Another FP product slips out of its berth and into an app store today - we've just launched "AA Breakdown & Traffic", a product for the AA targeting modern Nokia devices (N8 and similar).

It's a straightforward app to get you help when you're on the road. So there's a few use cases we cover:

1. If you've broken down and you're not quite sure where, the app will report your location into the AA before you call them - so they know exactly where you are, and can get a patrol to you as quick as possible. This is a great reassurance if you're an AA member;
2. The AA publish a pile of authoritative traffic information, which you can see overlaid on a map, or browse by road name; so before you set out on a trip, or during your journey, you can see where incidents are and avoid them;
3. Owning a car involves keeping track of due dates for your MOT, insurance, and (if you're a member) your AA membership. The app has a handy little reminder feature, to make sure you don't miss any of these... and links through to the AA mobile site to help you buy insurance if you need it;

You don't need to be an AA member to use the app, and it's a free download from the Ovi store.

We built it using Qt and QML; it was actually the first Qt app we worked on at FP, but the Glastonbury app we launched earlier this month made it into the store quicker. You can see a lovely video about Roadwatch - starring Jeff Triner of the AA (and our customer) and Doug Hoskins, the Lead Developer from FP, over here.

Also from FP: John Revill and James Hugman worked on building the app, Trevor May designed it, Ben Carias and Paul Welsh tested the beast, and I acted as Product Owner (doing a little bit of discount usability testing in the process, which I might write about separately). A team at the AA provided the back-end services which we tied into.