Whatbird.com

dennis3:

You said that you have iPhone 1G, that might be the difference in our experiences.  I don't know much about the iPhone OS and all of the hoops an app has to jump through, but I'm wondering if it is what is sometimes referred to as a "memory leak" - I don't like that term as in my understanding I think it is more properly a "memory pile-up", due to the memory gradually being used up as certain operations cease when going to another operation (within the same app, in this case) but the former operations continue to occupy the DRAM, and so on, and eventually there is no more free memory for the next function and the app crashes.

It could be both a leak and a pile up. The most difficult thing is that the Apple user crash reports do not sync up with our code and the information is not helpful in determining why there is a crash. In the iPhone Apple does all the memory management, they just alert your code when its absurdly low and too late to do anything about. I believe this is being addressed in the next firmware upgrade, or at least I hope so.

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Mitch Waite

goofy166:

Dennis

1. The information you seek is in the 4th box at the beginning of the Help section - its titled "Enable Favorites and Flickr" and has a graphic showing the settings. Check it out and let me know if that is enough. It shows how to enable the buttons if they are not enabled and how to swipe to move them. Perhaps its not apparent enough in the graphic on the Help page or the title is wrong?

2. That is a very interesting idea. You are correct about swiping, I have the same issue accidentally enabling a feature when I just want to access a different button. However I have become very adept at it by swiping gently but I don't know if this is a universal problem. I understand the More...button idea but something about that turns me off. We do change the color of the button when its enabled but perhaps your idea of making it less sensitive and requiring a hold down for a longer time would eliminate the accident? Good things to discuss.

 

Mitch, 

 1.  I must plead "brain fart".  I had hurriedly looked at that help screen, saw the note to enable favorites in the settings, so I expressed to setup, checked that it was on, went back to iBird looking for the buttons again.  My mistake.  Your instructions are OK and complete.

2.  I understand what you are saying - I can work on intricate little mechanisms but I still have trouble mastering the swipe action to pop up the <delete> buttons on the iPhone email list.  Perhaps having to hold the button down a bit longer (it may only take an extra 100 msec or so), or for the favorites only, have a dialogue box pop up.  Don't do like Windows, though - their method is to say something like "are you SURE you want to do this?".  Instead, state "this bird will be added to your favorites" and then <OK> and <cancel>, and then the reverse "this bird will be removed from your favorites".  Something to poll users about, then test in the next beta? Or, perhaps I'm the only one?

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Dennis W.
Austin, Texas

flymyassoff:

I wish I could have purchased iBird Pro right off the bat. I am fine with your explanations. If, in the future, I can upgrade from Plus to Pro under iPhone OS 3.0 then I will do so. In the meantime, if you could just add the French names to iBird Plus I would be happy. It would be a mere courtesy to the Francophones in Norh America who have already purchased some of your products. Merci beaucoup.

 

Couldn't agree more!

Language isn't a pro feature to me...

merci!

So true.

 You are correct in stating there are more Spanish language speakers than French language speaker in North America. Hablo un poquito the Espanol tambien... However, I brought up the point first! I gotta get some recognition for that ;-)

We need Spanish language as much as we need French.

 Gracias, Amigo,

 El "Fly"...

Mitch,

Today I purchased a copy of iBird Pro for my iPhone.  I am extremely new to birding, however, I figured for an additional $10 over the iBird Plus, it was probably worth it in the long run.  My wife has been birding for years and always records her first siting of a bird in her field guide.  She typically records the location and date.  Therefore, one of the first things I looked for in the program was a place to record this information for each bird.  Not finding it, I decided to come online to figure out how to do this task.  What I found out is that there is currently no note-taking feature.  According to this message from you, it appears that a note-taking feature is forthcoming to all iBird programs.  Since I am just beginning this new hobby, I would like to be able to start taking notes as soon as I possibly can.  Can you tell me when this feature will be available.  Thanks.

 Gary (huffinpuffinshubby) 

huffinpuffinshubby:

Today I purchased a copy of iBird Pro for my iPhone.  I am extremely new to birding, however, I figured for an additional $10 over the iBird Plus, it was probably worth it in the long run.  My wife has been birding for years and always records her first siting of a bird in her field guide.  She typically records the location and date.  Therefore, one of the first things I looked for in the program was a place to record this information for each bird.  Not finding it, I decided to come online to figure out how to do this task.  What I found out is that there is currently no note-taking feature.  According to this message from you, it appears that a note-taking feature is forthcoming to all iBird programs.  Since I am just beginning this new hobby, I would like to be able to start taking notes as soon as I possibly can.  Can you tell me when this feature will be available.  Thanks.

Our plan is to create a new application called iBird Journal (or something like that). It will cost 99 cents and will be a basic note-taking app. It will communicate with iBird if you have it, otherwise it will work on its own. As time goes on we will make new features available that you can upgrade it to, using the inapp purchase page, such as a logging system, adding sounds and photos to your journal, etc. 

