iPhone/ iPad Application for Quiz / Trivia Application

We were recently analyzing a sales lead which was targeted for development of an Educational Application that test the users knowledge, in other words we can say a Quiz application or some one call them Trivia Category of application.

Lets take an example to understand the dynamics of this application, to start with lets say this is an Education app for school kids and for which our client said they have :

1. 150 Question set for Math
2. 150 Question set of Spelling
3. 150 Question set of Grammar

Additionally they wanted us to make sure that the app has below functionality:

1. The App should tests the users knowledge with a 60 question quiz which are pulled randomly from a question bank of 150 questions.
2. Store Scores locally on iPhone
3. Ability to save incomplete test
4. Generate tips on wrong answers
5. Have  a subcategory for helpful tips
6. Vibrate on incorrect answers
7. Ability to purchase additional questions

After going through the above job specification and analyzing the case, we proposed the best we to move forward on this would be as below

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1. User starts the application by clicking the icon
2. Splash screen is displayed for 3 seconds, if untouched.
3. The user will be displayed category for which he need wants to take a test, this will be displayed in a vertical list like we see the phone contact list.  Like “Math”, “Spelling”, “Grammar” etc.
4. There will a button at bottom of the list which tittle “Purchase Additional Question Set” on click the user will be taken a next screen which will display the list of Question Set that user have not yet purchased.
5. Coming back to point 03, lets say the application already has “Math” Question set already bundled with the application, the user will touch the “Math Quiz” from list and this will start the quiz
6. If the user had left the Quiz application half way previously the user will be prompted with a popup “Play a New Quiz” or “Resume Previous”, the Resume Pervious functionality will address the requirement to play with incomplete saved test.
7. The application will always have AutoSave test mode enabled, so if a users leaves the application half way the application will know exactly where the test was left.
8. While the game play is in action, the other features like Store score locally, generate tips, vibrate on incorrect answers will be implemented

Our Suggestion on above to our client:

1. We suggested our client to add Facebook / Twitter social network elements to this application which will allow a message to be sent on these social networking sites something like ” I am playing ABC iPhone application and I scored “9999″ Score for Math Test”
2. Regarding implementation of purchase of additional questions there are couple of ways to do that, you can read more details about the same on our other web page on “Various ways to implementing In-App Purchase”
3. In the above case to keep the cost of application on lower side it is better to bundle all the questions in “locked” form inside the application and then when a successful inApp purchase request is processed the Question bank will be unlocked for that user.  By doing this you will not require to setup a server infrastructure and create web-services for the same.
4. But if the client expects to keep adding questions sets and questions very frequently, then it would be advisable to create a small CMS system on server with web-services that will make this application dynamic.
5. Also since the nature of questions is all text, the questions can be bundled inside an XML file and stored locally.  Doing this will also not increase the size of application much, but if the nature of quiz is more on images or photo’s and if you store them locally the size of application can get very large.
6. With launch of iPhone iOS 4 new SDK, we also need to take care for application to support multitasking capabilities.
7. If this application is targeted for young generation then ability to play iPod music in background can be an added feature.
8. If you want to take this application to advance level then the same application can be expanded to be played in multi-player environment with use of Bluetooth or using server if the user base is outside reach of bluetooth range.

As an Expert in iPhone Application developer, we do provide  free consultation to our clients and support them in  create rough napkin drawings about the entire flow of the application depending on your budgets and offer end-to-end solution starting right from idea to making the application live.

So, lets get on a Skype (iphone.lancers) or gTalk (iphone.lancer [AT] gmail.com) and talk through your requirements, Contact us now.

“Image Gallery Application” with inApp feature V/s Multiple Volumes

While reviewing one of a Sales lead for a customer, we came across a situation when the client had below scenario.

They wanted us to develop an “image gallery” app for the iPhone/iPad which allow the users to scroll through a series of images that they have created.

Secondly they also wanted to have the functionality that allow the users to purchase additional images for viewing as well, for easy understanding lets call each set of Images as “Volumes”

Now the client was not exactly sure if the implementation of in the inApp Purchase feature was easer  or offer each Volume as a separate individual app.

