bitBulletin 1.4 has been approved

bitBulletin 1.4 has been approved by Apple and is now available in the App Store.

[B]What's New In Version 1.4[/B]

- New: Small status bar at bottom displaying more information while working.
- New: A-Z index display in Sites list.
- New: Invalid unicode characters handling.
- New: Site error is now directing you to web browser and gives you a Error button in the toolbar.
- New: New font sizes for posts.
- Fix: Image caching issue.
- Fix: Invalid URL crash in Sites.
- Fix: Better error/warning handling.
- Fix: Fixed URL reformatting when character # is used it.
- Fix: Missing forum id, thread id and post id error messages are not showing anymore, the element is simply deleted from the list now.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/bitbulletin/id396660789?mt=8#

New theme

Here is a preview of a new theme we are working on for version 1.21. It is vaguely based on the Android GUI but it will be called WB theme.

Version 1.21 is on the way.

Work on version 1.2.1 has started today. We are focusing on fixing login issues for this release.

• Fix: Login menu option will now work even if forum engine type has not been already discovered.
• Fix: When closing last tab for a site, it now keeps forums detection information.
• Fix: Fixed NULL error message showing.
• Fix: Can show sub-version numbers with 2 digits.

As many of you might have noticed, bitBulletin can update it's forums definition files directly from the Internet. This allows us to provide you with fast updates. So login issues have mostly been resolved yesterday. You won't need to wait for an official update on the App Store.

bitBulletin 1.2 has been submitted

bitBulletin version 1.2 has finally been submitted to Apple. In this new version you will find the following new features:

• Threads subscriptions maintenance and syncing with bitBulletin's favorites.
• Better redirection support.
• Ability to search in the Forums list.
• View new posts menu option. 

We have worked really hard to get IPBoard, phpBB and vBulletin support in bitBulletin. We are now happy with the results. There are, of course, tons of things to add to bitBulletin and some things to fix and improve but we are happy with the state of the app right now.

You can check out bitBulletin at the following address in the App Store:  http://itunes.apple.com/app/bitbulletin/id396660789?mt=8

Work on update 1.2 is under way.

Even if update 1.1 was submitted over the weekend, it does not mean we will take a rest from improving bitBulletin. So today, we did just that, work on improving the app. We also started working on a nice little video to demonstrate the prowess of bitBulletin.

We have started implementing advanced features that we were planning for later on. The first one displays the number of new posts in the Sites menu as a badge on top of the site icon. The second is if you click on a link in a post and that link points to a valid forum address, then instead of using the internal web browser to view that link, normal bitBulletin display will be used. There are quite a few more new features we will add in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Here are today's changes which will make it into update 1.2:

• New: Option to reset settings (preferences) to their default settings.
• New: Sites, Tabs and Favorites are sorted by site names now.
• New: If a link is clicked within a post, if it points to a forum, thread or another post, it will go there, not within the internal web browser.
• New: Browsing integration for phpbb v2.x sites.
• New: Integrated web browser toolbar buttons (refresh, back, forward) are enabled/disabled appropriately.
• New: New posts count badge showing in Sites list.
• New: Ability to "View new posts..." only from Sites popup menu.
• New: New option to change font family for posts.
• New: Post's quotes show with nice styled box.
• Fix: In phpbb 3.x, show all threads by default.
• Fix: If no post # is found, the date/time field width will be expanded.
• Fix: Redone css stylesheets internally.

 Here is a screen shot for the new posts badge icon in the Sites list.

bitBulletin 1.1 has been submitted

After a long hard working week, we have finally submitted version 1.1 to Apple yesterday. This update is going to be HUGE. We literally mean it. We have rewritten a lot of code internally, optimized it and tested it extensively.

We hope to prove to you that this new product is important to us and that we will keep on updating it to make sure it meets our standard of quality.

Here is what update 1.1 will bring:

Fix: Optimized the data extraction engine even more.
Fix: Data encoding fixed. Support for any non-ascii characters is now in place.
Fix: Cached icons duplicate for two domains.
Fix: Cannot activate  site's tab.
Fix: Open first page in new tab.
Fix: Search bar handled properly when logging in and out.
Fix: Error reporting has more information for us.
Fix: Rewrote login/logout code. Way more robust.
Fix: Looping issue, causing double-posts. This should also bring faster data processing.
Fix: Popup menu positioning on iPad.
Fix: Categories not needing a valid url to be displayed (internal stuff).
Fix: Popup menu on iOS 4.2 in landscape view. (known Apple bug)
Fix: Base URL issues.
Fix: Login issue and forum engines using forum.php instead of index.php.
Fix: Logout crash issue.
Fix: When a connection error occurs, it does not crash anymore.
Fix: Memory leaks when accessing the Tabs and Favourites menu.
Fix: Crash when connection fails while other tabs are still loading.
Fix: Posts not being the right width (only 320 pixels wide) on the first load on the iPad
Fix: Issue when a site is removed while tabs are still opened.
Fix: Speed improvement while analyzing data.
Fix: Back button disappearing.
Fix: Faster posts refresh when rotating device.
Fix: Removed duplicate forum categories.
Fix: Once a site's forum type detection has been done once, it won't be again.

