Why I am starting Nidello
Apps that stay home, a name borrowed from Italian, and a few rules I set for myself before writing the first line of code.
Today I am officially launching Nidello. It is not a big company yet, not even a small one: it is a studio, in the plainest sense of the word. A place where I make apps, carefully, one at a time.
Where it started
It began with an ordinary frustration. Every time I looked for an app to do something simple — log my workouts, remember the countries I had visited, know when I could give blood again — I got the same offer: create an account, accept our terms, let us watch. For a logbook. For a counter.
The deal struck me as strange. We pay for services with our data without anyone really asking us, and most of these apps have no need for a server to do their job. Your iPhone is an extraordinary computer. It can keep your things by itself.
Apps that stay home
Nido is Italian for nest. I like the image: a nest is small, carefully built, and private. That is exactly what I want every Nidello app to be.
In practice, I set myself a few rules before writing the first line of code:
- Your data stays with you, on your device or in your own iCloud. Not on a Nidello server.
- Everything works offline. On a plane, in a basement, on a mountain.
- No ads, no analytics, no account to create.
- Pay once where possible. An app that costs me nothing to run will not cost you a subscription.
- Nine languages, translated properly: place names, date formats, units.
These rules sometimes make my life harder. They are worth it.
What is coming
About fifteen apps are in the works, for travelling, looking after yourself, training, running your car or just playing. None of them are on the App Store yet. Each release will be announced on news.nidello.ca, and I will tell the story behind them here.
If you want to follow along, or tell me what is missing from the apps you already use, write to me at hello@nidello.ca. I read everything.
Thank you for being here from the start.
— Daniel