A Break From Active Development

After almost 4 years of developing my Android applications, I am now taking a break from active development of WiFi File Explorer, SECuRET & BabyCam. I'll still be making critical bug fixes as they arise as well as any other necessary maintenance with new Android releases and techniques, but I will not be implementing any new features or requests from users.

I still welcome ideas being sent to me and I keep a to-do list for when/if I do return to actively developing my applications. As more and more people request the same thing, features change in priority on that to-do list until it becomes immediately apparent what I should do next. So thanks for all your ideas that I still frequently receive and they all get duly noted, but as I alluded to, there is no guarantee as to when/if that feature will get implemented.

After spending all that free time developing my applications over the last 4 years, it is now the right time to take a step back, reflect on what I have achieved and enjoy the fruits of my labour. Hopefully I will return to those applications in due time, but for now I am happy concentrating on other projects and spending more time with family and friends!

There Are Just Some Things I Can't Help You With

If you are reading this, then more than likely I have just sent you here after you have emailed me for some support.  Now, I hope you don't think I am being rude or lazy, but sometimes I am just not in a position to help with your request - it's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that in this situation, I can't.

More often than not, the reason I can't help you is because you have asked about something to do with the actual purchasing and downloading of one of my applications from one of the various app stores they are available from.  So you could be having trouble completing the order, or maybe you are getting an error from the app store when you try and download, or perhaps you are being told the app store can't verify your purchase.  The fact is that I am an independent developer and so can only support my own applications; I don't work for any of the app stores and so I don't know how any of those systems work from a users point of view.  Therefore, I can't offer support for them and can only suggest to you to contact the support team for that particular app store.

There is one small exception in that for the Google Play Store, if you provide me with an order number, I can actually see the status of your order (and refund it if necessary).  So if you'd like me to do that then I am more than happy to; just email me with the order number and I'll see if I can help you out.  But also remember that you can see the information you need yourself simply by logging into your Google Wallet account online and looking at your transaction history.  I am afraid I can't offer the same service for any of the other app stores because I just don't have access to that information on an individual order basis.

Another typical reason you may have ended up here is that you are asking questions relating to the general operation of a particular device.  I only have a handful of Android devices myself, so although I may be able to answer a few questions, you are far better off contacting the manufacturer's support team for that particular device.

So sorry I can't be of more help to you in this situation, but hopefully this has prompted you to contact the support team that can resolve your issue in the quickest way possible.  Of course, you may still think I can help you, so please don't hesitate to contact me again and I'll see what I can do.  But just remember, I can only support my own applications... I may occasionally be able to help beyond that in some situations where my applications are a factor, but you are most likely reading this blog post because I already think I am not best person to contact for your issue.

Aaaaannnnnd... That's 100,000 Applications Sold!

Over the weekend I managed to pass another massive milestone on the Android development odyssey on which I embarked almost 3 years ago now... as the title and picture imply, I have now managed to sell paid apps (i.e., people actually parting with money!) to the tune of 100,000 units.  And that's just on the Google Play Store - my apps have sold thousands of copies on the Amazon Appstore, SlideME, AndroidPIT, GetJar and even on BlackBerry App World!

I'm extremely proud of that figure and it was certainly not a goal I even dreamed to set myself when I started.  I was surprised when I got to 10,000 and even more surprised when I got to 50,000, so 100,000 apps sold is something I never even imagined I would achieve when I started.

Not quite sure how I got to this landmark and I feel very lucky.  Actually, I do know how I got here, and it wasn't just dumb luck; spending hours of my free time coding away and answering support email after support email at every hour of the day... basically, blood, sweat and tears.  But it's not all bad of course, I've had lots of fun along the way and had the chance to meet some fantastic people who have really helped me out... and a lot of the time they do it for absolutely free.

