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Yummy 2.7.10

I don’t think we’ve ever got as far as double-digits in patch version numbers — so that makes this new version of Yummy special!

Other than the number it’s a pretty minor update. There are two visible changes:

  • When you ask for tag suggestions, if there are none you now no longer get an error message
  • The Open Source library that I was using for the tabs in the edit bookmark screen was proving to be a little crashy, so I have removed in and am now using a standard Apple component in its place

In addition there is the usual collection of minor tweaks and fixes. Hopefully I’ll have more news about version 3.0 soon, once it’s feature complete.

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Wandle Software: Year Three

Wandle Software is now about three years old. I say “about” because the filing of the paper-work and then Apple taking notice took a while, so the exact date gets a bit blurry. In any case it’s around this time of year and we’ve just had a very big WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference, so I thought that it would be a good time to discuss what I’m hoping we’ll see in the next year or so.

As ever, what I’m going to talk about here are less plans and more ambitions. There are no dates attached to anything and I’m not making any commitments.

Changes mostly come in two categories: things that I was planning on anyway and things that become possible because of new features in iOS 8.

CameraGPS

First, because it’s the closest to being finish, is CameraGPS version 1.1. This is the first feature update to CameraGPS, adding a few features that I wanted to put in version 1.0 but never quite got the time. This will hopefully come out very soon and I’ll discuss the new features then.

Beyond that, iOS 8 has changes to both CoreLocation (how it gets the GPS coordinates) and allows third party Cloud storage services, such as Dropbox, to “plug in” to other apps. It’s unclear to me at the time how either of these changes will affect CameraGPS but there will likely be an iOS 8 update if only to assure compatibility.

Rootn Tootn

At least one of the changes in iOS 8 comes a bit too late for Rootn Tootn. iOS 8 finally has support for the background blur effect meaning that I wouldn’t have had to implement it myself for version 2.0!

As it happens, of course, I did and I don’t plan on dropping iOS 7 support just so I can use the new and easy way of doing the same thing in iOS 8.

In short, I don’t currently see any iOS 8 features that it needs but I am in the early stages of planning another feature release. This may or not make it out this year.

Yummy

One of the big new features of iOS 8 is “extensions,” or the ability for one app to talk directly to another. Since Yummy 1.0 in 2008 I have been waiting for a way to better allow adding a bookmark from Safari. In fact, this has been the number one source of poor reviews and features requests. The fact that I have not been able to do anything about it has been frustrating to say the least!

So it won’t come as a surprise to hear that I fully intend to support an extension to do exactly that. I am still experimenting to find out what I can do, but support will emerge in some form.

For the past few months I have been working on Yummy 3.0, a substantial update that takes advantage of the vast performance increase of devices released since Yummy 2.0 first came out at the beginning of 2009. Any new iOS 8 features will be in that and not the current 2.x versions. I’m yet to decide the “business” side (pricing or availability) or the minimum supported version (one possibility is to make it iOS 8 only).

www.cut

Like Yummy, www.cut may be able to make use of the new extension mechanism. I will add that support if it makes sense.

Other

There is also the possibility of a couple of new apps. First is a small, utility app made possible by iOS 8. Second would be in collaboration with anther company and may or may not be under the Wandle name. Either way, you’ll hear about it here if it happens.

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Rootn Tootn 2.0.2

Rootn Tootn tutorial
Rootn Tootn tutorial

A new version of Rootn Tootn is currently with Apple, waiting for review. Hopefully it will be available shortly.

Changes in this version fall into two main buckets:

  • A new tutorial when you first launch it
  • Minor bug fixes and enhancements

The first guides you thought some of the main features of Rootn Tootn and clears up a couple of misconceptions that people seem to have that I don’t believe can be fixed by changing the interface.

There are lots of other, small changes. The ones you might be able to see are as follows:

  • Can now edit event timers (broken in 2.0.1)
  • Use full resolution icon in the about box
  • Make duration in history view more legible
  • Display the amount of time a reminder has been active rather than just saying “active”
  • Ask for a name when creating a new reminder
  • Highlight the “settings” button when in Edit mode

As always, we hope you enjoy the update. Please add a review in iTunes if you like it!

