STORC 1.1 released, now FREE!

The latest version of STORC, my Playbook app for tracking contractions (first tested almost one year ago with the birth of my son) is now live (http://bit.ly/kGNVuw). There are a couple new features including smoother scrolling for the charts, and a feedback link that should help users contact me if they have issues.

The other big change is the price. The app is now free. I didn't put in any advertisements, but I did add a notice about Cord Blood banking, including a referral link that we would benefit from if people use it. My wife and I feel very strongly that Cord Blood banking, while not for everyone due to financial constraints, is something that every expecting parent should at least be informed about.

While we're on that topic, I might as well take the opportunity  to talk about cod blood banking. At birth, the blood in a baby's umbilical cord contains stem cells. A lot of stem cells. These are the same stem cells you hear about in the news, being possible treatments for diseases that are otherwise difficult to treat. And it is not just research for the future. In a lot of cases, stem cells are already being used successfully (leukemia is the most common example). The controversies surrounding stem cell research don't really need to be considered, since the cells from the cord blood already belong to your baby. It is a chance to save stem cells perfectly matched to your child, just in case. But it truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity, as they must be collected at birth, and arrangements need to be made with the your doctor and the banking company ahead of time. The trouble is, not many expecting parents seem to know much about it, and I believe doctors are reluctant to advocate it, due to the costs. 


There are a few different companies that do cord blood banking, and there are fees for collection and for storage, so parents need to do their own research. Even those that choose not to bank, should still consider donation, since this is something that could save a life, but will just been thrown away as waste if no plan is made.

We recently learned that for us, as a mixed race couple, cord blood banking is actually even more important than we first thought. We read an article about a sick child that was desparately seeking bone marrow donors, but because of his mixed race heritage, a match was unlikely. If our son were to need such a donor, he would also have problems matching, but his cord blood could be used to treat that same disease (some form of anemia, I believe).

Anyway, those are my thoughts. If anyone is interested in contacting the company we used to bank our son's cord blood, the Cord Blood Registry, please feel free to use the referral link below (Full Disclosure: referrals will give us credit towards the banking of our son's cord blood).
http://www.cordblood.com/landing/referral?contactid=1-SSKNS4

storc has a customer or two

I just learned that I finally have a couple paying customers for my labor contraction tracking app, storc for the playbook. Nobody has written a review yet, so I still don't know how it was received, but it is nice to know that someone out there might be using it. I look forward to the prospect of some feedback.

I hope that I can release it soon for some more platforms, and hopefully reach a wider audience.

storc gets live test! (now I'm a daddy)

Last week we ran through the live test of storc, my app for the Blackberry Playbook for tracking contractions. It worked as advertised, and helped us to identify when to call our doctor an head to the hospital. No sales or reviews yet, but its out there, and it works!

Oh, and by the way, the next day our beautiful baby boy arrived. That was kinda important too.

storc, my second app, is now available

Yesterday, I released my second app for the BlackBerry Playbook: storc: a Simple Timer of Recurring Contractions. My wife and I are expecting our first child in the next two weeks, and I thought something like this might be useful, both to myself and to others. You can check it out here: http://bit.ly/kGNVuw

storc asks you to press a button when a contraction starts and when it ends, repeating multiple times. Then it will summarize how long each contraction was, and what the time between contractions was. These are questions that we'll need to answer for our doctor to help him decide when it is time to go into the hospital for delivery. You can also see all this data in a history list, and in two different charts.

It was an entirely original idea, but apparently I'm not the first. When I was all done and ready to release, I searched AppWorld, and found several others already in place. It's a simple concept, so there isn't much to differentiate, but I believe my implementation is more complete than others (storc is the only app to include charts), and, in my opinion at least, has the most pleasing UI. Of course, storc is by far and away the best name!

I guess we'll have have to wait and see if Playbook users agree.