Going One On One With The Creator Of iPhone Flirt

Posted by jay on April 27th, 2007 at 09:47am Comments

iPhone World recently caught up with Miguel Sciaudone, the creator of iPhone Flirt**, in order to find out more about his application.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself, and explain in some depth what your program is all about.

A: I am a web designer and developer. I have been building web sites and multimedia since 1997. I live and work in Boston, Massachusetts.

iPhoneFlirt is a mobile dating solution that takes advantage of the iPhone’s multitouch interface, screen size, Safari web browser, and other features. Current mobile dating solutions have very poor user interfaces, suffer from small screen size, and are stripped down versions of online dating sites. The user experience is generally very poor and the concept of mobile dating has yet to really take off in any significant way in this country as it has in other coutries. The goal of iPhoneFlirt is to be a next generation design mobile dating solution. With the iPhone’s advanced web browser, large screen size, and internet capabilities, it is now possible to provide a significantly better user experience. It unchains users from desktop based dating solutions.

Q: You wrote to us, “Due to the restrictions Apple is placing on 3rd party applications for the iPhone, the only current solution is to use the capabilities of the Safari web browser. Think web browser application.” This is a highly valid point, as Apple has stated that third party developers would not be able to include programs for the iPhone. How will you be bypassing this with the web browser?

A: From what we know about the iPhone browser, it is going to be a version of Safari, which is based on the Webkit browser engine. We also know that it is unlikely that the Adobe Flash plugin will be installed (although I have heard rumors that Apple may be writing their own version of the flash plugin, most likely to strip out any VOIP-like functionality). What’s left for designers and developers to work with is quite alot and iPhoneFlirt is being built using those technologies. I’m using AJAX, DHTML, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, and others to provide a more application-based interface that works with the multi-touch interface. These technologies are similar to those used in Dashboard Widgets. My designs and interface are inspired by the way the music, photo, and video features work on the iPhone.

The only caveat to all this is that we have yet to see how text input will integrate with forms and text inputs in the browser. It has not been demonstrated anywhere. I imagine Apple will figure this out. If not I have a backup plan for this.

Q: You also wrote, “I am also implementing location based awareness.” What is this exactly, explain in a little more detail.

A: This feature will be similar to Dodgeball without having to use SMS. Users in a will be able to see who’s out in a general area (<5 miles radius - TBD), view their profile and contact them through the double-blind email system. It will not give the exact location of any user for security reasons. In this way, it makes meeting other users easier and provides more immediacy that's not available with the desktop online dating solution.

Q: So where did you get the idea for a dating service for iPhone?

A: I got the idea after watching the Keynote Steve Jobs gave back in January. He was showing how the photos worked and how good they looked. I was also very impressed by the multi-touch display and how you can interact with the information on the screen. Probably the best feature to me was that Safari worked - effectively killing WAP on tiny screens. iPhoneFlirt kind of made sense to me when you combine the web, photos, communication, and iPod-like ease of use. I started designing it right away. Dismayed by Apple’s lock out of 3rd party apps, i realized that the browser was where I was going to build this app. It’s the perfect platform for this type of offering.

Q: What extra bonus features can we look forward to having that you wouldn’t normally find in a dating service? Will your service make use of iPhone features such as email and music?

A: I think the location based feature ‘Who’s out now?’ is high on the list. Users no longer have to be restricted to searching near their hometowns and similar to Twitter.com, can be used to send out ‘flirts’ to other users near your area. Someone wrote of the concept in comments, ‘Welcome to the REAL Social.’

I also think that the iPod-like ease of use and larger screen size are significantly more engaging than current mobile dating offerings. It will be linked to email. I will be looking to implement the camera functionality.

Q: Will this be a subscription based service or will there be options for trial accounts?

A: Eventually it will be a subscription service with free trial accounts. For launch/beta I intend to offer the service for free for as long as I can. The subscription will probably be less than $5 per month.

Q: When can we expect to learn more about iPhone Flirt and when will it be released?

A: I’d like to launch the beta as soon as possible following the release of the iPhone and a short period of in-house testing and QA.

Information and beta sign-up will be available at www.iphoneflirt.com shortly. **The name of the site may be subject to change.

Interviewed by Jay Lee C.

 

Related posts:

1. Pocket Dating with iPhone Flirt
2. iPhone Mobile Firefox Preview
3. Opera was supposed to be default iPhone internet browser
4. Dating DNA for iPhone
5. Microsoft Releases iPhone Safari-like “Deepfish” Mobile Browser

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Filed Under: iPhone Interviews