Meet the Developer 3 : Gil Bouhnick

Today we chat with Gil Bouhnick the developer of SpoonTools, you all must know him from the SpoonTools blog, he is also a regular @ some of the other well known WM sites like MobilitySite and FuzeMobility.

Tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Gil Bouhnick, I’m 33 years old and I’m currently a Product & Engineering Group Manager at ClickSoftware. In my spare time I develop some Windows Mobile freewares (SpoonTools) as well as writing in my blog The Mobile Spoon and other sites as well.

Tell us a bit about SpoonTools?
I actually never planned to create SpoonTools. It all started as some personal tools I built for myself. I needed a quick easy way to personalize ringtones (SpoonRing), I looked for a way to write notes quickly using the stylus, and of course, the SpoonAlarm: I tried using the default WinMo alarm, but after I missed a few wake up calls, I decided I need a better alarm with real snooze and louder sounds, so I created an alarm fits exactly my needs: simple to configure, finger friendly, with MP3 and snooze.
Some of my friends started using it as well, and suggested that I should place it on a website. This is how it started.
I was amazed to see how fast it became popular. I reached more than 50,000 downloads in few months, without counting the downloads made from sites that took the CAB files in their own servers.

You have worked on an enterprise application called ClickMobile , what does it do ?
In my real work, I’m responsible of a product called ClickMobile designed for field service organizations. It gives the field engineers a set of tools to connect to their back-end systems, view and modify their daily schedule, report their activities and status, fill in their working hours, navigate efficiently from one customer to another, view and modify assets information, print invoices, etc. You can say that ClickMobile brings a portable office to the hands of each field worker. ClickMobile runs on multiple Microsoft platforms: from tablets and laptops running XP or Vista, to PDAs and smartphones running Windows Mobile. We also have a lightweight version running on simpler cellphones. The product now has a great momentum and a lot of new customers. It’s probably the best project I’ve ever been involved in as it combines specific business needs with a lot of technical challenges and some cool gadgets. Seeing many field employees which are not “gadgets freaks” working with it and finding it useful is a great achievement.

Whats device(s) do you own and use?
Well, I have quite a few… I used Palm Treo 750 for a long time. I really love this device. It has good performance, maximum stability, good form factor (QWERTY), nice plug-ins, it’s great. I’m still using it when I’m debugging my code. Last year I started using BlackBerry 8800 which is a good phone but miss some basic stuff like camera and WiFi. For the past few months I have 2 devices: HTC Touch Pro and iPhone – both of them are great devices but I think the iPhone is better. My next device will be without a doubt Palm Pre, although I’ve also tried HTC’s Touch HD and absolutely loved it. I think it’s the best WinMo phone today.

What are a few sites you usually hangout on other than your blog and site ?
I have a very long list of blogs I’m following on a daily basis. MobilitySite (where I’m also writing), FuzeMobility (guest writer there as well), WMPowerUser, 1800PocketPC, WMExperts, Mr. Mobile, and more. Recently I started following some interesting iPhone and Palm Pre blogs as well but there’s nothing like the WinMo sites.

How can we contact you ?
I don’t use a lot of social tools (my wife calls me anti-social…) but I do have a twitter account: http://twitter.com/MobileSpoon

Are you going to list your apps on the WM MarketPlace?
I haven’t thought about it yet, I think I will wait a little bit to see how it goes before I jump on the train.

What are your thoughts on WM MarketPlace ?
I think it can be great. I’m using the AppStore a lot and it’s not only useful, it’s almost addictive, you can easily check for new applications and freewares with user’s comments etc. The only thing missing is trial periods, I hope Microsoft will have that. I hope it will have good user interface though, as it must be fun to look for new apps in order for it to succeed.

Any palns to expand to other platform like Android , iPhone ?
At the moment no. I really enjoy developing with Microsoft tools. I may consider developing for Palm Pre, but it’s too early for that. I used Android for a short while and didn’t like it so much. I’m sure it’s going to be very dominant in a year or two, but the first version was too… first version.

Are you working on any new Project ?
At the moment I invest in improving my sites, so there isn’t much time left for other things. I’m currently working on some improvements and some new features to one of my tools called: SpoonDo!. It’s a finger friendly tasks application which integrates with outlook tasks, and people seem to like it so far. I got some requests which I’m working on at the moment.

What are some of your favourite apps on Windows Mobile?
Without a doubt: SPB Mobile Shell is my all time favorite. I wrote an article once about my essential apps for windows mobile (here’s a link).

What are your favorite development tools and Language?
Visual studio (2005/2008). I used to like MFC but for years now I’m developing in C#. I had some experience with Java few years ago but although the language is great, the development environment was very bad.

Any advice for budding Windows Mobile developers ?
Finger friendly UI is a must in our days. People are looking for iPhone like apps so if unless your application looks appealing people will not try it.

You have some skills with Photoshop too was that self taught?
Actually yes, I like visual designing; I think it’s very important so over the years I began using Photoshop. It’s such a powerful software that even if (like me) you know only 15% of the capabilities – it’s enough to create nice things.

Which of the app you developed posed the toughest challenge for you ?
Most of the freeware I did were simple ones (especially when you compare them to the things XDA-Developers are doing. The product we’ve built in ClickSoftware was very challenging because of the complex architecture and the multiple platform support. When I created SpooNotes, I wanted to find a way to give large free handwriting surface on a small screen. I created the smart-expanding-surface which was a challenge in terms of user experience.

What’s the best pro & con when you compare Windows Mobile with the iPhone ?
iPhone brings a lot of fun to the mobile world. It’s a university for user interface and a great entertainment platform. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I like it a lot. Windows Mobile is much better when it comes to PIM capabilities and productivity. WinMo has a large variety of form factors which is important, and the best thing is that it’s configurable and customizable. iPhone doesn’t have a today screen, which is a big pain for me.

If you guys need to get in touch with Gil Bouhnick just head over to his site SpoonTools , thanks for chatting to us mate.

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