I’ve been “properly” iOS freelancing since Jul 09, I started by writing my own apps and supporting this by working for existing customers. Like most app developers I didn’t really earn any money from these. Which prompted me to find iOS work via an Agency in Feb-10, like I say things were desperate and I had bills to pay. That contract ended in Dec 10, I then went back to freelancing but finding work on my own, not via agencies. This has been a really hard process and I’ve had some really good months and a fair few awful ones, especially late 2011 where I didn’t earn anything at all.

My client base has grown and I’m getting regular “quote for this app” sort of requests, sometimes these have come to nothing. In those cases I always make sure I leave with the parting comment that I’m here if they need me and a couple of times they have.  Recently most of my work has since come from either my website, LinkedIn or people recommending me. Just hope the trend carries on!

Contracting – PROS

• It should be relatively easy to find a contract if you have a good skill set, look at jobserve.com or cwjobs.co.uk – the rates do vary quite a bit
• Once you have a contract its guaranteed income for the length of the contract – so long as you stick to the terms of the contract
• No problems with getting paid – so long as you get your timesheet signed

Contracting – CONS

• you have to deal with agents, they are pretty underhanded and will try and squeeze as much information out of you about your current workplace to see if they have an opportunity to sell in a new person (so be careful)
• They take quite a big cut, the rates advertised are what you would receive but they charge another 15-20% on top to the end client
• Most of the jobs are in London
• Most contracts expect you to work onsite

Freelancing – PROS

• You can work on projects you want to work on (once you have the luxury of enough work)
• Working from home – I hate travelling into London
• For me its a more personal approach to development, it feels like “my” work rather than going to an office and working for someone
• Projects can be quite varied
• Dealing with clients directly

Freelancing – CONS

• Finding work – this is really hard
• Dealing with clients directly
• Getting paid – once had to wait 6 months for a payment

As you can see the Freelancing PROS/CONS are a lot more personal and I know that for a lot of people maybe not that important. I’ve contracted for about 18 years of my IT career and only freelanced for about 3 years. But I much prefer the freelance approach

You’ll also need to set up a limited company, get VAT registered and sort out PAYE. I use Nixon Williams as my accountant, who are brilliant and can set all of these up for you from the start. I also wrote an app for them that lets you work out what your take home pay would be, give it a try (if you want) iOS  or Android

If you are going to use Nixon Williams, please let me know so that I can refer you

Any PROS/CONS you think I should add then add to the comments

• No You Girls – Franz Ferdinand –
• Houdini – Foster The People –
• Someone Great – LCD Soundsystem –
• 11th Dimension – Julian Casablancas –
• Man On Fire – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros –
• My Doorbell – The White Stripes –
• White Sky – Vampire Weekend –
• Hours – Tycho –
• Ships In The Night – Mat Kearney –
• Shake It Out – Florence + The Machine –
• Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 – The Flaming Lips –
• Lights – Ellie Goulding –
• I Got Mine – The Black Keys –
• Wavin’ Flag – K’naan –
• Take Back The City – Snow Patrol –
• Mansard Roof – Vampire Weekend –
• Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones –
• Uncharted – Sara Bareilles –
• You – TV On The Radio –
• Read My Mind – The Killers –
• This Too Shall Pass – Ok Go –
• Don’t Leave Me – Regina Spektor –
• From The Clouds – Jack Johnson –
• Santa Fe – Beirut –
• Fire – Kasabian –
• Rebellion – Arcade Fire –
• Modern Man – Arcade Fire –
• Jump Around – House of Pain –
• Sweet Dreams – Rec.Pro –
• Exodus – Bob Marley / The Wailers –

Let me know any that I’ve missed

The sessions, which I can’t talk about as all attendees are under an NDA, were good and new topics covered in enough detail to get you started. I get the feeling that the vast majority of attendees are now purely iOS focused rather than OS X, which means the iOS sessions tend to be packed. This lead to the annoying habit of a lot of people leaving 5 minutes before the current session finished, which seemed really rude, not only to the presenters but to the rest of us trying to actually listen to the last 5 minutes.

