Excitement for Mobility!

About Sandcrater Software

Small, mobile devices have always captured our attention. Early fascination with devices such as the Newton, Message Pad, Palm Pilot led to exploration of writing programs for such devices beginning with the PalmOS SDK. While writing shrink-wrapped software for desktop computers was becoming increasingly difficult for small companies when pitted against larger corporations with an extensive advantage in resources, the playing field was more level in the domain of mobile devices. When Apple announced the concept of the AppStore in 2008 the last hurdle was removed for small companies and independent developers alike. After experimenting with and gaining experience with the iPhoneOS SDK as part of his duties in Cornell University's central IT organization, Sandcrater's founder Ron DiNapoli began furthering his knowledge and experience with this toolset in 2009. Ron wrote a sports coaching application called with "Hockey Whiteboard" -- released in March of 2009. Since then 5 more sports white board applications have been released as well as a calendar application that provides supplemental functionality to the built in Calendar application in iOS for users of the Microsoft Exchange calendaring environment.

The mobile landscape is always changing. High end Android based smart phones are becoming more common and Google has an application store ecosystem similar to Apple's "AppStore". While a more challenging environment to conquer given the broad diversity in devices and the wider distribution of versions of the Android OS "in production", Sandcrater is beginning to get up to speed on this exciting side of mobility as well. Sandcrater Software strives to be on top of the mobile landscape so as to be in a position to provide expert consulting/advice for those who need it.

In addition to writing software for iOS devices, Ron has extensive experience programming in C/C++ on multiple platforms and has worked in both the private and higher education sectors--having gained exposure and experience in many areas of IT in the process. Please review our Expertise and Consulting sections of our web site for more detailed information.

 

Our History

Mobility has always had our attention. After a number of years of being interested in devices such as the Newton and Message Pad, as well as having dabbled in developing for PalmOS and Windows PocketPC/WinCE, Sandcrater Software was formed when Apple announced the availability of the iPhoneOS SDK.

2008 - Ron signs up to become an independent iPhone developer. He had a couple of ideas for applications but was more interested in understanding how to interact with Apple as an independent developer. Ron's duties at Cornell required that he be up to date on Apple's Enterprise iPhone Developer program and this provided the opportunity to understand the non-enterprise program.

2009 - While volunteering as an assistant coach on his son's 7-8 year old hockey team, Ron has the idea to use an iPhone application in place of a coach's dry erase white board to show players how to move around the ice. He developed a very simple application named "Hockey Whiteboard" that showed a series of player "dots" on an image of a hockey rink that could be moved by touching and dragging. While there were some other strategy boards available at the time, most simply allowed for users to draw lines with their fingers. Hockey Whiteboard was the first to place shapes on the surface for players that could be moved around the ice with a dragging motion..

2009-2011 - More sports whiteboard applications were developed for soccer, basketball and baseball. Apple unveiled the iPad which seemed a natural fit for the sports white board applications. Work began on creating new versions that could take advantage of the larger screens on these devices. Ron was contacted by an assistant coach for a NCAA Field Hockey program and asked to provide a version for Field Hockey. During the process Ron learned that a number of collegiate programs were using the sports white board applications.

2012 - Ron began pursuing iOS application development full time. While the sandcrater.com domain had been registered for some time, Ron files a DBA in the county clerk's office to make Sandcrater Software an official company name. The sports white board applications were re-written to take advantage of features present in iOS 5.0 and later as well as to make it very easy to add new sports if needed. Ron enlisted the help of a graphic artist to provide much nicer graphics for all applications. The first non-sports application (MiniECal) was released.

2013 - present - Sandcrater Software continues to support and improve existing products as well as provide consulting services.