Android App Review Source:

How did you get into developing apps?

DailyRoads:

I am a software engineer, and during my career I have developed various apps, ranging from DOS programs written in C++, to database-driven web applications built with PHP. With the proliferation of smartphones, it was a natural choice to turn towards Android and Java, as this is the platform allowing the kind of openness I needed for the mobile apps I had in mind.

Android App Review Source:

What was your inspiration for developing this app?

DailyRoads:

Ever since I got my driver’s license, I witnessed all kinds of potentially dangerous situations on the roads. All drivers are familiar with road rage, aggressive driving and how traffic rules are sometimes blatantly ignored. Of course, always the other drivers are at fault Pedestrians can also be blamed for how they choose to cross the streets, especially in large cities.

In some parts of the world, road traffic is like living in a jungle – only the strongest survive. But, unlike the jungle, there are rules governing the traffic on the roads, rules which some participants deliberately ignore. Who can catch them in the act?

In the old days when analog/digital cameras and camcorders were used only by the wealthy or professional photographers/filmmakers, the average driver could not objectively prove that he was not at fault in case of an accident. Things have improved when more and more people started carrying their digital recording devices (camera, camcorder, or camera phone). Drivers and passengers can take photos and record videos of road events, and objectively document the scene of an accident.

I used to carry a digital camera in my car to be prepared for such situations, as I didn’t want the police (or insurance) officer to judge my road event, influenced by a possibly exaggerated/defensive explanation of the other party. Luckily I haven’t gotten into road events needing such objective proof, but I was prepared

The ultimate recording device would be a kind of black box already integrated into cars, recording everything while the vehicle is in motion, or even parked. We are not there yet, but getting closer with external devices mounted in cars, continuously recording everything on video. I even tried to patent such a device, in the idea of later producing it. But until then, I developed just the software version, which now runs on a wide variety of Android phones.

Android App Review Source:

How long did it take to develop the app?

DailyRoads:

The development took about 6 months, or one year, depending on how I calculate. The very first version was developed for the ADC 1, and that was the time when I was also learning Android. There were a lot of bugs in the majority of the media classes, and it was not even possible to test the camera, as we only had emulators at that time. But, I could finalize other parts of the app, even though the first version was designed to work on a special device, not on a phone.

I started working on the new version about 3 months before the ADC 2 deadline, and put in long hours to have a working app which I can submit into the challenge. I had a surprisingly hard time making video recording work continuously, and combining video recording with photo capturing. Also, several days went into figuring out how to record videos, while the application is running in the background.

Another major difficulty was to efficiently use and reuse the camera resources, since video recording is constantly started and stopped, as each separate video file is generated. I am proud to say the app has been tested even 2 days in a row, recording and saving a video file each minute, thus generating almost 3000 video files. And all this without memory leaks or any significant increase of memory use.

After the ADC 2 deadline, I was no longer in a rush, so I could dedicate enough time to fix any loose ends, polish the UI, and test the app under all kinds of conditions. This was also the time when I built in the cleanup algorithm to efficiently delete the temporary video files, when the allocated card space begins to fill up.

Even after the app was officially launched on the Market, there are still things to tweak and improve. As an example, the Droid, Nexus One and other phones with Android 2.0/2.1 need to have the video preview and picture sizes dynamically determined, while my fixed sizes just worked on previous versions. For any complex app, the development can’t just stop after the initial launch, as the app needs to improve based on the feedback of the users and the vision of the developer.

Android App Review Source:

Are there any hidden features to the app?

DailyRoads:

I’d like to think that the app is intuitive to use. But, while the buttons on the main screen are obvious, the menus and context menus might be considered hidden. In Android the user doesn’t know if a screen/activity has an attached menu, until the phone’s Menu button is pressed. So, each app needs to be discovered a bit…

In DailyRoads Voyager, the main Files button takes you to the video/photo files section. By default, all the files are listed in their respective folders. But, the phone’s Menu button reveals additional view modes, such as: all videos, rescued videos, just photos, bookmarked photos/videos, files with title or description, and failed uploads. When such a view mode is selected, an additional dimension is added, allowing you to view photos/videos either from that subset, or in chronological order.

Additionally, each file has a context menu attached, allowing for common actions like deleting, uploading, bookmarking, viewing on a map, and editing the title or description. One action is quite special, allowing to view nearby files. This triggers a search for photos and videos captured 10 minutes before or 10 minutes after the selected file, so you can group the files recorded around a specific event. Folders also have context menus, currently only used for selectively deleting the files within (uploaded, non-bookmarked, or all files).

Android App Review Source:

Do you have any future plans for this app?

DailyRoads:

I have a list of features to add into the app in the future. The main ones are related to reverse geocoding, use of the accelerometer, uploads to Youtube, Picasa, Flickr or a custom server, and bulk uploads. Also, I plan to localize the app into multiple languages.

Android App Review Source:

Do you plan to develop any new apps? If so when can we expect to see them in the Market?

DailyRoads:

I plan to develop content-rich apps related to roads and driving. But, right now I want to focus on this app, enhancing and improving it until it becomes indispensable to any driver with a car mount and an Android phone. In parallel, I will also work on dailyroads.com, envisioned to be a social network of road enthusiasts with a passion for driving and travel.

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