Community
I met a few new developers and caught up with some from previous years, which I find really helpful. As I’m a freelancer I tend to work on my own most of the time and having a network of fellow developers to communicate with helps with your sanity.

Special Guest
The end of the week finished with a lunchtime talk by ????????? (sorry NDA), he is an amazing and funny story-teller, I really wished that Apple recorded those sessions as well. Something that struck me during his talk, he used to make super 8 films when he was a kid, and I got the impression that other kids in his school thought of him as weird and geeky and therefore not in the “popular/cool group”. Which reminded me of me when I was a kid, computers were very very geeky back in 1981 and the ZX81, and most other kids thought this a bit “weird”. Now days with everyone using apps on a daily basis, showing there friends these cool apps they are using, doesn’t that make us geeks the cool kids?

Takeaway
What I’ve taken away from this year…

1. Watch last years videos, make time in my weekly schedule to actually watch the videos, there is a lot of information in them, some of which won’t of changed much this year
2. Make time to work on my own projects, client work is very important, it pays the bills, but I also need to be creating my own work
3. Have faith, I love what I do, I need to put that love into what I create
4. Watch this years videos, when they come out
5. Start saving for next years!

Feedback
This year Apple have asked for feedback on the sessions, but I’ve given this general feedback for the conference as a whole…

1. The sessions tend to be 80% talking and 20% demo, I’m sure we could get a lot more out of them if it was the other way around. Rather showing as a line of code on the slide, telling us what it does, this could be done while creating a demo. Seeing things work is more informative, we can always download the demo code afterwards?
2. “Lines” seemed to be a real issue this year, spent a lot of time queuing just to get into sessions which left little time to have a break between sessions
3. WiFi coverage was very bad
4. This may seem like a silly thing, but it would be great if the WWDC app could have a playlist of the tracks that are played before sessions start. I know a lot of developers (including me) use Shazam to find out the names, that must stretch the WiFi and also kills our data plan

1. Ability to run apps on the Apple TV and use your iOS device as a controller, including multiple devices at the same time
2. Open up Siri to 3rd party apps, although how they work out which app gets to answer the question could be interesting
3. NFC, this could open up some interesting projects
4. Allow companies to create internal documentation using iBooks and give them a secure way of distributing those documents to staff
5. Increase the number of testing devices that can be used
6. Improved battery life on the iPhone
7. 4G iPhone, but at the moment I’m not fussed either way, being based in the UK
8. A nicer gift, like a limited edition iPad (I can dream)
9. Move away from Google Maps
10. Ability to use maps offline

So how did I do…

1. Apps Running on Apple TV, turns out you can already do this, but its by using the Second Screen feature that is in iOS. I just need to think differently – YES (sort of)
2. Siri to 3rd party apps – YES (I think I remember that from the Keynote?)
3. NFC – NO
4. Internal iBook Documents – NO
5. Increase the number of testing devices – NO
6. Improved Battery Life – NO
7. 4G Phone – NO
8. Nicer gift – NO, I now have a black jacket with a number 12 on it to go with the one that has a number 10 on it
9. Move away from Google Maps – YES
10. Offline maps – NO

So thats a grand total of 3/10 and one of those I could of already of done!

1. Ability to run apps on the Apple TV and use your iOS device as a controller, including multiple devices at the same time
2. Open up Siri to 3rd party apps, although how they work out which app gets to answer the question could be interesting
3. NFC, this could open up some interesting projects
4. Allow companies to create internal documentation using iBooks and give them a secure way of distributing those documents to staff
5. Increase the number of testing devices that can be used
6. Improved battery life on the iPhone
7. 4G iPhone, but at the moment I’m not fussed either way, being based in the UK
8. A nicer gift, like a limited edition iPad (I can dream)

I’ll add to the list as I think of things, but its a start, wonder if any of them will come true.

UPDATES:

• Move away from Google Maps, with the ability to use maps offline

Let me know what you hope to see announced?

