanks :0)

Watch the video:

utopia 365 Christmas 2009 Working Hours (updated)

2009-12-12T17:00:00.001Z

A very Happy Christmas to all of our Customers and Friends.

We may or may not be around at certain times over Christmas, and we may or may not be able to respond to you as quickly as we normally like to - so don't expect an instance response to your emails. By all means feel free to continue to chuck anything our way over Christmas and we will of course be back with you ASAP in the new year, at the very latest.

The official statement of when we won't be available is:

- Tuesday 22nd December 2009
- Wednesday 23rd December 2009
- Thursday 24th December 2009
- Friday 25th December 2009
- Saturday 26th December 2009
- Sunday 27th December 2009
- Monday 28th December 2009
- Thursday 31st December 2009
- Friday 1st January 2010
- Saturday 2nd January 2010
- Sunday 3rd January 2010
- Monday 4th January 2010

It's been a long year. It's been a good year, and 2010 is looking even better and we're keen to take a little time-out and refresh the old batteries.

We'd appreciate it if you can please respect these dates wherever possible (short of some kind of total catastrophe - and by that we mean 'literally' a catastrophe, not a minor hiccup!) and allow us to enjoy our Christmas, as we're sure you are hoping to do yourselves - then we'll all be back raring to go!

Have a good one!

iChoose v3

2009-12-12T14:46:00.006Z

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....

Great Mac software at a great price!

2009-12-10T18:32:00.001Z

It certainly is Christmas when you can get a deal like this for such a silly amount of money.

Hurry though as this is time-limited, and you can find out why by reading their FAQs. For anyone that knows about these deals then you know it's for real. For a newcomer then rest-assured you are getting top-quality, legit Mac software at a knock-down price.

Check them all out and grab the deal for yourself.

It's nearly Christmas... [UPDATED]

2009-12-03T21:58:00.001Z

Ho Ho Ho!

Well as Andy posted a few days ago our little MyChristmas App was updated and submitted to Apple for review.

The latest version is a free upgrade to existing users so if you want to jump in and grab [MyChristmas 1.1 now then feel free] UPDATE - it's now live!

We're loving version 2 and finding ourselves getting all festive.

To get a feel for the new features in version 2 then take a look at the video.

What's in version 2 I hear you say.... well...

- Multiple Sleeps to Christmas which also allow you to take/use a picture of a loved one on the countdown.

- A Christmas Carol eBook (themed)

- Carols for singing (inc. Wiki lookups on the history etc.)

- Various Christmas music tracks (updated)

- Games which include Solitaire and a couple of Christmas themed match games (updated)

- A Christmas Candle (great for carolling)

- A Christmas fireplace (New and great to keep toys warm)

- A Snow Globe

- Christmas Sounds (updated)

- Mistletoe

- Musical Christmas bells which can be touched or rang using accelerometer.

- New Years Fireworks (updated), Song and words

- The ability to send and receive traditional Christmas Greetings Cards on the iPhone (New)

More will be added on the Talee Talee website soon.
Enjoy.

Worth watching for entertainment

2009-11-26T23:47:00.001Z

If you are in need of a little light entertainment then I suggest you watch this short video.

You can view it here

Essentially it's lots of people looking a little silly trying to pick up an iPhone (dummy) glued to the floor.

Enjoy.

MyChristmas for 2009

2009-11-19T21:14:00.004Z

The long-awaited 2009 update to MyChristmas is complete and has been submitted to Apple for approval for submission on the App Store.

Expect it to (hopefully) appear in the next week or 10 days or so... more on the new features and changes to come soon.

Where have we been?

2009-11-19T15:16:00.001Z

It has been a very busy and hectic couple of months for utopia 365.

We've seen a couple of websites launch which include some pretty clever back-end admin, a couple of iPhone Apps which include the lovely Second Shootr, email templates for our usherto service, a few bespoke RoR jobs on behalf of some design agencies we partner with, and some bespoke development for a great client of ours.

