Intercom Io Mac App

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Why do apps fail? Mostly due to poor marketing. Here’s an absolutely fantastic app that I’m sure almost no-one has heard of. It’s also destined to be like a voice recorder or alarm clock – just part of the apps that come from the manufacturer with the handset.

iMoto is a bluetooth based intercom system that works between two iPhones. The name iMoto as it suggests targets bikers eg rider and passenger or two bikers that are riding together in reasonable proximity. If you and your passenger have an iPhone or your riding partner has one… this deal $1.99 currently reduced to $.99 cents is the bargain of motorcycling.

Check out this link if you want a longer flashier video – How much budget was that!

Just add iMoto to two iPhones. I tried it on both 3G and iPhone4. It worked just fine. Of course you have to remember to turn the bluetooth on. You have to set a shared passcode and then the program takes over and it will run in the background too.

Add an email account to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. There are two ways you can set up an email account in the Mail app on your iOS device — automatically or manually. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Yes, chatterbox is the best replacement for Intercom. Chatterbox works with our internal communication app Slack and no need to login in another portal to communicate and it is Free for 2000 contacts and unlimited conversations-which is huge.:-) and the leads stores in a segment within Retainly to continue engaging them for conversions. For Mac-specific antivirus software, I usually recommend Intego or Airo AV. But most of the antivirus products on this list run on multiple platforms, including Mac. For example, Norton 360 is a great choice for Mac users, but certain features (such as Cloud Backup and Parental Control) are limited on Mac due to Apple’s restrictions. After making a copy of the Intercom Company Review Invitation Snippet, navigate back to the Intercom Manual Message setup page and under section 3 - Write your message, click to place the cursor in the chat window on the right. Then use Ctrl + V (Windows) or Cmd + V (Mac) to paste the Review Invitation Snippet message. You can then make any further customisations you wish through the Intercom.

In practice how does it work? Well that is dependent on the headset and the helmet. I used standard iPhone headsets with a passenger and we could still hear each other at 80mph. Although it is better at slower speeds.

So what are the issues and constraints.

  • It’s a little hard to control the volume when the iPhone is in your pocket and you are riding. Start with the volume high and talk softly.
  • I imagine those that already have their helmets wired may get a better experience. Finding the right place for the mic so wind gusts and stuff aren’t heard (create some crackle) is something I still have to experiment more with.
  • I suspect it will have little impact on battery life. After all most phones will do 6 or 7 hours.
  • Because it uses the audio channel you can’t listen to the iPod at the same time or talk over it.
  • It’s limited to one to one rather than one to many.
  • It automatically reconnects if for some reason the connection does happen to drop.
  • There’s not many controls here so if you already have a sophisticated system on board your bike this isn’t going to help.
  • How far away before the connection drops? Quite a way… I think it would be possible to use when riding with a partner.

So is the the perfect intercom. Nope. Yet those systems for bikes can cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I’m going to have to try using a bluetooth headset at the same time with it. (presume I can). Issue is how that fits in my ear and in the helmet for comfort. Simply if you bike and have iPhones then I’d get one and try it out.

Are there other intercoms? There might be. I’ve searched before on the iTunes store. I found some they generally had lousy reviews or only worked on the 3GS etc. I never purchased them. This one had zero reviews and I thought I’d just try it out.

Now back to marketing. No stories in the iTunes store. It would seem no listings in the major biker forums. Yes there’s been the flashy videos, and it would seem the PR has sent it off to all the Review sites. Yet I can’t help thinking that this app has been poorly marketed. There’s plenty of bikers out there in the blogosphere and even more on forums. This type of thing gets lots of discussion there. I’m sure the dudes that created this (presume from Italy) have nice Ducatti’s parked somewhere. iMoto also limits other opportunities by naming it like it has. Or quickly do it under a few brands. Eg this would work for many sports… cycling, rock climbing, skiing, and more. For an instructor on a Ski slope it could be tremendously useful. For kids with a couple of iPod touches this is the always on walkie talkie. For parents traveling in airports this is a perfect way to keep in touch while shopping dutyfree etc.

They’ve done the actual engineering well and it is a simple app (relatively from a user POV). However they’ve missed their Target. Unless they are going to offer a Harley app, and a Triumph app and a BMW app etc. There’s many ways to take this to market, however their current price doesn’t make marketing it very attractive. This is worth every cent of all 99 or 1.99. Fact is 4.99 or even 9.99. If you know how much bikers spend on bike farkles then this is small cheese.

There’s no website for iMoto (founders site is seemingly under construction). Perhaps the “intercom” is really just something that Apple or Android should build into every handset. In fact this seems like a universal sort of new app, like a clock, or the voice recorder. Yep that’s it. No real market for this app. The Platform will just suck it up.

Other Reviews:
The iPhone App Review (difference I’ve used it on a bike!)
Fresh Apps

1. UIPasteboard

UIPasteboard is a method we can use to share data between apps. There is no UI implementation for UIPasteboard, but we can use it in other implementations. For example, when we use URL scheme to open another app, we pass the pasteboard name in the URL query.

Intercom app store

In UIPasteboard Class Reference, it says:

To share data with any other app, you can use system-wide pasteboards; to share data with another app that has the same team ID as your app, you can use app-specific pasteboards.

For system-wide pasteboard

For app-specific pasetboard

Intercom Io Mac App Install

Reference: UIPasteboard Class Reference
App

2. AirDrop

Intercom Io Mac App Installer

Mac

When an app exports a file using “open with…”, it sends files to other apps. Other app could read the file or manipulate the file depending on the needs.

Sending Files and Data to Another App

There are two approach to share files to other apps.

The FIRST approach is to use UIDocumentInteractionController(it uses QLPreviewcController inside) to open a file. There is a share icon on the upper-right corner. User tap on this icon to open the file in other apps that registers the file type(Uniform Type Identifier) of this file.

Code example:

The SECOND approach is to use UIActivityViewController. In UIActivityViewController, there are two rows of activities you user can choose. In the first row are “share activities”. In the second row are “action activities”. They are either system built-in activities or app extensions installed with other apps(e.g. evernote, dropbox). Optionally, you can add your own custom activity in your app to do some tasks. The custom activity you added in the app won’t appear in other apps. For how to create custom activity, refer to UIActivity Class Reference.

Code example:

Intercom Io Mac App Setup

Receiving Files and Data Sent to Your App

There are two steps to receive a file of certain type for your app.
1) Add supported types(UTI) into info.plist of your app.
2) Read received file in the code.

Intercom App For Iphone

Code example:
1)

2)

Reference:

3. URL Scheme

In iOS 8.x and below

  1. Register URL Scheme
    Include below code into the info.plist of your app
  2. Send URL to another app
    In an app, do the following:

    Or, simply open the app without sending additional information

    Then the system will open the app that registered the scheme “myScheme”.
    You can also put the url on a webpage like this App Name to open an app on your iphone.

  3. Handle URL sent from another app

In iOS 9

Before your app want to open a customized url scheme, you have to register the scheme in the info.plist. This will affect function canOpenURL() and openURL(). If you don’t register the scheme, even the app supporting that scheme is installed, canOpenURL() will fail.

Add the following code to you info.plist of app that want to open URL of other apps.

You can up to 50 url schemes in this whitelist.

Also, after iOS 9, developers can configure Universal Links to open an app.

4. App Extension

App extension make your app appears in the UIActivityViewController like system built-in extensions. You can make your own share activity extension or action activity extension. Normally, extensions don’t communicate to the containing app directly. But you can create app groups in the developers portal to make them share data through a temporary app container.

For more informaton, refer to:

References