Year: 2012

Categories
news

Rootn Tootn 1.0.1

I have just submitted the first maintenance release for Rootn Tootn since its arrival on the App Store in June. This is a very minor update, mainly designed so that it works optimally on the new iPhone and the latest iPod touches.

Rootn Tootn home screen on the iPhone 5

As you can see, Rootn Tootn 1.0.1 will use the full screen of these new devices, allowing you to either add more reminders that you can see on one screen or see more of your pictures.

If you upgrade to an iPhone 5, you’ll probably find that your old picture isn’t quite big enough and you’ll get a dark grey bar at the bottom of each screen. If you just select the picture again it will re-size it correctly for your new device.

In addition to support for the new devices, I have also added a couple of minor bug fixes and one small feature. I very much doubt you’ll notice the fixes — a far as I know, no serious defects made it into the released version — but the feature is nice. In version one, you had to press the small, green plus sign to add a new reminder. In 1.0.1 you can press anywhere in the “Add new reminder” button.

Hopefully it will make it into the App Store before the iPhone 5 hits the shelves or at least very shortly afterwards. Fingers crossed.

Update: It made it onto the App Store on the 20th September.

Categories
news

Deprecation

If you read any of the Apple blogs, you may have seen this TUAW piece or one of the many others on the same theme:

Apple is slowly deprecating frameworks that iPhone 3G-compatible apps require from Xcode and app libraries, and the upcoming version of Xcode (4.5, currently in development) specifically states that it does not support armv6 devices or anything below iOS 4.3.

This deprecation also affects Yummy. Yummy is currently supported on every iOS device ever made, going right back to the original iPhone. (I know this because I still have one and usually conduct final release testing on it.) But that will change as soon as iOS 6 comes out. At this point I will be unable to continue to provide updates for these old versions.

To be clear: the app won’t just stop working but I won’t be able to add new features and I won’t be able to provide any bug fixes. I’m sorry if this affects you, but if you’d bought Yummy in 2008 when it first launched, you’ll have had 25 free updates and it’ll still work on any new devices you buy…

Categories
news

Rootn Tootn is half price for World Breastfeeding Week

Today marks the  start of both “National Breastfeeding Month” if you’re in the US and “World Breastfeeding Week” if you’re resident on the Earth (I assume you are if you’re reading this).

As a small way of supporting and recognising these events we’re offering our baby feed feed reminder and timer app, Rootn Tootn, for half the usual price for this week only. That’s only 99c in the US, 69p in the UK or your local equivalent.

Categories
news

What does iOS 6 have in store for Wandle apps?

I’ve been looking at the new version of iOS, trying to figure out what it means for Wandle’s apps. There’s only so much that I can say publicly at the moment, since the details are still covered by a Non-Disclosure Agreement, but I think enough of the “interesting” bits were shown at the keynote that it’s worth jotting some notes.

iOS5, launched last year, was big. You’ll probably remember the Notification Center and the Twitter integration. But there were also lots of neat new technical things “under the hood” that I was keen to use as soon as possible. So much so that I re-wrote www.cut using them and Rootn Tootn is iOS5-only too. (For various technical reasons that I won’t bore you with, I didn’t extensively update Yummy in the same way.) iOS6 is not like that. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of nice improvements, but little that I feel the need to integrate right now.

“Little” is, of course, not “nothing.” There is one part of Yummy and www.cut that is third party software, is not terribly reliable and is really difficult to keep up with technically. That’s the Facebook integration. As you may have heard, iOS6 has Facebook built-in. So what I plan to do is remove the Facebook API and just use the one included in iOS.

The good news: it should work much better, it will be more reliable and you’ll no longer need to log in separately.

The bad news: unless you’re using iOS6 you will lose this functionality.

As far as I can tell (looking at the crash reports) there are very few people who won’t be able to run iOS6. The main “victims” will be owners of the original iPad. If it’s any consolation, that includes me…

Categories
faq

Why you would need a reminder to feed a baby? Don’t they let you know?

A few people have asked the following question, so I thought it was worth discussing in more detail here:

Why you would need a reminder to feed a baby? Don’t they let you know?

There are two simple answers to that:

  • Crying is a late sign of hunger. Hopefully you’ll know that they need feeding before that. However, especially in the first few weeks, you won’t be in a position to know what the other signs are either because you’re new to the whole thing or because you’re exhausted!
  • In the first few weeks the midwives are very keen that you feed every couple of hours and with everything else going — so much that’s new, so little sleep — you may find it easy to lose track of time

There are other reasons too:

  • You might find that a reminder is a good way to get into a regular routine
  • You don’t even need to use the timers to remind you to feed your baby. The reminders can be for anything. Nappy change. Medication. Whatever you want and whatever makes sense
  • Even if you switch the reminders off, you can see at a glance when the last feed was and approximately when the next one is likely to be. Of course you can do this in your head, but why would you?

