There’s been a lot of talk these days around iOS apps and the unapproved transmission of contact data to various web based services. Read about Path’s very public apology here: We Are Sorry. I just wanted to let you all know where I stand on this and how it relates to Tap Forms.

First and foremost, I am shocked to hear about such blatant disrespect for user’s privacy. It could so easily have been avoided as others, such as Matt Gemmell (Hashing for privacy in social apps) have already outlined. It disturbs me to know that without my knowledge, there may be sites out there that have all my address book entries in their databases.

Today Apple announced that this practice is against the iOS developer agreement and that they will be implementing a feature in a future update to warn users when an app is requesting access to the contact database. I think that’s great! It should have been there from the beginning, just as requesting permission to access your location is there now or whether or not you wish to receive push notifications. It’s all a step in the right direction.

So how does Tap Forms deal with user privacy? Tap Forms does access your contact database. But only to make a reference to the contact in there. The only information stored within Tap Forms is the contact ID and the first and last name copied from the contact database. No contact information is ever transmitted unless you explicitly decide to email a record. And even then, it’s only the first and last name which are emailed. I do not and will not ever transmit your contact database to any third party service. However, I cannot guarantee that any third-party services and frameworks that are used from within Tap Forms do this now or in the future.

For example, the first time you use Dropbox from within Tap Forms, Tap Forms is put into the background and the Dropbox app is launched if you have it on your device. From that point, Dropbox may or may not do something with your contact database. I highly doubt they are doing anything with your contact database anyway. I was just using them as an example of one of the ways third party services are integrated into Tap Forms. Another might be the use of Facebook (which I used to have, but removed long ago). Also, at one point in the past I used to use Pinch Media’s (bought by Flurry) analytics engine to see how users were using Tap Forms, which features were most popular, etc. I removed all analytics from Tap Forms over a year ago. So no data about your usage patterns or location is ever transmitted to any third party services by Tap Forms.

There is one area of Tap Forms which has been a small source of confusion for a few users in the past. Tap Forms has a built-in web server and FTP server. These services run directly on your device on your network. The only thing that comes from my web server is the Tap Forms logo and a few other images to make the pages look pretty. This is only when you’re using the web server in Tap Forms. Since there’s no user interface for the FTP server, what you see in your FTP client (such as the awesome Cyberduck) is what you get. All the files that you see in the listings are generated from the list of files that you have on your own device in your own network. My server knows nothing about them.

So that’s about all I think I need to say about this issue.

Thanks for listening!

Brendan

I learned from a friend of mine on iChat while using my MacBook Pro while working on an iPad app that Steve Jobs had died today. It oddly enough didn’t come as a shock, but still came as a surprise. I was fortunate enough to have seen him give his keynote presentation at WWDC this past June. I knew this might have been his last keynote, so it was imperative that I attend. After all, I had seen Steve’s “Stevenotes” at nearly every WWDC since 1998, so I wasn’t about to miss the last one.

Reading all the Twitter posts and news articles today about Steve brought tears to my eyes. They were so heartfelt and warm. There’s a lot of love out there for Steve right now which is totally understandable because he changed everything. No matter what your opinion of Apple products are, Steve Jobs has had an impact on your life. He changed the world with the original Apple computers, the original Macs, the new iMacs, the PowerBooks and MacBooks, the iPods, the iPhones, the iPads, and he’ll still be changing the world after he’s gone with iCloud and who knows what else.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Steve will continue to make positive contributions to society even in his absence. As some have said, Steve’s greatest legacy is Apple itself. With Tim Cook at the helm running Apple like a well oiled machine, I have every confidence that Apple will continue with Steve’s vision of producing the world’s most exciting electronics products ever built.

My condolences to Steve’s family inside and outside of Apple. In fact, I give my condolences to the world because we have just lost one of the greatest visionaries/inventors/perfectionists the world has ever seen.

