New Speed Dial Widget - Sign

[simplyapplied]

Thanks Johnny! Also, we should have the update I mentioned ready within a week so hopefully it will be even better after that.

 

[DroidGnome]

One suggestion and a rather large bug.

Suggestion first:
I hate the giant scrollable list of "All available" contacts..it may work great for people with only a few dozen or a hundred contacts.. but when you get over 400, it's just too difficult to use.

I have Google contacts labeled for a reason, so I can easily find them.. why not allow an option to change the view to a more 'folder/label' based structure so I can easily find the list of people to make a sign for rather than sift through hundreds of contacts??.

Ok and now the rather large bug:
When I load up this huge list, the first 30-50 items in the list have no name.. just a phone number with a prefix like "Other - (xxx) xxx-xxxx" or "home (xxx) xxx-xxxx". There is no identifier as to what this contact is.

I tracked down the source of the problem...I believe these are the items I have in my contact list without a First Name field.. such as every company I deal with

Your app does not appear to be pulling in the "Company Name" and assumes all contacts are individual people. This bug is what is stopping me from paying for your app as many of my 'most frequently' dialed numbers are not individual people but companies. (And before someone suggests it: I should not have to move the company name into the first name field in Google as that causes problems with other apps who properly read both fields to sort out contacts.)

Please add the ability for your app to pull in the Company Name, whenever the First/Last name are blank.. or ideally it should have a better display such as this:

John Smith
Acme Demo Company
Home: (###) ###-####
Work: (###) ###-####

That way should the contact have no First name, you will still see the Company Identifier.

Fix those two issues above and You'll have a great app here!

 

[Zorro1]

I really like this so far. Closest thing I've seen to using my old Palm, which is NOT a bad thing. Some things are just more efficient, and a simple gesture is much quicker than cycling thru a couple icons, etc. No complaints yet.

 

[simplyapplied]

One suggestion and a rather large bug.

Suggestion first:
I hate the giant scrollable list of "All available" contacts..it may work great for people with only a few dozen or a hundred contacts.. but when you get over 400, it's just too difficult to use.

I have Google contacts labeled for a reason, so I can easily find them.. why not allow an option to change the view to a more 'folder/label' based structure so I can easily find the list of people to make a sign for rather than sift through hundreds of contacts??.

Ok and now the rather large bug:
When I load up this huge list, the first 30-50 items in the list have no name.. just a phone number with a prefix like "Other - (xxx) xxx-xxxx" or "home (xxx) xxx-xxxx". There is no identifier as to what this contact is.

I tracked down the source of the problem...I believe these are the items I have in my contact list without a First Name field.. such as every company I deal with

Your app does not appear to be pulling in the "Company Name" and assumes all contacts are individual people. This bug is what is stopping me from paying for your app as many of my 'most frequently' dialed numbers are not individual people but companies. (And before someone suggests it: I should not have to move the company name into the first name field in Google as that causes problems with other apps who properly read both fields to sort out contacts.)

Please add the ability for your app to pull in the Company Name, whenever the First/Last name are blank.. or ideally it should have a better display such as this:

John Smith
Acme Demo Company
Home: (###) ###-####
Work: (###) ###-####

That way should the contact have no First name, you will still see the Company Identifier.

Fix those two issues above and You'll have a great app here!

Awesome feedback, thanks! You are correct that it doesn't handle blank names properly - we actually had to implement a fix to keep it from force closing in some instances, but we didn't really consider the company name aspect. I have let the programmer know that we need to have a backup (company name) for when there isn't a contact name. I like your idea of it also showing the Company name potentially. We will have to evaluate the best way to implement this, but it is definitely something we will attempt to include in one of our early updates. I hate to give a timeframe without discussing it with the programmer, but I'll report back.

I agree 100% that you shouldn't have to change your phone's contact list to make our app work properly. That's our responsibility.

As far as the contact list, I agree that it can be a bit tedious when the number of contacts gets to be too high. We will look at a better solution for that - maybe the ability to start typing the name would work to narrow the list. Folders might work, but I'm not sure how easily that could be implemented without complicating the process since a majority of users probably don't have the contacts separated into folders. We'll definitely research it.

