In the last few weeks, we’ve been working hard to upgrade Synotes – we’ve taken a lot of your suggestions, feedback and feature requests and integrated them into Synotes, to make it the number one cloud note app for your iPhone, iPod Touch and web browser.

So today, we’re proud to announce that Synotes 1.1 for iPhone and iPod Touch and the web is being released – a free upgrade for all current Synotes users. Significant new features include:

• Redesigned Synote editing and creation and added full screen viewing.
• Added additional note icons to better represent your Synotes in list view.
• Added Synote History – view and restore previous revisions of your Synotes.
• Multiple ordering options: Manually, date/time created, date/time last modified or by icon.
• Added ability to filter Synote list by icon.
• Create Synotes by email.
• Synotes are now viewable by RSS feed

(you can generate your custom email and feed address from within the settings of the new web ui)

These features will be enabled on the web interface once the app has been approved for the iTunes App Store.

For now we encourage you to follow us on Twitter, learn more about Synotes, check out the web inferface or head to the App Store and pick up your own copy of Synotes – Notes for the best of us.

Update: Synotes 1.1 has now been accepted into the app store.

Posted in Synotes | 1 Comment »

Application developer Syncode has released Synotes [App Store], a notes and task management system that syncs your information across Apple devices and into the cloud.

Synotes is available as a web, iPhone or iPod touch application. The web app can be accessed on any web browser.

Synotes’ interfaces make it easy to access both basic and advanced features, such as search and offline editing.

Offline editing enables users who don’t have an active internet connection on their iPhone or iPod touch to continue adding, editing, deleting and rearranging notes.

Search functionality is built into the iPhone and iPod touch application to filter results as you type in phrases. This enables you to quickly find the Synote you are searching for.

“Synotes is the first Syncode application to use our new Smart Sync technology, which only syncs what you need it to when you need it to. It’s all about being more efficient and invisible to the user,” said co-founder Matthew Lesh.

Syncode has released an open REST API for developers to create applications on the Synotes platform. “We hope we see some exciting applications being available to our users in the coming days, weeks and months” said co-founder Matthew Lesh.

ENDS

Background

Syncode is an Australian startup that pushes the boundaries of iPhone development. Started by three high-school students, Syncode has already released iTweetReply, one of the first Push notification providers for popular micro-blogging site Twitter, and Syncopy, which takes your clipboard into the cloud.

Syncode is determined to stand strong as a leading young voice in Australian software development, with plenty of innovative and professional products planned for 2010 and beyond.

PR Contact:
Matthew Lesh
pr@syncode.com.au

Posted in Synotes | No Comments »

Australian application developer Syncode has released Syncopy, a productivity application for the Mac, iPhone and iPod touch created to help users unify their clipboard.

Syncopy securely transmits your clipboard between the Mac, iPhone and iPod touch.

“I knew there must have been an easier solution when emailing myself to get text to my iPhone.” said co-founder and designer Tom Ricci.

“I’m surprised the idea wasn’t there the whole time.”

Syncopy aims to keep your clipboard identical no matter where you are.

“Just having the ability to quickly look back through what I’ve previously copied enables me to never lose important information.” said co-founder Matthew Lesh.

Syncopy is two applications: Syncopy for Mac and Syncopy for iPhone and iPod touch.

Syncopy for Mac automatically tracks uses of the clipboard and syncs it to other Macs and the iPhone and iPod touch.

Syncopy for iPhone and iPod touch enables users to sync their Mac clipboard and view its history from their mobile device and vice versa.

Syncopy for iPhone/iPod touch is now out in the App store.

ENDS

Background

Syncode is an innovative startup that places itself at the leading edge of iPhone development.

Started by three high-school aged teenagers spread across Australia.

Syncode’s goal is to bring you fantastic, innovative and polished products.

Syncode’s first  product, iTweetReply, provides unique twitter “push” features to iPhone users.

Syncode is planning to continue to innovate with lots of new products planned for the future.

PR Contact:
Matthew Lesh
pr@syncode.com.au

Posted in Syncopy | 2 Comments »

Australian iPhone development firm Syncode has now released the latest version of iTweetReply, a Twitter push application of a rare kind, featuring not only reply and direct message push but search and timeline messages pushed straight to your iPhone or iPod touch.

The long-awaited iTweetReply 1.2 update brings Twitter Search capability to its users. This capability enables users to select search terms to have pushed to their device from Twitter search.

To find out more details about this update please see the previous blog post.

“Syncode hopes that search capability will benefit its current users and bring iTweetReply to a new market of business users” said co-founder Matthew Lesh. “Giving them the ability to be instantly alerted when people are talking about their business or slogan”.

Syncode today also announced that iTweetReply’s usage of the Twitter steaming API for replies – which enables instant push (within seconds) of replies on Twitter (instead of having to wait minutes for Syncode to “poll” twitter) – has been successfully speeding up communication for all iTweetReply users over the previous weeks.

ENDS

Background

Syncode is an innovative startup that places itself at the leading edge of iPhone development.

Started by three high-school aged teenagers spread across Australia.
Syncode’s goal is to bring you fantastic, innovative and polished products.