Even if you’re still not convinced, reminders are only half of the “baby feed timer and reminders” description used on the App Store. Rootn Tootn also records all your feeds, changes and anything else that you want. Suffice it to say that that log of events could be enough reason to use the app, even without the reminders!

Categories
trivia

Dear Amazon

Amazon Email
I got this email from Amazon…

Dear Amazon,

Many thanks for your recent email. Unfortunately, your normally very accurate data mining and customer relationship management software seems to have turned up very much the wrong product recommendation for me.

You see, as great as the Itzbeen is, Wandle Software now has something even better for any mums (or moms) to be or those with recent new-borns: Rootn Tootn.

Not only do you always have your iPhone with you, making it much more convenient, but Rootn Tootn does more too! You can set as many timers as you like and rather than just telling you when your last feed and your next feed will be, it also keeps a history. And who’d want an Itzbeen with its green plastic when you could have a sleek iPhone and Rootn Tootn which allows you to use your own pictures as a backdrop?!

So I’m sorry Amazon, but I’m going to have to pass on your recommendation. Rootn Tootn is more useful, prettier and cheaper. Maybe you could recommend that next time? Take a look on the App Store…

Kind regards,

Stephen

 

Categories
news support

Delicious Twitter Import

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times in passing now, but I’m not sure if I’ve really made clear how cool this little feature is.

Delicious has recently added a neat new feature where you can import all the bookmarks that you Tweet. That’s great. What’s not so great is that when using the API — the thing that Yummy uses to get your bookmarks — the titles are all missing. It looks like this:

I’ve checked two of Yummy’s competitors, and they do exactly the same thing.

But in Yummy (version 2.6.6 and later), the same bookmarks look like this:

I hesitate to shout too loudly because it’s covering up a defect in someone else’s code but it’s just so useful that I couldn’t help myself this one time.

Categories
news

www.cut 3.1.1

A minor new release of www.cut is with Apple for review and should be in the App Store shortly.

If you recall, version 3.1 added the ability to find the title of a link before you post it to Twitter or Facebook. Version 3.1.1 refines that ability, trimming excess spaces and converting weird HTML characters into something that’s readable by humans.

Apple say that they’re review 94% of app updates in five business days so hopefully you’ll have it before the end of the week.

Categories
news

Yummy 2.7.0

I have just sent an update to Apple for review. It’s not one of the bigger releases ever but there’s some nice new stuff that I thought was well worth releasing:

  • Built in web browser
  • Use iOS native Twitter functionality when present and configured
  • Improved “Get title” reliability and correctness
  • Refer to “Pocket” rather than “Read It Later”
  • Restore iOS 3.1.3 support

The main new feature is the web browser. It’s limited in some respects but for people who are frustrated that it’s not possible to put a “Add to Delicious” button directly in Safari (if you want this functionality, please ask Apple) it may be a convenient option.

 

You can find the option in the middle of the main menu screen.

The Twitter functionality is not so much new functionality as a change. Yummy will use iOS5’s built-in Twitter client rather than its own if it’s present and configured. The advantage is that you can now post to multiple Twitter accounts and you only have to configure your Twitter settings once. If you’re still using an older version of iOS you won’t notice anything different.

Finally, I have restored the ability to run Yummy on iOS 3.1.3 which was accidentally removed in the last version. This is just a temporary reprieve, though. Apple’s most recent developer tools no longer support anything older than iOS 4.3 which means that soon I will have no choice but to set that as the minimum version supported by Yummy.

Still, this is a great new release to run on your five year old phone!

Categories
reviews

Rootn Tootn – a baby timer app without the cliched pinks and blues

A press release announcing the launch of Rootn Tootn went out today via PrMac:

London, United Kingdom – Wandle Software Limited is pleased to announce the birth of its latest app, Rootn Tootn, a quick and effective way to remind you when your baby needs feeding or changing – or as we like to say, your baby is rooting and tooting.

Especially in the first few weeks when you’re feeding around the clock, it’s easy to lose track of what needs to happen and when. The last thing you want is an app that insists on endless details just to get started. Rootn Tootn just has a single button to start or stop a timer. It automatically records all the details for your reference and sets a reminder for the next time. You can add notes if you like.

You can add as many reminders as you want and there are three different types. One records the duration of an event (feeding for example), one is a point in time (changing a diaper/nappy) and one is a left/right side reminder. Check out the blog for stories of how other people use them.

In addition to customising the timers and reminders, you can personalise how it looks by adding your own picture to the background. We think that Rootn Tootn offers a great balance between simplicity and features that you’ll use. Created using feedback from nursing mothers, we are confident that you’ll love it too.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, 3/4G iPod touch and iPad
* Requires iOS 5.0 or later
* 1.4 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Rootn Tootn 1.0 is $1.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Health & Fitness category. Promo codes are available on request.