News

Click Here to Request a FREE Quote to Develop an iPhone App or Android App

Bluetooth’s Hidden Costs – What Every IoT Developer Should Know

Posted on by Eric Worrall

Bluetooth is a marvellous technology. The world is awash with Bluetooth beacons and other devices. Bluetooth unequivocally offers a technically straightforward path to integrating new bespoke IoT products with a variety of other off the shelf devices.

There is just one catch: The licence fee.

From Guided Imports;

Why Bluetooth Is A Bad Idea For Startup Importers

Sam Boyd
October 12, 2015

…

Bluetooth’s directions online are a bit confusing as they are complex and involve multiple steps. I’ve simplified them below.

  1. Register for as an Adopter Membership – Free
  2. Once you’re a Bluetooth member, you must declare each Bluetooth product to ensure it complies with conditions and qualifications. This must be done so you can use the Bluetooth trademark in advertising and packaging
    1. For existing product designs, use the Declare & List section
    2. New product designs first need to be qualified, tested and then listed
  3. If you’re an Adopter Member, the listing fee per Bluetooth chipset is $8,000. This means, if the same Bluetooth component is used in multiple devices you are selling, this only needs to be paid once.
  4. Once all of this is complete, you are allowed to use Bluetooth word mark and logos on your product and advertising.

Bluetooth SIG now offers an Innovation Incentive Program for small and medium sized businesses. To qualify for this, your business must earn less than one million USD in annual revenue. If you qualify, the listing fee is discounted from $8,000 to $2,500. More information about this can be found on Bluetooth’s website, here.

…

Read more: https://guidedimports.com/blog/bluetooth-guide/

If you have a large budget, an $8000+ annual license fee might not be a substantial obstacle. But an unexpected cost of this magnitude can be a substantial kick for startups, especially if you are not expecting it.

What can you do to avoid this surprise cost?

I asked a contact in the manufacturing world their opinion. His advice was, “We try to avoid using bluetooth. Don’t use bluetooth”.

When developing some classes of product, like trackers which depend on communicating with established Bluetooth devices like iBeacons, it is very difficult to avoid using bluetooth. There are also some circumstances, such as when you are developing a mobile app with no bespoke electronics, where the bluetooth fee may have effectively already been paid – though I strongly advise you to talk to a lawyer if you want to take this position.

That $8000 fee could easily become a $16,000 fee, or even a $24,000 fee, if part way through production you find your chosen Bluetooth silicon chipset is unavailable, and have to switch to a new bluetooth chipset. The world is currently experiencing an ongoing global silicon chip shortage.

The bottom line, if there is any viable alternative to Bluetooth, the best course is to do what my manufacturing contact advised, and avoid the use of Bluetooth.

What are the options?

Many IoT technologies, such as ESP32, which support Bluetooth, also support WiFi. WiFi is more complex than Bluetooth, but you are far less likely to be slammed by difficult to manage license fees.

Many innovative WiFi based approaches to circumventing savage Bluetooth license fees have been developed. Techniques which produce a user experience comparable to a Bluetooth based device, without incurring the Bluetooth tax.

If you would like help with minimising the risk of your product becoming entangled with expensive Bluetooth licensing fees, please contact Desirable Apps. We’re happy to share our learnings in depth with aspiring product developers. And of course, we can help you with other aspects of your product development, right up to connecting you with reliable people who can mass produce your new IoT device.

Field Testing Internet of Things

Posted on by Eric Worrall

Lots of soldering and electronic assembly happening at Desirable Apps, as one of our internet of things projects moves from prototype to field testing. In the picture is a completed field test device, and the control units for four more partially assembled field test devices.

When completed, the devices will be distributed to volunteers, who will use them in a real world home setting, providing valuable feedback about what adjustments are required to move forward to a production version.

I cannot go into detail about exactly what the devices do, but all of them will be installed at client premises, and used to continuously measure an important metric and report the measurements in realtime straight to a management console. The devices are Heltec ESP32 based, with full WIFI internet connectivity and bluetooth capability. The management console website is a Django Python system, which accepts a constant stream of updates from the field devices, and collates them into a continuously updated management report.

