jTribe helped South East Water to develop the “Lone Worker App by iota – iota Services”. 
The app won the WorkSafe Australia “Best Solution to a Specific Workplace Health and Safety Issue” award (that’s a mouth full)

Read the full article on the WorkSafe Website 

The utility app helps keeping remote workers safe. A multitude of iPhone sensors are used to detect if a worker is safe. When the app determines that the worker is not safe it will send out an alarm to systems and users.

We are proud that the app was awarded by WorkSafe Australia and hope it will never have to send an alarm.

The DPI Interactive Info Panel is part of an educational exhibition to teach children about the marine and fresh water fishing locations around Victoria.
The project was launched on a giant touch screen (65 inch) and demonstrates a large map with all the major rivers, lakes, bays of Victoria as well as major towns, cities and roads.

Children can select each location and learn about the fish in that area and relevant restrictions.
The interactive panel is integrated in a wall and is a major highlight of the exhibition.

Only a few days until our iOS training in Melbourne starts.
Get your ticket for our first iOS training this year in Melbourne.

Find out more on Eventbright

The Training Outline

Your iOS Trainer | Armin Kroll

jTribe’s co-founder Armin Kroll will be hosting the training courses and has been developing apps since the platform was released in 2008. With both a mix of his own creations, alongside delivering apps for clients, he has collected a wealth of experience and expertise on the platform and is excited to share it with interested developers. Armin also guest lectures on iOS at Melbourne Universities from time to time. The trainings have been running for a while now and we’ve had some pretty positive feedback:

“I just wanted to say thanks so much for the course! I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt a lot from your teaching style… the information you gave me was invaluable!”

“I found I was given a very good grounding in objective-c and general iPhone development/workflow. I feel confident in my abilities now, and it’s given me the springboard I was looking for so I can further explore iPhone development and develop applications without having to struggle with learning the environment as much.”

“We are so happy with the fantastic course that you gave us and I personally consider it as one of the best courses that I have taken.
It was not too basic neither too hard; looking forward to another course in the future!”

“Hi Armin, I just wanted to thank you for the training a few weeks ago in Sydney. I got a lot out of the 3 day session…”

The major complaints we hear our clients about offshore development are:
• It takes too long.
• Management overkill. Clients needs to spend more time managing their offshore development then they thought.
• Code quality
• Changes are hard

We do not know if those problems are caused by the client or by the offshore partner. What we do know is that clients need strong guidance when they implement their first mobile app solution. Going offshore with the first project seems is very risky as the client does not even know yet what the challenges of developing a mobile app are.

Cost Gap

Let’s start with cost first. Once a customer has received an offshore quote their budget expectations become totally skewed. Getting an app developed offshore for $5,000 sounds too attractive. (This includes an iOS and a backend and a website).

On-shore developers will probably quote more in the range of $20,000 – $60,000.

Although many clients are aware of the risk of offshore development once they has seen the “offshore discount quote” there is probably no way they can turn to an local developer. This is completely understandable.

Involvement creates Comfort

When clients come us and ask for a quote we are walk them though our development approach which embeds the client deeply into our team and vice versa. We allocate a desk in our office to the client and they can come and sit there any time. That’s a nice benefit of running a co-working space.

The client’s involvement leads to great results. The client is getting their ideas turned into reality in incremental steps and can move the product direction quickly.

Conclusion
For your first mobile app development project you should go with a local development partner that can provide involve you in the project and guide you where needed.

The cheap offshore option sounds too good to be true. From our experience we would advice not to go offshore if you want a quality product.

Since Daniel and I returned form San Francisco we thought about making the Passbook technology available to any business. Today we looked back at what we have achieved and are happy to see our vision almost realised. The app is in it’s last development stage.

We are particularly excited to that the product we developed will be empowering retailers of any size to have a loyalty system setup within minutes. The small baker at the farmer’s market can now create passes on the spot and send them out via Facebook and Twitter. We would love to see our app being used by most coffee shops in the lane-ways around our office.

We managed today to get the video finalised, published on YouTube and added to our freshly created website. It’s still a bit rough at the edges but we think it’s can be shown to the world.

So, please say hello to PassRocket.

A new service called  PassRocket empowers businesses to create passes straight from the iPhone or iPod Touch. It will launch the same day as iOS 6 which is September 19, 2012.

Just missed out on 10% discount

This week I received a text message from a retailer saying that today is my last day to use the 10% off coupon they sent me via mail. Where is this coupon? Off course it’s at home and I am at work. So, I wont be able to use the coupon. That is annoying.
I am sure you were in a similar situation before. If only we could have that coupon on our iPhone. Soon you can – with Passbook.

What’s in Passbook?

So Passbook will keep your boarding passes, store cards, coupons and loyalty cards in one app. Just open the Passbook app and show you coupon – done.

I believe that Passbook with change the retail landscape and make the use of passes and cards super easy. All passes have a barcode and the retailers can easily scan the pass. This is very standard technology and every retail shop will be able to scan Passbook cards. All the retailer really needs is an iPod touch and an app that is able to scan passes. Passbrite.com is offering a solution for small retailers to scan Passbook cards via an iOS device.

Are you using coffee cards?

