Blog

The Annie we love

Annie, we love thee

Feb Thu, 2012 Marketing madness Comments are off for this post

As an app developer you have to figure out the whole marketing game yourself. You figure out your ‘pricing strategy’ while searching for similar apps in the App Store, the communication plan was formed in the coffee house on the corner while staring at that cute barista’s ass and cleaver new features come to you while you’re in the shower (why does that always happen while you’re in the shower with nothing to write on?). Marketing your app can feel like a freakin’ jungle, so thank god for all the forums, blogs and websites out there sharing their knowledge.

I also want to share with you two exceptionally useful websites I recently stumbled upon: AppsList.net and App Annie. Both site keep track of how your app is doing on the App Store, giving you a beautiful overview of rankings per country, category, top rankings, the whole shebang. App Annie looks a lot better though and gives you even more stats and features if you register (for free).

It appeared Replay My Day kicked ass about a month ago in Denmark and the Netherlands, ranking respectively in 3rd and 4th place in the Lifestyle category. No need to throw ourselves a party, but still pretty neat. Apparently we did something right… but what? Check back next week!

Sneak preview at PICNIC

Sep Sun, 2011 Preview Comments are off for this post

We´re currently in beta testing with Replay My Day, but we couldn´t help ourselves and wanted to give visitors of the PICNIC festival a sneak peak this week. And thus we were chilling our asses of last Thursday on the sunny NDSM wharf while giving a preview of Replay My Day to whomever would listen. On Friday we were given the opportunity to present Replay My Day in the Appsterdam tent and tell what else is cooking at the Replay headquarters.

For those who did not attend PICNIC, no worries. Next week we’ll release the first screen shots of the app, and we might just have the first demo video ready, so stay tuned and check back next week. Don’t want to neurotically check the website for updates? Follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook page to get notified automatically, yup we just love things to be automatic.

PICNIC festival at the NDSM wharf, with the hard to miss Appsterdam tent. Although, you might want to call it an igloo with the ambition to become a hot air balloon..

Replay My Day

Replay is a magic diary. It writes itself even if you don’t have the time, so that when you lay in bed at night and think about the day that’s been, all you have to do is press ‘replay’.

Replay My Day draws a cinematic map of your day’s explorations and throws all your photo’s, calender appointments, Tweets and Facebook posts on there, right where the event took place. You can also add personal notes to it, creating a rich visual record of your day.

Hit ‘Replay’, and it plays your travels back to you from a bird’s eye point of view. The Time Wheel takes you back in time and allows you to select and Replay those long lost days of yore. The longer you have Replay My Day, the richer it becomes.




Now available on the App Store!

Features

Photolicious

Replay My Day automatically places your photos and videos onto your track to make it more meaningful and even prettier. “That’s one good lookin’ track” people will say. And we won’t blame them.

Calendar

If you use your phone’s calendar, Replay will import your appointments onto your day’s track, showing which appointment was (or might have been) where. And just like your photo’s, you can drag ‘n drop it like it’s hot.

Time Travel

Not actual DeLoreans, but the next best thing. We created a Time Wheel, for you to select and Replay those long lost days of yore. Hit ‘Replay’, and it plays your travels back to you from a bird’s eye point of view.

Be lazy

If you like, Replay can import all your Twitter posts and Facebook status updates onto the track, automatically. It’s your online timeline, like the also lovely Memolane with the added spacial dimension.

Old fashioned

A diary isn’t a diary without being able to express your feelings for your maths teacher, hot neighbour or just comments about your day. So we added notes. Scribble away, just don’t let Mr. Darcy read it.

Two views

As the Roman god Janus was able to look two ways, past and future, we’ve made it possible to look into the past twice! Ahum, right. You can switch between Map view and List view, for either a spacial or timeline visual of your day.

Export in KML

For the coders and self-quantifiers, the people who can do quite a bit more with our data than us: there’s a data export function coming up, hitch hiking its way from Madagascar, patience young paduan.

Big plans

Our concept guy is pretty annoying. Big ideas mean months of coding. But for the product it means yumminess. How about interactive map sharing, replay-my-week, and why just replay it? Why not preplay it too?

F.A.Q.

