Dave Metzener (@vesperdem), a software developer from Manchester, Missouri, has the Appolicious Top 10 Collector Badge with over 3400 apps in his app library. He’s been an Apple fan since 1979, when he typed away at his Apple ][.
1. Tell us about yourself – where you live, your job, things you like to do.
I’m a computer enthusiast from way back to 1979 when I got my first computer. An Apple II. I took to it like a bee to honey and learned just about all that I could about it. I studied the Monitor ROM in 6502 assembly and before I moved on from the Apple IIe and GS, I had pretty much written a DOS for it. It was for a company I was working for to protect the software we were selling.
I worked for educational software companies during my early career (Milliken Publishing Co and Siboney Learning Group). Then I moved to a gaming company called Simutronics, helping them out with CyberStrike II and their MMORPG called GemStone. After that, I found a job with SirsiDynix, a company that makes software for libraries, and then moved to Mobile Armor, a security software company specializing in mobile phones and notebook computers. The last two were working in quality assurance instead of programming, but I was ready for that change.
Unfortunately, I’m currently unemployed and finding it difficult to find work due to an illness, ulcerative colitis, that is keeping me at bay. Interestingly, I just read that one of the founding developers of Portal has the illness too and it was so bad for him, that he checked himself into a hospital to deal with it. Mine wasn’t quite that bad, but it was still pretty nasty. I was getting flare-ups about three times a week at its peek and lost over 60 pounds. I’m now on medication that keeps the flare-ups pretty minor in pain, but I’m still getting them between two and four times a month.
2. Which iOS device or devices do you own?
I currently have an original generation iPhone, a white iPhone 3G that my wife uses, and an iPhone 4 that I use. I also have an iPad (first gen).
I chose iPhone because I knew that Apple would do it right and after seeing the keynote that Steve gave announcing the iPhone, I was hooked. The iPhone interface for making phone calls and interacting with them is true genius and anyone can pick up an iPhone and know how to do even the most complicated things like conference calls with just taps of the screen.
By the time that the iPad came out, I had well over 2,000 applications and knew that I was locked into the iOS world because of it.
I have absolutely no regrets there, since seeing how poorly the Android OS is being handled by Google and the carriers that are carrying the phones/tablets, it’s clear that Android has a long way to go before it can be as good as iOS and the iPhone/iPad. Android’s fragmentation between carriers and the number of different devices makes it a big question mark – are you buying the correct device that will be supported as well as iOS devices? Just look at Netflix on Android. Only five devices can play videos on them, and if you root the device to make it play Netflix movies, you won’t be able to buy or rent movies from the Android marketplace. Let’s also not forget the potential virus threat that Android has seen so far.
Windows Phone 7 has great potential, but with its issues of not being updated with Microsoft updates because of the carriers, not to mention the bugs that have afflicted Windows Phone 7 updates in the past, they have a while to go before they are a decent contender as well.
Three adjectives… fast, gorgeous, fun!
3. Is there a particular category of apps that interests you the most?
Well, my biggest collection of apps are games. However, I do have quite a few camera apps for the iPhone as well as weather apps. I also use Grocery iQ for going grocery shopping. It’s hands down the best grocery list application there is.
Lately weather apps have been used the most on my iPad since, for some strange reason, St. Louis has been hammered with tornados lately. One hitting Lambert field airport and taking out a quarter of the facility. Just recently Joplin was almost wiped off the map due to a three+ mile wide F5 with multiple vortexes. Up until this year, Missouri would see maybe a tornado every couple of years. We have seen five or six so far and it’s only been five months. As I write this, there are tornado watches for the area as yet another strong system passes through the area. (There go the sirens now…)
I am quickly approaching 3,500 apps.
4. What are your top apps and why?
Grocery iQ – As stated above, GroceryIQ has shaved probably half an hour a week off my grocery shopping thanks to the fact I can sort the items on my list in the order they appear in the store so that I don’t have to randomly walk through the store finding items.
MLB at Bat 2011 – I’m a big baseball fan (Cardinals) and it’s MLB at Bat that allows me to listen to the games. I can even watch the game condensed if I feel like it after the game is over. Great app!
iTeleport – I can access my desktop and notebook computers with iTeleport and VNC installed on the computers so that I don’t have to physically be at them in order to do certain things I may need to do.
2Do – This app is my life saver for reminding me to take my pills as well as other important chores. 2Do along with mCal/mCal HD keep me in sync with my schedule so that I don’t miss appointments or other important things.
Audible – I have a fair collection of audiobooks I have purchased from Audible that I have access to with the Audible app in such a way as I don’t have to sync them with my iDevices. I can just download the current book I am listening to and remove it when I am finished. I couldn’t live without Audible.
5. What apps are popular among your colleagues and friends?
Of the people I know that have iPhones and iPads, I would have to say writing apps like Elements or PlainText, File apps like GoodReader and Dropbox, Twitter and recently Tweetbot, and pretty much everyone I know has Angry Birds. Who doesn’t, when you consider over 200 million downloads.
6. Give an example of a time an app was truly useful to you.
So far, the Google Maps app has saved my bacon a couple of times when I got lost trying to get somewhere. I have since purchased MotionX GPS Drive for turn-by-turn voice directions at three dollars a month when needed. Cheapest and best turn-by-turn app in the App Store.
7. What other Appolicious member do you admire the most and why?
@sharakarasic and @steveh01 because of the number of app reviews that they have actually written. Sure, I have rated a few of my 3,400+ apps, but so far less than one percent of all the apps I have so far. You guys have really gone out of your way to review the apps you own. Very impressive!
8. Do you have a blog? Are you on Twitter?
My blog is at http://www.metzener.com/, my Twitter account is @vesperdem, and my facebook account is http://www.facebook.com/dave.metzener.
9. Anything else you’d like to share with the Appolicious audience?
Just that Appolicious is pretty much the best social app experience on the web. Appolicious is best for discovering apps that others like yourself are interested in and to truly see if an app is as good as the developers claim it is.
Check out vesperdem’s Appolicious App Library here.
