December « 2010 « GeekUtils

Archive for December, 2010

iOS 4.2 update on iPad resolves playback issues.

Saturday, December 4th, 2010

If you remember a while back, we posted a blog entry where we described that YouTube video playback on an iPad (when running an iPhone/iPod app) was not working correctly. Once playback started, the video was locked in portrait mode, and there was no way to exit the video once playback was finished.

As we described in this same blog entry, the iOS 4.2 update resolves this issue. If you are using YouTube playback on the iPad, be sure to update your iPad to the new iOS 4.2 (available through iTunes). Once your iPad is updated, videos will play back as expected.

Posted in Annoying Orange, App Updates, BlackBoxTV, CTFxC, EDUTube, Gamer TV, iJustine, iPad, iPhone Apps, JoeNationTV, KevJumba, OlgaKay, PhillyD, Shane Dawson, ShayTards, SoldierKnowsBest, stirfryTV, YouTube | No Comments »

TypeCam update on the way…

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

We have an update that we will be submitting to the app store this weekend for our latest popular app, called TypeCam.

We discovered that in some instances, when you type a message and then choose SMS or eMail as your destination, once you are finished sending the message, the keyboard does not reappear.

PLEASE NOTE – A quick workaround until the update is available in the store is to simply tap the settings button twice, which will reload the keyboard.

From what we can tell, this bug seems to be introduced by iOS 4.2. We thank those of you who took the time to report this to us, and we’ll have a fix ready for you shortly 🙂

Thanks!

Posted in App Updates, TypeCam | No Comments »

Configuring Push Notifications

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

Many people contact us and ask us how they can turn off badges for notifications (the little number on the app icon). Some people want to leave badges on but disable the sounds or alerts when a push is received.

Configuring notification options like this is very easy, and it’s actually handled by way of the standard settings app that Apple provides on each and every iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

To configure push notifications, simply do the following:

Open Settings from the main screen, and select “Notifications”, as pictured below:

From this screen, choose the app for which you want to configure notification options:

Once you’re in the configure screen for the app you want, you can use the sliders to select which options you want enabled for push notifications for that app:

If Badges are on, when a push is received, you will see a number on the app icon indicating the number of videos that have been posted since the last time you opened the app.

If Sounds are on, the default alert sound will be played when a push is received.

If Alerts are on, when a push is received, an alert will be displayed (Similar to a SMS message) containing the name of the app, the name of the video, and the channel that the video was posted on.

Now you know how to configure push. Keep in mind, this is the standard way to configure push notifications – and will work with ANY app that supports push notifications. Some applications include additional menus with more detailed push notification options, however, this is the Apple approved standard way for users to interact with the push service.

Posted in Annoying Orange, BlackBoxTV, CTFxC, iJustine, iPhone Apps, JoeNationTV, KevJumba, New Releases, OlgaKay, PhillyD, Shane Dawson, ShayTards, SoldierKnowsBest, stirfryTV | No Comments »

YouTube outage affecting some apps…

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

Currently, there is an outage with the YouTube data service that we use to retrieve video data for our apps. In some apps, this is causing the video listings on some of the channels to show up blank, and the app will report that “YouTube is experiencing issues” when you try to refresh or retrieve the video listing (OlgaKay’s main channel, for example).

We are aware of the problem, and have reported it to YouTube. This is NOT an error in our application – this is a YouTube outage. As soon as YouTube resolves this issue, the applications will resume normal function.

Thanks for your patience, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that YouTube resolves this issue soon.

UPDATED 12/2/2010 6:00PM EST – YouTube has resolved this outage. Any affected apps should be functioning normally now.

Posted in Bugs and Outages, OlgaKay | No Comments »

Retina Display Support

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

UPDATE: SoldierKnowsBest v1.1.1 has been released to the app store as of 12/7/2010. Now everything in the app, including the bottom tab bar icons, is optimized for Retina where applicable. Enjoy. 😉

While we love hearing suggestions and comments from fans of our applications, we’ve been suprised by some nastygrams we’ve received over the past couple of days regarding retina display support in our latest “Soldier Knows Best” application. A few of you have sent us notes (some even quite sarcastic and/or rude) claiming that the app does not support the retina display – and we even saw a couple of unfavorable reviews in the app store claiming that the app doesn’t support the retina display.

Although it’s not my normal process to respond to negativity, I take pride in these apps that I develop and I felt it necessary to set the record straight. ALL of our apps support the retina display. However, in the latest “Soldier Knows Best” app, we noticed after we had already submitted the app to the app store that the icons we use on the bottom bar (and on the more screen) were not optimized for the retina display. Important Note – I state again, only the icons on the tab bar (and the more screen, which is part of the tab bar) are not optimized for retina.

Rather than delay the launch of the app any further by removing and resubmitting to the app store – we let this version go through the app store review process.

Everything else – the thumbnails of each video, the fonts used in the video descriptions, the shading properties on the fonts, the YouTube login header, the video duration overlays, the app icon, the load screen, wait screens, EVERYTHING other than the tab icons is optimized for the best viewing on the retina display.

Shortly after the SKB app was approved, we submitted an update to Apple that fixes the bottom bar icons so that they are “Retina Enabled”. As soon as this update is approved (hopefully sometime this week), the bottom bar icons will also be retina enabled and the update will be available from the app store.

Because most of you who emailed us regarding this issue must not be able to tell the TRUE difference between retina and non-retina optimized app – below you will find screenshots from version 1.1 (The same version initially released to the app store) of the SoldierKnowsBest app. One of these screenshots is from an iPhone3GS, the other from an iPhone 4. You can clearly see the difference in our framework depending on the screen resolution (retina vs. non retina). Look at the fonts, look at the thumbnails, look at the video duration that is superimposed over the thumbnail, look at shading, look at the overall resolution difference in the screenshots.

The only thing that is not retina is the bottom bar icons, which will be corrected shortly – had we known these were going to cause such a fuss – we would have delayed the launch of the app – is that what we should have done? 🙂

To truly visualize this correctly, view this page from our website (www.geekutils.com) on a computer and click the links below to open each image in a separate window and compare side by side. Each image is an actual screenshot at full screen resolution from the device specified.

Now, can you tell the difference?

iPhone 3GS (Click to open in a new window):