• Developer name: Greg Morris
• Developing Since: 2008
• Location:Thousand Oaks, CA
• Apps at the App Store:5
• Company Website :Energize Software

About Dev:

Tell us a little about you, and your current company.

I started working on iPhone Apps in August of 2008 to combine my passions of the iPhone with my interest in decorating for holidays and created my first iPhone entertainment program called “Halloween Experience.” It is a success and reached #85 of all programs at one point. This encouraged me to develop more holiday-themed programs in an effort to make easy to use and high-quality software for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

About your background: what did you do before taking up iPhone development?

As a Software Engineer I previously developed Windows applications and Web-based applications for major aerospace companies.

About your Work:

What apps have you developed so far? Tell us about your apps in brief.

Halloween Experience - Halloween themed entertainment program with the ability to ‘carve’ a pumpkin by moving pieces onto the pumpkin and using pinch and rotate gestures, play scary sounds by tilting and shaking the device, interact with a halloween-themed hangman game, and solve a spooky puzzle game all with haunting background music.

Holiday Countdown - Find out the dates, day of the week, and number of days until the next 20 upcoming U.S. holidays and special events on a background of your choice. In addition, you can add, edit and delete up to 150 of your own custom events including recurring events with customized colors. Great for adding a birthday, anniversary, meeting, appointment, etc.

Christmas Experience - Christmas themed entertainment program similar to Halloween Experience but themed for Christmas. Decorate a snowman, play hangman and puzzle games, and tilt and shake the device to produce sound effects.

Valentine’s Countdown - A free app to display a countdown until Valentine’s day with an animated heart on the picture of your choice and a selection of background music.

Easter Countdown - A free app to display a countdown until Easter with an animated egg on the picture of your choice and a selection of background music.

Which one of your own apps is your favorite, and why?

Halloween Experience - is my favorite because it is about my favorite holiday, was the first iPhone program I created, and it reached into the top 100 of all programs. In addition, it has excellent positive feedback from the users, and all the background images in the program were from pictures I took of my living room during the previous year’s October! (Yes, I am crazy about Halloween!)

How do you go from idea to app? What’s the process?

Through a combination of using my imagination and understanding what users would like, I try to be as creative as possible while maintaining high standards for the quality of the product. I am always thinking about the user’s perspective to make a product as easy to use as possible. Lots of time is devoted to testing as I am a strong believer in reliability and the “fit and finish” of the product.

Any exciting stuff you are working on? Give our readers a hint of what to expect from you next.

My next program will be the first that is not holiday based and will combine some unique features. Look for it soon. To see what new apps are being released, please visit my Web site at www.EnergizeSoftware.com.

Do you develop for other platforms? How do you compare the iPhone development platform with other platforms?

I still develop Windows programs and do Web site programming. I much prefer iPhone development as the power of the device, ease of use, and standardization of the devices makes it easier to work with and test.

Tell us something about how users are responding to your apps. What’s the most flattering comment you have received? Or the weirdest?

Of course some apps are more popular than others, but my apps are received quite favorably. One of the most flattering comments I have received was given just recently in a review for Holiday Countdown - “One of the top apps of the 15000 available.”

About the App Store:

Name two iPhone apps you consider are cool, excluding the apps you’ve developed. What makes these apps stand out?

Even though it is very specialized, ‘X10 Commander” is a good app for those with X10 devices in their home that they want to control through their iPhone. It is the only app of this type available. I also enjoy “Air Mouse” to use my Windows and Mac machines from my iPhone.

Any message to your fellow developers?

The prime considerations of a good program are quality, reliability and ease of use.

Thank you for your time, Greg.