Zhephree

Thanks to everyone that has ever downloaded the app! While 100,000 pales in comparison to foursquare’s in-house apps, it means a lot that this unfortunately small mobile OS has had such an interest in a very young location-based network. Foursquare just recently hit 10 million users which puts webOS right around the 1% mark, which we’ve been hovering around since early 2010. I’d LOVE to see this higher, but, considering this app has been a side project I’ve been building for free, I’m cool with it!

With the TouchPad’s launch this week, I’m working to make sure the app runs well enough on it. While it may not run at launch, rest assured, it will eventually!

Want to help make foursquare better, add features, and/or increase device-compatibility? Join me and @rretsiem and @millertech in the great world of open source development! Go here and may the fork be with you!

Thanks again for downloading the app and for all your help and feedback, everyone!

For those working on or looking to work on foursquare for webOS, another task!

Foursquare allows apps to set the global settings for a user. For instance, on the website, you can enable sending mayorships to twitter or Facebook. The API allows apps to provide a preference for users to do this.

It’d be cool if someone would add these preferences into the Preferences of the app with on/off switches.

Documentation is here: https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/settings/set.html

Leave out “receiveCommentPings” since the app doesn’t support those. (Another task?!)

Basically, I envision there being a “Facebook Settings” and a “Twitter Settings” section in the Preferences.

Facebook Settings
- By default, send check-ins to Facebook
- Share the badges I earn to Facebook
- Share the mayorships I earn to Facebook

Twitter Settings
- By default, send check-ins to Twitter
- Share the badges I earn to Twitter
- Share the mayorships I earn to Twitter

The API will return a JSON object with a message to display to the user. an Alert Popup should display this message.

Obviously, these settings will have to be retrieved when the app is launching, which it already does in the background when the user is logged in. So, you should tap into this response that already happens and set the preferences accordingly. https://developer.foursquare.com/docs/settings/all.html

Since these settings affect server-side functions, the app doesn’t need any other changes.

Let me know if you want in on building this. Source code is here: https://github.com/foursquare/foursquare-palmpre 

As a lot of you so nicely retweeted last night, I really need some extra help on foursquare. I’ve got too many projects and too many personal life stuff with my wedding and all, plus my day job that I’m running out of hours in the day.

Foursquare is my most popular app and it gains more users every day. Not thousands, but an extra 120-250 new users every day. So, I need some extra help getting all the bugs worked out and adding small features I’ve neglected.

So, if you are a webOS developer familiar with the app and have some spare time, I would greatly appreciate it if you could help out.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Set up an account on GitHub if you don’t already have one.
2. Set up Git on your computer. They have instructions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Git is a source code repository and versioning system not unlike SVN, but better.
3. Once you have Git set up, you’ll want to visit the foursquare for webOS project site and fork the project. This will basically copy the source code to your account.
4. Follow the steps here to get the fork set up on your computer. This will sync all the source code files to your computer.
5. Once the source code is on your computer, start developing! I’ll post a TODO list below. Once you’re satisfied with the changes you’ve made and feel they work well, follow these instructions on issuing a pull request. This will ask me to pull in your code changes into my code. Once that happens, I’ll package the app and submit to Palm, assuming it works out ok.
6. Make sure your commits all have a message detailing your changes.

Here’s what needs to be done:

• GPS is mostly working but for some users, they still get a GPS error on start up. We want to go from 2% of users to 0%, obviously, but anything less will be an improvement.
• Some users are experiencing issues when going through the OAuth process of adding a new account. It won’t go past they point of signing in to foursquare’s site. This needs fixing.
• The list of available Twitter clients is out dated. I’d like to add Carbon, Spaz, and phnx to the list.
• Any other weird bugs or visual glitches you see, feel free to fix them.

What’s in it for you?

Not much, really. You will get recognized in the About scene of the app for your contributions, and I’ll publicly thank the hell out of you for getting me out of a bind. Really, think of this as you helping get incredible! released for legacy devices and the TouchPad faster since this will give me more time to work on that.

If you don’t have time to do this, please please pass this along to other devs who may be interested.

Thanks for being so helpful, everyone! After all of this calms down, I’ll resume the regular foursquare updating.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal identified that a lot of mobile apps store usernames and passwords in unencrypted files on your phone. They pointed out that the Android version of foursquare does this.

I wanted to be totally open on what the webOS foursquare app stores on your phone.

