Montpillard.com » iPhone Software

Petite Assistante gets AdMob’d… Maybe

Lee — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:14:30 +0000

We made the decision to make Petite Assistant FREE for the festive season to celebrate the house being warm, sealed and ready for us to spend the first Christmas here as a family.

This now brings us to an interesting dilemma:
“Do we keep it free?“

I initially decided to place it back to the launch price of £1.79 after the festive season but given the huge take up in downloads I’d like to keep this coming and placing a cost on the app no matter how small impacts this. People are willing to spend $5 on a coffee (myself included) but not $1 on an app and with this in mind and the fact that we want to update it with another 2000 words I’ve decided to add “AdMob” to the application and keep it free.

We already see from this site that people will consume the content you give them and do not click the Google ads (hint hint) but I guess the idea is that you have to appeal to the individual and not the masses and that’s why we’ve signed up to AdMob to keep the app free. Of course if you don’t want the adverts then you don’t have to update the app you have but I will be making updated and some corrections to it and the adverts themselves are at the top of the screen (see image) so they’re not intrusive at all. The idea of this app was for each download to pay for a small items in the house like a roof tile or a brick and at present this is just not happening with either the app or the Google ads.

We are looking for some feedback from the users on this as we are also thinking of tuely opening up the app to allow people to contribute and suggest words that’ll be automatically added at the next build.

What do you think of this ?

iTunes Link for Petite Assistante is : HERE

Petite Assistante FREE for XMAS !!!

Lee — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:47:57 +0000

We’ve achieved a few milestones on the renovation of late with the roof being finished and the dog getting his passport so we can all spend our first christmas as a complete family in the house and to celebrate we wanted to share the love so we’ve made Petite Assistante FREE for the festive period. No catch, no reduced functionality just accept this gift from us to you and pay it forward!

You can download your free app from iTunes or in your iPhone & iPod touch HERE

If of course you want to show us some Google add clicking love that would be great too… More shortly, lots and lots to tell you .

No news is good news..

Lee — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:59:29 +0000

So i just wanted to say i know its been a bit slow ont he updates for the last month and that’s simply due to the fact tht like Europe we’ve been taking out holidays too. As France and our French contracts went on holiday things shut down and this time around i’ve learnt to enbrace it rather than get frustrated with it.

So a few bits of news …

1) Petite Assistante v1.1
Major word-base update coming out soon. I’ve been working hard on updating the word list even more and am hopefully over the next week i’ll get this submitted to Apple for approval.

Sales are going well considering it’s such a niche product and i’ve even made contacted a few “France / French” magazines to see if they can do some sort of editorial and we’ll do some sort of app giveaway with them. This will for the moment be UK based only but it’s a start. I’ll keep you updated on this. The very latest version of “Petite Assistante” will always be HERE

2) A few days away coming up soon
With the Christmas holidays coming up we are taking the dog on his first european holiday to the house. To do some prep for this me and my dad are off to the house for just under a week from next Thursday. This will just be getting the house ready for living in at christmas so there will be some videos, photos and posts for the work we’ll be undertaking. That said this is a few days away for us to chill out and will not be busting my nuts to work on the house. However here’s what i’ll try and achieve :

Cow shed roof full removed and the wall taken down
Pipping lagged in prep for the winter
Interior wall pointed to help insulate for the winter

We’ll also be travelling on the new LDLines service that is now running from Dover – Boulogne route so i’ll post up as this will be yet another carrier we’ve been on so it’s time to do a comparison. So that’s it really, they’ll be more over the coming week. Also the irony of the timing of this post hasn’t gone unnoticed.. The last time i wrote a “No news is good news” post, we got married and yep we’ve just had out first wedding anniversary.. It seems September is destined to be a slow blog month

iPhone App LAUNCHED

Lee — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:54:28 +0000

It’s finally launch day!
After being held up in the application process that is Apple we are finally REALLY happy to announce the instant availability of PETITE ASSISTANTE in the App store in iTunes and on your iPhone or iPod touch.

The video above shows you some basic functionality of the app running & how to use it just to wet your appetite. As we’ve said before this is no ordingary French dictionary, this is going to be an epic renovation and building dictionary of super super handy proportions.. No more worrying if you know exactly what a word says just look it up in seconds.

