Free RateYourBeer for everyone!

Free Beer for everyone!

Well not quite, but today I do have two exciting announcements to make which I hope will bring joy to a few people!

RateYourBeer for Windows Phone is coming to 6 new regions!
That’s right, I couldn’t wait any longer, so with app update v1.9 I have released RateYourBeer to the following new countries:

  • United States of America
  • Canada
  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • Germany
  • France

Of course the app is still available in the UK & Ire, download it here

Now this is a big rollout for my little free community project, so if it overloads and crashes my server I apologise in advance, but hopefully people will enjoy the idea and start having a little fun rating their beverages.
I’d also like to say a big thanks to Craig Baldwin for the graphic designs in the app.

RateYourBeer’s API is now completely open!
So I come to the second, and more exciting for me announcement. I’m turning over RateYourBeer’s (very simple) API to everyone and anyone who might want to try their hand at app development.

RateYourBeer was my first Windows Phone app and whilst that means it’s quite a hacky, experimental and flawed app, it taught me so much and ultimately landed me the chance to develop WPCentral.
So I want to open it up to anyone, on any platform, to just have an experiment with!

Starting now! Follow this link to find some very simple API documentation. I’ll be completing this documentation over the next week and then following it up with some sample code for Windows Phone development

RateYourBeer will always be free so long as it is alive, if it ever becomes too expensive for me to run I will simply have to cease the project (I really don’t want to do that!) but if you want to support the project you can send a donation via PayPal to the contact e-mail address here on my blog.

Happy drinking everyone!

2012
03/08
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
RateYourBeer
Windows Phone 7
4 comments

It’s quiet… too quiet…

So it’s pretty quiet on this site at the moment… Why? Well it turns out moving to London, working full time (and then some with my job…), keeping a successful app project running, and having a personal life really takes up most of the hours in the day.

Still, I do find time to Micro blog on Twitter so if you still want to know what’s up with whatever projects I find time to work on you can look over to the right of this post and follow me there. Otherwise I do now occasionally write for WPCentral when I get chance so you could also keep an eye out over there.

Much love as ever

2012
02/13
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WPCentral v1.6

I just published the 1.6 app update for NoDo/Vanilla users, it brings:

• New links page functionality for internal and external links
• Ads now by AdDuplex bringing huge speed improvements
• Fixed bug with Facebook sharing failing
• Fixed bug causing crashes when viewing certain articles

It’s basically the 1.6 Mango version without mango features, and hopefully brings the experience of the app even across both OS versions

2011
11/02
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WPCentral v1.4 beta

Let me start this article by saying that this is not the version 1.4 you expected, with comments enabled. We had sincerely hoped that our server work would be completed before this release was due but sadly it is not.

However, what this release comprises of should hopefully make up for that. All the fantastic readers at WPCentral love to have the latest software/features for their Windows Phone devices, and with the big Mango release just around the corner I hope to have catered to that need.

Being on the bleeding edge of Windows Phone Development is fantastic for me as an individual, but the software developer in me is constantly reminding that I have testing to do, and that the distribution I have ready with Mango features is not quite ready for public distribution yet. With that in mind, and knowing how much has changed, I can announce that we are at the beta stage now, so welcome back to a beta program!

So what do I need from you this time? Simple:
Using the “Send Feedback” button in the WPCentral app (which you’ll find in the ‘about’ screen), send us an e-mail with the following details:

  • Your Name
  • Your Device
  • The Build of Mango you are running (sorry NoDo users, this simply won’t work for you)
  • Your Windows Live ID as tied to your Windows Phone

I cannot stress enough how important it is you provide me with the correct Windows Live ID, it simply will not work if you provide incorrect details there.

Our beta was recently previewed over at WPCentral so please take a look at that article for the list of changes you can expect when you load up this build (or you could look at the list at the foot of this article)

Finally, please send in as much feedback as you can! It really helps me out as a developer in making the app experience better for you!

New in version 1.4:
• Fast app switching compatible
• Brand new podcast player with Background Audio
• Brand new live tile with number of new articles since last opened
• Live tiles for each section of the app
• Toast notifications for news
• Search extensibility, the app will provide search results for Bing video games and Software
• Toggle system tray option
• Speed optimisations as part of Mango update
• Fixed a bug in the new article parser
• Fixed a rare bug where Facebook authentication would fail

2011
08/23
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Do you like Mangoes?

Want to try out WPCentral’s Mango version? If you’ve got a developer unlocked device and the Mango preview I’m offering you a week to try out the alpha build of my Mango app.

I’ll be sending out the XAP via e-mail to 10-20 applicants only, this is only a test of how well the new Live Tiles, Podcast player and Multitasking will work whilst I’m away on Holiday.

So, same deal as last time, send a feedback e-mail using your WPCentral app, the only information I need this time is which device and build of Mango you are using, I’ll be sending the build round Tuesday at around 19:00GMT, after a week the app will stop functioning.

Happy testing!

2011
08/08
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Beta program for WPCentral v1.3

Beta applications are now closed! You can still send in a request but it is unlikely that a second round of invites will be sent out. Hold tight for the full release soon!

