December 21st, 2009
admin
Early this month Apple banned a developer whose 1000+ apps then disappeared from the app store. Wow. Apparently Apple felt they were gaming the review system which is probably not that difficult to prove.
This story hit home with me recently because my own iPhone App, RunningMap Trackometer, has been getting a few bad reviews on the US App Store. (you can see my blog post about it here). This is obviously devastating for sales and shows how important reviews are. My first thought was to get some friends to post some good reviews to counter the bad ones. And it would be easy to do. But think twice if you think its a good idea.
The problem of bad reviews is exacerbated by the fact that when you uninstall an app, you are prompted to review the app which I am sure encourages far more bad reviews than good ones. Ouch. Apple’s review system is broken!
Not so fast. There are some subtleties here. The App Store will show reviews only for the “current version” while hiding the rest under the “all versions” button. The App Store also prominently shows “what’s new in version …” so there is hope!
What will I do with my Trackometer app? Fix it. Improve it. Earn some better reviews. My customers will be able to see that I have read about their concerns and improved on the product. But I won’t fake the reviews.
I am building a widget to show routes for Runningmap.com and thought I would give Axiis a try for the elevation graph. The examples show a couple techniques for connecting a cvs formatted or xml source file as the data source for the graph. Connecting my ArrayCollection of value objects stumped me however. Tom Gonzalez was kind enough to guide me to the solution which was to wrap the collection in just the right way so that Axiis could get at the data. The rest was, as I expected, magic.
Wrapping the collection looked like this:
Actionscript:
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protected function handleNewMapData(p_evt:Event):void{
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var wrapper:Object = new Object();
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wrapper.plots = model.routePoints;
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var dataCollection:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection();
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dataCollection.addItem(wrapper);
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dataProvider = dataCollection;
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dc.invalidateDisplayList();
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}
Then set the "plotCollection" and "dataField" properties in the LineSeriesGroup:
Actionscript:
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<axiis:DataCanvas
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width="90%"
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height="50"
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y="15"
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id="dc"
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horizontalCenter="0">
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<axiis:layouts>
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<groupings:LineSeriesGroup
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verticalScale="{vScale}"
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id="myLineGroup"
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x="0"
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y="0"
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height="{dc.height}"
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width="{dc.width-10}"
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plotCollection="plots"
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dataProvider = "{dataProvider}"
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dataField="elevation"
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/>
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</axiis:layouts>
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</axiis:DataCanvas>
And here it is:
Map did not load
As previously posted, I was accepted into the iPhone developer program so one can imagine that I am anxious to get my hands on the 3G iPhone hardware to test my application on. Two months ago a local Roger's Wirelss outlet added me to their waiting list for an Apple iPhone (I was fourth on the list). Last week a Roger's representative called me to advise that I needed to come in so they can begin the process with a credit check (I am currently a Telus customer) and that I would most certainly be getting a phone. Today at the store they told me that Roger's is NOT honouring any wait lists and that I will have to line up when the mall opens at 6:30 am on July 11. Burn.
Since I won't line for the phone, they may sell out and I have no idea when they will have stock.
There has been a storm of anger pointed towards Roger's over the last few weeks after they posted their awful iPhone plans. Roger's continues the great tradition in Canada of ripping off wireless customers. They currently are the only providers at the moment with the technology that supports the iPhone, so for now we are stuck with them as the only iPhone carrier.
This latest move adds insult to injury.
After a month of back and forth communication with Apple, I have been accepted into the iphone developer program. Looks like the acceptance rate for this program is something like 16% but I think this will change after July 11. This will allow me to test my application on hardware and distribute it through the iTunes App store. I have an application in mind that is related to geo-spacial content. Check back soon for updates.
Dave and I worked hard last fall-early winter to put together this new version of RunningMap.com which was release to our production website last night. It has been in testing over the last couple months and it feels great to finally get it out there.
The brilliant new design was the creation of designer/runner Sarah Ramsden. I decided I was too close to the project to be objective and the design needed a different eye, so Sarah was enlisted. I couldn't be happier with the design.
