The background of the sudden silence from us after the release for the past few weeks is that not much has actually happened on either the app, or the development in general.

We’re in the middle of a thought process of whom to carry on with the project. There so many thoughts right now but nothing that’s easy to write about. They might better fit in a book of how to do, or rather not to do a startup.

So, things are happening – just not so much talkable things right now. We do work on things, and we will be back live, in one way or another.

We’re very sorry and disappointed about having to do this, but what we care most about is you, and helping you make contact management easier. If the app doesn’t do that, it shouldn’t be there. To those of you who’ve downloaded already, you are fine. The bugs are not related to the contacts itself but the search, sharing & profile.

We really cut down the features and functionality to the bare minimum, but we cut too hard on this release making the app hard to understand. It was not our intention, but we’re pushing hard to a release for the Sweden Social Web Camp that was a perfect platform to demo it the first time. Now, we weren’t able to demo it there since the app was hanging out in the App Store waiting to get approved.

Our main fear with the App Store approval process was the risk of not being let through due to duplication of functionality, but since the approval yesterday we now know that’s not the case – for now.

All development is on hold at the moment until further notice due to an uncertain state of our relationship with the tech-partner. We keep fighting & hope you understand the situation.

Sincerely, Petter

The misfits.
The nerds.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.

They are not fond of rules,
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glory or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can
change the world, are the ones who do.

Think differently.

Source: Wikipedia

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for this day quite a while. About years ago the idea about a self-updating address book came across my mind – a system to help me and you to keep each other updated with our contact details, having an address book that’s complete with all information you need to contact a friend – by turning the system up-side-down. The only thing you’d ever have to edit was your own contact info. Sounds great?

Today we launch a first preview of ambadoo, which is a web-based mobile application (while the iPhone app is still hanging out in Apple’s app store review process) which is a simple proof-of-concept of ambadoo. Grab your phone and tune in m.ambadoo.com in your browser to try it out.

This weekend about 400 swedish geeks from around the country gather on an island, Tjärö, for the event Sweden Social Web Camp. What’s a better event than to try this out, connecting all the people, many of them that’s never met before – making sure they can stay connected long after this weekend.

That’s what ambadoo is about: relations. From the very first moment you meet someone, how you exchange contact info to keep in touch, through the relationship over time when people move, change titles, jobs, traveling the world – still being able to always get in touch – always knowing where your friends are and how to contact them.

So for all #sswc people out there, let’s try to make something fun. We’ve created a self-updating participation list at ambadoo.com/sswc. Log in at m.ambadoo.com and add the tag sswc in your profile, and whoop – you are added to the list. Check back on ambadoo.com/sswc to see the complete list, with all their details.

Let’s get to the point.

Contacts

A contact list, straight forward. With a twist. For now, the only difference you will see between the built in address book and ambadoo is the color, and the colored blobs. The blobs are your ambadoo friends, while the ones without is local contacts from your address book. You can delete a contact by just swipe, a duplicate for example.

Search

Built in at the top of your contact list is a search bar, where you can simply search people locally in your phone, or at the global ambadoo directory, then either contact them straight away or add them to your address book.

Do you notice the two Amb Adoos? Good. It’s a bug to fix for the next release =)

Profile

The heart of ambadoo is your profile, your card or whatever you want to call it. It’s you. It’s the only thing you really need to keep up-to-date. For this release we decided to include only the basics: phone numbers, emails & websites. You can add as few or many as you please, change as often as you want.

Privacy

You decide what you want to share with whom. For now it’s a switch between friends & everyone, where items set to friends only is visible to people you’ve accepted as ‘friends’. You get the point.

Sharing

Throw your business cards oldies, just start sharing your profile over WiFi or bluetooth and whoop, everyone around you can add you in a split sec. Enough said. Oh, by the way. Unlike the business cards, this function has no expiring date.

Invites

As someone add you to their address book, you can chose if you want them to see items only visible to friends. In that case you just click ‘Accept’ and they get instant access to your entire self-updating profile, or you can just ignore and they’ll see your public profile.

The (Complete) App

That’s it! And you wonder, what the heck took you so long?! Well, that’s for a different post! We can’t wait to let you try and use it. Still nothing from Steve. *waiting for review*

It’s a major milestone for us, to finally be able to get this baby out of the belly. It’s been growing for very long and it can’t wait to get into your hands. It should be said though that we have no idea if it will make it pass Apple’s walls but we hope and pray for it to make it this time. May the Apple Gods (and Steve) be with us.

If we’re really lucky and if the Apple review team is really fast the iPhone app might still be able to make it to the release. If not, tough luck. By now we’ve gotten used to  w a i i i t.

It’s Oh Happy Day no matter what. Now what? Well, first of all we’ll go and grab a beer and celebrate the semi-victory. Then back to last bits and bytes preparing the launch. Good stuff!

After some sleep and more thinking we’ve taken the decision to still release as planned, with or without the iPhone app. It would be awesome to for many reasons to include the  app in the release but the good thing is: we’re not bound to it.

Now, since we still have some time before submission we’d like to share our description and features that will be included in release 1.0 (whenever that will be :) Please do share your thoughts on the description, language etc. And of course, if you’re missing some features, please bring it on, it might appear in next release.

Application Description

ambadoo is the self-updating global address book, that let you stay up-to-date with everyone, everywhere, at any time.

It’s simple. You take care of your contact info, and your friends take care of their contact info. When you change your phone number, email or address your friends will get it updated, automatically. No manual sync required.

No need to ever be out-of-date with your contacts,
You’ll never need to to worry about updating or losing touch, and viceversa.

Hassle free Sign Un with Facebook, no need for new username & password.

All contacts are stored securely online, giving you the confidence that even though your phone might disappear, none of your friends will.