Let’s say you have a three coffee cards in your Passbook and each of those cafes is in a different suburb then the iPhone will pop up a notification whenever you are in proximity to any of those cafes. That s a great feature for the coffee shop owner since you are reminded to come in and have a cup.

Getting passes onto your iPhone

Let’s say the coffee shop owner has already a loyalty card system that uses paper cards and stamps then they may decide to continue with that for their customers that don’t have iOS 6.

For iOS 6 customers the coffee shop owner could use a service like passbrite.com to create a template for the coffee cards. Then customers could just download those cards from passbrite.com and get it delivered directly into Passbook. The next time they go to the coffee shop they would present the passbook card to the barista. The barista would then scan the pass and the bonus will be added to the customer’s card. The customer will get a message saying that their card was updated and how many more times they need to visit before they get a free brewage. The keynote presentation showcased Starbucks coffee cards, so it’s probabely safe to assume that Starbucks will be able to use Passbook cards as soon as iOS 6 becomes available.

Store cards

I would really love to have my store cards in Passbook. Space in my wallet is limited and I really don’t want to have cards in there which I only use once a month. If more consumers think like me then this is a problem for the retailers. They are not getting the full benefit of their store card system. I just hope that all retailers will offer Passbook-compatible cards when iOS 6 comes out. Judging by the Apple keynote in June Target in US will have a store card.

Boarding passes

Some airlines provide boarding passes for mobile phones. That’s great. With Passbook it becomes even better since the boarding pass has more smarts then a piece of paper. A boarding pass in Passbook will remind you before your flight is leaving or when the gate changes. The boarding pass will come up automatically as your iPhone detects that you are close to the airport. This makes the whole travel experience much nicer.

What’s next with Passbook?

If the next iPhone comes with a near field communication (NFC) chip then using your Passbook passes becomes even easier. Opening the pass you want to use and swiping the iPhone over the counter in your coffee shops will add the credits to your card.

Could it become your wallet?

I think that is where Passbook is going int he long run – it will become your wallet. With NFC credit cards available today it does not take much imagination to see credit cards in Passbook. However, this would depend on Visa and Mastercard to be willing to get onto the iPhone.

Apple could certainly use the Apple ID as a means to perform transactions as they do already today in the Apple Store app. So today, if you want to buy a product in a US Apple Store you can do this with the Apple Store app and it’s using your credit card that is linked to your Apple ID. Just walk into the store, scan the item and pay. It’s all self-service.

I doubt that Apple will allow any retailer to use the Apple ID to pay for goods. But Apple certainly shows the retail industry where the way. There is probably no smoother shopping experience than in the Apple Retail Stores.

Where to go from here?

There are a couple of Passbook services popping up.
Check out  PassRocket which allows you to create passes on the fly direct from the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Our next article will look at how retailers will benefit from Passbook.

We are in the last phase of the project that implements a self-service system to produce loyalty cards that work with Passbook on iOS.

The PassRocket will launch with Apple’s iOS 6 and Passbook app – PassRocket.com

Please visit passrocket.com to learn more or sign-up for a trial.

As Apple is getting closer to it’s new iOS 6 release rumors are bubbling up that the new iPhone (aka iPhone 5) will have an NFC chip [source: 9to5mac.com]

How strategic is Passbook for Apple?

Analysts have quizzed Tim Cook about the importance of Passbook during Apple’s quarterly earnings call.

When asked whether Apple’s new Passbook app for iOS 6 hints at the company’s larger strategy for deploying a digital wallet infrastructure, chief executive Tim Cook described the new app as “a very key feature” but said he “wouldn’t want to comment specifically on that point.” [source: appleinsider.com]

We think it’s going to be huge

If Apple starts combining the power of NFC and Passbook then there will be a huge opportunity for small and medium enterprises to get their hands on low cost mobile e-commerce solutions. Simple things like loyalty cards can be easily provided for extremely low costs. Store cards will become standardised – at least for iOS users. The last step towards the Apple Wallet is to allow apps access to the user’s Apple account for payment. This could be easily done and could work similar to in-app purchase. So, we could imagine an electronic wallet by Apple coming soon.

Get ready and start now?

We would advice our customers to think about any Passbook needs now so they can get ready by the time iOS6 comes out in August / September 2012. Getting ready for Passbook will make it so much easier to take advantage of Apple’s future wallet.

We’ve just launched a mobile web app, Top Tradie Quiz for WorkSafe Victoria. The project was our first collaboration with PR firm KeepLeft. The competition went live on Monday to some great media coverage, and will run for the next six weeks. The quiz promotes workplace safety by a selection of WorkSafe questions, as well as some sports trivia questions.

Although the website can be viewed on any device such as a laptop, a lot of effort was put into making the site work well on a mobile phone. As the layout of the website adjusts to make the most of the smaller screen. jTribe wrote the server-side as well which features a leaderboard and some smart gaming logic, to prevent users from cheating the system.

The winner of the competition will be announced on Monday 2nd July 2012.

realestateVIEW.com.au helps you keep on top of the property market by providing the most up to date real estate listings, sales and auction results and median prices. Updated daily, the app gives you the property information you need and want – anytime, anywhere.

The app also acts as your own personal planner, allowing you to “check in” to properties and easily keep track of the homes you’ve visited as well as plan your journey. Whether you’re looking to explore an area’s profile or map out your house-hunting day, realestateVIEW.com.au has it covered.