It was lights camera action at TheAppBuilder HQ recently with a film crew capturing life in our Belfast office as part of a promotional video for InvestNI (Northern Ireland’s economic development agency). InvestNI have been keen supporters of TheAppBuilder from our early days so it was the least we could do. Check it out…

As featured in this month’s Business Edit magazine, Jonny Kirk Director of Enterprise Mobility for TheAppBuilder, made a splash at the recent “Technology at work” event in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall.  Jonny kicked off with an introduction to the benefits of enterprise mobility, before guiding the audience through a number of use cases in series of workshops before rounding the day off in a panel discussion.

We saw high levels of interest and demand for mobile solutions from the Belfast audience, mirroring the worldwide demand we are currently witnessing with many delegates approaching us afterwards to say it was their favourite track & among their top business priorities.

If you are organising an event & would like a speaker on Enterprise Mobility drop Jonny an email: jonathan.kirk@jampot.ie

Secure Enterprise Experience Essential

Role Description

You will be joining and contributing to a dynamic, obsessive and highly productive Engineering team producing cutting-edge software for mobile technology consumers. The role requires that you are experienced building secure enterprise apps and are seriously focused on usability. Our software platform (TheAppBuilder) is a revolutionary product that requires no technical skills and allows anyone to create their own cross platform mobile app for use privately within their enterprise or indeed to be published on Android App Stores.

Responsibilities

We are looking for an experienced Android mobile app developer to lead the design, architecture, development and maintenance of our Android client app. The developer will have at least five Android apps under their belt in an enterprise setting. You will have led the entire app life-cycle right from concept stage to delivery, post-launch support and ongoing feature development. Apps produced by TheAppBuilder platform are mainly content based and integrated closely with TheAppBuilder back-end CMS used by customers to define the content, structure & branding of their app, and also back-end enterprise systems such as Active Directory and Sharepoint.

Main Tasks and Responsibilities

• Acting as lead Android developer. Depending on the skills set can be lead on one platform and play a supporting role across another.
• Working closely with another mobile app developer leading the iOS platform development.
• Deliver across the entire app life cycle –concept, design, build, deploy, test, release to app stores and support.
• Working directly with developers and product managers to conceptualise, build, test and realise products.
• Gather requirements around functionality and translate those requirements into elegant functional solutions.
• Build prototypes at tech scoping stage of projects.
• Working along the web developers to create and maintain a robust framework to support the apps.
• Working with the front end designer to build the interface with focus on usability features.
• Create compelling device specific user interfaces and experiences.
• Optimising performance for the apps.
• Keep up to date on the latest industry trends in the mobile technologies.
• Explain technologies and solutions to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Person Specification:

• Proven commercial software development experience – desktop and mobile.
• Published examples of at least 5 mobile applications on the Android market.
• Excellent knowledge in information architecture, human computer interaction and usability design principles.
• A track record of delivering successful consumer and or business products.
• Ability to use analytic data and user testing to inform design decision.
• A passion for new consumer technology and the emerging media landscape.
• Ability to multi task and good time management skills.
• Ability to work on their own and as a part of the team.
• Excellent scoping and estimation skills.
• Excellent testing/ QA skills.
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written) to liaise with various departments locally and internationally.

Essential Skills:

• Strong OO design patterms and programming skills in Java (J2EE/ J2ME).
• Experience of the Android SDK / Development Environment (E.g. Eclipse).
• Strong understanding of Android Style Guidelines, various Android OS versions and devices – SmartPhones, Tablets both current & future.
• Experience on web service integration (SOAP, REST, JSON, XML).
• Security & Encryption of data in transit & local storage on device.
• Knowledge of SQLite, MySQL or similar database management system.
• Experience building web and native apps.
• Experience using social media APIs.
• Using version control (e.g. GIT).
• Excellent debugging and optimisation skills.

Desirable skills:

• Understanding of other compiled languages.
• iOS:
  • Strong OO design and programming skills in Objective-C
  • Familiar with iOS SDK (UIKit, Cocoa Touch, Core Data, Core Location, etc)
• Experience of development using web technologies:
  • Responsive / Mobile Optimized HTML5 Development Experience
  • Good understanding of HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery and Ajax
  • .NET Development Experience
• Creative design skills
• Working with a content management system.
• Working in an enterprise/media/publishing environment.

Competencies for success:

• Creativity
• Self Starter
• Ambitious
• Energetic
• Technical Learning
• Action Orientated
• Dealing with Ambiguity
• Presentation Skills
• Peer Relationships
• Time Management
• Written Communications
• Problem Solving

How to apply

Send a CV to us evidencing your skills, including a portfolio of work and app store links to at least five mobile apps if applicable.

