pebble.it Blog

DoesWhat.com Interview with our CEO, Toby

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:18:33 +0100

Out CEO, Toby, was recently asked to do an interview for DoesWhat.com - an blog for tech news, tutorials, interviews and reviews.

Toby was asked specifically about ideapi, a project that pebble has been working on for some time, but also about pebble.it and business in general.

See the full interview here.

Green League 2011

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:08:35 +0100

We’re super excited to finally be able to announce that we’ve been working on an iPhone app over the last month or so, in collaboration with our favourite environment organisation, People & Planet. People and Planet is the largest student network in Britain campaigning to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment. The award-winning People & Planet Green League is the only ranking of UK universities by environmental and ethical performance. This year 142 unis took part, and the results were released in today’s Guardian newspaper. We think it’s a great project, providing prospective and current uni students with a tool to demand and justify change in their unis. Download it now and give it a whirl.

The app, whipped up by our in house iPhone wizz Tak, provides university search and comparison features. For those students applying through UCAS for the next academic year, this app provides a really neat way to compare uni choices on a sustainability basis, allowing students to checkup on their uni’s ethical & environmental performance in a number of fields, whilst on the move. Hopefully it’ll lead to a few awkward questions on campus tours too - there’s nothing like customer pressure to drive change!

The app is available for download now on the app store.

Our New Space

Tue, 17 May 2011 19:32:06 +0100

Last weekend, we moved into a bigger and better space… and we’re very excited about it! Still in Vauxhall and all very happy.

Here are a couple of pics to give you a flavour - if you’re in the area, why not drop by for a cup tea and a biscuit?!

Luv,
pebble.it

Our fun wall, by the Graffiti Kings:

One corner of the room:

And, the as yet unfinished meeting room (with cinema and dart board!):

Titanium - native mobile apps with JavaScript

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:02:00 +0000

At pebble.it the development team have been working hard to get up to speed with iOS so that we can support our clients’ growing requirements for mobile applications.

The team have reached a good level of understanding on iOS even diving into OpenGL to create a complex drawing application.

With most of the team coming from a web background we’ve been keeping a close eye on frameworks like Phonegap and Titanium.

Inspired by the wonderful wunderlist, which is built on Titanium, we had a closer look at Titanium.

One API to rule them all

One issue we’ve discussed as a team is the fact that in developing mobile apps there are multiple SDKs and frameworks to master. Just as soon as you’ve got to grips with Objective-C and the iPhone SDK there’s Android and Blackberry. To date our philosophy has been let’s get really good at iOS. We are still following that but Titanium allows us to support other platforms, at least on a superficial level.

Here’s some code from the default scaffolding app. If you are familiar with JavaScript it should read easily to you.

//
// create base UI tab and root window
//
var win1 = Titanium.UI.createWindow({  
    title:'Window 1',
    backgroundColor:'#fff'
});
var tab1 = Titanium.UI.createTab({  
    icon:'KS_nav_views.png',
    title:'Foo!',
    window:win1
});

var label1 = Titanium.UI.createLabel({
    color:'#999',
    text:'I am window 1',
    font:{fontSize:20,fontFamily:'Helvetica Neue'},
    textAlign:'center',
    width:'auto'
});

This is the code behind creating a tabbed window with a label for both iOS and Android:

For more checkout the API documentation and Code Examples.

Strengths

Titanium has surprisingly good coverage of the APIs for iOS and Android. Installing the KitchenSink application on a device shows just what you can do with it.

It is quickly apparent that it would be possible to scaffold an application for both Android and iOS in no time.

The fact that Titanium creates native applications using just JavaScript is a huge draw.

Weaknesses

Installation didn’t go smoothly, leading me to the forums where I found lots of other developers who were having problems getting Titanium off the ground. I followed the advice of a couple of posts, fixing a bug in the Python source, and had to fiddle around with a number of things on Android to get it working.

Documentation and walkthroughs are a little light and I ended up learning from the source. Some might argue that this is the best way to learn anyway but it would be great to have some more code examples in the API documentation. Given that this is an Open Source project if we use Titanium I’d certainly be willing to fork the project and improve documentation. There are also paid for videos available.

