iPhone Clashfinder - feedback and testers wanted....

[Groove]

Hi all

First a little background:

I've been going to Leeds Festival almost every year for the past 9 years. It's now the only festival I go to. I love the music and I love the atmosphere.

For the past few years I have been using the Clashfinder at http://bugs.rdmsoft.com/leeds/ (sorry I've forgotten the authors name!!) which I personally think is very useful.

In the weeks leading up to the Festival I use this to plan who I am going to see and make any back up plans in case someone doesn't turn up or is just plain rubbish (which hasn't happened yet thankfully).

What I had been doing is printing out the Clashfinder page and taking it with me. I even took a screenshot and emailed it to my iPhone last year (which was a bit rubbish tbf). I've been interested in iPhone development for ages but never really had any motivation to learn how to program it. So I decided that I would try and make an iPhone Leeds Festival Clashfinder.

After a very steep learning curve and a lot of my time I have finally come up with version 1.

From the beginning I knew if this was going to be successful/useful it would have to be free. But to hopefully cover my costs I have included one small Advert on the main page.

I would be grateful if a few people with iPhones could download this app and let me have any feedback. I want it to be useful, not gimmicky but I would love any feedback or suggestions.

At the moment, of course, there are not any bands or stage times in there but I wanted the app to be approved and in the App Store before the official line up announcement and ticket sale.

And yes I understand that a lot of people won't take their iPhones to the festival but from what I saw last year there were plenty that did (along with some strange contraptions for charging them). I designed the app to consume as little power as possible (ie no GPS or network access) to extend the battery life for as long as possible.

This of course makes a very basic app. It is just a Clashfinder with a site map (currently 2010's) links to useful sites (like this one) but it will hopefully do just what we need.

So please let me have any feedback either here or via the website.

Get the App here:

http://www.groovesystems.co.uk/leeds

I'll post the same on the Official forums and see what comes back....

(and yes if there is enough interest I'll create a Reading one too)

Thanks

Steve

[jump]

I voted for "Not interested at all" but I would change it to "I don't care". I prefer letting my mate buy a necklace programme and borrow it off him.

[chickenfire]

Looks Like a brilliant idea, will definitely download it on my ipod closer to the festival. Just as long as its updated

[Dave The Hedgehog]

I enjoy having something physical like the programme to remind me of my time there. I have no time for apps and I certainly wouldn't take an iPhone to the festival because that would be stupid.

[chickenfire]

I would get a program for a souvenir but at T last year my necklace one got destroyed by the Saturday morning so an app would work better for me on my old, slightly broken ipod touch

[PurpleFire]

IPods-Festivals dont mix pal... They just get stolen, if you are constanly getting it out to look at your app more people will see your iphone and then more possiblities for it get stolen.

Very clever idea but unless your willing to take a risk then its useless.

Piece of paper ilamiated and stuck me back pocket works for me.

[harderfaster]

would consider it for android but like most people i probably won't ever take a smartphone to a festival with me.

[Groove]

Some interesting stuff coming back already, thanks.

Yeah I understand why you wouldn't take your smartphone with you to a Festival. But I did see a quite lot more people last year (compared to say 2008) walking round the arena doing stuff on thier devices.... the problem I've always had is data contention. ie tons of people try to use a small amount of bandwidth. (this was why I emailed a screenshot to myself last year).

Of course I don't want to encourage people to become targets for thief's (I had my tent robbed at V 2008 while I was alseep/passed out). But with the age of the iPhone 3 and 3GS I would expect that some may have had these a couple of years now and maybe not be as fussed about them as they used to be?

Either way thanks again for the feedback and keep it coming. I'd be grateful if someone could download it and try it out for real and let me know if it needs tweaking in any way....

[Calzum]

Of course I don't want to encourage people to become targets for thief's (I had my tent robbed at V 2008 while I was alseep/passed out). But with the age of the iPhone 3 and 3GS I would expect that some may have had these a couple of years now and maybe not be as fussed about them as they used to be?

[Groove]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

And I can see there's been a few downloads over the past couple of days.

After tonights announcement I need to create all the bands icons and put together some kind of schedule. Apple are taking between 7 - 10 day to approve updates so hopefully within a couple of weeks you'll see an update ready for download (along with it's sister app for Reading).

Thanks again and let me know if you would change anything or have any suggestions.

Steve

[sunshineglasgow]

Hi Steve

Your app sounds great! My trusty iphone will accompany me to all the festivals this summer, luckily my home insurance will cover me for drunken mishaps and general stupidness!

Sooz

[dirtymookie]

Hi Steve,

whats the chances of a blackberry app? not sure if its the same approvals required for these but i would say there are a lot more people with a blacberry at leeds than iphones.

Cheers dude

[FiestaDave]

I've taken my iPhone the last couple of years (come steal it from me) but wouldnt use an app because of battery power.

[The Mean Bean]

Just steal a handbook off a steward, they don't care.

[Mega Ross]

Is it just me who thinks you'd have to be completely insane to bring an iphone to a festival.

It's an expensive delicate phone with no interchangable batteries and the battery life barely lasts a day as it is.

If it doesn't get smashed, stolen or soaked surely you're gonna run out of battery?

Interesting concept but I really don't think theres a market for it.

Motorola razr v3 for me, bullet proof, knocking around in a draw and the 2 spare batteries cost less than a tenner. Don't need internet or flick fishing at a festival.

Edited April 30, 2011 by Mega Ross

[The Mean Bean]

You can get like one off phones that are meant for like a weekend or holiday such as this, they'd survive nuclear war and they're cheap as chips, battery life is quite good and I'd assume you can get other batteries. There's so many places you can find the clashes anyway.

[Benj]

Good for us hotel dwellers, I'd deffo use it, would mainly use a paper one in the arena though I think

If you make one, I wouldn't make it reading specific, you may as well make a universal one to spread it as far and wide as possible

Edited May 2, 2011 by Benj