November 12, 2010 – 12:17 pm
This week we finished implementing the much wanted zoom and thumbnail view features. We are still waiting for our first iOS 4.2 version to be reviewed by Apple (in queue now since the 6th). Unfortunately we have to wait for the version in the queue to be reviewed and for iOS 4.2 to come out before we can let you get your hands on the new features. Hopefully this will not be long. In the meantime we plan to revamp our website, and post a ‘coming soon’ video of the new features sometime in the next few days.
October 12, 2010 – 6:20 pm
Looking at the Apple data, it looks as though about 1/4 of Foliobook owners have upgraded to 1.1 in the last three days.
This is great, and so far we aren’t getting problem reports from upgraders. However there is a potential for the changes to cause the occasional oddity for people upgrading that don’t apply to people downloading for the first time, so please let us know if you see any of these. Hopefully if something comes up we can point you to a work around that will get you over any initial wobble.
One thing that can be seen in a few cases concerns the initial use of the text logo. In some cases, and we think its in the case of upgraders only, not downloaders, changing the point size of the logo doesn’t get saved properly when the app is re-started. If this happens to you there is a once only work around, simply change the font from the default font-face to any of the others (the default is just Helvetica Neue as it happens) then this will cause font-size changes to work correctly. As soon as you’ve selected anything other than default, you can switch back to default if you like and it will work in future.
One thing we’ve seen from the upgrade is ‘connected needs’, so while we thought it was great to add the logo into this release earlier than we’d planned (it was planned for v1.2 or 2.0) there are some people for whom this isn’t enough. For example we’ve had a comment that it should be possible for the logo to be a different colour from the buttons. We can see that would be nice, but we can only do so much in each release as time and human effort remains finite. We still intend to re-introduce a transparent image logo very soon, so that will allow an alternate to allowing differently coloured text which might have to come a bit later on the roadmap.
So for those upgrading, thanks for sticking with us, this app has a lot more potential yet and your support is greatly appreciated.
September 12, 2010 – 11:36 pm
Yes, V1.1 features are now complete, we are in the QA stages of 1.1 preparatory to the beta release to our ‘tame’ testers. There are still half a dozen buglets on our list to fix before going to beta.
There has been a fair bit of rework to allow us to move closer to our vision of allowing something akin to ‘themes’ for the various parts of a foliobook ‘production’. As a result the editing user interface has been streamlined and professionalised with some nicer looking icons.
We decided early on it was better to start releasing the software early so that we could understand what customers ‘really’ want rather than trying to second guess this. As a result, sometimes things have looked a little more preliminary than we have wanted, after all there is no point spending money and time on cool icons to represent features no one wants. In 1.1 as we are becoming increasingly confident about the feature set we’ve sourced some professionally designed icons for the settings menus. Next on the list will be a cooler icon for the iPad desktop, expect that with version 1.2 though.
So for those of you waiting for portrait orientation, the waiting is nearly over. Producing this along with unlimited numbers of galleries while allowing themed variations on the various parts of a FolioBook has been challenging. We hope that the power in version 1.1 will reward those of you who have waited for these features.
Lets hope all this power doesn’t prove too mindbending. Anyway we will update the videos when 1.1 is available so that the new UI layout and capabilities are easy to comprehend and use.
Onward to 1.1!
August 23, 2010 – 9:47 am
Enough development has now taken place for us to describe what features will be in version 1.1, the first enhancement upgrade for Foliobook. We expect this to be released within 2-3 weeks.
1) No more status bar. We’ve removed the status bar (the thing with the wifi symbol, battery and time on it). Originally we left it in because we thought Apple might not allow its removal, however looking at the user interface guidelines more carefully, it seems that this is permissible for full screen media apps. This has made us as happy as gambolling spring lambs.
2) More galleries. In 1.1 you can add as many galleries as you can fit links onto the menu bar, so far we’ve found ways to fit 7 prettily, and more less prettily. We’ve always planned to allow different layouts, so once this comes along it will be possible to handle larger numbers of galleries in a manner of increasing coolness.
3) Support for landscape and portrait orientation. This is the one thing we have not developed yet, but we have the design and prototype done. This isn’t quite as easy to do as it might appear because of the way the cover works (and because of the way we plan to extend this in future). So far we have the main image part rotating nicely, and the slide sorter.
4) Ah yes, a bit of a red face on this one. We erroneously were adding a link to Foliobook in the email generator. This is ungracious for a paid app, so we have removed it. We are suitably self chastised.
The perennial question, good news first or bad news? Or perhaps a ‘news sandwich’ with the good at the beginning, the bad in the middle and another bit of good at the end?
Here’s the bad
So Foliobook has been live for a day and despite the valiant efforts of my test team a few problems have sneaked past Apples gatekeepers. On the whole the reception has been good but even one problem is too many. We’ve already identified a problem that we’ll fix in a point release very soon, the more feedback the more we can identify and neutralise any problems that squeak through.
Please check the FAQ at www.foliobook.mobi/support and email us if you have a problem.
Here’s the good.
On the positive side, some nice comments we’ve had include.
“I’ve used a competing app which allows countless different folio’s but design wise your app is so much contemporary. Keep up the good work ”
“Purchased your app today. Very nice work indeed.”
There’s no ugly, well not that anyone has told us about so far.
