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CubeTimer for iOS 2.0

PandaCuber

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To be honest, I dont like it.
Its really complicated and at first I had no idea why the 7x7 OH scramble was set. it took me a couple of minutes to realize how to do it.
I think you should go for a more simple set up.
things like:
-A button to change scramble type.

Maybe thats just me, but thats the only down side i see
 

IngeneroiOS

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To be honest, I dont like it.
Its really complicated and at first I had no idea why the 7x7 OH scramble was set. it took me a couple of minutes to realize how to do it.
I think you should go for a more simple set up.
things like:
-A button to change scramble type.

Maybe thats just me, but thats the only down side i see

If the difficulty is in changing puzzle types, I'd suggest swiping all the way left past 2x2 and tapping on the solve types you won't use to disable them. There are a lot of features, and I can see how it could be overwhelming at first. I assume from that you picked Classic Mode, which doesn't have a tutorial (the WCA tutorial covers changing solve types). All I can say is; have a play with the app for a while and see whether it grows on you.
 

khoavo12

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Feedback#1:

For the next update, can you make it possible to change the colour of scrambles and times?
I also find it annoying when the screen keeps flashing every time inspection time reaches 7 or 8 seconds.
Apart from that, you did a pretty good job. I actually think its great. Love changing the background colour!
 

IngeneroiOS

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Feedback#1:

For the next update, can you make it possible to change the colour of scrambles and times?
I also find it annoying when the screen keeps flashing every time inspection time reaches 7 or 8 seconds.
Apart from that, you did a pretty good job. I actually think its great. Love changing the background colour!

Colour of scrambles and times – sure. That shouldn't be too hard to do. As for the flashing, that happens after eight seconds, and again after twelve (when, in a competition, "eight seconds" and "go" would be called out). We'll see about adding an option to disable it.

EDIT: Implemented, working, and awaiting submission.
 
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IngeneroiOS

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We've been playing around with the Square-1 scrambler, and we think we've fixed the issue (or, at least, an issue). Could someone with a Square-1 give a couple of these a try to make sure they work? They seem to be okay on the simulator.

(3,-3) (3,0) (1,3) (-1,5) (-5,0) (-4,0) (0,3) (-2,0) (4,0) (4,0) (0,1) (6,0) (0,2) (6,0) (0,3) (-4,0) (-5,4) (5,0)
(0,6) (3,3) (-1,0) (4,4) (2,4) (0,4) (0,5) (-3,0) (-4,1) (6,0) (6,0) (0,2) (-2,4) (-4,0) (6,4) (-2,0) (6,2)
(-2,6) (2,-4) (4,1) (-1,3) (0,3) (-3,0) (2,0) (0,4) (2,0) (4,0) (6,0) (2,5) (-2,0) (4,0) (6,4) (-1,2) (6,0)
(0,6) (-3,0) (0,3) (3,4) (6,0) (6,0) (-1,0) (4,0) (-2,2) (0,4) (0,4) (4,2) (-2,4) (0,2) (0,5) (0,1) (2,0) (6,3)
(4,6) (5,2) (1,4) (-1,0) (6,0) (-3,3) (0,4) (-1,5) (0,1) (0,3) (2,4) (2,0) (0,2) (4,0) (0,2) (6,4) (0,4)
(0,-1) (0,-2) (3,3) (-1,3) (1,0) (6,5) (0,3) (0,4) (-2,0) (0,4) (-2,0) (0,2) (2,0) (4,0) (5,0) (-1,0) (-5,0) (4,0) (1,0)
 

IngeneroiOS

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Yeah, they're all fine. Couldn't sub-20 any of them though :( lol
Thanks. I've uploaded version 2.0.1, which should fix that issue with the Square-1 scrambler, will add options for text colour and disabling the flashing during the countdown, and also includes a few bug fixes. Should be out within the next week, depending on Apple's reviewers.
 

Vulosity

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There was an instance where I accidentally hit 'save' instead of cancel for a solve and now I have a result that skews my average. The only way I have of fixing this would be to make it DNF. or is there a way to delete the time?
 

IngeneroiOS

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There was an instance where I accidentally hit 'save' instead of cancel for a solve and now I have a result that skews my average. The only way I have of fixing this would be to make it DNF. or is there a way to delete the time?

Easy to delete. Go to Results (the second tab), swipe to the left over the time, and a delete button will appear. Alternatively, still in Results, you can tap edit in the top left hand corner, tap on the time to select it, then press modify in the top right.
 

khoavo12

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I tried to give a review on iTunes but it didn't let me and said: "In order to write a Customer Review for this item you must have purchased or downloaded it first". I used your promotion code to get this. Do you know why I cant write a review?
 

Lucas Garron

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Wow, this looks like some fantastic work.