New: When displaying a web page on iPad, always does it in fullscreen.
New: News will be showed automatically when updated on our server.
New: Sites and categories are now sorted alphabetically.
New: Added over 45 new sites in our ever expanding list.
New: Tabs icon now displays the number of tab items in a badge.
New: Support for 'forum.php' URL style forums.
New: Ability to have disabled forums in sites. (Some forum types are not supported).
New: Multi-part content-type HTTP support (for phpBB and others compatibility).
New: Full phpBB 3.x support. (Including login, search, quote, reply, new thread).
New: Posts font size customization.
New: Selected tab name shows in bold.
New: Basic browsing (no login, no search, no posts/replies creation yet) for phpBB 3.x.
New: Ability to Reply to a thread from within the posts.
New: Added the ability to have different button styles in toolbar.
New: Better error reporting message dialog.
New: Device and bitBulletin app information is provided in support emails. Without this information we won't be able to provide technical support.
New: When application becomes active (on iOS 4.x and up only), forums recognition engine definitions and forums list is reloaded so you don't have to restart bitBulletin manually anymore.
New: Added around 40 new sites in our ever expanding list.
New: Added support for dates like 11 Minutes Ago, 3 Hours Ago...

It's coming

We should be able to resubmit 1.1 either tomorrow or Thursday. Great progress has been made today. Check our news page for more information.

News Page

Stay in touch

To stay in touch with bitBulletin's daily development, we suggest you visit the following link.

bitBulletin's Development Updates Page

We keep this page updated a couple times a day.

We will try to update the blog's content daily.

Important Updates

Maybe many of you don't know, but we've been keeping a log of updates in the news page of the bitBulletin app. However this can go unseen as bitBulletin v1.0 would not show this page automatically whenever it is updated. In version 1.1 and up it does.

We would also like to remind you of two new pages we have created. One to answer the most frequently asked questions and another to keep track of the status of sites integration progress.

bitBulletin FAQ page

bitBulletin Sites Status Database

Here are the main updates from this page:

February 12th 2011

We understand the rage among our customers. We are aware of the issues experienced by our customers right now. We are working hard to fix them. As a proof of our dedication to our products, we will provide phpBB and IPBoard support next week. It won't need a new version, we will update our forum engine description file on our server.

We have also fixed the description in the AppStore to not say "ANY" forums but "ANY vBulletin" forums.

Hopefully our ratings in the AppStore won't stay like that for version 1.2 but we fully understand why they are so low.

February 12th 2011

Thank you for the great support you are showing us. We have received lots of feedbacks and requests. As we are working hard on version 1.2, we are making sure everyone gets support for their favourite sites. We would like to remind you that bitBulletin only supports vBulletin 3 and 4 forum engines at the moment. We are planning on supporting more forum engines in the coming updates. We are removing 1.1 (it was not even in review yet) from the submission queue at Apple, to rush 1.2 out the door today. Here are some of the updates for version 1.2 of bitBulletin for today:

Today also marks a big step forward for bitBulletin. We have created an FAQ page and Site Status Database which lists all sites that are being worked on and their progress status. This way you will always be informed of exactly what is going on with various sites support.

• Fix: Login issue and forum engines using forum.php instead of index.php.
• Fix: Logout crash issue.
• Fix: When a connection error occurs, it does not crash anymore.
• Fix: Memory leaks when accessing the Tabs and Favourites menu.
• New: Better error reporting message dialog.
• New: Device and bitBulletin app information is provided in support emails. Without this information we won't be able to provide technical support.
• New: When application becomes active (on iOS 4.x and up only), forums recognition engine definitions and forums list is reloaded so you don't have to restart bitBulletin manually anymore.

February 11th 2011

We are now working on bitBulletin version 1.2. It is our mission to improve the extraction engine and add more sites on a daily basis.

• Fix: Crash when connection fails while other tabs are still loading.
• New: Added around 40 new sites in our ever expanding list.
• New: Added support for dates like 11 Minutes Ago, 3 Hours Ago...

