iBird Explorer General

Looking for iBird for Android Beta Testers

Mitchell Waite — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:43:46 GMT

Please check this post: http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/126309/ShowThread.aspx#126309

Android Version

lonecrowdotnet — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:48:00 GMT

Hi, I longed to upgrade my iPaq so that I could get iBird for Windows Mobile. Then my daughter bought an iPod touch so I bought a copy for her.

Now I want my own copy, but I have fallen in love with my new Android phone.

Please port to Android !

Please bump this thread if you are an Android user. Registration is very quick and easy.

Would like to hide birds

Sleahcim — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:36:48 GMT

I have the Southern edition of iBird Explorer. The edition contains a lot of birds that you would typically see in a western edition of a book key. While this isn't necessarily a problem it would be great if there was a way to hide them. Much like the favorites button but in reverse. When I see a bird in the list whose range is Texas/Mexico for instance, one which I know I would most likely not ever see here in East Tennessee, I would like to hide it. Hide it from my searches and from my list. I should have a way to retrieve it later if I want, say if I'm visiting Texas, but otherwise I shouldn't be able to see it.

My thinking is that in book form you have to accept the fact that you are going to flip through pages of birds you will most likely never see if you don't visit the locale of that particular bird. But in an interactive app you should be able to customize it to your particular taste and location. Localization is key.

iBird Featured on ATT Commercial?

gidewey52 — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:18:04 GMT

Since I don't pay much attention to commercials, I may be wrong, but I think I saw AT&T featuring iBird as one of the apps you could download for the iPhone.

Go iBird!!

- - - Jerry

Ibird compatibility

macreuse — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:17:10 GMT

I am really interested in Ibird but nowhere I can find this information. Does Ibird works only on the Iphone??? If yes, does it work with any Iphone? Thank you for helping me.

Idea for a feature...

blaps — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:34:08 GMT

Hello, I don't know if anyone has spawned this idea before (didn't have time to search the fora) but wouldn't it be awesome to combine the capabilities of Shazam with birdsongs? You just hold your iphone up to whatever birdsong you hear and, pow!, you get the name of the bird!

And please a European version if iBird... :)

Cheers,

Klas

New Feature suggestion

Jimt — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:16:02 GMT

Hi,

I like the notes feature in the latest release of iBird, but I would like to see the addition of an automatic entry of the GPS coordinates at the same time as the Date and Time stamp in a note.

Thanks,

Jim

Palm Pre WebOS Version

webwevers — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:58:39 GMT

Will this app be ported over to webos for the Palm Pre? Would love to have it on my pre, used it on my friends iphone and would like to have it. Thanks

Upgrading iBird Plus to iBird Pro

goofy166 — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:51:00 GMT

People would like to know if can they upgrade iBird Plus to iBird Pro.

The most common reason for this is a customer inadvertently purchases Plus without knowing Pro exists and really would rather have the extra features of Pro. While we explain on the Plus page that Pro is available and have made up a Plus vs. Pro table that explains the different features ( http://www.ibirdexplorer.com/PRO.html ) not everyone reads this.

With respect to upgrading Plus to Pro, Apple just released a beta of OS3 to developers which will allow us to rewrite the iBird program so that any customer has the ability to upgrade to a higher level product.

When will this be available? We are working in this code now and hope to have it ready for everyone to download as an update to their current version this summer, assuming Apple keeps their schedules. We will make the upgrade process work with all versions of iBird.

In the meanwhile is there a way to get a refund on Plus now and buy Pro? The answer is yes, you can call Apple and explain your made a mistake and did not notice there was a more advanced version of iBird, and ask for refund. In most cases Apple will give you a credit.

However if you purchased iBird Plus before Pro was available you will still be able to upgrade, but you will have to wait for us to push out a new update for OS3.

We continue to work on updates for all versions and to respond to the needs of our customers.

iBird Explorer 1.7 Finally Released

Mitchell Waite — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:33:54 GMT

Today, September 3. 2009, at 5 PM PST, some fine reviewer at Apple, cleaned off their desk and finally released all the remaining versions of iBird Explorer 1.7. This includes Pro, Plus, West, North, South, Canada, Backyard and iBird 15 (free). Here are the many new features of 1.7

■ Notes
By far, the most requested new feature by iBird users! Notes lets you record bird sighting and observation data right alongside bird species in iBird Explorer. Each species page contains a note card, accessed from the Note icon in the menu at the bottom of the species page. Notes includes an automatic time stamp button, for quickly creating a log of sightings, unlimited space for your written observations, and the ability to email your recorded information, giving you a secure backup in case your iPhone or iPod is lost or damaged.

