About Us

Welcome to the Bottle Rocket Blog! Find the latest news, announcements, shop talk and general iPhone discussions that affects our industry.

Archive for October, 2008

Who’s your Pal?

Monday, October 27th, 2008

We’re very excited to announce that Proxy Pal is now in the iTunes store!

Proxy Pal regularly updates new proxies for your surfing needs.  These proxies bypass your network to allow you to access blocked sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Ebay, Google, Craigslist, You Tube….  It’s also a great way to keep confidential surfing confidential.  

Sounds simple enough?  Well yes…but we believe in distinguishing our apps and giving our users something genuinely unique. Proxy Pal is no different.  Instead of lame lists, we came up with some fun ways to serve up these proxies by giving them personality and attitude.  Not only will they elevate your mood but others won’t suspect your exuberant proxying ways.  It may look like one of those annoyingly addictive cutesy game on the surface…all the better to disguise your illicit proclivities even if that only means watching ninja stalker kitten for the thousandth time or bidding on a commemorative presidential candidate plate set.  Aren’t you sly!

http://www.bottlerocketapps.com/#/proxypal/

Enjoy this app responsibly! And help us make ProxyPal as good as possible by sending any feedback you may have. We’d love to hear from you.

[tags]iphone application, proxy server, web privacy[/tags]

Wings Takes Flight

Monday, October 20th, 2008

With any business, you try to plan your strategy well, but ultimately realize some things just don’t come according to plan.  The same holds true for Bottle Rocket.  We were initially going to come out with some other apps before Wings, but now it’s one of our first to be in the iTunes store.  We’re not saying it’s a bad thing, just a bit of a surprise – like your little brother.  Ends up, we found some amazing talent to help us out with Wings, which sped up the process quite a bit.

It may be a simple approach, but it’s a fun one.  Drifting through a virtual world in different seasons while listening to music just seems to be a relaxing feeling in this all too stressed out world.  We’ve taken full advantage of the accelerometer to maneuver your way around.

Wings comes with four distinct virtual worlds categorized by season:

My personal favorite thing about this app is the fact that even when I bump into a mountain, I don’t crash. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if things only vibrated when bumped into rather than blowing up? Guess that’s what the virtual world is for. We hope you’ll like Wings as much as we’ve come to like it, as well as any friends that have played around with it!

Get it now at the App Store

And tell your friends about it. http://www.bottlerocketapps.com/#/wings/

[tags]iphone application, flight simulator, mobile gaming[/tags]

Apple Plays Nice

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

What we’ve learned from history (and Kindergarten) is that sharing benefits us all…or was it to never engage in a land war with China?  In regards to the former – we, as an iPhone development company,  couldn’t be happier at Apple’s announcement Wednesday: 

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software. … The NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so.

It’s nice see that Apple recognizes the hindrances of such limitations and responded to the requests of their developer community…even if the impetus may be due to Google and pressure from Android’s open platform. For now though, the new NDA lift only applies to already released software; unreleased applications, like the upcoming SDK API’s (2.2), are still bound by the non-disclosure agreement.  Some has said that it’s not enough but we, for one at Bottle Rocket, are very happy and will take the small victories whilst we plan our conquest of China.

[tags]iphone NDA, apple, mobile development[/tags]

Voxie UI completed and in Beta!

Friday, October 10th, 2008

We’ve definitely put in a lot of love and labor into the app and I think you’ll be happy with the end result. There’s no shortage of voice recording apps out there but none of them have impressed me nearly as much as Voxie has.  There are a few that nearly came close…nearly, but I really think this one has it all.  Here’s a sneak peek of what’s to come.

We’ve invested a substantial amount of time on the interface design so it looks as good as it performs.  My favorite attributes are probably the simplest – the Express and Settings features.  When you’re completely on the go, like driving in a car, you don’t want the rigmarole of searching or pressing a sequence of buttons.  We created an Express feature that you either touch twice anywhere on the screen or shake it to start recording and repeat to stop.  (I definitely have too much fun shaking my iPhone!)  It will automatically save or send to a designated address.  

The Settings too are very well thought out.  It allows you to customize Voxie to your preference.  Since I’m always on the go, I’ve set up the Express mode to execute on application launch.  I prefer to keep my recordings saved locally so I can access it anytime, anywhere.  It completely compliments my transient lifestyle and since the recording is intended only for me, I keep the audio quality low (8kHz) to save on storage space but there is the option of setting it to Medium (16kHz) or High (24kHz) for better quality.  The other setting option that just blows me out of the water is the ability to change wallpapers.  I’m a girl and I’m sick of all the masculine skewed utility aesthetics that saturate the market. Voxie has a diverse selection of backgrounds that lets me personalize the appearance to suit my feminine taste.

Those just highlight my favorites but there’s a plethora of other robust functions in Voxie. The “standard” recording mode is loaded with features from speaker mode, and priority flagging, to the ability to label, categorize and organize. You’ll find many other hidden gems in this app but I think we should let it let it “speak” for itself.

Coming very soon to the iPhone App Store… 

[tags]iphone application, voice recorder, productivity[/tags]

Applications on the Way

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

We’ve been working very hard to produce what we hope are some of the best looking and creative iPhone applications available. A few are in the final process of completion and we’re getting very excited to be so close to releasing our first app.  Here’s an advance look at what’s to come. 

[tags]iphone application, iphone developers, new apps[/tags]

Three, Two, One…Take Off! Bottle Rocket Launches!

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Bottle Rocket has launched! Check out our explosive new website. It’s out of this world!

Alright…I know we’re getting a little carried away with the metaphors here…but the site is pretty smokin’ (I couldn’t resist). This author’s humor not withstanding….our website, like each and every one of our applications, is a testimony of our dedication to quality and design integrity. You’ll find teasers to our upcoming apps, news & updates and above all, you’ll experience the top notch interface design and attention to details that differentiates us from everyone else. Don’t take our word for it – check it out for yourself and let us know what you think. We’re sure you’ll be blown away ;-)

Check it out at http://www.bottlerocketapps.com

[tags]iphone application, iphone developers, iphone company[/tags]