I tell you, it sure was a nail biter game they played today. I found it quite a stressful game to watch. Knowing that you’re so close to winning or losing and that the game can go one way or another at any moment is very stressful. I can just imagine how the players were feeling.

I’m very proud of all the Canadian olympic athletes. And to all the olympic athletes that did their best for their respective countries, I salute you.

Go Canada Go!

Thanks!

Brendan

So what is TextExpander?

Essentially TextExpander takes short abbreviations that you define using their app and expands them into larger snippets of text inside Tap Forms and other apps that support TextExpander.

For example, in Tap Forms 1.9, try typing into a Text or Note field the abbreviation “ddate” (without the quotes). You’ll hear a blip sound telling you TextExpander has kicked into high gear and replaced “ddate” with today’s date. Pretty neat, eh?

Here is a list of the abbreviations and their longer snippets that are currently built-in to Tap Forms 1.9. Now these are just samples. The real power comes when you purchase the TextExpander touch app and customize these for your own unique uses. And yes, you can create many more abbreviations and snippets than are listed here. And it’s really really easy to do with their app.

So there you have it, a little info on TextExpander integration with Tap Forms.

Thanks!

Brendan

Tap Forms 1.9 was only 1 day waiting for review. Then 3 hours and 20 minutes in review before it was released for sale.

That has got to be a record!

Thanks so much Apple. You have really improved the release times for apps on the App Store. I am very grateful for the improvements you’ve made to the process. I’m sure my customers are too.

I hope everyone enjoys the new features and the new icon.

Thanks!

Brendan

Hey there,

This evening I finally decided that Tap Forms 1.9 was ready to be released. After many months of development work, I’m pleased to present to you the new features and the brand new icon! I hope you like it!

New Features

• Supports TextExpander touch snippet expansion.
• Added ‘Beaming’ function so you can transmit a single record or form to another device wirelessly over Bluetooth or WiFi. Enables synchronization of forms between devices nearby.
• More accurately finds your location in the map view.
• Added drag and drop of pin in map view.
• You can now email file attachments along with your record.
• Redesigned app icon.
• Redesigned startup logo.
• Other UI enhancements.
• Added rotation support when viewing documents on Files tab.
• New calendar component for entering in dates.
• Korean & Hebrew localizations.
• Added icons to the items on the Tools tab.
• Added ability to import a File Attachment path from a CSV file which will be matched up with a file in the Files area.

Bug Fixes

• Importing CSV file where first column is blank now works.
• Text no longer clears in Note view when passcode screen is displayed.
• Passcode screen will now display properly if passcode is set and the ‘About’, ‘Select a Form’, or ‘Help’ screens are being viewed.

Oh, and here’s the new icon:

I wanted to freshen up the icon a bit and make it stand out in the App Store some more. So with the help of a designer from 99designs.com, I set out to create something new.

One thing I liked about the previous icon was the blue and white. I think the contrast makes it stand out quite nicely in the App Store. I tried about a hundred variations of the icon to see what worked and what didn’t. I even tried getting rid of the X in the circle. But every time I did that, it didn’t look like Tap Forms anymore. So I kept the X and the blue gradient, added the pencil to signify that you use the program to record information, and added the silver border and rings because I thought they looked cool.

I’ve heard that App Store approvals are going quicker these days, so I hope that Tap Forms 1.9 won’t take too long to get to you.

Thanks to the kind individuals who tested, reported bugs, and translated Tap Forms into their native languages. Your help is very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Brendan

How do I know that? Well, I was watching the iPad demo video on apple.com and I saw my app icon fly by as the user was swiping through the app icon pages:

And there it is! 3rd row, 3rd column.

Very cool indeed!

As soon as the iPad is available in Canada, I will be getting one to test my app on it. I already have some ideas on how I can improve Tap Forms to fit on the iPad sized screen.

Brendan

I just wanted to let you know of an awesome review that Ryan Wade of UniqueApps.com made for Tap Forms on his new AppCalendar.com website. AppCalendar is really cool. I highly recommend you go over there to watch all the iPhone app video reviews Ryan has put up there. Basically he’s doing a review a day for an entire year!

If you’re an iPhone developer I would highly recommend you head on over there and get in while there is space left on his calendar.

So without further delay… here’s Ryan’s awesome review of Tap Forms:

If this was the only issue I’ve had with getting paid then that would be fine. Stuff happens. But it seems like I’m a bit cursed when it comes to getting paid. I’m actually not faulting anyone for the troubles I’ve had. It’s just a comedy of troubles that have been going on for the past 6 months or so.

The first thing that happened to me was that an iTunes payment was mistakenly deposited into my personal bank account instead of my company bank account. The mistake was made by my bank. Apparently when you receive a wire transfer, there is human interaction nearly throughout the entire process. Geez, you would think that a “wire” transfer means that it happens all electronically. But I guess they have to pay someone to monitor all these transfers. The problem is of course that humans make mistakes. Quite often with my bank it seems.

