In the first of what will be a series of interviews with the top 50 Android Developer Challenge finalists, we got in contact with the creator of BreadCrumbz to find out a little more about the application, Android and the Developer Challenge.
Let’s get started:
Firstly, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. Let’s start by finding out a little about the team behind BreadCrumbz.
My name is Amos Yoffe, 28, from Israel. I am finishing a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. BreadCrumbz has been an intense hobby for me these past few months.
So What is BreadCrumbz and how did it come about?
BreadCrumbz is a different kind of navigation application. What sets it apart is that it uses picture-based navigation and that it is focused on user-created routes.
I tried thinking what would be nice to do with a mobile phone. I’ve always been fascinated with navigation and am an avid map enthusiast. My initial idea was to try to enable one to communicate a geographical route to a friend. A mobile phone is an ideal platform for this as most people take their phones with them everywhere they go. The phone should help you to both create the route and to navigate it. The focus is on routes created by people that are special to them (such as how to find a house, a nice picnic spot, an interesting mountain-biking…) – not the automated point A to point B road-map routes that are the standard fare on GPS devices these days.
The next step was to make use of the phone’s camera to describe a route. I then realized picture-based navigation enables the creation of very special routes, some of which simply aren’t possible using maps (imagine a route to a business that doesn’t stop with a street address but shows you a picture of the exact building entrance and several pictures inside that lead you all the way to the right door).
What is your ultimate goal with BreadCrumbz, what are you hoping to achieve?
The goal is to release BreadCrumbz in a few months as a fully functioning application for Android, followed by versions for the other leading mobile platforms. Together with a website that will allow people to explore, share and create navigational content, I hope BreadCrumbz will be the platform of choice for people who want to communicate navigational content with others.
What drew you to the Android platform as the base for your application?
I must admit that the initial motivation was the Challenge – I never seriously considered developing a mobile application before. The best thing about Android for me is that it is such a flexible platform. You can start off with a clean sheet of paper and ask yourself: I have a mobile phone with all these advanced features (internet connectivity, GPS, computing power…) – what do I want to do with them? The platform is flexible enough so that most things are possible – the rest is just “mere” implementation details.
How did you find developing with Android in comparison to other platforms, positive/negative aspects?
I enjoyed developing for Android. I’m very comfortable with Java, the SDK has nice integration with Eclipse, is relatively well-documented and the developer community that’s cropped up in the forums was a great help. The Android framework seems well thought out and has a very interesting architecture.
On the negative side, the platform is still not stable enough, not all the auxiliary APIs are available and, most importantly, developing for a PC-based emulator instead of a real phone means it’s hard to test properly, especially a navigation app. I’m sure these issues will be resolved once the first phones ship, though.
Do you have any plans to release BreadCrumbz for other devices, for example Apple iPhone?
Yes, I’m looking into it. The iPhone SDK is somewhat more limited than Android’s with regard to LBS and running apps in the background, but I expect that to change as the competition with Android heats up. These platforms (as well as the other leading mobile platforms) have inherently similar capabilities – developing just for Android doesn’t make sense for most applications. I believe most platforms will follow suit and open up to developers.
BreadCrumbz is one of the top 50 ADC finalists, congratulations on that! How do you plan to use the money?
I’ll use the money for any further development needs and to go on a holiday once the Challenge is over.
How do you plan to distribute/market the BreadCrumbz application?
The mobile application will most likely be free. Installing it should be as simple as downloading a file from the web.
Do you have any other android based applications in the pipeline?
Not at the moment. I’m focusing on BreadCrumbz right now.
-End
To keep up-to-date with the latest news and updates for BreadCrumbz be sure to head over to the official website – http://www.bcrumbz.com/
Special thanks to Amos for taking the time to answer these questions, and good luck in the remaining stages of the Android Developer Challenge.
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