I released a small app called Intimacy a short time ago. It took me a whole 8 hours to complete, including design, development, and the submission process. Why? I haven’t released anything under my name for a long time. That’s not because I haven’t been building, but I have that problem of doing 80% of a project and then stopping. So instead, I decided to build something small - something that would take me a single day (just about) to complete.

Spotify is, without a doubt, my most used app. I listen to music constantly throughout the day - on my phone or the desktop application. Obviously my commute is strictly on the phone. I have had a premium subscription to Spotify for about 4 years, so I think Spotify in general is great (I wouldn’t be using it for so long otherwise!); however, as you are about to find out, I do have a few qualms with the iPhone app.

I use Evernote for almost all of my note taking - especially on desktop. I find the Mac app to be really great: it’s well designed, easy-to-use, and I’ve had few to no bugs with it. With that said, I find the iOS app to be lacking in a number of areas that the Mac app just happens to excel at. On the Mac app there is a sidebar with all of your shortcuts, and a vertical list for access to Notes, Notesbooks, Tags etc.

I use CityMapper at least twice a day, every weekday. Once in the morning to check my journey is all good and no delays. Second, in the evening, on the way home from work, to check there are no delays! It’s an invaluable tool, and while not perfect, every time I’ve e-mailed the developers with a suggestion they have been extremely polite and taken it on-board. CityMapper takes every bit of data they can get their hands on and then uses it to provide the user with information on how to get from A to B - whether it’s fastest to take a single tube, a bus and a tube, or simply just to walk.

I was recently thinking about the apps I use. I found it interesting to think that I have a go-to app for a particular interest, need, or desire. I don’t use two weather apps, or two note-taking apps. That’d be redundant; instead, I have one app that I like the most of the ones I have tried and stick with it. This probably sounds quite straightforward - and it really is - but it lead me to think about why I use these apps.

I made a post over a month ago about Diving Buddy going freemium - it took a long time, but Diving Buddy Lite is now officially released in the app store. I ended up releasing an entirely new app for the lite version - this is because it would’ve been difficult adding in the In-App Purchases to an app that has already been selling on the app store. This way, a user can either purchase the full version of Diving Buddy, or download the lite (free) version and unlock some of the calculators to get the same features - for the same price.

After much deliberation I’ve decided to take Diving Buddy from a paid-only app to being a freemium app. This means the app itself will be free, and some of the calculators will be In-App Purchases (IAPs). There’s been a lot of controversy regarding IAPs lately - mostly when used in games. I tend to agree with most of the issues. If you take a look at the iOS App Store Top Grossing chart, the top few apps haven’t actually changed in the last year or so.

The latest update to my app Desk Jockey Workout was just released. So far, the feedback on the app has been astoundingly positive, which is great. I hope it’s something people can get a lot of value from. I also got a lot of feedback on version 1.0 - mostly small tweaks that they thought needed doing. This update aimed to fix those. So what did I do? Well, the most common thing mentioned was the icon.

My latest app, Diving Buddy, recently hit the iOS app store. The app contains a bunch of reference material, diving tips, and calculators for divers of all skill levels. The app is capable of calculating oxygen toxicity levels over multiple dives, the minimum gas required for an ascent from any depth, the overall run time of a dive, the maximum operating depth, the weight of air in a cylinder so you can determine how much weight to add or remove, and various other calculators.

One of the things I have been working on lately is my first official iOS app, Desk Jockey Workout. It’s a straightforward app that aims to fix issues caused by prolonged sitting. Sitting causes many issues with your body, including muscular imbalances surrounding the hips. Increased imbalance, with the anterior muscles becoming stronger than the posterior, can then cause Anterior Pelvic Tilt (APT). APT is simply the pelvis rotating forwards and down.