The people behind eBuddy: Meet Arne

This interview is the first in a series to tell you more about the people that work hard every day to make sure you can chat with all your buddies on all your favorite networks.

Picking the first person to interview was a hard task, so we decided to start in alphabetical order and invited developer Arne de Vries to answer a few questions. Here is what he had to say:

So Arne, how about you tell us something about yourself?

I am 29 years old and come from a small town in the Netherlands called Wageningen. I studied at the University of Twente, where I graduated with a master’s degree in Telematics.

And what do you do at eBuddy?

I am an iPhone developer. Together with the iPhone team, I am responsible for developing and supporting both the eBuddy Messenger for iPhone and eBuddy Pro Messenger for iPhone apps.

How is that like?

I enjoy it very much. The iPhone is an interesting platform, being very user friendly and allowing for great user experience. It is pretty cool to be part of the development of a product that is used by millions of iPhone users around the world.

Do you have any hobbies?

Plenty! I am very much into sports and practice a lot of different ones. I used to be a snowboard instructor, and I also take cycling very seriously: A few weeks back I completed a 240 kilometers tour in a day, and have been training in order to attempt cycling from Amsterdam to Paris (508 kilometers/315 miles) in less than 24 hours.

That is very impressive! Is there time left for anything else?

Yes, actually. I also play the piano and the guitar, and love to ride around on my Ducati or in my work-in-progress 1982 Volkswagen Beetle.

Last but not least, can you share with the readers any upcoming features for the eBuddy for iPhone apps?

We are currently putting the last touches in the iOS4 support and we will be implementing Facebook Connect very soon. This will result in a much more reliable and secure connection with Facebook. We will also add a really cool Facebook-related feature, but since I can’t share any details about it you will have to wait and see!

Stay tuned to know more about other eBuddy employees!