So what now then?  Press on to chase the next 100,000 sales?  Errr, no thanks!!  As fun and rewarding as it is, the stresses and the pressure of dealing with so many users is not something I really want to have on my shoulders - this is all in my spare time still and I have a full time job and parenting responsibilities to consider.  Checking comments and reviews everyday, looking at my sales statistics, dealing with users that have no right to own a "smart" phone... I am trying to share some of those responsibilities, but still, these are all things that have taken over my life and my free time, and I quite frankly would like my life and my free time back.

And I have already started distancing myself from it for the last few months.  If you have one of my apps, then you have probably noticed that rather than an update every couple of weeks, it's now more like every couple of months.  I also don't (or rarely) obsessively check the comments and reviews for my apps any more - although the majority of them are good, the needlessly abusive ones are just not worth even looking at.  I also have no idea where my apps sit in the charts now, whereas before I would check it pretty much daily.

So I haven't exactly quit - I still support the apps and I have just released a load of cool new features (with some more to come in a couple of weeks)  - but I am certainly sitting back and letting the hard work I have already put in propel it all from now on as it starts to tail off.  I have achieved and experienced more than I had hoped for already, so put it this way, I wouldn't be (too) upset if it all stopped tomorrow...

... but it won't, and this Android stuff can be dangerously addictive.  I hope to receive the new Nexus 7 in a couple of days and I may end up getting a whole new wave of motivation when I get that in my hands.  I am also working on a couple of genuine business opportunities based on the technology in my apps that is away from the model of selling them on app stores, and this is certainly where I have a greater interest now and is where I will focus my energy.  They may fizzle out to nothing, and I get contacted all the time about possibly using something I have written in some fantastic new Android-based product, but the projects I am working on at the moment seem to have real potential... and even if they do fizzle out, it's actually pleasant to be doing some work which isn't rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars for once!

There's also a project coming up in my full time job where I will need to develop a fairly complex Android app, so it all seems to have been beneficial and worthwhile learning how to develop Android apps in the first place.  So although I am winding down my activity with selling Android apps for a handful of pennies on various app stores, it certainly looks like green robots are going to be entwined with my professional and personal life for a good while longer, be it playing with my new Nexus 7 or writing apps in my real job.

And all this because I decided one lunchtime, in an unusual rush of motivation, that I should stop wasting time reading gadget websites and actually try doing something for myself.  Who'd have thought it, eh!?

Two Years In And 50,000+ Applications Sold!

That was quick!  It still feels like only yesterday I sat down to write a post similar to this one this time last year.

So as the title implies, I have now been tinkering with Android applications for a little over 2 years, and in that time I have managed to convince people that those tinkerings were worth parting with cash for over 50,000 times.  Well, that's from the Android Market alone ... with sales from the Amazon Appstore, AndroidPIT and SlideME, that number is a tad bit higher (although not much higher as the Android Market still contributes by far the most sales).

This time last year I was writing about selling 10,000 applications in my first year, and so to sell over 40,000 in my second year indicates a fairly impressive amount of growth from a developer that just does this in his spare time.  But does that mean I expect it to keep growing at that rate?  The answer is probably not.  I don't do much real analytical research, I just tend to keep an eye on the trends and get a feel for the figures (I hit refresh A LOT), but the general feeling I have been getting over the last few months is that my own applications may very well have peaked in terms of daily download numbers.  Now, that peak seems to have remained very flat for my paid applications, but seems to be tailing off for the free demo applications.  Unpredictable events could of course change that trend at any time (just look what happened to WiFi File Explorer PRO when it took off), but based on my hunch and the pure amount of competition there is now, I get the feeling that sales of my applications will remain flat for a while longer and eventually tail off over the next couple of years.  However, I also have a habit of thinking it's "all about to end" if I see the slightest drop in sales ... around Christmas 2010 there was a sudden jump in sales; so who knows, it might just be the calm before the storm and all the new Ice Cream Sandwich devices that everyone gets in the next few months may take it all to another level again!

