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Link New version of Phanfare Photon – But it’s not all good

There is a new version of Phanfare Photon for the iPhone available in the app store. This version fixes the nasty bug where you get knocked offline because you created an album when your default music pref was null.

However, this version also removes our super cool image import flow and replaces it with the default image import picker. That picker forces you to import one image at a time and is much slower. You also can’t choose what album the image goes into.

We removed our custom import flow and associated user interface screen at Apple’s request. Apparently, their developer agreement changed and they no longer permit modifying that flow or allowing us to access the camera roll except through their interfaces.

While we understand the need to enforce standards and keep the platform stable, there is no doubt that Apple has failed to provide alternative methods that work as well as the ones developed by third parties, like ourselves.

It is our hope that Apple will eventually modify the rules to allow extension and customization such as we provided, or improve the native interfaces to provide the same interface. Until such time, any third party camera application for the iPhone can’t provide an experience that matches what Apple provides in their built in app.

Phanfare Photon synchronizes your media wirelessly to your iPhone and provides a full set of management and editing tools. Hence, it provides features and functionality unmatched by Apple’s built in app or their MobileMe service. But prohibiting us from modifying the camera to take photos as quickly as the built in camera app or allow fast import from the camera roll means that Phanfare Photon’s utility for capturing photos from the iPhone is somewhat limited.

This turns out not to be a huge deal for Phanfare customers, most of whom own digital SLRs and find that the iPhone is much more interesting as a multimedia display and management device than as a capture device.

We can’t possibly divine Apple’s motives for creating the set of rules that they did. The iPhone ecosystem is enormous and successful. There are over 100,000 apps. They could be trying to impede competitors to the built in iPhone experience, or they could be trying to keep the platform stable and not care what the impact is on camera apps. Unlike many out there, I think it is their right to do whatever they want with their platform.

If you don’t like what they are doing, let them know, because we have little say here. We try to follow the rules, support the platform and Apple ultimately decides what gets accepted into the app store.

It’s kind of funny, because the iPhone was a huge step forward for developers in opening up a mobile handset to third party development. Compare how open the platform is to what it was like under the old regime convincing Verizon that you wanted to go ‘on deck’ in their terrible ‘get it now’ experience. Walt Mossberg used to refer to Verizon and the other service providers as “the Soviet Ministries.”

And yet, as much as Apple broke new ground in opening up a mobile platform to developers, there is much left to be desired. For that, we may need to look to Android. Android is not competitive with the iPhone today, in my opinion, but for an app developer the platform is more open and updates can go out with no review. That’s a double edged sword. It means that developers can respond more quickly but it also means that consumers need to be more wary about destabilizing their phone by downloading an app.

We will see how it all plays out. Right now, it seems that Android is providing the open, cross hardware platform that will take longer to mature but may in fact be much larger than the more controlled Apple experience. Apple is very good at providing a strong paternal hand in crafting experiences that are seamless from end to end. The iPod and iTunes is a great example. But control by its very nature stifles innovation and drives up costs. There is a good chance that it will be Android that powers the majority of the smart phones in 5 years. If so, it will be another example where Apple led and then left open the door for someone else to be the market share leader with a lower cost solution that is more open, has a bigger ecosystem and more rough edges.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 10:53 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 16 Comments

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    • v
    Well this is very disappointing. I take a lot of videos and photos with my 3GS and use Photon to upload them all quickly so I can share them with my family and friends via Phanfare and Facebook. Having to upload single photos and videos at a time while not being able to track which ones have been uploaded already is a major blow to that workflow.

    I won't be upgrading my app until I'm forced to via Phanfare service updates. Please, please keep this in mind when making backend improvements. I'd hate to lose my ability to use the older app.

    Thanks.
    • ^
    • v
    Honestly, it is disappointing to us too. We will try to leave the service in a state where you can use the old app, but we can't predict how long that will be.

    We agree that without the import flow, it's tough. But you can rename albums in photon and shoot in photon so it is still possible to do what you used to do. It's just slower.
    • ^
    • v
    I also take a lot of pictures with my iPhone, so this 'upgrade' is pretty disappointing.

    You blame Apple here for making you change your program, but there are definite workarounds that you could implement that would make me happy with the new version.

    For instance, now you really NEED to implement the ability for the user to delete albums from the phone. Put it in the album configuration screen. There really is no good reason (I can see) to not have this in the application already.

    A 'select all' would be nice so I can mass move my photos to the album of choice. Right now I have to poke them all with my finger.

    Maybe you could elaborate on why the user can't choose an album. Can't you implement a holding album and then allow the user to move the photos from there to the album of choice? (You already can kind of do this.)

