Hello! I am Matthew

Matthew Kennard

Indie and Freelance Software Developer

I have worked for a variety of organisations writing software since 2001, and founded Apps On The Move in 2008. I develop apps for iOS, Android and the web. My time is divided between working on apps for third parties and my own apps.

Send me an app development enquiry

Mobile
Web
UI design

Skills

Apps

beorg
beorg
Indie app 2017 - Present

A task management app for iOS for power users

Details
Classical
Classical
Indie app 2020

An iOS app using Apple Music APIs to provide an app for classical music lovers

Details
Markdown Tables
Markdown Tables
Indie app 2019

A utility making it easy to create and edit tables for use with Markdown

Details
Go Calc
Go Calc
Indie app 2008

A business calculator app builder for iPhone and iPad

Details
Heritage apps
Freelance developer

I work with a small business to provide heritage apps in the UK for iOS and Android

Travel/leisure app
Freelance developer

Via an agency I develop and maintain an iOS/Android app for a leading UK travel/leisure organisation

Fitness app
Freelance developer

Via an agency I develop and maintain an iOS/Android app for a fitness startup

Hospitality apps
Freelance developer

Via an agency I developed and maintained a number of iOS/Android apps for leading UK hospitality businesses

Health startup
Freelance developer

I worked with a startup developing a health app which made use of OpenCV

Recent Blog Posts

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How safe is your data?

As a freelancer my data is very important to me. I need to know that my files are safe. Most of my note taking, project planning, time tracking and other documents is handled by Emacs using Org mode. A major benefit of using this system over more proprietary apps is that I retain ownership of my data and can easily automate backup to different places. I use my own app beorg to edit these files on my iPhone and iPad.

January 25, 2021 Read
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Software I'm using in 2021

It’s been a few years since I’ve done a proper review of the software I’m using. I find it a useful activity to take a look at those apps which help me be a productive freelance and indie software developer. This article covers only macOS software, since getting an M1 MacBook Air I have few reasons to use iOS apps for work purposes. What I need to do Communicate with my clients Provide support for my indie apps Write proposals for new projects Plan projects Track tasks - for projects and for supporting existing apps Designing UI for mobile and web apps Develop apps for iOS Develop apps for Android Develop web apps (writing both frontend and server-side code currently in AngularJS, Angular and PHP) Create/update websites for my indie apps Forecast income over the next few months Track time spent on projects - both fixed price and work charged for time spent Main software Emacs I only started using Emacs in 2017 (which prompted me to write my app beorg) and now use throughout my day for writing code (when working on web apps), editing my websites, planning projects, tracking time and more.

January 19, 2021 Read
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Clearing out support desk spam after Christmas

I use Freshdesk for support email ticketing and user forums. Whilst I’m generally happy with the solution (standalone hosted forums seem very expensive elsewhere, and I have a price plan which is no longer generally available) it’s spam filtering is quite woeful. The response from their customer support to dealing with the type of spam I’ve been getting is to setup a custom rule to automatically mark and delete items containing specific characters - and this requires frequent updating.

January 3, 2020 Read