On top of all of the above we were dedicated to a project for a few weeks, but it's one of those we're not allowed to talk about. Shame.

We're now diving head first into a 'top secret' project (Shhhh - but hopefully we'll be able to tell you about it soon) and also getting a new version of MyChristmas with some great new features over to Apple.

We can say in the last 10 weeks or so we have learnt more about running a business than we did in the 1st year we operated, and it's great on reflection.

The blog may have been quiet but we're still around and working hard. We'll try and keep it a bit more updated in the run up to Christmas.

Second Shootr launches

2009-11-06T17:23:00.003Z

Today sees the official launch of Second Shootr - the wedding photographers App for iPhone and iPod touch.

utopia 365 were commissioned by Plinkk Photography to produce the iPhone App and the Website - providing many development and design services along the way.

Free 2010 Year Planner

2009-10-05T11:52:00.001+01:00

Being in the software/tech/development industry everything tends to get done digitally (naturally!).

Generally we use Omnifocus to manage our projects and time. We can create contexts to suite how we want to work without being forced into a particular set of scenarios. We like that. What's better is the lovely syncing to the Omnifocus iPhone App which works flawlessly. We can drag in files, code and emails and attach them to a project keeping everything nicely organised and available anywhere with the joys of mobileMe.

However, there are those times when you just want to be able to scribble down to visualise what's happening (and we have a lot of things happening). It's easy then to rub-out or doodle on before committing a plan into our digital diaries.

We use a simple year planner to achieve this and we thought we'd let you have a copy too. Simply download, print and scribble away!

2009 Year Planner

2010 Year Planner

Second Shootr

2009-10-02T17:06:00.004+01:00

Currently in development by utopia 365 on behalf of Plinkk Photography is Second Shootr.

Over to Tim from Plinkk for a brief intro:

"Second Shootr is a revolutionary digital photography assistant for professional wedding photographers. Use Second Shootr to help you plan every aspect of the big day before it happens, leaving you free to get on with what you do best....taking awesome wedding photos."

So, for all you iPhone & iPod touch owning wedding photographers out there, keep an eye-out for Second Shootr - coming soon. You can sign-up for email notifications at www.secondshootr.com and also follow Second Shootr on Twitter or find them on Facebook.

MyBabyTree goes live

2009-09-09T09:03:00.001+01:00

The App that let's you buy a tree

After a little wait and anticipation we're pleased to see that MyBabyTree has now gone live in the App store!

Working on behalf of EquinoxApps and in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (Indonesia), this lovely little App allows you to get green and plant a tree in the Indonesian rain forest. Carbon credits? Bah, just buy this App and you'll be doing a whole world of good.

The fact is, we all like to make donations to worthwhile causes, and most (if not all) of us want to be environmentally friendly. It's good to give, but MyBabyTree gives something back in the form of a nice little App that allows you to keep track on the good deed you have done.

Here's the detail

"MyBabyTree is a hands-on application that allows you to buy and plant your very own baby tree in Rinjani National Park in Lombok, Indonesia. Your purchase of the app for £5.49 will pay for the seed, land, nursery, maintenance, protection and planting."

Go on, go and buy MyBabyTree and feel smug.

Photoshop Amusement

2009-09-08T21:30:00.001+01:00

Here is a short post highlighting a site I came across that caused me to literally laugh out loud.

Now, I'm no photoshop expert (ask Andy), but some of the images on this site are just so obviously wrong you have to wonder how on earth they made it to print/web.

If you need a laugh then take 5 minutes out to look through some of these gems!

View them all over at Photoshop Disasters

But here are a couple that I could not resist sharing (some as classic as the recent MS hash) - if you can't spot what's wrong with these then you get the job! :-

utopia solitaire update

2009-09-05T14:42:00.006+01:00

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.

