You asked…we listened…and we hope we delivered. The Stogie Review App is now available for FREE in the Apple App Store (iPhone) and the Google Play Store (Android). We didn’t want to “reinvent the wheel” so to speak. We wanted something that worked like the optimized mobile version of the site and include push notification when a new post is published. We wanted to keep things simple. Simple works. The iPhone and Android apps are pretty similar in features although I think the iPhone has a few more like the ‘Favorites’ list and being able to customize notifications. I’m also sure there are plenty of bugs to work out for both. Walt and I have gone partially blind (and at times frustrated) working with our developer reviewing both apps and making our list of things that need to be addressed in the next version. Are we working on a tablet version? Yes, an iPad version of the app is in the works and the app does work on Android tablets as it is (we tested on Nexus 7 tablets).
So here is where we need your help. From your compatible smartphone download the Stogie Review App from the Apple App Store (iPhone) or the Google Play Store (Android) and chime in below. Let us know what doesn’t work or what you’d like to see and we will add it to our list of bug/feature requests and see what we can implement for the next version.
Installed app on Iphone 3GS. I can read all the reviews but the videos won’t play.
Thanks Dave. Can you take a screen shot of what a post with video looks for you and e-mail me jerry at stogiereview.com
iPhone 4 checking in…no problems. Walt’s videos play fine (La Aurora Corojo review) but Jerry’s video doesn’t (Afternoon with Christian Eiroa).
Thats the video I was trying to load. Just tried Walt’s and Mike’s and none will load.
Kevin – Figured out your problem. Not the app’s fault but my own. Apparently I forgot to click a little box when I upload to blip.tv to make a .m4v version available which is needed. Luckily it is an easy fix so it should be working soon.
Email sent. Thanks
Dave I have an old 3G that I am charging and will take a look at the app. Walt’s play fine on my 5 but can’t play my own.
I just went back and converted all my video reviews to .m4v as well.
just checked it out. Very nice on my iPhone 5. Only glitch has been in displaying all comments and having problems posting comments too.
Otherwise, it’s cool
Thanks
Hey fellas. Awesome you have an app! Just downloaded and played around with it on my Droid running Gingerbread. Videos play and are nice high quality. The icons, buttons and overall app ux is a bit rough around the edges in Android but I still think it’s awesome. Great to have. Now I can catch up on reviews while on the train. Keep up the excellent work!
Downloaded the app on an iphone 4. The videos don’t play for me as well (crashed and froze a couple of times too). Also, the review index page doesn’t scroll smoothly. A few bugs to work out but having an app would save a few steps from having to go to the mobile webpage, where everything works great.
A feature that would be useful is a letter index guide (ex: A B C D…) at the top of the review index page to help jump to the start of a letter group. This would really help to browse or search for reviews that start with a particular letter (especially those at the end of the alpha).
Note: Aggressively scrolling in public to get to a review towards the end of the alpha may give people the impression and ask if you are playing a game, like fruit ninja.
Hey, Jerry, your new iPhone app is not working very well on my stock-standard iPhone 4. The videos don’t play unless you include an IOS link like Charlie did on his last review which takes you to YouTube; all I get is a black box, sometimes with a little circle with an arrow in it. The text size adjustment does not do anything.
Worse, now my iPhone beeps at me all night long every time the site updates and the settings menu, although it has an Advanced push notification category, does not let you turn anything off. I looked in Settings but there is not a separate menu for the app.
Did you guys smoke this thing first or just shove it out the door?
George,
My apologies for the constant flow of Push Notifications. We’ve been working with the developer a lot this week to get a couple of bugs worked out and they made a few changes to the way the push notifications work (apparently this introduced another bug into the system). Instead of one push notification for every new post, the app is alerting everyone to comments as well.
We’ve been frantically trying to get that bug fixed as it can get rather annoying. I think we’ve at least gotten that issue straightened out, so you shouldn’t get any additional push notifications for comments (I didn’t get one when I approved this comment – keeping my fingers crossed).
You are right about the text size not changing. I’ll add it to the list of items which needs to be addressed by the developer.
I’m not sure what is going on with the videos. I played Charlie’s video on my iPhone 4S the day that he published it and it worked fine. Now the video doesn’t seem to play.
We apologize for the headaches with the app. We are exchanging email with the developer constantly to try and iron out all the bugs. Please bear with us while we get everything straightened out.
glleon – Yeah what Walt said. My apologies. We did do testing on the app before it was released unfortunately we didn’t have a way to test push notifications since the app bring content directly from the site.
Like Walt said, we have a laundry list of issues that we are working with the developer to address the most popular issues you mentioned with regards to push notifications (which we have temporarily turned off) and inconsistent video playback.
We really appreciate everyone’s patience and hope to get all these issues fixed as soon as possible.
Walt and Jerry, thanks for the replies. I am pleased to say
that the constant push notifications on my iPhones has abated.
Let’s call the first version of the SR App the “Beta Test”. After
all, it’s not like you charged me for it… You guys are to be
complimented for taking constructive criticism the right way: fuel
to improve the product. Keep up the good work. I still consider SR
the Reference Standard for cigar smoking.
Hey guys, videos have stopped working on my iPhone 4, including App and reguakr site and mobile site. Still work on my iMac. Videos from a couple of weeks ago are fine, like the Drew Estate video. Mike”s last two reviews do not play.