But that "tailing off" would kind of suit me.  All my applications are brimming with functionality now, and especially with the recent major updates to WiFi File Explorer and addition of full live streaming from SECuRET LiveStream to SECuRET SpyCam (and BabyCam Monitor to BabyCam Receiver) you could consider them all to be "complete".  Of course a programmer's job is never done though and I still have plenty more tweaks to make here and there, but I can only see new "feature-ettes" coming in updates from now on ... I just can't think of many new major features to add - I've already added them all!  So I like the idea of gradually winding things down; I'll still provide support of course and keep making little updates here and there, but after 2 years of spending nearly all my free time working on Android stuff, it would be nice to start spending more time with my family (which grew by one member since last year) and to enjoy the fruits of my labour.  I'm also fond of the idea that by slowly phasing out having to provide support to so many users, that I will no longer be sat at my computer screen at some ungodly hour having to answer an email from some cretinous little speck giving me abuse because my application "just doesn't work" ... er, yeah, because a 4.5 star application with hundreds of thousands users "just doesn't work", does it!?!?  I shouldn't let it effect me  because it's such a small minority really, but it's tough not to take it personally sometimes.

So, what other Android-based highlights have there been for me over the last year?  Well, having WiFi File Explorer PRO as Free App of the Day on the Amazon Appstore was certainly an experience!  It managed to get over 160,000 downloads in the one day (if only they paid just a few pennies each!) and it maintained it's 4.5 star rating (most applications lose a star or so after going on Free App of the Day as some of the Amazon reviewers are borderline retarded - "1 star - I didn't even want this app, don't know why I downloaded it").  But with lots of new users come lots of new support emails!  I was actually expecting even more emails, but it was still enough to make me think I wouldn't put another of my applications into that promotion.  As I said, it "was certainly an experience", but after getting a few additional sales the day after the promotion, it went back to the normal (disappointing) amount after that.  WiFi File Explorer PRO has been bouncing up and down in the Top 100 Paid Apps on the Amazon Appstore since it launched back in March 2011, so you'd expect it to get some good sales ... well, I'll tell you now that the daily downloads of WiFi File Explorer PRO on the Amazon Appstore tends to be around the number of downloads in just 1 hour on the Android Market!!  I know it hasn't launched anywhere outside the US yet (although it briefly did yesterday for a few hours, weirdly, before being switched off again) and the potential is certainly there for more downloads when Amazon release their Android Kindle Tablet ... but the numbers so far are simply disappointing (everyone only uses it for Free App of the Day anyway, huh?)

There's also a few interesting new opportunities coming up.  GetJar want to add some of my applications into their Free Paid App promotion, where they give away applications for free that would usually cost money on other app stores.  The developer gets a small fee paid to them by GetJar per download ($0.20) and the increase in downloads due the the premium application being free, has the potential to generate a decent amount of additional revenue ... or, it will cannibalise sales on the other app stores, and as GetJar aren't offering any DRM as part of this distribution, it makes pirating applications downloaded from there a whole lot easier!  Now the people I am in negotiations with at GetJar have suggested that this promotion will actually "elimnate piracy" (yep, that's in quotes) and it's that naivety on their behalf that makes me hesitant of entering any agreement with them.  Of course piracy is impossible to tackle anyway, and this promotion has the potential to compliment the revenue from other app stores and maybe even drive additional sales on those app stores ... it's just a risk I have to decide whether to take a punt on - any developers have any thoughts on this?

So that was one very busy, successful and productive year.  Hopefully, after all the hard work I have put in so far, then next one will be just as successful and productive, but not so busy!

Yeah right ... !

What’s Coming Soon? Let Me Tell You ...

With the imminent arrival of mine and my partner’s first child (it could literally happen any minute now – already 2 days overdue), I have been very busy coding away like a man possessed to try and cram as many new features into my Android applications as possible. You should have already by now seen the latest new feature in SECuRET LiveStream (real-time audio streaming to go along with the video; pretty freaking sweet!), but there is so much more in the works...

First of all, the next update you will see to the SECuRET apps and GroovyCam LiveStream is that I have fully updated all the settings screens to use the standard Android convention; that is to say that all the settings will now appear using the same layout and style as you see in the actual Android OS settings menus and other applications that also follow the convention. This not only makes my applications feel more familiar and in-line with Android, but hopefully makes the whole experience of configuring my applications more professional, pleasant and straightforward (even I was finding it confusing to configure SECuRET SpyCam in particular!!)

