Millicomputer

iPhone/iOS Dev Camp

2010-08-17T10:01:00.001-07:00

http://www.iosdevcamp.org August 20-22, 2010, PayPal Offices, San Jose, CA. I will be there working on enhancements to Actors for Netflix and Instant Queue Add.

Actors get more movies

2010-07-20T07:56:00.001-07:00

A change to the OData back end fixed an issues with Actors for Netflix. Previously only the first 20 movies were shown for each actor, the default for that query is now 500, which is enough that all movies are now shown for all actors. No change was needed to the application.

Next steps for this app are to add advanced search and save lists of favorite actors and movies. The advanced search feature will be shared with Instant Queue Add for Netflix as well.

Comment moderation

2010-07-08T01:11:00.001-07:00

Comments here are now being moderated, there is too much comment spam coming in...

Instant Queue Add V7 update

2010-06-29T22:48:00.001-07:00

Apple approved V7 a few days ago, with iOS4 support, and more than 10,000 updates have happened in the first few days. Some glitches in the Netflix API on Monday prevented apps from authorizing, and this broke IQ+, and caused some one-star bad reviews.

The iPad compatible update for IQ+ is going to be a major re-write. There are a few simple changes to Actors for Netflix that will probably get done first.

Actors for Netflix on iPad is now available in the app store for free

2010-06-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

You can launch the app store from this link.

Documentation and the source code is available at github.

[Fixed] IQ+ Problems reading Queue from Netflix

2010-06-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

[Update - V7 is now available, with the fix and tested on iOS4]

Something changed in the Netflix API, and some API calls are now failing to go through, while others are working. For IQ+ the effect is that it can't read the queue.

The problem is due to a change in the Netflix API implementation that exposed a bug in IQ+, an updated version has been posted to the AppStore approval process.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Actors for Netflix on iPad is done

2010-06-10T00:35:00.001-07:00

The first version has finally been finished, code posted to Github and app submitted to Apple. http://wiki.github.com/adrianco/Actors-for-Netflix-on-iPad/

It took a lot longer than expected due to other distractions, and as a first release, it doesn't have all the features that we would like, but it is fun to use, and I learned several new techniques that will now be applied to the next version of Instant Queue Add for Netflix.

Netflix Actors screenshot from #ipaddevcamp

2010-04-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

Winner of the best use of web API prize. Based on Netflix OData API. Concept and player interface code by Adrian Cockcroft, OData queries wrangled by Kirsten Jones, user interface design and almost all the code by Andrew Pouliot, with thanks to AQGridView by Alan Quatermain

The OData API is a free and open interface to the Netflix catalog, you do not have to be a Netflix customer to use this app, it needs a Netflix login to play an instant movie, but you can browse all Netflix movies and actors, and OData supports slice and dice queries into the catalog.

iPad developer camp coming up this weekend

2010-04-15T00:56:00.000-07:00

I will be working on improving the user interface of my Netflix app to take better advantage of the larger screen and integrate with the Netflix player.

IPad Compatible

2010-04-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

I have an iPad to test on and the existing V6 of Instant Queue Add for Netflix works fine in iPhone compatible mode. Also sales are up over the weekend as more people are thinking about Netflix on the iPad and iPhone...

I am going to make a small change that allows better integration with the Netflix app on iPad and do a simple conversion to a universal app, so all existing users will get an iPad version.

The integration is to provide an easy way to get to the Netflix website page for a movie, then you can hit the play button and it will Invoke the official Netflix app and play the movie or episode.

This message typed on the iPad, the iPhone seems so small now.....

Instant Queue Add is moving up the App Store lists

2010-03-07T15:23:00.000-08:00

It's hovering around 75th spot in the Paid Apps in Entertainment list, and has moved ahead of two other apps to become the leading paid Netflix app! More than 10,000 users have upgraded to V6 since Monday, and the average rating for V6 is three stars, up from 2.5 stars for V5. Many thanks to all the users, and enjoy the Oscars tonight... [Update: During the Oscars broadcast IQ+ made it as high as 64th place.]