First of all, thanks for implementing random-state scrambling and making the code available; this is a great step forward in making sure that high-quality random scrambles are available as often as possible. I'm glad to have proper scrambles on my phone that computer fast enough now. :p

Some specific comments:
- The default color scheme is a bit garish. I changed it to a subtle blue palette, and like it a lot. Perhaps a few default schemes would be nice (in particular, at least one or two "classy" ones).
- The font looks a bit too "typeset" to me. Also, have you considered using a digital-display font for the time?
- It would be nice to have larger text for scrambles (at least 3x3x3). The screen is plenty big on an iPhone, and it would be more comfortable to have that be utilized by a larger scramble.
- I'd like a way to be able to start timing just with a tap. Right now, WCA Mode and regular mode both force us to use inspection.
- I'd like an optino to copy a (past) scramble directly.
- Any chance we could get to see random-state Square-1 soon? :-D (Shuang Chen's solver is generally fast in Java or even JS, but ini takes a bit and some scrambles are slow.)


The modes have also made me realize that there would be a very useful smartphone app feature that no one's implemented yet: inspection countdown for judges.
- Timer start running with a tap.
- The screen flashes brightly (with time still visible, ideally) at 8, and 12 seconds.
- Maybe: Some sort of mechanic encourages the judge to tap as soon as the competitor starts the solve, to make sure the competitor started at the right time.

(Anyone with a cube timer: Please do steal this idea and build on it.)

Overall, the app is pretty nice, and the statistics are awesome. It feels like it was really designed with usability for cubers in mind. Well done. :)
 

IngeneroiOS

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I tried to give a review on iTunes but it didn't let me and said: "In order to write a Customer Review for this item you must have purchased or downloaded it first". I used your promotion code to get this. Do you know why I cant write a review?

Unfortunately, I think that's a problem on Apple's end; I had a similar problem recently with a different app. If you have any suggestions, leave them here and we'll read them.

The default color scheme is a bit garish. I changed it to a subtle blue palette, and like it a lot. Perhaps a few default schemes would be nice (in particular, at least one or two "classy" ones).
We could certainly implement some defaults. If anyone here has come up with a colour scheme that they really like, post a screenshot and, if others like it, we can add it as a preset option.

The font looks a bit too "typeset" to me. Also, have you considered using a digital-display font for the time?
The font is just standard +[UIFont systemFontOfSize:]; in other words, Helvetica Neue on most devices. A 'digital' font could work. I'll play around with the code and see how it looks.

It would be nice to have larger text for scrambles (at least 3x3x3). The screen is plenty big on an iPhone, and it would be more comfortable to have that be utilized by a larger scramble.
That's easy to change, so we'll make it bigger for a future update. It's already much larger than version 1.5, so we weren't sure how far to go, but if the consensus is larger is better we can do that.

I'd like a way to be able to start timing just with a tap. Right now, WCA Mode and regular mode both force us to use inspection.
WCA mode doesn't need a countdown running to start the timer; press and hold at any time to activate the stackmat. As for literally "tapping," then at the moment the best option is to switch to Classic mode and decrease the countdown to 0. A bit of a nuisance, yes, so we'll look into it.

I'd like an optino to copy a (past) scramble directly.
If you tap and hold on a previous time in results then you can copy that time; that will include the scramble, although you'll have to delete the other text. Somehow, the full scramble seems to have disappeared from the detail view (when you tap on a time in results), so I'll fix that in a future update and enable copying on that view.

Any chance we could get to see random-state Square-1 soon? :-D (Shuang Chen's solver is generally fast in Java or even JS, but ini takes a bit and some scrambles are slow.)
Both a random-state Square-1 and a random-state Pyraminx scrambler are in the works, and both will be open sourced once we finish them. The trick is getting the performance level up to a speed where it seems fast even on older devices; a caching solution like we use for the 3x3 scrambler may be the best bet.

As for the inspection countdown for judges – CubeTimer is nearly there, so it wouldn't be too hard to implement. Would times still need to be recorded? Because if not, then that would be easy enough to add as a separate mode.

Thanks for all your feedback!
 
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spectre013

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Sep 18, 2012
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The one thing that no timer has that would be awesome, is one that would sync between devices. I have times on websites, my phone timer, my ipad timer and my computer. There is no easy way to move times between each timer.

I really do like this timer and I will definitely use it going forward, its not so bad right now as I don't use my phone much as I am not in the states at the moment but when I return home I will use both a lot and some way to keep my times in sync is almost a must.
 

IngeneroiOS

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Syncing data is a tricky issue. We actually had it in mind while building v2.0; there's code in place for iCloud sync. However, it's disabled in the release version because quite frankly it's a nightmare to get it to work correctly and consistently – we had corruption, crashing and times mysteriously being deleted. All in all, not good.
We still hope to get it working at some point in the future, but we had to prioritise features. CubeTimer already has quite a small user base, and the number of people who'd use both the iPhone and iPad version are very small. There's no point in us working on Mac, Windows or web support; Prisma and qqtimer serve that market much better than we could. So we thought our time would be better spent adding features everyone could use before we worked on such a niche feature.
 

spectre013

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I know how tricky it is to manage the data, it is something I work with daily. To do it right (not iCloud) would definitely cost to manage the storage of the data. I appreciate the app and it will most be my go to app for tracking my times now.

Appreciate the reply will let you know if I find any issues with the app going forward.
 
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