@Jens Hello and Welcome to the Forum and Thank You for Using Flowx
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Happy New Years all. 2022 is going to be a great year.
At the end of 2021 I was busy building a studio but the new year marked the transition from building houses to building the Apple version of Flowx and the progress has been great. Here are screenshots of the Android and Apple versions:
This might not look like much but itâs very significant. Iâve been rewriting the backend code for Flowx. The Android app you see above is using this backend code and today I connected the Apple app to the backend code. In other words, both the Android and Apple app share over 90% of the code so whatever I code up for Android, Apple will automatically get which makes development and bug fixing easier. The other 10% of unshared code is essentially the UI which is different between Android and iOS, as you can see.
What does this mean? - we have made a big break through.
What next? Over the next few weeks Iâll be coding the iOS app to look like the Android app, i.e., the graphs, gauges, etc⌠Then Iâll move on to the map which is the remaining complicated part - but Iâm optimistic it should be relatively smooth.
To be honest, this the most excited Iâve been about Flowx all year 
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This is amazing news!
Great work man!
Cheers!
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Thanks Duane,
I keep checking the Flowx forum obsessively for any iOS updates since moving from Android in September and expect others are doing the same.
Your post is therefore super encouraging to read and has made my day, cheers for sharing and keep up the good work.
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Latest update for 24 Jan 2021
Completed:
- major milestone: end-to-end (server-to-ui) data flow works on Android and Apple. You can see this in the High/Low temperatures view. It means all other data should get to the UI.
- week days view finished
- swiping and changing time works.
Next:
- Tidy code
- gauges and graphs.
Before I work on the above, Iâll return to old Android Flowx to do some updates. It has been 2 months. I plan to get old Flowx ready for this new code and will slowly bring across some code for testing.
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I have been a user for years and stayed with Android solely because of FLOWX. My kids[grandkids] have taken me to iphone so Grandparent Facetime is readily done.THANK YOU FOR THE MOST POWERFUL USER-INTERFACE WEATHER APPLICATION ON THE PLANET. When this goes into the Apple store, you will be welcomed, I am sure. ANY UPDATES? I will support on request.
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Hi everyone.
The rewrite of Flowx and the associated port to Apple is going well but slow. The screenshots below donât look like much progress but the progress is in the background code. The Android and iOS apps are sharing even more code now. Essentially only the UI (and graph rendering when itâs done) has to be written for each OS.
Next:
- graph generation on iOS
- map and basic data rendering on Android - no streamlines, sun/moon, waves, etc⌠This makes the Android usable for my daily needs and testing.
- map and basic data rendering on iOS
- add buttons, icons, menus to iOS to make it usable for daily use.
Cheers, Duane.
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Thank you very much for the update
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Awesome work! Is there any scheduled release on the app store? Canât wait to try it out. 
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There is no ETA for the App Store, in fact I know nothing about how to put it on there.
Just watch these updates and also the Android app. Because the new code is shared between Android and iOS, I plan to release the new code to Android first so I can find bugs, once the code is stable, Iâll release to Apple.
Apart from the rewrite, I have one iOS hurdle left which is the code for the map.
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Man, you couldâve hired a couple of devs and have the money flowing into your pockets years ago. iOS crowd is really a good paying one. Could not compare to Android at all. It seems that you are falling to the same old fallacy âno one can do the job better than myselfâ. Tough to watch. People are struggling, wanting your app, others paying crazy amounts for marketing campaigns to be able to get this level of recognition.
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Wow, thatâs brutally direct. I have two questions:
- why should I develop Flowx for iOS?
- where does the money come from to hire a couple of devs?
I have my many answers to these questions but I doubt they will match yours.
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Donât know whatâs brutal about my statements, but NVM.
- I know that you like to travel. Ainât you wanna do it more? Itâs like asking âwhy do I need money?â. Improved life quality.
- Investors/Angels? They wouldâve gladly invest into something thatâs already proven to have a user base just on the different platform. Loan also works if you would like to maintain 100% control of the stock (no good reason for that actually).
As far as I remember youâve announced iOS version back in 2019 with email subscription for updates. Ask yourself a question: is time-to-market of 3+ years is fine? Youâre just losing money/subscribers base.
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We agree on âquality of lifeâ but I think we have different perspectives of what that means.
I used to work a job in New Zealand that paid very well. Well enough to travel and do those other things. But I was working long hours. I worked in a start-up doing massive weeks and in the end it collapsed due to decisions outside my control. It was hard to see all my hard work wasted due to others decisions. So I decided to work 8-hour days and spend my spare time on my own ventures. WeatherBomb/Flowx was born as a side project in this time.
We moved to the Cook Islands for a number of reasons, including quality of life, and started developing Flowx as a business. I did contract work and borrowed quite a bit of money to get established. Last year Flowx started covering our living costs. Now itâs about paying off loans.
I was against investment because you loose control and it could get to the stage when someone if making decisions about what I should be doing. For example, put ads in the free version or add tracking libraries or sell data to third-parties. Iâve dealt with investors with the startup mentioned above - they care more about their investment than people.
But I did get a grant to port Flowx to Apple. I spent thousands on hiring a remote developer. Although the developer was good, he ported old Flowx to Apple along with my mistakes and bad designs. I liken it to literally translating a novel from English to French - there was no improvements. The issue is I would have two bad code bases to maintain. Itâs not the developers fault - Flowx code has evolved over time and is complex. Now I understand more, Iâm rewriting Flowx to have a shared code base (one thing to maintain) but also cope with future ideas. During the rewrite, Iâm continuously iterating on the code design. Hiring a developer is not as simple or cheap as you make it sound.
I believe if you build a good product, the money will follow. Money is important but it doesnât become my driver. I like building things. I also get satisfaction from seeing people get value from Flowx, this is why there is a free version and Iâm porting to Apple.
I donât believe you have to follow standard models, e.g., 9-5 jobs, rat races, investment, fast growth. Speaking of âfastâ - what about that Fast company that got $102M in investment and blew it in just over a year with only $6k revenue to show for it.
I donât believe Flowx has to go to Apple. For example, Apple bought Dark Sky and dropped Android. Android is a big enough market. Instead of spending time porting to app, I could spend time on more features for Android, for example.
âTime-to-market of 3+ years is fine?â - Iâm fine with this. I have to be, I made the decisions to be where I am today. BTW, my initial plan in 2012 was to finish WeatherBomb in 6 months and then port to Apple - so itâs 9+ years and counting time-to-market.
The cool thing with this rewrite is that I should be able to port to desktop (Linux) first and possibly the web with relative ease. This is exciting for me.
Here are two of my favourite parables:
The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman
Allan Watts - Life and Music
As I said we have different perspectives on what is important in life. Life doesnât have to be what other people think. You can decide what it should be.
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I couldnât have gone into more debt.
Android is a bigger market with less paying. iOS if a smaller market with more paying. What Iâve read is that they generate about the same amount. More importantly, I expect going to Apple will quadruple the growth.
I donât know how to do things. I work it out as I go. I iterate and try different designs. I think Flowx 24/7. And I still get it wrong. So itâs difficult to just hire someone and tell them to do something I donât know how to do.
You arenât struggling. In 2017, Flowx was earning less than it costs to buy internet alone. It didnât earn enough to pay for rent, food, power, beer⌠- even then I didnât think we were struggling.
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Very interesting discussion.
That said, I was a paying user of Weatherbomb/FlowX for several years before switching to iOs in 2021.
I was enjoying your app. How many people have registered in anticipation of your iOs app?
I really miss FlowX.
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Just over a 1000 have registered on the new website. The old website got many registrations too but it got polluted by spam registrations.
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