■ Family Accounts
We have added hundreds of pages of new content to iBird Explorer, with details on 82 species families. This information includes taxonomic order and physical, behavioral, visual, habitat, migration, conservation and geographic location details specific to each bird family.

■ Spanish Language Support
In addition to English and French language bird names, you can opt to display bird names in Spanish from the iBird Settings menu.

■ Additional Hawaiian Species
For iBird West, Plus and Pro users, we have extended our coverage of Hawaiian island birds with six new species.

■ Other New Features
Other new iBird Explorer features include: new embedded help screens, glossary information for all search parameters, 50 new photos from professional nature photographers, and improved accuracy for Flickr searches.

We hope you enjoy these new features. If you have feedback, we would love to hear from you. Visit us on the web at www.ibird.com or join the conversation on Twitter, @ibirdexplorer, and on our Facebook fan page (search for iBird).

Apple rejects iBird Update because of web access

Mitchell Waite — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:23:47 GMT

We submitted all of our apps to the Apple developer system on Friday (which is a ton of uploading, took 2 days). Then yesterday I got a email that basically said they were all rejected because they allowed unfiltered access to the internet and had to be rated as 17+ only (which is the same as porn apps). The reason? Birdipedia. If you hit a Home link at the bottom of a Birdipedia page you can get to a search box in Wikipedia and from there you can enter terms that may bring up mature content. The only choice we have is t remove Birdipedia (and probably Flickr since it allows access to some photos that may be mature) and remove the online support link (e.g. remove all ability to access the internet from inside the app, or give it a 17+ rating. We think 17+ is a bad rating to give software that children love so we are now delayed as we decide what to do.

Before you slam Apple because you can access mature content via there won Safari app, keep in mind that parental controls can be turned on to prevent Safari from being used. If we could hook that into our app so when it was enabled our web pages would react the same, that might be another solution but I dont know if Apple would accept it. Any thoughts?

iBird is Stuck in the Review Process - How Do I Free it

Mitchell Waite — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:24:58 GMT

We are receiving a lot of questions from our customers asking where the latest update to iBird is, the one that we have worked on for the last four months. We submitted all 9 versions of iBird 1.7.0 to Apple on July 24, 2008. This new version contained a LOT of new features including the most requested one, Notes. Notes gives you a notepad on every species page where you can stamp the date and time, then write any sighting or observation comments about the species. Every species page has its own note. The notes are free form and you can organize them anyway you want. A button can be tapped to send them to any email address for backup. In addition we created hundreds of pages of new information on all the bird families, new birds, some fixes etc.

On July 28th I received an email from Apple saying:

Dear Mitch,

Thank you for submitting your family of iBird Explorer applications to the App Store. We've reviewed the iBird Explorers and determined that we cannot post these versions of your iPhone applications to the App Store at this time because they are not appropriately rated. Our reviews indicate that the application contents are not consistent with the current ratings. The iBird Explorer applications allow unfiltered access to the internet, where content with mature or suggestive themes can be accessed. Applications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access.

Please visit iTunes Connect to resubmit your binaries and rate your applications appropriately.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program
****************************

This email was accompanied by a screen shot of the app species page showing the Wikipedia home page, like this:

I understood Apple had a new rule that required apps which allowed unfiltered access to the internet though an app to be rated as containing "mature content". And because Birdipedia did not open Safari in the browser but rather opened Wikipedia though the webkit in the app, it would defeat the parental controls on Safari. Now while I did not really understand how all the wiki apps in the app store could get away with the same thing and be rated 4+ (the lowest rating for users and the safest), I thought perhaps that the app store reviewers had not got around to updating them yet, and that iBird was not be singled out.

So I investigated rating iBird as a "mature" app and discovered there were no guidelines about how to select from the multiple mature rating filters. Do I pick mature photos, violence, foul language? So I needed some guidance. I also discovered I could not just go in and modify my submission, I had to start from scratch and re-upload every single iBird app, fill out all the forms again, and select a rating. So I wrote to the Apple dev team and asked what I should do, and they basically told me:

Dear Mitch

Thank you for your email. Please know that ratings are only editable before binary submission. Once a binary has been uploaded for review, the rating is locked. Please be sure to correctly answer the rating questions, and then upload your binary for review. If you have questions on ratings, please refer to Page 91 in the iTunes Connect Developer Guide. The iTunes Connect Developer Guide can be found inside the Manage Your Applications module in iTunes Connect.

Also, as previously noted, your application must be rated according to the highest level of content that the user is able to access. It would be appropriate to increase the rating of your application or to limit the content that can be accessed.