Issues like memory management and how Titanium performs across different versions of SDKs are not really understood at the moment.

Conclusion

Titanium looks like a really interesting project for our business. Given that we can also use it to write cross-platform desktop applications it actually opens up new markets for us. It leverages existing skill sets within the team and will allow us to get apps off the ground more quickly. For more complex client requirements though we will need to drop down to writing custom code - a common scenario with frameworks.

60% of Apple’s sales are from products that did not exist three...

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:37:25 +0100

60% of Apple’s sales are from products that did not exist three years ago.

pebble.it on github

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:27:31 +0100

The dev team at pebble.it are proud to announce that we finally have a home on github!

When we started the development arm of the business we stated that being an active member of open source projects was one our goals. We also have a lot of things that we think would be useful to others. We have used many, many open source projects in our work so it is high time we started to give back.

Having a public account will allow us to publish our work and hopefully learn from others in the process. We have plans to publish things like our default Rails app, ruby scripts, puppet configuration, some work we’ve been doing in F#, our default CSS framework as well as miscellaneous shell scripts.

Hurray!

Analog Sunday. Could you do it? (Hat-tip to @jukevox)

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:31:24 +0100

Analog Sunday. Could you do it?

(Hat-tip to @jukevox)

A Visit To Apple HQ

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:57:42 +0100

Two members of the pebble.it team were excited recently to receive an invite to the Apple European Headquarters in Cork, Ireland. As members of the Apple Consultant Network, we were asked to come to the Apple Campus and participate in a day of meetings with various members of the Apple sales and Solutions teams as well as other ACN members. All in all, a very positive trip and a great opportunity to strengthen our connection with Apple and to network with others in our industry.

Perhaps the highlight of the visit was the tour of the Apple production facility: a rare chance to see the iMac and Mac Pro assembly line, something that many of the Apple staff that were with us had never seen themselves.

We were told to turn off our phones and attach an anti-static cord to our footwear, and then ushered into the large warehouse where hundreds of workers were building, testing and packaging computers. Whilst we would love to have taken some photos it was made quite clear that this was forbidden, but here’s some key facts we learned on our tour:

The majority of the factory is open - not a ‘clean room’ as you’d expect. The only sealed environment we saw was where the glass was inserted into the face of the iMacs.
Custom Macs (i.e. where a customer has requested more RAM, or a larger hard drive) are built on the same production line - a quick scan of a barcode on the case will tell the assembly line workers which components to install.
We spotted a few Windows devices around - one was being used to pair bluetooth keyboards and mice, another was seen near the testing bays. There was also a fair number of old Macs lying around, such the original CRT iMacs, and seemingly still in use!
Every device produced undergoes automated testing for a minimum of 16 hours, and going up to as much as 72 hours, depending on the configuration. 6.25% of the line’s output go on to further manual testing, where an engineer will test all of the software, hardware and burn a DVD (containing a video of a snowman).
The 4 lines put together 520 iMacs every 10 hour shift. The output is constantly measured, with large screens suspended from the ceiling showing current speed and deviation from the expected pace.

Sadly, this was no Cadburys Factory tour - there were no free samples at the end. Nevertheless, a great experience, and an real eye opener.

Digg: Dead or Alive?

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:28:00 +0100

We are liking the new Digg layout, but is it too late or is digg still a go to place for information?

Adam Ligasor (aka @lonelysandwich) revolutionised software...

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:16:55 +0100

Adam Ligasor (aka @lonelysandwich) revolutionised software howtos/introductions with his fantastic and quirky videos¹. This is now an essential part of app marketing it seems, as the above video showing off the New Yorker app demonstrates (starring Jason Schwartzman and directed by Roman Coppola).

How Apple technology has progressed in 10 years. (by Brett...

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 11:04:14 +0100

How Apple technology has progressed in 10 years.

(by Brett Jordan)

Software for Estate Agents

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:46:00 +0100

Welcome to the Pebble Property Platform!

pebble.it have been working with a number of Estate Agents to create a system for managing your online property portfolios. The software allows for online collaboration between selling/letting agent and the end client, keeping a record of all communications. Clients also have the ability to manage their interest by saving searches and opting for various notifications.

