Posts Tagged ‘Be Tv’

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Be Tv version 1.3 available

Friday, October 16th, 2009

I received a mail from Apple 2 hours ago stating that version 1.3 has been approved, after 12 days. Version 1.3 is starting to show up as an update for existing 1.2 users. Be sure to grab this version as it adds program details and a nicer interface.

Be Tv 1.3 update

Once you have updated the app, hit the reload button on top of the Now Playing screen to fetch the extended data, which includes program details, if you have already launched the app today. Because Be Tv has already loaded & cached the data, the new version will by default just use the cached data.

Important: this version requires firmware 3.0 or newer. If you haven’t updated your iPhone yet, now is the time!

Here’s the iTunes link.

Be Tv 1.3 update detail

If you’re having issues with the new version, be sure to leave a comment. I already know of 2 (minor) bugs which will be fixed in version 1.3.1, so if you leave a comment, I might be able to squeeze it in the bug-fix version too. Suggestions are also welcome.

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Be Tv and push notifications

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Having avoided the issue for a while now, I feel it is appropriate to air my take on push notifications in Be Tv. I have given this quite some thought and have come to the conclusion that I will not implement these in Be Tv, for one main reason.

Apple push notification serviceRegardless of Be Tv, push notifications are indeed a nice feature and add some real value to applications in some cases. Yet using them to set a reminder for a certain program is in my opinion wrong. Push is intended to alert users when unpredictable things happen, a news app wants to push an earthquake news item, an instant messaging app alerts the user of a received message.

In the case of a tv guide, we know beforehand when the program is going to start and we know when to remind the user. I, as a developer, want to insert an event in the calendar and set an alarm for that. I, as a developer, do not want to setup a server pushing out reminders for something that could be handled a lot better if Apple opens up the calendar API. Push only works when the device has an active data connection, ruling out iPods (wifi isn’t a real alternative, as it isn’t available everywhere) & quite a few iPhone users without a data subscription. Calendar on the other hand is available on all devices, does not need a data connection which consumes precious battery power and is overall a better solution. It just makes sense to put it there, instead of (ab)using push notifications.

What this means for Be Tv is obvious, unless Apple opens up the calender API, there won’t be any reminders. I am aware that this decision will be met with some dissatisfaction, but feel it is the right decision. Taking into account Be Tv is a free service & I would like to keep it that way.

I hope this answers some of the questions users have asked in the last couple months. One last thing, regarding version 1.3, it’s still under review.

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Be Tv version 1.3 under review

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

It took a while, but a new version of Be Tv has been sent to Apple for review. Be Tv has been available in the Belgian App Store for 6 months, nearing 30.000 downloads. Version 1.3 adds – as lots of people have requested – detailed program information, a freshened up interface & a few minor improvements. Nothing groundbreaking but a normal evolution. Here’s a small sneak preview:

All programs have a genre & most of them have extra information like a short comment and/or a long summary. Movies have a list of the main actors and series the episode name. There is however one huge issue which might be a showstopper for non-dutch speaking users. The extra information is in dutch, even when the interface is set to english or french. We unfortunately do not have access to translated info.

Detail

One of the small improvements is how long program titles are displayed. Long titles are cut off in version 1.2 & some of them are – even with holding the device sideways – not readable. Long titles are displayed over 2 lines in version 1.3, greatly improving the readability. Nothing earth shattering, but as said before a logical improvement.

Multiline program titles

Having said that, I think we’ve given a nice preview of version 1.3. As soon as the upgrade shows up in the App Store, I’ll post it on the blog & Twitter. One final word, for those wondering, Be Tv remains a free program.

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Be Tv version 1.2 available

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Almost 3 weeks after submitting the 1.2 update to Apple, it has finally been approved and can be downloaded in the Belgian AppStore as of yesterday June 17th. Apparently some minor event called WWDC & the release of a phone delayed the approval division of Apple. We weren’t the only victims, the UiTagenda update was approved after 3 weeks too & a new Facebook update addressing some specific 3.0 bugs is still in review after several weeks.

Picture 1The main improvements of version 1.2 have been mentioned before and can be found here. This new update is fully compatible with firmware 3.0, but isn’t built for 3.0 specifically. Users with 2.x firmwares are still able to install & use Be Tv.

In the mean time I can announce that Be Tv has been downloaded more than 20.000 times and has never left the top 50 since version 1.0 was released almost 3 months ago. It is currently at position 43 in the general top free applications and at position 9 in the entertainment ranking.

Unfortunately the new release was hindered today by a datacenter problem. And as with most things, it wasn’t something we could do much about ourselves. A firewall was misconfigured at the datacenter causing traffic directed at the Be Tv server to be rejected for a timespan of 6 hours, which is of course totally unacceptable. This downtime had nothing to do with the new Be Tv release, nor with firmware 3.0, there is and was no need to reinstall the application. We have started the quest to find a new hosting partner, since our current partner hasn’t proven to be reliable & responsible.

Update now and enjoy the new release!

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Be Tv version 1.2 under review

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

The new Be Tv version has now been under review for exactly 1 week. It will probably be approved and released somewhere at the beginning of next week. If WWDC doesn’t slow the process down, that is.

