Palm Pre Challenge: Twinterview with Jeremy Forsythe
For the second Palm Developer Twinterview, I got in contact with Jeremy Forsythe (aka @jdfsoftware (http://twitter.com/jdfsoftware)), who is the developer of several very useful apps, including Leaderboard and Tune Your Guitar Pro. We had a lot of fun with this interview (as you will soon see), and I appreciated getting to know another awesome Palm developer.
You can check out his blog and list of released apps at http://jdf-software.com/
This #Twinterview is brought to you by the new #PalmPreChallenge application, found here: http://bit.ly/a6WjO6
Jeremy, you’ve got four apps available for purchase/download right now, which one was your first and why did you build it?
I actually have a total of 6 apps now. Tune Your Guitar was the first. I have loved Palm since I had my Treo 600 and was excited when webOS was announced. As a web developer, making apps for this platform is a natural fit. As a musician, a guitar tuner was a must-have.
So Tune Your Guitar was born.
Heh, forgive me for my ignorance. I must have miscounted. When did you get started in webOS development?
We decided in December 2009 that we were going to switch to Sprint, and I just knew I had to have the Pre. My excitement also led the other 4 people on the plan to get the Pre.
A few days before we got the phones, I downloaded the newly-released SDK and started developing. I downloaded it on January 18th – a great birthday present!
Awesome. So having only been developing on the Pre for 4 months, you have pretty fast development cycles, yea?
The speed of development for this platform is incredible. I have turned ideas into completed apps in a matter of hours. That is very convenient, since I do this in what little spare time I have – between work and spending time with my new family.
New family? :)
My fiance and I had a baby girl in October. Any parent knows that a large chunk of your day is spent with your child. So developing apps has to be a hobby and not a second job. But with the Hot Apps Promotion, it can be a lucrative hobby!
Well, I definitely applaud you on having your priorities straight. And, Congratulations!
Thank you!
So, with 6 apps and others on the way, which one have you found the most useful to yourself and others?
According to the download counts, it’s a pretty even split between the useful Tune Your Guitar, and the just-for-fun Sabre. As a developer, though, I use Leaderboard the most to keep track of my apps’ rankings.
What are the best and worst things about developing for the Palm webOS community?
The best thing IS the community. There is a great feeling of helping each other which seems lacking in “normal” life. The forums at precentral, the palm developer forums, the Palm team, webos101 – all great resources for anyone who wants to develop apps or just get support for their issues.
The worst thing… sorry, Palm, but I would say it’s the lack of core features – access to the microphone and a fairly poor, although improved, audio implementation in particular have hindered my development on several occasions. I think it can and will get better soon. But this has been an epic fail to date.
What is the one thing that you believe is most important for Palm to fix asap?
That’s a tough question to answer. There are different priorities, depending on what angle you look at it from. From a developer standpoint, I think access to more of the restricted APIs and better audio implementation are urgent.
From a consumer standpoint, we need PDK apps, an improved App Catalog, and webOS updates that are not so buggy.
I know you’ve got to have some cool ideas for new apps, what do you have in store for us in the future?
I’m working on a few projects. Look for QuitSmoking very soon – an app to help you track your progress as you kick the habit. I also have a game project that I think everyone will enjoy. I’ve never made a game before, so this is a new and challenging experience.
With each new app I learn something, and I hope that helps me bring better apps to the users in the future. Also a top secret project, but that’s hush hush.
To the people with app ideas who are new to webOS or development of any kind, what advice would you give them?
Anyone can make apps. I have no formal computer education of any kind, just a desire to learn and a drive to succeed. If you want something, make it! There are so many resources at your fingertips. WebOS is the easiest place to get your start so sign up for an account at precentral and palm developer forums and just do it. And I have to recommend open source here.
As an open source developer, you can put your apps in the catalog absolutely free. But what’s more important is that it helps others learn from your work. All of my source code is available from my website http://www.jdf-software.com/source so go grab it and get to work!
Favorite three apps/patches/things on your Palm Pre?
Now that is a loaded question! For all the developers out there, My WebOS Apps is a must! I LOVE this app. And the developer is great. Now for the masses – UberKernel for uber speed @webosinternals – drPodder to keep up on the PalmCast from @precentral and Internalz by @JayCanuck for file management. But SO many honorable mentions. Sorry to leave you all out.
I’ve been meaning to write an article about this question for my blog so maybe I’ll do that soon.
Thanks very much for your time, Jeremy! Awesome answers, and I’m sure the community loves it. Any last words?
I want to thank @webosdev for all his hard work. He does a lot for us developers and I hope his bosses realize it. I want to express my enthusiasm over the merger announcement. I think this will be great for the community.
And I want to wish you good luck with the rest of the #PalmPreChallenge. Everyone get the app and check out the stuff on @webosroundup. Go #TeamPalm!
Thanks, again Jeremy. This was a lot of fun and I wish you luck with your apps as well!
To those following: Be sure to check out @jdfsoftware and follow him for some exciting app updates coming soon.
- Sent from my Palm Pre
The Palm Pre Challenge is a series of articles written by Tim Stiffler-Dean. For 30 days he uses a Palm Pre exclusively for all of his computing needs. You can read all of the Palm Pre Challenge articles here.
Follow Tim Stiffler-Dean and his Palm Pre Challenge here on webOSroundup.com or on Twitter: @anotherguy and #PalmPreChallenge. You can also see his personal blog AnotherGuy.us
