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JetSet Status Update (v1.01) |
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Friday, 05 September 2008 |
Greetings all,
I have shifted gears a bit and have decided to go ahead and release a 1.01 update that fixes some small things I have encountered and you have reported in your email. The 1.01 update will include the following fixes:
- Updated help system that tells people how to delete an expense item or expense report. If you are visiting the site looking for this information simply look in the FAQ for the answer. It is as easy as running your finger from left to right!
- Tried to reduce memory usage when dealing with the camera. Some users are reporting issues that taking pictures crashes the application. I have spent a great deal of time on this and had a situation where it was happening. What seems to be happening is that the iPhone OS is dumping the program with an out of memory error. The thing is—the iPhone is dumping in the middle of the Apple code for taking the picture. What is more interesting is that resetting the phone (hard reset holding the top button and the home button and NOT using the slider) resolves the problem. After this reset I was able to take 60 pictures in a row without a crash. Still the code in the 1.01 update is tighter and it might help the problem.
- Fixed an issue with the start date always requiring the user to set it. It was never intended to work this way. What should happen is that the program should pick the start date of the expense report or the current date whichever is greater. It is currently using the start date always.
- Fixed an address book bug where it would not allow you to select a company.
- Fixed a possible crash when setting a new date on an expense.
I have put a lot of other groundwork in place for the bigger features. I am going to do QA over the weekend and hopefully submit the update to Apple on Monday or Tuesday. I’ll post when I submit so you at least know that the ball is not in my court anymore.
For those who send email asking for features—please continue. I really appreciate the feedback. This upcoming release actually has code that is not active for the next release where I add the ability to select payment types per expense. So you can identify how you paid for an item. A side effect of this work is that the expense report produced will have detail records printed for every expense type. This should help a number of you who have asked for this.
Not only that—this release has a lot of the work necessary for localization done. I am going to hold off on that release until I have the currency support done.
So what is my current thinking related to currency based on your feedback?
Well the researchers here at BriteMac have been busy compiling the most relevant currencies of the world. My intent is to support a good number of countries in Europe, Central America, South America, North America, Scandinavia, Australia, Japan and China. I think that will cover most users. You will be able define your ‘home’ currency and then pick up to 5-6 currencies for your trip. I am doing it this way, as you will need to provide the exchange rate for each currency you intend to use. Many have told me in email to not waste my time populating the fields with exchange rates that are current on the Internet. Everyone tells me that these are either dictated by the company or the exchange rate is truly determined by the location in which you are exchanging money—which is never at the same rate as what is quoted on the Internet.
I am also planning on adding a currency exchange expense item to the program so you can keep track of the fees associated with the exchange of currency.
Finally when you produce the report the program will show your expense items in detail in foreign currency and in your local currency based on the exchange rates you defined. One thing to note—in the actual report I am not going to format the currency values because these are numeric fields if I put the symbols in place Google spreadsheet and Excel will want to treat the fields as text. I will put the three letter currency symbol in so you know what currency is what.
On mileage I do intend to put in support for odometer start and end and calculate the distance. I want to make this a settings feature (settings is also new for the app) so that those who like the simpler data entry format that is in place now will not have to give up anything. Further there will be a setting that lets you set the default allowance per mile.
Many thanks to all of you for your kind reviews and your supportive email. We really appreciate it here.
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