I wrote this up to help explain why some people are experiencing crashing of iBird Explorer. See below for how to help us find the problem.
First we take the issue of crashing very
seriously and in no way minimize how it makes the use of the program
frustrating. We are working with Apple to figure out what is causing the issue. So far we have
determined that it affects a small number of users of both the iPhone and iPod
Touch ( less than .01 percent). This is not an excuse just trying to help you
understand the magnitude of the issue.
The crashes are not
reproducible in any consistent way (which makes debugging it difficult). It is
not just related to the sounds, but seems to happen more often when sounds are
played. iBird is not alone with this problem, it seems to be an issue on several
large apps that consumer a large number of resources. For example Google Earth,
Evernote, some very large games, etc.
Developers believe
there are some instabilities in the iPhone OS.
We believe this is true as Apple has updated its OS three times now and
each time the review notes explain that many bugs and stability issues were fixed. Right now we compiled iBird to work with
version 2.1 of the iPhone OS so that it works with the greatest number of
devices.
We are about to beta
test a new version of iBird specifically compiled for OS 2.2.1. The new OS
2.2.1 has many performance and stability improvements we hope will help the
people that are crashing. Once it is released in the store the new update of
iBird will require anyone who has not updated to 2.2 to do so in order to
download and install it.
We will continue to
work with Apple and customers to find the reason for the crashing and do
everything in our power to cure them. OS3 coming in the summer is rumored to be
another large stability improver. There are signs that the new iPhone's will
contain more program memory.
For customers who
are unsatisfied with the way iBird is working you can get Apple to refund any
purchase for up to 90 days. We have had several customers accomplish this but
others say Apple turns them down, so it seems to depend on who answers the
phone. You can always dispute the charge on your credit card if Apple won't
refund.
Also many customers
do not understand that all sales go though Apple, who takes out a royalty and
then pays us the balance. We are not told who are customers are, but we are
expected to support them. I am not complaining about the arrangements as
Apple's approach greatly simplifies our sales issues, but it does make dealing
with refunds impossible.
Helping Us Isolate the Issue
You can help us find the issue with crashing by sending us your crash reports. Here is how to do that:
Crash log
When an
application crashes on the iPhone or iPod touch, the OS stores a crash report
on the device. iTunes copies the report to a directory on the user's computer
when the device is synchronized.
Depending
on the platform, the directory is:
- Mac OS
X: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<DEVICE_NAME>
- Windows
XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Apple
Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<DEVICE_NAME>
- Windows
Vista: C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple
Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\<DEVICE_NAME>
<USERNAME> is
the user's login name for the computer. <DEVICE_NAME> is the
name of the iPod touch or iPhone, for example, "John's iPhone".
You are
only interested in .crash files. The crash report's file name begins
with the application name and contains date/time information. In
addition, <DEVICE_NAME> will appear at the end of the file
name, before the extension.
Please email these reports to admin at whatbird dot com.
Mitch Waite