How much battery does Replay My Day use?
It depends on the tracking mode you use. In Circles mode the app uses almost no extra battery while tracking. It acts like a trail of breadcrumbs and is therefore slightly less accurate. The more detailed Full Tracking draws a beautiful track, but continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. It allows up to 8 hours of tracking, depending on which iPhone you use. In Settings (button in the right lower corner) you can easily switch GPS tracking on and off. This is handy for when you actively use the app, and don’t need it to track when you’re at a location (at home/office/the movies).
Can I use Replay My Day abroad without data roaming?
Yep, we’re proud of this one: even when there’s no data connection (because you disabled roaming in the iPhone’s Settings), the app will still record your location onto a blank map. Once you have data connection the map will be filled in, for instance at your hotel with free wifi or that cute little café on the corner.
Is it possible to lock my diary?
Not yet, but it’s on the to-do’s, so for all you Russian spies out there, be sure to lock your iPhones.
Can I backup my days of tracking?
iTunes makes a backup of your iPhone’s data every time you plug it in, meaning that, if you lose your phone, all your apps and their data can be recovered onto another phone. However, if you delete Replay My Day from your phone, it will also delete all diary data permanently. So make sure that you don’t delete us, pretty please.
Will an update affect my tracks?
Don’t worry, they’ll stay intact. Updating the app is done without affecting your recorded days. With each iOS update, we’ll work hard to make sure that no bugs come up.
Can I delete individual items from my days?
Certainly, just go to List View in the lower left corner and press Edit. You can also slide over the item you’d like to delete and a Delete button shows up. Do note that deleting items is permanent.
Is it possible to upload my day as a video?
We are working on that, because we also think that would be pretty damn cool.
What about my privacy?
Everything happens inside the app, nobody else can see your movements. All the location data Replay My Day collects, is stored locally on the iPhone itself and is in no way shared to make sure your privacy is protected.
Why do I see grey tiles when replaying?
Make sure your phone has wifi while replaying your day, so the maps behind your track can be downloaded more quickly.
What’s with that little arrow in the top right corner?
When using location based apps such as Replay, a little arrow is displayed to notify you that Location Services is on.

Team

Matteo Manferdini – Lead Developer

Matteo is Replay’s main wizard. Fastest hands in Western Europe, perhaps second only to Mike Lee, and he may just be the most thorough. Furthermore, Matteo is a freelance photographer and born tango dancer.

Victor van Doorn – Project creator

Victor created the concept and is in charge of spreading the Replay magic around the world through his stunts like the infamous Replay Race and the upcoming Tracking Field, where he too, will dance a tango.

Mike Lee – Project Mentor & Developer

Engineering legend, mayor of Appsterdam and captain of the Cocoa seas. Mike Lee helped create such apps as Tap Tap Revenge and the actual Obama ’08 campaign app, and has been crucial in steering Replay on its course. As far as we know, Mike dances no tango.

Merel den Otter – Communications

Co-founder of Lightstorm Productions, Merel spreads the gospel, manages press relations and has co-created the incredible Tracking Field launch stunt. And for Merel, it’s salsa merengue.

Niko Fernandez – Designer

Niko wove the designs from a train seat somewhere between Amsterdam and Gare du Nord. He previously designed for the popular ABN-Amro banking app for Icemobile, where he works by day. By night, however, he’s rocking the indie scene of Appsterdam and he, too, dances tango.

Filipp Peresadilo – Designer

Filipp created the first designs and the logo for the app and was the creator of the amazing Replay Bèta Race, a legendary -illegal- urban game event in the city of Amsterdam, vowed to be repeated upon the 1000th download of the app.

Fatih Yasar – Developer

Fatih created the first version of Replay and laid the entire base of the current incarnation of the app. Actually, his version was só rich in functions, we had to reduce it a little to keep some features for later..

Contact

Customer Feedback
We’re really proud of Replay My Day, but there are still a lot of features we want to add. Plus, there’s probably a lot of nifty stuff we haven’t even thought of yet, that should definitely be added. If you have a brilliant idea how to improve Replay My Day, please let us know at team@replaymyday.com.

Press Inquiries
For press releases, screen shots and background information, please go to the Replay My Day press page. For other requests you can send an email to merel@lightstorm.nl and she”ll grant all your wishes.

Social Media
If you totally like us and want to know what cooking in the Replay kitchen, follow us on Twitter, get updates from our Facebook page or check out our latest films on Vimeo.