Help us test an upcoming feature

[James]

We're hoping to release an iPhone app soon that let's you countdown to the latest animated film releases! But we need some iPhone users out there to test it out for us and let us know of any issues.

Please don't pass around this link yet. This is just a test version with placeholder graphics, it's ran off a test server, and for now it only lists three five nine movies.

Let me know here or via email of any issues you find or suggestions you have.

Thanks!

---------
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
---------
1. Go to this link on your iPhone using Mobile Safari:
http://squareworld.com/ios/beta-avcal/ http://animatedviews.com/countdown/app
2. Click the "+" button or the "little square with a right facing arrow" button
3. Click "Add to Home Screen"
4. Click "Add"
5. There is now an icon for this app on your home screen. Run the app from there to test it out.

[James]

Right after I post this I get to file the first bug report! There was a problem with the ad at the bottom of the selection screen on older iphones so I've disabled it for now.

[laughingoctopus]

It is incredibly slow on an iPad 2 64GB, but other than that it's a great app. Have you thought about getting it on the app store?

[James]

That's odd. After reading your message I tried it out on my first generation iPad (which runs slower than an iPad 2) and it was just as snappy as on my iPhone 4. It is basically just a web page so it is affected by your connection speed. Any issues there at the time you tried it perhaps? All 4 iOS devices I've tried it on (2 iPhone 4's, an iPhone 3G, and now an iPad 1) ran it very fast.

Thought about the app store route but I think this will be much easier. I'll be able to update it whenever I want this way and not have to deal with people running outdated versions when movie release dates change.

UPDATE: Since it is a webapp it will obviously be slower over a cell network than wifi. Not sure if that was your situation. And even in a test I did over a 3G network it was slower but not by much.

[James]

BTW - since this is a webapp it should work on other phones too, so any Android users out there feel free to chime in with how it works. While it is being aimed at iPhones any minor fixes needed to work elsewhere might not be a problem.

[laughingoctopus]

Turns out I was having problems with my wifi connection after all. Now its working just fine.

[James]

A few updates to report. Hopefully this thing is close to being ready to go!

- I've moved the app from the test server to what should be its new regular home. If you have the old app saved, delete it and add this new one instead: http://animatedviews.com/countdown/app

- The app now works offline. Now even if you don't have an internet connection you can still view all the countdowns. To ensure this feature works let the app stay open on its first launch for about 30 seconds to a minute so it can download all the necessary files.

- New icon and splash screen

- I'll be adding the rest of the upcoming animated films soon now that the main part of the app is just about done.

Let me know of ideas, suggestions, or any issues you encounter.

av-countdown-logo.jpg (22.9 KiB) Viewed 32949 times

[laughingoctopus]

I really like that the app works offline. Much faster now loading, for some reason.

[James]

Now it loads all the images when you first launch it and saves them for when you need them. So when you click a movie it just has to get the correct images from your device. Before it waited until you clicked a movie then would go to the internet to get the images for that day -- the next day it would have to get a new image from the internet. Much faster this way.

The only time it will need to go to the net now is when a new movie is added to the calendar.

BTW - I'll be locking this thread soon as we'll be starting an official thread once we're ready to go live.