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2 months ago I had only some basic HTML/CSS experience and was tired of only dreaming of shipping some product. I put myself through many long hours of courses

by espitia 12y ago

2 months ago I had only some basic HTML/CSS experience and was tired of only dreaming of shipping some product. I put myself through many long hours of courses with Treehouse and a lot of help from the community over at Stackoverflow and released my first app. I'm very proud of just that, shipping something. Any feedback would be very appreciated!

matthewking 12y ago
How do I get this from the UK? I've been looking for an app just like it and this looks really nice. Is it only on the US app store at the moment? (is that a thing?) Edit: found it but doesn't seem to be on the iPad app store even though it says its compatible. Any plans for an iPad release?
- espitia 12y ago
  Glad you found it. As of now, I'm just trying to perfect it on the iPhone. No plans on iPad sorry.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
xivzgrev 12y ago
Congrats on the ship! But...why is it paid? If you're trying to develop a reputation for yourself, as well as get that early user feedback, I think you're making your job harder. Yes it's only 99 cents, but there's a tremendous amount of hesitancy to buy an app when there's such a strong expectation of getting for free. Being a first time app developer, developing an app in a crowded market place, only compounds that.
- espitia 12y ago
  You're completely right. I made 99 cents though to validate first if people would actually buy based on icon/keywords/screenshots. I submitted an update yesterday to make it free though, seeing how little reviews I am getting.
  - xivzgrev 12y ago
    Experimentation - I love it :). I'll make a note to check it back out in a week to see if it's avail.
- soundlab 12y ago
  >>But...why is it paid? Because he wants to be rewarded in a small way for his efforts? Geez it's 99 cents - 30% Apple cut.
  - eddieroger 12y ago
    Plus you gotta pay to play in the App Store. If he sells 100ish of these, he's covered his developer fee for the year. To me, that's a successful ship.
    - espitia 12y ago
      Agreed 100%. To me just selling 10 units was amazing, considering I did not know what Obj-C was a few months ago.
    - xivzgrev 12y ago
      Fair point - all depends on your goals / ambitions for a project. Given his story of creating his first app, your suggestion be a perfect first goal.
  - xivzgrev 12y ago
    I get that. But he's asking a community for feedback. It's like asking someone to coffee to pick their brain, and then asking them to pay for your coffee because you didn't have time to run to the bank. You can give us a free download link or a web version. Downvote me if you must, but I think it's tacky.
    - espitia 12y ago
      I understand your point. I didn't mean to do it like this, I was trying to get validation (with $1) from actual customers, not the HN community.
- jbigelow76 12y ago
  >Yes it's only 99 cents, but there's a tremendous amount of hesitancy to buy an app when there's such a strong expectation of getting for free. 99 cents may make some hesitate but it's also low enough that I'll sometimes buy an app just to support a developer even if I don't intend to use the app. Anything we can do to help uncondition the public that everything should be ad supported the better. Congrats to the OP on shipping!
DLarsen 12y ago
Really neat. This kind of simple approach to behavior improvement really resonates with me. I'm working on a (web) app that takes a similar approach to improving spending habits. It's the same idea that you track progress not merely in terms of bare numbers, but that you can also record some context and notes about improvement. Have you thought about adding support for sharing progress with other users? For example, I could think of a friendly reading competition with a friend where we try to build the longest streak and daily note what we've been reading.
- espitia 12y ago
  Yes I have actually. The whole idea from the beginning was to build an app my 'mastermind' group and I could use to keep each other on check on making our dreams reality. That feature is definitely in the works. I just needed to release this to get validation and some initial traction. Please post your web app when released, I'd love to give feedback and share ideas. Cheers
hmcm55 12y ago
Congrats on getting it out there. Where'd you learn iOS? just using Treehouse? any other resources? Congrats again!
- espitia 12y ago
  Yup most of the initial learning was done through Treehouse. So much so that I did not know what language was to be used to build ios. They took me from beggining to complete projects. Then when building my own app, it was a lot of Google/Stackoverflow/trial and error.
lui8906 12y ago
This is very inspirational, congratulations. I suppose I am where you were at 2 months ago. Have basic HTML/CSS and starting to learn fundamentals of JS and want to start actually completing projects. Would you recommend Treehouse?
- espitia 12y ago
  I definitely recommend Treehouse. All it is putting in the time and more importantly, at least for me, was having a purpose. Knowing what you are going to build to have in mind while you learn is key to staying motivated. It is also very rewarding to implement little by little what you know towards your project.
espitia 12y ago
HN got me to top 65 app in the productivity category for the USA. Thank you!
CmonDev 12y ago
Is it native or scripted?
- espitia 12y ago
  Native.
openjck 12y ago
Looks beautiful. Great job! I was searching for habit tracking apps on Firefox OS just the other day. None so far. If the app is already written in HTML/CSS/JS, getting it to run on Firefox OS should be super easy. Basically just a matter of writing a manifest file. I think Phonegap even has an export feature that will do that for you.

