birdsoft.biz Blog

Well, Birdsoft has been extremely busy. We have just released a huge release to our biggest product of all time. We are finishing up some really cool consulting projects. And Im excited for a couple of FREE projects that are in the submission process with Apple.

All-In 3.0 has been doing very well, and I encourage Windows Mobile users to check it out. Of course Microsoft is going the way of Apple with their submission process and has rejected it once due to some weird “hopper” test that they use to try and crash your application over 2 hours of random input. The thousands of people that have played the game dont run in to too many real world crashes or I would have heard about them. But I will be attempting to get that resolved and re-submit soon…

PokerTimer iPhone has not yet ‘cleared customs’ as now Apple do to their ridiculious submission testing has rejected it twice. The first time was from a private API that doesnt even make sense to be private and I have used in at least 4 other applications. The 2nd time I used a ‘compose’ icon (they maybe could have mentioned it the first time) that is a piece of paper and pencil to access where you ‘Edit’ the Levels. Well its not for composing or editing Levels but rather messages and may confuse the users to use that icon, so I have since re-submitted again for the 3rd time with a slightly altered icon.

All-In Poker Lite is also in the submission pipeline, which will offer a FREE and rather unobtrusive game of All-In with only Limit Hold Em and Omaha included.

We have some other projects in early stages for the iPhone including Poker Timer Pro, The update to All-In, another poker related title, and initial work has been started on another possibly recognizable title….

Extreme Agenda iPhone

Yes, plans are in the works to bring Extreme Agenda over to the iPhone in stages. The plan is to first bring a lot of the calendar functionality over as the iPhone calendar is rather weak. Then Task/Todo’s and Sync/Contacts/Projects and as much feature parity as we can possibly hit while creating this new interface. We’d LOVE to hear feeback on what you really want to see.

So Yes, we are rather busy…. Hope you are having a great Holiday Season.

We have a way for you to get the biggest sneak peek of part of what to expect in All-In 3.0 for Windows Mobile. Just download the new All-In desktop version(2.9). It has a lot of the new layout and interface so you can see just how cool it is going to be. But we held out 3 big features and improvements and maybe more that will go into 3.0, obviously why its labeled version 2.9. And if you like it, maybe consider purchasing the desktop version as well(it will be a free desktop upgrade to 3.0 later this summer and they both will ship around the same time).

So Go Check it out.. Go All-In!

 Truthfully, I’m not really sure why it has taken this long to really make All-In what I want it to be. The vision has always been to be the top Windows Mobile Poker game available. And on a lot of fronts it is, was, and always has been since its release in 2004. But Ive had a lot of ideas brewing for a long time to take it to the next level. And now seeing the WM Marketplace in sight, what a perfect time to start getting there.

As you can see we’ve been working on a new skin and some new technology(the advanced list view). It will be used extensively throughout the program and will eliminate an embarassingly large amount of the current code and make everything more streamlined and clean. And it also has the added bonus of allowing the addition of new features and choices extremely quickly. And the new skin brings a new logo and icons. Good bye to my friend Smiley (the red haired guy on the cards). Ive seen our main competition negotiate deals to get on new devices. Yes, they have some ins, but they also have a product that while not playing as good or as much poker, it has some stripped down and attractive versions and yet with no strong branding. I took a hard look at All-In and decided that its unique style needed an overhaul to look cooler (and sadly a little more generic) in order for it to get the same considerations. And now with the new framework, it will be easy to make stripped down versions if that is what is needed. Sometimes simpler is better. Though we wont be switching to a Limit is different than No-Limit version system anytime soon.

So what else is going into All-In 3.0. Well, I cant tell you everything. I can tell you that this ‘List View’ morphs nicely for use in things like the career screen, thus allowing us to clean that up and obviously add some things! And some other areas are getting touch-ups too. Oh, and what is that other HUGE feature we are adding… ?!?!

You’ll have to wait..

It was a fun ride. Well sorta… and we still have plans for 3 more projects on iPhone/iPod Touch, but its back to what got us here and all the great devices on the Windows Mobile side. We have been actively working on updates to 3 of our big WM products and have ideas for one or two more.

 The iPhone market, while over glamourized in the press, just isnt really as good as it looks. Especially in games. There is simply too many applications to get lost in, and a store that was put out with too many problems that are only being corrected now(and in some cases not until iPhone 3.0 or beyond), which is simply not enough now that that first problem exists. It is just a big mess. Not saying you can’t be successful and not saying I won’t come back, far from it, but I think you need to have to approach it differently than I have, and possibly have ways of promotion I simply don’t have or haven’t come up with.

