This is how it all began

Over the Christmas break I was cleaning out the storage room in our basement and came across a box of my old programming books. Inside the box was a binder with some of my app ideas, and some old code.

If you are unfamiliar with my app story you can read more here. Reality is, I love apple products and I love my iPhone. When the app store started I really wanted to create an app. I didn’t have the money to start a business or hire a programmer, and I certainly had no idea how to program anything. But, I was determined to get an app on the app store.

So, I bought a book on building apps. I realized that somewhere down the line that book was not going to help me because it was too complex. So I bought another, and another, until I understood what I needed to build an app. I needed to display a question from a set of random questions on the screen.

Unfortunately, I realized very quickly that I would need to code in order to accomplish this very simple task. Here is my first shot at building code, I checked this from three different books and all three seemed to agree that this method might achieve what I wanted to do. What a gong show. So I tried it out, I got error after error but finally my words showed up on the screen like I wanted them to.

Then, I needed to build a random set of questions that would appear whenever the user clicked the screen. Here is a portion of that preliminary code.

For those of you who actually are programmers this code will most likely seem rudimentary and broken but this is what I gleaned from reading the manuals and textbooks. Obviously this code went through a few iterations as well before it actually worked.

Here is one more page of code that I found in that binder. This code did not work at all and was never used in the final app but it’s exciting to me to see what I was attempting to do when moving from knowing nothing about code to actually building my own line of conversation starter apps.

Now, I am reading some more tutorial books focussed on learning a new programming language, Swift. Hopefully soon I will be able to incorporate what I am learning in my current apps and hopefully build some brand new apps that I have been dreaming about for a very long time.

As always, thanks for the downloads and have a great day.

Chet Kennedy

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Ask Me Anything for Teens App Preview featuring Transit

 

I’ve released a brand new App Preview for my favourite app, Ask Me Anything for Teens.

After I built the preview I realized that it would be better with a proper soundtrack. So, I texted my friend Transit, the Critically Acclaimed Hip Hop Artist who has toured all over the world, and asked him if I could use my favourite song of His “Go Get em’ kid” and he said “sure.”  So that’s exactly what I did.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Transit you can check out his youtube channel or download his songs from itunes.  Or you can check out his latest viral video right here.

As always, thanks for the downloads and have a great day.

Chet

Ask Me Anything for Couples 2.0 is Available on the App Store

 

Ask Me Anything for Couples 2.0 is Available on the App Store.

I’m very excited for you to try it. It’s a whole different experience visually and I hope that you love it.

I took the time to choose a background that was beautiful enough for the ladies but not so girlish that men would be embarrassed . Not an easy task.

It was designed from the ground up to be a Universal App which means it will run flawlessly on all of your iOS devices, and, as a free update it’s available on all your devices without having to pay anything more.

You’re welcome.

This new update has more questions in more categories so there is even more great things inside the app. The questions come from my personal experience, from my professional experience and from my research and reading. There are fun questions, awkward questions, painful questions and some that might even start a few fights. I apologize in advance but I hope that the struggle leads to a better understanding between you and your partner.

If you are looking to take a test drive why not check out my brand new app preview video on youtube.

Thank you for checking out the website and my line of conversation starter apps. I hope you love this new version of Ask Me Anything for Couples 2.0 and will leave me some great reviews.

Have a great day and thanks for the downloads.

 

Ask Me Anything for Couples Video Walkthrough

Ask Me Anything for Couples version 2.0 will be available on Monday December 15.

This new update includes a brand new design with a much more attractive and easy to read format. I’m so excited for you to see the improvements I’ve made. It looks better, works better and works great on all your devices, including iPad and the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

In celebration of the release of Ask Me Anything for Couples 2.0 I am releasing this Video Walkthrough of the app so that you can get a preview of what you will see when your app updates.