If you would like to know how internet of things can be used to streamline your reporting process, so you can have literally up to the second information about what is happening in key areas of your business, please contact Desirable Apps to discuss your requirements.

Internet of Things – A Child’s Perspective

Posted on by Eric Worrall

One of the greatest things about working on Internet of Things projects is the boost it gives to your child’s tech education. My primary school aged child produced this diagram, through watching dad and helping out, gaining an understanding of future technology which will serve well in the future.

What is even better, this child education benefit extends to my clients – the teenage son of one of my best clients is increasingly an active participant in dad’s internet of things projects.

Story City Featured by Startup TNT Investment Summit

Posted on by Eric Worrall

$300,000 Startup Finance Interest You? Desirable Apps is proud to congratulate our client Story City for being selected as one of the top five finalists at the TNT Investment Summit II.

From the Startup TNT website;

Startup TNT is a community of entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, innovators and startup supporters that gathers every week to have fun, share stories, and build great companies. Twice a year, we hold a summit to invest in entrepreneurs from our community. 

Join us on Nov. 19, 2020 for a day of fun panels and an evening of real pitches to real investors. We’ll be investing at least $300,000 into two Alberta tech startups.

Read more: https://www.startuptnt.com/investment-summit

Story City is a Choose Your Own Adventure with a difference. From the Story City website;

Story City makes you the hero of your own story, giving you the chance to take part in an adventure at locations across the world. You can take part in these interactive stories from real-life choose-your-adventures, to puzzle trails, to historic tales across Australia using the Story City App. We’ve also added our first international stories in Brazil and Argentina with more coming every month!

Whether you’re a reader, an adventurer, a traveller, a family, a gamer or maybe even a geocacher, our stories take you to the most interesting locations around the city with adventures created by local creators who know their city best.

The Story City app and adventures are currently FREE to download and enjoy.

Will you explore Brisbane while running from a zombie apocalypse? Or how about cruising the Adelaide streets while solving a mystery? Or will you be pillaging the city looking for pirate supplies? It’s your adventure, so it’s up to you!

Read more: https://www.storycity.com.au

It is a terrific feeling watching someone we helped achieve such recognition and reward for their effort.

If you would like our help to make your mobile app or software idea a glorious reality, contact Desirable Apps today.

Internet of Things

Posted on by Eric Worrall

Desirable Apps customers are increasingly interested in extending the internet beyond the box. The age of affordable internet of things has well and truly arrived. If you have an idea for internet of things, integrating mobile devices and websites with physical remote systems, contact us to discover how we can help you explore this exciting new frontier in business services.

Covid-19 Employment Blues? Start Your Own Software Development Business

Posted on by Eric Worrall

I’m writing this in the hope it might help software developers who are thinking of ditching the day job – especially people facing layoffs because of Covid-19.

Up until a decade ago I was a regular IT contractor. I told myself I was running my own business, but I had to get up the same time every workday, turn up to the office, fit in, work the hours. Just like any employee. Don’t get me wrong, I was a good contractor, and still have friends from that time, people I worked with and contract agents I got to know. But it wasn’t really what I wanted.

My dream was to start my own IT company because I wanted more control of my time. If I wanted to attend my kid’s sports game, or spend the day down the beach, or help my wife out with the shopping, I didn’t want to have to ask someone for permission. But I didn’t know how.

Then I saw an advertisement in the paper, someone asking for work from home IT people. Seemed too good to be true, right, like some kind of work from home scam. The guy I met wore sunglasses the whole time. But I was so desperate to try something new, I decided to give it a go.

The offer, to my surprise, was genuine. So I started working from home, for a good commercial rate, writing mobile app software.

But in a sense this was still just a job, although a job with an awesome work environment. So I needed to find a way to get my own business, independently of my business associate.