Current functionality:

For the client:

Advanced search functionality
Register interest online
Account management (incl. saved searches, email alerts and profile)
Messaging with landlord/estate agent through online system (with email notifications)
Property search by location/property details
Property profiles (incl. details, price, map)

For the Landlord/Estate Agent:

Manage portfolio of properties, to buy or let
Upload images and/or details of properties to let/buy
Register client interest
Messaging with clients through online system

For you (the Estate Agent):

Management of mailing lists (easy integration with familiar emailing solution, or mail from system)
Twitter account integration
Feeds into: Fish4Homes, Trovit, Oodle, AskTheHomeSearch, Zoopla

We will also help personalise this software for you with a bespoke design, blog and system notifications.

Furthermore, we have a plan to develop the software to enable multiple property uploads via a feed from in-house property software systems (like Right Move). This will be fantastic for Estate Agents with big property portfolios.

If you would like to find our more information then please get in touch with us at info@pebbleit.com. [more info].

We look forward to hearing from you.

Our New Portfolio

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:55:44 +0100

In pebble, we thought it high time that we updated our software development portfolio so that it represented a little bit more of what we can do.

The new portfolio (built using some fun jQuery) has a crisper look and feel and is easier to navigate - focusing on one client/project at a time.

Have a look and a play at http://pebbleit.com/portfolio. NB. try your up/down and left/right keys!

Blue Circles — so hot right now! The latest version of iTunes...

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:24:00 +0100

pebble.it Logo

iTunes

Safari

iChat

QuickTime X

Skype

1Password

Google Earth

iDVD

Chromium

Blue Circles — so hot right now!

The latest version of iTunes hasn’t been getting a lot of good press since its launch recently, especially of the design front. There’s the vertically-orientated close/minimise/maximise buttons, the monochrome icons in preferences and the sidebar, and the new application icon.

Dan Benjamin and John Gruber talked about these points in the latest episode of The Talk Show (highly recommended podcast by the way). At 42:55 John Gruber said this:

“…the problem is it’s yet another blue circle…it’s unbelievable how many icons in my dock are blue…and most of the blue ones are blue circles.”

This was an curious observation, and one I hadn’t hit on before. I worried for a moment as our logo is…a blue circle!

The pebble.it branding in its current form is a little over a year old. The remit for the design was for it to reflect our technical savvy and Mac leanings. So, in light of this revelation it looks like we were successful (could even say prescient)! As we’re not talking about an application icon here, we’re not battling to distinguish ourselves in a crowded Dock, so I don’t think it’s of any concern. Interesting convergence though.

To illustrate the point, please enjoy the slideshow of blue, circular application logos. I could of gone on, but thought 10 was enough!

Think Different Despite the poor audio/video quality, this is a...

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:06:57 +0100

Think Different

Despite the poor audio/video quality, this is a great video to watch for a number of reasons:

this is Steve Jobs shortly after his return to Apple as interim CEO.
we’re familiar with the large-scale Jobs Keynotes but this is an internal presentation to Apple staff.
it introduces the very successful Think Different ad campaign.
it’s one of the best five minute explanations of good branding available.

Enjoy!

Apple will be holding a music-orientated event today, September...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:45:00 +0100

Apple will be holding a music-orientated event today, September 1st, at the Yerba Buena Centre, San Francisco (6pm GMT). As with any Apple event, speculation is rife - Steve Jobs is expected on stage to deliver updates to the iPod family, with further rumours suggesting a new Apple TV and announcements regarding the iTunes store.

Live Streaming

For the first time in a number of years, the event will be live-streamed via the Apple website - this time using ‘HTTP Live Streaming’ - an open standard championed by Apple and built into Quicktime in Snow Leopard and iOS devices. Unfortunately, this does mean that Windows and PowerPC users may not be able to view the stream (although, if you’re willing to play around with VLC, take a look at a possible workaround here).

We’re looking forward to a video keynote - previously we’ve all been glued to the text/photo updates from various live blogs such and Engadget and Gizmodo (which will still be happening, if you’re one of the unfortunates mentioned above). It’s been suggested that one of the main reasons for this approach is to test the $1bn data centre Apple have been building in North Carolina, as well as the possibility that they’re launching a streaming version of iTunes, similar to Spotify. If the latter, the live-stream would be a suitable demonstration of Apple’s capabilities in this arena.