I have also jigged a few settings around and set dependencies to disable things that can’t be set based on other settings, to make everything more obvious. There are also some helpful hints scattered throughout and I really think the whole thing is much easier to use and understand ... hopefully it will result in less emails from people asking me how to do things ;) Also the menus, dialogs, text and popups have also been reviewed and standardised in many places to make the whole experience feel more professional and uniform with other top applications on Android.

The next thing of note is that I have been busy refactoring all my code and just giving it a general tidy up (it’s amazing how out of control it can get when you take your eyes of it :P). I am also making use of my own custom libraries to manage common code between my different applications; this is making some real savings already and I wish I had done it sooner – it means my applications can easily be updated across the board when making little tweaks to the code they share and new features suitable for all the applications can be added with ease. It’s particularly useful for SECuRET/GroovyCam LiveStream and WiFi File Explorer as they share oodles of similar code and now I can manage it all in one location. At the same time as all this is I am finding areas where I can speed up code and make it more efficient, so for example, the frame-rate in SECuRET LiveStream is now absolutely flying – even in hi-res mode! So this may warrant an update, and even though you may only notice slight improvements, it’s important for ease of future development.

And finally, the next big thing I am going to start work on is a major overhaul of the UI for all my applications. The screen shot above is how I have WiFi File Explorer looking right now in development – shiny isn’t it? :P The logo and title will probably change as well as some more tweaks I would think, but it will pretty much look like this to all you guys soon enough. I intend to make similar style changes to all my other applications as well – it feels like a good time to put some real effort into the UI as the feature sets of all my applications have settled down now and I can justify spending time on applying some makeup to them.

But it’s not just the UI of the actual applications themselves that will see a fresh lick of paint ... also the web UI of WiFi File Explorer is due a massive makeover as well! About time too, after a couple of months of you guys having to sit through boring localization updates of WiFi File Explorer – sorry about that ;) I have an old school friend of mine currently beavering away on a fresh new interface (web UIs aren’t my forte and he has several years commercial experience knocking out tasty looking websites) and I am hoping to integrate his work into my code very soon. I haven’t seen what he has done yet, but his sketches were perfect and include a lot of the features you guys have been asking for.

I’m sure there’s more I have planned, but I can’t remember it now (something about Honeycomb and a new application I am working on, maybe ;) ) ... but there’s certainly enough to look forward to there! Now, I just have to find the time to do it all in between nappy changes and being puked on!!

Right, back to staring at my phone and waiting for the phone call ...

No More Support For Android 1.5 (Cupcake) In All Dooblou Applications

From this moment on, all the SECuRET applications, WiFi File Explorer and GroovyCam LiveStream will no longer continue to support Android 1.5 (Cupcake) with new features. The lowest version of Android they support from now on is 1.6 (Donut).

As Android develops at its rapid pace, cool new features are made available to developers with each new version. I have done my best to support older versions of Android for as long as possible, but it got to a stage that features I wanted to implement in my applications could only be possible using Android 1.6 and above. As Android 1.5 is now almost 2 years old and represents less that 4% of the active install base on Android handsets, now seemed as good a time as any to discontinue support for those devices and to concentrate on developing features that can be appreciated by the wider audience.

So what does this mean if you have bought a license for one of my paid applications and you are still using Android 1.5? Well, it means that you must remain on that last version of the application that supported Android 1.5 and you must not update the application, else it will cause an installation error.

I cannot refund you as changing the minimum supported version of Android is allowed in the developers’ terms and conditions, and it is inevitable that all applications will have to do the same in the future (if they haven’t done already). The Market should prevent you from seeing such updates and stop you from updating to a version that isn’t supported, but it is clear from a couple of emails I have already received that the Market has failed to do it's job on a couple of occasions.

If you have problems and cannot roll back to a good version of one of my applications for your version of Android, then please email me and I will send you a link to a direct download.