Without Steve Jobs and his amazing team at Apple inventing the iPhone and the App Store, I may not have ever had the opportunity to realize one of my life’s goals. It was always my dream to write and sell a product for the Mac. But Mac apps are large and complex and I didn’t have the time to learn to write one. When the iPhone first came out and you could actually write apps for it, I thought this might be a great time to start on that dream of mine. iPhone apps were small and simple to understand. So it seemed like I could actually build one if I set my mind to it.

At the time the first iPhone came out, it had almost everything that you could possibly need in a phone. You could make calls, take notes, check your email, get the weather, check your stocks, watch movies, listen to music, send texts, and make appointments in your calendar. But the one app that never came on the iPhone that I thought was missing was a database app. I wanted to fill that gap by making the best database app that I could. Hence, Tap Forms was born. I worked on the first version of Tap Forms in the evenings and weekends for about 3 months before it was ready. In September, 2008 I released it to the App Store review team for approval. I think it took about 2 weeks at that time to get approved. The day I saw Tap Forms on the App Store was an amazing day for me. I ran around showing it to everyone I could. I was like a kid at Christmas

Eventually someone at Apple saw Tap Forms and liked it enough to feature it on the home page of the App Store. Now that was really like Christmas! Since then I’ve released updates to Tap Forms regularly, built a lite version, an iPad version, and now I’m working on a Mac version. At the end of August this year, I finally made the decision to leave my full-time day job as a web developer in order to devote more time to Tap Forms and other iPhone app development. So eventually I will have a full suite of Tap Forms apps all syncing together. I think my dream of being an independent Mac developer will be fully realized the day I see Tap Forms Mac on the Mac App Store.

So I want to thank you Steve Jobs for helping me make Tap Forms possible. And thanks for helping me and my family earn a living making software for such a great platform.

“There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented” – Barack Obama, 2011.

Steve, you will be missed, but never forgotten.

Thanks,

Brendan

It was quite a thrill to see Tap Forms HD being reviewed on their show. I love the TWIT broadcasts and have been an avid TWIT listener for years. However, I hadn’t had a chance to catch up on the iPad Today show, so I’m grateful that @PerryNoiaClown had tweeted today that Tap Forms was being reviewed.

If you’d like to catch out the episode, please visit http://twit.tv/show/ipad-today/64

The segment where they talk about Tap Forms is at about 16:00 on the timeline.

Also, I have a new update in the works which contains a long requested multi-select Pick List function. And I have also made some good progress on the Mac version of Tap Forms. I have no completion date for it yet, but just wanted to let you know it’s coming along nicely. I will have to slow down Tap Forms for iPhone and iPad updates so I can focus more on the Mac version for a while though.

Thanks!

Brendan

This evening I submitted Tap Forms 2.1 to Apple for approval. In addition to my previous post, here are a few other new features I managed to squeeze in:

• More AirPrint support! You can now print a record to any AirPrint compatible printer.
• More Dropbox integration! You can now copy a backup file to your Dropbox account. You can also download a backup from your Dropbox account and restore it in Tap Forms.
• Much nicer email design. Tap Forms will now generate an HTML email with your form labels in bold on the left and the values nicely aligned on the right

One thing I had to take out that I promised, but wasn’t working the way I wanted it to was the ability to draw over a photo in the Drawing Field screen. I’ll keep working on that and get it back in for a future update. Sorry about that.

From my previous post:

1. Drawing field updates. You can now draw circles and squares.
2. Full database file encryption. The entire TapForms_db.sqlite file will now be encrypted. You can encrypt or decrypt your database whenever you like. Just don’t forget your encryption key or you’ll lose access to your database.
3. Email Form template including linked forms and pick lists (with values)
4. New Calculation field type. You can create your own formula based on any of the number fields in your form.
5. You can now print photos and file attachments to any AirPrint compatible printer.
6. Bug fixes

So we’ll see how long it takes Apple to approve this update. If all goes well, you’ll have it on your iDevices by the end of this week.

Thanks!

