I’ve gotten a little ahead of myself in the previous few posts. I keep forgetting that all of you are still using Release 1 (rel1 from here on out). I submitted rel2 to the App Store before it launched, and I’m still waiting for Apple to approve it. After launch, you discovered bugs that were in rel1, which were not fixed in rel2. They are fixed in rel3.
First, let me apologize to all of you. I wish there was something I could do, but I’m pretty powerless at this point. Once I put an application update in the queue, I have to wait for Apple to act on it before I can do anything. I can’t pull rel2 out of the queue and replace it with rel3. I can’t go ahead and queue up rel3 behind it. All I can do is wait for them to make a decision on rel2, and then immediately put rel3 in the queue. It sucks. It’s frustrating for me, and I know it’s frustrating for you.
First lets talk about things fixed in rel2:
- New Icon!
- Prevent some user interaction while Graffitio loads walls
- Added a toolbar, activity indicator, and status message
- Stability fixes with threading
- Added Refresh Button to Posts page
- Got halfway to fixing the location bug
And rel3:
- Fix the bug where messages get cutoff on a long wall and the height of the cells is all weird. (I really wish this had made it into rel2, but I didn’t realize it was a problem until after rel2 was out the door)
- Added activity indicator when refreshing posts
- Fix bug where walls and long messages with punctuation in them get truncated
- Add section header which separates Local and Everywhere walls. Shows radius being used
- More tweaking of location code, which should greatly increase reliability
I’m going to try to squeeze in a few more small features for rel3. However, the moment Apple makes a decision on rel2, I’m going to push out the last stable build of rel3. In my testing, I’ve found rel3 to be production ready, so I should have some time on that to focus on substantial new features for rel4.
Finally, when Apple fixes the Ad Hoc Distribution method, I’ll be looking for beta testers. Quality comments on this blog put you at the top of that list :)
awesome. if you could please let us know when it does actually go live in the app store. the update process for teh app store so far has been terrible in my experience. i’ve had several apps (including graffitio) appear saying there is an update for them, but in fact did not have an update. the syncing for me is also screwed up.. if i download a program on my phone, it doesn’t get added to my list of apps on my computer, although vice-versa works. weird!
All this frustration is due to one thing, iPhone unlockers/Resellers. Apple is being insanely over-protective of every little thing because they want to protect leaving backdoors open to unlockers, and I can totally understand that. But how far do you go when you you have over a million people trying to access data from your servers and having them wait days and weeks for simple updates? So I get the feeling that Apple will ease off being so over protective after a while. The app store is just going to have way too many apps at a certain point to police every single app and update so constantly. So hopefully updates will be something that’s less of a hassle. The one upside is that if give developers more of a chance to refine a release before it is sent out into the world. Keep up the good work Anoopr! I’m super excited for the updates!
I’m sorry that Apple’s causing such trouble, but I’m excited for the coming improvements. I hope they’ll calm down a bit and make it easier for you all soon. Also, feel free to put me on that beta list… :p
Anyone who has read your blog at all realizes that the delays aren’t your fault. Personally, I’m psyched for the new releases, whenever Apple screens them to their satisfaction. Yeah, it’s slow, but it’s a necessary evil I think. Also, dibs on a beta slot if that works out.
Thanks ryoshi. While all of you have been awesome about it, some of the reviews haven’t been so forgiving. I think I’ll go update the description in the App Store with a link back to this post.
all this talk of releases and betas raises a question : have you considered opening the graffitio source? I know I know it’s naive utopianism but I’m an idealist and I’m not ashamed of that. I’m not gonna go all stallman and refuse to use it; just excited to see its evolution.
I know I’m not much of a commenter, although I did write a good review on iTunes, but I would really love to be a beta tester!
Also, I have a question. How come I made this wall, then it shows up it the walls list when I’m a bunch of miles away? The other walls I made don’t show up, just that one. Can other people see it from miles away too?
@CW: It’s a known location bug. Did you read The good, the bad, and the ugly…
@jono: I understand the value of open source. There is already BSD licensed code in Graffitio, and the server is built entirely on open source products. Given the NDA that is still in effect with Apple, it’s not going to happen anytime soon. I may revisit it at a later date, but right now I’m going to concentrate on coding.
I can’t wait for any further updates to graffito because this app really makes the iphone an outstanding device, I really can see this being a number 1 app down the road
Well, I did, and I did read that part, but I wasn’t sure if I was talking about the same thing or not. sorry
No need to apologize. I’ve been swamped lately, and I was curt. I never mean offense.
I don’t see any point in releasing the source code, even if there were no NDA. You can’t just arbitrarily put apps on your phone anyway, so the only way to get your modified version “out there” would be to send your changes to anoopr for evaluation. An already swamped developer plus 1000 people suggesting code changes? Not a good recipe, methinks.
At any rate, I feel it important to say that I’m loving this app more and more and am looking forward to the new updates.
OMG i cant believe Apple hasn’t approved the second release yet. This app is on the verge of loosing momentum and popularity among us early iphone buyers…They just received some pretty substantial profits so maybe they need to use some of that money and hire more people…mout
Old (new) “spraypaint can” icon > new (old) “splotches on wall” icon. :(
I got banned for no reason! Please help me!