YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – The spring season has finally come to the Tokyo area. Yet, it has been raining these days. Hopefully, we will have sunny days so that we can see beautiful cherry blossoms.

I’ve been developing apps that use CloudKit. I have a new new to announce today. This new submission to Apple’s App Store is called. Late2Office 2.

When you use public transportation to commute to your office, anything can happen that prevents you from arriving on time. It might be a matter of making a phone call with your smartphone to let your colleagues know that you are running late, provided that they are already in the office. In some countries, there might be a public rule of manners that prevents you from making phone calls inside a bus or a train. But if you want to let someone know that you are running late, then what do you do?

Late2Office 2 is an iOS app for iPhone and iPad users that lets employees report to an office manager remotely in times of commute trouble so that you won’t worry anyone when running late. An office manager can see a list of their employees and their corresponding arrival statuses.

Late2Office 2 can create different charts for the commute habits of its employees. For example, an office manager might find that one employee runs late 90% of the time because they have to take their kids to school on the way to work. In such a case, it might be a better idea for the office manager to change the work start time for this employee. Late2Office 2 is a tool for identifying issues, not one for employee surveillance. It is designed so that the office manager and employees can work together to correct commute problems, allowing the employee to keep working, as it will be beneficial for both sides to maintain a low turnover rate.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – I still don’t feel that the spring season has arrived in our area. It was unusually warm a week ago. I think the highest temperature was 20 °C. It was only 12 °C yesterday.

Anyway, It’s been only six days since I announced the last iOS app but I have a new one to introduce to you today. This new app is called. Robo Desk 2.

Robo Desk 2 is a virtual front desk assistant that is designed to answer visitors at your reception desk so that you can all concentrate on your own office assignment. If you like what Robo Desk 2 does, you can probably replace your human receptionists with an iOS device (preferably, iPad) running Robo Desk 2 in the future.

Robo Desk 2 lets you create a list of employees that your visitors to have an appointment with. It’s up to you as an office administrator to decide whether a visitor must have an appointment and select one to see. When a visitor taps the submit button, Robo Desk 2 will send a reception update to anyone responsible for the front desk. You can enlist as many front desk handlers as you need. Just send each of them an invitation. Once they accept your invitation, the handshake between the front desk handler and the administrator is complete.

So every time a visitor taps the submit button, the same reception update will reach all front desk handlers. And they will receive a notification alert. Shown in their screen is a list of visitation logs. They can select one and tap the magnifier button to see the details of the selected log.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – What an exhausting day… It’s another day of double releases. Earlier, I introduced a desktop application to you. Now, let me announce its iOS counterpart, which is called Travel Plans Mobile.

Travel Plans Mobile is a free iOS app for iPhone and iPad users. Using this app, you can directly receive your travel plan from travel agency through the iCloud server. This app is not developed for the sake of individual travelers who want to make their own itineraries. Therefore, you should talk to your travel agency and have your travel plan prepared so that you can receive it with this app.   Continue reading →