Makes No Sense At All

Like Snow Leopard, the next release of MPoD will focus on performance rather then on functionality. Allthough the startup performance was improved a lot in version 1.1, it still takes a long time before the lists of artists, albums and songs are available. For my own 10.000 song library it takes about 15-20 seconds.

By using a locally cached sqlite3 database in combination with lazy loading, the loading now takes about 3 seconds, which is really a massive improvement. In the coming week additional testing will be done, and I hope that this release can be available in the AppStore in 2 weeks from now.

Today was ‘shake-day’ at Katoemba. First I bought the new Wii game Warioworld – Shake It! for my kids. And staying in that shaking spirit, I implemented a shake’n'shuffle feature in MPoD that will choose a random album to play if you shake your iPhone. Not very original given that the new iPod’s already do this, but still a nice feature.

Also this week I’ve made improvements to the now playing screen, to get rid of the sluggish performance that various people have been reporting. I expect to submit the new version for AppStore review in the coming week.

Under the flag of moop.me I’ve recently been cooperating with some guys on a new iPhone application named iNap. This uses the location services on the iPhone 3G to alert you during your travel when you are approaching your destination.

This handy application is available from in the AppStore now.

It took some time, but finally version 1.0 of RitMeester has been released. In the Netherlands, when you have a lease-car the tax authorities will add up to 25% of the car value to your gross salary. If you use your car for personal travel less than 500 kilometers per year, you can get a ‘Verklaring geen privé gebruik’ from the tax authorities. Condition is that you maintain detail records of all car travel.

RitMeester is the first Mac based program that helps you to keep a detailed and consistent administration, with minimum effort. All details required by the tax authorities are stored, and you’re only a few clicks away from creating a printed version of your administration when needed.

RitMeester is available in Dutch only, and can now be downloaded as a trial version. Once you are convinced of the benefits it provides you, you can upgrade to the full version for €17.50.