ThoughtFaqtory is looking for new talent

We are currently looking for new talent to join our team. Head over to the Careers page to find out more.

The current positions available including the skills required to perform this job effectively:

Flex developers

• Adobe Flex
• Rich Internet application development
• Strong working knowledge of usability focused interfaces
• Object-oriented programming, analysis and design with ActionScript3
• Custom Flex component development built on Adobe’s Flex framework.
• Flex-Database integration using Web Services, Flash Remoting, and/or Data Services.
• Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES/ BlazeDS, Flash Communication Server / Media Server
• Eclipse and Ant
• Java
• AJAX development experience a plus.

UI developers

• Adobe Flex
• ASP.Net
• C#
• MVC Architecture
• Silverlight
• JavaScript
• CSS
• HTML/HTML5
• XML
• AJAX

Java developers

• Oracle, MySQL
• JVM (J2EE, JDK, JRE), API, XML
• Apache Tomcat
• Spring
• Redhat, Linux, Solaris
• Hibernate / JPA / ORM
• JCR
• Any web application framework
• Java2D, PDF, Postscript programming
• GWT, AJAX development
• Test-driven development
• Adobe Flex/AIR Development a plus

iPhone/iPad developers

• Experience in iPad Development
• Expertise in Mac OS X, Objective-C 2.0, Xcode, Interface Builder, and Instruments
• Expertise in device partitioning and code signing
• Expertise in consuming web services from iOS applications
• Expertise in SQLite and database work
• Experience with SCM toolsAbility to design consistent, easy-to-use UI’s
• Mastery of iOS API’s
• Self starter, able to work independently
• Good communication skills
• Ability to explain development concepts to other developers
• Experience with Subversion
• Experience with both SOAP and REST

PruHealth and ThoughtFaqtory deliver healthier interactive lifestyle online

Award-winning health insurance provider uses the Adobe Flash Platform to create a unique interactive online service empowering customers to lead healthier, happier lives.

A new take on healthcare
For many people, the concept of wellness is relegated to an occasional visit to the doctor at the first sign of illness or for an annual check-up. But with climbing insurance premiums — particularly for employees who make contributions to employer-sponsored plans — and frequent coverage from news outlets about the dangers of an unhealthy lifestyle, more citizens are rethinking their approach to healthy living.

“We’ve always viewed ourselves as a leader and innovator in the insurance industry,” says Paulo dos Santos, CIO at PruHealth. “Encouraging and rewarding our customers with discounted premiums and other services for living a healthier lifestyle would certainly distinguish us from our competitors. We needed to create a unique program to deliver that message. Adobe software and technologies proved to be the most logical choice to achieve that goal.”

Working with our business applications development team at ThoughtFaqtory, PruHealth adopted the Adobe Flash Platform, including Adobe Flex Builder, to create an interactive online, incentive-based curriculum that encourages physical activity, healthy eating, and smoking cessation among the many ways for customers to earn redeemable points and valuable rewards. The challenge for us was to build a rich experience, that was easy to use, enjoyable to work through and be able to retain the users interest throughout the completion of the health and fitness goals process.

With the Adobe Flash Platform, PruHealth provides customers with richly detailed and dynamically animated graphs and charts, giving them a comprehensive understanding of how their habits affect their health and wellness.

Leveraging the Adobe Flash Platform and Adobe Flex Builder 3, PruHealth delivered its innovative online Vitality Interactive application, a secure online portal to accompany the long-standing Vitality Program. The dynamic portal features a range of interactive wellness tools that enable customers to create their own health and fitness goals and timelines.

“With the Adobe Flash Platform, we created a richly animated site that brings a unique visual perspective to show customers how their daily habits contribute to their overall health and wellness,” says Greg Peringuey, development manager for PruHealth Online.

The application provides customers with a questionnaire about their current lifestyle choices—exercise habits, calorie intake, and lifestyle choices, among many others. They can watch as rich-media charts and graphs update instantly with their answers to paint a comprehensive picture of lifestyle changes they can make to live healthier, and save money.

The full Adobe Success Story is available here.

Checking for function availability in iPhone OS

Since the introduction of the iPad (OS3.2) and iPhone 4 (iOS4), developers have to consider building applications for different versions of the SDK.

We are currently working on an iPhone app that supports version 3.1 to 4.0.1. With the introduction of iOS4 and the iPhone 4 Retina display, we can take advantage of the function UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions to create higher resolution snap shots.

To check if the function is available at runtime, you can compare it to NULL instead of having to lookup what version of the OS the user is running.

if (UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions != NULL)
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(size, NO, 0.0);
else
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(size);
}

For more information check out this article http://iphonedevelopertips.com/xcode/base-sdk-and-iphone-os-deployment-target-developing-apps-with-the-4-x-sdk-deploying-to-3-x-devices.html and Apple’s iOS Application Programming Guide has more information on Supporting High-Resolution Screens.

Apple iPhone 4 Ad featuring Facetime

Apple iPhone 4 Ad featuring Facetime from Simon Barber on Vimeo.

“FaceTime works right out of the box — no need to set up a special account or screen name. And using FaceTime is as easy as it gets. Let’s say you want to start a video call with your best friend. Just find her entry in your Contacts and tap the FaceTime button. Or maybe you’re already on a voice call with her and you want to switch to video. Just tap the FaceTime button on the Phone screen. Either way, an invitation pops up on her iPhone 4 screen asking if she wants to join you. When she accepts, the video call begins. It’s all perfectly seamless. And it works in both portrait and landscape modes.”

To learn more about Facetime click here.

Apple iPad New TV Ad

Apple iPad TV Ad on Vimeo.

We (ThoughtFaqtory) have been lucky enough to get our hands on a few of these slick iPads, even though we reside in Cape Town, South Africa. The obviously needed them for development purposes, to test our software products on the device. It turns out that running our application on the simulator is a far different experience than on an actual device.

Here is something to keep you excited while waiting patiently for them to arrive in your country.

ThoughtFaqtory’s mobile development services

ThoughtFaqtory originally offered development services on Adobe Flex and AIR platforms. We have created many great experiences for small to large corporations in the USA, Europe and South Africa.

At the end of last year, we decided to embark on offering services in the mobile space. The type of platforms we currently develop for are iPhone, iPad, Android and Adobe Flash Platform for mobile devices. We actually have a few iPad’s floating around the office. Another technology we are looking forward to this year is AIR for Android, Flash Player 10.1 for mobile devices and Flex Mobile Framework (codenamed Slider). This is very exciting, because it allows our company to leverage existing ActionScript 3 skills and apply them to mobile devices.

We forsee that from 2010, there is going to be large demand for development of custom software solutions on mobile devices. A number of our team members are currently working on iPhone and iPad solutions for products that already have a web presence. Many companies are creating mobile experiences from existing products that are already available to the public. Then there are the products exclusive to mobile devices such as Foursquare and Gowalla, these types of products require location-based services function correctly.

ThoughtFaqtory is looking forward to this year as the mobile development space heats up.

See you at Net Prophet 2010 event on the 13th May 2010, Mutual Park, Pinelands, Cape Town.