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[PRIME] PAX 2009 iPhone/iPod Touch App

sephirion0sephirion0 Registered User regular
edited September 2009 in PAX Archive
I couldn't help but notice that PAX 2008 was a sea of iPhones/iPod touches, mine included. My friend and I actually went to the hassle of mapping out our excursions through PAX on our iPhones. While this was a super helpful aide to us both, I couldn't help but think that PAX 2009 could definitely use it's own App on the App store.

I was thinking about something that would have the schedule, a map of PAX and ways to schedule notifications for you. Unfortunately, all I have is an iPhone and no Mac or programming skills to speak of. Is there anyone out there who thinks this is a good idea or has anything to add? Is there any helpful soul willing to put this gem of an app together?

sephirion0 on
«13

Posts

  • PsychoishPsychoish Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I'd love a PAX app for my iPhone...

    I'm not much of a programmer myself either, so... if someone could do that it'd be pretty awesome. xP

    Psychoish on
  • atrayatray Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I would be interested in programming it. I have been wanting to code a iPhone app. If there are any other programmers in the Seattle area that would be interested maybe we could do a joint project.

    atray on
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    This is definitely a good idea, as long as it's free of course. =)

    We could start simultaneous development on something like this for Android... if I can get some time, I'll start that up. It'll be a good follow-up to the Vista countdown widget last year. =)

    VThornheart on
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  • dyaballikldyaballikl PAX Main Theatre House & Security Manager • PAX Community Cartographer Gold Coast QLD AustraliaRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    and how about a 2009 pax countdown widget? we've had one the last couple years (granted, they haven't been terribly accurate!), but haven't gotten one yet this year. who makes those things again?

    dyaballikl on
    a.k.a. dya
    "Riding a mongoose reminds me of having sex with a man, which is something I do frequently because I am gay!" -Gabe
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Oh, dyaballikl, if it helps, that widget JonXP and I made works for any year from now on =) Just go into Settings and change the destination date.

    Technically, it's a general purpose countdown widget, you could point it to Groundhog's Day 2048 (the day that the world is going to end, by the way... mark your calendars =) ) if you want. =) But it's PAX themed in appearance, so you can see what it was meant to be used for =)

    As far as the link to it if you don't still have it... JonXP made the last version of it, by skillfully combining the source of both his and my Countdown widgets. But as a consequence, I don't know where it is. If you're listening JonXP, post the link to your final revision here! =)

    EDIT: Also, did you use our widget last year? Was it inaccurate? Let me know if you experience a bug! I have the source to mine around here SOMEWHERE, and I assume JonXP has the combined one's source as well... so if you're experiencing some inaccuracy, let us know so we can fix it! Just describe the situation you're seeing and we'll see what we can do. =)

    VThornheart on
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  • dyaballikldyaballikl PAX Main Theatre House & Security Manager • PAX Community Cartographer Gold Coast QLD AustraliaRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Oh, dyaballikl, if it helps, that widget JonXP and I made works for any year from now on =) Just go into Settings and change the destination date.

    Technically, it's a general purpose countdown widget, you could point it to Groundhog's Day 2048 (the day that the world is going to end, by the way... mark your calendars =) ) if you want. =) But it's PAX themed in appearance, so you can see what it was meant to be used for =)

    As far as the link to it if you don't still have it... JonXP made the last version of it, by skillfully combining the source of both his and my Countdown widgets. But as a consequence, I don't know where it is. If you're listening JonXP, post the link to your final revision here! =)

    EDIT: Also, did you use our widget last year? Was it inaccurate? Let me know if you experience a bug! I have the source to mine around here SOMEWHERE, and I assume JonXP has the combined one's source as well... so if you're experiencing some inaccuracy, let us know so we can fix it! Just describe the situation you're seeing and we'll see what we can do. =)
    i used them the past 2 years, and they were relatively accurate, but they seemed consistently inconsistent with the op countdown, and they even seemed the change destination time automatically. i didn't know there were settings on it, i guess i just never saw the little italics "i", but i'll look around the tubes to try an find it.

