WeePhone development journal:
10-8-09:
It looks like ATT in the US is changing their policy to allow VOIP traffic
over their networks. It looks like this means that Apple will no longer
require VOIP apps (like WeePhone/Walkietalkie) to restrict themselves
to WiFi only. I will be resubmitting both apps to Apple with these
restrictions removed ASAP. Yay!
8-1-09:
I don't know how many people have been following what's happened
with the Google voice app rejection by Apple, and their removal of the
'VoiceCentral' app from the app store. Apple has gotten away with some
very unfair behavior when running their app store for too long. I just have
to speak up about this. Apple has deliberately constructed an
impenetrable wall between developers and their app store management
team. You can't talk to anyone on the phone, and are not guaranteed
any response via email. My experiences dealing with Apple have been
uniformly horrible. This is the company that takes 30% of every
dollar that an app makes. Sorry for the rant, but unless people are aware
of how screwed up the situation is, there is no pressure for Apple to
change.
8-1-09:
The next release is in-review with Apple now, submitted a few days ago.
Hopefully it'll be available in 1-2 weeks. Features include:
* Redone UI
* Call log
* Ability to dial via the GSM phone
* Optional new ring-tone (more to come)
7-26-09:
I've been very busy working on the next release. It's been about 3 weeks
since 1.4.2 went out (if I recall correctly). I have had a lot of discussion
about the UI. Take a look at what I've been working on. Please email
me to let me know what you think. Hopefully I'll be submitting this soon,
after a bit of testing.
...
6-26-09:
If you are using the app, and are happy (or unhappy) with it, I'd appreciate
your taking the time to write an honest review in the app store. I recently
got a scathing review for 1.4.0, which motivated me to work on a lot of
UI/usability improvements. The app is a work-in-progress, but I wont be
happy until it's the best SIP softphone out there, and people say "Man, I
want an iPhone so I can get WeePhone!".
Some improvements I'm working on:
- a call log
- improvements to the look/size of the buttons
- sound effects to indicate a call hanging up/failing
- in-app browser
6-25-09:
1.4.2 was submitted to Apple for review. This release includes...
UI Improvements: one settings page that is scrollable now, and new
settings include..
- Prefix when choosing a contact's number (if length > N)
- disabling GSM codec
- Turn on/off use of DNS SRV lookups
- DNS cache time
- Echo cancellation (in speakerphone)
- DTMF duration
- Force-set the local address
(Many of these were in the 'advanced' setting before, but now it's
more user-friendly to set them)
When opening links to the manual/help page and site, they will
now open in the app in a window instead of launching safari.
Single button to switch between mute/speaker/handset.
A new icon!
6-22-09:
Huzzah, 1.4.1 has been released by Apple (at last).
6-5-09:
1.4.1 submitted to Apple for review.
1.4.1 features: missed-call dialog (and ability to call back), UI readability
improvements, record-route behavior fixes, and the aforementioned
fix for cisco call manager (with random response src ports).
6-5-09:
Working on 1.4.1. Thanks to Sunny Lim, who helped me fix a problem
affecting some configurations of Cisco Call manager where SIP responses
came back on a different port than request was sent on.
5-31-09:
WeePhone 1.4.0 is finally available in the App store! I highly recommend
getting the update. It took a month, but it's finally out. I'm already working
on more improvements, including some User-Interface improvements,
a prefix (added to the front of all contacts #'s), and of course more bug
fixes.
5-17-09:
Used the opportunity to build a couple features into the app that I have
wanted but never had time. The main thing is that now there is an
'options' field in the advanced page that allows configuring settings that
don't necessarily deserve their own config fields.. things that 90% of
users don't ever need to change from their default behavior. These
will be documented in the manual. This is just a nice way for me to
support the power users without cluttering up the app with lots of
scary config fields.
Also, DNS SRV searches seem to take a long time with certain WiFi
routers (doing DNS proxying), so I made that disabled by default.
This causes the app to seem to stall while it times out waiting for a
DNS response. Can be re-enabled in the advanced options config
I mentioned above.
5-17-09:
Just heard back from Apple regarding the 1.4.0 update..
They kicked it back to me because I was using an 'undocumented' API
to trigger the proximity sensor to dim the screen. That's wrong, and I set
them straight..
// it's totally documented...
[application setProximitySensingEnabled:true];
but that doesn't usually mean that I get back to the head
of the review queue. I waited in for 9 days before getting looked at.
The same thing happened with the last version, they said they couldn't
reach EU numbers... uh yeah.. because my demo SIP account can only
dial US numbers! They said 'our bad', but I still waited another week.
I'll be sure and bitch about this in my emails with them as this works out.
Frustrating...
5-15-09:
Modified the main page to add a 'getting started' section. Here I list a
bunch of SIP providers that I have confirmed work well with WeePhone.
I'll also try and provide a rating and some info on their pricing, as well
as short-cut links to their sign-up pages and some example config
settings. Hopefully this will make it much easier for a new user to get
rolling, rather than just expecting them to find a provider.
5-8-09:
Just a word on updates... I have new versions of the app in-review with
Apple pretty much within a week of Apple approving each version.
There is always something to be fixed/improved. But every time I submit
an update to review it bumps the binary to the back of the review queue.
I am allowed to have 100 beta devices that I can get pre-release builds
to. I am already at about 50 of those being used. If you've bought the
app and are affected by a bug (something we'll need to diagnose
together), I can get you a pre-release version of the app.
5-8-09:
WeePhone 1.4.0 was submitted to Apple for review. This has some fixes
for broadvoice (a very picky SIP server), and a diagnostic log that can be
emailed with just a couple taps. That'll make life much easier for me and
users trying to make the app work with their servers. Also fixes for the
'only rings once' behavior, and the 'incoming call' dialog not going away
even after the call was cancelled. This version also adds a-law support
(something that should have been there since the beginning). It will
only matter if you have one of the uncommon SIP devices that only
supports a-law and not u-law (you are seeing error 488).
5-8-09:
Starting this development log to try and write down some of the changes
and work that's being done to improve the app so that users will have
some idea of what is happening with the app. I'll put whatever I think
needs to be known but doesn't fit in other places here.