BETA for People search / Finn folk

[myanow]

Call - Don't call option

Hello, I love the app so far! One option I would love to have is to either have the option to turn on/off the Dial "name" question when I select a number I want to dial from the search results. If I hit the name in the results and I get the contact info the app should not ask me if I want to dial or not that contact if I press the phone icon to the right. To me the less steps to achieve a task the better.

Cheers!

Marcelo

 

[dtboos]

Hello, I love the app so far! One option I would love to have is to either have the option to turn on/off the Dial "name" question when I select a number I want to dial from the search results. If I hit the name in the results and I get the contact info the app should not ask me if I want to dial or not that contact if I press the phone icon to the right. To me the less steps to achieve a task the better.

Cheers!

Marcelo

3rd party developers aren't allowed access to "automatically" dial like that without the prompt, so thats a step we will have to deal with until they give developers deeper access (maybe in Apollo?).

 

[linooliveira]

linooliveira, the app is actually a bit confusing in that area, so not strange that you did not discover that by yourself.

It is not exactly logical that the "sub-label" on the keys 0 to 9 tells what the digit "search as", while the sub-label on "*" (and in a way "0" button), states "what you get if you press-and-hold".

I should think a bit more about that...since right now...it is faaar from obvious to the users

I tried to use service codes as *#100# and it was not possible.
The program show me the following error message (translated from Portuguese):

Error
Input service codes directley from phone virtual keyboard.​

May be it is a Windows Phone imposition because the same occurs with others dialers (ex. 7Dialer).

Despite this People Search has its place in may Start screen.

If you name of the application 1People Search, it is easy to use it from Start screen with only a swipe left

 

[Ronny Gydar]

I tried to use service codes as *#100# and it was not possible.
The program show me the following error message (translated from Portuguese):

Error
Input service codes directley from phone virtual keyboard.​

May be it is a Windows Phone imposition because the same occurs with others dialers (ex. 7Dialer).

Despite this People Search has its place in may Start screen.

If you name of the application 1People Search, it is easy to use it from Start screen with only a swipe left

Aaargh, you are absolutely right...had actually forgot about that, since I have read some info about that some time ago and forgot about it. Another limitation for 3. party developers I am afraid.

A bit sad that so much stuff that an app like this should be able to do, is not possible.

And the user will have to use both an app like mine, and the regular dialer from Microsoft.

Unfortunate, but I guess (as you say) it is at least better to have People Search than not

...I start to look more and more forward to begin on making my next game. Making a game has zero limitations, then you can be creative and just make it "right". All these limitations has made the People search work a bit frustrating. I want to do so much more than I can/are allowed to do.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Ronny Gydar]

New version next week

I hope to have a new version ready over the weekend, will send out a new BETA-link when it is ready

 

[Ronny Gydar]

New version almost ready, expect to send it to Microsoft tonight, so you all will most likely get an new BETA-link-email from me in a couple of days.

WHAT'S NEW:
Versionhistory
You can also see the release plan directly in the app from About-page

Thanks again for all the feedback!

 

[Siggystyle]

Click to view quoted image

Each of the digit-keys on the dialpad will search as several characters, so pressing the 2-button once, will actually search with A, B, C, ?, and several more characters.

You can see the characters mapped to each key under "ADVANCED" in the settings page in the app, but here it is summarized so it is easy to give me feedback on this.

I have just added keys I thought is the ones used in other countries, and guessed what digit they should be mapped against. I am sure I have made some stupid assumptions here

1-key
1-_()[]@[SPACE]

2-key
2A????BC?

3-key
3D?E?????F

4-key
4GHI????

5-key
5JKL

6-key
6MN?O??????

7-key
7PQRS?ẞ

8-key
8TU????V?

9-key
9WXY?Z

0-key
0+

REPLY TO THIS IF YOU FEEL THAT I SHOULD HAVE ADDED MORE CHARACTERS TO SOME KEYS, OR THAT SOME KEYS HAVE THE WRONG CHARACTERS.

Only thing I was hoping for was to utilize the "0" for a space, but could get used to keys as they are... That is the only thing i would have wanted different than current config... I am a USA user, if that makes any difference (sometimes we see "0" used as a space key on some devices...

 

[Siggystyle]

NOTE: THE BETA IS NOW FULL
(I can not add more than the 100 that I have sent confirmation mail to)


You'll find a teaser-video for this BETA here:
"People search" / "Finn folk" for Windows Phone 7 - YouTube

Click to view quoted image


BACK STORY:
My mum got herself an Nokia Lumia 800, which is her first smartphone. I was a bit afraid it would be a too big step from her old "dumb phone". Especially since she is in her 60's and have arthritis, so I thought a small touchscreen would not work to well.