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Now lets look at how inApp Feature works in the above case.

There are 2 scenario for inApp Feature:

Senario #1
In case if you already have all images that can be bundled in Volumes and you do not expect these volumes to be updated very frequently.

>> In the above case, what we can do is pre-bundle each volume inside the application and upload the application on iTunes.
>> We will implement inApp purchase feature to unlock each volumes on a purchase request.
>> When a purchase request is made for a volume, a inApp purchase request is sent to iTunes  server, payment is processed by iTunes, when confirmation token is received for successful purchase, we unlock that particular volume and is now user can view the images for that particular volume.

>> Limitation / disadvantage of implementation of this approach are:
a) Since all images are pre-bundled inside the application, the size of application will grow very big.
b) If you want to add a new volume after couple of months, then you will have to add that volume inside application and upload a new binary on iTunes store as a new version.

>> Advantages of implementation of this approach are:
a) You do not have to create or have a web-server to host all Volumes
b) There is no need to create any XML file or Webservice (API) on the server
c) This is good approach when you have limited budget and expect 4 to 5 version updates a year.

Senario #2
In case if you already have all images that can be bundled in Volumes and each few week you expect to release new volumes, lets take example of a monthly magazine which has a new release each month.

>> In the above case, what we can do is have a server with web services &  database, create a simple Server control panel code which enables the Admin of this application to upload new volumes on server.
>> Then when user selects the “View Volumes” button on iPhone, we shall call make a server call through API to get latest updated volume list and prices for each volume.
>> User selects the volume he want to purchase, a purchase request is sent to iTunes server, after receipt of confirmation token from iTunes server, we record the User Device ID and iTunes purchase token on our server for audit trial and then push the Volume to users device.

>> Limitation / disadvantage of implementation of this approach are:
a) Cost of server, web services and server maintenance is high
b) If the server is down / not functioning, the user will have bad experiences
c) User will gets notification when he look for “View New Volumes” and if you want users to be notified through push notification, then there will be additional cost to implement the push notification.

>> Advantages of implementation of this approach are:
a) This entire application becomes dynamic in nature
b) Easy to update volumes and ability to add new volumes
c) You can use the same server code and Web-services API if you want to port this application on Android or blackberry (remember those devices do not have inApp purchase features, but there is a way around)
d) If you want to accept payments by credit card or through third party payment gateways and not pay apple 30% for each transaction, then the server code can be expanded to handle the same.

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Now lets look at  offering multiple each volume as independent apps (volume 1, volume 2, volume 3, etc)

>> This is a very simple and less costly approach, basically you need to create a Base Template application, then when you want to put-up or launch a new Volume, what you do is use the Base Template application, change the images / resources folder with new images, change the name of application like “Image Gallery Vol 1″ …. “Image Gallery Vol 2″
>> Upload this new volume to iTunes and once approved its there for users to download.

>> Limitation / disadvantage of implementation of this approach are:
a) User have to maintain 10’s of individual application on there iPhone, (but with new iOS 4.0 feature, user can now have folders.. isn’t that a great feature .. thanks to apple team for such a brilliant feature)
b) You will need a Mac Computer with iPhone SDK and have very basic knowledge of how to create a new binary and upload that as new app on itunes.

>> Advantages of implementation of this approach are:
a) Lot of saving on pocket $$$$, this is less costly approach.
b) If you have volumes in various categories like “Wild Life Images in volume 1″, “Vintage Car Images in Volume 2″ etc.. this approach of having individual volume  is highly recommend, because you can add those category details into the name of application and description of the application, which is easily searchable on iTunes.  Lets say I am fan of Vintage Cars & like to know about various apps of Vintage cars, what I normally do as a iPhone user is go to AppStore app and type “Vintage Cars” in search, now if my application is listed as an stand alone app or as separate volume, the search will display that particular app in search result and in-turn my chances of download are increased many times.
c) But if the same approach is implemented through InApp feature, there are no changes that “Vintage Cars” Volume will be displayed in search result,   only my users will have to know that my inApp feature enabled app deals with various categories and they have to look for “Image Gallery App” in search to reach me.