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Mitch Waite

I just purchased iBird Plus and am happy with it. I would like to see a checklist function so here are some pie in the sky wishes associated with it. Regardless of whether it winds up as a feature in Plus or Pro or in a separate application, I would like it to record the location and time and allow for notes and possibly a photo (I say possibly a photo because the utility of the built-in camera for taking bird shots is dubious, and it's not clear to me how the function might allow imports of higher quality images). I would also like to be able to view my checklist as a zoomable and shareable map of sightings. It would be very interesting to see bird counts or contests done in such a way, for instance. The checklist might also be able to accept the number of birds sighted so that various users' observations could be viewed on a map listed by the species rather than listed by the user. In this way, I bird count could begin to represent flocks, for instance. Anyway, the more that individuals can interact with each other and share the information they collect, the more valuable the tool becomes. I fully recognize that my request places no burden on the fine folks at iBird et al to make it come to fruition, but since I don't plan on writing the software myself, I'm happy to give away these ideas!

Thanks for the application and for constantly improving it,

Robert 

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING --- Buyer beware!  As much as I LOVE my iBird Plus and iBird PRO, I'm always open to new opportunities, and today I saw the "Peterson" Backyard Field guide and, at $2.99, I thought, "What the heck."  It has no search feature, no way of organizing the birds being browsed (such as first, last or by family) and, at least on my first generation iPhone (with software version 2.2) NONE OF THE FEATURES WORK AT ALL.  Every time I click on ANYTHING on ANY bird page, the program quits and returns me to the iPhone home page.  Maybe this works on the iPhone 3G and maybe the limited features are worth the small price if it works on your iPhone, but I am very, very disappointed, wrote a scathing review of the product (and compared it unfavorably to iBird), and feel this was released way, way before it was ready for prime time.  I still have the same Petersen Field Guide I got in 1962, and have numerous videos of the great Roger Tory Petersen, and feel that this product invoking his name is an insult to his legacy.  Any of us may have suggestions for iBird or occasional points of criticism but, when you look at the software and how well it works in the field, we should never fail to appreciate what we have.  iBird is great!

I agree with the folks who do not see that there is a real difference in the target audiences for PRO vs. PLUS.   The solution while waiting for the Apple upgrade is to allow those of us who have PLUS to download PRO for the difference in price between the two applications.   BTW my son tells me that he obtains free upgrades to a number of applications he subscribes to all the time from the Apple store.  

tanager1:

I agree with the folks who do not see that there is a real difference in the target audiences for PRO vs. PLUS.   The solution while waiting for the Apple upgrade is to allow those of us who have PLUS to download PRO for the difference in price between the two applications.   BTW my son tells me that he obtains free upgrades to a number of applications he subscribes to all the time from the Apple store.  

There are real differences between Plus and Pro and they will become more apparent as we update both apps. You can see from the reviews in the app store most people recognise the different directions of all the products, from backyard to regional to Pro. See this table for the current comparison. Upgrading will be available as you describe, which we agree is the best solution, this summer when Apple releases OS3. As explained right now there is no way to do what you describe. If you read the complete explanation at the beginning of this thread you will understand developers DO NOT SELL you the app, Apple does. Apple takes your credit card payment and only Apple can give you a refund. in fact we dont even know who buys our apps. I would hope that at some point Apple provides developers with lists of customers, so we can directly contact them but I am not sure they want to do that. Apple is sort of like a retail shop selling products from different manufacturers (developers in this case), and retails stores are not in the habit of providing their manufacturers with customer data, so I understand it.

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Mitch Waite

tanager1:

BTW my son tells me that he obtains free upgrades to a number of applications he subscribes to all the time from the Apple store.  

Can you give us examples of the paid apps your son gets free "upgrades" to and what mechanism the developer provides for this.  

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Mitch Waite

See this link for new update features.

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Mitch Waite

The new features look great!  So nice to have a full-featured program, with so many birds, that actually works and is a valued tool out in the field.  Just wondering -- is this upgrade only for iBird Plus at this time, or also for PRO?

 And for the question about free upgrades, iBird Plus and PRO also give free upgrades, as I can attest!  The issue was not about an upgrade for the program, but an upgrade from one program to a different, more advanced version.

I am so in love with iBird (I have the Western version.) Thank you for doing updates and improvements. The ability to mark and recall 'favorites' is a welcome improvement to all versions.

The iPhone is the invention of the century IMHO, and iBird is the app that tops all others.

 You have turned me into a, albeit beginner, 'birder.' I went right out and bought a nice pair of field glasses (Nikon 8 x 40 Action) and ordered a professional bag to carry glasses, sandwich, and whatever, into the field.

 Happy days ahead, thanks to the iBird app.

 Thank You,

 

Ken

 

 

 

Doug in Escondido:

The new features look great!  So nice to have a full-featured program, with so many birds, that actually works and is a valued tool out in the field.  Just wondering -- is this upgrade only for iBird Plus at this time, or also for PRO?

All the apps are being updated.

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Mitch Waite