Syncode’s flagship product, iTweetReply, provides unique twitter “push” features to iPhone users.

Syncode is planning to continue to innovate with lots of new products planned for the future.

PR Contact:
Matthew Lesh
pr@syncode.com.au

Posted in Press Releases | 2 Comments »

Over the past few hours, you may have noticed a dramatic increase in the speed of pushed replies from iTweetReply – This is because we have recently enabled a new feature on the Syncode cloud, utilising the new Streaming API provided by Twitter.

Syncode has enabled the Streaming API for all users – this means that instead of the Syncode cloud having to go to Twitter every X minutes (set in options), Twitter tells the server whenever there is a new reply over a continuous connection, rather like push email from Google Sync and MobileMe. This means that replies take but a few seconds to arrive at your device.

The system is not perfect – the Streaming API only provides access to public data, so replies won’t stream from people with protected profiles, and Direct Messages cannot be streamed – so the server will continue to poll Twitter every 2 minutes for the data that can’t be accessed via Streaming. The streaming API itself is still in the Alpha stage (as it is still very much a new feature) so this secondary checking facility helps to correct any unforeseeable issues – should a reply not stream, it will be picked up at the next polling interval as before.

Syncode hopes to continue to innovate and that all iTweetReply users enjoy these new almost instant notifications.

Posted in iTweetReply | 4 Comments »

Today we submitted a brand new, game-changing iTweetReply update, that brings Twitter Search capability amongst many other features – including but not limited to:

• Search (as mentioned before) on its own separate tab, complete with a live display of current trends
• Pushed search terms – iTweetReply will search Twitter for these terms and push them to you at your selected update rate – you get two terms for free, with more purchasable in-app
• User profile view, displaying a user’s followers, description and website link (if present)
• Support for 3 more Twitter clients – Birdfeed, twitterena and twitterena+
• Additional push notification sound available in settings
• Dozens of bugfixes and UI tweaks

Here are some screenshots from the update:

Syncode plans to continue innovating with iTweetReply and all its upcoming products. To find out the latest information on what we’ve got coming, follow us on twitter at @Syncode

Posted in iTweetReply | 3 Comments »

Many of you will have noticed that Twitter has been intermittently slow and occasionally down altogether in the last 2 days. This is because it was hit with a DDoS attack – an attack where the server is overloaded with many “fluff” requests that cause it to slow down and sometimes even crash – in short, someone was deliberately trying to bring Twitter offline.

Though the Twitter.com web front-end is back up, the API (Application Programming Interface – a method by which third parties such as ourselves can talk to Twitter to send/recieve your tweets) has taken a serious hit on Twitter’s end – we have no doubt that they’re doing their best to get it back up to full potential.

However, until those issues are fixed and the interface is stable again, iTweetReply will remain less reliable than usual – other services have gone down completely, as OAuth, the method used by others for authenticating with Twitter, is completely offline at the moment.

We’re doing our best to keep everything working on our end – you can (oh the irony) follow us on Twitter for status updates.

Update: iTweetReply push now appears to be stable, though this could change in the future relative to the Twitter API.

Posted in iTweetReply | No Comments »

Australian iPhone development firm Syncode has released the latest version of iTweetReply, one of the rare Twitter applications that pushes @ reply tweets from Twitter straight to your iPhone.

The latest version of iTweetReply incorporates many new features originally planned for the next version of the app including Quick Push and the ability to choose a popular Twitter application to open your Tweets when they’ve been pushed to your iPhone.

The great thing about QuickPush is that “it instantly pushes @ replies and direct messages between iTweetReply users,” said co-founder Matthew Lesh. “This ability should push iTweetReply to a true replacement for those expensive SMS messages,” he said.

“You can even change the notification sound for when you receive a new @ reply,” Lesh said. “You can even customise @ replies to sound like an SMS.”

As well as the general user interface getting a makeover, and subtle changes to the logo, splash screen and timeline, Syncode has made it easier for users to read their Tweets.

The ability to retweet another use has also been added to the app.

“We plan to implement lots of new features of the coming weeks and month,” Lesh said.

ENDS

Background

Syncode is an innovative startup that places itself at the leading edge of iPhone development.

Started by three high-school aged teenagers spread across Australia.
Syncode’s goal is to bring you fantastic, innovative and polished products.

Syncode’s flagship product, iTweetReply, provides unique twitter “push” features to iPhone users.

Syncode is planning to continue to innovate with lots of new products planned for the future.

PR Contact:
Matthew Lesh
pr@syncode.com.au

PR Kit

Posted in Press Releases, iTweetReply | 7 Comments »

I’ll take a stab in the dark and say that if you’re reading this, you probably own an iPhone – or at least know someone who has one. So, you’ve probably used the App Store at least once. As this runaway success passes its first birthday, it’s interesting to take a step back and see how far the Store has come, and how far it still has to go.