Summery:
Depending on what you want to put on iTunes as an app and how much budget you have, we provide you various services.
In a nutshell we can say :
a) If an application that has to be implemented as stand alone app or independent apps for each volume development cost of such efforts can range between USD $700 to USD $1500, depending on how much custom graphics animation you want to implement, lets say if you want to implement cover-flow style of browsing images or social networking elements in this app like twitter or facebook, the cost can go unto USD $3000 to USD $4500, so lets us know know many features you need and what are your budgets, we can provide you best solution.

b) If you want to pre-bundle images and implement simple inApp feature then add USD $500 to USD $750 to above cost of basic version.  The cost can increase decrease in terms of how the user interface needs to be implemented.

c) If you expect frequent update and want to make this application more dynamic, then its better to have Webserviecs developed on server, the cost of developing webservices alone will be between USD $700 to USD $1750 (we can do the same in PHP/ ROR or DotNet)  plus implementation & processing of those webservices, push notification etc.. will overall add a big cost, but in general the entire solution can cost between USD $4000 to USD $7000

We offer free consultation to our clients and support them in  create rough napkin drawings about the entire flow of the application depending on your budgets and offer end-to-end solution starting right from idea to making the application live.

So, lets get on a Skype or gTalk Chat and talk through your requirements, Contact us now.

iPhone / iPad Application Development Company in India

A whole complex of reasons can influence your decision to outsource your software development needs, think on below questions:

Is this the first iPhone project you are outsourcing to India?

When it comes to financial contracts for iPhone project, Do you know that most of outsourcing iPhone projects  are Categorized either as  fixed-bid, time and materials, or function point contract ?
How much “free consulting” can you expect from us to spend while preparing a project cost estimate and plan?

As we all know that iPhone application industry has just started to build up experiences, there are no standards set things that will answer all above questions, hence our experiences have enabled us to create a hybrid model which enables us to give you quote in hours for most of the features that you want to be part of your project and also calculate a fix price.

With a team of skilled developers and designers, we convert your idea into iPhone application. Take advantage of the offshore iPhone Application development company in India, iPhone-Lancers offers offshore Application development in India in iPhone SDK iOS 4.

We offer custom iPhone Application development as per Apple Guidelines in our India development center.

You can either  schedule an Interview with our developer or Contact us now to get a quick ball park estimates for your iPhone App.

iPhone OS 4 Application Development Offshore

With more than 100 user features including 7 biggest features (Multitasking, Folders, Mail, iBooks, Enterprise, Game Center and iAd) the new iPhone 4.0 OS also known as iOS4 have enabled developers to access to more than 1500+ new API’s… WOW isn’t that amazing.

With now developers having iPhone 4.0 OS preview  and it will be part of launching on the new iPhone 4 devices: “The devices that does everything” and very soon iPhone 4.0 OS is coming to the iPad this Fall.

All that said, if you are planning to develop and iPhone Applications, think what new features of SDK can be incoporated to make your application more user friendly.

We at iPhone-Lancers.com offer offshore iPhone OS 4 Application Development services and we have experiences on developing applications in below verticals:

* Small & Medium Business Application
* iPhone OS 4 Games programming
* iPhone Utility & Widget coding
* Mock-up, Icon and theme Designing for new iPhone OS 4
* iPhone applications for enterprise solutions which require Web Service Integration or 3rd party API calls.
* iPhone OS 4 Social Networking Apps
* iPhone OS 4 m-commerce enterprise solution
* Traveling, Navigation, and Weather forecasting apps and many more…

Some of unique features that we offer to our clients are :

* Working closely with the client to ensure that we capture the “concept” and executive it up to a final product listed on iTunes.
* Providing full support with guidance in Application development & design,  setting your own iTunes account and submitting your applications for Approval in iTunes.
* One roof solution for planning, mock-up, design, integration, testing, support and marketing.