    I understand your hand-wringing about Apple and the process, but as a programmer I DON'T understand how your team can't think of creative workarounds for the issue.

    Of course, I am not in the meetings with your developers. But these 'issues' were presented in a fashion that puts Phanfare in a helpless position. "We did X, Apple told us no, so now the world is bad." What? No programmer thinks that way.

    Think creatively and fix it. You are almost there. Create a workaround and move on.

    ---

    And to Apple who forces these changes - not good. I love my iPhone, but do not plan on getting another when my contract expires. From Google Voice (of which I use and need for work) to Phanfare, you need to back off a little.

    I assure you that my iPhone experience was not sullied by the way I select photos in Phanfare.
    • ^
    • v
    To delete an album, swipe across it.

    We worked hard to create our custom import flow and frankly we don't have the time, resources or inclination to dedicate resources to creating a workaround when we already created a perfectly good solution.

    The user can't choose where the photos get imported because, in our flow, we are no longer allowed to put up the album chooser dialog on the import screen. Could we find another way for the user to express the import choice? sure, but we are not going to right now.

    This version also made it impossible to choose multiple photos at once for import. Given that the only picker we may use is the one provided by Apple and given that the picker lets you choose a single image at a time, I don't see a workaround for that.

    We are a small company with limited resources and lots of software and this process has become too expensive for us.

    I realize that you are frustrated by the loss in functionality. So are we. We are users of the app and of all our software, and we are the ones who have dedicated personal time to building functionality that people can no longer enjoy.
    • ^
    • v
    You know what? My last post sounded harsh. That's not exactly what I intended.

    I AM SO HAPPY TO DELETE ALBUMS! Who knew? (And by that I mean, that I would be so happy AND that you could delete albums from Photon.)

    So, while I agree that it is less than ideal to have the flow interrupted, it is in my opinion (for users) a minor inconvenience.

    Photos get put into the 'Album of the Day'. Once uploaded, they get moved to the correct album and the temp album gets deleted. It's a little bit of an extra step, but it still works well.

    Photon still rocks.

    PS: Is there a complete Photon guide posted on the web somewhere?
    • ^
    • v
    Sorry, there is no user guide. But hopefully most of what it can do is self explanatory. That seems to be the way that iphone software goes. very little documentation, including from apple on the built in stuff.

    yes, there are workarounds for everything except the inefficiency of single image import, and we truly don't know a way around that.

    glad you like it. spread the word!
    • ^
    • v
    Well I never hopped on the iPhone band wagon, though I love Photon for displaying photos on my touch. I think I'm getting a Droid today, so looking forward to the Android version of Photon!
    • ^
    • v
    This is simply delightful. I can hardly believe it. I've been out of the loop the last 30 hours playing with my new Droid and now I read this, like a dream that keeps getting better. To hear a developer say this about Apple brings tears to my eyes, tears of joy.

    I, too, have a Touch for viewing pics, reading email/facebook/twitter around the house, and is also my alarm clock.

    And just think, I was almost resigned to the fact that Phanfare would never get behind Android. Gosh, this is incredible. What can I do to help?
    • ^
    • v
    Don't get too excited. We are not working on an Android version today, but we might some day. Its all about timing. I always thought Android had long term potential.
    • ^
    • v
    So the message to Phanfare members that I am hearing is, getting an Android device does not mean you will forever be without a mobile Phanfare app, but in fact, the more the merrier and wait will be shorter.

    Android users should be vocal and not let up!

    Here's a short list of Android devices for anyone curious.
    T-Mobile: G1, MyTouch, Motorola Cliq
    Sprint: Hero, Samsung Moment
    Verizon: Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris

    Coming Soon: Sony-Ericsson X10, HTC Passion
    • ^
    • v
    I am soooooo frustrated. Is there a way to get the old version back? Ug I trustingly hit update all before I realized what I was loosing.............
    • ^
    • v
    Not that we know of. Sorry that you lost the super-cool multiimport features. hopefully apple will allow it again in the future.
    • ^
    • v
    Would it be possible (not illegal) for Phanfare to produce a Photon app that would be available in the Jail Break Repository? Just wonderin.
    • ^
    • v
    Certainly possible, but probably not something we have the resources to pursue right now.
    • ^
    • v
    I too look forward to an Android version for Phanfare! I have owned a G1 since it launched, and have recently purchased the Droid from Verizon. I love the platform! The issues you are having with Apple, & the iphone is exactly why I refused to buy one! Android is the answer...
    • ^
    • v
    You should also consider the Palm Pre (or webOS) for a client. Shouldnt be very difficult to port your client since the webOS is supposed to be completely web friendly
 

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