But she loved almost everything about it...except making phone calls. That was the only thing that she felt she could do easier with her "old phone", with big physical buttons, and not many taps before she had found any contact.

The whole people hub experience confused her, and it was just to many steps, and too much "tiny text".

So that was ONE incentive to make a easier "dialing-app".

The OTHER was several friends who have WP7, and love it, but they too complained about the same. "Why is calling with this thing so damn cumbersome, when everything else is so easy?". We all missed the great "smart dialing"-functionality from Windows Mobile. Beats me why Microsoft just did not add that to the dialer in WP7?

There are several "smart dialer"-apps out there...but they often don't find everything (does not search the fields I want them to search), or they have complex interface, or are not fast enough, or they do not give me the options I want when I have found the contact.

MY GOALS WITH THE APP:

• Easy to use (mum is new to this "smartphone thing")
• Option for large text (mum's eyesight)
• Option for enormous keyboard (mum's arthritis)
• Maximize layout for two things, keyboard and search results
• Find anyone (search any field)
• Intelligent ordering of the search results...so what I look for typically are shown at top
• FIRST: hits in beginning of names
• SECOND: hits in beginning of other fields on the contact
• THIRD: hits INSIDE of name/fields
• (and order that third one alpabetically, can be many)
• Support international characters (in Norway we have ??? for example)
• Show all info on a contact (notes++)
• Let me call
• Let me text
• Let me mail
• Let me open a persons web page
• Show addresses on a map with "navigate to"-button
• Let me forward contact information
• And let me customize a lot of stuff...without forcing me to customize a lot of stuff
• Must be fast and responsive (hopefully also with thousands of contacts)
• Look "nice"
• Look Metro'ish

THE NEXT STEP
So far the app has been tested by myself, my mum, and approx 10 friends and collegues of mine.

Now I feel the need for some wider testing, maybe someone who have a huge amount of contacts...to see how that affects everything.

And maybe someone from countries with "special characters" (France, Spain, Germant, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, so forth), so I can make sure I map the "right characters" to each "dial-key".

Or just "some random guy or gal", to get a different perspective on how the app is working.

The app have english and Norwegian language, and in theory it supports all characters, but I am not sure if I have mapped all to the "natural dial key" though.

BETA-testers do not have to report back to me, but the goal is of course to get some feedback. So I can improve and add to the app.

I want to keep the app itself easy to use, so that is a main focus...but I am open to any suggestion you might have


NAME OF THE APP:
I currently plan to call the app "People search" outside of Norway, and call it "Finn folk" in Norway.
But I am open to good suggestions also in that area...actually...I am open to good suggestions in any area

Absolutely LOOOOOVE the teaser-trailer!! Hahaha reminds me of my mom too!!!

 

[Siggystyle]

In the current version there are two ways to group the contact details when you view a contact

One is by activity:
A "CALL"-segment, with all phonenumbers you can call
A "MESSAGING"-segment, with mobilenumbers (texting) and emails.
An "OPEN"-segment, with web pages
A "ROUTE PLANNING"-segment, with the street addresses


The other is "home/work":
First "MOBILE"-segment, with both "text" and "call"
Then "HOME"-segment, with phonenumbers, emails and street addresses
Then "WORK"-segment, with phonenumbers, emails and street addresses
Then "WEB"-segment (since web sites have no home/work category)

Any opinions on this is appreciated. What do people prefer? Maybe some other grouping? Now I have set "by activity" as the default. Important to have the default settings of the app to what "most people prefer"...since a lot of people never go into the settings screen anyway.

Click to view quoted image

I think ur grouping options are excellent!! This is such a well thought out application, and as for myself, I appreciate the options/settings control!! The more the better!! I find myself using a lot of the defaults too, but options are good for user-base preference... I actually prefer the home/work grouping myself as many of my contacts have multiple info in fields... I don't pick the wrong one nearly as often this way, bc I sometimes forget which is which (home or work) too dependent on my tech these days!! Hahaha

 

[Siggystyle]

