Developing iPhone applications is “a unique profession at a unique time” says David Earnest of The Dreaming Phone

• Developer name: David Earnest
• Developing Since:1984
• Company Name:The Dreaming Phone
• Apps at the App Store:1
• Location:Austin, TX

About Dev:

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

I am a solo developer working out of my home.

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

Previously I worked on .net, variations of XML, XSL, and many generations of languages back through Smalltalk, C, Turbo Pascal, Object Pascal, to early versions of BASIC. Most paid work has been on corporate software in various flavors of Windows. I hopped around consulting for a long time, and migrated from job to job for a couple of years at a time after that. At home, I have used Macs back through the early PPC models, and even the Apple II way back, but had not programmed much on them other than a flirtation with Object Pascal and the voluminous System 7 programming documentation. I did get a chance, though, to develop a prototype time management program for the speaker Anthony Robbins many years back using a very fun Mac language called ProGraph. One day this past year, I was programming in Windows emulated in VMWare on my iMac when it hit me that I had everything I needed to try my hand at iPhone development.

About your Work:

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

Private Pics provides a password protected area to store pictures so people don’t stumble upon them. I initially intended it to be for parents and such, or for people like Apple Store employees who hand over their phones to customers to try out.

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

I have a long list of ideas. That’s the easy part. For the first application, I wanted to choose something that was simple, generally useful, and had some staying power. I also wanted something that I could do in a month. The biggest challenge for me is settling on applications that are realistic for a single developer to do in a limited time frame. I’m hoping that Private Pics provides enough funding that I can experiment with more whimsical and oddball applications, but I have no idea of the sales lifetime for this application. Ideally, I would like to be working on several unique things at the same time, because that is more fun and I can differentiate myself better than with a simple, practical application that immediately invites imitators or obsolescence by an Apple OS update. Just getting started on the fun phase now, so time will tell.

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

Finishing up version 3.0 of Private Pics. This release is a big upgrade and should be pretty much feature complete, so it will free up my time to work on a variety of other apps. Updates of this application take a little while since it is in many different languages, and I have to be sure to get the internationalization right in addition to the core programming changes. I’m also looking at creating a mobile version of a website for performers, and working out the agreement with the website owners. If that moves forward, it will be the next application. I have to confess that part of me wants to work some kind of old school adventure game to the mix one of these days. I have lots of ideas and notes from a previous life of hobby development, so I’ll see where things lead. I also think that there are not many applications that exploit the kind of mutual interaction you can have when multiple people have iPods or iPhones on a local wireless network, so I have some interesting ideas along those lines.

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

Right now I’m focusing only on the iPhone platform. I like the environment on the iPhone a great deal. Apple focuses so much on the quality of the experience for their users on both the iPhone and OS X. The Objective C language also appeals to me for its clarity and simplicity. A big challenge in the beginning was finding my way around the NextStep derived frameworks, but the documentation is very good and that helped. Getting used to Interface Builder took some time, even though I had some exposure to ResEdit. Also, programming in the limited memory environment with no garbage collection takes a lot of care, especially in cases where it is not always clear which calls retain references implicitly. I found myself releasing objects incorrectly a lot at the beginning. The book Beginning iPhone Development was crucial. It came out just when I started, and I spent weeks working my way through every exercise in the book as my introduction to the environment. Finally, some of the SDK limitations can be irritating. It also worries me to put so much into a relationship with Apple when I have no real personal contact with the company, however I think the trade off received in ease of distribution and support is spectacular.

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

The most flattering is always someone who has been looking for an app like Private Pics, finally stumbles upon it, and takes the time to send thanks. Usually, work as a programmer, especially the type of work I did, impacts a lot of people, but you don’t get much personal reward. It is wonderful to produce something that I can provide directly to individuals, and it reignites the love of creation that got me started in programming when I was a child. I do keep track of all comments, and use those to drive development in response to demand. The most useful comments are from people who take the time to read and understand the limitations Apple has imposed and can offer helpful suggestions. Also, as you would expect, users are very impatient for updates, and it is always a challenge to balance the need to release an update with the time required for personal testing and App Store approval. The worst experience, which is thankfully limited, is from crazies who send strange emails. One developer who very recently released a competing application thought I was conspiring to tank his reviews and sent threats to my support address. Just after, comments started showing up in my reviews and on his by the same user as well as comments in his app posting. Truly bizarre, but I assume that kind of stuff bites you from behind in the long run, and trying to game the system only gets you so far. Well… I hope so. The kind of dynamic market Apple has created in the App Store is still evolving.

About the App Store:

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

In terms of cool, I think of those that are practical although they might be boring. I use eWallet and GroceryIQ on a daily basis. Both of them are simple apps that serve a useful purpose for a daily activity and do it well. Also, some of the news applications are getting to the point where they are preferable to Safari Mobile, especially as they start to get more local stories online.

Any message to your fellow developers?

Don’t get stuck doing something you don’t like. Seek help if you need it. There are a lot of great blogs and groups out there that can provide support. Be practical, and don’t buy into hype. At the same time, let yourself imagine what unique bit of software you can create that could be in front of countless people. Be nice to each other. It is a unique profession at a unique time.

Thank you David for your time.