The great news is that we are constantly updating the word lists and we’ve already send an update to Apple correcting a (rather embarrassing) spelling mistake and we’ve added 1500 more words. As promised these updates are always going to be FREE, so don’t wait around CLICK HERE and go the App Store today & get the WORLDS 1ST French Renovation iPhone/iPod Touch App brought to you by us here at www.Montpillard.com

So here’s the skinny :
iTunes Link : Petite Assistante
Cost : Launch price £1.19 NOW FREE (see post for why)

Right now we can’t give any away as a launch special as Apple only allow this via the US store so we’ve dropped the price by 1/3rd for a week. Lets hope they fix that soon so we can do a small giveaway.

French Renovation – There’s a FREE app for that!

Lee — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:25:53 +0000

Get the balloons, party poppers & the orange juice as we are about to have ourselves a wrap part!

Introducing little Miss “Petite Assistante” your personal French renovation dictionary, translater and all round life saver.

The app is a dedicated English to French to English translation dictionary however this IS NOT your normal batch of French words. You’re not going to be flirting with the ladies or buying groceries but these
6,000+ dedicated building/renovating words covering everything from fractions in English to French to tools, materials and so so much more.

We’ve even gone the other way and you can search French words (by alphabetically scrolling if you’re that way inclined or using the search function) so if you come across a word you’re not sure about when you’re out and about then you’re not lost. We don’t think there is any point in just having the English to French translator as when you actually have no idea what the French words are on their own. All that is now a thing of the past.

Here comes the some FAQ’s :

Where can I get it?
iTunes App Store. As soon as they approve it we’ll post the link here and on @Twitter.
Petite Assistante will work on ALL generations of iPhones & iPod Touch’s.

When can I get it?
Apple say about 2 weeks from submission if we’ve managed not to break any rules.

How much is it?
NOW FREE (see post as to why) £1.79 or €2.00 depending what iTunes store you are connected to.

How many words do you have & are you adding more?
At launch we have over 6,000 translations in both English & French and YES we are adding more. We are going to keep it tight to renovating, renovation and building as this app is here to help you with these types of terms so we’ll not be cheating by swelling the word base by putting in basic French conversational words.

Is there a “free” or “lite” version to try?
Since we can’t do time limited trials we “may” release a “lite” version for you to try. This will have around 500 words maximum and will just be a taster. This app will not be updated with all the extra words we are adding week on week.

What do you mean English to French to English ?
Simple … You look up the word “Paint” in English and you’ll see “Peinture” in French. But if you’re out and about and you see the word “Peinture” then how do you go about finding what that means.. With “Petite Assistante ” app you simply either drop into “Français à l’anglais” mode and search to word or scroll to it and that of course will bring up “Paint” in English.

If you have any questions about the app at all please either get in touch or drop us a comment and we’ll answer each and every one of you.

We are recording a demo video for you now and will post it shortly however here are some screen shots of the final layout and graphics. Enjoy

French Renovation – There’ll be an app for that!

Lee — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:24:39 +0000

I did mention a while back that we are trying to put an iPhone app together to help with renovation & that wasn’t very specific so it’s time to put some flesh on the bones now we’ve started the project (as if we didn’t have enough on the go).

“Petit Assistant” is a nice and simple app, we’ll to be honest it’s more of a dictionary than an application however the ability to have 1000′s of renovation terms in French and English with a look up between the two of them in your pocket is going to be priceless.

Why?
Currently i have to carry a book around with me no matter where i go to constantly do word look ups & it gets cumbersome, also i guarantee the one time i don’t have it on me i think of something i need to know, so with it all in your pocket this will be no more.

But aren’t there online translators?
There are indeed, but all these require a data connection where your requests is sent and processed by a server. In France we constantly find no data connection and when I’m in Brico Depot & I’m looking up a word it takes ages to send it out to the server and return it plus it costs me a small fortune using data while roaming. My last data bill was over £100 in 2 days just with this type of use. “Petit Assistant” will be a pocket tool which will do an internal lookup of over 10,000 words (to start) to give you quicker and much much cheaper results.

How much will it cost?
Nothing.. It’ll be a free app and that’s because we want your help. This really is for everyone French or English. We’ll start to build the word list shortly and we’ll be publishing it on the site, we’ll then be opening it up so everyone can add words and their translation. This will then be placed into an online file that can be updated instantly by the app should you want to.