Sorting and archiving queues

2010-03-04T22:58:00.001-08:00

I'm making progress on the next version. It can now create named archives of the instant queue, and write the archives back to Netflix. Basic sorting of the queue at Netflix also works, and I'm developing an advanced sorting wizard for combination sorts. I may also add multiple account support to make it easier to move queues between accounts. The basic idea is that you may have one account activated on a TV set, but have several accounts that would like to take it over by copying their queue's over (and restoring the original afterwards).

It's going to take a few weeks before the new features are ready to release. In the meantime please remember to rate Version 6, and suggest new features in the comments here or in iTunes reviews.

Please rate/review IQ+ V6

2010-03-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

visit iTunes and let me know what you think http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instant-queue-add-for-netflix/id293419823?mt=8

IQ+ Version 6 was approved March 2nd

2010-03-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

Apple has a much faster turnaround nowadays, less than one business day, thanks Apple! The flood of customers updating the app has started, any bugs or issues, please post comments here.

App-store issues

2010-03-01T10:42:00.001-08:00

I submitted V6 to the app store and set a start date a few days into the future. A side effect of this is that V5 was suspended from the app store for Sunday through Monday morning. The way App's are updated makes it look as if some things are private to the version of the app being modified, but they affect the old version as well. Apologies to anyone who was looking for Instant Queue Add for Netflix yesterday.

IQ+ Version 6 has been submitted to Apple

2010-02-28T09:14:00.000-08:00

The RSS feed and landscape view changes are working fine, the app is now also more robust to timeouts and failures when calling into Netflix over flaky network connections.

Unfortunately I still can't make the underlying Netflix API operation needed to re-sort the queue work, and I'm going to debug that over the next few weeks and submit an update when it works.

Turn-around times for the App Store review process have been much faster recently, according to several reports, so we will see how long it takes.

IQ+ Version 6 is almost ready

2010-02-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

Thanks to review feedback from customers, two features will be added. One is that the application can be rotated so that the lists are shown horizontally, and more text can be seen for each movie. This is useful for movies with long titles. The other is the re-instatement of the RSS feed of new instant choices as an additional list. There is less data per movie, so the RSS list display shows the synopsis in the sub-area under the title, and the only sort option is a title sort or the original sort, which is grouped by genre. Adding a movie from the RSS feed takes a little longer since the extra information is loaded at that point.

Some minor additional bug fixes and enhancements are that the number of movies in the Instant Queue is shown immediately on startup, and any lists that fail to load due to poor network connections will be retried without having to quit the app. The free trial button is changed to link via the new Netflix deal with the Google Affiliate Network program, as is the link in the blog border.

At present, I'm still working to debug sorting the queue and having it change at Netflix, and this feature may not make it into V6. Some of the views currently ignore rotation, so you have to rotate at the starting screen or go back to it to change from portrait to landscape mode. I may just leave rotation working this way...

I expect to submit V6 to Apple in the next week or so.

Top 100 Status

2009-12-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

Instant Queue Add for Netflix is now in the Top 100 Paid Apps in Entertainment list on the app store. Sales have been increasing recently, thanks to all the users. Happy Holidays...

Instant Queue Add - IQ+ Lolomo Version 5 has been released

2009-10-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

This is a major upgrade, it includes a new personalized data source that chooses around 2000 titles for you and arranges them in up to 24 lists of up to 100 movies each. This is the same lists of lists of movies (lolomo) that appear on the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Media center.

The login and startup processes are now much more streamlined and give better feedback, and the information per movie has been increased on the lists and on the movie display view. All lists can now be sorted on the iPhone by several factors, although the Instant Queue does not get sorted back at Netflix (yet).

Source code for the Fractal app

2009-09-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

is available on google code for any other bands who want to get into the app store. Its a very simple app, easy to customize. Fractal get several downloads every day with a worldwide reach.

Search for Netflix Movies on Xbox from your iPhone

2009-08-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

with Instant Queue Add for Netflix you can search the entire instant watch catalog

Instant Queue Add - IQ+ Version 4 has been released

2009-05-15T07:01:00.000-07:00

This release adds some more information for each movie. The new choices list from the RSS feed has always shown everything that is in the feed, but the movie lists that are obtained via the Netflix API have more details available, so they now show all the genres and the average star rating for each movie.

