I've just submitted my Olympic 2012 "Games Maker" application

Yes, I've just volunteered to be one of thousands of "games makers" at the London 2012 Olympics.

I hope my skills in information technology, radio communications (I'm a licensed radio amateur) and media / PR stuff will be of some use to the organisers.

Mind you, I'll probably end up in the kitchen washing zillions of dishes or have to go with rubber gloves to unblock the lavatories. But hey, I'm so glad the Olympics are coming to London and I want to give something back for the 25 years I have enjoyed living in this amazing world city.

Secretly I hope they need someone to support mobile apps, keep their computer systems going, and process all that data generated during the games. I can do that! 

I'm also glad that Tesco is involved - our company is part of the London Olympic legacy regeneration of the area around the Olympic park.

For more on the London 2012 Olympics and becoming a games maker go to http://www.london2012.com  because I may need help supporting that app ... or unblocking that loo....!

Tesco Groceries for iPhone - #1 Lifestyle App and in top 10 for iTunes UK

Thanks to all of you who have downloaded our Tesco Groceries for iPhone application.

The app is achieving a continuous top 10 position in iTunes for 'most downloaded free app' (it's at No. 5 right now) and is No.1 in the 'Lifestyle" category in the time period since it launched last Thursday.

Of course downloads aren't everything - we'll be monitoring usage to see what customers use / avoid / love / hate about the application and tune it up appropriately.

Feedback pretty good too. Oh, indulge me:

Downloaded it on 3G in sainsburys and went on to do shopping from tesco first time login no problem favourites loaded no problem 86 item order done and confirmed in 12 minutes well done Tesco.

Visit the "Tesco Mobile Apps Portal" web site

We've just launched our mobile applications portal web site.

The site has essential information about all our applications and it will grow to become your complete guide to our mobile apps, with all kinds of support facilities too.

http://www.tesco.com/apps

Multiple mobile users can add to the same Tesco.com grocery order

A great question has come from @sitereport on Twitter:

Can multiple iPhone users add items to the same order?

Technically, as long as the users are logged in to the same account, then yes you can add to the same order (or change quantities or remove the item).

Indeed, this can be a mix of anyone on the iPhone app, the Nokia app, and the web site - each keeps the others up to date.

I say 'technically' because if someone checks out an order, the basket is emptied ready for the next order and other users on the same account are not alerted to this unless they tap the 'basket' button which causes the app to ask our servers what the current basket status is.

Always check the basket contents regularly before adding items if you know someone else is likely to be doing the same thing.

Tesco Groceries app for iPhone / iPod Touch - Walkthrough

Let's take a walkthrough of the Tesco Groceries app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (the latter running in "iPhone mode").

Here is the opening screen (when you first use the app, you will be asked to tap in your Tesco.com grocery login email and password). You can choose a delivery slot, and see when the next order is due (which you can amend if you wish):

The Shopping List is your own memo pad, allowing you to type any product name in free-form text, perfect for remembering items quickly as you think of them. You could easily use the app in any shop as an electronic version of a written list, or tap the text to perform a live product search at Tesco so we can entice you with great prices and special offers:

Tapping the square next to the item makes a "tick" appear, just as you would tick a paper list as you choose products:

If you're like me, then the first place to go when putting together an order is to use the Favourites list. When you registered your account and used a Clubcard, your Favourites list stores all the items you have previously purchased online and in-store. 

You can also filter your favourites to view just those on special offer.

In the example below, notice that one of the products has a green background - this means that product is already in your basket. All searches showing products in your basket will be highlighted this way so you can change the quantity or even remove them if you wish.

Here is the 'shop' screen. Either type in some text to find the product you are looking for, or follow the department - aisle - shelf hierarchy to browse for products:

Here is an example text search for chips. Again we highlight products on special offer:

Finally here is the basket. From here you tap the checkout button which will cause the app to start the iPhone's Safari browser which will connect into a checkout special page designed for iPhone on the Tesco.com grocery web site. If you are called Paolo then your delicious chips and beer diet will soon be on its way. For everyone else, at least you'll get the entire grocery range to choose from - on average that's more than 20,000 products. Healthier products are available...!

So there you are - our new little app for iPhone giving you personal, pocketable access to our complete grocery home shopping service. It's taken a year of planning, design, coding and testing by a fantastic team across Tesco.com and our mobile design and development partner Ribot.

Now it's yours. Enjoy!

Tesco Groceries app for iPhone now live in iTunes App Store

Here it is:

Tesco.com's grocery heart and soul in a little app.

This changes everything. Again.

("Again", because we launched on Nokia first!)

Tesco and Ribot present this powerful pocket of grocery home shopping to you now. We simply call it Tesco Groceries which says so much in so few words.

Oh, the decisiveness of purpose, passion for excellence and focus of hard work by so many people for a year to give birth to this little bundle of joy, the love child of Tesco.com and Ribot our mobile design and development partner....*

If you have iTunes on your computer, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, follow this link:

http://itunes.com/apps/TescoGroceries

Walkthrough follows in the next article.


* Yes of course I'm sounding O.T.T. - this has been the centre of my working life for over a year now, so indulge me. Ribot have put their all into this little app and I salute them. Normal service will be resumed after a celebratory drink or two tonight methinks! What on earth shall I do tomorrow?! Oh yes, a Tesco presence on other smart-phone operating systems to come, especially now I've fallen back in love with my Nexus One again after its upgrade to Android 2.2. Anyway...

One Million Tesco Apps Downloaded

Computer Weekly, one of my favourite reads, has as exceeded even their own excellent forecasting abilities.

In their article Tesco Finder app reaches 1m downloads published yesterday, they reinterpreted my blog entry of Friday which spoke of the number of Tesco Finder requests reaching one million, rather than app downloads reaching one million.

Given that Tesco Groceries for iPhone is about to launch, I thought I'd compile the actual total count of downloads of all the other mobile apps we have out there on iPhone, Blackbery and Nokia stores.

We have six currently which are (in order of launch) Tesco Finder for iPhone/iPod Touch, Tesco Wine Finder for iPhone, Tesco Clubcard for iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry Clubcard, Nokia Clubcard, and Nokia Groceries.

Colleagues are used to my generally happy demeanour but even they weren't quite ready for the"OHHHH...YEESSSSS!!!!!" and waving of hands that came from somewhere within me.

You see, appearing on the screen was a number. It said:

1,081,555

One million downloads. One million Tesco apps in the hands of our customers. And that's before Tesco Groceries for iPhone has launched.

Er, wow!
(and thanks for the heads-up, CW!)