Lets get on on a Phone call and talk through your idea, we are sure to offer you quickest ball park estimate.. Contact us now.

iPhone 4 App Development | Hire iPhone /iPad SDK iOS 4 Enterprise Application programmer

iPhone 4 App Development | Hire iPhone /iPad SDK iOS 4 Enterprise Application programmer

With Apple started sending out emails to all iPhone application developers to all iPhone Developers to get their iOS 4 Applications ready for launch on June 21 almost all The existent iPhone applications have to be updated for the multi-tasking feature and made compitable with iOS 4.

With all App Programers  now  ensuring that their product is iOS 4 compatible and be  first up in the iTunes Apple Store.

While if you are  iPhone developers didn’t show much concern about it as making few tweaks to their current apps could make it suitable for iOS4, Apple’s delay in approval of new apps is definitely a concern for most.

At iPhone-Lancers we have expert programers who have have already started working on iPhone SDK OS 4, who can assit you in you during your planning & development of your New iPhone application or want to make your existing iPhone / iPad Application compitible with new iPhone SDK 4 with fast turn around time.

We are a one stop solution for all your iPhone iOS 4 Application development Outsourcing needs,

Click here to request for a  free quote.

iOS4 upgrade iPhone iPad Apple

Hire iPhone iOS 4.0 Expert to upgrade your current iPhone app.
Long awaitied  free release of iPhone OS 4 (iOS4) upgrade is finally set to be on June 21 for iPhone 3GS/3G/iPod touch users.

Lot of buzz is being created with Apple iPhone 4 and its iOS 4 which is going to be next generation and innovative Mobile Operating System in the world.

All new set of features incorporated is iOS will change what is possible on a mobile platform.

Some of the Core features are:

• Multitasking
• Folders
• Better eMail
• iBooks
• Create playlists
• 5x digital zoom
• Tap to focus video
• Faces and Places in Photos
• Home screen wallpaper
• Gift apps
• Spell checking
• Wireless keyboard support

Our developers have already started developing application on  iPhone iOS 4.0 and also providing support for upgrading your current iPhone App.

Our dedicated iPhone OS 4.0 Team is capable of adopting your current coding standards and offering you custom /  tailored solution according to your requirements.

Contact us Now to Hire iPhone OS 4.0 application developer.

Hire iPhone / iPad / Android Checklist Application Developer

At iPhone-Lancers we have expertize in developing Checklist application and till date we have developed 2 such applications.

1) Check List App for Department Store; and
2) Checklists Book to be converted into App

below is more details about the application:

Check List App for Department Store:

Below is extract of case study of one of application we did for a our client who owns a very large department store in USA and wanted to create a Checklist application with Products predefined through Admin Panel on a web-server.

Some of the core features of this app are:
They wanted to create a Checklist type iPhone /iPad app. that allows the users of the application to:

1.0 Check off if they have a certain product in their collection.
2.0 The options for each product would be have, want, and an ignore option.
3.0 Users would be able to save their checklist and come back to it each time.

This was also be supported by a website where an account can be made by the User and they can update their checklist via the website or the application and Synced.

The Admin of this site where we could add more products & categories as they come.

This project was further expanded for Droid on Android OS as well.

1) Checklists Book to be converted into App

Our client had  a book of approx 20 checklists that they he wanted  to turn into a simple iPhone application.

The user chooses a particular checklist. Then checks off each item as it is completed. Many of the checklist items will need a “more” link to further explanation

Also he wanted the facility for users to add their own items to a checklist to customize it.

Upgrade your iPhone app to SDK 4 GM seed (iOS 4)

Today Apple has announced that now its possible for you to submit iPhone application compatible with  “iOS 4″   for review so, when  iOS 4 is available to iPhone and iPod touch users, your application is compatible and are have application does not crash.

We have started receiving many inquiries from many of our customers who have built there apps in SDK 3.x and now when they try to run that on OS 4 most of them have reported to have crash issues.

