HI Cubbiecat - I'm glad you would recommend the app
Good questions, and I'll do my best to answer them. I'm re-doing the website and am adding a FAQ page; I'm going to include your questions on that page:
- "every once in a while, the record would zero out. Is this cause by an incoming call or text?"
Most likely, yes - that's why we ask that you put the phone into airplane mode if timings of the recordings are critical to you. That's something that the iPhone won't let developers override. If a call comes in, the recording will stop every time. The recording will be saved, though, just ended.
- Soooo - if you are actually missing recordings, that's VERY unusual. We have several safety nets built in to protect data even in extreme circumstances. You can test this by starting a shop, making entries, starting a recording... then actually power your phone completely off, simulating a crash of the entire iphone. Your shop will end, but when you re-open the app the data will be saved, including the recording. The only thing that should affect your data is a catastrophic failure of the phone itself. If the phone gets into a memory issue (active memory... too many memory-hungry systems and apps going at once, more of an issue for developers on the iphone 4 series than later models), the phone can act erratic, but again, we have back-ups in place to handle it. I would really appreciate getting the details of your issue so we can try to emulate it - please PM me with your phone model and operating system if you have a chance.
- 24 hour clock - I did that instead of am/pm just for clarity. I like a 24 hour clock, and since this app was originally just for me even if I never published it, I went with my personal preference
One of my original goals for the app was to keep it very simple. People don't take time to read a lot of instructions for the operation of an app, I know I don't, so I opted for only one choice. That said, my wish list for the next big update is to add a settings page where people can choose 12 hr vs 24 clock, font size, etc... It's expensive to add things, plus the more moving parts the more things that can break when Apple does and iOS update!! So I will see how robust sales are this year and what the demand is.
- The reason the photos and recordings don't email with the text goes back to the memory management and limitations of the phone. That was my original intent and how it was initially programmed, but the size of the files after a typical 30 minute shop with multiple photos and recordings brought the phone to its knees every time - it simply would lock up. So, we had data and text email separately. The recordings - the iPhone's native recorder has the nasty habit of putting a throbbing red band at the top of your screen and putting a giant microphone image on your lock screen (not particularly inconspicuous). We had to go completely self-contained to get around that. Cloud and dropbox etc. weren't really available when we first developed the app. Again, that's my goal for a future major update one of these days - utilize those tools.
Sorry for the long post, but your questions were great and deserved answers. Thanks again for taking the time, and I'm so pleased you like the app!
Lynn; Developer - Mystery "Shop-It" Timer and Stealth Notes Phone App for iPhone and Android
Video Demo: [
youtu.be]
(posting with permission)