We hope this helps answer your questions.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

-----

The key here was "Also, as previously noted, your application must be rated according to the highest level of content that the user is able to access. It would be appropriate to increase the rating of your application or to limit the content that can be accessed."

I could not see rating iBird as a mature app, because there are so many children that love birds and this would make parents think it was as bad influence.

So I looked at how could I limit Birdipedia so that it did not allow the user to get to the Wikipedia home page and search box. That way the customer would never be able to enter any kind of search term and would be restricted to bird pages.

We figured out how to trap the link to the wiki home page so it no longer would work, and a user would never get the screen that Apple showed me. I asked them in an email if that would be sufficient and they sent me this boiler plate answer:

Dear Mitch

We've received your application inquiry. Each app submitted to Apple has different capabilities, features, and complexity, which means that individual review times vary. Once the application review process has been completed, you will receive an email notification.

Note: If you self-reject a binary and upload a new one, the application review process is reset and starts from the beginning. Therefore, we strongly recommend that any quality assurance testing is performed prior to submitting the app.

While we cannot respond to every app submission inquiry, if we encounter any issues or need additional information you will be contacted.

----

Since that really didn't answer my question I just decided to go ahead and upload the 9 apps again with this fix. That was on August 3, 2008. Its now Aug 28 and I have not heard a thing from Apple.

Given how Apple featured iBird in the television commercial "we have an app for that too" and people actually buy iPhones and Touches just to get iBird running (we get at least 10 emails a day about how do I buy an iPod Touch), and given the great income from the app (its a $30 app that was at the top of the Reference category for 6 months) you would think Apple would be highly motivated to get iBird into the store.

Yet 25 days have gone by, over a month really since the first submission, and I am caught in the zone of silence. In the past iBird has been reviewed in 3 to 5 days!

If anyone has suggestions on what I can do to get iBird acceptable I would really appreciate your thoughts. One possibility is to force the Birdipedia button to exit the app and open Safari. That way if the parental controls have Safari disabled the result will be a blank page. Of course if I do this it starts the entire review process from scratch.

Mitch

Ads on iBird?

Mitchell Waite — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:50:47 GMT

I wanted to offer up this collection of responses to my twitter question in http://www.twitter.com/ibirdexplorer, which was "Would you object to an occasion tiny banner ad on an iBird species page offering deals on books, binoculars, etc?". I could not think of a way to present the responses as text so I assembled them into an image and you can read the reactions below. As you can see the answers were a universal NO WAY. People just don't like ads and I sure dont either. I think what people are saying is that if there was ever an ad it would have to be on a free product.

I really appreciate at everyone who took the time to let me know how you felt about the idea. Given how twitter did not give me much room to explain more of what I had in mind, I would like to take the opportunity here to ask a different question.

What I had in mind was a way to offer things that I believe iBird users would like, such as free subscriptions now and then to our Make-a-Guide, occasional special deals we get from bird feeder and binocular companies, etc?

So here is my other question: Would you object to a link on the More... page called "Special Offers" that simply opened a web page, the same was the online support pages work? You can answer on twitter or for a longer response you can sign up and answer here in the iBird Forum.

Here are the responses to the question about banner ads:

Upgrading the iPhone for iBird

Ken Nielsen — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:46:33 GMT

I'm just beginning to discover iBird. I see there are many here who want features added. I think iBird is the app that could take over the iPhone, or at least, be an influence on future design.

My want is for the iPhone to record bird songs in the field.

How about a zoom telephoto lens attachment? I can get shots by holding my iPhone up to my binoculars in a pinch. Fuzzy but it works.

I'm sure there's no end to what we want. Some of it would need hardware features added.

I don't always have my camera, but I do always have my iPhone with me. Upgraded camera features would be nice.

First/Last/Family Tabs

JoelStevens — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:20:47 GMT

I can't figure out what the Last tab does except take you to the end of the "A" Section. This does not seem particularly useful. What am I missing?

First/Last/Family Tabs

JoelStevens — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:03:16 GMT

I can't figure out what the "Last" tab does other than to move to the end of the "A" section. That does not seem to useful. What am I missing?

Other than that I think it is a very intuitive app, that is easier to use and more informative than any of the 5 or 6 bird guides I have.

Thanks

How many of you are upgrading to the iPhone 3GS

goofy166 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:48:25 GMT

This is a poll about who is upgrading to the new iPhone 3GS[Please visit the site to access the poll]

Can iBird work on a Zune?

clibbob — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:32:41 GMT

I don't have an iPod or iPhone but I do have a Zune. If iBird doesn't work on a Zune, is there any other similar application which WILL work on a Zune?

