Monthly Archives

September 2015

Sep 30
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How to beat bugs

By How To No Comments

We all know what updating apps is — and nowadays most updates are downloaded onto our phones automatically. We’ll wake up with new features in our favourite app. So: you’d be right to think that the purpose of app updating is getting new features. You’re not wrong — but you’re not completely right, either.

The problem is that the operating systems on our little devices — that’s Android or iOS — are in an ever-upward spiral of updates. That’s great for the consumer — who gets a new update with great new features on a regular basis. But it’s less great for app developers, or those who have had their own custom app developed, because with new features comes new bugs.

Here’s our most recent example. iOS 9 was released last week. There are some great new features we’re excited to implement, like 3D Touch. But right after the update we found our map pins had stopped displaying properly. Over 50% had installed iOS 9, meaning that a huge amount of potential downloaders wouldn’t get the perfect map experience.

Luckily for us, our iOS Developer found and deployed a fix pretty quickly — and we’ve started updating apps at no additional cost to our customers.

But what if you had your own custom app developed? Well, first you’d have to notice the bug — and nobody has time to be checking their own apps to make sure they’re still working perfectly. Then, you’d have to figure out what causes it and how it’s triggered, and tell your developers. And, once you’ve done this, which could have taken a few months, you then have to wait for the developers to find a fix, and then pay them for it. That costs even more time — and could cost anything from $500 to $5,000, as well as the $15,000 or more you spent on getting the app developed in the first place.

And here’s the crux — we give you your own, custom branded app for $1,995 for three years, and a $145/month subscription fee. You read that right — you get your own, always up to date app for a fraction of the price.

If it makes perfect sense to you, get in touch at hello@mytoursapp.com.

Sep 29
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Digitising Local Heritage Links

By Conferences No Comments

We ran a workshop on digitising local heritage last week at the Pt Chevalier library and it was great to hear about the different experiences among the attendees. Timothy Barnett from Auckland Libraries was kind enough to share these links on caring for and digitising heritage items. There is a wealth of information as you start to read through these and I encourage you to spend some time browsing the resources and watching some of the videos.

Digital NZ

The Digital NZ Make it Digital Guides have a wealth of information on digitising content including digitising and imaging.

National Services Te Paerangi

National Services Te Paerangi have a resource section covering a wide range of topics. I particulary liked the photograpy videos on this page.

National Library

The National Library has great resources and a section just on caring for your collections

Other Links

Cover Image: CC-BY_SA Wikipedia:Dvortygirl

Sep 02
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Digitising Local Heritage Workshops

By Conferences No Comments

The Albert-Eden Local Board is holding the Bungalow Festival this month and we’re lucky enough to be involved in a couple of the programmes. As well as 2 audio guides we’re running a couple of digitising local heritage workshops, plus setting up a DIY Book Scanner. Now, you may wonder what this has to do with mobile apps and you’d be right to think that it has absolutely nothing in common!

But we work alongside organisations of all sizes from large museums to small historical societies. And what we love doing is finding ways to make technology available to everybody, whether it’s a massive museum or an individual with a passion for exploration. So we are are running two workshops at the event (both free):

Digitising Local Heritage Workshop

When: Fri 25th Sep 11:00am – 12:00pm
Where: Point Chevalier Community Library, 1221 Great North Road, Point Chevalier, Auckland

As old technology becomes obsolete, how do we preserve our heritage for future generations? Experts from Auckland Museum and Auckland Libraries are coming along to talk about digital archiving, and how we can work together to archive and preserve local heritage.

Register here!

DIY Book Scanner Workshop

When: Sat 26th Sep 11:30am – 12:30pm
Where: Point Chevalier Community Library, 1221 Great North Road, Point Chevalier, Auckland

Find out tips and techniques for scanning and digitally archiving your own photos, books and documents at this workshop. Best of all, you’re encouraged to bring your own materials along on the day.

Register here!

Looking forward to seeing you there. If you can’t make the workshops we’ll be there all day Friday and Saturday with the scanner. Feel free to come chat to us!

Sep 01
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Upgrading your old custom app

By How To No Comments

Did you have an app custom developed a few years ago that hasn’t seen an update for a while? Chances are it’s seen better days. Learn how you can utilise My Tours to make it super simple and affordable to keep your app in top shape.

Unfortunately, apps take a long time to develop, and can go out of date from a single software announcement. These updates offer great new features, but making sure your app isn’t slow, buggy, or downright impossible to use will cost you thousands.

There’s also updating the content in your app. Information changes, images and audio go out of date, organisations are rebranded. Often, even these updates require paying a developer to do it for you — as if getting all the content created and together isn’t hard or expensive enough!

At My Tours, we know there’s a better way. Our platform works on both Apple and Android, and is continuously being fine tuned and tweaked to make the most of the latest updates and technology: so your customers get the best and easiest experience, letting your content speak for itself.

And, on the topic of content: you can update it in real-time, by yourself. Just pop onto our website and do anything from changing a word to making a new tour. When you hit publish it’s live in your app, even for those who have already downloaded it. You get full control, like custom branding — so it’s still your app.

Switching to My Tours

So: how easy is it to switch to My Tours from your existing app? Answer: not hard at all. Just head over to our app builder and get to work transferring your content. You’ll need a few extra graphics, and maybe a few minor content tweaks, but we promise it’ll be over in a jiffy. And, once you’re done we can send you a demo to peruse, or put it live on the App Store for you. And what about the users of your old app? We can replace it on the stores, meaning devices that had the old app downloaded will download your shiny new one.

Other features

  • Great maps that work offline
  • A handful of beautiful map styles
  • Custom maps for indoor or outdoor use
  • Geofences: give your users notifications based on where they are
  • Audio content
  • Video content
  • Custom colours
  • Up to 50 tours in one app
  • Multilingual support (14 languages, and counting!)

Services

Content, branding, audio, images, maps — it can all be a bit of a nightmare, especially when you’re on tight deadlines, or don’t have the skills in-house. We know this isn’t the funnest situation — so we’re happy to help. Everything from great customer service to content creation or curation, designing or translation, we can do it. And if we can’t, we have partners around the world who can.

Header Image: Army dental mechanic completes a set of dentures. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association :New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-012970-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23135801