Starwood Lurker IV

Humm strange! Which iPhone and iOS version do you have? I tried the exact steps with an iPhone 4S with iOS 5.1 and my music stayed on. Have you also tried rebooting your phone?

As for the location services, we're aware and have tested this as well. From our tests, it did not appear to affect battery life. However, if you encounter significant battery usage, can you please let us know?

Thank you,

Carrie Houston
Social Media Supervisor
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

DCGooner

With all due respect, that's not the point. The app looks great and all, but it shouldn't be using location services even after the user has quit all the way (double tapping the home button, etc.). I've rebooted the phone and immediately upon restarting the app started using location services. Not good.

DavidAL

I haven't rebooted. I'll try later tonight, and rerun to see if music cuts off. I'm with a 4S also, and the latest software, so I'm assuming 5.1 also. Will get back later tonight with the results. Thanks for looking into this!

itsaboutthejourney

(disclosure: that I was a beta tester for this app and have not had the problems noted earlier about music stopping or location services draining the battery.)

I really like the appearance and information. It really matches the
website and overall branding of SPG.

Love the ability to use GPS to sort and find closest property.

Booking: even the calendar is faster to load and easier to select dates than the current version. My issues are actually booking: you can't specify a
special rate (SET, AAA, Promo, etc.) until AFTER you select a specific
property. Then, when you back out of that rate it resets and goes back
to standard rates. I understand they are working on this and overall I expect to actually use the app to book stays.

Transportation: Really cool to have the transportation info, love that
parking rates are noted in the properties I have upcoming and you can easily click a button for directions to/from the property.

Social Scene: I LOVE the link to Foursquare & Facebook, I've already learned some good tips on upcoming properties and shared some of my own.

The hotel address in the local language card is perfect for showing a taxi driver in a foreign country!

gdemander

Evaluate quicker? I suggested for a coworker to get an Android phone and as soon as she did she started complaining that she can't get the SPG app.

I would really like the app and State-Aware (regardless of the meaning of the words) sounds cool. I would have to tick it into thinking I am always at a W so it keeps the bass bumping and the drinks flowing.

DavidAL

Hmmm... So I did reboot, and the problem wasn't there with the music. So I guess it's just my phone was screwy. Thanks and sorry for the critique.

jftino

I also agree it should not use location services. I actually turned off its access to location for me as it kept using them even when I completely closes out the app. Why does It need to do that?

DavidAL

I turned it off also. It was still using it even when I force quit the app (double tap, hold down, minus off). I think that may be against apple's T&C for developers. Check into that, don't want apple to blacklist SPG.

morphius909

Slick UPgrade! I like it.

Moriens

The music is interrupted when the SPG app plays a movie. So far I've only seen it play a movie once (when first launched after being installed), so you can only reproduce this bug if you are playing music the first time you launch the app. (Removing and reinstalling the app will let you reproduce the bug.)

An important question for Starwood: Why exactly is the app tracking our location?

There are specific places in the app where it should query the current location exactly once (when looking for nearby hotels), so the request for location services makes sense.

There are also legitimate uses for background location tracking. (For example, you can set a reminder for when you get home, and the built-in Reminders app will keep checking your location to see if you're home yet.) In iOS 5.1, this is called “geofencing” and displays an outlined arrow in the status bar.

However, the SPG app is not using geofencing, but is apparently asking the system for continuous background location updates. These only make sense for an app that tracks the user's route, such as GPS navigation or a runner's log. Either the developers don't know how to use background location updates in iOS correctly, or the app is actually trying to track us.

id9795

I like the new app! I do have one comment - could not find the parking rates under transport options for an upcoming stay... Does tell me parking is covered or not, but no rates.

itsaboutthejourney - what I am doing worng....

The property is Sheraton Atlanta @ Courtyard St NE.

Maybe it is just this property...

schnitzer

i like the new app.. it seems a lot easier to search for properties.

morphius909

Got the same problem. This is Not normal as I should be able to shut this all down with the double home button tap.

itsaboutthejourney

I think it's just the property as I see the types of parking avail but no prices listed.

Leumas

+1