I have been vigorously working today on Pushpin to design a better pin. After many hours of saving Photoshop images and comparing them on my iPhone, here’s what I’ve come up. I accept all respectful and constructive criticism so please feel free to express your thoughts. Below is the concept link if you haven’t seen it yet.
Let the process continue.
Twitter: Joshua Tucker, John Heaton
© 2012 Joshua Tucker
Everything, including the name, is subject to change.
This project is in progress.
Pushpin will allow you to pin notifications from certain applications (i.e. Messages or Mail) or even existing notifications to the Notification Center. This will keep them from ever clearing as well as being a reminder to you to do something.
Note: Pins of different colors may play an important role.
I won’t speak any further on how it will work but this is a runner up. This is a project John Heaton and I will tackle together.
Stay tuned as always.
© 2012 Joshua Tucker
All aspects of Pushpin, including the name, are subject to change.
This project is in progress.
Twitter: Joshua Tucker, John Heaton
Having UI that flows within iOS and promotes seamless switching is so critical. Don’t make people feel like they’re jumping from one thing to the next. Connectivity is key.
Imagine a presentation (PowerPoint or Keynote). Which one is better; one that feels like each new slide is its own show and switching between slides feels choppy, abrupt, and distracting, or a presentation that has slides that flow, connect, and have significance as a whole?
I’d hope everyone would agree with the later. That’s what you should shoot for. Developers, take this to heart, even if it takes longer to release or finish your product. You will soon realize that the extra work pays off significantly.
The user is your audience; give them the best show they’ve ever seen!
© 2012 Joshua Tucker
As John continues to code Abstergo to how we both want it, I have expanded into other ideas to tackle after our project is done. The beauty of teamwork is continuous innovation. When one of us is at a standstill waiting for the other, opportunities to test and play around with new things gives a sense of direction after we’re done with our current focus.
Although no name has been chosen, here’s a small sliver of our next project; a SpringBoard manager. This manager is a vast and encompassing project and isn’t fully developed yet. Small parts have been brought from my mind to paper so as sections come together, I will showcase them to you.
This portion of the project highlights dealing with deleting applications and placing them into folders. It will include my multi-icon mover concept as well as new and unique functionalities.
Note: My idea for moving multiple icons has changed slightly from the concept above. Information on how I want it to work will be revealed as time goes on.
I won’t let out too much information, but I will let you know about a couple of things pertaining to this part.
- - You will be able to multi-select applications
- - With multi-select, you will be able to folder them instantly as well as delete them with ease (individual and multiple)
- - The drawer as shown in the pictures will be available to you only in Wiggle Mode and can be revealed by pulling down in the SpringBoard
- - There will be a lot of animations (just enough to be appealing to the user of course)
And to top it off, there’s much more than meets the eye. Feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer them accordingly.
The Question Mark: I spaced on what I originally wanted in that box and I’m searching for the lost recollection of my idea. If you have any ideas, feel free to shoot me them. Hopefully I figure out what I wanted there!
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I leave you with a quote from a man who we’ve all come to cherish and love. For his inspiration and impact on the world. His definition of innovation is what absolutely defines my experience; it’s powerful.
“But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem.” - Steve Jobs
Until next time.
-Josh
Twitter: Joshua Tucker, John Heaton
WARNING: Anything and everything is subject to change.
© 2012 Joshua Tucker
The number one question I get when I post anything on my Tumblr is “Where can I download this or when will it be available?” For this reason, I figured I would explain myself:
Everything that is initially posted on my Tumblr is a concept unless otherwise specified. This may come as a disappointment to many of you, however I’m here to say that I only create concepts that I feel would be worth pursuing and developing. In other words, I fully intent on getting these projects developed in one way or another so don’t let your sprits drop!
When it comes to bringing a project to life, the hardest first step is finding the right person to work with. Expertise, personality, and a friend relationship are the three main characteristics I look for when I’m scoping out potential partners. Entrusting the vision of your project into the right person is vital for the success of the application, so naturally, the selection process is rigorous. I have high standards for how I want things to work and operate and my expectation is that my co-partner is on the same path and shares the same goals as I do.
Now to the fun part. I have begun my first project based on one of my concepts with John Heaton. He’s the developer of tweaks such as MarkThatMessage, BadgeClear, and Locktopus, plus he’s a great friend of mine. My decision to approach him with my project was deliberate and I know that I made the right choice. Without further to do, I’d like to officially announce our first project together - Abstergo.
Abstergo is based off of my lock screen notification clear concept and is going along quite well. There are obviously hurdles to get this functionality to run smoothly and efficiently, but John has done a wonderful job of taking each chunk one at a time and I’m excited for each new step. The picture above is what we have done thus far.
To alleviate any questions you may have, skim below to get an overview of what we’re willing to answer at this time.
1) First of all, why would you name it Abstergo? That’s a really odd name!
Well growing up, my first language I actually studied in school was Latin. As a result, many of the words and phrases I learned make up a great word bank of names to choose from! They all have significant meanings and definitions and are the foundation for languages such as English, French, Romanian, Italian, and Spanish (plus any other Latin based languages)
Abstergo in Latin means “to clean or wipe away.” For you Assassin’s Creed fans out there, the use of Abstergo is because the group’s purpose was to “cleanse” the world of assassins, or basically their enemies. A domination technique.
Because managing lock screen notifications will require you to clean or wipe away the badges from the screen, I found it to be an appropriate fit. The name is not set in stone, however I’m almost 100% sure this is it.
2) What kind of progress have you made? Is there an ETA?
All we will say at this time is that progress is definitely happening. Giving out an ETA will only setup us up for failure because really, we’re not sure how things are going to play out as things move forward. Since we are both perfectionists, we want to ensure the user experience as well as the coding efficiency behind it are on par. For this reason, we would appreciate all you users to refrain from asking ETAs, although we won’t rudely respond to you if we do answer those types of questions here and there.
3) What will Abstergo do?
Since it is a a lock screen notification manager, it will allow you to do the following:
- Clear individual notifications from the lock screen
- Clear all notifications from the lock screen
- Mark individual notifications read from the lock screen
- Mark all notifications read from the lock screen
Obviously things will change in terms of additions and how it will work, but those four things are our goal at this time. At some point, we will post a video about how it works since a simple photo doesn’t give it justice.
4) What’s the compatibility with Abstergo?
Abstergo will be available on all devices capable of running iOS 5.
5) How much will Abstergo cost?
We haven’t come to a conclusion on that. Whatever the pricing is, we won’t charge anymore than what it is worth.
6) How can I stay updated on Abstergo’s progress?
Follow both John and I on Twitter. At the very bottom of the post, both our Twitter accounts are linked for your convenience
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These are all the questions I’ve come up with thus far; if more questions come in, I’ll add them to this list. You’re welcome to comment below if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions.
Until next time!
-Josh
Twitter: @joshmtucker, @gojohnnyboi
© 2012 Joshua Tucker
CallBar is 50% off for a limited time (one week)!
CallBar has come a long way since its first design, as you can see from above — through the version updates, CallBar has evolved into a very comprehensive application. It has become one of the most popular phone tweaks from Cydia as well as an overall favorite for all iOS users. Both Limneos and myself couldn’t be more excited and thankful for all the support you guys have given us.
We surpassed 8000 purchases today, so in light of the holidays and this accomplishment, we dropped the price of CallBar from $3.99 to $1.99 for one week. Grab it if you haven’t it and make sure to share this awesome news with friends!
If you’re unsure about what CallBar is all about, make sure to read the depiction.
Enjoy!
You can follow us both on Twitter if you’d like —> @limneos @joshmtucker
