Emmer Inc

I’ve submitted version 1.1.0 of My Viking for review yesterday and hope to get it approved in the next few days. The Dribbbits update for instance which was submitted about a week ago was approved in 2-3 days, so hopefully we can expect a similar timeframe.

Here’s the changelog:

General

• Switched to the new Mobile Vikings 2.0 API.
• Improved loading times due to switch to JSON instead of XML as data transport type.
• Added support for fast app switching on iOS4, while still supporting iOS3.
• Added iAds, although they shouldn’t pop up since they’re not available in Europe.
• Improved contrast of text & images to improve readability in less than perfect situations.
• Updated naming of “my usage” & “my top-ups” according to Mobile Vikings website.

Main screen

• Redesigned screen to support display of price plan.

Analysis

• Fixed analysis issue caused by doubled data limit.
• Extended the analysis to 2 screens, one focusing on “credit analysis” and the other on “bundle analysis”.

Top-ups

• The top-up amount is now shown, since it’s now possible to top-up for €12, €15 & €40.

When the update gets approved I’ll let everyone know via Twitter.

Yesterday Apple reviewed and approved the My Viking 1.0.2 update. It has been in the App Store for a day and I thought I’d post the change log, as most people are swamped with iOS4 support updates & don’t read the update descriptions.

Call history

• Call history displays hours when the duration of a call or data session is longer than 1 hour. Example: 67:01 becomes 1:07:01
• Fixed issue where the duration of calls was equal to the sum of the call and the time the phone rang instead of only the call duration.
• Fixed issue where scrolling through the list caused free texts/data sessions to show a cost.

Analysis

• When more than 1000 text messages are left in the bundle, because the bundle was topped up before the previous bundle expired. The text messages prediction is hidden because we can not make a reasonable prediction in this specific case.
• Improved display of data sizes smaller than 1MB. Example: 0,6MB is shown instead of ,6MB

With this “bugfix” update available I can start working on some real improvements & new features. I still haven’t decided yet, but the next version could be a iOS4 only update.

As always progress & related news can be followed on Twitter.

As some of you have read on Twitter, an update of My Viking has been sent to Apple yesterday evening. Well actually today early in the morning, to be more precise. This update mainly contains bug fixes & several small improvements. I chose not to introduce any big features in this version, so I could get it off to Apple as soon as possible, less than a week after the initial release of the first version.

Here’s the change log:

General

• Added support for older firmwares, iPhone OS 3.0 and onwards.
• Improved French translations.
• When wrong credentials are filled in, an error message is shown saying the username and/or password is wrong.

Main screen

• Improved display of remaining time in main screen, now shows remaining hours when less than 1 day is left.

Analysis

• Solved issue related to having more than 1000 text messages in the bundle.
• Solved rounding issue related to calculating how many minutes and/or text messages can be called/sent.

Call history

• Call history now displays how many KB’s/MB’s where used for data connections as well as a duration.
• Minor improvement related to display of names.
• Solved issue causing dates to be displayed as (null) when AM/PM mode was chosen.

Although updates should get approved relatively faster than new applications, I don’t foresee it getting approved any sooner than a week. As WWDC is starting tomorrow & I’m sure that’ll slow things down a bit. Once it gets approved I’ll make it available in the Dutch & American stores.

It took Apple longer than expected, 9 days to be exact, but My Viking has been approved without any issues. Be sure to give it a try and report any bugs/issues using the in-app mail button or as comments on the blog. That way bugs/issues can be ironed out in version 1.0.1 which should be sent off to Apple in the coming days. Don’t worry though, no critical bugs have been found & it’s perfectly safe to install this version.

Once the 1.0.1 bug fix version has been released, My Viking will be made available in other stores as well besides the Belgian one. Specifically thinking about the Dutch & American store.

The link to the AppStore can be found here.

After a long absence in the AppStore I can joyfully announce that a new application has been submitted to Apple and should get approved any time now. The new application called My Viking is an app targeted at customers of the Belgian Mobile Vikings mobile phone operator. It allows customers to check their balance and consult the call/top-up history. All of this in a clean interface based on the default iPhone OS look & feel. Did I mention the app will be a free download and has English, Dutch & French localization?

Although several similar applications are available in the AppStore, I still pulled through and made the app since scratching your itch is a great way of making a good product.

My Viking has some distinguishing features, multiple accounts support being one of them. I won’t ask why you need it, whether to check your iPhone and iPad balance or to spy on your significant other, just know you can.

Another obvious feature, which surprisingly no other Mobile Vikings iPhone app to my knowledge has, is the cross-referencing of numbers in the call history with the iPhones address book. Instead of showing the phone number, the contacts name is displayed when found in the address book.

The last distinguishing feature is the analysis screen, this screen tries to give some meaning to your remaining balance by showing how many minutes you can call and/or text messages you can send. It also makes a prediction how many/much text messages and data you’ll have left at the end of the bundle. So you know whether to step up your text messaging rate or start slowing down.

While there are certainly some areas where the app can be improved, the call history only displays today for instance, this 1.0 release is “good enough” & postponing the release even more made no sense. The core functionality is implemented and I intend to improve/extend the app whenever I have time. Suggestions, questions and bugs may be mailed to me using the appropriate button in the extra screen.

When the app gets approved, I’ll post a new post with the link. [Edit: it's available, see next blog post]
My Viking can also be followed on Twitter: @myvikingapp.