Theoretically speaking, you would only have to scroll through the list when you want to add a speed dial sign to a contact, and then you wouldn't have to do that again for that specific contact. Depending on the number of contacts you want to add to Sign, that could be as few as 1 and up to an unlimited number, but based on our beta testing, almost all people have less than 20, and most have less than ten.

However, in a business environment, which is your concern from what I gathered from your post, it could be more often. Out of curiosity, how many speed dials would you need to create? I'm asking because I don't know how many speed dial Signs I could remember.

Anyways, we will take a look at the contact list issue and see if we can develop something that is effective, but doesn't significantly impact the size, speed, and responsiveness of the app.

Thanks again, we had not fully considered the app as a potential business tool. However, I think for people in a variety of industries who need to be in constant communication, your suggestions are extremely helpful. Thanks. Also, I will follow up with our progress on these in this thread; however, if you want to send us an email to simplyapplied@gmail.com I can keep you updated on these specific issues and also let you know when they are resolved so you don't have to keep checking back to this thread.

 

[simplyapplied]

I really like this so far. Closest thing I've seen to using my old Palm, which is NOT a bad thing. Some things are just more efficient, and a simple gesture is much quicker than cycling thru a couple icons, etc. No complaints yet.

Zorro, glad you like it so far. Hopefully some of the updates we are implementing will make it even better.

I haven't used a Palm, but were there any features that you liked which you think would improve Sign?

I'm certainly not guaranteeing we'll include those features, but it never hurts to consider all the options.

Thanks!

 

[Groucho]

I have really enjoyed using Signs for the last 48 hours or so and it is definitely a keeper. All of my Company contacts if they don't have names associated are showing up as "work" at the beginning of the list as the other poster mentioned. I have 10 or 12 contacts Signed now, basically the ones that were on the HTC picture dial widget. I agree that there is a limit as to how many I can remember but as long as I keep it systematic that could be a lot more than any other speed dialer holds.

Keep up the good effort and I will look forward to the fixes.

 

[simplyapplied]

I have really enjoyed using Signs for the last 48 hours or so and it is definitely a keeper. All of my Company contacts if they don't have names associated are showing up as "work" at the beginning of the list as the other poster mentioned. I have 10 or 12 contacts Signed now, basically the ones that were on the HTC picture dial widget. I agree that there is a limit as to how many I can remember but as long as I keep it systematic that could be a lot more than any other speed dialer holds.

Keep up the good effort and I will look forward to the fixes.

Thanks! Happy to hear its a keeper . I'll definitely keep everyone updated on the Company contacts issue.

 

[DroidGnome]

We will look at a better solution for that - maybe the ability to start typing the name would work to narrow the list. Folders might work, but I'm not sure how easily that could be implemented without complicating the process since a majority of users probably don't have the contacts separated into folders. We'll definitely research it.

Is there any way you could simply integrate a 'create sign gesture" into the default conact list ? that way I could utilize the built-in groupings of the contact list to find someone, and simply 'add sign gesture' just as if I was addin them to favorites or calling them.

That would also mean you don't have to develop a new interface, just tie into the contact extensions (assuming android lets you).

Out of curiosity, how many speed dials would you need to create? I'm asking because I don't know how many speed dial Signs I could remember.

Ahhh and here lies the beauty of your app...
Granted I've not tested this just yet, I sort of got turned off as soon as I couldn't identify my contacts, but from what I read, if you assign multiple people with the same gesture you get a list to choose from... I would be creating a single gesture per company, which might have 2-5 people per... approx 10-15 companies at most is what I was thinking. At least that's how my contacts are set up in Google right now.. it's easy to open contacts.. sort by group, select a company and then choose a person.

Your app would let me click a widget, draw gesture and then pick a person. Much easier to do IMO.


And no worries on checking the thread.. I've got it set up for Subscriptions

 

[simplyapplied]

Is there any way you could simply integrate a 'create sign gesture" into the default conact list ? that way I could utilize the built-in groupings of the contact list to find someone, and simply 'add sign gesture' just as if I was addin them to favorites or calling them.

