This app is intended for Portuguese speaking users who want to quickly know important information about Portugal, written in Portuguese.
The app allows users to read information from different newspapers, see the latest covers of Portuguese newspapers, check the weather forecast in Portugal and read their horoscope.
To get the app, just search “O Dia em 5 Minutos” at the AppStore (available worldwide). Release date is 29th August 2011 (two or three hours after this post 
).
I’m currently starting development on two iPhone apps.
One is an utility targeting the international market. If I were an iPhone user, which I’m not since I only use iOS devices for debugging products, I would definitely use this app every day. Unfortunately, I’m a Blackberry user and releasing a Blackberry version isn’t a priority at this point.
The second iPhone project is a return to game development. There are some elements pretty well established such as game objective, options, screen flow, story, etc. One thing I’m still to decide is whether to make it 2D top-view or 3D.
Besides software, I’ve been looking into renewable energies lately. My work is software, but I feel it is time to look into other opportunities of engineering as well. Hopefully I’ll have something in that field ready to announce here by January or February 2012.
It took a few months, since I decided to start working as independent developer, to finally make a transitions from being mainly a third-party development service provider, to have the time and resources to start releasing my own products. Best of all, to make this step I didn’t need business investors and it was all from zero thanks to hard work, moral support from family and girlfriend, and… a lot less nights of sleep of course. 
A few months ago I was really happy to see Nokia signing an agreement with Microsoft to have Nokia phones using WindowsPhone OS.
Nokia’s been a great device manufacturer for the last years and Microsoft is (despite all those hate comments from Apple fanboys, wannabe Apple fanboys and Linux geeks) one of the best software developers.
The first phones that benefit from this union should be released in October. Because of that, I have plans to release a game by then targeting the Nokias, once again.
Next week I’ll be releasing what is my last iPhone app for a while, as independent developer, specifically targeting the Portuguese market. It will be a news related app.
After this one, I’ll focus on game development for the international market while continuing to work as a mobile development service provider.
Speaking of games, I’d like to thank Mr Zagalo for the interview and wish him luck with his research for a book about the history of game development in Portugal.
Leaving software and moving to sports and martial arts.
Although I’m currently living at Covilhã for the duration of two months, I visited Coimbra a week ago to lecture a class on the martial application of Taekwondo. The class was part of the training for Taekwondo assistant instructors and was sponsored by ADTC (Coimbra District Taekwondo Association). Special thanks to Mr Machado for the invitation.
I’ll be staying in Covilhã for a while working, but also enjoying learning new martial arts techniques and tactics in a great environment to workout in open air.
As the projects with tight schedule come to an end and new ones are only going to start in two weeks, I’ll use this precious free time to rest while calmly finish a much necessary website to promote my software development services as well as develop an iPhone/iPad puzzle game as independent.
I was invited to teach, on the 31st July, a 4 hour class on the martial application of Taekwondo for the Assistant Taekwondo Instructor Course being promoted by the Taekwondo Association of Coimbra District.
Classes will be held at Santa Clara Club in Coimbra during the morning.
The topics of the class are a review of fundamental technique, vital points, stages of training from technique learning to actual combat application, mental preparedness, training methods and different teaching approaches between adults and children.
I sometimes feel I’m limited in what I can do with my programming due to not having hands on experiencing in electronics. So I decided this year I’ll start using 3 to 4 hours of my week to play around with electronics. Being able to design some hardware should open some doors allowing me to develop new mobile projects I previously did not attempt since hardware development was required.
Of particular interest is what can be done with piezoelectric materials, so I’ll likely start testing some projects that use them.