See what I do

The actual schedule, without talkers, wasn’t released until later and it looked like the conference was in fact only 1.5 days, talks Friday evening, Saturday and a BBQ on Sunday. I’d already booked my flights and hotel, arriving on the Thursday and coming back on the Monday, as I’d expected 3 full days of iOS talks. A couple of talks were later scheduled for the Friday afternoon, so I signed up for Josh Clark (@globalmoxie), TapWorthy talk.

So when the day arrived to head to Dublin I was heading off feeling pretty disappointed, but saw it as an opportunity to meet Mike again so all would not be lost.

I’m pleased to say that once the Friday talks started my disappointment vanished, Josh’s session was fantastic, really got you thinking about how to go about designing apps. Then the evening bash at the Sugar Club, was just inspired, the talk by Horace Dediu (@asymco) was informative and Aral Balkan (@aral) brought amazing humour to the evening, I’ll never forget the toilet videos.

We all agreed by the end of the first day that the conference was worth attending and we still had a day to go!

The main talks could not of been better, all of the speakers were enthusiastic about their subjects and gave everyone a lot to think about. A couple really stood out for me, Chris Harris (@_ChrisHarris) gave a demo of the app he created for the BBC, Wonders of the Universe. During a break he also showed me how he had created all of the graphical content using the iPad itself, using the power of the device to the max. The other talk was by Jim Dalrymple (@jdalrymple), writer of the blog The Loop, it was interesting to hear the app marketing nightmare from the other side of the fence.

There was also plenty of time to talk to fellow attendees, and as a freelancer this was as important as the talks themselves. You realise that you are part of a community, that there are others out there trying to do the same as you, with the same doubts and uncertainty, and that really does help. The BBQ on the Sunday just kept that feeling of community going, what a great idea.

I’m now ashamed of my initial disappointment, as the old saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover”. The conference was one of the best I’ve ever attended both speakers and fellow attendees. The organisers, Paul Campbell (@paulca) and Dermot Daly (@dermdaly), did an amazing job and deserve a big THANK YOU.

I can’t wait for next years conference, I just hope they don’t sell out as quickly as WWDC

If you have any ideas on helping the community grow you can also post comments on the forum

This is a copy of a blog entry I originally wrote for ios-blog

There are a number of apps in the App Store that launch with a set of closed doors, these are then opened to present the actual UI underneath it.

I had to create this effect for an app I wrote for a client http://itunes.com/apps/jkmuaythai

I’d assumed when I started that this would be a relatively simple task, just take the initial default image, cut it in half and a simple bit of animation would move them out of the way. What I hadn’t counted on is getting the orientation of the device from launch is not straightforward. The trick is to remember that the first view that is loaded will always assume it’s in Portrait mode, the view is then informed via the willRotate method that in fact the orientation is different and you can then handle this appropriately. The second trick is knowing that the willRotate takes a little bit of time to fire, so it’s now a simple case of delaying the call to the method that handles the animation.

The viewWillAppear method loads the images assuming that the view is in portrait and sets up a timer to call the openDoors method

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    //All apps start in portrait mode, with the home button at the bottom,
    //If the device is being held with the home button in any other location then a
    //willRotate is fired!
    isPortrait = YES;
    doorsClosed = YES;

    //We assume we are in portrait mode until told otherwise
    self.leftDoor.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"DoorLeftiPadPortrait.png"];
    self.rightDoor.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"DoorRightiPadPortrait.png"];
    self.backgroundSplash.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"SlideBackgroundiPadPortrait.png"];

    //Add a delay to the open doors sequence, this allows the OS to determine
    //the correct orientaion and fire the all important willRotate

    [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval: 3.5
                                     target: self
                                   selector: @selector(openDoors)
                                   userInfo: nil
                                    repeats: NO];
}

