Why Did You Start Your Business?

Idea Mensch Interview with Brandon Medenwald, Co-Founder of Simply Made Apps

We are happy to announce a big update for our iOS users today. Version 3.2 is now available and we have some great new features included with this update.

• Geofence Notifications – Now you can enable a notification when you trip a geofence. The notifications are optional for users that want that extra level of feedback from the geofences.
• Sound Effects – We haven’t bombarded the app with a ton of annoying sound effects, but we did add a few audio cues on errors and status updates to let you know when things are working right. These can also be turned off if you really want to. And as always, we respect the mute switch, so mute means we will keep quiet.
• Voice Over Support – We have added some much needed support for Voice Over. This will help our visually impaired users get the most out of Simple In/Out.
• Custom URL Handling – We will have a separate blog post on using this new feature. The long and the short of it is we now support custom URL’s to create shortcuts in the app. Specificially, update status, enable/disable geofences, enable/disable notifications, and enable/disable sound effects. We will consider adding more as the need arises.
• Custom Character Support – This one probably falls under bug fixes, but it is worth mentioning that we now support all special characters in status updates. Before we only supported specific punctuation, but as our overseas users have pointed out, one size doesn’t always fit all. So we are happy to fix this oversight and enable all special characters in the status update messages.
• Bug fixes – This is probably the most bug free version of Simple In/Out we have ever shipped. It is next to impossible to test for every device on every software version, but we feel we have gotten all of bugs that have been reported as well as a bunch we found (hopefully before anyone else noticed them).

We really want to thank all of our beta testers as well as our existing users that have reported issues and sent in suggestions. Almost everything in this build is based off of user requests or bug reporting. We love hearing from each and every one of you. Not only do we enjoy hearing how Simple In/Out has helped out, it helps make it a better product for everyone. So keep those suggestions coming.

We will have another blog post dedicated entirely to setting up the custom URL handling feature. Once it is done, we will link back to it here.

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Our latest iOS update patches a pretty big bug found by A LOT of our users surrounding the geofence feature. The update is now live in the App Store.

It is suggested that you double check your geofence settings to make sure everything is set correctly after the update. You can toggle the on/off switch to completely reset your geofence settings to be absolutely sure.

We greatly appreciate the patience and understanding by our users. This has been a very stressful week. We have a nice case of carpal tunnel from typing out apology and explanation emails over this issue. This issue has taught us a couple of very good lessons. One, pay closer attention when shipping updates. And two, we have some great, understanding users. So thank you so very much for your patience and understanding.

As always, if you are having any troubles or issues after the update, just shoot us an email and we’ll do our best to take care of it.

Simply Made Apps

We have discovered (thanks to many helpful users) that our last update caused geofences to stop working for some iOS users. We have identified the problem and have implemented the fix. It will take a few days to get approved by Apple, but should resolve any issues you might be having in regards to failed updates with your geofences. We are very sorry for any inconvenience.

Unfortunately, our server hosting company has done something awful to their DNS servers, otherwise known as our DNS servers.  For some users, it’s possible you’ll see errors when trying to access Simple In/Out.

We apologize for the inconvenience, we know everyone relies on Simple In/Out.  We’ve fixed the problem, but we’ll still be affected until the DNS can replicate the good changes.  We’ll do our best to get back running.

Again, we’re sorry for the inconvenience.  If you have any questions, please email me directly at brandon [at] simplymadeapps [dot] com.

If you were one of the lucky 2 million people that got up early enough to pre-order an iPhone 5, then today is your lucky day. Or, if you can’t be bothered to wake up at 2am to buy something you can pick up at the store, then Godspeed in your quest to find one locally.

As developers, we have had a sneaky suspicion a larger screen phone was on the horizon going back to Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference when they announced a new screen layout system, Auto Layout. That was back in June of this year. It wasn’t hard to see the writing on the wall.

Here we are today, and sure enough a new phone with a bigger screen. There was a lot more packed into that 5 day conference than just hints at a bigger iPhone. There were tons of improvements to existing developer tools and even some brand new ones. I won’t bore you with the details, but rest assured, it is a great time to be an iPhone owner. Apps are going to keep getting better and better.

We have been working hard here at Simply Made Apps to make sure everything is ready to go for the new iPhone. An update released yesterday that will allow you to take advantage of the taller screen without letterboxing (black bars on the top and bottom) the app. We also have some other features that are in the works that we are working hard to bring you.

Thanks to everyone that has been using Simple In/Out so far. We are just blown away at the response we get on a daily basis from our customers. They are finding new and creative ways to use it. We are very thankful to everyone that has helped us shape Simple In/Out to the app it is today. So from all of us here, all 3 of us, thank you.

Simply Made Apps

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