LaunchPoint Speed Dial

[monkeydog]

Palm keeps track of what you've purchased, so you can download the app for free after you've deleted it.

I'm not sure what deleting and reinstalling will accomplish, however. I'd recommend discussing your problems with the developer. Actually, now that I think about it deleting it will wipe out the saved app settings and the reinstall will start with a clean slate.

What icons are you clicking on? Is it the launchpoints you've created using an older version? If so, you can just delete those launchpoints and recreate them using v0.90.

[rege0039]

Please release this for the UK. I've been waiting for paid apps to go international, now for this to be released.

Please, please release it !

[worthb]

Welcome to our international friends!

LaunchPoint Speed Dial has now been published to each of the international app catalogs. If you do not see it in your region, check again in an hour or two.

The version submitted was the 0.9.0 version that is currently available in the US app catalog.

Thank you for your patience, and we certainly hope that you enjoy the LaunchPoint experience!

-worthb

p.s. I am nearly ready to release the next version of LaunchPoint Speed Dial. As soon as the current version has appeared in all of the app catalogs, I will release the next update.

When this new version is released, photo icons will not disappear when your contacts update their online profiles (no more ugly half moon icon). I'm trying to make the icons look a little nicer, with a border and rounded corners, but the webOS SDK is very limited in terms of graphic functions. There is no way to save the icon images with the transparency needed for the rounded corners. For now I may need to settle for icons with square corners, though I can still add a border.

[Quintus]

Originally Posted by rege0039

Please release this for the UK. I've been waiting for paid apps to go international, now for this to be released.

Please, please release it !

And Canada too!!! I've been using the old homebrew version forever!

[worthb]

Originally Posted by Quintus

And Canada too!!! I've been using the old homebrew version forever!

For anybody still using the homebrew version, please note that the app ID is different from the app catalog version. This means that the app catalog version will show up as a new app, not an update. Once you have re-created your launchpoints in the new version, you can delete your old launchpoints and then delete the homebrew version.

If anybody is seeing LaunchPoint Speed Dial outside of the US app catalog, please post here and be sure to include your location.

-worthb

[Quintus]

LaunchPoint now available in Canada! Just purchased it!!!

[sjamie]

Originally Posted by worthb

sjamie,
For now you have to create a new group text launchpoint (I really should call them group messaging launchpoints because they are not limited to texting) but the next update will contain editable group messaging lists. You will be able to add to or delete from the group without having to recreate the launchpoint.

I'm targeting for next week for the next update, LaunchPoint Speed Dial version 1.0.0!

-worthb

I am really looking forward to using editable Group Messaging launchpoints!

Will the next update include a way to send group messages to email addresses via BCC so everyone's email addresses are not exposed to others?

[Chirurgie]

Just updated to WebOS 1.4.1 in UK and have bought LaunchPoint! so far so good...now to restore patch for adding Launcher page

[El Valluco]

While it looks like Worthb might be working on a solution to the border-less icons produced by Lauchpoint, I thought I'd share a little work-around I discovered and have been using with success for a while..

As a former user-interface designer I really wanted to create Lauchpoint icons I could enjoy interacting with on a daily basis - that meant sharper photos and a nice, defined, button-like border.

To do this, I experimented around and found out that Lauchpoint creates the photo icons based on what profile you have set as primary for your contact at the time of creation.

Basically what you do is, take your contact's photo into Photoshop and scale it down to create a custom 64x64 pixel icon (compatible with 4x3 icons v3 patch) with a border you like - I've posted the border I created as a layered Photoshop file you can use.

Make sure to over-sharpen the 64px image a bit in Photoshop to compensate the way WebOS "processes" the image when applying it to a profile.

Scaling down the photos in PS also makes for much sharper, cleaner looking Launchpoint icon photos. The LP processing for scaling down your contact’s photo is quite jaggedy and leaves something to be desired.

For this work-around to work, you must have more than one profile for the contact you wish to make a Launchpoint for.

Any two profile types will work. For example, if your contact’s primary profile is Google, temporarily make the Palm profile primary - then apply the 64px icon as the contact image to that profile. After that, make your Lauchpoint. LP will use your new, beautiful 64px image for the generated icon.

Right after making your LP icon, go back to the contact and set the primary profile back to Google (or whatever the primary profile was prior). If you don’t do this last step, you’ll get a really blurry, stretched out 64px image for the caller ID on phone calls.

Btw, switching the primary profile after creating the Lauchpoint will not give you the moon – so long as the 64px photo is still associated to the secondary profile.

I know, this is a pretty ridiculously involved process for getting nice icons but it’s worth it to me when interacting with them on a daily basis and I’m sure it would be to a few other phone tweakers out there.

While Worthb will probably add borders to the icons in a future update, you can still use this technique for getting nice, sharp photos in your LP icons ..unless he also updates LP with a much better image-processing algorithm (which would be great!)

Thanks again for the great app, Worthb and keep up the good work.



..and yes, that's a real screen-cap from my phone, I did not make that in Photoshop.

[worthb]

El Valluco,
Thank you for your detailed instructions. The icon images you have created are very similar to what the icons wil look like with the next release of LaunchPoint Speed Dial, so the steps you have outlined will not be necessary.

