September 2020 Updates

By Josh Willuhn. September 24, 2020

September is here and that means another month until it starts to get cold in the lower parts of Colorado.

August wasn't as productive as it could've been, but September saw some pretty cool changes and improvements to MOTOrift. The biggest one is a new cloud sync function that works at least 30% better (my guess). The old cloud sync function was having random problems depending on what version of Android you have. The new one seems to be much more reliable, so far..after you update the app, try it and let me know what you think of it?

Next up? I made new login screens and a new "choose your ride" screen in the web app control panel. It looks better and functions better!

I fought with Google trying to publish the newest update to the cloud companion app. Eventually it worked but that was a serious slowdown. "How can I fix the errors in my app if the errors in google's app to submit apps is giving me an error??" the irony 😂

What else?

The spare phone bike alarm is turning into more and more of a standalone app.

The feedback I've gotten so far ranges from "that's stupid" to "that's awesome!" which is the type of thing I prefer to develop. If everyone likes it - it might be that my feedback loop isn't quite honest enough.

The way I see it is; old phones go unused (especially if you don't have kids...) and bikes get stolen far too often. If a bike can be protected by a spare phone you would've gotten rid of anyway.

That's a win win situation IMO.

It just needs to exist - maybe it already does? I didn't do much market research at all because I'm excited about the idea. Right now, it's still in testing and development. I have high hopes to get an early version in the hands of more testers by the end of October. For now it's just in-house testing and refinement.

Hopefully by next March it'll be an app/feature actually worth using and improve from there. I try to take my time with a multiple app approach instead of cramming everything into one app because that's how I think it's best consumed, we'll see how it goes 😂

A more common bike alarm is hopefully a deterrent for bike thieves. In theory* if you don't have an old phone right now, you might by this time next year if you get a new one. *theory / making shit up.

Will it change the world? nah.

MOTOrift isn't a 'disrupt the world' style startup. We don't sell your data, which isn't something every startup can say by a long shot. We're not going anywhere, this isn't a here today gone tomorrow project, that stage is hopefully behind us.

It also means being in a hurry isn't a priority. I'd rather take a little while longer and make something better. I promise I'm not just endlessly hyping this bike alarm lol. It's a work in progress.

The world can feel so phony at times lately I just thought I'd say it outright 🤷🏼‍♂️ Some tech companies, products and projects lose sight of the core values that make software worth being trusted and used. I don't want to end up on that road.

Why a spare phone bike alarm?

I see people posting about their bike getting stolen too often to not at least try to develop an easy to setup alarm - if I can.

It's just an experiment for now and we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for reading!

Josh