• Preferences. All of your settings (number of venues to show, enabled notifications, etc) are stored locally on your phone.
• Flickr account. If you’ve linked your Flickr account to the foursquare app, your Flickr account username only is stored, along with your authorization key. When you authorize your Flickr account, you log in on the Flickr website, not the foursquare app. This authorization key is specific to the foursquare app. You can always revoke the foursquare app’s ability to post to your Flickr account by visiting your account settings on the Flickr website and revoking access there. Here’s a link.
• Foursquare OAuth Token. Similar to Flickr, your foursquare username and password is never entered into the app, nor are they ever stored on your device. When you sign in for the first time in the app, you are presented with a foursquare web page where you log in to THEIR website. The app never sees your username or password. Foursquare’s website then verifies that your username and password are correct and then sends my app a very long alpha-numeric string called a “token.” This token is like an ID card for your foursquare account. The app can use it to act as you and get information about you, but it’s never actually you. It’s like a permission slip in school for field trips. Your OAuth token is you signing a permission slip for the app and the foursquare website makes sure that it’s a legit permission slip and then lets the app do stuff for you.
  
  If at any time you wish to revoke access to the foursquare app, you can do so on the foursquare website in your account settings. Here’s a link. Scroll to the bottom to revoke access.

OAuth is far more secure than any other authorization. The app never sees your username or password so it can’t store it or give it to others. And, if someone ever steals your phone or you lose it, you can log in to the foursquare website and revoke access for the app remotely so whomever has your phone can’t use your foursquare account and you don’t have to change your password.

In addition to not storing identifying information on your phone, because of the nature of OAuth (version 2, which foursquare uses), every single transmission is sent over HTTPS, which is fully encrypted and is the same type connection bank websites use. This means that you can safely use the foursquare app while on a public WiFi connection without worrying that someone is intercepting your check-ins or password, or even your OAuth token.

And, if you’re still worried about security, please feel free to view the source code for the app. Foursquare for webOS is 100% open source, so anyone can take a look at the code at any time. 

Just thought I should be clear on what the app does and doesn’t do. Thanks for using it!

foursquare for webOS v2.7 is available in the ol’ App Catalog!

I finally nailed the GPS positioning. With some insight from James Harris of Flash Cards fame, I’ve been able to overcome the pitfalls of the GPS hardware in webOS devices and the amazing (read: shitty) garbage collection in JavaScript.

Enjoy the app: it should load right up for you now.

I also fixed a few other minor bugs that you probably didn’t even know were there AND NEVER WILL.

Go get it!

PS, if you haven’t yet, feast your eyes on the new Zhephree.com!

The time is coming near, webOS fans. The TouchPad is set to launch this summer and all rumors point to June-something. This means one thing:

I have to get off my ass and start coding for the TouchPad.

I’ve filled you all in on my development roadmap and I wanted to give an update since I’m at a turning point right now.

MOJO
I’ll give you some updates on my apps built on the Mojo (current) framework.

growlr
Version 0.7 of growlr was submitted to Palm this weekend, adding the ability to view the beers your friends are drinking and the ability to toast and comment on them. I expect it in the Catalog this week. This will be one of, if no the last update to growlr for a while. Don’t worry — it’ll make its way to the TouchPad.

neato!
A new version of neato! — version 1.2 — is almost finished. I plan to submit this to Palm this week. It’ll add two new features: scheduling and card-only mode. Scheduling will allow you to have neato! launch and close at specific times so you don’t have to remember to open or close it. Useful if you only use neato! when you’re at work, so you could, say, have it launch at 8:30am and shut down at 4:45pm. Card-only mode will allow neato! to stay open and connected but without a dashboard icon. This will require a full card open, but won’t take up any screen real estate,  which is precious on the Pixi and Veer. I’ll also be adding support for Carbon, Spaz, and hopefully phnx Twitter apps. I am 90% certain this will be the final Mojo release of neato!. Oh, and a new browser extension will be launched with it, but I’m not saying which browser yet. neato! will probably make it to the TouchPad down the road, but it’s not a high priority.

foursquare
This is a tough one. It’s my biggest and most widely-used app. Version 2.6 just launched this week, adding the new leaderboard and some other stuff. I have one more maintenance release (read: bug fixes) I’m working on that’ll release soon, but that will be about all that happens now. Bug fixes, and minor tweaks or small feature additions. If enough people clamor for whatever awesome new stuff foursquare cooks up soon, I’ll add it in. Don’t worry — support won’t cease and I’ll pick up development on foursquare later this year to rebuild it in Enyo for future device support. I’ll always be your foursquare developer.

incredible!
The big one! This is a huge project, but it’s getting close to a beta launch. I’m hoping for a beta launch around early June (which is super soon). I want to have a full launch of the Mojo version shortly after. 

