Exclusive Interview With Widget Maker Patrick Otten!

A couple of days ago I installed an application from Cydia called SmartScreen. Now, SmartScreen allows users to display widgets on their lockscreens. After using the app and the free widgets, I decided to purchase some more from the developer Patrick Otten and thought they were excellent.

After using the widgets from Patrick I decided to contact him to see if he would be willing to have an interview done for MyGreatiPhone.com, and guess what? he accepted.

So here it goes……

Q: Hi Patrick, can you just give us a bit of background about yourself?

A: I’m 28, married with 2 kids (twins) and work for videocopilot.net as the web developer. I have a BFA in Visual Communications (graphic design), am a worship leader (sing, guitar, piano) at my church (Christian) and love my family and programming

Q: What iDevices have/do you own?

A: I’ve owned many iDevices in the past. iPod (a few of the generations of them) and I’ve had every generation of the iPhone. Currently I use the iPhone 3GS and have an original iPhone

Q: How did you get into developing apps for the iPhone?

A: I’ve been programming for the web since 1998 and have grown to love programming. I was inspired to create apps for the iPhone by those that made a lot of money off of their apps. I thought I’d give it a try (never touched any other code besides web stuff PHP, Javascript, HTML, CSS) with Apple’s amazing SDK starting back in March of 2009 and by May I had my first app in the App Store called Perticule. I used Cocos 2d for this app and the one that followed, Watercule. I always wanted to make a video game because I’ve been playing them since I was a little tyke, so Watercule was the first game I’d ever made. I love RPG games, but for the last few years its been all 3rd person shooters for me, currently Modern Warfare 2. Anyways, to get back on subject, I haven’t made tons of money off of my apps like the others who inspired me, but I’m in love with programming for the iPhone/iPod Touch because of the simplicity and just the simple fact of being able to create something people can use.

Q: What apps have you created?

A: I kinda answered this in the last question, but I do have one more app in the App Store and its the one that has made me the most profit from the app store, do.it – Themed Todo App. So, I’ve got, Perticule, Watercule, and do.it – Themed Todo App in the app store and am currently working on another Productivity app that will be released early 2010.

Q: What made you get involve in the SmartScreen project?

A: I thought SmartScreen was a nifty idea and my buddy had gotten approved for the beta, so I wanted to try and shortly after I was in the beta. The SmartScreen SDK was pretty straightforward so I thought I’d take a stab at making a widget. My buddy challenged me to make a Twitter widget. I had never even tried to interface with Twitter in any way and the first version of TwitFeed was pretty “Fail” to say the least. So, I kept working on it and made my buddy proud with what TwitFeed is today. I like keeping track of the weather so WeatherFeed came next. I was able to create both of these widgets in about 2 weeks time and that was while working a full time job, and being a family man

Q: What are you more of a fan of Twitter or Facebook?

A: I was a huge fan of Facebook, but mostly because of Farmville. I quit playing Farmville and now I rarely go on Facebook. I’d never really used Twitter much until I made TwitFeed, but now I’m all about Tweeting, hehe. I’d say the answer to this question is Twitter.

Q: Can you give us any hints of any new apps / widgets that you have in the pipeline?

A: Well, I’ve told you I have a new Productivity app in the making and it is quite robust, I’m sure people will like it. I’m also working on a Google Reader widget for SmartScreen and I may give the calendar widget another shot.

One final last note. I’d like to thank my family for all of their support and inspiration, without them, I’d probably be playing Modern Warfare 2 far too much, hehe.

Here are a few screen shots of some of the widgets that Patrick has made…

TwitFeed WeatherFeed & Clock

Patrick’s SmartScreen widgets are available from both the MediaPhone repo – http://apt.media-phone.ch/ and his own repo – http://apt.patrickotten.com/. Both TwitFeed and WeatherFeed cost $1.99 fromwww.patrickotten.com/twitfeed and www.patrickotten.com/weatherfeed respectively.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Patrick for doing this interview with us here at MyGreatiPhone.com and wish him all the best with future releases of his apps / widgets.