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.

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.

Regardless 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.

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.

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.

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.

The 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!

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.

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.

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.

Thanks to Jan Vantomme for letting me know.

Update: the full page can be found here.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!