ENYO
I have some info about the Enyo/TouchPad versions of my apps.

I’ve prioritized all four of my apps for how they will come to the TouchPad. It’s sort of the reverse order they originally launched.

1. incredible!
   This will be my first TouchPad app. I want desperately to have it coincide with the TouchPad launch, but I don’t see it being spot on. However, I’m going to start working on it now, during the same time I’m developing the Mojo version. This way, it’ll be mostly done by the time the Mojo version launches and hopefully development will go speedier since some ideas and designs already happened. 
2. growlr
   While Untappd isn’t super-duper mainstream, I feel this will be a nice TouchPad app as people do drink beer at home, so the odds of checking-in to beers on a tablet are pretty good. Plus, it’s a 75% finished app on Mojo, so it’ll get completed on TouchPad.
3. foursquare
   I had trouble deciding between neato! and foursquare, but I think foursquare will be the biggest benefit. Plus, it’ll give me a chance to rewrite it, and it really needs it.
4. neato!
   With Touch-to-Share’s ability to move info from your phone to your tablet, device-to-device is handled natively. And, since Mojo won’t be killed off any time soon, neato! will still work on the TouchPad. In fact, I think its dashboard icon will be less intrusive on the TouchPad, so it’s not as high priority. It will be rewritten at some point, though.

So, what about time frames? I’d love to have incredible! out by July, but we’ll see how that goes. As for the other apps, the last chunk of the year is completely booked up for me between getting married and probably going back to school, so foursquare and neato! might not see rewrites until 2012. Unless Enyo is super fast to develop in. I dunno, haven’t started yet.

Remember, foursquare is open source, so if there’s a bug and you fix it, send me a pull request! It’d be a big help! It’s a free app, so it’s no big deal to me if you guys help out! Just send me a pull request and if I’m down with it, I’ll merge it with the master and submit it to Palm! It’s a good way to keep the app alive while I’m super swamped right now.

I was looking at all my various app stats and I thought I’d share them. Aside from my apps being open-source, I make my business open source (mostly).

neato!

Sales. neato! sales have been low, but steady. I expected a slight increase with the launch of the Veer the other day and I was mostly correct. I sold 4 times as many copies of the app on May 16 (the day after the Veer launch) as I did on May 15, but, given the low raw numbers, this isn’t significant so much as it sales coming out of a slump. A positive either way. The best sales day in the last 30 days was April 27th, for some reason.

Remedy. I’m planning an update to neato! very soon (bug fixes and a new feature). With it will come me pushing it more than I do. With the relatively small userbase on webOS, word of mouth isn’t enough and some sort of active push is needed. Maybe not for all apps, but definitely an app like neato! that has an ambiguous name and a feature set that seems pointless until you see it in action. I’m going to add a screencast video to the App Catalog listing and see if that helps.

Stats. We’re coming up on 3000 unique downloads of neato!. For an app like neato!, this isn’t bad, but obviously I’d like more. Interesting tidbit, neato! users are good about upgrading and having the most current version of the app. 88% of users are on v1.0. I assume some of the ones not on the newest version have stopped using it altogether. Fun fact: 3 people have downloaded the app with a Veer.

foursquare
Downloads. Downloads for foursquare have been insanely consistent, fluctuating very seldom. I’m averaging about 250 downloads per day, which isn’t Earth-shattering, but on a smaller platform like webOS, that’s pretty good. Contrasting neato!’s slight influx after the Veer launch, foursquare has actually dropped as of yesterday, for the first time in a month. Still has good numbers, but it’s probably a temporary decline. The largest download day in the last 30 days was May 7th, with400 downloads, which was when I launched the Explore feature in the app.

Remedy. There’s not a whole lot I can do here. This is more on foursquare themselves, and not so much as promoting my app as it is them promoting the service. If people know about foursquare and want to use it, if they have a webOS device, they’ll search for it. I doubt many people come across the webOS app and go “What’s foursquare?” and download it. I suspect people seek it out. However, I notice that people DO download the app when it shows up in the “What’s New” section of the App Catalog. I have another update coming in a couple of weeks that will boost numbers again.

