We’ve moved our site to a new server so we can provide more robust services in the future. Please let us know if anything is missing/goofed up.
Monthly Archive for September, 2008
We just recieved notice from Apple that BillMinder 1.01 has been approved. It should be hitting the AppStore within a few hours.
BillMinder 1.1 is nearing completion. Included in version 1.1 is the much requested Alerts feature. Until Apple enables background app support, we currently can only display the alert when BillMinder is opened. However, when you close the app, the BillMinder badge will display the number of bills you have coming due soon/past due. Please let us know what you think in the forums.
CastCatcher 1.1 is now available on the Apple AppStore. Also, CastCatcher 1.2 has been submitted for Apple’s approval.
We’ve just pushed BillMinder 1.01 to Apple. It will be on your phones soon and will fix the following:
- iPhone 2.1 Compatability Fix (some phones had major issues)
- Add Popups to warn users of possible mistakes
- Enhanced Performance
- Bug fixes
We’ve fixed the issue outlined in the earlier post and are finalizing testing of BillMinder 1.0.1 now. We will release it to Apple shortly, after we’ve done some additional testing (we did two passes tonight, but we thought it would be good to do two more passes). Thanks for your support.
After much banging of heads, we have finally narrowed down the cause of the problem that many users have been experiencing. The problem is caused by a sqlite3 function (sqlite3_last_insert_rowid) returning zero instead of it’s expected output. It seems that this bug crept in with the 2.1 SDK as it worked perfectly fine under 2.0.2. We have developed a fix and it is currently undergoing thorough testing. It should submitted to Apple very shortly.
Get your playlist urls from http://classic.shoutcast.com instead of http://shoutcast.com if you’re using CastCatcher 1.0. 1.1 should be out soon and 1.2 after that.
We are pleased to announce the launch of our forums at http://forums.return7.com. Throughout the day we will be migrating the information from our previous blog posts to the forums. Please use them to find answers to your questions and help us build a community around our applications!
There has been some confusion on the proper way to add bills/collectors to BillMinder. To prevent this in the future, let’s dig a little deeper into how it actually works, followed by a simple How-To. BillMinder stores its list of bills and collectors in an internal database. The collectors exist independent of the bills. A collector can have none, one, or more bills assigned to it. Upon first installation, there is one sample bill and one sample collector in the database. When adding your own bills/collectors, do so using the following steps:
New Bill/New Collector
These are the steps needed to add a new bill to a collector that does not exist in the database.
- Tap the ‘+’ on the home screen to bring up the ‘New Bill’ screen.
- Tap ‘New Collector’ to bring up the ‘New Collector’ screen.
- Enter the Name of the collector. Optionally, add the Phone Number and Website for easy access.
- Tap ‘Save’ to add the new collector to the database.
- Ensure that the new collector’s name is shown in the Collector field. If not, tap on the field and select the new collector from the picker list.
- Enter the Due Date, Amount, Recurring, and Paid status for the new bill.
- Tap ‘Save’ to add the new bill to the database.
New Bill/Existing Collector
These are the steps needed to add a new bill to a collector that already exists in the database.
- Tap the ‘+’ on the home screen to bring up the ‘New Bill’ screen.
- Tap ‘Select Collector’ to bring up the picker list of collectors.
- Select the appropriate collector from the list. Tap ‘Done’.
- Ensure that the correct collector’s name is shown in the Collector field. If not, tap on the field and select the new collector from the picker list.
- Enter the Due Date, Amount, Recurring, and Paid status for the new bill.
- Tap ‘Save’ to add the new bill to the database.
We will soon have forums available to provide more help and support for our applications. For now, if you require more assistance, use the contact form on our homepage.
CastCatcher 1.2 is ready and and will feature the following:
- Added support for Icecast streams (still .pls files)
- Fixed crash caused by incompatible metadata (stream now plays, metadata ignored, no crash)
- Support direct playback of mp3 files
- Squeezebox server (SlimServer) playback support – add the mp3 url to CastCatcher
- Support for direct playback of Shoutcast stream URLs (e.g. http://stream.radiojavan.com:9000)
We may still add M3U support to version 1.3, if demand dictates it.
We’ve just been notified that BillMinder 1.0 is ready for sale. It should be available on the App Store within a few hours! Our home page will be updated to reflect this as soon as it is available for purchase.
CastCatcher 1.2 will feature support for:
- Icecast Streams (Basically, .pls files containing a link to a MP3 file of “infinite” length)
- Direct playback of urls pointing to MP3 files of “infinite” or finite length (useful for streaming audio to your iPhone from your Logitech SqueezeBox or similar device/software)
CastCatcher 1.2 MAY support:
- M3U playlists — this just depends on time, at this point
Let us know what you think! Keep the suggestions and bug reports coming!
return7.com is live — please let us know if you find any bugs in the site. it does require a modern browser (ff2/3, saf3, IE7, etc.). forums coming soon.
Update: Now works properly with Mobile Safari on the iPhone as well.
So we’ve fixed many issues in CastCatcher and version 1.1 will be hitting the AppStore soon. It is a free upgrade for current CastCatcher users!
Version 1.1 fixes:
- Removed .pls suffix requirement (make compatible with new shoutcast.com URLs)
- Auto add http:// prefix if missing from url
- Turn off URL text field auto-correction
- Degrade more gracefully in the case of invalid stations
- Streamlined code
We are currently working on a new website which will be online soon. It will add a much more user-friendly interface for accessing information about the company and our products. We will also be adding forums for the discussion of our applications. This blog will remain active, just not at it’s current location as our home page.
1) Go to your favorite station aggregator (like shoutcast.com)
2) Right click on the tune-in and copy the link (it should end in .pls)
3) Paste the link someplace you can see it
4) Add a new station to CastCatcher and type in the link
5) Hit save and you’re done!
Update: Unfortunately, shoutcast.com has changed the way their station links work so we will release a new version of CastCatcher to Apple later tonight to handle this change. Other shoutcast streams will still work with CastCatcher (we simply need to change the check for .pls in the name). Also, a request for m3u was submitted — we evaluate the amount of effort to get this into v1.2 and welcome more user suggestions!
Update 2: For the first reviewer trying to add WNYC-AM, look at the link on their website (left side, next to “MP3″) called “32k.” When you mouse over it you’ll see a link such as “http://www.wnyc.org/stream/am.pls” — you can add that to CastCatcher directly. 
Update 3: Workaround for Shoutcast.com streams until new version is approved — Simply click the station name link on the shoutcast.com page (Station: NameLinkIsHere) and go to the station’s website. From there, find the link for their winamp/shoutcast/mp3 stream (again, it ends in .pls) and add that to CastCatcher.
We are pleased to announce that CastCatcher 1.0 has been approved for release onto the Apple AppStore! As for BillMinder, Apple requested a slight UI change to further comply with their strict UI guidelines. The change has been implemented and the new version is back in Apple’s review queue.
We’ve just submitted both BillMinder ($1.99) and CastCatcher ($2.99) to Apple for review. We expect that both will be available for purchase in roughly one week. We’ve put up short descriptions and screenshots of each on their respective pages so take a look and let us know what you think.