Romsey Town Football Club website

2009-08-09T14:09:00.006+01:00

The utopia 365 designed, developed and hosted brand new official Romsey Town Football Club website is here. Best of luck for the new season guys!

Here's what it has...

- Tons of CMS and goodies

- Sponsors and Google banners + other methods of distributing advertising

- Fully updateable Latest News

- Create and Manage teams within the club at will (e.g. First Team, Reserves, Under 18's, Women's, etc..)

- Create and Manage competitions for individual teams (e.g. league, FA Cup, etc...)

- Create and Manage profiles for club staff (e.g. Chairman, First Team Manager, etc...)

- Create and Manage profiles for players, for any team already created within the club

- Add and Manage fixtures and results, for any team within the club, in real-time.

Set the competition

Set the opponent

Set (or update) the kick-off time

Set (or update) the match status (Pending, Result, Abandoned, Postponed, etc)

Choose the club lineup, including substitutes, from the clubs players list

Set the opponents team lineup

Create and Manage match reports (including: goals scored, red and yellow cards, substitutions, etc)

Match reports automatically added in to results and latest news

And so very much more...

We aim to expand upon this in the future and launch a great service for other football (or rugby, cricket, etc) clubs. More details when we have them, but as a basis, we're going to have a fabulous service to offer to football clubs up and down the country, both amateur and professional alike.

Please feel free to contact us if you'd like to know more.

AppReview review iChoose

2009-08-07T09:11:00.004+01:00

The people over at AppReview have awarded iChoose their "Best" rating.

Nate from AppReview told us, "There are an extremely small number of apps that have received this rating, numbering barely more than 300."

Considering the number of iPhone Apps out there, we're kind of pleased with that.

Palm pre webOS - go get your Mojo on - but, is it an iPhone Killer?

2009-07-21T13:34:00.008+01:00

The Palm pre (US) (UK link here) has caused a minor stir and lead to inevitable comparisons with the iPhone. Just Google Palm pre vs iPhone.

So, is the pre an iPhone killer? No, of cause it isn't. Is it a rival? Well, maybe. Or, probably more likely, maybe not.

When you think about it, Apple created a new market with the iPhone. They haven't really taken over or dominated the 'smartphone' market per se. They haven't really impacted on the the Nokia masses and haven't really impacted on the Blackberry crew - 'smartphones' are very niche.

The iPhone isn't just a phone, it's a super phone with cool bits and bobs for the iPod generation. It wasn't made as a smartphone, it wasn't made to compete with Nokia, it was Apple engineered to appeal to exactly the same people that buy iPods and Mac's. Clever, and only Apple have the brand to do it - copy Apple and you loose. Microsoft and many others have continually failed when trying to do the same thing.

It is my belief that the reason the iPhone took of so was purely because Apple made it and iPod owners and the 'cool' people bought it, and more importantly craved it, lusted over it and actually used it. The success of the iPod should never be underestimated when looking to the success of the iPhone. Everybody that tells you they don't want Apple kit is either lying or in self-denial. Mac vs PC = Mac everytime, iPod vs Zune = iPod every time and sadly for Palm, iPhone vs pre = iPhone every time.

Although, credit where it is due. Palm appear to have a lovely phone on their hands with the pre. I've only 'seen' it in the developers simulator, but it has a nice looking and snappy feeling UI that I'm sure will appeal to a lot of people, and developers. Of course as things stand, developers are limited to coding web apps for the pre, but that's no bad thing for a new platform. Palm provide the Mojo SDK which allows developers to produce apps using web standards such as HTML 5, JavaScript (heavily Prototype although you can use other frameworks such as jQuery as well, which is a huge plus) and CSS. They give you widgets for most of the controls you'd want to implement and CSS styles and what not for implementing a proper pre UI with your app - I am actually really impressed, honestly. It's a platform that many web developers should be able to get into with a bit of tuition and practice - although, as ever, the pro's will always get the most out of it.

