Xblaze

Update 4/12/10

The behaviour described in this post, if implemented in an iOS app, would result in a rejection from Apple.

Even though the described behaviour occurrs, it is a rule of the review process that all apps exit and clean up their networking sockets when the user backgrounds the app if the app is not allowed to run in the background. This means that even though Xblaze supports fast app switching, it still needs to close it’s connection to Xfire and cease any background communication.

End Update

So, after my last post about iOS4 and multitasking, I have noticed some very surprising and interesting observations about iOS4.

I’m no expert, and I’m only describing what I’ve seen actually happening, so here goes.

In normal circumstances, I expected an app that didn’t explicitly request to run in the background to become suspended and as a result,its network connections closed.

It appears that this isn’t the whole truth. In my testing when I suspended Xblaze into the background, it’s socket was not immediately closed. At first, I thought this was because the suspension hadn’t triggered Xblaze’s disconnect function, and that it would simply be disconnected when Xfire closed the connection after not receiving the keep-alive heart beat. Again, this wasn’t the case. It seemed that the connection stayed open, even after the expected period of time after which Xfire would normally close the connection.

I waited for 10 mins with Xblaze suspended in the background, sending a message to the account every minute. Sure enough, after I opened Xblaze again, bringing it back into the foreground, sly of those messages were suddenly received.

There is one caveat to this test – I had “auto lock” disabled, so my iPhone would not lock itself and go to sleep. I did notice that if I suspended Xblaze and then locked the iPhone, the connection was immediately closed.

So what’s happening here!?

My theory is that regardless of what Apple and their documentation says, it seems that while the phone is still awake and not locked, the OS will look after the socket and the connection, effectively queuing the incoming data, ready to be received when the app is brought back into the foreground.

This sounds great, right? Isn’t this multitasking?

Well no. There are a few compromises.

1. The connection is only kept alive while the iPhone is awake. As soon as the phone sleeps or is locked manually, the connection gets closed.

2. There’s still no way to notify the user that messages have arrived while Xblaze is suspended. The messages are only queued until the app is brought back into focus. As far as Xblaze is concerned, all those messages have just arrived this very second when it’s woken up.

But hey! Its not the end of the world, its better than nothing, right? At least you now have SOME way of getting messages while the app is in the background. Its better than not getting those messages at all, even if you do have to go check for them…

So last week, I promised all Xblaze iPhone users Communities (clans/guilds) support.

Those waiting will be happy to know that today I submitted Xblaze 1.1 to the App Store reviewers. Xblaze 1.1 contains the communities support that I promised, and it’s working really nicely, if I do say so myself.

I’m hoping that the update won’t get held up too long being reviewed, and that you can all get hold of it soon.

Meanwhile, check out the screenshorts of clan Xblaze’s communities support:

Also in this update is

• Manage your Xfire preferences
  • Turn nicknames on and off
  • Hide/show offline friends
  • Hide/show friends of friends
  • Hide/show timestamps in chats
• Numerous bug fixes
  • Prevent a crash when a friend logs off while you’re chatting to them
  • Corrected ability to add friends of friends or clan mates to your friend list
  • Corrected the behaviour that allowed a user to attempt to delete a Friend of Friend from the FoF group (which also prevents a crash)
• Spruced up the Xblaze icon somewhat, looks a little flashier.

So I hope you all enjoy this eagerly anticipated update. And thank you all for your continued support for Xblaze!

It seems to be some kind of trend – the hip, cool thing to do – to share your stats on your iPhone App. So I’m going to join in!

First of all, the amount of downloads received in 10 days is pretty impressive for an app with no marketing strategy and a fairly niche user base:

over 1,400 downloads in 10 days! Incredible.

From this we can see where the downloads spiked on Jan 20th when Xblaze 1.0.2 was released. Jan 21st is the latest data available for this graph, but there are even more downloads since then!

Next up is the usage stats. It seems that the majority of people are using Xblaze in 6-7 minute sessions which is exactly what I would expect from an app like this. It’s something you can just pull out of your pocket, sign in, tell someone that important tidbit you needed to, and then log off and not have to worry about not being able to tell someone what you needed to!

With 7,334 session, we can see proof that users are coming back to use Xblaze time and time again, which is the signature of a good app. Why would people keep using it if it wasn’t good?

Next is an interesting one. Of the 1,400 downloads mentioned earlier, it may appear that a majority of them were upgrades from 1.0 or 1.0.1 to 1.0.2. This would support the spike seen in the first graph. The number of active users (those that have used the app at least once every day) climbed quickly at the beginning of Xblaze’s release. It seems to be still growing, but also slowly levelling off at approximately 250. 250 people use Xblaze at least once every day for 10 days – that shows some loyalty right there.

The yellow spot and dotted line shows that the data for that period is not yet finished being collected, which means there’s still more to come before that spot turns white.

Finally, and I think most importantly are the reviews on the App Store. I think iPhone App Reviews are a huge part in whether or not an app does well on the App Store. Even one bad review amongst a sea of good reviews can have a negative impact on the applications downloads. However, it seems that people love the app so much that they just want to shout about it. Here’s a small sample of some of the reviews Xblaze has received over the past 10 days.

People all over the world are showing their appreciation for Xblaze, and I thank you all for your kind comments and excellent feedback!

Here’s to another excellent 10 days! Things can only get better!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who signed up for the Xblaze iPhone Beta. Your input and feedback has been extremely useful throughout the testing period.

I would also like to announce that Xblaze iPhone has now been submitted to the App Store for review! I’m hoping the approval process won’t take that long, and Xblaze should be available to download very shortly.

Here are some screen shots to tide you over

I know its been quite on the Xblaze front recently, and for that I apologise, but here’s a surprise to make up.

I’ve been hard at work since the release of Xblaze on a new project that a small number of you already know about. Here’s a sneak peek:

So if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch with OS 3.0 or later, and want to help beta test Xblaze for iPhone, all you need to do is with your full name and the UDID of your device.

To get the UDID of your device, you can download and install a free iPhone app called UDID sender.  Alternatively, you can copy it from iTunes:

1. Connect your iPhone/iPod Touch to your computer and wait for iTunes to open.
2. After any automatic syncing has finished, click on your device in the source list on the left side of the iTunes window.
3. There you should see some information about your iPhone/iPod under the summary tab. Click once on the Serial Number label and it will switch to show the UDID.
4. When the UDID is showing, press CMD + C on your keyboard, or select Edit > Copy from the menu bar. This will copy the whole 40 character UDID string to your clipboard, which you can then paste into an e-mail to me.

Personally, I find it easier to use the UDID Sender app.

Once you’ve pasted the UDID into an e-mail, please ensure that it is exactly 40 characters long. I can’t do anything with a UDID that is missing a few characters.

When the beta starts, if you’ve sent me your UDID, you will receive an e-mail from me containing a Zip file and some instructions on how to install the App.