Stats. We’re very close to hitting 100,000 unique downloads. This is pretty awesome, considering we were at 85,000 last month. That’s 15,000 downloads in about 30 days, which is really nice, and double the average downloads on a normal month. Contrasting neato!’s 3 Veer downloads, foursquare has 85 Veer users, which is pretty decent. (Not to mention the 18 TouchPad users, even though it’s not out yet…) As for having the most recent version of the app, foursquare users aren’t so good at this with only 10% of users having v2.5. This is specially interesting because neato! has no automatic pop-up telling users of a new version, whereas foursquare does have a dialog that annoys you to upgrade on every launch. Not sure what conclusions I can draw from this of whether the dialog is helping or hurting. Maybe only 5% of users would download the updates if I didn’t. Also of note, there are ~8 million foursquare users worldwide. With these download numbers, webOS accounts for about 1.25% of foursquare users. This is low, low, low, but it’s consistent. When the webOS app first launch in 2009, we accounted for just under 1% of users, so while it’s a small increase, it’s an increase nonetheless. However, these numbers aren’t totally significant since total foursquare users includes SMS, mobile web, official and unofficial iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry apps, Windows Phone 7, Symbian, and more. I think an interesting metric would be comparing webOS numbers to WP7 or Symbian, or possibly even mobile web. It’s already known that webOS isn’t as big as iOS or Android, so comparing them at this stage isn’t so important.

growlr

Downloads. I don’t have full stats on growlr yet since I haven’t added Metrix to it yet, so these will not be as interesting. We’ve had less than 1000 downloads for growlr, but for a sub-1.0 app that isn’t feature-complete and has been available for about 6 weeks, that’s not so bad. Not to mention, Untappd is a very niche network and for that to succeed on a small platform like webOS at all is interesting. Add to it that I never promote the app and it makes sense.

Remedy. First and foremost, I need to finish the app and get it to v1.0. But, like foursquare, growlr kind of is reliant on Untappd’s overall popularity. However, I do think there’s some room for promotion to garner new users (for this and foursquare). Once I finish up incredible! I’ll be able to push my existing apps a little harder.

So, there you have it. Nothing monumental, nothing amazing, but nothing totally discouraging either. Hopefully this summer, I can make a bigger push on my apps and the TouchPad and Pre 3 launches this summer will hopefully provide an organic increase in app downloads/purchases.

foursquare source code FINALLY updated

Yeah, after 5 months of forgetting to do a commit, I just pushed new code to GitHub. Download it, hack it, improve it, make a competing app, improve your own apps, integrate foursquare into your app, whateva!

With new features and content, generally a UI update is required to fit it all together. So, after adding in a couple of things to the result of a foursquare check-in, I needed to rework the result scene.

I’ve modeled it very closely to the official foursquare apps on the iPhone and Android.

Here’s what you’ll see after you check-in. Things have been cleaned up and are much easier to read. You’ll see your mayorship status right at the top. If you’ve earned any badges, those will appear in a section above the Mayor section.

You can also see the revised points display. It’s easy to find your total points and seeing why you got each set of points is much easier.

Below your score is a chunk of the new leaderboard. You’ll be updated on your leaderboard status (amongst your friends) after every check-in. It’ll show your position with the 2 closest friends. If your score is in the middle of 2 friends, you’ll see your name in the middle.

The full leaderboard will soon look similar to this, but I’m waiting on documentation from foursquare before I push that feature.

Apparently the current version of the app doesn’t handle specials very well, and I’m aiming to fix that. When you check-in, if you’ve unlocked a special, you’ll see a banner like this at the top (final design is still being worked out).

Tapping that orange banner will display the special, including the time and date that you unlocked it so that the business can verify it.

Also in that screen shot, you can see what it looks like when someone else is the mayor. It shows you the current mayor and lets you know how far away from being a mayor your are, which the app currently does, but this looks nicer.

But, that’s not the big news. The big news is that I’ve built out the new Explore feature. If you’re not aware, Explore allows you to find new and interesting places around you. Foursquare uses your check-ins, your friends’ tips and check-ins, your to-do list, and the behavior of every foursquare user to find places you should visit.

You access Explore from the navigation menu:

Once you tap the Explore button, you’ll be brought to Explore. Before you start exploring, the app will either show you all the nearby venues that are currently trending (things that maybe you should go check-out right now) or, if no venues are trending, you’ll see instructions on getting started.