Comparison link

aegraham — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:56:15 GMT

Good morning everyone!

I was trying to find the Pro vs Plus comparison, but all the links seem broken. Anyone have a working link?

Thanks!

Palm Pre Port

aegraham — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:33:43 GMT

Hi all,

I'm a new member here who found the site through iBird explorer (and the fateful iPhone commercial). Unfortunately, I'm a loyal Sprint customer who (although the pull is strong) won't be switching to AT&T just for the app.

Luckily Sprint's new iPhone "killer" (save the flame war for other forums plz) has been out for little while and I was "lucky" enough to pick one up for myself the other day. I saw this post and was wondering if there had been any more discussion on the issue.

I don't want to "toot my own horn" but I've got a fair amount of experience w/ HTML, Javascript, Java which are the building blocks of Pre apps, and would love to help with a port of iBird, but I don't want to step on any toes (or face any lawsuits ^_^)...

I know about now you're probably thinking "just go get yourself a Touch", and while this is an option, I'd rather keep the number of shiny things to lose (or break) to a minimum, not to mention squeezing the money for the Pre out of my wife was hard enough, let alone another few hundred for another "toy".

Well, thanks for putting up w/ my rant. Cheers!

How can I find out how common a bird is?

glossyibis — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:48:28 GMT

I just installed iBird Explorer Western and I love it so far. I really think it will help me to increase my bird knowledge.

I have always used the National Geographic field guide in the past and probably will continue to keep it with me on my outings. One of the things that I really like about it is that it tells how common a bird is. I can't find how to do this in iBird. Should I be able to find this information?

Thanks,

Andrew

Range Maps Colors

HoosierGuy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:03:12 GMT

I'm new to birding and a few months ago I bought iBird Backyard. That was a very nice and cool app. I've been wanting more and more birds so I went ahead and bought iBird Pro. I've also bought the National Geographic bird guide to the iTouch/Phone. That one is not very good. IBird blows everything away. It's not perfect but it's fun, quick, and useful.

I have one suggestion - can the range map colors be changed so they are easier to see and distinguish from each other? The green is ok but the yellow and tan is not that distinct. Also, to be able to zoom in on the maps would be nice.

Another suggestion - I'm currently learning bird sounds. If you could use bird sounds from Cornel University - that would make this app almost 100% perfect.

Overall, a great app and I'm glad I bought the Pro.

What about Europa ?

artcanister — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:43:05 GMT

In first, bravo ! for yous marvellous soft.

But I'm french user, and I've big problem for use your soft in france or everywhere in Europa…

So what about a european version of iBird pro

I can invite developpers to have this specific database to contact the LPO (Ligue Protectrice des Oiseaux - Birds Protection Ligue) member of Bird Life International.

I hope to find one day this fabulous application on appstore… for Europe

Thanks a lot for your works

iBird Logo Contest

Mitchell Waite — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:18:40 GMT

We are using a cool site for developing a logo for iBird. Designers read our goals and submit there design drawings in a contest. We rank the submissions and award the job to the one we like best. Here is the link to the designs:

http://logotournament.com/contests/ibird

We would very much like to get your opinion of these logos. Can you let us know your favorite choice. The logos are numbered, and are now up to about 130! So you could just leave a message in this thread like this:

---

My favorite logo design is:

#39

---

We had to write a description for the designers and here is what we said:

What We Do:

iBird products are reference topics contained on portable devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, Smartphone’s like the iPhone, such that the information is accessible in an intelligent manner not possible with books. Interactivity, multimedia, search ability, intelligent look up, sound and vast amounts of information are some of the highlights of the products. Currently the brand is expressed in an extremely popular product called iBird Explorer for the iPhone which turns the iPhone into a field guide to birds. In the future there will be products such as iBird Guide to Dogs, iBird Mechanics Bible, iBird Guide to Animals and Plants, etc.

Top Three Things to Communicate through our Logo:

#1 - Lightness
#2 - Speed
#3 - Intelligence

Our Target Audience:

Who: Target audience is anybody who reads, or listens, and owns a mobile computing device, or wants to own a mobile computing device Where: Primary touch-point with audience will be the web (web site, Facebook, etc.) but may also be at trade shows and in printed magazines When: Audience can engage with iBird at any time Why: Audience will have seen advertising, read reviews, heard by word of mouth, or arrived by Internet search, they are looking for mobile reference books (a library in your pocket)

Thanks

iBird on Creative Zen Vision MP3 player?

jkoplen — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:32:43 GMT

Can iBird files be adapted or converted for use on other MP3 players, such as Creative Zen Vision M (30 GB)? Thanks in advance..........Julian