As you can see it’s a fairly substantial update from the previous version. I have added a Bold New Look which I think is easier to view and feels more comfortable in all situations. I have added a Married category which allowed me to adapt some questions from my research on marriage and married couples. I’ve also added another 50 questions to the app.

I hope you enjoy this Video Walkthrough and your new Ask Me Anything for Couples 2.0 update will be available on Monday December 15.

Merry Christmas!

Ask Me Anything for Families is Free for the next 24 hours

Ask Me Anything for Couples version 2.0 will be available on Monday December 15.

This new update includes a brand new design with a much more attractive and easy to read format. I’m so excited for you to see the improvements I’ve made. It looks better, works better and works great on all your devices, including iPad and the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

I’ve also added a new category for married couples so that you can dig deeper into your relationship than a dating couple might be able to.

In celebration of the release of Ask Me Anything for Couples 2.0 I have made another of my relationship apps Ask Me Anything for Families available for free for the next 24 hours. I wanted my friends, users and followers to be the first to know so I am throwing this announcement up on my website and social networks.

Ask Me Anything for Families is also in the middle of a huge new update, here is a sneak peak of the new design.

p.s. This sale is only for 24 hours so don’t delay. If you enjoy Ask Me Anything for Families please leave me a 5 star Review.

p.s.s. I am currently working on a Huge update for Ask Me Anything for Families. If you have any suggestions or ways to improve it I would love to hear from you.

Ask Me Anything for Engaged Couples is Free for 24 hours

Ask Me Anything for Couples version 2.0 will be available on Monday December 15, one week from Today.

Ask Me Anything for Couples was the first app I ever designed. I built it to help couples learn to communicate.

Ask Me Anything for Couples 2.0 is the biggest update I have ever done on an app. It was designed from the ground up to be a Universal app which means that it works on iPhones and iPads. It also works on the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It now includes 650 relationship questions.

In my work I do a lot of reading and when I come across words or phrases that I think would pertain to a particular app I make a note. Any reading I do that pertains to couples or relationships adds to my research and my raw material as I build onto these apps. I have worked with many couples over the years in premarital counselling and I have often used these same questions in our sessions.

In celebration of the release of Ask Me Anything for Couples 2.0 I have made Ask Me Anything for Engaged Couples available for free for the next 24 hours. I wanted my friends, users and followers to be the first to know so I am throwing this announcement up on my website and social networks.

p.s. This sale is only for 24 hours so don’t delay. If you enjoy Ask Me Anything for Engaged Couples please leave me a 5 star Review.

p.s.s. I am currently working on an update for Ask Me Anything for Engaged Couples. If you have any suggestions or ways to improve it I would love to hear from you.

Ask Me Anything for Zombies?

According to my iTunes Connect stats over 28,000 of you have copies of Ask Me Anything for Teens. I thought it was about time that I let you in on a little secret. In February of 2012 I uploaded an app to the app store that I wrote with some of my friends called Ask Me Anything for Criminals.  It was kind of a spoof and we were planning to release it for April Fool’s Day but of course it got rejected by Apple for being too stupid. My friends and I were at a retreat together and we literally stayed up all night making up these ridiculous questions and categories. We had a section for pirates, ninjas, criminals and zombies. By the end of the retreat we had almost 400 questions and were very excited to see the app released and find out if anyone else would enjoy our bizarre sense of humour.

When apple rejected the app I lost interest and decided to keep working on my regular apps but since that time the popularity of zombies has grown. As I speak to more and more teenagers I realize that some of them are absolutely obsessed with zombies, watching zombie tv shows, zombie movies even reading zombie comics and novels. So I decided to dig up that old program from 2012 and see if I can’t throw some of those questions into my most popular paid app, Ask Me Anything for Teens.

Here’s the thing… I didn’t tell apple about this category, because its a secret. If apple finds out they will program reject my binary and I will have to remove this category from my app so… don’t tell apple, please. Ask Me Anything for Zombies is embedded in your copy of Ask Me Anything for Teens 2.0, here’s how to get to it.