Exchanging business cards belongs to the past. Share your self-updating profiles over WiFi & bluetooth, add each other over-the-air and stay in touch.

ambadoo has an open API under development. We invite you all to explore the possibilities and together create the best global contact information system ever, making contact hassle history.

Featuring:

[ contacts ]

:: always up-to-date contact information
:: behind-the-scen synchronization
:: sync to local address book
:: search contacts on iPhone + global directory.
:: in-app calling

[ profile ]

:: add unlimited phone numbers, e-mails, urls, tags & free text
:: label your variables to whatever appropriate
:: set privacy levels

[ sharing ]

:: add people to your contact list ‘over-the-air’
:: share profiles over wifi & bluetooth

Missing

So what’s missing? Well, some quite fundamental things actually. We’ve got a few pending tickets that we know of. There are more to wish for but this is the remaining ‘badly-have-to’ ones.

#37 : Can’t Delete Items – well, we’ll fill the database quickly if you just keep adding stuff
#52 : Welcome Page – now, first thing you see is a facebook login page. Not cool.
#53 : App does not run without internet connection – tough luck if you you’re off-grid.
#54 : Updates / Accept Invitations – can’t make friends, what’s the point?
#55 : Privacy: Everyone > Friends – nothing visible in the open directory.
#56 : Contacts not added - Added locally but not on server.

When those tickets are ticked, app’s sent to Apple, then it’s just a matter of wait and pray. Once again we’re reminded of the power and beauty of the web as platform. You release as often as you want, and second you release, it’s out. During these past months we’ve also seen in what speed you can build something nearly as good as a native-app as web-app.

Native

Why do we keep fighting for a native app you can ask yourself. There are a few reasons but the most important one and the one we’ve pushed for is the integration of the built-in address book. Apple doesn’t not allow other apps to request contact details from any other app than the built-in native, and I totally buy that, but that’s what it’s all about. We want your updates to end up there, so that you’re always in sync. Necessary? Maybe not, but that’s the reason for the fight.

The world doesn’t collapse, and no-one will probably even notice in their holidays if we release in two weeks or in four, or four months. The world’s survived for centuries without ambadoo, and can probably wait another few weeks for its arrival.

We’ve been working hard with extremely limited resources, way less than what we had when we estimated the timeframe for this milestone. And you can only do so much every hour, day and week. Yesterday I still naively believed that we somehow would make it today, still so  until this afternoon Fredrik said: I’ll be honest, brutal and harsh: “there’s no way in heaven we’ll make it today”.

I admit, I was still hoping but understood it was a dead run, and to be honest I wouldn’t like to have submitted the app in the state it is in. We’re so close, making it it even harder to give up. But it’s good with reality checks. Today we all got one: You can’t make wonders with hands tied.

What now? We keep moving. It’s all about finding solutions, and do that as fast as possible. The release might be postponed but it will nevertheless come, one way or another. And it will be awesome whenever that day come.

But we’ve come to the point where it’s about removing everything that isn’t absolutely needed to be there for it to make that sense. This might change until friday so I won’t make that list until we’ve submitted the app. Even in your own profile we’re asking ourselves what’s absolutely necessary.

bare minimum.

Addresses? Jobs? Tags? Names? Ok, name might be a good idea. But that’s what we’re doing now. Listing & prioritizing from the bare minimum and then in order what’s most important.  Sync to server, quite important, adding friends, quite important, not messing up your address book, VERY important.

So what we have on Friday afternoon is most probably what some people would call a minimum viable product, and others proof of concept. No matter what, its main purpose is to show it to the world its potential, gathering feedback and building from there. As Steve Jennings just said: Launch and Learn.

Even then, we know how fast people judge. How many seconds do you give an app that doesn’t work, lag, behave strange or you just don’t see the meaning of? 1 min, 30 sec, 10 sec or less? I know myself when I download something I’m very quick to give a thumb up, tweet & talk about it, or just move it to ‘archive’

Do we get more than one chance? I don’t know, but I believe that an app that does less, but does that well, have a bigger chance than an app that does it all but nothing well. Until Friday we’ll make sure that, no matter how little the app does, it does it well.

Functionality is one thing. Clicking a button should return an action, pulling a door handle should open the door. Today we can take all that for granted. We expect things to work. What design does however is taking the experience to a whole different level. From being: Ok > Wow.

Design can make you angry if it’s done poorly, it’s pissing you off , or if done well it touches your emotions. It makes you happy, and sometimes you just hover that thing because it triggers something inside you, like when you find something hidden.

Design takes time, and a hell of an effort. From the very first idea of a concept to the very last pixel. A button can be way more than a button, and a table can be a table that you thought didn’t exist.

The original Tweetie for iPhone is a really good example of where design is built in to the core of the app. It’s so well done, it has set a whole new standard in app design. Things like the pull-to-reload we tend to think exist in all apps now, because it feels so natural.

We’ve been working parallel with the iPhone and web app for the past weeks and it’s becoming very clear that designing the two is very different. Designing for the web you pretty  much only has to know .css (cascading style sheets) and can change things instantly, whereas with the iPhone you either have to hand over Photoshop/vector files to the developers or you have to know Objective-C (the programming language to code iPhone apps.

Finally reality hit us this week. There’s no way in heaven we can implement the design we’d really want and still make the deadline. What to do? Standard UI elements. Apple has a made a kit of elements to get the ‘iPhone App Feel’ that every developer can use, maybe since they know developers are not designers. But it kind of hurts in a designers soul to fall back on those components as they’re totally generic and soulless. But reality wins this time.

Right now it’s more important to actually get this baby out of the belly to show the world, than to fiddle with rounded corners and shades pleasing the designer soul. The designer (me) has to be reminded it’s still just a proof of concept we’re making.