The CPO iPhone app is here!

We're happy to finally announce our new iPhone app for CreativePro Office! Now you can track your time and tasks while away from the office. We know you've waited a long time for this release and we appreciate your patience.

Where can I get it?

 ...and it's FREE!

What does the app do, exactly?

Currently, our iPhone app includes time tracking and task management. You can track time against any of your current projects and tasks.  The timer can run in the background so you don't need to have the app in the foreground to track your time.    

The task manager allows you to see all of your current, upcoming, and overdue tasks.  You can mark tasks as complete and add new tasks as well. 

Download the app and kick the tires for a bit.  We're looking for feedback on how well it works and what features should be added in the future.

Any plans for upgrades or new features?

Yes, lots. Our rough roadmap for additional mobile features looks like this...

1. Expenses including the ability to upload receipts to your account.
2. Invoice viewing and creation.
3. File manager for viewing and uploading files to your account.
4. Integration of client contact information with device contacts.

Any plans for an iPad app?

Yes, we're actually in the early stages of development. I won't give a release date yet but we do hope to have something available for the iPad before the end of 2012.

Any plans for an android version?

Eventually...we would like to get an iPad version out the door first.  Tentatively look for something early in 2013.

Why did it take so long to release?

We've been promising a mobile app for a little over a year.  The main problem has been finding a development platform that we felt worked well.  Last year there were many emerging mobile technologies that promised the ability to build native apps for both iOS and Android with one codebase instead of buiding separate apps for each platform. 

The very first thing we did was build a mobile web version of CPO with a product called Sencha Touch that you could access through the phone browser.  We just weren't happy with the results - it was slow and the code was cumbersome...so we kept looking.  

Next, we tried refining our Sencha Touch app and using PhoneGap to package it. PhoneGap allows you to build native iOS and Android apps using HTML5 and JavaScript.  It then packages the app for distribution through the app stores.  We were happier with the results but the app was still very slow on older devices.  Keep looking...

Finally we gave Appcelerator Titanium a shot and found joy at last! Titanium allows you to build cross platform mobile apps in JavaScript that are truly native, using native controls and giving full access to the device features like camera, contact list, GPS, etc.  If you've been wondering which platform to use for mobile development, I would strongly recommend Titanium.  The learning curve is a little steep but the rewards are worth it.