TiPb's developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store -- a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Rene talks with Boyd Timothy of Appigo.
What's your name? Boyd Timothy
What's your company's name? Appigo
Where are you located? About 45 minutes South of Salt Lake City in Orem, Utah
What's your website address? http://www.appigo.com/
What's your Twitter name? @appigo
What apps do you make? Todo iPhone [App Store link], Todo iPad [App Store link] and Todo for Mac [App Store link], Corkulous [App Store link], Notebook [App Store link], AccuFuel [App Store link]
What apps, other than your own, are currently among your favorites? Dropbox [App Store link], Pandora [App Store link], iKlondike [App Store link],
How long have you been a developer? Professionally, since 1997.
How long have you been an iOS developer? Since early 2008 when the original iPhone SDK was released.
Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? If so, which one(s)? Prior to Appigo I worked on the Linux Desktop Team at Novell with my focus being on .NET apps using Mono. At Appigo our primary focus is on Mac OS X and iOS although we do have a number of supporting online services we've written and also a utility on Windows to sync tasks into Outlook.
What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? 15" MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM, with 27" Apple LED Cinema Display
What iOS device(s) do you personally use most often? iPhone, by far … it's with me all the time. My iPad is extremely handy during outdoor music gigs since it stays put in the wind and has a very readable screen.
What mobile devices, other than iOS, do you currently use? None
What's your favorite thing about developing for iOS? Ideas come to life quickly we get immediate feedback from customers.
What's your least favorite thing about developing for iOS? The release process … not having full control of releasing apps as soon as they are ready. Fortunately Apple now lets us choose the release date once it's approved, so that helps with timing releases more appropriately (as opposed to 6 PM on a Friday, which happened frequently in the past).
What feature would you most like Apple to add to the iOS 5 SDK? Voice dictation as an OS feature for all apps that accept text input.
What feature would you most like Apple to add to the App Store? An easy way for developers to respond to specific customer reviews/feedback.
If we were to eavesdrop on you while you were coding, what curse word would we hear you use the most? When I go to debug a problem I think I've fixed and it doesn't work, more times than not, you'd hear me angrily say, "Pieces of crap for breakfast!" ("borrowed" from the movie Happy Gilmore)
What do you do when you're not coding iOS apps? Play bluegrass music (guitar, mandolin, banjo, etc.), fly fishing, yard work, and hanging out with my family.
What should we look for from you next? We believe it's important to provide people with different task synchronization options. File-based task sync is not only possible, it's very stable and working well.
Thanks Boyd!
