It is coming….

Today is a very special day, Apple will tonight announce the first Macs with their own processor replacing Intel processors. I also expect them to announce macOS 11 Big Sur availability somewhere this week.

The good news for iCaching: I am almost ready with a new look fitting in the new Big Sur design language. And also native support for Apple silicon!

Here as a sneak peak, I reveal the new app icon. It fits in the now all rounded-rectangular icons for Big Sur. The color is closer to the Geocaching green and the GPS looks a bit more modern. Watch out for version 9.0, soon in the Mac App Store… Keep you posted

Happy (i)Caching

Unexpected crashes using Map functions in macOS Catalina

Since the release of macOS Catalina some users report crashes when using one of the map views in iCaching. Unfortunately these are caused by a bug in macOS. When using those views, the system should ask permission for iCaching to be able to access the location services. However, instead it crashes the application.

I reported this bug to Apple, but did not receive an answer (yet).

Luckily there is a workaround. You can manually grant iCaching permissions to the location services. That will fix the crashes.

  • Go to system preferences.
  • Open the ‘Privacy & Security pane’ and go to the ‘Privacy’ tab.
  • In the services list on the left side choose ‘Location Services’
  • And add iCaching to the list of applications on the right.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

iCaching 8.0 finally available in the App Store, but…

You might have seen that Apple finally approved iCaching 8.0. But they gave me a warning that they could not ensure that for a next update they might still have problems with the login screen for the API.
They want me to remove the ability to sign up for Geocaching.com there, which I cannot do as this is a Groundspeak webpage….
The rush to the API switch deadline was the reason that I was not able to test and finish everything for version 8.0 as I am used to do. So unfortunately there are a few issues in this version. Biggest of them is a last minute change that I made that now results in caches marked as being unavailable when they are imported via the API (all due to a stupid typo in the code).
As that is the most annoying bug, I fixed that now in a version that you can download from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1lwb4kodbyejr5t/iCaching%20beta.zip?dl=0
 
In the meantime I am also preparing my new home, so my time is pretty constrained. Please bear with me, I’ll do what I can to bring iCaching back to the quality level you are used to as soon as possible.
 
Have a good weekend, happy (i)Caching,
Marius

Apple continues messing with the update of iCaching

As you might have read in my previous post, I’m having big difficulties to get the latest update out in the App Store.

Apple decided to go on subscription witch hunt, and iCaching is the victim.

After the first (granted) appeal, I submitted iCaching again for review. However the second time it was rejected again. For similar reasons, but even going a step further. This time because the login screen offers the ability to sign up for a Geocaching account. This login screen is a website provided by Geocaching.com, so that one is not in my hands at all… And funny enough: it’s already there for 4 to 5 years…

So I appealed again. After two days I got a mail that I would be called within 5 business days. Luckily I still had the number of the previous appeal, so after the weekend I called myself. After a day I finally was connected to a (friendly) Apple employee. This time I had to remove all mentions of ‘geocaching.com’ from my app description in the App Store (which are there since iCaching exists (3 months after start of Mac App Store).
And secondly I had to make all premium-member features invisible for non-premium members. I was flabbergasted because in the first appeal I was asked to make those features disabled (greyed out) for non-premium members, which was exactly what I did before resubmitting….!

I did these changes the same day, and now I am waiting for 5 days again for Apple to look at the application and to decide about the login screen. They don’t want to give any timeframe or estimation. They don’t seem to care at all about you, my customers, that are stuck with a version that does not work with the new Geocaching API. And in the meantime I’m managing a flood of user mails because users are confronted with a non working part of the application.

I was always a sort of Apple fanboy, but my admiration for Apple is quickly going down at the moment. They are acting so wrong here.

The separate downloadable version that has this API support is still downloadable from here. Sorry for the continuing inconvenience. I’ll keep you posted…

 

App Store review mess – iCaching might break this weekend

iCaching works with an API provided by Groundspeak to enable features like downloading geocaches, pocket queries, placing logs etc. Groundspeak released a new API and will close their old API this weekend (June 1st 2019).

I’ve been working on a new version for a big part of last year to support the new API so that iCaching keeps working like you are used to.  Yes, it was that much work, and I have to do it in my free time.

