Saturday, March 17, 2012

Starting work on the next release - anyone got any issues?

I'm starting work on the next release - this will mainly be a bug fix release - I'm looking at the crash reports from Apple.

Does anyone else have any information about crashes or problems that I could look into for the next release?

The crash logs are interesting - all the crashes on iOS 5.1 happen when the app is caching the arrival data.  On iOS 5.0 I see 4 different kinds of crashes,  mostly to do with alarms and user interface.  I see no crashes on any other OS versions - maybe no-one is using iOS4 any more? :-)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the current version of PDXBus, the built in VoiceOver screen reader no longer sees the selectable controls on the 'Locate Nearby Stops' page. VoiceOver will read the title of the field such as 'Mode of travel' or 'Search Radius', but it will not read or allow me to select any of the options.
PDXBus is an extremely useful app. Thank you so much for creating it, and for continuing to keep it updated.

Teleportaloo said...

Thanks - I will look into voiceover on that page!

Steve knight said...

I would like to get rid of the arrival notice after the alarm goes off. I can never hit the x and open the map over and over.
since you can control the notifications in the notification settings.

Anonymous said...

I've had occasional crashes when using Contacts with the Trip Planner. Of course, now when I try to duplicate the problem, I don't get any crashes. :( But I'll keep trying, and if I find something repeatable, I'll let you know.

Teleportaloo said...

Steve - I want to keep it there for people who are using the older OS without the Notification Center. For now I've made the X much bigger, which I think will make it much better.

Teleportaloo said...

John - the contacts have been a thorn in my side since I started using them. I will try some better test data with more varied fields.

Anonymous said...

The arrival alarm feature is terrific--in theory--but the 10-minute limitation really diminishes its value and usefulness. Is there any solution? If not, shouldn't users be notified, when selecting an alarm, that, if they choose durations longer than 10 minutes, the system will time out and the alarm will not sound?

Scott H said...

I would suggest adding the ability to filter lines for bookmarks like you can on the Trimet page. That way you only see the lines you are interested for popular stops (ie the bus mall).

Teleportaloo said...

To Anonymous - there is no easy solution to the 10 minute timeout issue... The problem is that iOS allows applications to run for only 10 minutes *in the background*. If you leave PDX Bus running it is not a problem, so it's not that any alarm more than 10 minutes will be an issue. To work around this the app does the following:

- it notifies the user after 10 minutes that the alarm will not be accurate unless they start the app again.
- the alarm will still sound, but it may not be accurate as it will be based on old data - the vehicle may have caught up or be late.

Additionally, I could notify the user if they have alarms with more than 10 minutes left on them when they quit, but even that is not guaranteed as the vehicle may get later and push out past the 10 minute time.

I need to think about this some more, I may be able to make it better somehow. There is no way to request more time after the 10 mins are up!

Teleportaloo said...

Scott H - nice idea! Technically that is a feature request, and not a bug, but I do like it. I'm not promising it in the next release but I will get around to it some time.

Papaogre said...

Hello, love your App. You deserve a beer at least!

One thing that would be very helpful would be fixed arrival times for bookmarked trips. I need to be at work at a certain time to punch a time clock and it never varies although the departure times, locations and routes can.

Thanks again!

Papaogre said...

PDX Bus seems to have problems finding routes using weekend schedules. I work Thursday through Sunday nights and I have resort to using TriMet's own mobile trip planner on Saturday mornings through Sunday nights. This issue was even a problem on Memorial Day morning due to the "weekend" schedule.

Overall though I live the app!

A feature request (can't resist) would be to add fixed arrival times to saved trips. I punch a time clock at work.

Teleportaloo said...

Hi Papaogre - thanks for you comment. The trip planner actually uses TriMet's own trip planner - it passes the data on to them and they do the calculations. I'm surprised then that you have issues at the weekend that you don't see on their site. Can you give me more information?

(As to the feature request - thanks! I will put it on the list of things to add).