This version still features the AS2 Yahoo! Maps component. Very recently Yahoo! announced a new AS3 based maps component. Needless to say I am hard at work rewriting the application in Flex and so far I am seeing improvements in performance that are astounding. The AS2 version of runningmaps was pushing the Flash Player to its limits. Now with AS3 it's a new ball game and it will be exciting to see how far we can push it.
A special shout out goes out to Zach Graves for the excellent work on the new maps API.
This morning I discovered that someone added Runningmap.com as an example to the Wikipedia entry for "mashup". I am a big fan of Wikipedia and I am flattered. I categorically state that I did not make the entry nor do I know who did it. As a matter of record, here are some noteable web references (that I played no part in posting):
Other than being shameless self promotion (hey, it is my blog 
the point of this post is that the viral nature of the web is quite interesting. It's a new kind of "word-of-mouth." And I think it is indicative of substance. I much prefer this than trolling and spamming running forums like other owners of similar sites do. One particular owner of a similar site to runningmap has posted "me too!" comments on at least 5 different high profile news or blog posts about Runningmap. That is annoying.
UPDATE: It looks like my Wikipedia fame has come to an end. On November 28 someone removed the "unencyclopedic examples" which included runningmap.com.
A few weeks ago I was invited to be a guest on The Lab with Leo Laporte which is a tech based TV show that airs in Canada on G4TechTV (also airs in Australia and will be available on Google video). They wanted to showcase my website Runningmap.com. I am a big fan of Leo's shows and podcasts and I was giddy wih excitement with the chance to meet him. Chris (runningmap President) and I flew out to Vancouver last Thursday for the Friday taping.
I have very little experience with the "live to tape" operation involved in making a show like this, so it was really interesting to see it all happen and to be part of it. We arrived through the back door of the studio, signed the release papers, did the makeup thing and then sat and waited for the big call. We chatted with staff and other guests. I had a nice chat with Alex Lindsay who's voice I recognized (I listen to his podcasts. Check out the latest MacBreak weekly ... it's a good one) before I saw him. Then came the call: "Runningmap is next" and in we went, onto the set, with a brand new (borrowed) Mac Book Pro and a wireless mightymouse. I set the laptop down, opened the lid, brought it out of sleep, tested the wireless internet and mouse connections. They gave us some mics and did a levels check. Leo stood beside me and BOOM we were on. Previously I fretted about how to get in the points I wanted to, but Leo was an absolute PRO and it all went as smooth as butter. He asked all the perfect questions. Its because HE GETS IT. And by it I mean Tech. It was 7 minutes which is a lot of time, but it went by so fast.
The segment airs September 28.
RUNNINGMAP has added a new feature called a Photographic Point of Interest. Basically this means you can add a photo to a location on the map. I don't want to host photos so all that runningmap stores is a URL to the location of a photo hosted somewhere else. Users have two choices: paste in a URL or pick one from their Flickr photos.
Y! quietly updated their map tiles last night. If you zoom out in map mode you will see topographic features. Very nice. They also upgraded their geocoder. I am not sure at this time what the new features are but I found that I need to be more precise in the addresses I put in. For example, St. Albert, Alberta does not get me to my city anymore. But, entering "St. Albert, Alberta, Canada" does.
RUNNINGMAP and I were mentioned in a recent InformationWeek article on maps in mashups. I think we are only seeing the beginning of geo-contextual data on the web.
RUNNINGMAP updates: elevation points sometimes get bad data returned from the web service. Clicking on the point will cause it to requery the database. Clicking the point will also cause the associated marker on the map to center in the map window. The perfomance of the application, particularily with long routes, has been significantly improved though code optimization.
November 13th, 2006
Randy
A new version of RUNNINGMAP that I have been furiously working on for the last couple of weeks went live. This work included a complete refactoring of the code base and even with the added features and graphics, the new version comes in at 13k smaller. New features:
- Elevation chart is created as you add points. This feature uses another webservice and is somewhat experimental at this time.
- Radio buttons to toggle imperial/metric units of measure.
- Any point can be deleted by clicking on it and pressing the "delete" button
- Keyboard shortcut for Undo: Ctrl Z (does not work in Safari)
- Other minor UI enhancements
- Permalink can be entered in address bar in the format "id=1234"
