Some of you last week might have come across a video that circulated around on Twitter showcasing an exciting new app called CuteBox – a Qt based Symbian Dropbox client for Symbian^3 devices. From the comments and video itself, it became evident that the app was not as yet available, and is currently under development and a working progress, due to be released in the next couple of weeks in Beta, but not confirmed as yet.
Today a new video showcasing the app once again has been released and this time showing some improvements, check it out.
Naturally being excited about the fact that at long last a dedicated 3rd party Symbian app for DropBox was in the works, I decided to track the developer down and ask him a few questions on his new creation and when we could expect to see the app become available to the public. So with out further delay, let me introduce you to – Catalin Moldovan – the developer of CuteBox. The following is the short interview that was conducted with him last week.
- Catalin, hi, first of all I want to thank you for taking the time to answer a few simple questions for our readers so to start off, could you tell me a little about yourself, where you live, age, experiences in app development etc.
Hi Joao, I’d like to thank you also for your interest and for the given opportunity to talk a little bit about my application….what can I tell about me, I’m from Romania, I live here with my wife and 2 year old daughter and I’ve been programming since…it’s hard to remember exactly but the passion started when I got my first Cip(Z80 based computer) and started tinkering with games (I remember the good old PEEK and POKE instructions). I’m 30 years old and for the last 15 at least I’ve been passionate about computers and everything technical. I’ve been passionate about a lot of things in my life but most of them burned out pretty quickly, programming is amongst the few that is still there just like in the beginning.
My professional programming experience started around 8 years ago during college when I got my first job as a C++ developer working on Pocket PC/Windows Mobile. After a few years I switched to Symbian and I’ve been
developing Symbian applications ever since. Well lately I’ve been doing a lot of developing using Qt and like many other programmers I found it a very powerful and easy to leam/use framework. I like the way it evolved over the last few years, the road is taking and now it’s my framework of choice. - What made you develop CuteBox, what inspired you?
The official Dropbox application for iPad. After I bought my iPad I’ve got a little frustrated about how closed and dependent on the Apple ecosystem the device was, I missed the connectivity I had on my Symbian devices and ease of file transfer between my PC and the phone, but most of all I wanted a file system. After searching on the web I stumbled upon Dropbox and started using it. Soon I began to realize how useful it was and how dependent on it I became. Obviously after a while I wanted to use it with my phone also and quickly realized there was no official Symbian client or at least an application supporting it. So I decided to make one myself in my spare time. I was inspired from the beginning by the overall user experience on iPad (and iOS in general) and I wanted Symbian Dropbox application easy to use and enjoyable doing what is supposed to as simple as possible. So I try to keep my focus on usability. I have to admit my wife gave me a lot of ideas in this area. - You mentioned earlier on that you have been developing Symbian apps now for a few years, Is this your first app for Symbian – what I mean is – your own, if not what others have you developed?
Yes, this is my first own Symbian app.
- Will you port this app to other platforms in the future?
I don’t know, as far as I know most of the other platforms have official Dropbox clients and lots of third party apps. But if I come to the conclusion that I can bring something new or different I might do it. I would honestly like to make a Windows Phone 7 port event tough there are a couple Dropbox clients there too. - In the first two days your video saw over 3,000 views and from the comments it has received as well as Twitter Chatter one could see that your app is already in great demand and destined to become the most sought app for Symbian devices smartphones. How do you feel about that?
I was a little surprised by the number of views in such short time given the fact that I didn’t even try to advertise it in any other way. One of the reasons I posted the video was to get community feedback and to know if I’m going in the right direction and if it’s an application people would use. So I have to thank all of you for your comments and suggestions.
I don’t think it will be the most sought app for Symbian, there are lots of great apps on Ovi and mine isn’t even finished yet. But I do believe that many Dropbox users will find it useful and easy to use. Its success I believe depends on how well I’ll manage to implement the features I’ve planned and the ones the community wants, as one of the viewer on YouTube (trashr0x) said: “just make sure to make it as intuitive and easy to use as possible and make sure to implement all the (at a minimum) basic features a dropbox app should have. leave no room for complaints!”. Good advice, thanks. - What features will the app have for starters, I know that a first version will always be basic, with updates in coming months and which devices will it be compatible with as well as explain a little how the app will work.
I plan to release it with all public Dropbox APIs implemented meaning it should be a full featured mobile Dropbox client. Besides that I have some other features planned for later. I’ve tried to commit to all of Dropbox’s developers suggestions and guidelines in order to minimize network usage and to improve efficiency and be a good “citizen” and not abusing the API Dropbox has provided.
Being written in Qt it should work on most touch devices that support Qt but I didn’t got the chance to test it yet on older devices. Even though I’ve tried to optimize view transitions and animations throughout the application on older devices the UI might be the bottleneck. I’ll have to test it first before jumping to any conclusions. - What has been the guys at DropBox’s reaction to this app?
I don’t know yet, Dropbox allows pretty much any developer to reserve and application name and start developing a client. You’re given a lot of room to do it without the need to get involved with them during development. The API’s are simple and well explained and the developer forum is active.
Usually after an application is production ready will go through a review and approved if it’s a good “citizen” as I previously said.
- When can we expect a Beta version for the eager public to test- when will the final version be available on Ovi and what are your plans, will it be a free app with ads for everyone or will it be available at a cost??
I will try to get a beta version available as soon as possible, probably in a couple of weeks (there are some features that I’m still working on). The final version will have to go as I said through Dropbox approval and afterwards to Ovi’s approval. Also given the fact that I’m doing it in my spare time it might be delayed a little bit with the Easter holidays, I’d like to spend them with my family. But I believe I will manage to get it released by the end of the month.
I think that everyone that heard about the application and liked it was asking if it will be free. I don’t have an answer at the moment. The first version of the application will have all the features most Dropbox users will be satisfied with. I’m not a fan of ads and I will not sacrifice usability or screen estate for a couple of ads. I will make a final decision upon completion of the pro version of CuteBox as to whether it will be free or not. - And last question, any plans for other apps for Symbian Devices?
I have more application ideas some better than others
and I would definitely try to do more.
On a personal note I hope that if you do release a free version with ads, that you will also release a paid one – ad free. There are a lot of people out there like myself that HATE ADS in our apps.
On behalf of all our readers, I want to thank you for this short little interview – was a great honour and we are looking forward to seeing your app hit the Ovi Store soon. Good luck.
For those of you that would like to stay updated on the development of CuteBox, you can follow Catalin on Twitter at @cuteboxsymbian
UPDATE 13 MAY 2011
Just a quick heads up that the app has landed on the Nokia Ovi Store and is available for download right now-just follow this link http://store.ovi.com/content/125293 Please let us know what you think, any bugs, suggestions or feedback feel free to let us know in the comments section below, Catalin will be here to answer any questions you
have.