 I missed it. If I would have had an application ready right away on the AppStore release I would likely be singing a different tune! Though that might have been All-In and then I would have been just as angry with Apple choosing to do like 1 game only and unfairly overpromoting there own wares, that being Texas Hold ‘Em.

  I am on the tail of end of initial promotion of Jezster, and well, I can’t get one of my best most pollished games ever (excluding All-In) to sell at all. It already got lost. Im in the process of releasing a Free version of the program (which was rejected once, though contained the same exact things that my other lite versions had) but after that I really dont know what else to do. Good graphics, fun gameplay, great reviews, paying for advertising. Its just not enough. So for now Im done trying to play the AppStore lottery and get back to my roots.

And hopefully get my New Treo Pro soon…

I am hopefully going to attempt to 1. Release XA 3.3 and 2. start to move into my new office in Monona (Madison WI) today. There is something to be said for working in an office not in your house, productivity should climb very well and I may actually see people during the day… Im excited… And excited to get XA 3.3 out there. It is simply awesome and will be a great PIM for the new devices coming out, including the Treo 800w, the one handed usage matches up beautifully…

Phone Service Rant….

The plan was also to get the new Treo 800w today, but I did a bunch of calling yesterday and cant get out of the $400 early termination fees of Alltel even though their closest retail location to our new house is over an hour a way and Im using all other carrier’s towers down here… (Note to Alltel: Do you really think its a good idea to trap a longtime(~12 years+) customer into the end of their contract when they move out of a direct area, makes me guarantee I’m never coming back). And I tried calling Sprint to see if they’d help with covering the fees(I had heard they have done that) but did not have any luck(Note to Sprint: If you have a chance to get a new family plan customer with an everything Smartphone Plan purchasing 2 smartphones, doing a little something to help them jump ship is probably not a bad move). So anyway, now I also have to figure out how to get my Motorola Q off the Bootloader Screen of death or get a replacement somehow(yeah, Im probably out of warranty). And then in a couple months once Im within the home stretch, Ill drop my Alltel account down to the lowest it will go, and let it run out and come on over to Sprint(I guess or Verizon, if they have the 800w by then). Needless to say, I am a little irritated by the Mobile carriers. I wonder if I was the first one to be…?

My silly New Years Resolution this year was that it was the “Year of Golf”. It was a fun little game I played so that I can hype up the fact that I want to play a little more golf and hopefully get back to the level I was right out of college. Don’t worry I’m not good…

It is kind of a built-in excuse to play more and to finally replace my irons that I bought right out of college(~12 years ago). They were nice clubs but at the time I dont think they pushed custom fitting clubs as much. Im a little on the taller side so have been playing with clubs that were over an inch too short for me for 12 years. It definitely made me bend my knees but…  Anyway, I already have the new Taylor Made Irons and had them lengthened, and if the driving range stays accurate I may have added 12-15 yards to my iron play. Nice.

We also moved to a location where some really nice courses are more accessible along with a good driving range really close. So Ive already taken advantage of the range quite a bit for my ‘Year of Golf’. Its a good quick stress reliever when my head is spinning with C++.  Oh, and I also took the oppertunity to update my wife’s clubs so she plays a few more times too…

And finally, my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and I are semi-competitive and besides fishing the other competition that we have fun with  on our ‘Up North’ trip is golfing. I was pretty dominant for a few years, but now they both have purchased clubs and taken up playing a little more, so… I better too…

But the point of this as it pertains to Mobile is that with this I have set aside a few weeks to update one of my popular applications, FairwayWatch - our golf scorecard application. I plan on using it more, but if Im going to do that I will need to have it compatible with Standard devices(I carry a Q). So what Im looking for is feedback on what would make this a must have for all you golfers out there?   Here are some things I am planning on or already have added…

• Standard Support – I’m porting it to Win32 and WM5 and above only. Using it with the soft keys makes it infinitely more usable one handed, and obviously it has to be for Standard Devices. In doing so I also get to use our new editing and options list based dialogs.
• Other Interface updates – we have ideas for a bunch of things to optimize the use so it is much easier to use on the course.
• 320×320 Screen and better Treo support. Obviously some of the things above help with this too.
• A Facelift – Color Themes and way bettter looking Buttons and better use of the screen space. Some themes will be light on dark for better contrast in sunlight.
• More Statistic Tracking - We have an idea on some but would love to hear more ideas…
• Internet course library from within the program
• A desktop verison with score card printing and multiple round analysis which will also allow for easier course entry and basic synching. Because of the switch to Win32 we will have to use slightly new file formats so conversion utilities will probably end up in the Desktop version.

We are thinking it would be good to combine all rounds into one file for each course instead of separate files which would make analysis much nicer. Thoughts…??? Other ideas?  What would you like to see…

We want it to be your year of golf too…

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