New Tub Thumper Version

Today we released a minor update of our Google Android application Tub Thumper.

Tub Thumper is a touch screen drum machine for the Google Android platform and has proved immensely popular since its release last November.

This version is a minor release with a new hip-hop style drum kit, to wet people's apetites for our upcoming major release.

We've been hard at work developing Tub Thumper Pro, which will feature many new cool things. Notable assignable drum pads and the ability to sequence beats, similar to using a Roland TR-909 drum machine.

As it's not yet ready I'm not saying much more, but here's a sneak preview of assigning some drum sounds:



We're aiming this release for the Cupcake build of Android, which will have hit everyone's phones by the time we release it.

At SASS, we spend most of our time working on client projects; developing web and mobile applications for clients. It's nice to get a break from this to work on some of our own projects such as Tub Thumper and it gives us a great opportunity to try out new development ideas and increase our knowledge as developers. There does not seem to be a huge amount of Android developers around Manchester and Cheshire so it often feels like we're out on our own, but we'll continue to experiment and release new Android apps to showcase our ideas.

You can grab Tub Thumper from the Android Market. Just search, or check out the most popular Multimedia apps.

A bit about me

Since I've had this blog for a little while now, without much background about me, I thought it might be worth sticking a post on to talk a bit about my background.

I've been working in software development for over 10 years, mostly based in and around Manchester and Cheshire.

I'm working these days as Senior Technical Architect at the Cheshire based agency SASS Digital.

I spend much of my time focusing on mobile development, notably iPhone development and Google Android development. We pioneered the Tub Thumper drum machine app on the Android platform, an app which was very successful and attracted interest from Google, HTC and T-Mobile. We're still working on Tub Thumper Pro, this will take advantage of the new audio API's of Android Cupcake so watch this space!

We've also recently been working on a top-secret audio app for the iPhone platform, I can't give away any details except to say that it's for a major client and once it's released should be awesome.

Prior to working here I was Technical Architect (amongst other things) at 3T Productions Ltd in Manchester, a sub-division of the mighty RM (Research Machines). I spent the best part of 10 years working at 3T, for huge clients such as the BBC, the DfES, Ofsted, Penguin Books and Harcourt publishing.

I gained a wealth of experience working in technologies such as ASP.NET and SQL Server and also with standards such as e-GIF and SCORM. Much of my work at 3T was e-learning based, an industry in which we broke new ground with every project.

In my spare time I play lots of guitar and record music, and spend a lot of time working on and driving rusty Citroens, such as my DS. There's a picture of my hotrod styled 2CV below.



If you're interested, you can follow me on:

Twitter
Flickr

Enough about me anyway, back to the mobile development!