The top instant list has been removed from the Netflix web site, and the RSS feed will turn off eventually as well so this release no longer loads that list, and that helps improve startup time.

The use of wording and logo's has also been changed to conform to the latest Netflix API branding requirements, and IQ+ will be featured in the Netflix API Gallery.

Fractal app approved

2009-04-05T08:58:00.001-07:00

App store link

Fractal app submitted

2009-03-23T08:10:00.001-07:00

With graphic design help from my friend Grif Rosser I have built and submitted an application for the band Fractal, that is themed with their artwork, and which fans can use to find out more about the band. Its in review at the moment.

My app reviewed...

2008-12-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.whatsoniphone.com/reviews/instant-queue-add-netflix-review

Quite a good review, they are looking for DVD support, but that's what all the other apps do, and this one is intended to make it easier to deal with instant watching. If I added all the DVD stuff then it would be much more complex. Also the full size boxshots for each movie are only for instant movies, they are used in the HD versions of the on-TV display.

Version 3 is Now Available

2008-12-10T19:57:00.001-08:00

I submitted to the App Store on Monday, and just got notice that its been accepted. Please let me know what you think and what you would like to see in the next version.

Some ideas I have:

- add more info per movie, all genres, ratings etc.
- save queue etc. data in the iPhone so it starts up quickly and synchronize using a background thread.
- redesign the user interface from scratch
- allow more movies to be pulled for each search, at present it gets the first 100 and picks out the instant ones

Moving movies in your queue

2008-12-06T09:05:00.000-08:00

I decided to add one more thing, and allow re-arranging movies in the queue. This got a bit more complicated since the saved items that appear at the end of the queue can't be moved, and its taking longer than expected to debug everything. Its going to be a few more days before it gets submitted to the app store.

Instant Queue View and Delete On The Way

2008-12-03T00:22:00.000-08:00

The latest version is now functionally complete, your instant queue is loaded, movies that are already in your queue are greyed out when they appear in lists, you can see the entire queue and delete movies from it. There is some cosmetic clean-up to do, and more testing to make sure the code is robust. Version 3 should be ready to submit to the app store soon...

Queue add problems

2008-11-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

If you have had problems adding movies to your queue in the last few days, this is due to an intermittent problem with the Netflix API service. Hopefully it will be fixed permanently soon. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Version 3 coming soon with Instant Queue

2008-11-25T07:44:00.000-08:00

The next version in development now loads your instant queue at startup or when sign-in completes, it indicates movies that are already in your queue whenever they appear in a list, and it changes the [+] to [more] to pull up similar movies. To see the complete queue an option was added to the search menu popup (which now also sets input focus automatically).

The occasional problem where an added movie would not have any similars was a bug in the Netflix API, and it was fixed on Nov 24th, so now every movie should have similars available.

The app now takes longer to startup (depending on your queue size) so some better user feedback is needed, and a delete from queue option needs to be implemented, but a new release should be out soon.

The user interface isn't very "polished" as some reviewers have noted. I have some ideas, and that is likely to be the main focus of the subsequent release. Sales have stepped up to a new level with V2, which is encouraging, many thanks to everyone....

App updated: Searching is here...

2008-11-16T21:55:00.000-08:00

I submitted the update to the app store last Thursday morning, and it was approved Sunday evening, which seems pretty quick, and shows that they work weekends at Apple...

The new screenshots show the search feature and the similars feature. I will explain in detail what changed in the new version and how the new features work in this posting. Please let me know what you think of the new features by commenting here, or providing a review on the app store.

There is a small change to the user login button. It always starts off saying [user] but it shows the first name of the user once the app has made a call to Netflix to get the user information. The information it gets is the first and last name, and whether the user can use instant watch. This is important since it is possible to login using a profile, and profiles do not support instant watching. On a slow network connection you may see the button start off as [user] and change on its own shortly afterwards, this is caused by the delay in getting Netflix to respond.