Brendan

Well, it’s been way too long since I updated you on what’s in the works for Tap Forms. So without any delay here’s what’s coming in Tap Forms 2.0.3:

• Drawing field updates. You can now draw circles and squares and import a photo to draw over.
• Full database file encryption. The entire TapForms_db.sqlite file will now be encrypted. You can encrypt or decrypt your database whenever you like. Just don’t forget your encryption key or you’ll lose access to your database.
• Email Form template including linked forms and pick lists (with values)
• New Calculation field type. You can create your own formula based on any of the number fields in your form.
• You can now print photos and file attachments to any AirPrint compatible printer.
• Bug fixes

Next up I plan on moving to iOS 5 and implementing sync using Apple’s new iCloud technology. By the way, this next update will require a minimum of iOS 4.0 to run. I had tried to keep compatibility with iOS 3.x, but the device I used for iOS 3.x compatibility testing failed on me and I could no longer test the app on iOS 3. Plus I’m putting more and more iOS 4.x stuff into Tap Forms and I believe that it was finally time to drop support for iOS 3.x devices. Once I build iCloud sync integration I will also be upgrading the minimum requirements to iOS 5.x since adding iCloud will require too big a change to be able to support iOS 4 after that.

Have a great day and thanks for your time!

Brendan

Just got notice tonight that so far Tap Forms HD 2.0.2 has been released for sale to the App Store. You should see the update in iTunes by now. Since I always submit all three versions at the same time, I suspect the iPhone and Lite versions will both be approved within the next few days.

Here’s What’s New:

★ Many to Many Link to Form field type option. This will let you link your record to a set of a previously created records in another form.
★ Drawing field type. Great for capturing signatures or sketching ideas.
★ Alert notifications. Using the Date & Time field, you can now schedule an alert to fire once, hourly, daily, weekly, etc. When an alert fires, Tap Forms will display the record that contained the Date & Time field that scheduled the alert.
★ Fixed delete record bug
★ Fixed search on record list view in Japanese, Korean, & Chinese languages.
★ New buttons for accessing pick lists, web sites, email addresses, contacts, and file attachments.
★ The Favourites tab lets you switch between Favourites and Alerts.
★ Support for “Open With…” Mail attachments for importing CSV files, Tap Forms backup archives, and other file attachments.
★ Pick Lists now get transmitted when beaming a form from one device to another.
★ The Switch Language function will now switch Tap Forms’ user interface elements too. This means Tap Forms can operate in a language other than the system’s selected language.

Enjoy all the new goodies!

I’ve already started on the next update. My main goal for 2.0.3 is to add a new Calculation field type.

Thanks!

Brendan

Tap Forms HD – Database for iPad Now Ready for Sale On the App Store

Calgary, Alberta, Canada – December 23, 2010 – ClickSpace Technologies announces the release of Tap Forms HD – Database for iPad on the App Store

Tap Forms is the premiere iPhone database app combining security, ease of use, and a customizable database engine second to none. Organizing your life just got bigger and better with the new iPad optimized version of Tap Forms Database! With the same great features and more that you’ve come to love from Tap Forms Database for iPhone, but with a uniquely iPad optimized user experience.

Tap Forms HD – Database for iPad contains the following features:

• Uniquely iPad optimized user experience
• Contains over 25 built-in forms ready to fill out or customize
• Create your own forms from scratch
• Dropbox integration for on-the-go cloud storage and retrieval of files
• US government approved AES 256 bit encryption
• 17 Field types including text, note, voice recorder, GPS location, numbers with 5 formatting options including currency, auto-increment numbers, date, time, date & time, file attachments, check marks, ratings, contacts, phone numbers, emails, photos, and link to form.
• Beam records from one device to another over Bluetooth or WiFi
• Built-in Backup & Restore of your important data
• iTunes File Sharing integration
• Aggregate calculations (total, minimum, maximum, and average)
• Over 150 professionally designed icons ready to use for your own forms
• Passcode lock-out to keep unauthorized users out of your data.
• Translated to 14 languages: English, Japanese, Arabic, German, French, Dutch, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Russian, Turkish, Hebrew, Korean, Polish

Tap Forms HD is available now on the iTunes App Store for an introductory special 50% off price of $4.99 USD.

