Geode Software

This iPhone app was created by Geode in 2010 for a publishing company based in Bristol, UK. Specialist UK produce company branded content for in-house magazines, websites and newsletters.

The Brief

This project was to develop the iPhone app code from a storyboard using standard Objective-C and Cocoa, with Specialist providing all the visuals. It was undertaken on a fixed price basis, which lowered the financial risk for Specialist and we worked hard to provide feedback to Specialist using email, screen-casts, and early beta versions of the app to selected staff.

Our first meeting with Specialist was at their offices in Bristol. The project development was then managed by Geode from our own office. All the staff at Specialist UK were a pleasure to work with, and together we have produced a useful and good-looking app.

What does it do?

ContentsCalc allows users to walk around their home, recording estimates for the value of their possessions. A standard list of rooms, outbuildings and valuables is used to guide the user around their home, while a list of categories in each provides a simple checklist to help make sure nothing gets missed. Rooms and categories can be changed to match each user's home. It features a built-in calculator, and allows users to attach photos to each estimate. A report (including photos) can be emailed from the phone and printed to give a permanent record.

Technology

The app makes use of Core Animation and Core Data on the iPhone. Internal data is maintained by Core Data, which is pre-populated with defaults for the app. When presenting the information by email, the data is converted to XML, which is passed to an XSLT transform to render it into HTML. Associated images taken by the user are resampled (re-sized and converted to JPEG) and compressed into a zip file, which is then added to the email as an attachment.

ContentsCalc was submitted to Apple in May 2010 and is available from the iTunes app store.