Friday, October 12, 2007

TinyBuddy IM v3.01 released, listed in Apple Web Apps

Just a small update today. v3.01 had some layout fixes resulting from the iPhone 1.1.1 update, and I switched to using the final Dojo 0.9.0 release. Try it out at:

http://x.aim.com/ty/

The source code bundle has also been updated.

Also, TinyBuddy IM is listed in Apple's web app directory.

I still want to do more updates for the app, but my day job and Dojo contributions have been my major focus of late. I am still looking at providing an SSL option, and an option to hide the buddies from the "Recent Buddies" group.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very odd, I can login just fine with the old v2 version, but v3.01 seems to always say I have the wrong password.  Are you using a different form of authentication in the new version?  Same problem from iPhone or Mac browser.

Anonymous said...

hmm, both versions use the same auth system. If you clear the browser cookies, does that help?

Anonymous said...

I love this application, however I'm having trouble sending messeges after the initial im. The keypad does not appear allowing me to make subsequent messeges. Any advice or solutions?

Anonymous said...

xplosiverelic: Hopefully if you tap the input area again, the keyboard will come up again. Also, once the keyboard is up, if you type your message, then press the "Go" button on the keyboard, then you should still have the keyboard up ready to type your next message.

If this does not work for you, it would be good to know if you are using an iPhone or iPod Touch, and what version of the software you are using (Check Settings -> General -> About, and look for the Version line). I'm using 1.1.1 (3A109A) on the iPhone.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the response, I am running the latest 1.1.1 3a109a and I am clicking on the response area for the keypad to pop up however it doesn't. Also when I click the tab to go back to the Buddy list, I get kicked out of the browser to the home screen of the iphone.

Anonymous said...

xplosiverelic: It sounds like you might have a larger buddy list, over 50 names in all the groups? I am not being very efficient when I process your buddy list. I include things like Recent Buddies and I put all of your buddies in the page, but just hide the ones that are not online.

I think I am pushing the limits of iPhone's Safari browser, and I need to be smarter about just putting the buddies you have online in the page, and probably default to not showing the Recent Buddies list.

I am hoping that if I address those issues, the problems you mentioned will go away. However, it may take a couple weeks for me to refresh the application to make it more efficient.

Thanks for the feedback!

Anonymous said...

I appreciate your work on this; I only wish I were able to use it. :-(

I get a 100% repeatable crash every time the "Give Consent" dialog comes up. I click "Give Consent" and, boom, I'm back at the Home menu.

This is an iPod Touch running version 1.1.1 (3A110a).

Anonymous said...

throwawry: Do you have lots of windows open in Safari? I think the limit is around 8 windows. When you click on the Give Consent dialog, it tries to open another window.

Hmm, although, to sign in, that pops a window too. Hopefully the window that is popped open for signing in gets closed and you get returned to the window used by the TinyBuddy IM. Does that window get closed?

It seems like the issue is related to opening another window. If you have other windows open when you try TinyBuddy IM, try closing the other windows so that it is the only window open. You can close windows by clicking on the overlapping square icons in the bottom right corner of the Safari browser. That should allow you to slide through the open windows, and a red circle containing an X will show up on the upper left of the window. Click the X to close the window.

I am curious to know the outcome. Thanks for trying the web app.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I didn't think I was letting windows proliferate, but I tried again being cognizant of that issue and I was successful: I was able to complete the signon process, grant consent, and exchange messages with a buddy. So, yay. However, now I see a repeatable crash when I touch the arrow to return to the buddy list from there. And that's definitely with no other windows open.

Thanks again foe your work.

Anonymous said...

I tried Tiny Buddy (on Nov 1, 2007) which is an AOL IM Safari page for the iphone (x.aim.com/ty is the url).
It did not work with the new software version.  
It messed up the phone, also.
Wifi would always hang and not complete.
When powering on, the wall paper did not come up.
The phone did not automatically come up locked.
When installing in the dock, the battery symbol would never appear
If powered off, inserting in the dock powered on the phone to the home (icon) screen.
The battery usage was extremely high and drained 1/2 battery in under an hour.

It appeared to all clear up after doing a simple reset of the phone.  The reset wiped out the secure wifi sites I had entered so I will have to reenter them and the passwords.

Use Caution using it with the new software.

Anonymous said...

Foot Note:  When I refer to new software, I just purchased and updated the iphone software last weekend.  Hope you can fix this, I am lost without AIM and work has it blocked.  (worked great on the NEXTEL)

Anonymous said...

really like this app. would love to be able to use it fr work.
unfortunately, there are two problems

1. it doesn't save my info - so i have to resign in each time
2. im exchanges seem to crash after one send and one reply.


hope you can fix it. you're onto something here

best

simon

Anonymous said...

the app isn't working everytime I try to login it says there's a error. I'm using my iPod touch it was working fine until yesterday & today but when I go online on the computer it works fine, but I use a different app for the mac computer, so i think it needs to be fixed

Anonymous said...

the error says invalid devld or site not registered

Anonymous said...

megamanzx14: Thanks for the heads-up. The devId problem is now fixed, so you should be able to get in now.

simongft: 1) Unfortunately, TinyBuddy IM cannot control saving of your account sign in info. That is up to the AIM server on how it stores the info. You can try just leaving the TinyBuddy IM page and going somewhere else. The down side is that you will appear online for 30 seconds before the AIM server logs you off, so it may not be a good idea.
2) I have a new version in development now that does better on performance, so I am hoping that will help this issue.

cwcjr: Sorry for the trouble. The next version I have in development is better performing, so it should not take up as much browser resources. I've also noticed that sometimes the phone gets freaky and needs a restart, even without using TinyBuddy IM. The battery drain I have noticed that too: The constant connections with the AIM servers seem to keep the iphone on and it does not go into a power save mode. This is the downside of only being able to do a web-based only client. I'm hoping things can improve with a real development SDK from Apple (supposedly coming in February).

Anonymous said...

cwcjr update:  I appreciate that response and for an update:
I think the problem may be more on my end than TinyBuddy's. It turned out my home wireless suffers from a problem, not yet resolved.  The iPhone negotiates an IP, but then hangs and drains the battery.  I use WEP secruity.  This is a really frustrating problem.  It affects all wi-fi, not just TinyBuddy.

I finally tried to set it up away from work (aim blocked) and away from home and found that it works.  I found that I do not have the problem using edge nor at other home wireless sites.  So the solution at home is to turn wi-fi off.

Thanks for the product and I, too, am looking forward to a lot of things improving via embedded applications now that the SDK is out.

Anonymous said...

cwcjr: I think the iPhone should support a network with WEP security on it. Have you tried: Home button, Settings, Wi-Fi, then under the "Choose a Network..." section, select "Other...". You can input the network name, then click on the "Security" section to select "WEP". When you come back to the Other Network screen there should be a place for you to enter a Password.

But I'm glad to hear you identified the problem.

Yes, the SDK announcement was very exciting! It looks like AOL might be trying to do an official iPhone application for AIM, and hopefully that will solve the shortcomings in TinyBuddy IM's web-based implementation.