The willRotate method then ensures that the correct image is loaded

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
    return YES;
}

-(void)willRotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration {
    isPortrait = UIDeviceOrientationIsPortrait(toInterfaceOrientation);
    if (!isPortrait) {
        //If the doors haven't already been opened then change them to the landscape ones
        if (doorsClosed) {
            self.leftDoor.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"DoorLeftiPadLandscape.png"];
            self.rightDoor.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"DoorRightiPadLandscape.png"];
        }
        self.backgroundSplash.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"SlideBackgroundiPadLandscape.png"];
    } else {
        self.backgroundSplash.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"SlideBackgroundiPadPortrait.png"];
    }
}

The openDoors method then just works out how far to move the images and kicks of the animation, I’ve included the old UIView beginAnimation and the Blocks way

-(void)openDoors {
    //Determine how far the doors need to move for them to disappear from view
    float adjust = (CGRectGetWidth(self.view.frame) > CGRectGetHeight(self.view.frame)) ? CGRectGetWidth(self.view.frame) : CGRectGetHeight(self.view.frame);
    //Retrieve the original frame and then adjust the X position accordingly
    CGRect leftFrame = self.leftDoor.frame;
    CGRect rightFrame = self.rightDoor.frame;;

    leftFrame.origin.x = -adjust;
    rightFrame.origin.x += adjust;

//Old School Animation

//Set up the animation, change the frames and commit it
//	[UIView beginAnimations:@"swipe" context:nil];
//	[UIView setAnimationDuration:1.2];
//	[UIView setAnimationDelay:0.0];
//	[UIView setAnimationDelegate:self];
//
//      self.leftDoor.frame = leftFrame;
//	self.rightDoor.frame = rightFrame;
//
//	[UIView commitAnimations];

//Blocks
    [UIView animateWithDuration:1.2
                     animations:^{
                        self.leftDoor.frame = leftFrame;
                        self.rightDoor.frame = rightFrame;
                     }
    ];

    doorsClosed = NO;
}

Note this effect only works if the app is launching for the first time, i.e. not from the background.

I’ve put together a sample project that puts this all into practice

https://github.com/Flexicoder/OpenDoorsDemo

Hope you find this useful, or if you have a better way of creating the same effect please let me know

See what I do

• What are the target platforms, iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile?
• If they want multiple platforms are they aware that native apps are developed using different languages
• If iPhone do you want a universal version, i.e. the same app runs on iPhone and iPad (thanks @ithain)
• Whats the target audience?
• Do you have an idea of how you want the app to flow?
• Are there existing apps out there that do something similar, if there are what are they and what will make this one different?
• Are there existing apps that you like the style of or the way they work?
• Will you apply for your own developers licences so that the app is submitted under your name?
• Will the app be free, sold for a one off fee, have in-app purchases or have subscriptions?
• Who will supply the artwork?
• Does the app need to be location aware?
• Ideas of timescale for release? (thanks @MrAntix)
• Are there any hosting requirements? (thanks @MrAntix)
• Third party services integration requirements? (thanks @MrAntix)
• Any social media integration?
• Any security requirements, OAuth, Encryption, etc? (thanks Gary)

And if the app contains dynamic data the following are also important questions…

• How will the app access the data?
• Have the web services that supply the information been designed/written?
• Would you require a content management system to update information contained in the app?
• If its a Corporate app, what back end data do you need to access and synchronise (thanks @ithain)

Update 2 Extra items thanks to @adrian_bigland
Internationalisation:

• how many languages need to be supported
• who will do the translation
• how will translations be tested – often you need to write code to present all the error dialogs etc. for ease of checking.
• different UI layouts, or will all the languages fit? German always stresses label lengths, and non FIGS languages might need their own screens, in extreme cases.

Offline support:

Custom components?

End of update

Obviously the answers to these questions are likely to lead to more specific questions, but it helps with the thought process involved with what might be required

I would be really interested to know if there are any other questions you ask that I’ve not included?

UPDATE: The first question I am going to start asking is if they have a budget in mind, some projects can be completed in 5 days, some in 5 months, but if they think that they can get the next instagram for £1K, they are wasting my time and their own.

See what I do