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04/05/2002 Interview with Christopher Hunt of Class Action P/L
Which of your programs has been the most successful and do you know why?
We have five products which are various combinations of each other. Time Traveler is all of these products put into one package and that is our best seller. Our aim has always been to provide a solution to the traveler - something that fits into their processes of travelling and saves them time. Time Traveler as a suite does this by totally integrating its components with itself and the device as a whole and that's why it is the most successful. A version of this suite also attracted Palm and they have been retailing it on their PalmPak Travel Card since the introduction of the memory-stick-like SD card on the Palm. Consequently tens of thousands of people now use Time Traveler worldwide which is something I'm really proud of. Actually I should mention that Time Place is also useful for those who do not travel but want to use it as their desktop clock (device switched on and sitting in the cradle while they work). To this end Time Place has also been very successful in this market.
Which program are you most proud of and why?
Time Place 4! Time Place 4 is the culmination of everything we have learnt about writing PDA software over the past 3+ years and is based on a very robust and reliable heritage of Time Place 1, 2 and 3. Time Place 4's graphics are licensed from a company that takes a great deal of time over assembling satellite images from a variety of sources and I think their work is quite beautiful. Time Place 4 was written with the intent of being something that could really showcase the forthcoming ARM processors running Palm OS 5. Consequently we did not hold back in designing something that is high resolution and takes advantage of thousands of colours. Along the way (thanks to the great work of one our engineers - Alan Wilkie) we managed to get it working on the current generation 33mhz motorola processors found in the Palm and Clie devices. Alan devised an amazing algorithm for rendering the images and implemented it in machine language - something not to be sneezed at! When I go travelling I really enjoy the whole Time Traveler experience - right from entering my itinerary at MyTimeTraveler.com through to getting off the aircraft and seeing that my Palm reflects my place of arrival. I'm very proud of this 'hands off' travelling experience.
How many people are involved in making your programs and running the web site?
Like most Palm developers we're small - 4 people. Two of us (Alan and I) write the software, my wife (Christina) runs things and keeps us in line (!) and Wayne Larkin is the highly talented marketing guru. We all work really well together and recognise that all skills are required at all stages of product development; just some more than others at particular stages. This approach has been working very well. Our big idea is to grow to about 10 people. I think that you can do a great deal with 10.
What one feature would you like to see in the next PDAs?
'Always on' internet access. As well as internet access being incredibly beneficial to the end user, our solutions can thrive on this sort of connectivity.
What is you favourite PDA application and game?
I really like what Natara have done with their software (Bonsai and DayNotez) and David Kendall's Ultrasoft Money also looks good. Gameswise it would have to be Astraware.
Who is your favourite music artist and song?
That's tricky! There are so many and I tend to listen and like quite a broad range of music. I really enjoy the originality and sophistication of people like Bjork and Radiohead but I am especially into Vince Jones an Australian jazz musician. At last someone has mentioned the wonderful Radiohead!
Give me 3 reasons why everyone should own a PDA?
- Date Book - Address Book - Time Traveler
What PDA do you use and why?
What: Palm m515. Why: we have a very strong working relationship with Palm. I think that I need to state my affection for the Clie here though. I think that Sony took the Palm Developer conference by storm back in February. Sony really are great industrial designers.
If Sony bought Palm and ended up in a straight PDA fight with Microsoft- who would you put your money on?
Sony. While I think PocketPC is definitely interesting, Microsoft still don't get it. I'm of the belief that people do not want PCs in their pocket - they want appliances that can help with their organising and contact management mainly. PocketPC is a hybrid while Palm is designed purely for PDA style usage. Sony (and Palm) also really understand how to make a device look sexy. With exception to the iPaq, there's no PocketPC that really looks as cool as the Clie or m500 series.
What's the best piece of feedback you have received for one of your programs?
Our customer base has been very generous with their great feedback; this feedback has truly shaped the Time Traveler suite as a whole. One very notable occassion though was when I recently showed Time Place 4 to the manager of IT Products for Sony. His response was 'Wow'. That did it for me..
Thanks to Christopher for taking the time to do the interview- take a look at his software, especially Time Place 4 which is stunning. Details here.