When will it be available?
A few weeks… The actual coding and UI design isn’t the hardest thing since we are keeping version 1 very simple, the longest task is to build the word lists, if i can find a way of opening up the submission page sooner for your help then i will do.

So that’s it.. We are really trying to do something very simple and put it in your pocket so when you’re in a lumber yard, paint store or a tool hire shop you’ll be able to get exactly what you’re after.

If you want to help then drop us an email we’ll love to hear from you, and if you want to sponsor the app even better.

More soon….

iPhone App Review – Evernote

Lee — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:51:26 +0000

Evernote is THE killer application in my iPhone renovation toolbox and i need to take a little time to explain why before you watch the explanation video which will be easier but I have some very practical examples for you.

Imagine having at your finger tips all your scanned ideas, photos, notes, articles etc etc all the time no matter where you are, well with Evernote you do but with a little extra.

What Evernote does is actually look at the items you have uploaded and then OCR’s it so you can then search within the picture for words so you are not just sorting mindlessly through all your documents .

Example

We have scanned in many ideas, photos and pages that we have seen that we would like to incorporate into our house. Most of these are showers or pumps at the moment and when I’m out and about I cant remember what I’ve seen so i just type into Evernote “shower” and it brings me up all my documents ( photos and written ) with the word “shower” in them

Evernote syncs between as many Macs, iPhones or PC’s you have it on so no matter where you upload your document from it’ll find it’s way to your phone when you search its amazing. While I’m out looking for idea’s Dawn is constantly adding stuff that i can see on the fly.

The Cost?
As with everything else we are going to try and bring you it’s fantastic value at the starting cost of FREE ! Yep FREE, now for that you get 50Mb a month upload however like us you can end up paying $45 for a year and get 500Mb a month and priority OCR over the free users. We are adding so much content to our Evernote account it’s great as Dawn can do it from work and that gets synced with my iPhone and my dad is even uploading from the web.

You can grab it from the iTunes store for your phone HERE or go to Http://www.Evernote.com for desktop and other phones.

Here’s a video that’ll explain it better than i can:

iPhone App Review 3xFrench Translators

Lee — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:22:10 +0000

Now here is something that all of us should never be without and that’s a French translator.
As with all these things no two (or three) programs are created equally so here is a review on the three apps that are currently available as of 13th August 2008.

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Name: Talking French Phrasebook
Cost: Free
Link: Here
Review: This was the first and only French app I have stayed with. For the grand price of FREE this application will allow you do have basic conversations and will show you the spelling in English & French but the best thing here is you then just push the speaker icon and it’ll say it for you… EXCELLENT

Pros: FREE ( did we mention that )
Cons: Limited amount of words and phrases but it’s FREE

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Name: Lonely Planet French Phrasebook
Cost: £5.99
Link: Here
Review: With 600 phrases this is a very strong addition to anyone French speakers armoury. Some users have found the quality of the sound to be poor but we didn’t have that issue. Worthy upgrade to the Talking French Phrase book application after you’ve exhausted the free app.

Pros: Good solid application with a wide range of phrases.
Cons: Phrases are very “run of the mill” don’t expect too many renovation phrases.

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Name: iLingo French
Cost: £5.99
Link: Here
Review: We haven’t purchased this application as we were put off by the poor reviews in the app store with “Don’t buy this” always being a sign of a weak app. In fact you’ll find people referring you to Talking French Phrasebook (1st app on this page) .

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iPhones Apps to help you renovate

Lee — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:07:15 +0000

So you accumulate tools over time, many many tools, books, guides, phrase tapes etc etc is there a way to reduce these using the iPhone ?

The answer is a solid YES !

Here you’ll find the first of a few apps that i am using and we’ll of course constantly update the list of the good, the bad and the utterly useless to help you avoid laying out money on stuff that is just a waste.

It’s worth nothing this there is NO referral scheme for iPhone Apps so these reviews are purely based on pur opinions, so you haven’t got to worry about financial back handers ( shame though ) .

iPhone App Review – French Apps

Lee — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:49:34 +0000

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Pros: FREE ( did we mention that )
Cons: Limited amount of words and phrases but it’s FREE

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Pros: Good solid application with a wide range of phrases.
Cons: Phrases are very “run of the mill” don’t expect too many renovation phrases.

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