The Cleverest Gizmo I Created: An iPhone App for a Car Dashboard
Funnily enough, we were just discussing this very question ten minutes ago in Andy’s photon Tardis. My answer is that I once made an iPhone app myself. It took three weeks of serious study and graft, two of those weeks were spent trying to bypass the intense security features of the iPhone app store development acceptance program. This experience was undoubtedly one of my most clever and creative endeavors, but let me take you through the journey from start to finish.
Concept and Inspiration
My idea was very simple: to create a novelty app for a car dashboard. I know very little about coding, as it can be infuriating, but I knew that making a button play a sound was not that hard. I recalled the 80s when you could buy novelty stress toys for your car, and the most impressive one I remember was a four-button faux dash upgrade. Each fake joke button merely emitted a different sound, but I felt I could do that and better with an iPhone app. The app would simulate various high-tech fake effects with cool names for a car's navigator, such as 'Docking sequence initiated' and 'Primary defence shields operational'.
Development Process
Designing the app involved more than just coding. I had to record an old girlfriend with a mellifluous voice of gilded beauty for sound effects using Cubase and store the small files of each statement as mp3s. Next, I needed to purchase a couple of books to understand the coding mechanisms required for iPhone app development. Coding for iPhone is even more complicated than coding a webpage since you have to code on three separate planes of comprehension and have them 'talk' to each other in a unique coding language. I managed to learn the basics in a week through reading, just enough to create a colourful button in Photoshop that played a sound. Making the app work took hours of sweat, mental agility, and effort, and I was over the moon once it succeeded.
App Store Submission
After successfully developing the app, the next challenge was getting it approved for the app store. This is a feat in itself, and it took longer than the actual coding process, which was already very difficult. The app store's security features made it challenging to bypass during the development stage, but once it was working, I submitted it for approval. Unfortunately, it was only successful in selling one copy, but the journey itself was even more remarkable.
Conclusion and Reflection
Coding isn’t my forte—I’m much more of a creative artist. This endeavor isn't the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but it is one of my monumental achievements in creativity. This achievement took faith and endurance to walk to the destination in the beating sun all afternoon, laden with equipment, solely driven by the dream of getting something worth looking at. I achieved this, and in retrospect, I'm so very glad. This project taught me the value of perseverance and the importance of pursuing something unique, even if it’s not always easy.
As I reflect on this project, I realize that true cleverness lies not just in achieving a goal, but in the journey and the faith required to take on a challenge. The comet is Neowise, a celestial reminder of the beauty and complexity of the universe, much like the creative process and the pursuit of a dream.