Stashpix lets you find and leave behind photos wherever you go. Instead of broadcasting them to your friends far and wide, they are left for others to discover only when they are near the stash – at the moment or in the future.

Based on feedback from users, Stashpix 2.0 introduces several new features to enhance this unique experience.

In addition to showing the stashes at your location, Stashpix now shows you the distance and direction to the 10 next-nearest stashes. So, you’ll always be able to find the stashes closest to you.

Second, stashes you have created can be viewed on a world map, in addition to a list view, allowing you to view their contents and remember your travels.

Finally, you can now add pictures to stashes you’ve created even after you’ve left the location, for 7 days. This way, you can make a stash in-the-moment, then curate it later, and/or add images from your DSLR.

In a world full of photo sharing apps, Stashpix offers a truly unique experience. If you’re not already a Stashpix user, visit stashpix.com and be sure to watch the short animated video that explains the core philosophy of the app.

As always, we welcome feedback at feedback@stashpix.com

Anonymous control isn’t too hard; you can merely generate a UUID and make that the key to everything the user does.  But that key is stored in the app’s sandbox, and if the app gets deleted, so does the ID.

It’s also specific to the device on which the app was launched.  Previously, we captured the device’s UDID and associated it with the user’s UUID, so we could recover the UUID if the app was deleted.

This still didn’t give the user control of the same stashes on all of his iOS devices.  I was preparing to implement a solution for this; it would involve the user manually identifying a secondary device as having the same owner as the first, through a special procedure that would have the server return the “master” UUID to the secondary device and consolidate the database entries to that UUID.  Then iCloud came along and provided what looked like an excellent solution to the whole dilemma.

We use iCloud’s key/value store to give a user control of his stashes across all of his iOS devices. This works well, but as others have documented, iCloud has a way to go before it’s a mature solution.

Right off the bat, iCloud calls simply didn’t work.  Lacking any real feedback mechanism, they simply returned “NO”.  I finally had to open a support incident with Apple.  The technician gave me a couple of commands to activate iCloud logging, and simply executing these commands broke whatever logjam had prevented iCloud from working.  I didn’t change a line of code or single project setting.  To this day we don’t know what the problem was.

Another important tidbit about iCloud is that your app can be throttled, and this too will cause your iCloud usage to mysteriously fail.  The documentation does not convey this; it simply says that frequent accesses will make it more likely that updates will be deferred. But the calls in code will fail.  Apple refused to tell me what the threshold is for throttling. Can I step through my code twice in a minute?  Five minutes?  Of course there’s no API call to find out if you’re being throttled.

There’s also no apparent way to find out if your local key/value store has EVER synced with iCloud. There is an “initial sync” notification that you might get if the user’s iCloud account contains a different value for a key than the local store, but what happens if the user’s iCloud store is empty? What if the local store is empty?  Does that notification still occur?  The documentation doesn’t say.

And not surprisingly all the iCloud calls are asynchronous, so the app has to find some way of operating while it waits to hear back from iCloud (if indeed it ever does).  In our case, if we don’t get the user’s ID from iCloud, we have to generate a new one and operate the way we did in previous versions.  If we subsequently get a different ID from iCloud, we have to reconcile anything the user might have done with the temporary ID.

Apple does admonish programmers not to store critical info in iCloud, but they go on to give examples that do require immediate results from iCloud in order to be useful.  For example, you might want to store which page of an article the user was reading on one device, so he opens right up to that page on another.  Or where the user was in the movie he was watching on his computer, so we can go to that spot when he switches to his iPad. Since we don’t know how long it might take to hear back from iCloud, your app may need to implement quite a bit of state-checking to handle a delayed return from iCloud gracefully.

Further complicating this are cases where the user activates iCloud after using the app for a while, or even changes the iCloud ID under which the device is operating.  We have a lot of logic to compare user info stored in user defaults against the “ubiquitous key/value store”; and then we have to figure out if the local key/value store is synced with iCloud’s.

There’s a pretty good rundown on the problems developers have faced with iCloud thus far here: http://www.macstories.net/stories/iclouds-first-six-months-the-developers-weigh-in

Update 3/31/13: More developers rail against the state of iCloud:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/frustrated-with-icloud-apples-developer-community-speaks-up-en-masse

Apple needs to get the API in shape for this thing, because it could be a great resource for developers.

• Photo filters via Aviary
• iCloud support so users can maintain stashes from multiple devices
• Adjustable stash radius
• Restricted stashes
• An improved UI
• And numerous performance and reliability improvements

It’s a free upgrade for existing users, and we’re sticking with the introductory price of 99 cents for new users.

