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

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.

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

]]> http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/french-renovation-there-is-an-app-for-that/feed/ 4 http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/podcast-ep5-now-in-itunes/ http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/podcast-ep5-now-in-itunes/#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:11:54 +0000 Lee http://www.montpillard.com/?p=1990 Episode 5 is finally here and it’s chock full of news and as always differening opinion as always.
In this episode we discuss the progress that’s been made on the chimney (finally), wall pin, cow shed and even the roofers turned up! To cap off what was to become a Monty Python-esq encounter there’s even a French Architect in there for good measure. Enjoy this one..

Listen to the low quality version now
Listen now with the below audio embedded low quality version or click HERE to go to iTunes to get it or subscribe

[audio:http://www.montpillard.com/wp-content/uploads/ep5.mp3]

“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….

Episode 3 podcast covers

• Why the delay
• Waiting for quotes
• A book recommendation

and much more of me getting stressed at the whole situation

Listen now with the below audio embedded low quality version or click HERE to go to iTunes to get it or subscribe

[audio:http://www.montpillard.com/wp-content/uploads/podcast_episode3_stream.mp3]

What we’ve done is now made an mp3 streaming version available at the end of each post (example below). This mp3 stream will play straight from your browser just click the play icon.

[audio:http://www.montpillard.com/wp-content/uploads/slogger1.mp3]

At present these streams are only available to listen to online and not available for download but these will be available soon for you to add to your Zune, MP3 player, phone etc etc for you non iTunes users. It’s also noting that the iTunes podcasts are “enhanced” with artwork, links and chapters which isn’t available on the embedded version.

Also you’ll now notice that the “AUDIO” page at the top of the blog now has been populated. This is going to be a consolidation area for our audio streams, so if you think you’ve missed something or just want a 1 stop page to get to all our audio then THIS PAGE is it.

It’s London Marathon day in London so we did what all sensible Londoners do and that’s LEAVE LONDON

So we used the time in the quiet countryside to record episode 2 of the Montpillard.com Podcast where we talk about our process of finding and buying the house.

This Podcast is a little longer at 15 minutes but there is a fair bit to cover. We are getting the hang of this and the quality is improving and there are less “errrms” than before but we are still working on it.

Episode #2 is now live in iTunes, so either subscribe HERE (iTunes link), or go direct to the current episode HERE

We discussed the websites we used and the mortgage options very briefly in this episode and those links will appear here shortly and Dawn will be doing a full write-up of the mortgages we looked at.

Embedded Low Quality Online Version
[audio:http://www.montpillard.com/wp-content/uploads/podcast_episode2_stream.mp3]

Enjoy.

WE DID IT!

Episode #1 is now available in iTunes (link) for you to download and it’s already getting downloaded at  rate i just had to “top up” on bandwidth with our current ISP

So being episode 1 it’ll be a little rough around the edges and this one really just introduces ourselves, the house, the area and why we purchased where we did. The Podcast is 10 minutes long and this is the maximum time we want to keep these at as the idea is not to have some long 45 minute rambling Podcast but some quick, concise & info packed Podcasts for you.

As for now we have no show notes for you but going forward when we talk about products, suppliers or services we’ll be detailing them in the post related to the Epispode. The episodes will be coming thick and fast over the next few weeks so make sure you hit the subscribe button in iTunes.

LISTEN NOW – Online lower quality version.
[audio:http://www.montpillard.com/wp-content/uploads/podcast_episode1_stream.mp3]

Enjoy

Misc Info
Recorded on Zoom H4N
Processed in GarageBand