I recently went through the process of translating Labor Mate into 8 different languages. Unfortunately the phrase “Labor Mate” doesn’t translate well into other languages such as Japanese and Germany so the translators came up with new localized app names. The problem I had though was displaying the translated app name on the iPhone’s springboard.

After a bit of experimenting I finally got the translated app name to display. Turns out the steps are fairly simple. Here are the steps I took to localize the app name:

1. Added the property LSHasLocalizedDisplayName to Info.plist and set to True (mark the checkbox). Note that Xcode might change the property name to “Application has localized display name”.
2. Add a new strings file called InfoPlist.strings.
3. Make the file InfoPlist.strings localizable.
4. Add the languages that will have a translated app name.
5. For each localized version of the InfoPlist.strings file, add the follow string key/value pair: CFBundleDisplayName = “App Name”;
6. Be sure to set “App Name” to the translated value.

That’s it.

Speaking of language translation, I hired the fine folks over at iphone-i18n.com to translate the app description, keywords, and in-app strings for Labor Mate. I met Chuck and Judith of iphone-i18n.com at 360iDev|Denver. They impressed me with their knowledge of internationalizing and localizing applications as well as their specific technical how to knowledge for the iPhone.

If you are an iPhone developer looking to translate your iPhone application into other languages then I highly recommend talking with Chuck and Judith at iphone-i18n.com.

The newest version of Labor Mate, version 1.4, is now available in the App Store. This new release includes an improved user interface as well as some bug fixes.

Wow, has it really been 3 months since my last blog post. I’ve gotta work on improving that.

Speaking of improvements, a new enhancement is finally coming to Labor Mate. The next release will finally include a chart showing the duration and frequency of contractions over the last hour. Here is an sample of what the chart will look like:

One thing to note is that intensity is not something captured by Labor Mate at the moment, so the chart will initially default the intensity level to 5. That is 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is a not so intense contraction and 10 is the OMG, GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME contraction. Here is the same chart with no intensity.

Obviously these sample screen shots are not from an iPhone or iPod touch. I decided to prototype the chart in a Mac desktop app, which is what you see pictured here.

I hope to have the updated app submitted to Apple before the end of the month. Stay tune for more.

stevenwt2 writes this about Labor Mate in his feedback at the App Store, “Used it throughout a night of contractions and it worked flawlessly. No crashes, no problems, and it was easy to keep track of an average. If there was anything to update about the app, I would want the ‘Summary’ screen to be able to average based on a time period or number of contractions (average over last 5 contractions or over last hour, etc.) as an average over the entire night can be a little misleading. However, that is looking to the next version – good luck.”

Good news, stevenwt2. The average is already calculated based on the number of contractions.  In fact, the duration average shown on the summary screen is based on the last 3 contractions and the average frequency is based on the last 6 contractions.

Thanks for the great feedback and congratulations on the arrival of your new little one!!

wayneeglonbrown posted the comment “would be good to be able to delete one put in in error” in the App Store. This is not the first time someone has asked for this feature or asked the question “how to delete.”  Good news is this feature already exists. Labor Mate provides 2 ways to delete a recorded contraction.

One option is to use the swipe delete feature common to many iPhone applications. Simply slide your finger across the item and a Delete button will appear. Touch the Delete button and the contraction is removed.

The other option is to tap the contraction item. This takes you to a second screen. At the bottom of this screen is a Delete Contraction button. Touch this button to delete the individual contraction.

I’m happy to announce Labor Mate 1.3 is finally in the iPhone App Store as of last night.  The review time took longer than the time needed to make the code changes, but that was partly my fault.  I introduced a bug that crashed the app.  Luckily the crashing version of the app was rejected by Apple so that release never made it to users’ iPhones and iPod touches.

This latest release adds two new features:

1. Swipe delete – Slide your finger across a contraction item and a delete button will appear. It’s fast, easy way to delete a contraction.
2. Easy-touch button – The entire timer area is now one big button.  Touch anywhere in the timer area to start and stop the timer.

If you are already a Labor Mate users then be sure to down this latest version free of charge. And if you are not then become a user.  Labor Mate only costs $0.99.  I also have a limited number of available version 1.3 promo codes for taking.

I received an email from Apple today saying that the recent submission of Labor Mate 1.3 has been rejected due to a crash. The crash apparently is happening during the launch. Now of course I went through extensive testing with the app prior to submitting it and my debug and release builds never crashed. That was until today.

This morning I installed the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK and tried running Labor Mate in the simulator.  I didn’t recompile it.  It was already installed from previous sessions. So guess what. It crashes on launch. How strange is that?  Coincidence? Me doesn’t think so.

Update: Definitely a coincidence. There is one particular scenarion that I failed to test, and sure enough the app is crashing in that scenarion. Apple’s review process saved me from an embarrassing moment.

At long last Labor Mate 1.2 is in the App Store.  Only 6 weeks later then I originally hoped, but better late then never. Why did it take so long? Good question.

The version 1.2 release of Labor Mate took longer then expected because it is basically a re-write from the original. I probably should have labeled it version 2.0 but I decided against it because there are only a handful of new features.  The re-write was needed to give the app greater stability especially in low memory conditions.  The re-write will also make it easier for me to add new features going forward.

So what new features are included? Well, my favorite is the new contraction detail screen that allows users to enter notes about the contraction or delete the contraction from the log.  Adding notes will be handy for when you need to remember something about the particular contraction.  And yes, the notes are included in the email that is sent from Labor Mate.

Some users might notice the new app icon.  Jeff and Michael over at Ocupop did an outstanding job coming up with the new icon, which really captures the primary purpose of Labor Mate.  I highly recommend these guys if you are looking for a design company.

What’s next? I already have ideas for the next release of Labor Mate. The top priority is charting, or a graph representing a set of contractions over time. I have a couple of other ideas too but I’m keeping those to myself at the moment. I want to make sure they are doable before making any promises.

The next release of Labor Mate, the labor contraction stopwatch for the iPhone and iPod touch, is nearly complete. The new release will include a new icon, some changes to the user interface, and some new functionality including being able to delete an individual contraction and adding notes to a contraction. But more importantly are the number of improvements behind the scenes.

A number of memory leaks have been fixed, and areas such as scrolling have been improved. It’s fair to say that this release of Labor Mate is almost a complete re-write of the original. This is a good thing because it will enable me to add new features faster in the future.

To those of you whom I told the next release would be available two weeks ago, sorry for the delay and thanks for your patience.

I just received word from Apple that Labor Mate version 1.1 is now available for purchase in the iPhone App Store.  I’m sure it will take a bit longer to propagate but existing users should be getting update notices soon.

This new release includes 2 new features:

• Email the contraction log to anyone
• See the contraction date and time

Users, keep sending me your suggestions and I’ll do my best to incorpoate them as quickly as possible.