My wife came to my rescue – she used to be a sales trainer. Her advice “You have to network”.

Find free meet-ups of business people, introduce yourself to everyone, ask about their business, ask what they think of mobile apps.

If they say “I’ve been thinking of writing a mobile app…” BINGO, new potential client. Ask them if they are free next Tuesday, “I’d like to discuss that further, are you free next Tuesday morning at 10am at your office?”, make an appointment, polite “see you then”, move on to the next prospect.

In the meeting, open questions, sales 101 – When, what, who, why, how. Answer any objections, ask what do you think, if they have a budget and run out of reasons to say no, the business is yours. Don’t be pushy, this isn’t some kind of hard sell, the meeting is a discovery, to work out whether you can help the person you are meeting, and whether they can pay you for that help.

Obviously during Covid going out and meeting people is not as simple as it once was. In person works best, but you can also look for meet-up groups which have gone online, providing you can have one on one conversations with participants. Or if your area is safe, you may still be able to find and attend in-person meetings.

I’m still involved in business with the very first person I met, but I have met other business people along the way, some of whom have grown, and provided a lot of work over the years.

The funny thing about small businesses if they get high quality help with their software, sometimes they develop into big businesses. And they remember who helped them achieve that success – providing you keep up the quality, they know where to go when they need a software enhancement. Eventually you hardly have to look for new business at all, you’re too busy helping existing clients.

You don’t have to give up your day job to get started. At the time I got started, I was between contracts. But this is something you can start on the side, providing you can take the occasional morning or afternoon off to attend business meetings. You will know the right time to ditch the day job; when it gets in the way of making money.

Stay safe, and I hope this helps.

New Image to Video App

Posted on by Eric Worrall

The new Image to Video app makes creating slide show videos from a series of still photos as easy as recording a video using your mobile device camera. Pick the photos or images you want to include in your video, drag them into the order you want to present, and start speaking.

The following video is a walkthrough of the image to video app, created using the image to video app.

Image to video is available for free on App Store.

Image to video privacy statement.

Apple: Mobile App Publishers Paid US $26.5 BILLION in 2017

Posted on by Eric Worrall

Apple has published some staggering statistics about the scale of mobile app sales through its App Store.

Apple just shared some staggering statistics about how well the App Store is doing

Obviously not every iPhone App will make you an instant millionaire – but there is a lot of money out there, for someone who succeeds in developing a popular mobile app.

If you would like to discuss your mobile app idea, please Contact Eric at Desirable Apps.

Mobile Apps and Artificial Intelligence

Posted on by Eric Worrall

I get asked a lot of questions about Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence is processor and memory intensive, so despite advances in mobile battery capacity and processor speed, if a mobile app requires access to an artificial intelligence it is better to do the heavy lifting on a background server. Occasionally the AI task is lightweight enough so a mobile can perform the AI feat on its own, without help from a backend system.

The following is a simple AI demonstration – a solution for the Travelling Salesman Problem. The task is to find the shortest route which allows a travelling salesman to visit all of the cities on their itinerary.

(Click here for a full screen version of the demonstration)

A mobile device or computer could simply look at every possible path, but as you add more cities, the number of possible paths grows impossibly large – years, maybe millennia would be required to examine absolutely every possibility, when considering more than a handful of cities.

Thankfully artificial intelligence can help. Through use of an Evolutionary Algorithm it is possible to build on past knowledge, while combining the best traits of winning solutions.

As the name implies, an evolutionary algorithm seeks to mimic nature, by taking the fittest solutions, slicing them up, and splicing them together – very much what happens during sexual reproduction. Most of the time the spliced version will not be as good as the original parents, but sometimes it is better. The occasional win is enough to keep this particular algorithm wriggling towards a solution.

I like the Travelling Salesman Problem because it is one of the most visual of possible AI demonstrations – by watching you can get a real feel for how artificial intelligences solve problems.

If you have any questions about artificial intelligence and how AI could help your mobile app, please contact me at Desirable Apps.