We aim at releasing an update once every month, which we would have made, if Apple didn’t take so long for reviewing the application.

The main improvements of version 1.2 are:

  • The ability to reorder channels.
  • Caching of the data.
  • An improved Now Playing screen, showing a progress bar of the current program & the name of the upcoming program.

Here’s a short video demonstrating these features, a full size video can be found on Vimeo.

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Be Tv future

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

With version 1.1 being available in the App Store for more than a week now, it’s time to look ahead. The update has received some very positive reviews mainly because it fixed some of the issues users had with Be Tv, like localization. By the way, as of today Be Tv has been downloaded more than 16.000 times, thanks everyone!

As for version 1.2 there are 3 main features which are in my opinion the most critical. Being: offline usage (caching), the ability to reorder channels (favorites) and the addition of program details. Although I can’t confirm if all three will make it in version 1.2.

While I have been working on these features secretly, there is something more important that needs to get done first. And that is finding a new partner to supply the information, enabling us to ensure the availability of the data. Currently Be Tv does not include program details, simply because our current partner does not provide this data. But this will hopefully be solved soon.

If you know someone who might be able to help Emmer Inc with this, be sure to leave a comment or send a mail using the in-app mail button.

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Be Tv in De Morgen

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

On Tuesday the 14th of April the Belgian newspaper De Morgen listed Be Tv as one of the 5 essential iPhone applications. Here’s a scan of the article, they did spell Be Tv wrong though. It was published on page 8 next to a larger article dedicated to the the billionth download in the App Store.

It’s nice to see how good Be Tv is doing, more than 11.000 downloads in the first 2 weeks. In the mean time, development of version 1.1 has entered the final stages.

Be Tv De Morgen

Thanks to Jan Vantomme for letting me know.

Update: the full page can be found here.

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Be Tv launch statistics

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

Now that Be Tv has been launched more than a week ago, I thought it would be interesting to publish some statistics regarding Be Tv. I’ve taken the first 8 days as data for the statistics from the launch date (2 April 2009) to 9 April 2009. Be Tv was downloaded 7.836 times in this period and was launched a little over 24.000 times.

Be Tv ranked 11th after only 430 downloads, 7th after 759 downloads, 5th after 1057 downloads, this was in the first 24 hours after the iPhoneclub.nl article. The number 1 spot was reached by the 6th of April after a little over 4.000 downloads.

Downloads

Another interesting statistic was the ratio iPhones vs iPod Touches, I somehow anticipated more iPod Touches than iPhones, since they have been introduced a lot earlier than the iPhones. The firmware graph is pretty predictable, firmware versions older than 2.1 we’re negligible (44 devices in total) and to my surprise there are some developers who are already running 3.0 on their (main) devices.

Models
Firmware versions

Be Tv remained 6 days at the number 1 spot and is at the time of writing (12th of April) still the number 1 in the free entertainment list.

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Be Tv version 1.1 roadmap

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

Now that Be Tv has been in the App Store for 3 days, it’s time to stop dreaming and start working on the next version. Although I haven’t been doing nothing, there’s quite a lot of PR work involved and supporting tasks to keep everything up & running. I’ve received numerous requests for new features and thought I should make my short term plan of attack known. Two issues kept coming back in the requests and I think it’s best to tackle these first before starting on some bigger features.

Version 1.1:

  • Localized interface: users who have set the interface language of their iPhones to Dutch or French will see Be Tv in the corresponding language. I didn’t think the English interface would get so many complaints.
  • French speaking Belgian channels: lots of (french speaking) people pointed out these were missing and with reason I must admit. La Une, La Deux, RTL TVI & CLUB RTL will be added.
  • Highlight current program in today detail: when opening the today detail the table should scroll down to the current program. This one isn’t as major as the first 2 issues, but it will add a lot to the usability.

These issues shouldn’t take too long to implement and they’ll make a lot of people happy. I’ve added a dutch and french summary in the App Store in the mean time, which should show up any time now.

There you have it, I hope you like it!

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Be Tv ranked at #49

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Who would have thought, after almost 6 hours of exposure on iPhoneclub, Be Tv is ranked at position 49 in the “Top Free” list of the Belgian App Store. Be Tv has received some great comments via various channels ranging from regular e-mail, Twitter replies, comments on this blog, comments on iPhoneclub, to normal App Store reviews.

At the moment Be Tv is being downloaded at a rate of a little over 1 download per minute (75 per hour to be more precise) and Be Tv is being fired up at double that rate, slightly less than twice per minute. Totaling 350 downloads in less than 6 hours, landing us on spot number 49! The server providing the schedules is holding up quite nicely, despite being hammered a bit. The launch has been quite hectic (no crashes though), due to all sorts of PR-stuff, but it has been (& still is) great fun!

Be Tv ranked at #49

I’d like to thank everyone for their positive comments & I’ll try to review every feature-request and see if it’s feasible in an upcoming release.

Update: as of this morning (3rd of April) Be Tv is ranked at #11!

 

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