 

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www.cut version 3.2.1

I’m pleased to announce www.cut version 3.2.1, which I like to call the Ted Rogers release. (Actually, I just made that up.) In fact it’s a very small update with just a couple of changes:

  • Fix for uCut.it
  • Improved visual feedback when shortening URLs

For the first bullet-point, it seems that uCut.it changed hands since I used it last and they managed to change the API — the mechanism apps use to communicate — in the process. This update allows uCut.it to work again.

The second it, well, part of the peril of developing on a fast WiFi network and using a decent 3G connection most of the time when I use it out and about. Shortening a URL typically requires a single network request so on a good connection it takes almost no time. So I didn’t put up any visual feedback that anything was happening. Eventually — and this would typically be a fraction of a second normally — the shortened URL or an error would appear. But when dealing with a poor network there was no indication that anything was happening. This version now shows an activity indicator so it’s clear that something is happening, even if that something is taking a while for some reason.

Unfortunately it’s unlikely to make it onto the App Store before the iTunes Connect shutdown (and therefore Christmas), but hopefully it will be available shortly after it opens again.

Update: Oddly, the shutdown was suspended on the 24th just long enough for the update to be approved just in time for Christmas.

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Coming soon: Rootn Tootn 2.0

I have just submitted a new version of Rootn Tootn to Apple for review. Due to the Christmas holidays the update won’t make it onto your phone until next year but I thought it was worth letting you know what’s coming!

Rootn Tootn 2.0 - Statistics Screen
Rootn Tootn 2.0 – Statistics Screen

It started out as a quick and simple update mostly to bring it in line for iOS 7 but it ended up being a lot more than that.

In terms of its aesthetics, it was already pretty close to being ready — since it already contained a lot of translucency — but I wanted to make it a good citizen and really make it fit in. To the left you can see what the new timer statistics screen looks like.

Now the toolbars and navigation bars use the new iOS 7-style semi-translucent look and the timers have an enhanced blur effect. I also increased the contrast between the background and the text making it easier to see all your details even when very dark images.

To make the app easier and faster to use I moved around some of the screens. In general, things that are used often are emphasised and the order of information is more logical. A simple example is the statistics screen which now has a drill down to the underlying data (rather than being at the same level).

Along the same lines are a few helpful shortcuts. The one you’ll likely use the most is tapping and holding the button to stop a timer brings you directly to the notes screen. This means you can add a comment without having to first go through the “history” screen. I always find that it’s these small details that make all the difference.

It will be a free update for all existing users.

I’ll release more details shortly before launch. Stay tuned!

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Wandle 2013

It’s already nearly May so 2013 is well underway. While there has not been much in the way of visible activity from Wandle Software a lot has been going on behind the scenes. I thought it was worth a quick discussion about our plans for the year.

As ever, I’m not going to get into too many specifics. I always think it’s a good idea to consider apps based on what they currently offer rather than what is promised at some unspecified point in the future and would encourage you to do the same. Having said that, all our apps continue to be supported and will continue to receive updates.

This year we’ve already made a small update to Rootn Tootn. There’s a bigger one in the works, with one major new feature that’s taking a lot of work to get right. As a teaser, I’ll say that once it works it will open up the possibility of a new, companion app…

Our longest serving app, Yummy, is also likely to get some attention this year. The next release, out shortly, will be a minor update that in addition to a couple of minor fixes actually removes a couple of things. For example, now that iOS has built-in Twitter support there is little need to keep the custom support that I built in a few years ago.

Removing features is not something I take lightly, but it will allow me to focus on features that most people do use and differentiate it from first party apps (now that there is one). Despite being in development since 2008 there are still features that I would like to build into it and removing stuff that is no longer needed will make that process easier and quicker.

www.cut will also likely get a small update. It does one task and — we like to think — does it well, so that will be just a few tweaks and minor fixes.

Most activity so far this year, and likely for the rest of the year, is around new app ideas. The problem with new ideas is that you can never be entirely sure which ones will work out, so no announcements and no timescales at this time.

In short, it’s business as usual!

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Goodbye Yummy Browser

If you’ve been paying attention to the recent updates to Yummy you might be wondering where the companion update for Yummy Browser is. And the answer to that, I’m afraid, is that it’s not coming.

Unfortunately the time has come to say goodbye to Yummy Browser. Soon it will disappear from the App Store and you will no longer be able to “buy” new copies (though you will be able to re-download it if you already have a copy).

Why am I taking this step?

