Programs: AS MVP (withering away due to insane fares), UA, AA, AGR, NPS passport, Costco Exec
Posts: 5,226
Quote:
Originally Posted by beckoa
Hopefully soon too (especially with the rumor it could be released during the *A do )
...Not that you need another app
Actually, FT wouldn't have any control over when the app is released. The final step in an iPhone app's development is submitting it for approval and posting to the App Store.
From what my iPhone app developer friend has told me and from what I've gathered reading Gizmodo, Engadget, and other tech news sites, the first step is a cursory once-over by an overseas team (i.e. India). They look to make sure the basic requirements of the developer terms and conditions are met (i.e. isn't completely tasteless, is properly labeled and has a description and icon, doesn't crash immediately upon running, etc.) and the application is properly rated (i.e. it has to have a 17+ rating if it allows unrestricted web browsing from within the app). Once that step is passed, a team of testers gives the app a thorough work-over and bug-testing, and if any bugs are found, the app is referred back to the developer (my friend has had them find some very obscure bugs he otherwise would never have found). Once that's done, it goes into a queue and eventually gets posted on the App Store for public purchase and download.
That whole process can take an indeterminate amount of time, though it seems to average about two weeks (at least for updates; initial releases may actually take longer, and occasionally, the App Store team gets overwhelmed with a high volume of submissions--one of the reasons they began the offshore pre-screening, I think). The developer has no control over when it gets released, so all the FT team can do is cross their fingers and hope it gets released as soon as they want it to.
As for me: I recently went through and got rid of about 20 apps that I decided I absolutely never use. Now I have room to install some more. (Apple's limit on 11 screens--up from 9 in OS 2.x--seems frustratingly arbitrary to me.) :P
All that said, I just searched the App Store for "FlyerTalk," and what do I see but a "Lufthansa Miles & More MemberScout featuring FlyerTalk" app released on November 4th! Hmm--but what does it have to do with FlyerTalk? Nothing in the description, but the screenshot at the bottom has a big FlyerTalk logo and says, "Featuring FlyerTalk Star MegaDo 2009"!
Perhaps this is the co-branded app that Randy was mentioning. I've only just launched the app (as I'm typing this!), and it's asking me to register with MemberScout. I tried doing so, but it keeps hanging up on a field called "Access code"--nothing I enter there is valid. Perhaps this is something that was issued to people participating in the *A MegaDo?
Anyway, so I can't take a look at it yet, but it doesn't quite appear to be something that allows you to efficiently browse FT on an iPhone but rather a social networking app that allows you to find other members around you (it's location aware) and recommend things to do. See the full app description in the iTunes Store for more information.
Perhaps Randy has a different app up his sleeve and this is unrelated, but given the release date and FlyerTalk branding, perhaps this is indeed it.
In this section you can enter informations about your flight. Right now you can enter destination, flight number, seat number. As you can see, they have some language problems some stuff is in German some in English
Programs: AS MVP (withering away due to insane fares), UA, AA, AGR, NPS passport, Costco Exec
Posts: 5,226
Thanks, Randy!
The new interface is sleek--very usable.
I've got a few suggestions after playing around with it for a few minutes:
-No UserCP/MyFlyerTalk that I could see to access. This is crucial! (Edit: I was able to get to a mobile-formatted version of MyFlyerTalk by manually inputting the URL after being in the mobile view, but I still didn't see a link to it)
-Still no "jump to first unread post" button like on the regular interface
-No way to edit posts
-Tried to navigate to subforums (like Alaska Airlines) by clicking on Miles & Points and instead got an error that there have been no new posts in the last -1 days.
All in all, it's gorgeous and a vast visual improvement over the basic WAP mobile site. With the above fixes, I could actually surf FT from my phone on a regular basis!
The biggest issue with FT on a phone is the lack of proper tabbed browsing. If ever a dedicated FT app comes out, the ability to queue up threads (and forums) for viewing (to mimic opening threads behind your MyFlyerTalk screen or forum screens) is an essential part of making the experience as fluid as possible. A cue on this could be taken from the iPhone app Wikipanion, a Wikipedia browser which allows you to queue up articles (in Wikipanion, when you tap an in-text link to an article, it adds it to the queue so you can finish reading the current article and then move to the next one).
As for the LH M&M app, is that what you were referring to a few weeks ago above as the new FT app? If so, must one be a M&M member to use it? As I mentioned above, I could not figure out what to put in the Access Code field to get it to work...
I'm unable to get to the Airlines forums though. Under Miles and Points, I get up to SPAM before the next heading shows Travel and Dining. All the Airline, Hotel, Credit Card forums can't be found on the main page. I can however get to it by using the same URL that I use on a standard web browser.
you've got that now to experiment with, and you now have an all new interface for mobile access to FlyerTalk:
m.flyertalk.com
perfect for the iphone (still in beta so let us know what you think) and right now works best on Opera for Blackberry.
We think you'll love the new interface for mobile access.
The mobile interface from a format perspective is beautiful on the iPhone, but because it only downloads a very few messages, it requires constant page aheads. I'd love to see it download longer pages.
(especially with the rumor it could be released during the *A do 
)
