Pass Time Software

Many have expressed their interest in the station finder and the podcasts. They’re both on their way- development has been completed and we’re waiting on Apple for approval of the update. I’ve been using the new version on my iPhone for the past week, and have found it very useful. I’ve listened to Fresh Air and Car Talk, as well as the NPR Hourly News Updates. What’s really nice is that I’m able to listen to many shows that my local affiliate station doesn’t carry.

It’s worth noting here that the images in the App Store are NOT the ones that I added for the currently approved version. They’re the images I associated with v1.3, which has the station finder and the podcasts in it. For some reason, when Apple published the app, they used the wrong images. From my perspective, the result has been a lot of user confusion, and dashed expectations. All we can do is wait.

I’ve continued my contact with the folks at NPR. Per their request, I’ll be changing the name of the application.

So it’s been made painfully obvious to me that I forgot to escape-encode search strings. As a result, the application crashes when you perform a search with a term that has spaces. This has been corrected in the pending update, so please hang in there. I’m guessing the update will be made available on Sunday night. Seems to be Apple’s trend so far.

It looks like it made the store listing. It really is nice to see your hard work become available, and to have an immediate positive response! Thank you!

The screen shots that are posted here and in the app store are showing version 1.2, which as I mentioned in my previous post, was submitted last night for approval. You should get an app update within a week, which will make the station finder and podcasts available.

Again, thanks for the positive feedback. All great ideas that I will take into immediate consideration.

NPR Mobile has recently been approved for sale in the App Store. I recently performed a search for the keyword “NPR” which didn’t reveal anything. Maybe they update tags daily. We’ll see.

So, the application was accepted for sale in the store just in time for me to finish my next set of major improvements. Tonight, I submitted version 1.2 for review, which adds station finder and podcast capabilities.

This version constitutes all major features that I envisioned in NPR Mobile. There’s not much left for me to do but fix any bugs that pop up, and move on to my next application.

On Sunday (yes Sunday) Sept. 14th, I received an email from Apple letting me know that my application had been rejected. The reason they gave was because I failed to include an error message when no network connectivity is present.

This was an easy fix- now when the user requests content, I first check to see if api.npr.org is reachable without user intervention. If not, I display an alert view calling the user’s attention to the problem. Easy enough- 5 minute fix.

I’m impressed to get correspondence from Apple on a Sunday. The content of the email included screen shots, and information very specific to my application. There’s a human on the other end of the string.

Tonight, I submitted NPR Mobile to Apple for approval. From what I understand, this process can take anywhere from a couple of days, to weeks. I’m guess that if I got everything right with the submission process, and the application build/provisioning, it will be one of the easier applications through their process. Hopefully it will be available before the New Year.

NPR Mobile 1.0 is an easy-to-use application that will help you find your favorite NPR programs and segments. I’ve found that with it, I am able to expose myself to additional NPR programming that my local station doesn’t carry. Often times, when I wake up in the morning, I half-hear a story on Morning Edition, and want to come back to it later in the day. With NPR Mobile, I’ve been able to do this, and hear the full story on my time.

Version 1.0 is a very simple implementation. I have about a half-dozen ideas for additional features, but instead of continuing my work by adding more and more, I’ve decided to cut this release off where it is. I’ve focused on making version 1.0 functional, and stable. There are a couple of known issues with it, but none are very serious, and are easy to avoid.

I’ll welcome your feedback, both positive and negative. Your encouragement will go a long way to boost my motivation for keeping the application moving forward.