If you try to select the search button before you have logged in, it takes you to the login page, as if you had selected the user button. In normal use a popup appears, you need to touch the text field to select it for input to bring up the keyboard. You should enter some text that will help you find the title of a movie or TV show. The call to Netflix returns up to 100 titles, but the app only looks for instant titles, so you usually get between 5 and 25 shown in the resulting list.

The best matches are listed first, once you select a title it shows you the large format boxshot, and a description that includes title and genre. You can add the title to your queue, or return to the search results list and pick a different title.

The description of the title includes the genre and synopsis, it is obtained via a different call to Netflix compared to the main list of top and new choices that shows when you start the app. The names of actors are clickable, and if you are patient it will launch the full Netflix site in the window, showing you the summary page for that actor.

If you click on the [+] button the title is added to your queue. If the title is already in your queue you get a "can't add" message. You may also get a "continue" popup or a "more like this" popup. The "continue" popup is due to a bug in the Netflix API where it fails to provide a way to get the similar titles in all cases. It has been tracked down and should be fixed soon. The "more like this" option calls Netflix, and processes the results, which takes a few seconds. The resulting list of similar titles consists of the titles that are available for instant watching, taken from a list of up to 100 titles so it usually contains between 5 and 25 entries. Once you have picked a title from that list, if you add it you can get another list of similar titles. You can go several layers deep into the lists of similars, but eventually the iPhone will run out of memory and the application will quit.

Searching is on the way...

2008-10-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

The next update will add a search capability, the results will be filtered to only show instant titles, since that is the focus for this application.

Other features being worked on include a view of your instant queue, and an indication that movies in other lists are already in your queue.

Updates to the application are free for existing users, many thanks to the thousands of people who have already downloaded this application.

Login Issue Resolved

2008-10-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

The problem was caused by a configuration issue in the API service which has now been resolved, so login should be working correctly now. Sorry for any inconvenience.

User Login Issue

2008-10-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Something changed in the API server response, and now Instant Queue Add for Netflix isn't getting back the response it expects when it looks up the user name and whether that user can watch instantly. We are looking into it....

How to add a movie

2008-10-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

The app brings up a list of movies, and when you pick one it takes you to a big box shot picture, scroll up to see the description and full title.

If you have setup a user, then there is a + at the top right. Tap it and wait a second or two and it will confirm with a popup message. If the movie is already in your queue, then it will tell you that you could not add it again.

If you do not see a +, then you have not setup a user, so hit the user button on the home screen and login with your Netflix account. The login screen is a web page on the Netflix site, so you are not actually entering your Netflix password into the app. It uses "OAuth" security which is a safe way to authenticate applications.

Free for the first week!

2008-10-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

Instant Queue Add for Netflix will be a free application until Weds 29th Oct, when it will revert to the ranks of the 99c bargain collection.

It seems to take a few hours for any changes to take effect in the iTunes App Store.

Non-obvious feature... browsing Netflix

2008-10-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

If you tap on the movie box-shot there isn't a lot of user feedback but the Netflix website movie display page for that movie starts to load in the web view. If you wait a while for it to load you can see the full details of the movie, including reviews, star ratings etc, and add to DVD queue. The first time you do this you will have to login to Netflix, but it will remember your login for subsequent visits.

When you go back to the movie list, it may have been kicked out of memory by the web page, so it could take a few seconds to re-load the list of movies, and you will start at the beginning of the list.

At any time you can instantly go back to the movie list and abandon the netflix site page load.

Up on the App Store...

2008-10-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

Instant Queue Add for Netflix is now available...

It's in the App Store review process...

2008-10-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

I finally got everything lined up for the submission to go through a few days ago. Now we get to find out how long it actually takes to review the code and appear in the store.

In the meantime, I'm cleaning up my code base and building a generic test program that will be posted as open source code to help other people get Netflix on iPhone apps up and running more quickly.

Instant Queue Add for Netflix

2008-10-10T01:54:00.000-07:00

Home screen, teaser while its going through beta testing and the App Store process.