Chess.com v0.2 released!

OK, so that was a long gap, but can I assure you - what's been developed for this new version was really, really hard!

Not that I want to set unrealistic expectations. It really doesn't look massively different.

Key inclusions for v0.2

Defect Fixes: defects #1, #2, #5 included

Refresh and Notification: This was the hard stuff, which necessitated rewrites of large swaths of code. The app will currently (hardcoded, pref settings coming soon) check for game updates every two minutes. The iPhone uses push functionality that takes about 20 secs which winmo doesn't support, so in the interests of restrained internet access and battery consumption I felt two minutes was a good starting point. Windows notifications are raised if an opponent has made a move.

Offline caching: This was actually incorporated in the POC, but so ugly that it was excluded from the first release. Having lunch with a colleague a week ago in an upstairs, windowless restaurant in chinatown, I watched with great amusement as he spent the entire hour shaking his iphone with frustration. He wanted to show me a chess game he was playing but due to the lack of 3G coverage in this particular room he couldn't. With the winmo app, if for whatever reason you are without coverage, the phone will allow you to look at the last known state of the game complete with analysis mode (assuming you have previously loaded the game on the phone, and not logged out since). This is great if your phone is in flight mode, or you're in a non-3G/GPRS coverage area (country drives, elevators, restrooms and top floor, windowless restaurants in chinatown come to mind).

Other: some general improvements in look and feel - new and improved splash screens.

Excluded: game list navigation (sorry Tel). This will be in the next release, which will come a lot sooner than this one took.

Warning: This willhave defects. I'm beta-testing it myself and will be trying to get most of the wrinkles out in time for the next release.

Distribution: I will send this directly to all current beta-testers. Given that that app still doesn't support older models of windows mobile phones, I'm reticent to make it available for self service download just yet.

Feedback and suggestions always welcome - either here, or via email.

Thanks,
Clinton.

Awesome :-)

Good job fella. My HD2 is in the shop at the mo (broke the screen, rather foolishly, by dropping it), but I'll use it as soon as I get it back.

Have you emailed the new version to me yet, by the way? I haven't received it yet.

Kudos again :-)

Hello,

Thanks for the update. There are a few flaws which i would like to raise, in order to improve the quality of this latest version of mobile chess.com v0.2.

I run on a HTC touch HD with WM6.5 and sense.

#1 - The logon screen.

a) Would it be possible that the application remembers the last logon credentials, even when the application was closed and restarted?

b) It seems it is only possible to logon by pressing the 'sign-in' button. Would it be possible also to sign-in when you press enter in the password line?

#2 - The keyboard control button completely below dissapears: In WM6.5, there are buttons in a bar below to allow f.e. the keyboard to appear or not. F.e.: in the logon screen: these buttons are not visible and as such, i cannot logon in the application, as i cannot minimize the keyboard. The keyboard covers the sign-in button which prevents me to logon (i cannot press on the sign-in button...). Also, the keyboard button totally below does not appear the next time you use the application. So i cannot even minimize the keyboard... This needs to be fixed urgently as it greatly limits the user friendliness of the application.

Hope that this feedback is usefull?

best regards,

Sven

Hi Sven,

thanks for the great feedback.

#1a - this is perplexing. The app saves your login credentials, and auto logs in everytime you restart (assuming you haven't explicitly logged out). Does the app revert to the login screen everytime you restart? Are you selecting "Logout" from the "Home" screen? Is there a prefs.cfg file in the chesscom directory of your device?

#1b - yes.. this is important. Will do

#2 - yes.. i find this annoying too, but have neglected it because I rarely logout of the app, so only have to go through the keyboard pain on occasion.

Let's call #1b and #2, feature requests 1 and 2, and #1a Defect 6.

thanks,
Clinton.

To answer your questions:

"#1a - this is perplexing. The app saves your login credentials, and auto logs in everytime you restart (assuming you haven't explicitly logged out). Does the app revert to the login screen everytime you restart? Are you selecting "Logout" from the "Home" screen? Is there a prefs.cfg file in the chesscom directory of your device?"

My Feedback on #1:

The app reverts to the login screen everytime i restart. I am selecting logout from the home screen to exit the application. I have a chess.com directory on my storage card, as i installed the application on the storage card. there is no prefs.cfg file in that directory, only a chesscom.exe file.

Hi sven,

i think this is expected behaviour. "Logout" is really intended for people who might be sharing the device and want to login as an alternate user.

If you want the app to remember your credentials (and avoid going to the login screen everytime you restart) then just click "Exit" instead of "Logout".

Can you please test this next time you close the app, and let me know how it goes on your next restart.

Cheers,
Clinton.

ahh.. I understand.

I don't think I can fix that

... are you happy with the app installed on your device, or would you rather it be on the storage card?

 i installed to app on the device now, and i don't need to relogin anymore when i restart. so actually, the issue is away for me. But i would consider fixing this issue #1 as after release of the application at chess.com, more people will start using the application, and the problem may reappear. I am happy to retest or help you to find a fix for this.

Sven