The player

If you would like to see and read about how this app has evolved take a look at the Cabin Fever archive.

The code is also much cleaner. I reuse one view for all the tabs on the iPhone version, and these tabs are reused in the pop ups on the iPad version. In addition all the content is kept separate from the code. Hopefully all of this will make it super easy to get the next movie apps off the ground :D

The next movie app will be Mona’s feature Chlorox, ammonia and coffee and after that some of her shorts!!

Info about the app and share options

Info about the director, iPhone version

Why oh why, you might say? Hear me out :D

I have started using my inbox as my main unsolved task list and getting things done tool. The inspiration for this comes from the norwegian MD, Jørn. You can read about his concept “Inbox Control”, in norwegian, at innbokskontroll.no, or have a go at the google translated version.

With this method you start sending a fair amout of e-mails to yourself, and after about three self addressed e-mail I thought: “There must be an app for that” and there is.  Mail Myself!  will save you from these three steps:

1. Open the mail app
2. Tap the compose icon
3. Write your e-mail adress

I’ve used Mail Myself! and I can highly recommend the app.

After a little while however I wanted more, the more being:

I do not want to get directed back to my inbox/mail app after the e-mail has been sent.

Why?
I am a recovering inboxaholic.

I have no self control. If there is a new messages I must have a look at it, if there are no new messages I can spend a minute or two looking through the inbox anyhow! I have turned off the little red dot that tells you how many new e-mails you have. I have turned off e-mail notifications. I have in fact turned off all notifications, my iPhone will only let me activly know of new texts or  people calling.

My first thought was as always: “There must be an app for that”. Unfortunatly I have not found one that fullfills this need yet, so I’m thinking of making it myself. The app would simply:

1. Present a compose e-mail view (with the to-field already filled out).
2. Let you write and send your e-mail.
3. Direct you back to step 1!

No inbox in sight :D

I would love to hear what you think!

I’ve always wanted to order something from MOO since I have heard so many good things about them, and they definitely lived up to the expectation. The cards turned out great, they arrived fast and their e-mails are a joy (I’m a sucker for automatically generated e-mails that make me smile).

I’m Little MOO – the bit of software that will be managing your order
with moo.com. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine who
will print it for you in the next few days. I’ll let you know when it’s
done and on its way to you.

Remember, I’m just a bit of software.

So, if you have any questions regarding your order please (…) contact Customer Service (who are real people).

The picture doesn’t give the cards justice at all, you will have to ask me for one!  They need to be seen and fondled IRL.

If you are convinced, buy after clicking the link in this blogpost and I get a little cut :D

Did I listen? kind of. I’m not doing the hard labour myself; I am actually trying to build a business that doesn’t really revolve around home improvement. But it turns out there is much more to renovating than the manual labour. I kind of knew that too… The kitchen plan had already been ready in my mind for a long time. We will reuse most of the furniture, so that was also already decided on. However I hadn’t spent much thought on what material the bathroom ceiling should be, where exactly the electrical outlet should be, how many lamps there would be over the kitchen counter, how many cm the moulding should be or that it takes 8 weeks to get doors and floors delivered.

This year I have spent at least 33,75 hours!

Screenshot from Harvest

How do I know? I have finally started tracking my hours properly using Harvest. It is not totally under my skin yet, but it’s getting easier and easier. This is why I wrote “at least”, because sometimes I have simply forgotten all about it and how are you supposed to track those hours where you can’t fall asleep because “What material really is best for those bathroom floors?!?!?”.

I’m tracking work I do for Appelsin, work I do for clients through bGraphic and also non-billable bGraphic stuff. In addition I have decided to track the time I spend on renovating to get a more complete picture of what I spend my time on. I’m also thinking of putting exercise in there; it kind of feel like work to me.

What do use to track your hours and which activities do you track?

The house I’m renovation is my family’s farm house on the west coast of Sweden. It will be available as a holiday rental this summer, if you are interested in renting or following the renovation process like Näs Gård on Facebook.

Who you gonna call, your Personal Engineer!

This is bGraphic’s first service idea; hire me as your Personal Engineer!

I’m thinking it is a good service for smaller businesses who do most things themselves, but need some help in the technical department.

My first and only client so far, Mona J. Hoel, fit this description.

• I find technologies to manage the crowd sourcing of her next movie.
• I helped her start Freedom From Fear’s Facebook page.
• I’m looking into You Tube partnerships.
• Many other things small and large.

However I know there are business people in large corporations who sometime feels a little bullied by their IT people, or who just have the need to run technical solution by someone outside their usual world and I would like to help them as well.

The price is 850 NOK an hour, with discounts for buying hours in bulk. If you are interested send an e-mail to raae@bgraphic.no or call me on +4797667045.

What do you think? Should I specialise on a certain type of tasks or clients? Or is the core of this service that I’m flexible?

What I know

• bGraphic.no is my digital home.
• bGraphic is my employer.
• bGraphic owns half of Appelsin.
• bGraphic will make more movie apps for Mona.
• bGraphic relocates to NY/Bosten/Chicago/Ocean Grove for 2 months this spring fall.
• If I have a new idea, problem, product or service you will be the first to know!

Happy new year!

As I should have known you cannot just wrap a movie in app clothes, this is against the rules.

2.21: Apps that are simply a song or movie should be submitted to the iTunes store. Apps that are simply a book should be submitted to the iBookstore

Why had I not investigated this? Because there are so many movie apps on the App Store. There isn’t much to them other than a movie tab, a synopsis tab and maybe a share button. Since Cabin Fever is a christmas movie, and I started this with less than a month to christmas, I wanted to keep it simple with focus on the movie. I did add a little info button that would reveal a table of links to the websites about the Director, the Movie and me, but nothing more.

It would turn our however that this extra stuff is essential, it is what makes the app more than a movie and therefore makes it legal on the App Store. I realized this when the rejection came Sunday night and Apple is closing the App Store back-end tomorrow (December 22.), so time was of the essence when I gave a shot at making something that would be approved.

I started throwing things at the app, solving layout problems as I went a long. I’m not the most experience iOS developer (I will be, but not there yet) so I only found time to make the iPad version. You can now read about Mona and the movie, you can tweet, e-mail and iMessage and you can tap links in the original table (now located weirdly in the middle of the screen) in addition to watching the movie :D

It’s not really a better app, maybe worse, but you know what? It got approved and you can now buy it on the App Store.

The player

About the director

The links table

But it seems I’m not that special; I’m just a part of a trend, at least according to U.S numbers. I must make a mental note to find numbers for Europe and especially Norway (where I live) as well.

He said contrary to popular belief, most of the current independent workers (55 percent) choose this route instead of being forced into temporary work. And he said 80 percent of these workers claim they don’t want to go back. And 28 million traditionally employed workers said they want to go independent in the next two years. That might be because 50 percent of traditional workers say they are unhappy with their work situations.

Read more in this article: By 2020, independent workers will be the majority.

Read more about Cabin Fever, director Mona J. Hoel and the production company at FreedomFromFear.no. Read more about my involvement in this blog post.