That would also mean you don't have to develop a new interface, just tie into the contact extensions (assuming android lets you).

Ahhh and here lies the beauty of your app...
Granted I've not tested this just yet, I sort of got turned off as soon as I couldn't identify my contacts, but from what I read, if you assign multiple people with the same gesture you get a list to choose from... I would be creating a single gesture per company, which might have 2-5 people per... approx 10-15 companies at most is what I was thinking. At least that's how my contacts are set up in Google right now.. it's easy to open contacts.. sort by group, select a company and then choose a person.

Your app would let me click a widget, draw gesture and then pick a person. Much easier to do IMO.


And no worries on checking the thread.. I've got it set up for Subscriptions

We originally looked at having the Sign entry tie directly to the contact screen, but it really wasn't feasible.

The app does currently offer a confirmation selection if there is more than one Sign identified for a contact. That was input as a "safety confirmation" feature to prevent misdials in the event two signs were too similar. It wasn't specifically designed so that multiple contacts from the same company could have the same sign. At this time, it is limited to only showing two options when it recognizes more than one gesture because the intent was to create individual signs for each number. So from that perspective, it is unlikely that the app is going to recognize more than 2 signs at any one time.

Currently we are implementing a couple of smaller feature changes, along with attempting to resolve the issue with non-google contact lists - Exchange Active Sync contacts not showing up in the Sign contacts. Those are currently the highest priority due to the number of people specifically affected by those issues.

However, while those issues are being addressed and incorporated, I will spend some time trying to develop a simple, effective way to make the app more business-friendly. I originally developed it and designed it with the focus being on it being used for personal interactions and didn't put any real thought into business uses. The key will be to make changes which maintain the primary focus of the app as currently designed while making it work in a business environment.

The features we are discussing could potentially be pretty significant changes to how the app actually gathers the contact information and how it would have to allow for the user to make selections from multiple contacts within a specific company. Simply making minor tweaks might partially solve the problem, but they may not go far enough. In fact, some of what you describe would almost have to be performed in a completely separate app because the way Sign is programmed would have to be completely altered to make it look at the company first, then the contacts.

I will keep y'all updated with what I come up with.

I do want to thank you for the input, it has been very beneficial and made me realize that there are so many different factors that need to be considered when designing and developing an app. I can't say whether or not we'll come up with an acceptable solution to the specific issues you've raised because it is a balancing act to keep the app simple to use, lightweight, quick and responsive for the vast majority of people vs. attempting to meet the needs of specific individuals.

 

[simplyapplied]

I have really enjoyed using Signs for the last 48 hours or so and it is definitely a keeper. All of my Company contacts if they don't have names associated are showing up as "work" at the beginning of the list as the other poster mentioned. I have 10 or 12 contacts Signed now, basically the ones that were on the HTC picture dial widget. I agree that there is a limit as to how many I can remember but as long as I keep it systematic that could be a lot more than any other speed dialer holds.

Keep up the good effort and I will look forward to the fixes.

Here's a few things to also keep in mind about how Sign identifies gestures which can help you differentiate between similar gestures.

Sign looks at the number of strokes within the total gesture, it looks at the order in which the strokes are made, and it also considers the direction the stroke is made. For example, there are 6 potential ways to draw a V that should all be identified differently.

 

[simplyapplied]

For anyone whose premium version of Sign has stopped working overnight or today, please download the update in the market. The issue has been identified and corrected. Thank you very much to those people who informed us of the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

[simplyapplied]

UPDATE:

A quick update on the status of the fix for Sign not syncing with non-Google contacts. The programmer has resolved the issue and Sign is able to pull in non-Google contacts including EAS and other 3rd party contact databases. He is still in the process of optimizing it so that it runs efficiently; however, once he has that done, we will be uploading it to the market. Hopefully we'll have the updated version in the market at some point this weekend or early next week at the latest. Just a heads up for anyone who has been waiting for this issue to be resolved. We appreciate your patience.

SA

 

[simplyapplied]

Just a heads up that it appears the EAS contacts issue has been resolved. The new version was uploaded to the market this morning. If you are still unable to see your contacts or if you experience any other issues, please let us know so we can resolve the issue.

