Where am I?

MrCombo v1.1

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:00:00 UTC

MrCombo v1.1 is now available in the iOS App Store. As with v1.0, this app lets you build lists in a two-level hierarchy: combo > group > item. Then MrCombo can shuffle your items to create a mix. Sample data includes ordering a pizza, picking an outfit, and picking a traditional shave with a double-edge (DE) razor. These are samples: edit them, or create your own combinations.

New features in v1.1 include:

Lock items in a mix, so you can have partly-random mixes.
Save a mix to your local history.
Attach a photo to a saved mix.
Share saved mixes via clipboard, email, or WordPress.
Bulk add several items at once into a group.
Import and export combos to the clipboard.
Import and export combos to Dropbox.

For now MrCombo is free, but if I keep adding more features that may change.

If you run into problems with MrCombo, you can reach me through the App Store or post a comment right here.

MrCombo v1.0

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:15:16 UTC

I have submitted a new iOS application to Apple: MrCombo. This app lets you build lists in a two-level hierarchy: combo > group > item. Then you can shuffle the items to mix it up. Sample data includes ordering a pizza and picking an outfit, but you are meant to create your own combinations.

Yes, it's a bit silly. But I find it fun and useful so I thought I would release it. For now MrCombo is free, but if I keep adding more features that may change.

If you run into problems with MrCombo, you can reach me through the App Store or post a comment right here.

AlbumMixer v1.10 and iTunes Match

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:00:00 UTC

I am hearing early reports that AlbumMixer v1.10 has problems with iTunes Match and playlists. So far I haven't been able to reproduce this, but I am working on it. If you see any problems and can provide details, please comment here.

Update: Based on additional user reports, plus a lack of crash reports from Apple, I think this is an iOS or iCloud issue. Because of this and other current issues being discussed on Apple forums I cannot recommend signing up for iTunes Match at this time. If you decide to risk it, start by backing up your entire iTunes library. Apple seems to be refunding subscription fees to some users, but that won't be much of a consolation if you lose a large media library.

AlbumMixer 1.7

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:06:13 UTC

Apple approved AlbumMixer 1.7. I hope you like it.

This release adds full support for iPad devices, and fixes some cosmetic bugs. It also adds a new mechanism for bug reports. You can now report problems through AlbumMixer itself.This should make it easier for me to fix problems, especially the ones that are tricky to reproduce.

If you want to report a problem, please start by demonstrating it within AlbumMixer. The app now logs some user actions for this purpose. Then go to Settings and click on "Report a Problem". Note that a problem report is really just an email to me. So if you want to add more information to the report, you can save it as a draft, then edit it in the Mail app, and then send it to me.

Keep shuffling those albums.

AlbumMixer 1.6

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:22:20 UTC

AlbumMixer 1.6 is coming to an iOS device near you. This release works around a problem with the playlist query API in iOS 4.0 - thanks to Ray for the problem report and the debugging help. I also added new settings to adjust the playback volume (Kelly?) and disable use of Album Artist when filtering by playlist.

AlbumMixer 1.5

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:21:18 UTC

That was fast, Apple. I'm especially pleased because this release fixes the only crash that I know about in AlbumMixer. Thanks to Dave Cody for the excellent problem report.

AlbumMixer 1.3 Now Available

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:08:02 UTC

This release continues to do album shuffle on the iphone (and touch). New in this release are an auto-shuffle option, an option to disable "shake to shuffle", a nicer icon, some bug fixes, and separate screens for the settings and filters.

AlbumMixer 1.2 Now Available - Shuffle those Albums (and playlists and genres)

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:03:23 UTC

AlbumMixer 1.2 is now available. This update includes features that users have requested: a "next album" button, and the genre-based shuffle, and playlist-based shuffle. The UI is also much nicer, IMO. And the basic album shuffle still works, too.

Besides all that, this update includes a change in the official app name to "AlbumMixer - Shuffle by Album". Just a few minutes after that change went live, app store searches for "album shuffle" began to show AlbumMixer as the third match (finally!). So there's a lesson here for iPhone developers: if your keywords might be confused with an existing app, embed them in your application name.

AlbumMixer and the search for "album shuffle"

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:00:10 UTC

Apple finally responded to one of my numerous iTunes Connect inquiries. I keep asking them why AlbumMixer, despite having keywords "album,shuffle" can't be found by searching for "album shuffle" in the app store. Until now I've heard no response whatsoever.

But today there was a reply via email in my inbox: "If you do not see a resolution within 3 business days, please let us know." Apparently they're responding to my most recent inquiry, of 26 September. I wonder if that means all my previous messages were lost? Or ignored? Or are they just being terse?

Today's search for "album shuffle" still doesn't match my app. I'll give them until 2 October, as requested (that's really a full week from my latest report, and close to four weeks since I first reported the problem). In the meantime maybe they'll approve AlbumMixer 1.2: I'm still hoping that changing the app store name to "Album Mixer - Shuffle by Album" will fix the problem. Either way is fine with me: I have this crazy idea that there are lots of iPhone users out there who want album shuffle, and it's frustrating to think that they can't find my app.

AlbumMixer 1.1

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:21:37 UTC

AlbumMixer 1.0 has been doing reasonably well - especially considering that Apple still hasn't indexed the keywords, or responded to my inquiries via iTunes Connect. But the feedback from users has been good, and I've fixed a couple of bugs in the new 1.1 release. The release after that, 1.2, will add some fun new features.

Did I mention that the keywords I supplied aren't searchable? The 1.0 keywords were "iPod,album,shuffle,album shuffle,music". But searching for "album shuffle" wouldn't match my app. Searching for "album mixer" would, which implies that Apple is doing some word-splitting on app names - interesting. I was worried about the reference to "iPod", so for 1.1 I changed the keywords to "album,shuffle,random,music". The description isn't supposed to be searchable, but I removed "iPod" from that too. That did something: a few hours after 1.1 went live I was able to find it using "random album".

But searching for "album shuffle" still doesn't work. I suspect that Apple is silently ignoring keywords that match existing app names: there's a "Shuffle" and a "Shuffle!" in the app store. So in 1.2 I'm trying to change the app store name to "Album Mixer - Shuffle by Album", while leaving the display name alone so that it fits on the Springboard icon. I hope that will get the term "shuffle" through the hypothetical keyword filter. We shall see.

Given the lack of app store search keywords, I think most of my traffic so far has been coming from Apple's discussion forums (and Google searches matching those forums). I've been collecting threads there, and posting to them when possible. In no particular order....

I also posted a reply to this question.