So goodbye to Cupcake users – sorry to see you go. I’d recommend that if you can, updating to a newer version of Android is a very worthwhile thing to do; you’ll be impressed! And if you do get a new device that supports Android 1.6 or above, you will still have the license for the application you bought from me, so you can re-install that great dooblou application that you loved so much from your old phone at no additional cost ;)

Time For A Break

It’s almost time for me to hang up my mouse and keyboard and set my ‘out of office’ reply on, but before I do, I will let you know of a few updates to expect over the holidays.

For WiFi File Explorer, expect to see the following updates:

• Swedish version;
• French version;
• Improved use of Proguard to obfuscate the code and trim down the app size.

And for SECuRET applications and GroovyCam, you should see updates that include:

• A couple of bug fixes to the camera preview validation;
• Improved use of Proguard to obfuscate the code and trim down the app size;
• A bit of a polish to the UI;
• Full resolution still photos;
• Lots of little bug fixes.

In fact, the SECuRET applications are feeling more stable than ever ... famous last words!!

So I won’t be doing any development over the holidays, just testing these releases and then making the updates at some point, in between gorging on chocolate and recovering from hangovers ;)

I’d also like to think that I will take a much deserved break from answering emails at all hours of the day, but knowing me I will still find time to answer them at some point (much to the annoyance of my girlfriend).

Enjoy your break (if you get one) and I hope you enjoy celebrating in whichever way you choose. I’ll be back adding new features to my applications in the new year – I have huge ‘to-do’ lists, so keep an eye out for update notifications on your Android device.

... And if you want to give me a gift, 5 star ratings and good comments are always welcome :)

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

Yesterday was a gigantic landmark in my Android development journey so far – I passed the mark of 10,000 applications sold, in total! It is also roughly a year since I released my first application, Mate Rater ... when I released Mate Rater a year ago, I’d never have imagined that I’d be able to convince over 10,000 people to part with their cash to buy my applications!

I also passed the mark of 1,000,000 downloads in total in the past couple of months. I was pretty chuffed to reach this landmark as well, although seeing as many of my applications are free, I didn’t feel it was worth celebrating ... it isn’t exactly hard to convince someone to download a free app (although it may be hard to get them to rate it within the context of it being free ;) ).

Firstly, a massive, huge, gigantic thanks to all the people that have helped me over this first year (you know who you are) and have aided me in reaching these landmarks – all the testers, the “feedback-givers”, the translators, the “word-spreaders”, the reviewers, the bloggers, the Facebook fans, the Twitterers ... hey, even the idiots that gave my applications low ratings for stupid reasons – it drove me to make my applications better. Many of you have given your time and energy for free and have made massive contributions to the success of my applications – it’s great to see just how many people out there are willing to help; I think the Android platform has a great future ahead of it mainly because of the enthusiastic users and their desire to push things forward.

So what about the year ahead and beyond?

The Day Everybody Discovered WiFi File Explorer

So, on Tuesday 31/08/2010, like every other day of the week I logged into my Google Checkout account to see what sort of sales my various applications had achieved.  I expected the usual sort of figures for a Tuesday; about 30 or so orders in the last 24 hours, mainly comprised of SECuRET LiveStream and SpyCam, with a sprinkling of SECuRET RemoteControl and WiFi File Exlorer PRO.  Not hugely exciting numbers, but enough to make all this worthwhile.

Anyway, on this particular Tuesday there was a surprise awaiting me – there had been 10 new orders of WiFi File Explorer in the last 10 minutes!!  Pretty extraordinary based on the usual figures I see.  I assumed that a business owner had just bought a fleet of new Android handsets for his staff and had furnished them all with a copy of WiFi File Explorer PRO, seeing as it’s a pretty useful utility for moving files around.  I checked the addresses of the people ordering the application and they were for all over the world.  So it wasn’t that ... maybe it’s become a featured application on the Android Market?  Nope, not that either.  So I googled ‘WiFi File Explorer’ and there it was - someone had just made a post about it on Life Hacker! I read the post and was very happy with it (although as always I was amused at some of the, shall we say, less insightful comments) and then afterwards went back to my Google Checkout account to hit refresh again ... more orders were flooding in.  Hit refresh again ... more orders.  And more, and more ... sometimes up to 6 per minute!!  Again, these may be pretty normal figures for some developers, but seeing as I get maybe 70 orders in a 24 hour period on a really good day, this was truly exceptional – and all from 1 post on Life Hacker!