Tap Forms is also available in a free lite version for the iPhone and a fully featured paid version for the iPhone. Currently all versions are on sale for the holidays for just $4.99 USD

See Tap Forms in action at http://www.tapforms.com

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/tap-forms-hd-database-for-ipad/id410500116?mt=8

Contact:
Brendan Duddridge
ClickSpace Technologies Inc.
brendan@tapforms.com
www.tapforms.com
Calgary, Alberta
Canada

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A common question I know will be, “how do I get my data from Tap Forms for iPhone over to Tap Forms HD for iPad?” I’ve switched to a new backup system in Tap Forms for both the iPhone and iPad versions. I’m just finishing up a couple things in the iPhone version then I’ll release an update for that to bring it feature parity with the iPad version.

There’s nothing magical about the new backup system. I simply zip the TapForms_db.sqlite file (which contains all your data), the Share folder, the Photos folder, and the Audio Recordings folder into a single zip file. The name of the Zip fill will start with “TF-” and end with “.zip”. The app generates a time stamp for everything in between. For example “TF-2010-12-11T15-17-04-0700.zip”. Tap Forms will look for any files in the Documents directory starting with “TF-” and ending with “.zip”. If you would like to restore a backup from Tap Forms for iPhone, just use SyncDocs like normal (or alternatively get the files from iTunes File Sharing) and then zip them up into a directory structure that looks like this:

Audio Recordings
Photos
Share
TapForms_db.sqlite

Your file could be called something like “TF-iPhoneBackup.zip”. Then just copy that back to the File Sharing folder and go to the Tools menu and tap “Backup & Restore”. Then you should see the TF-iPhoneBackup.zip file there. Tap on it and then tap the Restore Backup button. Then you should quit out of Tap Forms HD and then re-launch it. That will give Tap Forms a chance to upgrade your database.

Until I release the iPhone update, you can move the TapForms_db.sqlite file from the iPhone to the iPad, but not from the iPad to the iPhone.

Send me an email if you’re still having troubles with this.

Thanks!

Brendan

Today I received the emails I’ve been anxiously awaiting. I think Apple’s review team has been working overtime (on a Sunday no-less!). And at 4:17 PM MT, Tap Forms HD for iPad went on sale on the App Store!

Thank you very much to all the folks who beta tested for me. Your help was instrumental in bringing this version to market. Now I’ll have to update my site with some more screenshots and price links.

Oh, speaking of price. For a limited time as an introductory offer, I’ve set the price to a 50% savings over the regular price. So for a very limited time, you can get your copy of Tap Forms HD for just $4.99 USD.

Download Tap Forms HD Now!

Thanks!

Brendan

I’m very excited to announce the imminent release of Tap Forms HD for iPad!

Tonight I finally submitted Tap Forms HD for iPad to Apple for approval. It’s currently waiting for review and I hope that it can be approved before Christmas. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. I delayed the release so that I could make it as bug-free as possible. Kudos and thanks to my team of beta testers who volunteered to test the app for me.

I thought I’d post a few more screenshots for you to see what the release version will look like:

I know what your first question will be. Is Tap Forms HD a universal binary that runs on both the iPhone and iPad? The quick answer to that is no. So why did I build it as a separate application? Well, I took a look at my competition and many of them have released separate iPhone and iPad versions of their apps. For example, Bento for iPhone and Bento for iPad.

That’s not the only reason however. I think you’ll agree with me that having a native iPad optimized user experience is a fantastic thing to have. Many apps that are released as universal binaries are simply tweaked a little to make them run on the iPad. They don’t go that extra mile to make it a full iPad user experience. I’ve spent the past 7 months developing Tap Forms HD to make it a real iPad application, not just a quick port to make things bigger. I think you’ll agree from the screenshots above that I’ve succeeded in this area.

So please stay tuned and I’ll let you know when Tap Forms HD for iPad gets finally approved.

Oh, and one more bit of good news. I will be having a special time limited introductory 50% off “upgrade” price to give you a chance at getting Tap Forms HD for a significant discount!

Thanks!

Brendan