500,000 Apps Interview Series: Rob Murray, Flight Control

A common theme that I’m noticing as I talk to these incredibly talented developers is that they are recognizing an inevitable merger between desktop and mobile computing that is happening sooner rather than later. Rob Murray agrees, and adds that this awareness is what lead him and his company, founded in 1999, to start developing programs for mobile platforms. “People will choose the mobile because it’s convenient, portable, and it’s personal.” He sees the steady, predictable advancement of computing power creating a natural progression leading up to a point where we will have all the technology we need in the palm of our hands.

“Desktops overtook mainframes, Walkmans and iPods washed away home hi-fis,” he says. The last frontier left is the “big screen” of home television viewing, but even that barrier has been smashed with the most recent update to Real Racing 2 HD. It’s designed to connect directly to your HDMI-compliant TV and display the view from the driver’s seat in 1080p resolution while simultaneously showing your track position, lap time and speed on your iPad 2. This dual-screen experience takes multiuser racing to a whole new level, and once iOS 5 comes out this fall, the whole system will be able to run wirelessly over AirPlay. As Rob puts it, “we wanted Firemint to be the defining creative powerhouse in this evolution of gaming, the next generation of digital entertainment.”

Firemint’s large team (over 60 people) works together closely over multiple projects, which helps forge good relationships and working harmony. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the creative process. “You never know where a great idea is going to come from,” says Rob.

I switched the conversation topic over to hardware – I’m always curious as to what kind of equipment developers use in their daily lives. Rob says he has an iPad and an iPhone, and uses them both, a lot. He prefers the iPad to browse the web with, but likes gaming on either device. For regular work, he uses a MacBook Pro with both Windows 7 and OS X installed. (Rob is the first iOS developer who has admitted to me that he has anything that runs Windows in his office!)

So what can we look forward to from Firemint? It looks the team is taking a break from controlling air traffic and racing cars and instead bringing us… secret agent mice? Absolutely. Rob calls Firemint’s latest project, “an epic adventure featuring the irresistibly debonair and super sneaky Agent Squeak.” The game, called SPY mouse, is set to debut this summer on iPhone and preliminary feedback has been extremely positive. Rob enthusiastically encourages everyone to try it out once it's available.

I’m curious if any of our 148Apps.com readers have played Real Racing 2 HD, hooked up to their TV. If you have, what do you think? If the video below  is any indication, it looks extremely engaging and a blast to play.