All in all, over the course of the 24 hours after the post on Life Hacker was made, WiFi File Explorer PRO clocked up 700+ new orders (to give you an idea, since it’s release in April, it had received just over 1000+ orders in total)!  Also, WiFi File Explorer PRO had jumped from complete obscurity in the ‘Top Paid’ section of the ‘Tools’ category, all the way into the top 25.

So what have I learned from all this that I can pass on to other developers or interested parties?  I’ll set it out in bullets after the jump:

My Soundboards

I'm back from my short break (which included a VIP day at Anfield to watch Liverpool vs Arsenal - best day EVER!) and on returning I thought now was a good time to address all my various soundboards currently available on the Android Market.

First, let me start by thanking the thousands (almost a million) of you that have downloaded and used the soundboards - I never expected them to be that popular and from some of the great comments and emails I have received since their release, I can see that some of the sounds have bought back fond memories and emotions.  Thank you.

Secondly, I think I have a fix for the random resetting of some phones that occurs after setting a ringtone from one of my soundboards.  A couple of people have tested it out and confirmed it works for them, but with so many handset available now, I am not going to make any statements saying that it has definitely fixed the problem on all handsets with all their combinations of ringtone apps, hacks and mods.  I will be making the update to all my soundboards very soon and you'll see the updates appearing over the next few weeks.

And finally, that's it for my soundboards ... they will remain on the Android Market, but I will no longer be supporting them.  There's not much more I can do to them and I am being kept very busy with other projects.  It's got to a point where my time is better spent elsewhere and I can't really justify spending any more time trying to support 30+ FREE soundboards.

... Oh, and just one last little thing ... *RANT ALERT* ... I think that all those angry and confused people that have nothing better to do with their time than to direct negative and abusive comments towards a developer who has spent many hours working in his spare time to produce FREE soundboards deserve an honourable mention - well done to all of them and I hope it made them feel big and worthwhile - it certainly kept me entertained to discover the hatred some people can feel towards a couple of MBs of sounds that no-one forced them to download (did I mention the soundboards are F-R-E-E?)

Got A Question, Idea, Request Or Bug?

Inevitably, there will be lot's of you guys wanting to get in conatct with me to ask questions, tell me about an idea you have, make a request for something or, god forbid, report a bug!

I love hearing from all my users (particularly the ones that are using the paid versions - you're my favourites ;) ) and I always go out of my way to provide support and help.  I also like hearing your great ideas about possible new features for my applications; so much of the SECuRET range is based on user feedback and ideas - some stuff I would never have dreamed up myself.

So where am I going with all this? ... (the clue is in the picture) ...

PLEASE, please, please EMAIL ME (pauldyble82@gmail.com) with details on your ideas, requests and bug reports ... questions as well, but always check the FAQs first!

And, NEVER, never, never leave a question or a bug report in any comments section, either on the Android Market or this Blog.  There is no direct way for me to contact you via a comment and it leaves me frustraed at not being able to reply, and you annoyed at getting no reply or not getting your bug fixed.

So talk directly with me (I promise I won't bite :P) and let's work in perfect harmony to make some great applications and not fall foul of trying to communicate via useless comment sections.

First Post ... "Welcome!!"

This is a place for users of my Android applications (SECuRET, WiFi File Explorer, etc.) to get information and instructions as well as news on updates and forthcoming developments.  Also, please give me feedback and ideas for new features; lots of the features you already see in my applications are based on user feedback and requests ... so don't be afraid to ask, because if it's possible (and I find the time), you may just see your idea in one of my applications ;)