Rumor Roundup

In the past few years, several case manufacturers have given us a preview into upcoming Apple products by leaking their new case designs in the weeks prior to a Keynote. More recently there have been leaks of individual parts and even complete devices - take the infamous iPhone 4 leak, for example. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

Leaked Nano cases and touch-sensitive display - this would take the Nano down to almost shuffle size, but what of the recently introduced camera?

iPod Touch with front and back facing camera - suggesting Facetime capabilities.

New Apple TV - an update to the much neglected media device - now with iOS?
iOS 4 for the iPad - promised at the last keynote - iPad owners are chomping at the bit for this missing update.

In pebble we have been busy developing a product called ideapi....

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:37:25 +0100

In pebble we have been busy developing a product called ideapi. Ideapi is a brief and idea collaboration tool that helps groups of people work together better. You can collaborate on and agree a clear brief, as well as manage the process of submitting and approving ideas.

Ideapi is currently in beta, but you can still check it out for yourself by signing up for an account at ideapi.com. Feedback very welcome!

Support video: Configuring iPad for pebble.mail How to setup...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:05:57 +0100

Support video: Configuring iPad for pebble.mail

How to setup your iPad to work with pebble.mail, our hosted mail/contacts/calendar service.

Support video: Configuring iPhone for pebble.mail How to setup...

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:02:19 +0100

Support video: Configuring iPhone for pebble.mail

How to setup your iPhone to work with pebble.mail, our hosted mail/contacts/calendar service.

Apple TV Evolution

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:35:00 +0100

Way back in September 2006 Apple announced their innovative Apple TV device, which brought the iTunes-powered media experience to your HDTV. Since then, it’s seen a small amount of success, and a couple of spec bumps, but was never really the game-changer it could have been.

Recent speculation suggests that the device is getting a rethink and relaunch - perhaps even as soon as this September, as suggested by Digg Founder, Kevin Rose.

Changing Trends

The evolution of our television consumption is a hot topic right now - almost all UK households are now endowed with Digital Freeview, Virgin Cable or Sky, and there’s a rise in the number of Freeview HD boxes available on the market. More significant is the increase in users of the ‘on-demand’ internet services provided by the channel operators. Research figures suggest as much as 78% of viewers in the UK are now using on-demand services, such as 4oD and BBC iPlayer. This is only going to increase as more devices capable of streaming these services hit the market.

Apps

Given the success of the iPhone, iPad and the App Store, it would seem certain that a new iOS-based device could make waves by bringing Apps to our living room screens. Forget the web - it’s unlikely that we’re going to be sitting on our sofas with a full keyboard. The key is in simplicity: making online services, such as weather, news and media content accessible with a simple remote. It’s fair to assume that existing on-demand services, such as iPlayer, would be immediately available alongside apps from other media outlets. The PS3 has been leading the way with this so far, but Sony’s integration of new services has been slow.

Not forgetting, content providers will also have a fantastic potential revenue stream built into iOS - either by charging for their applications in the App store, or via Apple’s emerging iAds service.

Google’s Approach

It’s certainly not an unexplored space though - Google announced ‘Google TV’ back in May this year - but their focus is on the software, which will run on many devices from multiple manufacturers, such as upcoming Bravia TVs and blu-ray players from Sony. That approach has worked for Android, so there’s a fair chance they’ll see success in this arena too - they’ve also got the jump on Apple, with Google TV devices likely to be in the hands of consumers towards the end of this year.

Speculation

Early indications suggest the new Apple TV (or ‘iTV’) would be launched this year, and at a price point of $99 - that seems a bit low for Apple: there’d be concern that hardware at that price would be underpowered. Nevertheless, if they’re hoping to make a large impact then market saturation through hardware subsidisation would be one way to go. They’d certainly recoup via iTunes and App Store purchases.

We’ll have to wait and see what Apple announces, and how well Google’s platform is adopted, but we can brace ourselves for the next stage in the ongoing platform battle between these two innovators.