Well it’s been some time since I posted that early preview of WPCentral v1.3, but here I am with what should be the final build, ready to be tested prior to public release.

The full and final changelist is below this video:

New in v1.3:

  • Overhaul of article reading display – inline images & formatting
  • Dedicated comments pivot
  • Editable tweets
  • Facebook integration with posting articles to wall
  • Shareable links to each article
  • New image viewer with pinch to zoom
  • Save images to your phone
  • Fixed a rare crash when navigating the app
  • Fixed a situation where the Live Tile could become stuck
  • Article list position is correctly resumed after tombstoning for Videos or app downloads
  • Minor speed optimisations to improve scrolling on pre-Mango devices

I want to take a moment before I detail how to sign up to the beta to explain why adding comments is not in this version; there is work being performed on the WPCentral servers which must be completed before I can implement a commenting system within the app. Daniel Rubino and I discussed waiting for that work but decided to release the new features to you now as v1.3, with commenting coming as soon as possible under a different release.

This means that it’s very likely that v1.4 will only contain the ability to add comments, but I guarantee it will be released ASAP. In the meantime if you want to see how it will work, take a look at the early preview in my last blog post.

Right, onto the Beta:

If you’d like to get this version a couple of weeks early all you need to do is launch the app on your phone, hit the about button and tap the send feedback option.

This will set up a feedback email from which you need to include:

  • Your e-mail address (that which is used for the live ID tied to your phone)
  • Which version of WP7 you are using (Nodo, Mango or Vanilla)
  • Whether or not your phone is developer unlocked

The beta is NOT limited to developer unlocked phones only, as I hope to use Microsoft’s new beta system to distribute the app, however if that fails I will seed it to developers myself.

Finally please note that the beta will run for a limited time, after which the App will cease to work and you will be asked to upgrade in the Marketplace.

This is a very small beta program, I expect to have no more than 50 testers so I apologise in advance if you’re not selected. With that said I look forward to hearing from all of you!

2011
07/25
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Windows Phone 7
WPCentral
2 comments

WPCentral v1.3 early preview

Who wants a mega early preview of what WPCentral v1.3 will be bringing to the table?

I’m going to stress in writing that this is a very early build but it demonstrates the three main feature upgrades:

  • Improved commenting experience with comment adding
  • Editable tweets
  • Overhaul of article reading display

There is still a lot of work to be done, not just in terms of server work to make the comments actually upload and store but also to test the new HTML parser I’ve written to ensure it doesn’t break or behave oddly when viewing certain articles.

Right now I estimate that this should be released to the marketplace within a month or so, but there’s much work to be done yet so don’t hold me to that quote!

As always, if you’d like to suggest features or changes, the comments below are the perfect place :)

2011
06/21
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Windows Phone 7
WPCentral
7 comments

Use your voice!

This week I’m back to development after a mad week celebrating the end of my degree. I’ll be working on both WPCentral v1.3 and RateYourBeer v2.0 over the next month or so and I’m looking for your suggestions as to what you’d like to see in either/both, so sound off in the comments below!

Currently planned for WPCentral v1.3:

  • Comments upgrade to include adding comments as a paid feature
  • Adding your own text to tweets sent from the app
  • Improved article display

Currently planned for RateYourBeer v2.0:

  • Comments on beer
  • Geotagging of where beer is found
  • “Beer near here” map
  • UI redesign phase 2
  • Release in US, Canada & Australia
2011
06/19
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
RateYourBeer
Windows Phone 7
WPCentral
1 comment

1.2 Change list

So I’d love to post a nice detailed blog post keeping you all up to date, but I have my final exam for my degree on Friday, so I’m working pretty damn hard right now on that. You can see video previews of WPCentral v1.2 here but for those interested in the full change list, here it is:

———————————————————
New in version 1.2:
Settings screen allowing the following customisations:

• Feedback on refresh
• Haptic feedback
• Lock portrait view
• All black theme
• Simple text title

Adjusted the UI layout to have consistent margins and font styling
Article text font sizes can now be adjusted through pinch-to-zoom gestures
Live tile consistency improved and added option to enable or disable the live tile
Optimisations to the animations to improve app speed

Fixed crash in adverts when the UI moved too fast for AdMob
Fixed crashes relating to “Parameter is incorrect” and “Argument out of range” exceptions
Fixed rare crash relating to feed caching
Fixed bug where feed refresh would sometimes fail, causing the app to never pick up new feeds

2011
06/01
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[Updated] Preview: WPCentral v1.2

For those of you who added suggestions for the settings screen coming in v1.2, here’s a sneak peak at those options in action:

As I mention in the video, I’m looking into adding an option to increase the font size for the article viewing for this release as well. Any feedback/suggestions/criticisms please sound off in the comments below!

Update a second video below showing you how I’ve implemented re-sizeable fonts for reading the articles as well as an option to change the app’s header.

2011
05/29
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Windows Phone 7
WPCentral
11 comments
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