One big plus point for Palm is that they appear to be far more open and approachable than Apple are from a developers point of view. Working with Apple is often not a nice experience, and very often a hugely frustrating one. But in practice, developers troubles will have little impact upon consumers so it matters very little in the grand scale of things. We can't dictate what to develop for if nobody buys the said hardware.

We will certainly be keeping an eye on the pre and look forward to working with our customers on apps for it, but as an iPhone rival we feel it's unlikely that Palm can re-create the success of the iPhone and in particular the App Store - nobody else has.

I'm sure you'll be hearing much more from us about the pre and any pre developments we get into in the future, so please feel free to come back and visit us, or drop us a line if you want some work done.

IE6 be gone...

2009-07-15T00:19:00.001+01:00

It's no secret we want to see IE6 support dropped by everyone, but this little article gives us hope that the message is getting out (and we can hear the cheers around the world from other developers).

Have a read - surely you must agree?

http://u2w3.com/1b9db

Supercharge your SEO with 1 Tip!

2009-07-09T23:21:00.001+01:00

SEO, no matter what people tell you and how much they charge is a dark-art! There are no guarantees as to how and when you will get listed in the major search engines.

Sucker?

Many of our customers frequently get 'spammed' by various organisations offering 'instant search engine results','get your site listed now' services if they part with their money. They obviously work (the requests) as these guys keep doing it, but thankfully the majority of people are able to spot something that seems too good to be true (with many replying to these guys saying "well how did you find me if I'm not in the search engines?").

Prove you're worth it

On research there really are a wide variety of rates being charged for SEO. Some are justified but my advice would be that if you take on SEO services then agree a reduced fee for 3 to 6 months. If they are confident in their results then in most cases they will oblige. After the trial you can pay regular fees - which can then justify £200+ per month charges.

1 Tip that works

There is 1 simple thing you can do though to enhance your SEO. Blog - but not just any Blog. We really push the use of Blogger (which is where this blog is hosted). Why? Because it's part of google and in most cases you can write an article and within a few hours it's listed in Google! SEO is all about getting your content listed to be found, so using Blogger is a win-win solution. Generally the search results from Blogger tend to be quite high in ranking. You can brand up the Blog to match your site and all the hard work of management and hosting is taken care of for you. You then get another avenue of links and traffic pointing to your site, all of which generally appears quickly in Google.

As mentioned it's no magic pill, but it helps and other than paying for any design branding the cost is free. Free SEO that works.

Weekly Planner

2009-07-03T17:09:00.004+01:00

As part of our local community work (that's just us trying to be good guys when we can) we're working on a nice little Weekly Planner / rota for a volunteer Community Responders group (hard working folk who give up their free time to provide essential medical response). You can view their website here.

It's taken us a little while to get round to it with work commitments and what not (sorry Sue if you're reading), but the result will be Weekly Planner by utopia 365 - and we think it's looking pretty good right now.

A lot of our work tends to be fairly bespoke, but we obviously use great development community products such as Ruby on Rails and jQuery all the time. Our plan is to give a bit back and release this into the development community at some point, probably under a Creative Commons licence, but we'll announce more about that soon.

Click image for larger version

Renaming an Xcode project

2009-07-03T14:13:00.003+01:00

If you're anything like me, you always start off your lovely new iPhone project in Xcode by giving it a cool name with a space in it somewhere - quite why I don't know, but I always do.

That's fine for when you're working in your development environment, but before you submit your App to Apple you have to ensure there is no space in the executable name. One way of doing this (that I've used many times in the past) is to create a new project and then drag all your code and resources back in.

This got a bit tiresome, so I thought I'd write a little script to automate it - but before doing so had a quick Google.... and Monte Ohrt has the ideal solution, a bash shell script to rename Xcode projects.


usage:
renameXcodeProject.sh <OldProjectName> <NewProjectName>

You can find it here. Perfect.