by espitia 12y ago

matthewking 12y ago

How do I get this from the UK? I've been looking for an app just like it and this looks really nice. Is it only on the US app store at the moment? (is that a thing?) Edit: found it but doesn't seem to be on the iPad app store even though it says its compatible. Any plans for an iPad release?

espitia 12y ago
Glad you found it. As of now, I'm just trying to perfect it on the iPhone. No plans on iPad sorry.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

xivzgrev 12y ago

Congrats on the ship! But...why is it paid? If you're trying to develop a reputation for yourself, as well as get that early user feedback, I think you're making your job harder. Yes it's only 99 cents, but there's a tremendous amount of hesitancy to buy an app when there's such a strong expectation of getting for free. Being a first time app developer, developing an app in a crowded market place, only compounds that.

espitia 12y ago
You're completely right. I made 99 cents though to validate first if people would actually buy based on icon/keywords/screenshots. I submitted an update yesterday to make it free though, seeing how little reviews I am getting.
- xivzgrev 12y ago
  Experimentation - I love it :). I'll make a note to check it back out in a week to see if it's avail.
soundlab 12y ago
>>But...why is it paid? Because he wants to be rewarded in a small way for his efforts? Geez it's 99 cents - 30% Apple cut.
- eddieroger 12y ago
  Plus you gotta pay to play in the App Store. If he sells 100ish of these, he's covered his developer fee for the year. To me, that's a successful ship.
  - espitia 12y ago
    Agreed 100%. To me just selling 10 units was amazing, considering I did not know what Obj-C was a few months ago.
  - xivzgrev 12y ago
    Fair point - all depends on your goals / ambitions for a project. Given his story of creating his first app, your suggestion be a perfect first goal.
- xivzgrev 12y ago
  I get that. But he's asking a community for feedback. It's like asking someone to coffee to pick their brain, and then asking them to pay for your coffee because you didn't have time to run to the bank. You can give us a free download link or a web version. Downvote me if you must, but I think it's tacky.
  - espitia 12y ago
    I understand your point. I didn't mean to do it like this, I was trying to get validation (with $1) from actual customers, not the HN community.
jbigelow76 12y ago
>Yes it's only 99 cents, but there's a tremendous amount of hesitancy to buy an app when there's such a strong expectation of getting for free. 99 cents may make some hesitate but it's also low enough that I'll sometimes buy an app just to support a developer even if I don't intend to use the app. Anything we can do to help uncondition the public that everything should be ad supported the better. Congrats to the OP on shipping!

DLarsen 12y ago

Really neat. This kind of simple approach to behavior improvement really resonates with me. I'm working on a (web) app that takes a similar approach to improving spending habits. It's the same idea that you track progress not merely in terms of bare numbers, but that you can also record some context and notes about improvement. Have you thought about adding support for sharing progress with other users? For example, I could think of a friendly reading competition with a friend where we try to build the longest streak and daily note what we've been reading.

espitia 12y ago
Yes I have actually. The whole idea from the beginning was to build an app my 'mastermind' group and I could use to keep each other on check on making our dreams reality. That feature is definitely in the works. I just needed to release this to get validation and some initial traction. Please post your web app when released, I'd love to give feedback and share ideas. Cheers

hmcm55 12y ago

Congrats on getting it out there. Where'd you learn iOS? just using Treehouse? any other resources? Congrats again!

espitia 12y ago
Yup most of the initial learning was done through Treehouse. So much so that I did not know what language was to be used to build ios. They took me from beggining to complete projects. Then when building my own app, it was a lot of Google/Stackoverflow/trial and error.

lui8906 12y ago

This is very inspirational, congratulations. I suppose I am where you were at 2 months ago. Have basic HTML/CSS and starting to learn fundamentals of JS and want to start actually completing projects. Would you recommend Treehouse?

espitia 12y ago
I definitely recommend Treehouse. All it is putting in the time and more importantly, at least for me, was having a purpose. Knowing what you are going to build to have in mind while you learn is key to staying motivated. It is also very rewarding to implement little by little what you know towards your project.

espitia 12y ago

HN got me to top 65 app in the productivity category for the USA. Thank you!

CmonDev 12y ago

Is it native or scripted?

espitia 12y ago
Native.

openjck 12y ago

Looks beautiful. Great job! I was searching for habit tracking apps on Firefox OS just the other day. None so far. If the app is already written in HTML/CSS/JS, getting it to run on Firefox OS should be super easy. Basically just a matter of writing a manifest file. I think Phonegap even has an export feature that will do that for you.