We also have a fun new video on our website: www.stashpix.com. Whether you’re already a Stashpix user or checking it out for the first time, it’s worth 52 seconds, so take a look!

Please feel free to reach out with feedback and questions to feedback@stashpix.com

So, we’re trying something creative ourselves. If you create or contribute to a stash in one of the 6 categories below, you might win a $25 iTunes gift card. We’ll be picking a winner from each category at the end of September, and we’ll post the results right here on our blog.

Because Stashpix doesn’t require logging in or creating an account, you’ll have to let us know if you want your stash considered for the contest. Just email support @ stashpix.com and briefly describe your stash and its location.

So, have fun creating or contributing to one or more of the stash ideas below. And if you’re a fan, please help spread the word!

1. Multi-course meal in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco.

2. Self portrait, anywhere. Remember you can create the self portrait stash – or if you happen to run into an existing self portrait stash, just add your own picture.

3. Drinking beer in Amsterdam during IBC. Stashpix has roots in the visual effects and TVC community. This one is for you guys and gals!

4. An unusual item for sale on a store shelf, anywhere.

5. Live band performance in London.

6. Wildcard, anywhere. Stash something amazing. We have more ideas here, or come up with your own.

So, the creator of a stash sees a zoomable interactive map pinpointing their stash location exactly. However, when anyone else sees their stash, the map is fixed and zoomed out 5km. The Stash of the Day is zoomed our even farther to add context, since it could be anywhere in the world.

We hope you enjoy the new update!

My Stash

Somebody's Stash

So, with this first post, we’d like to explain a bit more about Stashpix than we have already on stashpix.com.

Stashpix lets you “find and leave behind photos wherever you go”. It’s truly a simple as that. Just launch Stashpix and any nearby stashes will appear on your screen. Nearby means about 100 meters, and a stash is simply a named collection of one or more pictures. There might not be nearby stashes, especially in the beginning, so you will always encounter a special “stash of the day” from somewhere in the world to get a glimpse of the possibilities.

To make things even more interesting, if you create or contribute to a stash, you will be able to see updates to that stash from anywhere – as well as delete your own photos. But, you always have to be nearby to add more photos or create new stashes.

In case you missed it on stasphix.com, we want to repeat an important concept here: Stashpix doesn’t care who you are or who your friends are. You don’t check-in. It’s not a social network. It’s just a fun way to find and leave behind photos wherever you go!

But, why would you want to view or create stashes of pictures that can only be viewed in a specific location ? Well… that’s partially a question for you to answer. Be creative! We can’t wait to see what you come up with, but here are a few suggestions:

Stash a few pictures from your next night out. A stash can document something specific, like “Marks Birthday 2011″ or “The Bears win the Superbowl!”. Or it can be generic, like “Drinking at the pub” intended to continue growing over the future days, months, or years.

Document a celebrity sighting (but please don’t be a paparazzi)

Random. Feel like stashing a picture of something interesting, but can’t decide what to call the stash ? Call it “random”. If a “random” stash already exists nearby, simply add to it.

Promote your band or comedy act. If your band plays every Thursday at the local bar, snap a picture of your flyer and a few from your latest performance. Maybe then some Wednesday-regulars will come check you out on a Thursday.

Stash THINGS (not just people). Is a prominent building being torn down ? Hurry up and stash it, so future Stashpix users can enjoy seeing it after it’s gone. Live in an area where the seasons change ? Go back and stash the same picture throughout the seasons. Does the artwork hanging at your local cafe change regularly ? Maintain a stash documenting the changes.

Food Pics. Are you a foodie ? Create a food stash at your favorite restaurant. Before long, the entire menu will be documented.

Virtually Geocache. Are you into Geocaching ? Try thinking of Stashpix as a virtual geocache or create a stash near your physical geocache as a clue.

Flirt. Flash a smile… and your email address if you dare! (we don’t recommend you use your real email address for this).

????? The rest if up to you. Have you thought of a fun use that we haven’t ? Email us and we might share it here on our blog and on @stashpix

Any and all questions are welcome at feedback@stashpix.com or support@stashpix.com

Thanks !

A NOTE ABOUT PRIVACY and APPROPRIATE USE

Stashpix is inherently NOT private. Photos posted on Stashpix can be seen within 100 meters by anyone and from anywhere by Stashpix users who have created or contributed to the stash. Therefore, consider your privacy (and the privacy of others) when uploading photos. It’s best to use Stashpix in public places. You probably don’t want to stash photos of your home and belongings. We won’t stop you, but please use common sense.

Your phone can be specially blocked from using Stashpix, and we will exercise this option and/or delete your photos if they are inappropriate or violate the privacy of others.