Back in November 2011, we announced that we were starting a long-overdue update of the BioGPS iPhone app. We’d intended to post periodic updates of that process here on the blog, but the holidays and grant deadlines conspired to make that impossible.

Nevertheless, the Optra team has made impressive progress so far, and we are currently on prototype number 5. Check out some of these screenshots…

A quick note on our outsourcing experience. We’ve pretty much stopped our weekly phone conferences in favor of emails, and there have so far been no misunderstandings arising from the lack of phone contact. The biggest concern now is how to wrap up the many loose ends that invariably exist as a project nears “completion”. As is often attributed to Neil Rubenking, “Writing the first 90 percent of a computer program takes 90 percent of the time. The remaining ten percent also takes 90 percent of the time and the final touches also take 90 percent of the time.”

The new app is much improved relative to the current version in terms of both interface and functionality. Only a few last details need to be cleared up before it’s ready for release. For those who are anxious to give it a try, email us at biogpsdotadminatgmaildotcom and we’ll select a few lucky respondents as beta testers.