
Show HN: I shipped my first product - chriseidhof
http://chriseidhof.tumblr.com/post/8728970225/i-shipped-my-first-product
======
dclaysmith
Congrats. Good luck w/ the app and future apps. I think that writing,
launching, (and making a few bucks off of) a simple app might be the best way
to get started down the right path. If you can get even the slightest bit of
success, I'm sure it will lead to more.

It's amazing how hard it is just to ship something for yourself. I've been
doing website development for 15 years and have launched 100's of sites, apps,
major features, etc. for clients and companies. My history of developing my
own projects has not been so stellar.

To date I've launched maybe 4 projects in the past say 10 years. 2 were very
simple content sites not meant to generate revenue. 2 were fun sites which I
hoped might generate a few dollars in ad revenue. I never _really_ got any of
them where I wanted them and have since folded all but one (I'm still hoping
to make that last 10% of improvements to the 4th).

Launching is tough. You did it. Fair play to ya.

~~~
alexkearns
I always include in large capital letters at the bottom of my to-do list the
following words:

JUST FUCKING LAUNCH

It's there to always remind me (when I am thinking about adding ever more new
features to the to-do list) about the importance of getting the product out
there.

FYI, I have managed to launch three reasonably big projects in the past two
and a bit years (during breaks from contact work); <http://gambolio.com>
(create your own library of online games - pretty much dead now),
<http://www.casualgirlgamer.com> (a blog about online games which peaked at
about 250,000 uniques a month) and <http://tiki-toki.com> (create online
timelines, which is just starting to make a bit of money)

~~~
JacobAldridge
I initially read that as JUST FUCKING LAUGH, which arguably has a place on
most to-do lists as well.

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TeMPOraL
I read it this way too, and immediately added it to my TODO list. It's
important to get reminded occasionally to keep a healthy distance to yourself.
Thanks for accidentally sharing a good idea :).

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senko
Congratz on the launch!

If you make the data useful beyond geeks (srsly, Mom and Pop aren't going to
import CSV in a spreadsheet and start data mining), this could be really cool.

For example, you can get the locations from 4sq or gmaps, or allow the user to
check in (but locally, without sending the data anywhere). Then, measure how
much time is spent on each location and in transit between them (might want to
make more samples for that to work), and give me a daily/weekly/mothly
overview. Eg: "30 hours spent in office, 8 in transit, 20 in coffee shops, 5
in shopping". Something like RescueTime for location.

~~~
chriseidhof
That would be interesting, thanks! I'll consider your suggestion, but for this
product, my target is geeks / quantified self people, not the average user.

~~~
LokiSnake
Also, do you plan on adding something like a "confidence radius" for the
output? Are there cases where the GPS was not able to return an accurate lock
and was only able to give a vague estimate?

By the way, very cool app. Looking forward to messing with it. :)

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JacobAldridge
Just found it in the App Store - congrats on launching.

It took some effort though - even searching for "TrackMe" put you below
another TrackMe (by kimptoc), Track Me (TM), TrackMe FindMe, Track-Me, and
Track Me.

Did you find it tough choosing a name? Or (general questions) are names less
important in the App store, perhaps because most people find Apps through
'most popular' type lists and people searching for specifics know specifically
what they're looking for?

~~~
chriseidhof
Thanks! I spent half a day thinking of a better name, but I couldn't come up
with one, so I just launched. I might change it later, but I'm confident
(naive?) that people will find me anyway. And the icon is very recognizable.

However, I still would have liked to have a better name, so thanks.

~~~
kgthegreat
Another name: MapMe

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nhebb
Nice work!

One small point - the export format is listed as CSV but has semicolon
delimiters. I know this is common in countries with comma decimal notation,
but if targeting US customers you might want to make the separator
configurable.

~~~
chriseidhof
Thanks! I'll consider changing it!

~~~
cycojesus
you can also add this

    
    
        sep=;
    

as the first line of the .csv file. This way it will inform the opening
application of the separator in use (tested with Excel.)

~~~
chriseidhof
Wow, I didn't know that! I think all of the .csv parsing code I wrote in the
last years will break on this... thanks!

~~~
AaronInCincy
Don't write CSV parsing code. You'll never get it right.

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ashamedlion
That's a really clever idea. I'd have loved this when I was travelling this
summer. Something I would be interested in, though, is some sort of battery
test comparison. I know that you say it uses minimal battery, but I'm very
conscious about that (and I know many others are, too).

~~~
chriseidhof
Yes, that's a very good suggestion. I'll think of a way to do that comparison.
However, I'm going on a holiday first, so it'll have to wait a bit.

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patrickk
Well done!

It's funny, I was just looking at some sample code that Apple provides, and I
came across this little nugget:

[http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#samplecode/LocateMe/...](http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#samplecode/LocateMe/Introduction/Intro.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40007801)

It's sample code that sends your coordinates to your iPhone. You may find it
useful for your app :) There's some great sample code at developer.apple.com
that is certainly helping me as I learn the ropes of iOS development. Congrats
again!

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juanre
This is very cool. I thought that having your position continuously logged was
kind of neat. Incidentally, I also launched my first app about a week ago, and
it's also kind of geek-friendly: save notes and photos with location, and back
them up to Picasaweb and Google's Fusion Tables (private repository of info
accessible with SQL-like syntax over http and exportable to many formats,
including CSV). Kind of frustrating so far, got around 950 downloads when it
was in the first 100 of France for a day, then back to about 2 to 10 a day.

If you want to check it out, <http://alandair.com/geopostr/> (there's a free
and a paid version).

Contrats!

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danieldk
Nice work! I think I could use this when I forget my GPS logger for photo
time/location correlation. However, 1km would be too course-grained for that.
Would it be possible to make this a user-defined setting?

Edit: GPX export would also be useful.

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Tichy
Open sourcing wouldn't help that much with trust on iOS, I think, because you
can not install the app by compiling it yourself. You still have to trust that
the version in the app store is the same as the open source version.

