Joshua Auerbach Software
Hi, I'm Joshua Auerbach.
I retired in 2016 from a long career at IBM Research. For two and half years, I focused on my skills as a serious amateur bassoonist and amused myself writing game apps for iPad and iPhone. During that time, I published two apps in the Apple app store.
Then , in January 2019, I went to work for Nimbella Corporation and abruptly stopped working on apps. I retired from Nimbella in May, 2021, at which time I withdrew the older of my two apps from sale and upgraded my Razor Puzzle app to version 1.1, with support for larger puzzles and several other new features.
My retirement from Nimbella only lasted a few months, though, because Nimbella was purchased by DigitalOcean and I was persuaded to join the larger company for a while to work on the integration. Again, I stopped working on apps.
I retired a third time (from DigitalOcean) at the end of 2022 and once again my mind turns toward apps. My newest app (AnyCards) is open source and may or may not ever be published in the app store. At the moment, I have suspended work on AnyCards for a while and have been focusing on improvements to Razor Puzzle.
Razor Puzzle
Razor Puzzle can be thought of as a cross between a jigsaw puzzle maker and a jigsaw puzzle game.
As a puzzle "maker" Razor Puzzle doesn't have in-app purchases to supply any actual puzzles. There are a few sample puzzle images provided initially. It is up to you to find good puzzle images in your Photos, online at image sharing sites, or through a comprehensive built-in sharing capability. After you've accumulated some images that you like, you have many options for scaling, cropping, and cutting the puzzle. Once it is cut, you can solve it or share it with friends.
As a puzzle "game", Razor Puzzle offers a nice environment for dragging pieces and connecting them. When pieces connect to each other, the lines between them disappear entirely. The idea is that the original uncut picture gradually emerges as you solve the puzzle.
The metaphor behind this app is a "razor" not a "jigsaw." That's because the pieces can have straight sides, as if cut with a razor. However, there are also a number of curvature options, including jigsaw curves.
The current version on the app store is 1.1. Version 1.2 now exists as a beta and can be tested by going to the device you want to test on and clicking https://testflight.apple.com/join/XSYVAKUf. Here is some information about version 1.2.
Please report any problems with Razor Puzzle (or suggestions for improvements) to
AnyCards
The AnyCards app is still very much a work in progress. You can learn a bit more about it by visiting its open source repository at https://github.com/joshuaauerbachwatson/anycards, and can check it out at https://testflight.apple.com/join/gUaWTdMC, but you could also wait for it to become more mature, at which point I will be providing more information about it.