So to correct the issue with the payment being deposited into the wrong account I contacted the bank and they said they’d take care of it. A few days later I had still not received the money into my business account. In fact, they immediately removed the funds from my personal account, but neglected to credit my business account. It turns out they sent it to a completely different account. I contacted them again about that and they finally fixed it. The other bank account happens to be for the company I have been partners in for the past 10 years or so. But for my iPhone development work, I have my own personal business, ClickSpace Technologies Inc. so that I can keep everything separate.

Ok. So that one was corrected too. Great. It was also only for about $500 CAD, so that wasn’t a huge deal. Now, onto the next mistake. A couple of weeks ago I received a strange call from a company in Ontario asking if I had any documentation for the payment I had made to them a few days earlier. The company seemed to be related to Dell somehow. Since I know I hadn’t purchased anything from Dell recently, I started to ask more questions about the payment I apparently made. As soon as they told me it was a wire payment, I asked them if it mentioned anything about iTunes in the payment notes. I figured there was probably another mistake made somehow. They said it actually came from iTunes Luxembourg. Aha! That sounds familiar. In fact, it was my iTunes Europe payment that landed in their account! I’m really thankful to the person who called me up and worked to help me figure it out. But honestly, I wonder how often this happens with wire transfers? Why do you need people to get in the way of a perfectly good electronic transmission?

I contacted my bank and they corrected the situation immediately. That was great. It was also for $1700 CAD, so it was a much bigger deal. Problem solved.

Ok, so now back to my iTunes Japan payment for September. I have contacted my bank. I have contacted Apple. My bank and Apple have both been great in trying to track down my missing payment. They have both been getting back to me very quickly whenever I’ve had a question. Unfortunately however, I have still not received my iTunes Japan payment. Even missing a little money isn’t great, but when you’re missing almost $7000 CAD, that’s a much bigger deal! And nobody seems to know where it is!

So am I the only iPhone app developer who’s had these weird problems getting paid? I’m sure there are others out there that have had much worse problems than I have. Fortunately I have a day job and I’m not dependent on the payments I receive for the sale of Tap Forms. But as any iPhone developer would agree that it’s certainly nice to get paid relatively on time for the hard work we all put into building our apps. I feel bad for any iPhone app developer who has had a worse time getting paid than I have.

Hopefully it will get resolved soon. It’d be nice to have this money before Christmas.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Brendan

Today is the day I put Tap Forms back to its regular price of $8.99 USD. Basically the sale ran its course. After a while any iPhone app that hits the highs eventually also hits the lows, or in my case, plateaus at a comfortable amount. I apologize to anyone who missed the sale. But that’s what sales are all about. They come and last for a while and then they go. I had originally planned on having the sale just for the US Thanks Giving weekend, but when I noticed my sales in Japan increase significantly I decided to ride it out a little longer.

Thanks to those who supported Tap Forms before, during, and after the sale. Even if you paid full price for Tap Forms, I strongly believe you have received your money’s worth in a great product. I am still constantly improving it and adding new features. As I outlined in a previous blog post, the next update will include TextExpander integration and the ability to email file attachments from within Tap Forms. For future updates beyond that, I generally pick things from the list at my feedback site (http://feedback.tapforms.com). So if you have an idea for a new feature, please post it there so others may see it and vote on it.

The top most requested feature is a desktop app and as I’ve said in previous posts, I am currently working on Tap Forms Mac. Why just the Mac for now you may ask? Well, because I wrote Tap Forms for iPhone in Objective-C. Since regular Mac apps are also written in Objective-C, building the Mac version next enables me to reuse a lot of the code I have already written. Eventually when I get Tap Forms Mac out the door, I’ll see about getting it ported to Windows. But for now it will be Mac first.

Thanks again for all your support.

Brendan

Note: I didn’t have my iPhone's language set to Japanese, so that’s why it’s in English.

So I’ve decided to bump the price up a tiny bit to $1.99 USD and to extend the sale for a little while longer. It’s still a bargain at 78% off the regular price of $8.99 USD. So if you’re on the fence, now might be a great time for you and your friends to pick up a copy before the sale ends.

So that’s what’s happening with my sale in case you wondered.

I also wanted to tell you what’s on the radar for the next update to Tap Forms. I have been working on the following enhancements:

• Text Expander touch integration (overview)
• File Attachment emailing
• More secret stuff…

Thanks for visiting!

Brendan

Today I was looking at my app store rankings and noticed that Korea jumped almost right to the top of the list! Currently I am at the number 1 position in Business and #40 overall for the entire store. Thank you very much Korea for choosing Tap Forms to be your #1 business app!

We’ll see how this weekend fairs as my Black Friday sale continues until Monday evening.

Oh ya, if anyone is interested in volunteering to translate Tap Forms to Korean, please contact me at support[at]tapforms.com.

Thanks so much!

Brendan