~~~
sneak
Not to nitpick, but anyone in the iOS developer program can do just that -
compile and run their own binaries.

Alternately, jailbreak.

It's not like it's impossible (or even expensive).

~~~
Tichy
I think it costs 100$ (per year?), a lot more than the average app.

But point taken - maybe for iOS developers, an OSS version would increase
trust.

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evilswan
Neat idea. The app runs in the background and tracks when you move to a new
location.

You say it uses very little extra battery - and also that it may affect
battery life.

Do you have any test data for how it affects the device battery lifespan?

~~~
chriseidhof
Yeah, the last sentence was suggested by the App Store Review team. I can't
really notice the difference, but as I said above, I'll do a proper comparison
soon!

~~~
evilswan
Cool - I wish you well with it.

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stevenp
Congratulations! I've been independent for about a month now, and the most
important lesson I've learned so far is that NOTHING feels good except
shipping.

I'm in a similar boat. I quit my day job and I'm living off of the
(moderately) passive income that I receive from Routesy, my public transit
iPhone app. I've got a few more things in the pipeline and I too am doing some
freelancing in the meantime.

It's really nice to see a post from someone who's on the same path as me. I
look forward to keeping up with your progress. :)

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gawker
Thanks for the share and congratulations on your release! Like you, I also
tried to create something simple for the iPhone and released it not too long
ago. It definitely feels really satisfying to get it out there. I guess the
challenge is to continue the cycle. I find myself getting excited in too many
things and never really focusing on one idea. Let me know how it goes with
you! Good luck!

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codeslush
It's so difficult to launch your OWN product and I enjoyed reading about your
experience and goals on your blog. I'm reading (again, this time to
completion) "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and a phrase in it
really applies to this situation: "Begin with the end in mind" - and it looks
like you've done just this. Congrats and I wish you the best in your goals!

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arihant
Nice work. But how does constant background location track works for iPod
touch? Don't we need constant wifi connection to make it work?

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brynjar
Congrats. As someone who is currently mid way through developing my first iOS
app (although I've done plenty for clients) I've definitely found how hard it
is to launch your own product. The beginning idea and excitement phase is
great, but seeing it through to the end is hard. Right now I'm in the
trenches, looking forward to coming out the other side!

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thecabinet
Your text isn't resizeable (in Chrome, on Linux), which means I can't read the
page, which means I can't care.

~~~
chriseidhof
Thanks, I'm going to look into this.

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guruz
Cool! :) I want this when being on holiday in various bigger cities. In the
evening then I can check where I had actually random-walked around that day.

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almost
Very cool, well done! I'd love to use this to track analytics about myself
over time. Unfortunately I'm on an iPhone 3G still so I don't get to play :(

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marcamillion
Congrats. I would say charge $0.99 (or whatever you want), and see how the
sales go.

You can always open-source it later, if the sales don't pan out the way you
wanted.

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erken
Dude, I'm working on exactly the same kind of app (although more complex) for
a startup, so I know what you've been through. Congratulations!

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rgbrgb
Congrats on the launch! I was just recently thinking about making something
like this for my own use. Great to see that I don't have to!

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chubs
Congratulations on shipping your first. You're in exactly the same boat as me.
Keep it up till you've got a dozen apps, you can do it!

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ninjaa
Congratulations! I wish you the best reviews. I will download the app myself
shortly!

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bromagosa
Absolutely, open source it!

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bugsy
Congratulations. Looks like a useful product too.

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z01d
This is exactly what I am looking for =)

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cow9
congratz.you should provide an option to save compass direction as well.

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hodbby
nice indeed. Waiting for Android to download and try.

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Wolf_Larsen
Congratulations!

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nirvana
First-

Congratulations!

Second-

How does it work? I get that you can be periodically woken up by iOS to run in
the background for short periods of time. But how do you know if you've moved
1.0km or more before before being woken up? It makes sense that you wouldn't
want to fire up the GPS equipment if you haven't moved... but there's a
chicken-egg problem.

Or do you just _record_ only if you've moved 1.0km or more? How often does the
app check your location?

~~~
dirtyaura
iPhone has an API that gives you a notification when a _significant_ location
change happens.

~~~
joelhaasnoot
You hope ;) Significant location change is based on cell phone towers. The
update only seems to happen when you switch towers or are switching between
towers. Less towers = less accurate, more towers = more accurate.

Also, a kilometer is optimistic, good test and article here describes what was
discovered when iOS4 came out.
[http://longweekendmobile.com/2010/07/22/iphone-background-
gp...](http://longweekendmobile.com/2010/07/22/iphone-background-gps-accurate-
to-500-meters-not-enough-for-foot-traffic/) iOS 5 is now in beta, there may
have been improvements, can't say for sure.

~~~
yoda_sl
You are totally correct. With iOS 4 the significant location changes API can
be trusted with distances around 1 mile / 1.5 kilometers. Anything below that
and you don't have any guarantee.

I speak from my own experience developing GPS Notifier for iOS
(<http://jetap.com> and AppStore:
<http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/jetap/id400203653>).

My first version was only using significant location changes and after a lot
of users feedback, the second release was improved dramatically by switching
the way I was using the significant location changes API and some other GPS
API: the app now has a better accuracy and the feedback from my users has
almost disappear.

Anyway congrats for the OP to ship his app! Enjoy the ride in the AppStore.

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Kwpolska
Nice. Is it possible to create an Android version?

