I can’t believe it’s been that long since Edovia shipped its first apps, on App Store great opening day, July 11, 2008. We were so busy working on Screens 3 that I completely forgot about that milestone!
It was (and still is) an amazing ride and wanted to celebrate the event some way so I thought it would be a cool idea to write a series of blog posts about the apps we’ve shipped over the years.
Part I: 2008
Edovia started developing iOS back in spring 2008. Apple had just announced the iPhone Developer Program along with the iPhone SDK 2.0 and we were fortunate enough to be approved in the program early enough to ship two apps in the App Store great opening on July 11, 2008.
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Steps
Released: July 11, 2008
EOL: 2010
Initially an app developed to get more familiar with the iPhone SDK, Steps was a pedometer that never worked well because of the hardware limitations the iPhone imposed at the time.
We had to keep the app running at all times (remember folks, there was no multitasking back then on iOS) and that was resulted in terrible battery life. Received a phone call? Too bad – forget about those steps you’ve taken during your call.
We did improve the app as more APIs were available on every iOS releases but it still had limitations. That new M7 motion co-processor would’ve likely changed the game back then, but nothing similar was available.
Steps counted its last steps in 2010. |
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Linguo
Released: July 11, 2008
EOL: 2010
Any The Simpsons fans out there? The name of this app of course refers to Linguo, a grammar-correcting robot Lisa built for a science fair.
It allowed you to translate in multiple languages and also had pre-recorded useful sentences.
This app was a real pain to maintain since it included an offline mode with a database that tried to be clever but wasn’t.
Oddly enough, Linguo was very popular in Italy. Never knew why. The app was eventually put to sleep (not by members of the Springfield Mafia) in 2010. |
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Find Me!
Released: Fall 2008
EOL: 2010
Find Me! didn’t do much but locate you on a map and allowed you to share your location via Email, Twitter or Facebook.
Nothing else to add about this app.
Find Me! couldn’t be found for comment. |
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Rocket Taxi
Released: October 2008
EOL: 2011
The app that changed everything for Edovia. Rocket Taxi would use a very large offline database and list nearby taxi companies using Core Location, and allowed you to call a cab and leave a rating.
Edovia was fortunate enough to have it included in an iPhone TV spot that aired in more than 5 countries. It was also visible in many Apple Stores around the world.
With that sudden Apple love, Rocket Taxi finally gave the break Edovia needed to allow the company to concentrate on building its own apps.
Unfortunately, the app was a really hard to maintain and wasn’t generating very good revenues so we had to put it on a cab only to never see it again. |
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NumPad
Released: December 2008
Back in 2008, we started working on a VNC client but felt that the iPhone at that time wasn’t a great way to control your computer.
We had this “blind VNC client” project that could send mouse movements and keystrokes to a remote Mac but couldn’t receive any images from it.
So we came up with the idea of using what we had already developed and came out with NumPad. We gained a lot of experience from this app (and TouchPad) and has set the table for what would be known as Screens later.
Update: NumPad was acquired by BitBQ. You’ll find more details here and on the BitBQ website. |
I’ll always remember 2008 as the year that changed my life and brought Edovia to what it is today.
Next on Part II: 2009