In addition to fixing the EAS issue, there are a few other features added to the new version.

* The user can now set the default action to either call or text, depending on which they do more often
* Sign now works as an app in addition to the original widget, allowing users to add Sign to alt-home/launcher docks (ADW Launcher, Launcher Pro and others).
* Sign now identifies the Company/Organization name for contacts with no first/last name specified
* Several UI/graphics-related changes

We're excited about the new update, and hope you enjoy Sign. The QR Codes for the full and lite versions are shown below.

Sign - Full Version ($1.99)
Unlimited Contacts

Sign Lite (Free)
3 Contacts

Simply Applied

 

[DroidGnome]

Just a heads up that it appears the EAS contacts issue has been resolved. The new version was uploaded to the market this morning. If you are still unable to see your contacts or if you experience any other issues, please let us know so we can resolve the issue.

In addition to fixing the EAS issue, there are a few other features added to the new version.

* Sign now works as an app in addition to the original widget, allowing users to add Sign to alt-home/launcher docks (ADW Launcher, Launcher Pro and others).
* Sign now identifies the Company/Organization name for contacts with no first/last name specified

Nice fixes.. those two were enough to push me into the "Buy" category now The only minor item I'd like to see is a better implementation of how to choose a contact.. one long list of everyone's numbers seems a little 'odd'. I'd much rather have a single list of individual people/places and then once selected given a list of 'which number'.. but it's only done once so it's somewhat minor.

Off to make an app purchase....

 

[simplyapplied]

DG:

Thanks for buying Sign! Also, funny that you mention that long list because I specifically added that to the list of future updates a week or so ago. One benefit of the long list is that it still shows the "Signs." However, it is tedious to scroll through the entire list. What I would like to see is similar to what you have described with each name being shown once, and you click on the name to see the numbers. It adds a click, but it shortens the scrolling, so it is likely more efficient.

My thought on showing the "Signs" was to have the name of the person slightly highlighted, indicating a Sign had been assigned to that contact. Then, when you open the name, it shows the list of numbers and the associated Sign(s).

Anyways, thanks again and thanks for the suggestion. Its definitely something we are looking at adding in the future.

 

[simplyapplied]

We?re really excited about the recent review of Sign from the team at Best Android Apps Review, a great resource for discovering new apps. Some highlights from the review!

?Saves plenty of time and effort?

?Faster and more efficient?

?beautiful implementation?

Go read the full review of Sign and other apps at their website: Best Android Apps Review.

 

[simplyapplied]

Just wanted to post an update with a couple of reviews that we missed earlier.

This earlier review by mic_888 on xda was from shortly after the release in July.

xda developers

For those not familiar with the xda Developers website/forum, its another great resource (like Android Central!) for all things Android and Windows Mobile. Definitely check it out, especially if you have any questions or problems with your Android or Windows Mobile device.

Also, Android Phone Geek posted a great review of Sign last week, that we somehow missed. David Wasserman, aka The Android Phone Geek, does a great job of providing keen insight into the Android community and we’re really happy that he took the time to try out Sign and provide a fantastic review.

Anyways, wanted to pass these along and thank both mic_888 and David for their reviews.

 

[simplyapplied]

Just a heads up that we are in the process of upgrading the graphics on Sign.

Click here to see a larger version on our blog.

We are also working on some other exciting updates, so keep an eye out for more information in the coming weeks.

 

[simplyapplied]

We were finally able to get the graphics incorporated and updated in the market in the last few days. In addition to revising the graphics, we also added a feature to go directly to the homescreen after a call is ended. Hopefully this will prevent accidental misdials from the Call Log screen.

We aren't done adding features - we're going to implement some user control over the recognition, allow the user to save multiple Signs for each number to improve the recognition, add email, add the ability to assign gestures to apps or other shortcuts, etc. As always, we welcome suggestions, but these are just some of the features we are going to be working on over the next several weeks/months.

Here's a few screenshots - its tough to get the timing down to get the actual "Signs" in the screenshot, but there's a few.

 

[Chrisy]

This looks like a great app! Can't wait to buy it! Thanks