About three weeks ago it was finally ready and I send this update to the App Store for review and release. But all of a sudden, after 4 years of having the Geocaching API in the application, Apple is making big problems now and rejected this update.
They stated that I should offer (premium) Geocaching membership as an in-app-purchase.

After this first rejection, I appealed and they admitted that I was right. I only had to remove a reference to the premium (paid) membership. I changed iCaching accordingly and submitted a new version.
To my bug surprise they rejected this update again (after keeping it in review for almost 4(!) days (normally it’s only one day). They are now stating again that I should offer membership to Geocaching.com as in-app-purchase and that I’m not allowed to show the login webpage of Geocaching as that offers the ability to create an account.

This is complete bull shit, as this is a membership of Geocaching.com and not in control of that. So I am not even able to do this.

I’m discussing with them for two weeks now, and this process is utterly frustrating and makes me completely mad!
I hope for fellow developers of other (iOS) Geocaching applications that they don’t become a victim of Apples’ subscription witch hunt as well, as that will break the whole community.

UPDATE: Apple keeps messing up

You might understand that this most probably means that version 8.0 with the new API support will not be out before Groundspeak shuts off their old API (I asked them for a prolongation, but I’m afraid they will not grant that favour).

As an intermediate solution I made a version that you can download from here.

This (beta) version has the new API, and you can use it for a month. It will work seamlessly with your library.

I really hope that Apple will come to its senses soon and the update will come in the App Store.

I’m really really sorry for the inconvenience, and I’ll do what I can to resolve this issue.

Kind regards,

Marius

Second public beta of iCaching with new Groundspeak API

The clock is ticking towards the end of the old Groundspeak API. Before that time a new iCaching must be released that supports the new API. Recently I posted the first public beta of this version. I’m very thankful for the valuable feedback that was given to that beta version. All points that were mentioned are fixed in this second beta.

The first beta had still some usage of the old API, but this second beta is new API only.

Feel free to test this version and please let me know (via the form on the ‘FAQ’ page) when you find anything that is not working as it should. I might not always respond (quick), but your feedback is definitely read and used.

When giving feedback, please describe:

  • the steps you followed
  • what happened
  • what you expected to happen

And mention ‘beta 2’ in the title of your message.

Download here

Thanks in advance and happy (i)Caching!

Public beta of iCaching with new Groundspeak API

Last year Groundspeak announced their new API. It has more features then the old one, but is is completely different. This meant a lot of work to rewrite big pieces of code to make iCaching work with the new API (did I mention that it was a lot of work?).

For now the features are equal to the existing version, but a lot of the communication is faster than before.

To make sure that all this new shiny code is working correctly, I’d like to run a public beta. You can download the beta version from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/carvjhx7i6bojcu/iCaching%20public%20beta.zip?dl=0

It will work for a month, and you can run it next to your current version.

Please let me know if something does not work as expected via the Support web page (mention ‘beta’ in the subject). If the app crashes, please copy the crash report into the message so that I can interpret the crash and fix the code.

Happy iCaching!

Mojave day

Yeah, today is macOS Mojave day!
In case you are wondering: yes, iCaching runs fine on Mojave. And with the upcoming release (and I have good hopes that will be very soon), it will also shine in the gorgeous dark mode.
And there is one more thing….

iCaching 7.0 released

Yesterday iCaching 7.0 was released!

And it was about time, the last update was quite a while ago. Highlights of the new version are:

  • Refreshed look using the new round geocache icons
  • Improved Map experience by adding clustering of geocaches when they are overlapping each other. (btw this feature can be toggled on and off in the view-settings of the map).
  • Cleanup functions for the library; simply purge old geocaches and logs.

Enjoy this new version, happy (i)caching!iCaching 7.0

iCaching workshop at OFZE2017 Mega Event (Dutch)

Op zaterdag 11 November 2017 is het OFZE2017 Mega Event. In de middag zal ik daar een (nederlandstalige) workshop over iCaching geven. Ik zie er naar uit gebruikers van mijn programma te ontmoeten, tips en trucks te vertellen en natuurlijk ook graag feedback te krijgen op het programma.

Voor de workshop moet je je aanmelden op de website van het event.
Zie jullie daar?

Voor meer info:  http://ofze.nl en https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6D6YA_ofze2017-10th-anniversary