I took the decision to use NimbleKit as the development platform (its an Xcode template so you still need a Mac and an iPhone Developer license) for creating the app as it allowed me to leverage my existing web based skills to produce a fully native and app store friendly app. I urge anyone who is thinking of developing an app for the Apple app store but are put off by learning Objective C to give NimbleKit a try.

Produced in conjunction with Sheffield City Council, SheffCam gives you access to the 30+ traffic cameras in around around the Sheffield area all within an easy to use interface.

Please visit sheffcam.com on your iPhone/iPod touch to start (as a bonus you can also FULLY access it on the desktop using Safari for Mac or PC, even better you can make it into a dashboard widget on a Mac using the web-clip feature from within Safari).

I plan on making a native version for the Apple app store in the future with lots more features so if you have any feature requests please let me know.

Thanks to all those who beta tested the WebApp…Enjoy.

I said a while ago that this year would be the year to do some serious programming in the form of iPhone development and while this is still the case I’ve not got very far (Yeah Yeah I know).  What I have managed to do is dip my toe in the iPhone development pond ocean in the form of Dashcode, and while not technically coding (it uses existing web technologies to produce dynamic web apps), it has allowed me to start with an idea for an application which I hope to development into a full blown native iPhone app.

The idea for SheffCam came to me whilst viewing the Sheffield City Council traffic cams which cover 34 sites in and around the city.  Although really useful they arent much good if you are out and about and want to see what the traffic is like for your journey home. Viewing the councils website on the iPhone is possible but a pain as it requires lots of zooming in and out and downloading of superfluous data.  Hence the need for a streamlined iPhone compatible version of the site.

After approaching Sheffield City Council they were interested in an iPhone version of the site and I was given the go ahead to use the camera images in my development.

SheffCam is in early development (beta) and doesnt have all the features I’d like included but I’ve decided to release it to get feedback from potential users.  Please leave suggestions, bugs and feature requests in the comments below.  In the meantime please feel free to take a look at SheffCam on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Enjoy