Email contact: james.scott@jampot.ie

Graphic designer, Tom Winstanley has today joined the team as our new master doodler! Tom is a seasoned, passionate designer joining us from one of the UK’s largest publishing houses (Haymarket) where he led their mobile design team. Tom designed solutions across native apps and responsive web for consumer & business publications. Tom has also designed content management systems for non-technical users to create and manage content across web and mobile. Tom is a great fit for our team and has relocated from London to Belfast to work on TheAppBuilder. Welcome to the team Tom!

We take great pleasure in welcoming Graham McVea to TheAppBuilder team. As a senior developer Graham will be a core part of TheAppBuilder server-side development team.

Graham has over 15 years development experience working in companies such as AllState & Apion, architecting and delivering high performance critical back-end systems in the financial & telecoms domains.

With a wicked sense of humour and fascinating taste in music Graham is already a huge hit in the office. When he’s not attached to his keyboard Graham plays drums and vocals in a punk band…you could say there’s definite undertones of a rockstar developer going on here!

Next week we’re in San Francisco exhibiting at Apps World North America. The nice big booth is right beside Droid World. You’ll not miss us though as our sea of TheAppBuilder red branding does tend to stand out nicely!

We’ll be launching TheAppBuilder Enterprise Edition at the show, so please stop by to find out how enterprises can quickly, easily and inexpensively create mobile apps for events, projects, report delivery, internal messaging and sales presentations.

Build Mobile’s Markus Zsombor was one of the first journalists to interview us when we launched TheAppBuilder earlier this year. Six months on and he has written a follow-up feature, this time interviewing our CTO Michael Barr.

A great quote from Markus which made us smile in the office: “I must say they’ve been working so hard that the product is now completely transformed.”  Blood, sweat and tears Markus, that’s how hard!

It is great that Markus has seen how far TheAppBuilder has come in the past six months. He was even so impressed as to say, “Those of you who dream of a successful startup better pay attention to TheAppBuilder”. A great compliment indeed!

Click here to read the full article in which Michael Barr discusses the latest product updates and future plans with Markus.

by Michael Barr, CTO

Hey guys, I’ve just left the launch event for Windows Phone 8 in San Francisco. That was a blast!

The experience really started a few days ago when Microsoft asked if I would attend a special pre-launch briefing with their CEO Steve Ballmer. It was an early start but boy was it worth it. First of all I was presented with a brand new HTC Windows Phone 8 which I fell in love with within minutes. I have an iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7, but this is a little special compared to them all.

Before long Steve came to greet the small audience at this event, and after a chat I presented him with the customary  gift – a bright red branded TheAppBuilder hoodie! After this he chatted us through the key features of Windows Phone 8.

Private audience with Ballmer, my new phone, cool reception

Next up was the main gig, the official unveiling of Windows Phone 8 to the world. I’ve been to a few of these gigs with different hardware and software giants, but this was cool. Not only was the range of new features impressive, but  Jessica Alba joined the party on stage to talk about the new kids corner security feature – all a bit surreal!

Ballmer takes to the stage, TheAppBuilder pod, Jessica Alba

Microsoft are making a real statement with Windows 8 and the new phone operating system is no different. There are new features  galore and some great app updates including the Facebook update which will pull photos straight to your phone lock screen. Always-on Skype with no battery drain and Pandora music free for a year are great additions to the app store. I didn’t get a chance to show Steve the Ballmer app we created about him and is now available on the Windows 8 store, but as I travel to Redmond tonight for the Microsoft Build Conference our paths might cross again this week!

Facebook, Skype, Prices

Build starts tomorrow, I’ll be sure to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on.

Michael

In homage to the brilliant new Windows operating system, Windows 8, the team has put together a fan app for Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer.

We wanted to show how our self-service app building tool, TheAppBuilder, can be used to create a sensational Windows 8 app in minutes. When we were thinking of who to feature, it just had to be Steve. The guy is a legend who has provided us with great keynotes and also some very ‘interesting’ performances over the years (Monkey Boy being a highlight!). So Steve, we hope you enjoy your app.

Check out the preview now, and download from the store when Windows 8 launches on October 26.

PC World had a chat with our CEO James and CTO Michael about Windows 8 App Development and asked the question: Is it a Burden or a Breeze? Check out the article in anticipation of the launch of Microsoft’s new desktop and tablet operating system on October 26.

You can create your very own Windows 8 app using TheAppBuilder, ready to upload to the Windows Store. Show your customers or community that you’re ahead of game with an app for the most hotly anticipated Windows platform in years.