If you pm me your email address, I would be happy to send you a preview of the upcoming release. I'm interested to see how the quality of my solution compares to your photoshop solution.

-worthb

[sjamie]

Originally Posted by sjamie

That's a great idea! Let's say you have a mixed group launchpoint that contains both phone numbers and email addresses. I envision a day that when you tap the launchpoint a half-screen popup appears giving you the following options:
- TEXT (only send message to SMS recipients)
- EMAIL (only send message to email recipients)
- BOTH (send message to both SMS and email recipients)

I would also like to have the options of TO, CC, and BCC when using the email options.

worthb, when you add these options, LaunchPoint will enter the next STRATOSPHERE!

worthb, any thoughts on my BCC request?

[jccomo]

Originally Posted by worthb

El Valluco,
Thank you for your detailed instructions. The icon images you have created are very similar to what the icons wil look like with the next release of LaunchPoint Speed Dial, so the steps you have outlined will not be necessary.

If you pm me your email address, I would be happy to send you a preview of the upcoming release. I'm interested to see how the quality of my solution compares to your photoshop solution.

-worthb

Hi Worthb,
Just about to purchase LaunchPoint Speed Dial....when do you think you'll release the next version?

JC

[worthb]

Originally Posted by sjamie

worthb, any thoughts on my BCC request?

sjamie,
I haven't had a chance to look at email groups yet (as opposed to the messaging groups that are currently supported). If bcc support is possible, it would be part of email group support. The current method used for messaging groups has no way to specify email-specific parameters, such as To:, BCC:, etc.

Due to time I had to spend preparing for the international app catalog release, and also a desire to fix "broken" items before adding new features, the next update will be primarily targeted at fixing up the photo icon issues (better looking icons, permanent icons that don't disappear when contacts update their online profiles). Unfortunately, this means that editable messaging lists and any other related improvements (including bcc support, if possible) will not be included in the next update, but will follow shortly.

I'm trying to work towards a weekly release schedule, with smaller incremental releases.

-worthb

[worthb]

Originally Posted by jccomo

Hi Worthb,
Just about to purchase LaunchPoint Speed Dial....when do you think you'll release the next version?

JC

JC,
I'm hoping to release the next update this evening or tomorrow, depending of feedback from my beta testers. Once I push out the update, it has to be approved by Palm, which takes anywhere from 3 days to 1 week.

-worthb

[jccomo]

Originally Posted by worthb

JC,
I'm hoping to release the next update this evening or tomorrow, depending of feedback from my beta testers. Once I push out the update, it has to be approved by Palm, which takes anywhere from 3 days to 1 week.

-worthb

Great...I assume you'll announce here. Can't wait to try it.

JC

[tobias funke]

I bought Launchpoint to replace DG Quick Cut because of the way Launchpoint integrates with the contacts app.

A couple notes:

- I have no interest in the icons being photos; in fact I prefer the way Quick Cut uses the phone/messaging icons. What I did was comment out the code to pull contact photos, and then replaced the Launchpoint default icons with copies of the individual app icons. Is there a chance of this functionality being built-in as an option in a future update?

- For the popup dialer, is there a chance of being able to choose multiple phone numbers in a future update? i.e. tap the icon and your choices are 2 phone numbers, 'work' and 'mobile' or whatever.

No problem if the answer is no but I really like the app and would love it even more if those features are possible.

[worthb]

Originally Posted by tobias funke

I bought Launchpoint to replace DG Quick Cut because of the way Launchpoint integrates with the contacts app.

A couple notes:

- I have no interest in the icons being photos; in fact I prefer the way Quick Cut uses the phone/messaging icons. What I did was comment out the code to pull contact photos, and then replaced the Launchpoint default icons with copies of the individual app icons. Is there a chance of this functionality being built-in as an option in a future update?

- For the popup dialer, is there a chance of being able to choose multiple phone numbers in a future update? i.e. tap the icon and your choices are 2 phone numbers, 'work' and 'mobile' or whatever.

No problem if the answer is no but I really like the app and would love it even more if those features are possible.

Tobias,
I do plan on having more flexibility in the future in regards to choosing photo icons vs. default icons.

As for your second item, there is an "ALL" button on popup launchpoints that lets you choose from all available phone numbers or email addresses. I believe that is what you are looking for. Maybe I need to look at explaining the function of those buttons somewhere.

-worthb

[worthb]

Here is a preview of what the photo icons will look like in the next update of LaunchPoint Speed Dial. There is a subtle dimensional effect applied to the icons. Also, they will be permanent. ( They will not revert to the half-moon icon if your contacts update their online profile )

I'm still doing some final testing, but wanted to give everybody a preview and get some feedback.

-worthb

[slydog43]

I cant wait, looks so nice. wow 1.4 messed up my contacts when I resize them, so this update is going to be liked very much. GREAT program, Thanks

[thornev]

Q: How do I update a launchpoint?
A: To update a launchpoint, delete it following the instructions above, and recreate it.

Wow, that's a pretty crappy way to have to change one phone number if you have a lot of other information associated with the launch icon. Does WebOS provide no EDIT capability of launch points?