History
The App Store opened with the iPhone OS 2.0 firmware and the launch of the iPhone 3G in 20 countries around the globe. It started with just 552 apps and 4000 developers registered. The average price for an app was around $5, capping at 12 and bottoming out at free (some apps being far higher), and people didn’t complain – taken in by the hype and the initial wow-factor of the App Store. I remember that Thursday night on July 10th, huddled up by the computer, anxiously refreshing MacTalk for the latest updates on the store opening. I remember the loophole of searching for an app, and gaining access to the App Store prematurely then splurging on anything that looked remotely good, feeling my wallet get emptier and emptier, ready for purchasing my JesusPhone the next day.

A year later, Apple has sold 1.5 billion apps, has 65,000 apps on the AppStore, and there are over 100,000 registered developers. Everything seems to be going well for a product in its first year of launch, but if Apple wants to succeed, there are a few factors that they have to change.

The 99c Trend
iPhone and iPod touch owners are attracted to the price tag of a buck. For an iPhone developer to succeed, they have to price their apps at a low price around $1.19, (AU price)  no matter how good the quality the app is, or how much money they have invested into the development of it. If the app is not the cheapest it can be without being free, people complain. Look at the Nintendo DS or the PSP. To buy games on those platforms are easily $50-$60, but no one dares to question the price. Some apps have gotten away with higher prices, but only those of exceptionally good quality.
For the first time in a long time today, I decided to pull out my DS and play games that I had neglected since buying an iPhone. It was only then did I realise how good the quality of an iPhone game is compared to the DS, and people just don’t realise this. If you look in the Top 100 Paid Applications, they are all dominated by $1.19/$0.99 apps. Close to the top is Hero of Sparta. At just $1.19, I think you have to turn around and say that this is just too cheap. The gameplay of Hero Of Sparta is equal to that of such other iPhone games as Assassin’s Creed, and other large, well known games that are 5 to 10 times the cost. Developers are having to lower prices to ridiculously small amounts just so they can be noticed and make even just a couple of dollars.

I feel that Apple need to be doing more to encourage the price of games to raise up to where they should be. Such a solution could be the addition of a “Premium App Store”. A developer would gain access to this store by submitting an app to the regular App Store, and having the Apple App Store review team deem them worthy enough to be let in, definitely NOT by their performance on other platforms, or how friendly some of their higher ranked staff are with Apple (looking at you, ngmoco).

The AppStore Review Process
This is one aspect of the App Store that every developer, including myself, hates. From day 1, Victor Wang and co. have been getting into everyone’s bad books due to the extremely long time it takes to review apps. When you are working on an app and you desperately want it into the App Store by a certain date or event, the last thing you need is for your app to be under review for over a month, and have it rejected because of a minor issue.

The solution to the long wait? Hire more people. Simple. Wouldn’t this solve our App Store approval process? Well, not really. I “know of an app” that was checked by Apple’s review team after 2 days, but not approved for over a month. So, here’s another solution for you, Apple. Be more transparent. Tell us developers exactly what happens in the review process, and explain why an app might be denied. There’s nothing worse than working on an app for months, only to have it rejected for a reason that doesn’t make sense. Also, give realistic estimates of how long the review process is going to take, and don’t let apps get approved in a matter of hours as they may have higher board members who are friends with Apple (again, looking at you, ngmoco, us devs know that you are getting special treatment from Apple. If you didn’t want us to find out, refrain from Tweeting your approval times).

App Reviews
I’m sure we’ve all seen them, the ratings of between 1 to 5 stars accompanied by a few lines of text that may or may not make sense. The one big issue? Developers have no way of contacting the people who wrote the review to explain the complaint that they have, which most of the time is just them not reading the support documents or not investigating the settings. Why should your app suffer if 1 person can’t work out where a certain setting is or how to do something? Then once you explain things to people (if you eventually get in touch with them), they still never change their app review anyway. Apple has made big improvements in this aspect of the App Store since its launch, but there are still improvements to be made.

So, Apple has come a long way with its App Store, but there are still a number of improvements that could be made to make sure that the store is it the top of the ever-growing list of mobile application stores, and to make sure that developers are driven away. What do you guys think?

Posted in The AppStore | 3 Comments »

As the title reads, the 1.1 release of iTweetReply has been rejected by Apple. The reason? iTweetReply 1.1 shares similar UI elements to the SMS app. As Apple have said in their rejection email:

“Thank you for submitting your application to the App Store. Unfortunately, your application, iTweetReply – Push Twitter Replies and Direct Messages, cannot be added to the App Store because its usage of the standard SMS UI elements may be confusing or misleading to iPhone users. Please redesign your application to look significantly different from the standard  iPhone SMS built-in app.”

As many users of iTweetReply already know this UI element remains unchanged from the previously accepted iTweetReply 1.0 as-well as many other twitter applications (ref TwitterFon and a vast majority of instant messenger clients).

There are a mixture of reasons I theorise that may have caused this change in opinion. Anger in relation to the negative press caused by my previous blog post, standards that are so unclear that even their own reviewers misinterpret them or a recent crackdown in Apple like applications. Whatever the issue is, the fact that different reviews of a single app can create so many varying responses shows even more clearly how much more transparent this process needs to be.

On a side note, Syncode will soon be submitting an improved version of iTweetReply 1.1 bringing many of the features originally planned for later updates. Please stay tuned for further updates.

Posted in The AppStore, iTweetReply | 8 Comments »