February 10th 2011

bitBulletin is now officially available in the AppStore. As promised, we have submitted version 1.1 to Apple today. Hope you enjoy using bitBulletin. We just want to let you know that we are committed to this wonderful product and we will keep improving it and expanding its support on a daily basis.

February 9th 2011

We are working hard on improving bitBulletin and we would like to let you know that version 1.1 is already being worked on right now. Here is a list of fixes and new features you can expect.

• Fix: Posts not being the right width (only 320 pixels wide) on the first load on the iPad
• Fix: Issue when a site is removed while tabs are still opened.
• Fix: Speed improvement while analyzing data.
• Fix: Back button disappearing.
• Fix: Faster posts refresh when rotating device.
• Fix: Removed duplicate forum categories.
• Fix: Once a site's forum type detection has been done once, it won't be again.
• New: When displaying a web page on iPad, always does it in fullscreen.
• New: News will be showed automatically when updated on our server.
• New: Sites and categories are now sorted alphabetically.
• New: Added over 45 new sites in our ever expanding list.
• New: Tabs icon now displays the number of tab items in a badge.
• New: Support for 'forum.php' URL style forums.
• New: Ability to have disabled forums in sites. (Some forum types are not supported).

BitBulletin version 1.1 was submitted yesterday.

As we have promised, version 1.1 was submitted to Apple the same day our first version was approved.

This new version fixes lots of small issues and it adds lots of new features too.

Fix: Posts not being the right width (only 320 pixels wide) on the first load on the iPad
Fix: Issue when a site is removed while tabs are still opened.
Fix: Speed improvement while analyzing data.
Fix: Back button disappearing.
Fix: Faster posts refresh when rotating device.
Fix: Removed duplicate forum categories.
Fix: Once a site's forum type detection has been done once, it won't be again.
New: When displaying a web page on iPad, always does it in fullscreen.
New: News will be showed automatically when updated on our server.
New: Sites and categories are now sorted alphabetically.
New: Added over 45 new sites in our ever expanding list.
New: Tabs icon now displays the number of tab items in a badge.
New: Support for 'forum.php' URL style forums.
New: Ability to have disabled forums in sites. (Some forum types are not supported).

BitBulletin is now available in the app store

bitBulletin is now available in the app store. We have a sale until the end of February, bitBulletin is at only $4.99.

To show our commitment to this wonderful product, we have already submitted version 1.1, which fixes lots of little issues but also adds tons of new features.

Download in the iTunes app store

bitBulletin has finally been submitted to Apple!

Yes, we have made it. bitBulletin 1.0 has been submitted to Apple today.

What is bitBulletin you ask? Let us explain...

bitBulletin is the ultimate native forums browser for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

bitBulletin is a universal application that let you browse forums using a layout that has been developed for the iOS devices, create threads, posts new replies or quote reply other posts, all this without the need of any custom scripts installed on the server side. You get access to ANY forums.

bitBulletin features:

• Beautiful user interface with themes
• Unlimited number of sites
• Manage multiple tabs
• Favorites
• Post edition, quoting and reply
• Thread creation
• Forums registration
• Integrated web browser
• Share posts via (Instapaper, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Pinboard, Read It Later, Tumblr, Email)

We will include the following features in upcoming versions for FREE:

• phpBB, myBB, IPBoard forums
• Private Messaging
• Account setup
• Tabs history
• A bigger list of supported sites
• And more...

We are dedicating ourselves to this product to make sure it meets all of your expectations. bitBulletin is an ever evolving application.

** This version has support for vBulletin versions 3 and 4. New forums support is coming in an upcoming version for FREE. **

Why not include some nice iPad screens? Of course, here they are...

 

What about the iPhone or iPod Touch? Here we go...

Submit to us

Just a quick note to let you know that it is finally official! bitBulletin will be submitted to Apple on Monday. Beta 0.9 was released just today. It is looking great, oh yeah, really good.

Your life will be easier very soon, yes, very soon.

It has been a long few weeks. Lots has been happening in the bitBulletin world. First, we have written a new CSS parser, which offers more accurate and faster data mining. The vbulletin v3 script has also been reworked to offer faster and a wider support for more sites. Work on vbulletin v4 has also started and is almost complete.

We are looking at submitting to Apple in about 2 weeks. The wait will finally be over people.

As far as future goes, we are expecting to add phpBB, IPBoard and myBB forums support in the next few weeks after release.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone, best wishes from the ArianeSoft Inc. family.