Blert - Buddy Alert system or Bluetooth Alert System
This was an iPhone app that used Bluetooth 4.0 (a low power version of bluetooth) to detect other iPhones in range. If the iPhone in range was a Facebook friend or a friend you had already added then a ringtone would play on your phone. The ringtone that would play would be one that your friend had previously chosen.
After the ringtone plays, an optional compass would display pointing out where your friend was.
Here is a video of someone going through the setup screens of blert
Here is a video of a facebook friend getting within the 50 meter range
You can also add in friends who are close by that don't have facebook. Here's a video of doing just that
Blert also allows users to download ringtones others had uploaded and also record their own ringtone as well as look up when and where they meet a friend
Why did this project take a whole year?
This was the longest personal project I've done to date.
The use of time was as follows:
3 months: Get a prototype of Blert working (at this point there were a lot of bugs to flush out with bluetooth 4.0 (corebluetooth))
4 months: The bluetooth 4.0 framework was generally new at the time and it took me at least 4 months to flush out most of the bugs (there were still bugs with switching between wifi, bluetooth 2.0 and GPS but there was no way around them and the best I could do was mitigate the problems and move on hoping Apple would eventually fix the bugs). For example there is no callback for when a bluetooth device gets out of range and if it does go out of range then the device can go into a unrecoverable state. If I detect the phones are barely in range, I can close the connection but it didn't help with concrete walls between people.
3-4 months: I've never really thrown my hat into user interface before but asking around what people liked and didn't like as well as finding / buying pictures online took a lot of time
2-3 months: After I completed my first UI, it turns out friends and family were still upset about the color scheme and the pictures used so I looked around for a UI designer to help me out. He made all my assets as well as gave helpful suggestions like putting in a slideshow tutorial at first launch and which UI features I should copy from other apps.
lessons learned
I thought this app would take me my usual 3 months to complete (usually it takes me 1 month for small projects and 3 months for big projects or projects where I need to learn a bunch of new skills). I need to learn to estimate projects that require new technology better. Just because your excited about a project or there's a clear path, doesn't mean that it's going to be fast.
There still exists some compatibility issues with previous versions of IOS communicating with the newer versions of IOS and it would have been a whole lot easier if I had the funds to buy what I needed to test compatibility issues quickly. If Blert eventually did become popular ZettaStomp would have been crushed by companies that had funds to buy proper equipment.
I can design flow pretty well but I can't do color scheme or assets better than a 3 year old. It's much better to just get a partner or hire someone for that part.
I am not immune to personal problems. Relationship problems did slow me down dramatically.
You can find the app here on the apple app store
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blert/id707892959?ls=1&mt=8
Update:
Blert seemed to stop sending corebluetooth updates on the iPhone 5s. I went back to the project for a day to fix project, however the project is very complex due to guaranteeing packet transmission and connections in corebluetooth. It would take me about a week to fix and did not prove to be popular so I've tabled the fix until I have nothing better to do.