CryptoQuote Daily Challenge Update

Greetings,

I'm happy to report that the new Daily Challenge Server is up and running, and my initial testing is going very well. Soon (within the next week or two), CryptoQuote for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad will be updated to version 2.4. This version is designed to use the new server.

Once I'm happy with the iOS update running "in the wild," Android apps will be next.

So, in a few weeks, CryptoQuote for Android will be updated to version 2.0, adding the Daily Challenge feature for Android users, including Kindle Fire, NOOKcolor, and NOOKtablet.

CryptoQuote for Android 1.0

UPDATED: Reflects that the Amazon App Store page has been updated.

Greetings,

I'm very excited to share with you that CryptoQuote is now available for some Android devices (tablets with access to the Amazon App Store, including Kindle Fire). You can download CryptoQuote for Android 1.0 here.

This version is launching with many of the great features of CryptoQuote you see on OS X and iOS as well, with a few to be added in the not-so-distant future.

At this moment, CryptoQuote is available solely via the Amazon App Store. My hope is to have the app available for NOOK devices within the next few weeks (depending upon the pace of Barnes & Noble approval processes).

An Apology
The initial description on the Amazon App Store product page for CryptoQuote 1.0 includes the following line:

Features:
* 3199 carefully selected quotes, plus a new Daily Challenge Puzzle each day

This should NOT contain the second part about the daily challenge puzzle. I am very sorry for this error, and the descriptions have been corrected on the store.

About the Daily Challenge
The Daily Challenge feature is currently only available for iOS devices. Please do know that I am committed to bringing the daily challenge to Android devices and Mac OS X. Please also know that this is not without some significant steps before this can happen. I'd like to elaborate a bit on this…

The current daily challenge server needs some improvements:
1) It is currently on an older host system, which shares resources and power with other websites.
2) It does not respond quickly enough to requests.
3) It does not handle lots (and lots) of iPhone users well.
4) It gets slower as more people play the daily challenge each day.

My plan is to address these problems first for iPhone users, by doing the following:
1) Rewrite the server-side code to handle requests quickly and efficiently.
2) Restructure the database to handle requests quickly even for lots (and lots) of users.
3) Setup this new server code on my new host machine, and migrate the daily challenge users over to the new server.
4) Update CryptoQuote for iOS to add the Daily Challenge.
5) Update CryptoQuote for Android to add the Daily Challenge.

Questions or comments?

Contact me via: http://appsfromouterspace.com/contact/
or on Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnhaney

The Next Chapter

Today, I'm launching Apps from Outer Space, LLC. My new company is taking over all of the apps my old company (John Haney Software).

I'm calling this my online moving day. Here's what's happening:
Twitter:
@JohnHaneySW -> @Apps_OuterSpace

Facebook:
facebook.com/JohnHaneySW -> facebook.com/AppsFromOuterSpace

Website:
johnhaney.com -> appsfromouterspace.com

App Store:
Coming Soon. I'm awaiting a few finalizing details. For the moment, apps will be listed under the "John Haney Software" name.

So please update your contacts, likes, follows. 2012 is going to be a great year, starting with my next app, Puppet Stage. But I'll talk more about that very soon…

Thanks 100 million!

Flashlight has now been downloaded more than 100 million times. I'm very excited and humbled to share this with you, and many thanks to you millions of users.

Has Flashlight helped you? We'd like to hear about it at FlashlightStory@johnhaney.com

Daily CryptoQuote problem [UPDATE: Fixed]

The Daily CryptoQuote is not working today (August 3, 2011) due to an issue on the server. Support ticket has been submitted. Hoping server gurus will fix ASAP.

In the meantime, you will see a message that you have already completed the puzzle, and then see results with a date of November 30, 2 (yes, the year is 2). This particular side effect is one I will be fixing in the next update of CryptoQuote. Sorry for any confusion this has caused.

UPDATE (Friday, August 5, 2011)
My ticket was assigned within a few hours of being submitted. Since then (now 2 days), I have not seen any other activity. I continue to update the ticket, but am working on making changes to CryptoQuote to work around this problem entirely. I am very disappointed with my web hosting provider and am expecting that my workaround will have to be the solution.

Bottom line, this means the daily challenge will likely be down until you update to a new version of CryptoQuote. A new version of CryptoQuote will take me at least 1 week to get onto the App Store. I thank you for your patience.

UPDATE (Tuesday, August 9, 2011)
My website provider is not willing to fix this issue. Fortunately, I have submitted CryptoQuote 2.1 to the App Store. Hopefully this update will be reviewed and approved within a week.

Thank you all for your patience and kind emails during this time. I am sorry that you are missing out on this regular part of your day and hope to have this back working great for you ASAP. Please know that this new app version will give me the ability to workaround the issue seen this time, as well as provide for a smooth transition to a new web hosting provider should that become necessary in the future.

Thanks again and happy puzzling!

UPDATE (Wednesday, August 10, 2011)
FIXED!!! Apple accepted my request for an expedited review and CryptoQuote 2.1 was reviewed and approved today. You should see the new update in the App Store on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad now or within the next few hours. My great appreciation again for your patience and happy puzzling! :-)

Another great Flashlight email

It always makes my day to hear how Flashlight is working great for people. Here's the latest example:

I arrived at our holiday house last night in pitch black. The house power was out and I needed to bash through the garden to the electrical meter and back into a pitch black house a couple of times. I discovered to my delight that I had downloaded your flashlight app onto my phone. It saved my life, without it on my iPhone 4 I wouldn't have been able to fix the fuse trip switch or avoid falling in the pond.

Thanks. It's a great app.

CryptoQuote 2.0

After several months of work, I've completed a major update to CryptoQuote. With CryptoQuote 2.0, this app has a lot more to offer and I hope to hear from my users what they like the most about it.

Here is the official list of "what's new"…

• Hundreds more quotes, now 3199 in total
  
• Undo/Redo: Shake to undo/redo the last move on a puzzle.
  
• Custom Puzzles/Quotes: Paste a puzzle from elsewhere, or scramble your own phrase to make a puzzle.
  
• Printing: With an AirPrint capable printer, you can print out a puzzle.
  
• NEW TOOL: Word Search - choose a word and see dictionary matches for that letter pattern
  
• NEW TOOL: Letter Frequency - compare the frequency of the scrambled letters to the frequency of letters in English.
  
• Share quotes you solve (copy/email/SMS/Facebook/Twitter)
  
• Improved Daily Challenge with no "sign-up" required, and improved download performance.
  
• Physical keyboard support - works with a bluetooth or USB keyboard for solving puzzles more quickly.
  

Now to catch up on email and continue on my next project… :-)