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iPhone Cigar applications

diesel

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I talked to my buddy and he is mega busy with another project. Sorry broseph. I wish I had an Iphone. I seem to be just hanging on with my Itouch. Please keep me updated, I love this kind of stuff.
 
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I looked at the Wine Snob app, and it looks like it would be perfect for cigars with only a few modifications. I just emailed the Wine Snob developers to see if they are interested in creating the corresponding Cigar Snob app. If I hear anything back, I'll post an update here.
 

sportsmedjosh

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I looked at the Wine Snob app, and it looks like it would be perfect for cigars with only a few modifications. I just emailed the Wine Snob developers to see if they are interested in creating the corresponding Cigar Snob app. If I hear anything back, I'll post an update here.
Great! I don't know why I didn't think about that in the beginning. To be honest I haven't even gotten a chance to check out the wine snob application. Hopefully today or tomorrow. Wed after 10 a.m. my time should free up for a couple of days before it becomes hectic again.

I talked to my buddy and he is mega busy with another project. Sorry broseph. I wish I had an Iphone. I seem to be just hanging on with my Itouch. Please keep me updated, I love this kind of stuff.
The good thing is that it should work perfectly on either.

Call me pushy but can I get one for my Sony Ericsson P1i?
I don't think it would be that hard to port it in the future.
:computer:
 
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If people were interested in this, I would really suggest doing this as a web app, as opposed to a local iPhone app.

A few reasons:

1) Lots of people can program PHP/d-base apps. Not that hard and plenty of talent around to do this kind of thing. The number of people that know Objective-C, the Cocoa framework, the subset of the framework used on the iPhone, the development and testing tools...you see where I'm going.

2) Why deal with the iTunes store application approval process. If you have been following what goes on here, it is a nightmare and pretty much universally reviled by iPhont developers...Apple is great and I won't leave a room without my iPhone, but everyone agrees that the process is difficult, stuff doesn't get approved, etc.

3) Following up on #2, why be platform specific and why deal with versioning issues? Isn't it better to make one change on the back end with one code base and then know that everyone who hits the site will get the benefit of the new code? Don't we want Bberry users to participate as well? Seems easier to deal with different front-end stylesheet implementations and one back end.

4) (This one may be personal to me) I like Winesnob and I use Winesnob but its just the digital equivalent of a pad of paper that you've taken notes on - unless I'm mistaken, you're not connected to anyone or anything, which makes it great as a "journaling" app, but seems like it misses the mark a bit. I'd like to be able to enter information in "my journal" about a cigar and then search that cigar in a global database base with information provided by other users...what did Jwintosh or Volusianator think about the cigar? Are there tasting notes similar to mine? If it turns out that we have pretty simiar palletes, I'd like to check what's in their inventory that they've rated 5-stars. If I don't have that, maybe its something that I should pick up?

5) (Really personal to me) If you do the PHP/mySql web-based route, you could pretty easily integrate the app with this, or any other forum-based site. In other words, if it really works, it would be just another plug-in like "iTrader" - seamlessly integrated so that it becomes another part of the site. What I'd like to be able to do is to click on someone's profile and check out their trader ratings, their galleries, and their personal "online humidor" to see their tasting notes, their current inventory, etc.

Anyone on board with this?

There are some obvious downsides...to the extent you don't provide a local mode, you are dependent on connectivity. Good luck trying to access the application while on that trip to Northern Maine. But honestly, seems like a small price to pay in my mind.

My 2 kopeks. :grin:
 

sportsmedjosh

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Matt are you a php programmer? If so we should talk and get this ball rolling. I'm sure we could find something on hotscripts and just mod it a bit to feed our needs.
 

Electric Sheep

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If people were interested in this, I would really suggest doing this as a web app, as opposed to a local iPhone app.

<snip>

Anyone on board with this?
If you make it a web app, then 99% of my interest is gone.

Sure, there are some "downsides" to a real app...but the "upsides" are the whole reason I want one in the first place. :rofl:
 

sportsmedjosh

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I would love to be able to sync it with your web app and have the client be able to store and then when you can connect to the internet it would update your web version.
 
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Hey everyone, I noticed this discussion and thought I would mention that the iPhone app I was working on, "Tasting Notes", does have a list for cigars (as well as wine and some other types of gourmet items).

It also has the ability to create custom lists and some other things. Later this week I will be posting some videos to the website (that my name points too) if you would like to see any example of how this app works.

My thoughts on a web vs native app. I have struggled with this one myself. Making a web-app version of an app like this is great for sharing notes with friends, but the disadvantage as I see it the user experience is usually lacking on web apps.

The biggest problem with any native app is that your data tends to be locked into the device. What do you do when you want to change phones, etc. I tried to get around this problem for now by letting people email their notes. But, it is not a perfect solution.

At any rate, good luck with whatever direction you choose to take your app!
 
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Electric Sheep

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Matt, be sure to keep us informed on your app's progress...honestly, if it's useful for my needs/desires in a cigar tasting notes app, I'm sure I'll buy a copy.
 
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Another option is Mobile Stogie, which I wrote, and was approved in the app store last friday. It has some of the features requested. Not everything, but handles reference data and inventory capability. Discussed in another thread, but thought I'd mention it in this thread as well.
 

openendstraight

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Ken I got the app, and it is by far the best one for the iphone. Tasting notes is ok, but I wanted one that was just ofr cigars, which yours is.

If you do some updates, what are you looking at adding?
 
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