FRC Spyder for iPhone with Push

[Greg Marra]

This app looks great! I am so glad to see the community building tools for itself.

I am slightly worried about fragmentation. There are now two FRC iPhone apps, both of which are closed source. Are we doing ourselves a disservice by not collaborating to create the single best experience for students, mentors, and parents that we can?

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

I am slightly worried about fragmentation. There are now two FRC iPhone apps, both of which are closed source. Are we doing ourselves a disservice by not collaborating to create the single best experience for students, mentors, and parents that we can?

Greg, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. People see a need and they fill it, it's as simple as that. There's actually already at least 4 different iPhone apps, and they all do something different.

Mike and I created this app for a few reasons. First, we both wanted to learn about development for the iPhone and Android. Second, we wanted an app to make the process of following team rankings easier than just constantly reloading FIRST's rankings page on the phone over and over. To my knowledge, no other apps offer that, so that seemed like a need we could fill.

Really, I don't think this is any different than the multitude of websites that are available as resources for people in FIRST. The existence of CD, usfirst.org, and FIRSTwiki didn't stop you from creating thebluealliance.net... because you saw a need that wasn't quite fulfilled by any of the other sites out there and you had the time, knowledge, and interest to do it.

[Jared Russell]

Dave (and Mike):

Thanks for this app. It is definitely the most intuitive and complete FRC app available right now.

One request: is there any chance you could add the awards page for each event? (Even if it is just an HTML link to the appropriate usfirst.org page)

[Brandon Holley]

Hey Dave,
App is awesome thus far.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to "follow" teams to get the push notifications. Could you provide some insight?

Thanks
Brando

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Hey Dave,
App is awesome thus far.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to "follow" teams to get the push notifications. Could you provide some insight?

Thanks
Brando

Starting at the main screen, select Teams, find the team you want, select them, then press the Menu button at the top. In the menu you can Favorite them, and there's also an option there to "Receive Live Updates" - that's the one you want. Unfortunately right now there's no way to do it from the Events page.. Maybe in the future I'll add that.

[d-dub]

This app looks awesome!

However, I only seem to be getting 2010 data. I've tried deleting all data and then refreshing, and I've even tried deleting and reinstalling the app.

Any ideas why I'm not getting the 2011 data? The "About" tab on the main screen does not list an application version, BTW.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by d-dub

Any ideas why I'm not getting the 2011 data?

The 2011 version has not been released yet. A version has been submitted for approval by Apple but it's still in waiting.

[d-dub]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

The 2011 version has not been released yet. A version has been submitted for approval by Apple but it's still in waiting.

I wondered if that was the case. Thanks for the info!