A Gold Coast father is the unlikely creator of an app that tracks the whereabouts of British boy band One Direction, whose management has signed off on the app following a fight with Apple.
Adam Boulter, who works full-time as a web and multimedia producer for a Gold Coast radio station, decided to create an app for his teenage daughter, a devout fan of One Direction.
“She was using an airline app to track the flight carrying One Direction on their way to Australia,” Boulter says.
Boulter asked his daughter if she would use an app that tracked the band anywhere in the world, and was met with a resounding “yes”.
“I decided to build it just for her,” he says.
Boulter spent five months researching, developing and building a tracking app, which is called the 1D Tracker.
The app allows fans to follow the One Direction band members from concert to concert, country to country. Tour dates and location information can be viewed via a maps and events section.
The app also offers access to the Twitter feeds of the band and its members, while a video section contains the latest video releases from the band.
Boulter describes the app as a one-shop-stop where “Directioners” can get their daily dose.
“I’ve really enjoyed this whole process and I’m thrilled with the results. While we can’t track the lads in real time, it’s as close as you can possibly get,” he says.
“The timing of this app couldn’t be better. From official concerts and events, in transit to round the clock spotting, the 1D Tracker will always point fans in the right direction.”
One Direction is expected to release a new album tomorrow before kicking off a world tour through Europe, North America and Australasia.
It is estimated more than 10 million Facebook fans and a combined 42 million Twitter followers will be tracking the band.
While the release of 1D Tracker couldn’t have come at a better time, Boulter says it may never have seen the light of day, after Apple accused the app of copyright and cited privacy concerns.
This prompted Boulter to take the app straight to One Direction itself.
“I looked them up, phoned through and got through to their manager. He said, please outline everything in an email and we’ll get back to you,” Boulter says.
“Within four hours, they said they loved it and, on several conditions, they’d be happy for me to release it.”
“I went back to Apple because I had the signoff and showed them the correspondence with the manager, and in the end that satisfied Apple.”
After receiving direct signoff from One Direction management, Boulter was free to take the app to market. It has just been released on the iTunes App Store for 99 cents.
“I wanted to keep it affordable for the tween and teen markets,” he says.
Boulter says he is already developing new features and updates for the app. He also plans to release tracker apps for other big-name artists such as Justin Bieber and Pink.
