The purpose of this article is to present several technical design concepts implemented and proven to work well for over one year, since the first release of the Mac version of LiveChat operator application.

Back in 2010 when I started implementing the Mac version, the main task was to reach the feature level of the Windows version (developed for several years) as fast as possible, and also to prepare ground for an upcoming iOS version (available now in App Store). At that time I neither had access to the Windows version’s source code, nor was going to reuse any of it. Therefore I have settled the following constraints that yielded the following results (described in detail in following sections):

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iGotuję created by nanoANT together with Alternative Studio is first Polish application branded by celebrity. Ewa Wachowicz, Miss Polonia 1992 and 3rd Vice-miss World, presents 60 original recipes and 15 movies. Click the icon to get more information and see the UI in action.

Yesterday yet another nice little app produced by me was accepted into App Store. You may read original release note at LiveChat blog.

This app is not just a companion app for desktop LiveChat version, but is full fledged client for iPhone, letting you monitor your website activity live and chat with customers. Of course this is just a beginning, so expect new features coming soon with the updates.

Network enabled apps such as news aggregators, blogging clients often load lots of small files, such as thumbnails, trough HTTP connection. Usually we expect that such application is: (1) responsive (does not block scrolling while loading), (2) it does load thumbnails almost realtime.

I suppose the first thing everybody tries is calling [UIImage imageWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:someURL]]. There is nothing wrong with it, except it make your UI stutter and load images painfully slow. After trying that one may think of using background threads, NSOperationQueue, or something like that, but still any modern web browser loads those images much faster when they are embedded into regular web page than your application. Wonder why?

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Update: Public Beta has been just released for download on LiveChat for Mac page.

I am proud to announce my company was hired to create Mac version of LiveChat operator software. The application just entered alpha-phase and today closed tests were started. I hope too that the new refreshing LiveChat icon (on the right) designed by me will be the cherry on the project’s pie.

LiveChat provides innovative web based customer support solutions including live web statistics and live customer chat. The company has great potential and impressive customer base, so you may be interested to follow their Twitter feed too here.

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