I thought I would comment on the mapping and navigation since I saw you were having some issues... I am a USA user (Houston, TX), and have no troubles at all!! Works perfectly and accurately with my HD7 Device!! The only thing, and this may not be associated to the app, but it takes a bit to actually display the navigation... Mapping is VERY fast, maybe nav just has a bit more info to pull?? Such as GPS location(s) and best route, etc?... Also, to comment on a before-mentioned item, the accent colors; thru both releases, this far, my hacked-accents work as expected... I can see if a color was changed (and I haven't tried this quote yet) that it might act differently, but NEW color configs work as expected for sure (prob due to a complete registry profile for said color, yeah?) haha vs. just changing tile accent/text accent on OS, that is... Anyway, I really appreciate the newer selections via settings menu (again, I am very fond of control and preference, when available) in the latest release!! This app will definitely replace my people hub for searching... But I guess I will have to use the hub for all inbound reply/returns... Ah well, gives me a little variety, and not much to hunting down, as I keep this app, people, phone, and msging all grouped (and in folders via homebrew)... Great job Ronnie/Ronny (sorry, wasn't sure of correct spelling there). :/

 

[Ronny Gydar]

Only thing I was hoping for was to utilize the "0" for a space, but could get used to keys as they are... That is the only thing i would have wanted different than current config... I am a USA user, if that makes any difference (sometimes we see "0" used as a space key on some devices...

So you want the "0"-key to search as "space"?

No problem for me to do that. Was no big reason for it ending up on the 1-button...had to put it somewhere

Will change it in next version so "0" searches as "space".

 

[Ronny Gydar]

I think ur grouping options are excellent!! This is such a well thought out application, and as for myself, I appreciate the options/settings control!! The more the better!! I find myself using a lot of the defaults too, but options are good for user-base preference... I actually prefer the home/work grouping myself as many of my contacts have multiple info in fields... I don't pick the wrong one nearly as often this way, bc I sometimes forget which is which (home or work) too dependent on my tech these days!! Hahaha

I do the same myself, I use the "home/work"-grouping...it was actually the one I made first...and then I got feedback from my friends (who were the first testers) that they thought that was absolutely not how they liked it, and I added the "call/messaging"-grouping....which even ended up as default.

But some of us prefer "home/work"

 

[Ronny Gydar]

I thought I would comment on the mapping and navigation since I saw you were having some issues... I am a USA user (Houston, TX), and have no troubles at all!! Works perfectly and accurately with my HD7 Device!! The only thing, and this may not be associated to the app, but it takes a bit to actually display the navigation... Mapping is VERY fast, maybe nav just has a bit more info to pull?? Such as GPS location(s) and best route, etc?... Also, to comment on a before-mentioned item, the accent colors; thru both releases, this far, my hacked-accents work as expected... I can see if a color was changed (and I haven't tried this quote yet) that it might act differently, but NEW color configs work as expected for sure (prob due to a complete registry profile for said color, yeah?) haha vs. just changing tile accent/text accent on OS, that is... Anyway, I really appreciate the newer selections via settings menu (again, I am very fond of control and preference, when available) in the latest release!! This app will definitely replace my people hub for searching... But I guess I will have to use the hub for all inbound reply/returns... Ah well, gives me a little variety, and not much to hunting down, as I keep this app, people, phone, and msging all grouped (and in folders via homebrew)... Great job Ronnie/Ronny (sorry, wasn't sure of correct spelling there). :/

Thanks, gotten some emails too, from English- and US-testers who all are happy with the NavigateTo. So I guess it is a reason for why Microsoft really has turned this functionality off in Norway

I agree that the NavigateTo seem very slow, it is a bit out of my hands, since I there just send "here is an address", and "here is the actual GPS-position for that address" and ask the Bing maps app to show a navigation instructions to it.

It must be something with the Bing service itself, since getting a phones position usually is superfast on WP7.

I will look into handling "hacked" accent-colors perfectly at a later stage. But I will look into it

 

[Ronny Gydar]

I must apologize for using the TO-field with all the email-addresses on my previous BETA-link mail, should of course have used the BCC-field.

My excuse is that I have been "seriously sick" the last 10 days due to a infection in my jawbone, and the dentist actually did a root canal treatment in the WRONG TOOTH...TWICE...kid U not...it has been a seriously bad week for me

I had prepared the BETA-mail...but added the e-mail-addresses right before sending it, and I was a bit "drugged down on pain-killers" when sending the mail...so I messed up the BCC-/TO-thingy.

I seem to finally be getting better now, so within a day or two I will continue my WP7-work

 

[linooliveira]

Navigate To option

When using Navigate To option with an address with accented characters (eg. Chaf?), these characters are not passed correctly to End field of map directions: eg. "Chaf?" become "Chaf?(C)" (copyrjght symbol).