    [edit] nope, no luck. i think that ctishman made the widgets i was using, but he hasn't been seen on here in a couple months.

    dyaballikl on
    a.k.a. dya
    "Riding a mongoose reminds me of having sex with a man, which is something I do frequently because I am gay!" -Gabe
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Ohhh, you need the latest one. It's the only one you'll ever need as you can change the date to whenever you want. It also uses up less resources than most countdown widgets, because it scales in how frequently it updates the countdown in direct proportion to the granularity of the countdown (for example, you can choose to countdown by days and it'll only update every hour... or you can choose to countdown by hours, minutes, seconds even... it updates at the highest granularity needed to give some semblance of consistency.

    Months -> every day
    Days -> every hour
    Hours -> every minute
    minutes -> every second
    seconds -> er... also every second =)

    So if you're annoyed by CPU cycles being used by a countdown meter, you can set it to something higher like countdown by hours or days, and it won't be constantly counting down like most countdown controls.

    Let me see if I can get you the link.

    VThornheart on
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  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JonXP's final version, which encompasses his awesome graphics and my generically applicable countdown code:

    Countdown Widget GET!

    VThornheart on
    3DS Friend Code: 1950-8938-9095
  • DreamwriterDreamwriter Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Ooo, instead of a PAX Guide, they can have iPod Touches with the PAX App installed in every bag!

    Dreamwriter on
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Ooo, instead of a PAX Guide, they can have iPod Touches with the PAX App installed in every bag!

    I like the way you think! ;)=)

    VThornheart on
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  • atrayatray Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    The problem is you need a Mac to program the app on or install OS X 10.5 on a PC. This is my current road block.

    btw the app will be free.

    atray on
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Free = good =)

    Aye, that's what keeps me from making iPhone applications as well. Android it is then? =)

    VThornheart on
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  • proXimityproXimity Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    You can make apps for the iphone free...

    proXimity on
    camo_sig2.png
  • dyaballikldyaballikl PAX Main Theatre House & Security Manager • PAX Community Cartographer Gold Coast QLD AustraliaRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JonXP's final version, which encompasses his awesome graphics and my generically applicable countdown code:

    Countdown Widget GET!

    hmm, that doesn't work for me. it's in .gadget format, wtf is that?

    [edit] oh, that's just for iphones and ipod touches, huh? my bad, i thought it was the osx widget.

    dyaballikl on
    a.k.a. dya
    "Riding a mongoose reminds me of having sex with a man, which is something I do frequently because I am gay!" -Gabe
  • PsychoishPsychoish Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    JonXP's final version, which encompasses his awesome graphics and my generically applicable countdown code:

    Countdown Widget GET!

    Thanks for the link, I needed it too! xP

    Psychoish on
  • parabolaparabola Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Guess I need to get an iPod touch now.

    parabola on
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    dyaballikl wrote: »
    JonXP's final version, which encompasses his awesome graphics and my generically applicable countdown code:

    Countdown Widget GET!

    hmm, that doesn't work for me. it's in .gadget format, wtf is that?

    [edit] oh, that's just for iphones and ipod touches, huh? my bad, i thought it was the osx widget.

    OHH! You're one of those Mac people!

    We didn't make a general purpose widget for the Mac, because neither of us own one. =( The widget linked to there is a Windows Vista widget. Now I see the confusion that was abound.

    I would be in 100% support of someone who owns a Mac making a port of it for Mac users though. That way no one has to make a new widget every year to basically do the same thing on a different day.

    Also Parabola, snag an Android phone if you can when a better one than the G1 comes out. We'll rock it open source style. =)=)

    VThornheart on
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  • parabolaparabola Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    When one comes out in Canada... Sure.

    parabola on
  • proXimityproXimity Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    There was a countdown widget for OSX last year... I just don't remember who did it

    proXimity on
    camo_sig2.png
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Aye, now that you mention it I remember someone making one in OSX. I think it was ctishman as dylbaki said, but I haven't seen him around in a while. He was using a different codebase than us (since we were doing the Vista one).

    I do wish I had a Mac for development so I could make OSX widgets or iPhone apps... sadly, I'm SOL at the moment in that department. =( My wife has an iMac, but I can't commandeer it for the purpose... and we really couldn't afford that when we got it a few years ago, and definitely couldn't afford a second one now so I could have one. =)

    Maybe someday. =) But until then, there's Android.

    They don't have Android-based phones up there in Canada yet Parabola? D'oh. =( Hopefully soon.

    VThornheart on
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  • parabolaparabola Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Well the G1 is T-Mobile exclusive.... And there isn't a Canadian version of T-Mobile.

