DeanLogic

I have 1 review from my Meetup Search application for the PlayBook and it points out that Canadian zip codes don’t work , so I need to get the search features updated.  I have made some updates, but haven’t uploaded the changes yet, since I wanted to test the changes directly on the PlayBook, which I received last Thursday.  Hopefully I’ll get the search updates soon and improve my ratings on the App World.

I spent the weekend traveling and the PlayBook came in handy while waiting in airports and flying in the plane.  I was able to connect to wi-fi locations at Raleigh-Durham (RDU) and Atlanta without any issues.  At RDU, I used my AT&T DSL wireless account to connect for free, which was very nice.  Most of the time I had an available power outlet, so I didn’t see how far the battery lasted. I tried BlackBerry Bridge using my sister’s BlackBerry Flip to connect to.  Connection was simple, but due to cell coverage, using the browser was not very good.  I tried using Bridge on my wife’s BlackBerry when I got home and the browsing experience was much better, which leaves me to believe it was the network out in Kansas.  Also, I didn’t realize that Bridge does not connect the internet for the applications ; something that should be done using tethering.  However, according to the article, that might change in the future.

I discovered that GMail voice mail will just download the recording to my music list instead of playing the message from the inbox.  I guess that’s helpful if I wanted to store the message and play it back.

After loading music on the PlayBook, I tried to find radio apps, but didn’t find anything that I wanted to use.  I tried the Slacker Radio application, but apparently there is still something wrong with the app or my setup ( cause it costs $3/month ).  I found a couple of streaming servers that I might try to create a PlayBook app for, they are Audio Galaxy and Subsonic. Both take your music files and stream them on the internet, but one does it via a system service and the other as an application.  The APIs for both look fairly straight forward, so if I come up with a good interface, then it might be possible to use it for both options.  So many ideas, so little time to do stuff.

I tried some podcast downloads on the PlayBook to see what that is all about.  I guess it would be good if you don’t have wi-fi and wanted to listen to something besides the music playlist.   I added BlackBerry Today and downloaded their latest episode.  Heard on BlackBerry Today podcast :   There were 3,000 PlayBooks applications available and 40 – 50,000 PlayBooks (corrected on 5/18 podcast) sold on launch day, which was the most for any tablet launch.   The 6,000 participants at BlackBerry World conference all got a free PlayBook.

Here is the download chart for the month of April for Meetup Search.   Not tremendous, but not too bad.  I think improving the UI and adding search options will help with the downloads.  Also, I need to make the description a little prettier.  I think the form allows for HTML, since I’ve seen others use bullet lists.

The BlackBerry PlayBook was officially launched on April 19th.  I wasn’t expecting too much from my little Meetup Search application, because I don’t consider it done.  The API wasn’t a full release yet and I sort of rushed to finish it in time for the free PlayBook giveaway.  Now that the API 1.0.1 version has been released, I will go back and clean up my application.  I am still waiting for my free PlayBook, which was supposed to arrive to developers “around the time the device is available in the area”, which was on the 19th.  Rumor has it, we’ll all get them today on the 22nd.

Like I said, I didn’t expect a ton of downloads on the first day, of course analysts didn’t expect 50,000 in sales and pre-orders either.  So, I am glad to see that some people downloaded my free application.  Currently there isn’t a way to get a feed from the download page, so I guess I’ll have to export the graph on a regular basis.

Today I made my Meetup Search available on the BlackBerry App World.  It is really rough right now and I am very eager to try it out on the BlackBerry PlayBook.  And why do I say I am “eager”, well it is because I will be getting a free PlayBook!  After going through the struggles of trying to create an application and getting the software, I got my app in before the deadline and now it is signed and ready for download.  And because it was in before the deadline and accepted, I qualified for the free PlayBook offer.  Rumors has it, that they will be shipping tomorrow, which would be awesome!

Where do I go from here?  Well, I would like to clean up the Meetup Search:

• Adjust item layouts and fonts to make sure they work well on the device
• Add GPS location search option : get the GPS latitude and longitude location and use that instead of zip.  “Meetups near me”
• Add City Upcoming Events : The City Meetup pages is a nice feature that shows upcoming events, this might be useful
• Add Map of Meetups search option :  show a map and have Meetups pop up on the map based on search options

I will probably try to add as many search possibilities as possible from the Meetup API and try to keep it up to date.  After that, I need to get OAuth working and start developing the Meetup user and Organizer applications.  In the mean time, I still have a movie to finish editing.