With the upcoming release of the iPhone in Switzerland and the opening of Apple's AppStore, I was for sure pretty excited to get my hands on the iPhone SDK. A few weeks ago, I was granted access to the iPhone SDK Beta – which meant a lot more helpful resources and a first try of the new iPhone OS.. It felt pretty easy to handle right at the first touch – those “Framework Evangelists” did a pretty decent job. I did really miss a couple of things which were available in the unofficial “SDK” but now the tools of the trade were finally at hands.
Getting into it meant a lot more reading than actual writing, which is not usually the way I learn(ed) programming. At last when I was able to catch some time to get started with the iPhone SDK, and after those few hours needed to find my way around, things got up to speed. Once you know how and where to look up for help, those things do becomes like your mothers tongue ;)
I'll blog about my experiences with the iPhone SDK later on and I might be able to put a few tips and tricks online.
Now to the real news..
I'm “proud” to present one of the first swiss-made native iPhone applications, called “ GottaGo ” (well, I'm not aware of any others).
Imagine: how many times were you out in the city and didn't have a clue where your closest, fastest traffic links were.. this happened to me like every other day or so.. enter GottaGo, telling me how to get home, to the office (or just about anywhere) from where I am, using the nearest and best public transport option.
So GottaGo is a little location-based application to help Switzerlands public-transport fans (everybody here is, right?) find their way around the country. GottaGo locates you, locates the next stations around you, tells you for every station the next Bus/Train/Tram connection and when you'll be back home. It's also able to look up just a single link like you'd probably do on sbb.ch. I'm sure you get the idea about the little lifesaver. If not, it will probably be way clearer if you take a look at the screenshots or the video:
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And the highlight: the video of GottaGo in action (960×540, H.264).
GottaGo is built on the official SDK and no secret backdoors were used, so this is going to be released through AppStore soon. We hope to release the app for free. We'll see, when AppStore launches, what the conditions actually really will be. I hope you like the app and consider using it in the future. If applicable, please do consider switching from your car to public transportation. And yes, sure there will be a lot more things to come for the iPhone from Liip/me – so, stay tuned for more :)