You’ll now have a few choices. You can either search for something specific (like type in “free wifi” to find places nearby with free wifi) or tap a category to start browsing. I’ll tap “Food” to show you.

Tapping a category will display a horizontally-scrolling list of sub-keywords for you to narrow your search. Below that will be the list of recommended places. Each place will have a color-coded banner at the top to indicate why it was selected. Blue means it was selected because it relates to things your friends have done, green because it relates to things you’ve done, and grey means it relates to things all of foursquare has done. You’ll also see a tip from a random user, or one of your friends.

Below the venue info, you’ll also see more detailed reasons as to why you should visit this place. Not only do I have a to-do here, but four of my friends have been here and, it’s apparently generally popular on foursquare.

In addition to that criteria, Explore will also recommend places based on the habits of other users. Here, Slim Goodies was recommended because 8 of my friends have been here (2 go often) and it was recommended because people who eat at 6 restaurants I go to often also eat here. So, there’s a good chance I’d like this place. (Ed. note: I’ve been here actually, but pre-foursquare. This has just reminded me I’ve wanted to go back. Just added to my to-do list. See how that works?)

You can also fine-tune the feature by selecting a few options, accessible from the settings button in the upper-left corner.

From the dropdown, you can select the radius around you that Explore should use, as well as whether to use stuff from everyone on foursquare (including your friends and yourself), just your friends, or just yourself. Keep in mind, “Everyone” will give you the most results.

This is an amazing feature and will only get better as people use foursquare more. If you don’t have a lot of friends on foursquare, sign some up!

In addition to these changes, I’ve fixed a bug where viewing a tip or to-do that had no message (i.e., you just added a venue to your to-do list) didn’t work. I’ve also fixed the annoying bug of not being able to use a space when searching for a venue.

I have a few more bug fixes to do and then I think I’ll be pushing this update out to you guys, so, maybe by the weekend? Hopefully so!

I like beer. I’ve got beer I love and beer I hate. Breweries that always delight me, and ones that always disappoint. I also love trying new beers and seeing what beer other people are drinking. And that’s where Untappd comes in. Untappd is the foursquare of beer — search for a beer, “check-in” to it to let your friends know what you’re having. After each check-in, Untappd recommends three other beers for you to try based on what you selected, what you’ve had before, and what your friends have had.

You can also rate beers, comment on them, and say where you’re drinking it (which will check you in to foursquare at the same time!). You earn badges for drinking at different places and drinking different beers, or drinking on certain days. Just like foursquare, only, with beer. 

So, if you’re a beer drinker, Untappd is essential. I’ve accepted friend requests from people I’ve never met just to see what beers they drink. I’ve been on the lookout for new brews ever since. 

Untappd launched as a web app — this allowed them to launch on all major smartphones (including webOS) quickly and cheaply, essential for a bootstrapped startup like themselves. They’ve recently launched an API to allow others to build off of their data, which is pretty awesome since I think they’re only 2 guys. I had the pleasure of meeting Greg Avola (one of the founders of Untappd) at the Palm Developer Day in NYC last year and we talked webOS and Untappd (and he was one of the first people to see incredible! in action, too). These are good guys, so, give Untappd a try!

Anyway, their API is pretty new, but already powerful. Remember that feature I said that let you say where you were drinking your beer? Well, it requires a mobile browser that supports geolocation, which, sadly, the webOS 1.4.5 web browser does not. This means the majority of webOS Untappd users can’t add their location to Untappd check-ins.

So, I took it upon myself to build one of the first native Untappd apps, and do it for webOS. This will allow fast loading (no waiting for the web) AND it’ll allow geolocation for venue adding. Plus, with foursquare opening up their venues API, things are easier than ever. 

The app? growlr. (As in “growler”, a type of beer bottle)

There’s your login screen. (minor spacing adjustments have already been made) 

So, what will growlr do? My plan for initial launch is for you to be able to search for a beer, view the beer and check-in to the beer (and attach your location). Future versions will add user profiles, your friends’ activity feeds, commenting, and more. But for now, I want to get the check-in function out because that’s the most important thing that I’m trying to improve upon (geolocation, anyway).

My aim is to launch by this weekend, so if you’re doing your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations this weekend instead of Thursday, you should be good to go!

BTW, speaking of this weekend and St. Patrick’s, check this out and maybe donate a few dollars!