Cocktails for OS X iPhone

Well, we completely blew our own deadline for the major Cocktails update we had planned for the holidays! Sorry about that, but believe me, it hurt us a lot more than it hurt you! The problem turned out to be one of those regrettable (but, at the time, unavoidable) architectural decisions we’ve lived with from the early days, and we’re now busily re-implementing the entire database infrastructure within the app. The up-side to all this additional work is that, if we’re successful, some tricky limitations will be eradicated, clearing the way for more goodies thoughout 2009.

Apple recently released version 2.2 of OS X iPhone for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Our experience with it so far is that it has significantly improved the performance of the WebKit components (web browser-related code, the same as what’s in Safari), and these optimizations are helping us out greatly with the Cocktails update we’re preparing for you. The OS X 2.2 update is highly recommended!

We’ve had an exciting month launching an unrelated, but very cool, iPhone app, Handshake. It’s free, so we definitely urge you to try it out.

Meanwhile, we’re working towards the next Cocktails update. First and foremost, that means more recipes to fill gaps that our helpful user base as brought to our attention. Second, we’re trying to make some progress towards some of the “big features” that you have been requesting. Be careful what you ask for. Third, it looks like we’re probably going to change the icon, again. While some people like the current icon, many do not and the last few weeks have convinced us that it is not working out. Oh well. We’ll keep trying until we get it right!

Version 1.2 is out the door and awaiting approval from Apple. If all goes according to plan, the update should be available early next week. Here’s what’s changed:

• new icon
• new recipes
• new preference for displaying recipes from newest to oldest
• editorial corrections
• assorted bug fixes & optimizations

For those of you keeping score, the recipes we have added in this update are mostly (but not all) from the “Dark Age of Cocktails”. They’re recipes you probably didn’t realize you were missing, but a few vocal users were clamoring for them and we aim to please. Here’s the list:

• Alabama Slammer 
• Amaretto Alexander
• Amaretto Sour 
• Dreamsicle 
• French Rose 
• Hot Apple Pie 
• Italian Stallion 
• Jade 
• Lynchburg Lemonade 
• Malibu Bay Breeze 
• Malibu Sunrise 
• Oreo Cookie 
• PB&J 
• Saketini 
• Seabreeze 
• Silver Bullet 
• Slippery Nipple 
• Suffering Bastard

Now, on to v1.3!

We’re introducing a new icon for Cocktails in the next update. The graphic was created for us by OneToad Design. We’re quite happy with it and we hope you’ll enjoy seeing it on your Springboard menu in v1.2.

We’re delighted to announce that Version 1.1. of Cocktails has been submitted to Apple for distribution! If they have no objections, the update should be available around 9/23 or 9/24.

The big news with this release is that we are going to begin distributing recipes to you from exciting contemporary mixologists at the top of their craft. We’re calling this our Contemporary Masters programme. We’re especially delighted to have gotten Jamie Boudreau as our inaugural subject: his creations exhibit a consistent balance of the impeccable taste, classic foundations, innovation and ambition idealized by cocktail afficionados while always remaining practical to execute in a bar program or at home. 

You can read more about the new Contemporary Masters programme here. You can read more about Jamie at his superb blog.

Welcome to the developer blog for Cocktails for OS X iPhone! We’ll be posting news, tips & tricks and commentary here as we evolve the Cocktails product.

For starters, who are we? I’m Martin Doudoroff, and I’m responsible for content side of Cocktails. My partner is Ian Baird, who is responsible for the application programming side of the project. We collaborate on the design of the product and the business busywork. Ian is professional programmer who, amongst other things, sells a nifty diff utility for the Mac. I’m one of the creators of CocktailDB.com.