An OAImages iPad App?
Posted in OAImages News by John E. Pannell on January 14th, 2012 at 6:38 pm Some of those who know me personally, know that I have gone over to the “Dark Side” and have started using Apple products. I bought an iMac a couple of months ago and just recently got an iPad. My brother is trying to tell me that my Droid’s days are numbered.
I really like my iPad and started day dreaming about an OAImages app for it. I have no idea how to go about writing this and it would take me into an entirely new area from what I know. It’s not something that would happen easily or soon. Here’s your chance to give feedback. What do you think about an OAImages app? What would you put in it? Do you have any thoughts on how it would be distributed or how much it would cost?
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I think this is a fantastic idea! I’ve never done development on apps, but I’m told there’s a robust forum of folks who can walk you through any development issues. It shouldn’t be hard for someone with your technical acumen.
An iPad/iPhone/iPod app would be VERY useful at TOR’s. It’d be one stop shopping instead of having to pull up images in the browser and adjust size, etc. For cost, don’t sell yourself short. I think a lot of us would pay a decent amount of money for a quality OAImages app.
John,
While I haven’t fully gone over to the dark side (I do own a touch) hopefully you could port the ap over to the Android Market too. There are now a large number of Amazon Kindle Fires at less than 1/2 the price of the Ipad.
Amazon just added a send to Kindle Ap so it is easy to send need and dupe list documents (as word or PDF files) to your Kindle. You can also send jpgs of needs.
What would be useful and more work for you would be updated pricing data.
Count me in if the app would work on a device I own.
I’ve been trying to come up with a way to update the price guide regularly again. The switch to a Mac has posed a problem.
I used to use Auction Intelligence. The process I had revolved around that. Scripts were set up to deal with the files I would work with and export from that program. Alas, there is not a Mac version of this. I have not yet been able to find a MacOS alternative.
Does anyone know a good alternative for pulling auction data?
I really don’t want to do it, but the fallback position could be to run Auction Intelligence on my aging laptop, export the raw data, and then do what work I need to do with it on the Mac.
…automatic notification of a new image maybe?
John,
One other nice option would be to be able to pull up all of the varieties of a single flap (S1a, 1b, 1c) on a single screen (with the descriptions) so we can validate if the flap in front of us is the variation we need or has been misidentified.
John,
I use a Mac and have done so for 25 years. I do have a few programs that I must use that run on Windows. So I use Parallels software which allows you to run virtual Windows 7 in a window on your mac. You can use that to utilize the Auction Intelligence software and then just export it in a format to use on the Mac applications.
The iPad app is a natural. There were a half dozen of us using one at the Dallas Tradoree. Some were using spreadsheet checklists while others were using OAimages.com on a browser. I guarantee that the App would be a hit. You could sell a bunch at $1.99 but frequent users would pay $4.99 without blinking. Many apps give away a FREE version and charge a few bucks for an upgrade to a more power version. That model might work very well for you. It would bring you a lot of casual browsers and enable power users an easy way to pay you for a power version with all the extras.
John,
Apple has already developed the app you need – it’s called Safari.
You shouldn’t waste your time and money developing any proprietary-platform-dependent app when all you need to do is to create a mobile-friendly version of your website. This can be accomplished with a little CSS3, CSS media queries, and setting up multiple style sheets for various device resolutions. It’s possible this could be applied to your existing site with only minimal changes to your core markup. If you’re up for a more thorough rebuild of your site’s front-end, I’d recommend an html5 framework called “320 and up” (you can google it).
Since most smart devices come with mobile web browsers, the apps are pre-installed, and just waiting for you to optimize your existing site content for mobile. Besides, you’ll save yourself a lot of money, time and HEADACHES by NOT dealing with the Itunes store – and I’m speaking from experience.
Good luck!
I think this is advice I like… a lot! Especially since I know my site badly needs a redesign, especially the home pages!
I think this is a great way to get new collectors, specifically young collectors involved. Many of the kids at lodge weekends or events already pull the website up on their smart phones. Great Idea. Now, if only you could take a pic of a patch and it send you to the right page or give you options to compare… Now that would be something….
I found your post and the comments to date to be of great interest.
While my phone is a droid and I am more of a windows person the iPad does have appeal to me.
Apps would be great…everybodys milages vary…As for me…I collect everything from four lodges…My main interest is to have a checklist (with color pictures) on my phone wherever I go (just in case). I woudl hope the checklist has all the existing information as the existing listing in the member area including price althoug the price could be an add on..as could be the picture.
Some additonal information may be of interest in expanding the discussion….
Blue Book…What’s up with the Blue Book since the TSPA purchased and decided to take it web based and 2.0? I think the concept is great but I see little to no progress. They asked for lodge editors and I volunteerd submitted my name a couple of different ways but never heard anything.
At the time I was in the progress of writting a book on my lodge’s issues. (I finished and the result was an very nice book with 450+ issues in color: 50 never listed before and over 100 not pictured on OAImages). They (Blue Book) could have had these listings and scans but lost their chance. Eventually, I need to get the listings to John and OAImages.
The ISCA (“our” colllecting organization) has gotten involved to help with the Blue Book 2.0 project but after one mention in the Journal, silence in the next.
Collection Software in general.
There is a fair amount of collection software out there in general including soem specicifc boy scout stuff. Some that is Windows based, wome web-based, soem multiplatform, some that is multicomputer, some freeware, some shareware, some single payment, and some subscription model.
But nothing out there the fully piques my interest…