First you will need to find the menu button at the bottom right of the opening screen.

This button is on every one of my apps. It gets you from the main screen to the categories screen. Surprisingly many users have never used this button and find great joy when they suddenly discover it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you press this button you will be taken to the first menu screen. On this screen you can choose categories, the about menu or instructions. Choose the categories button. The screen you should be on looks like this. The tricky part is that I have made the button for Ask Me Anything for Zombies extremely small. If you tap anywhere on the top right hand of the screen you should be able to find the invisible button that will take you to Ask Me Anything for Zombies.

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like this. 

In it you will find some great questions that you might want to ask a zombie if you ever meet one. Hopefully, this new category will just make you laugh. It was designed for your amusement. If you laugh then I am happy.

Have a great day.

Chet Kennedy

300 Likes on Facebook

300 Likes, That’s incredible! Almost half of those likes came from India in the last two weeks. To Celebrate this momentous occasion I will be giving away all of my apps for the next 24 hours.

Yes, that’s right. All my paid apps will be free for the next 24 hours to celebrate 300 likes on Facebook.

Enjoy the downloads. Thanks for the likes and the increased web traffic. I hope you enjoy my apps.

Have a great day.

Restoring the Lost Art of Conversation…

Restoring the lost art of conversation… one app at a time.

Ask Me Anything apps were built upon the foundational truth that communication brings strength to any relationship. No matter where you live, what your relationships look like, or how connected you truly are to the people in your life, all of us need better communication.

If you are in sales, marketing, business, or retail you need to know how to communicate. If you are in education, social work, athletics, or Human Relations you need to know how to communicate. If you are in IT, call centres, customer service or trades you need to know how to communicate. No matter where you work, you need to know how to communicate to be successful.

Conversation is a lost art, we have lost the ability to look one another in the eyes. The ability to listen and to hear. The ability to share our words with one another. We are more comfortable with who ever is in the world than who is in the room next to us.

Ask Me Anything Apps were created to help humans interact with other humans. It’s that simple.

For your relationships I have created 3 separate apps. Ask Me Anything for Couples, Engaged Couples and Families. Each one unique in how they are designed and the focus that they have.

 

For your general conversations I have also created 2 apps that bring people together through the powerful medium of conversation starters. Ask Me Anything for Teens and Ask Me Anything for Adults.

 

Download these apps today and start communicating for a change.

 

My hope is that your relationships will be strengthened as you begin to relearn the lost art of conversation… one app at a time.

Chet Kennedy

Major updates coming for two of my favourite apps.

I am currently working on two large updates for two of my favourite apps. The app that started them all, Ask Me Anything for Couples is receiving a major facelift, I am adding more questions and have built an entire new category with questions just for married couples. I am excited to finally release this app, for those of you who don’t know the story Ask Me Anything for Couples was my first iPhone app. While developing it I built the structure and the format for every app that would come after it. The Free version of Ask Me Anything for Couples had over 14,000 downloads and is still being accessed everyday by people all over the world. I hope that this app is helping you strengthen your relationships, that’s what it was built for.

Ask Me Anything for Families is also receiving a major facelift and I am in the process of writing over 200 new questions for the app. I am also developing a new format that I am currently calling the Conversation Flow system. My first crack at this format will be to help parents have a coaching conversation with their children. I believe this new system will help parents walk their kids through a decision making process that is both guided and open ended enough that it will work for many decisions. I am still working on this process and will test it out on my kids first. I am excited to present both of these apps to you over the next two months.

one more thing…

I have been working on another app with my Dad. He was instrumental in building Ask Me Anything for Job Interviews and he has built questions for another incredible app. Ask Me Anything for Leaders is designed to provide men and women in leadership with great questions. Sometimes in leadership a great question is worth more than the answer. Sometimes when making tough decisions a brilliant question is all you need.

Coming in the Fall of 2014 Ask Me Anything for Leaders.