 

[Ronny Gydar]

When using Navigate To option with an address with accented characters (eg. Chaf?), these characters are not passed correctly to End field of map directions: eg. "Chaf?" become "Chaf?(C)" (copyrjght symbol).

Thanks for feedback!

I have not found a way around that yet, but at least when I see this with Norwegian characters (???) Bing shows it correctly after a while, when the route plan is made.

I guess I just will need to investigate that one more, or report a bug to Microsoft.

Since NavigateTo does not work so well in some regions/countries, I have put more effort into the ShowOnMap-functionality, so now it is a better alternative to the NavigateTo-functionality.

 

[Ronny Gydar]

Next version has now been sent to Microsoft, and should be in your hands within 2-3 days.

This version is so much more polished and complete than the one you all have, that I see this one as a possible "release candidate".

If all are happy with it, no bugs are found so forth, I will publish that as version 1.0 in Marketplace.

I will of course continue to improve the app after release too. But at some point one have to draw the line, and say; "Good enough for launch"

I have even prepared the web page for it
http://www.gydarindustries.com/AppPages/PeopleSearch.aspx

UPDATE: Mail with new BETA-link has now been sent out...should be in your mailbox by now

 

[linooliveira]

Thanks for feedback!

I have not found a way around that yet, but at least when I see this with Norwegian characters (???) Bing shows it correctly after a while, when the route plan is made.

I guess I just will need to investigate that one more, or report a bug to Microsoft.

Since NavigateTo does not work so well in some regions/countries, I have put more effort into the ShowOnMap-functionality, so now it is a better alternative to the NavigateTo-functionality.
Click to view quoted image

Yeah, it is great!
I am really like this new version!

I will share your app webpage in my social networks.

 

[Siggystyle]

So you want the "0"-key to search as "space"?

No problem for me to do that. Was no big reason for it ending up on the 1-button...had to put it somewhere

Will change it in next version so "0" searches as "space".

Awesome!!! Again, the 0-key for space would be the oly thing I would prefer differently (as long as the rest of the users wouldn't HATE this change, bc I am not so sure how the rest of the world is used to seeing it...) All of the other alternate charcters are in places where I would expect them to be, and there are a lot of charchters/options, that I never even would have thought of being available (but when you cater to the masses, I guess you must anticipate all functionality)
So far, I am really enjoying the app, and the updates seem to be adding a lot great new features, and adjustments... This app is truly what I would like to use for my contact searches!! Great Job!! I look forward to the final release (and any other tightening up of the features, that you felt were needed based on user feedback...) It seems that you have had a lot of feedback from your beta group, and I for one, was very happy to be a part of it!!

P.S. Trine's Hangman is a great game also!!

If you need any additional beta testing in the future, feel free to use my info to add me to the list!!

 

[Ronny Gydar]

Awesome!!! Again, the 0-key for space would be the oly thing I would prefer differently (as long as the rest of the users wouldn't HATE this change, bc I am not so sure how the rest of the world is used to seeing it...) All of the other alternate charcters are in places where I would expect them to be, and there are a lot of charchters/options, that I never even would have thought of being available (but when you cater to the masses, I guess you must anticipate all functionality)
So far, I am really enjoying the app, and the updates seem to be adding a lot great new features, and adjustments... This app is truly what I would like to use for my contact searches!! Great Job!! I look forward to the final release (and any other tightening up of the features, that you felt were needed based on user feedback...) It seems that you have had a lot of feedback from your beta group, and I for one, was very happy to be a part of it!!

P.S. Trine's Hangman is a great game also!!

If you need any additional beta testing in the future, feel free to use my info to add me to the list!!

Siggystyle, I have a new BETA version almost finished...just HAD to fix'n'tune some more things

The forward contact info is improved, design has been improved (got some feedback from Microsoft employes), background reindexing…and possible the space-on-0-button...not 100% sure yet about the last one. I like it since that 0 is usually used for space, but that button is also fairly special in the app, since it supports longpress for +.

Not sure how I can label it, so users understand it is "long press for +" but it searchs as 0 and space and +.

I will make final decision today, will try out some different label-designs and finish it up. And send in the new BETA in a day or two (need to do a little verification of the background re-indexing). You all can expect the New BETA in next week.

[UPDATE] Have now changed keyboard-layout, so 0-button search as SPACE, and also changed "*" and MENU-buttons, so tap'n'hold is like it is on regular dialpads. Press'n'hold is also now more visible in keyboard, since press'n'hold character is shown in accent color.
http://www.trineseries.com/upload/newKeyboardLayout.png