    Got to wait until AT&T gets one, so I can pick it up on Rogers.

    parabola on
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Ahh... suckfest. =( I wonder if AT&T will even get one with them having the iPhone. =( =(

    VThornheart on
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  • jonxpjonxp [E] PC Security Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Hey, my name was mentioned. But I seem to have arrived too late to be of use.

    jonxp on
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  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    No, still of use you are! =)

    Was that link I gave the latest link for the joint venture app?

    Also, how's things going?

    Lastly, we should make an Android app for PAX together. =)

    VThornheart on
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  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    there are more iphones ou there than G1s...

    BigRed on
    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    That's definitely true Red... but neither me nor JonXP has a Mac, so we're just trying to do what we can. You know?

    If the Mac would create dev toolkits for the PC, that's a whole other ballgame... but until then, we'll have to work with what we've got =(

    VThornheart on
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  • proXimityproXimity Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    VT, just commandeer your wife's mac ;)

    proXimity on
    camo_sig2.png
  • PsychoishPsychoish Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    proXimity wrote: »
    VT, just commandeer your wife's mac ;)

    Do eeeeeet. ;o

    Psychoish on
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I can't. =( The Army taught her how to kill with her bare hands. (Which is both dangerous and sexy. ;) ) =)

    VThornheart on
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  • GillesGilles Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Why not just make an iPhone/iPod Touch-friendly webpage? That way, you don't need to pay Apple's licensing fee or anything. There was WiFi available in most areas and iPhones should have cell network access or WiFi available.

    Gilles on
  • jonxpjonxp [E] PC Security Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Gilles wrote: »
    Why not just make an iPhone/iPod Touch-friendly webpage? That way, you don't need to pay Apple's licensing fee or anything. There was WiFi available in most areas and iPhones should have cell network access or WiFi available.

    Because that's too easy.

    jonxp on
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  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Exactly! =)=)

    VThornheart on
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  • sephirion0sephirion0 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Gilles wrote: »
    Why not just make an iPhone/iPod Touch-friendly webpage? That way, you don't need to pay Apple's licensing fee or anything. There was WiFi available in most areas and iPhones should have cell network access or WiFi available.
    Because the vast majority of the time, the wifi was either non-existant or was so bogged down with traffic, it was virtually unusable. A simple PAX App would be much faster, more user friendly if constructed correctly and wouldn't rely on PAXNET or a cell phone signal in the dungeon that is PAX.

    Also, which would you rather pay for? The one time only Apple licensing fee or the monthly cost of running a server capable of handling the massive amount of traffic a PAX website would no doubt get?

    sephirion0 on
  • Moe FwackyMoe Fwacky Right Here, Right Now Drives a BuickModerator mod
    edited December 2008
    Why would you need to use a PAX countdown timer at PAX?

    Moe Fwacky on
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  • PsychoishPsychoish Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Moe Fwacky wrote: »
    Why would you need to use a PAX countdown timer at PAX?

    Not just a countdown timer, maybe something that has maps and schedules and stuff.

    Psychoish on
  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I wonder if it would be possible to use the GPS to plot routes at indoor locations.

    That would be epic: directions to the next event you want to go to or something. I'm just daydreaming now. Might not even be useful. =)

    VThornheart on
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  • BigRedBigRed Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    gps doesnt work indoors....

    BigRed on
    <MoeFwacky> besides, BigRed-Worky is right
  • jonxpjonxp [E] PC Security Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Psychoish wrote: »
    Moe Fwacky wrote: »
    Why would you need to use a PAX countdown timer at PAX?

    Not just a countdown timer, maybe something that has maps and schedules and stuff.

    Well, everyone but iPhone and WM users had this thing provided by Cellmap last year. Perhaps they will expand to the iPhone at some point in time.

    jonxp on
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  • VThornheartVThornheart Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    BigRed wrote: »
    gps doesnt work indoors....

    It would if we set up an indoor triangulation system!

    Get on this Red, we need it. =);)

    VThornheart on
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  • The_ReflectionThe_Reflection Registered User regular
    edited January 2009
    Just bought a G1 yesterday, so i know nothing about making programs at all but am now interested in helping anyway i can to make sweet PAX android apps.


    Probably just moral support.

    The_Reflection on
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