Some of the  problem is:

One of our task on OS was to

Create a modular project for code reuse that performs the following
- Open and Play Videos from the inbuilt Photos & Videos Library on the iphone
- Records Video using the front facing and/or back facing camera on the new Iphone 4 and saves to the inbuilt Photos & Videos Library on the iPhone for OS 4.0.

Click Here to Get a Development Quote to upgrade to iOS4

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Simple Photo Gallery iPhone Application Developer

If you have a very good collection of:

• royalty free images
• stock photos dealer  / trader / online sales
  
• vector art dealer or trader
  
• stock photography
• Art Dealer
• have Photo Collection
• Photo Shoot / Model / Product Catelog
  

You can plan to create an unique iPhone application that will enable you to display the same in a very simple with good usability Photo Gallery Application.

We Delivery of you full source code and customization support.

Have a look at Nicole Carman: Digital Art Photographer App, which is an very good example of such application based on the Apple ScrollViewSuite.

What we liked about Nicole Carman’s app is, its ability to :

• Ability to use same application as Template Application and can be duplicated for various categories of your collection.
• Supports iPhone and iPad 3.2 SDK.
• Very attractive Scrolling through thumbnails at the bottom of the screen when the screen is pressed
• Storing of pre-defined images and descriptions stored in resources folder and dynamically populated.
• Have  arbitrary number of images (configurable in code) and they do not load them all at the same time which enables good use of memory.
• ‘About me’ button that causes over-laid display of pre-defined HTML Clicking on links goes shows the web page within the app.
• ‘Information’ button toggle to show over-laid textual information about the photo.
• Auto sizing/orientation (horizontal and vertical on both iPhone and iPad)  of the current image to show all of the image height (when screen is held horizontal or vertical), cropping the sides equally left and right as required.
• The slideshow (first, play|pause, last) functionality.

This all comes with an very attractive price tag of USD $1500+  with a license for one AppStore Account.

Interested ? Contact us now.

Why you Need an Expert iPhone App Developer ?

If you want to get involved with the large and increasingly important iPhone app scene, you will first need to hire a professional iPhone app developer. Not only does Apple have stringent requirements for releasing an app to its store, but if you want your app to be successful then you cannot afford to spend money on poor development.

You need an app that has been created from the ground up to be intuitive, user friendly, and of a high quality—which is exactly what you get when you hire a dedicated iPhone app developer with us.

Technical Expertise

Our technical experts have been creating apps for the iPhone right from the start, and before that we focused on other mobile platforms. This advanced level of experience means that when you hire an iPhone app developer from our company you will be getting an iPhone app of the highest quality.

This involves:

• focusing on an intuitive app user interface to provide the best user experience
• conforming to specific quality standards and testing all our apps rigorously before they are launched
• a complete understanding of the iPhone, including all previous models

Complete Confidentiality

After all the work you have carried out into your iPhone app, the last thing you want is someone stealing your idea. Hire a professional iPhone app developer with us and you never need to worry that your idea will be stolen. Our confidentiality agreement protects your idea, so you can release your new iPhone app in complete confidence.

Post-Launch Support

If you hire a mediocre iPhone app developer, you won’t get full support after the app has been released. But with us you will have the security of knowing that your app is in safe hands. You never need to worry about updating your app, sorting out bugs, or adding new features after it has been released because we can take care of it for you. This means your iPhone app will have increased durability and will be able to evolve as your requirements change.

Cost-Effective Solution

You need to hire an iPhone app developer who produces a fantastic end product—but that doesn’t mean you should pay over the odds. We combine expert app development services with the most affordable costs in the industry. We can offer fees that only an offshore company can provide, meaning you get an excellent end product without having to worry about the expenses.

For an Expert iPhone App Developer, Hire Us Today

Whatever iPhone app you want to create, whether an app for your business to help you increase revenue and branding, or a unique entertainment idea you have come up with, we can turn it into a reality.

Hire an iPhone app developer today and you could be launching your own iPhone app onto the market in no time.

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