I created Yummy Browser with two objectives in mind. Firstly as a way of testing the effectiveness of mobile advertising and secondly as a “lite” version, a way of letting people try Yummy before paying for the full version.

Neither has been a great success.

Advertising just isn’t the panacea that many people seem to think that it is. My impression is you need of the order of a million regular users before it starts to make economic sense (or perhaps a smaller but more targeted audience). It won’t surprise you to learn that Yummy Browser has somewhat less than that.

And back in 2008-9, it was the received wisdom that a “lite” version was the way to get around the fact that Apple didn’t provide a way for users to trial software. Well, they still don’t have that facility and, while some developers have had success with that strategy, it has not worked brilliantly with Yummy. It’s difficult to calculate exact values since Apple provide no analytics but what I can say is that on many days, despite being free, Yummy Browser gets fewer downloads than Yummy.

More tellingly — and not entirely unexpected — more people who buy Yummy actually keep using it. When I release an update I get a large number of downloads for Yummy but far fewer for Yummy Browser. The spikes in the purple below represent updates from Yummy shrinking rather than big increases in updates of Yummy Browser.

(These are weekly numbers. Updates to both products are normally released within a day or two of one another.)

And finally, Yummy Browser has not been available for download in the US for a while now and it appears not to have affected downloads of the paid version there.

Yet despite little revenue, fewer downloads and less “sticky” users, supporting and developing Yummy Browser takes away effort that I could be putting into Yummy, www.cut, Rootn Tootn and other app ideas.

What I’m trying to say with all this text and the graphs is that this is not a decision that I’ve taken lightly, but I think it will improve things for users of all Wandle’s other apps. And let’s not forget that Yummy Browser won’t just stop working today.

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Yummy 2.7.4

Well, it’s taken more than a year to be available, but Delicious finally updated their API so that clients can use spaces in tags. And that’s what this new version of Yummy, submitted to the App Store yesterday, is all about.

In short, if you use Delicious tags are now delimited by commas, just like on the website, rather than spaces as has been the case in Yummy until now. If you use Pinboard, nothing should have changed.

Because it’s a change, I’ve also added a hint on the tag entry screen so you know what character to use.

If you have already downloaded bookmarks and Yummy has (incorrectly) split your tags into individual words, then I’m afraid that you’ll have to log out and back in again. This will download all your bookmarks again, but this time they should have the correct tags.

I apologise that this has taken so long to come about but, as I’ve said to everyone who has contacted me about this issue, this was a problem with the API and not strictly a problem in Yummy.

There are also a couple of other smaller changes in this release. Firstly, there’s a bug fix. Occasionally Yummy got the count of the number of tags wrong. Annoying but not disastrous. That should be fixed in this version.

Finally, until now when you logged out of Yummy, it kept all the old details up to the point where you start syncing with the new account. I felt that this was a fail-safe; an extra opportunity to cancel. But I’ve had a few emails from people saying that they like to log out to prevent other users from seeing and editing their bookmarks.

In 2.7.4, Yummy now allows this by wiping out all the previous account information when you confirm you want to log out.

At this stage I think it’s unlikely that Apple will approve the update this side of Christmas but it should hopefully be a nice New Year gift for everyone.

Update: Released on December 20.

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Changes in Europe

You may have noticed some changes on the App Store last week:

Apple has increased the prices of apps sold through its iTunes App Store in Europe because of exchange rate changes, it said on Friday. The minimum price for an app in the Euro zone rose to €0.89 ($1.15) from €0.79.

That means that the following prices apply to our apps:

  • Yummy: €1.79
  • Rootn Tootn: €1.79
  • www.cut: €0.89

In a handful of other countries you can also pay in your local currency rather than US Dollars.

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www.cut 3.1.2

Another day, another point update from Wandle Software… This time for for www.cut. As with the recent change for Rootn Tootn, www.cut 3.1.2 is all about the new iPhone and iPod touch. It features support for the new screen size and a couple of small bug fixes, including an update to the “get title” library that I use.

www.cut for iPhone 5

The bad news is that, as with all updates to iOS apps, you’ll have to wait until Apple have reviewed and approved it. At this stage I would guess that it won’t be for Day One of the iPhone 5 but, hopefully, it will be shortly afterwards. Keep an eye on your App Store app (or Twitter) to find when it makes it into the wild.

Update: As of the 20th September, it’s on the App Store.