Got NoDo on my phone

I’ve successfully followed the tips from a XDA Developer forum’s thread.

I guess disconnecting the network connection in step 5 cut short the update rules retrieving, preventing any rules from excluding your phone from the update.

The update takes quite long, especially the update apply step which took quite some time.

So far, I have not noticed any significant change in application launch. Copy & paste works.

The real purpose I wanted on this update is to verify that 7Pass doesn’t suffer from the issue with placing a textbox in a Panorama.

7Pass Performance report

(I’ve just had a not so happy post, so I’d want to do something more positive.)

I’ve been quite sometime every since 7Pass is released to the MartketPlace. The free version of 7Pass was also introduced. “Free” seems to sounds more attractive to new users than “trial”, even though it’s the same thing. Another advantage for the free version is that free will be able to update the app, while trial users will need to uninstall 7Pass before installing the new version. It’s a known bug in Windows Phone, so I can’t do anything here.

Ok, no more rant about Microsoft. Here comes the numbers:

Overall performance

Paid version

Free version

Conclusion

The performance of free version showed that it served the purpose: introduce 7Pass to more users.

Paid version seems a little bit affected, but I guess because there’s less trial users (or I hope so). The paid version is now the real deal: an easy way for 7Pass users to say “this app is not so bad”.

Thank you all for the amazing support. We’d look forward what can Microsoft… Ok, no more rant. Let’s look forward a bright future of the OS and 7Pass itself.

Update on 7Pass progress

Hi 7Pass users,

The most requested feature for 7Pass was database editing, followed by SkyDrive integration. The lack of copy & paste prevented me from having database edit from the first days.

I looked forward copy & paste so much, adding features in a hurry so that I’ll have enough time for database editing. But then I was disappointed to know that even when copy & paste is available, applications will not be able to access the clipboard directly. Ok, not so eager anymore, but accepted. Rome was not built in one day.

Now, middle of March, and there is still no sign of this update any time soon. It got even worse that there is absolutely no official timeline when the update is available. I was disappointed the second time when I saw an update for my phone, only to realize that it’s an update for the update system.

Nokia has just announced that they will only start to produce products for Windows Phone next year. That means to me that Windows Phone OS is not really ready until next year.

Database editing is a major feature. It touches everything. Ensuring full compatibility with the Windows KeePass is already hard. I need to add saving support to DropBox (easy) and WebDAV (oh my). And then with updating comes conflict resolving.

Thinking forward about SkyDrive integration, the second most asked for (I even got a zero point rating for the free version for not having SkyDrive support), I wonder how many years more do I need to wait for SkyDrive to have an API, and then for it to really be integrated into Windows Phone.

This time of calming is not good. No new update. No news about new feature. Posts about Windows Phone development reduced to the minimum. Hi Microsoft, are you sleeping again?

7Pass 2.3 submitted to MarketPlace

7Pass 2.3 has now been submitted to MarketPlace. This version adds some minor features:

  • Option to hide Recycle Bin: You can turn on Hide Recycle Bin in the new Settings page, accessible from Databases page. When this option is enabled, Recycle Bin is not displayed and search results will include entries from Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin group itself will still show up in the Search result though, which allow you to access it when Hide Recycle Bin is enabled.
  • Integrated web browser: 7Pass now has an integrated web browser.
     

    • Don’t expect too much from it though as there’s lots of limitation enforced by the SDK/OS:
      • File downloads are not handled.
      • Script alerts are not handled (message boxes from the page’s javascript will not be displayed).
      • Cookies are not saved across sessions, which means logging in using the integrated web browser doesn’t automatically logs you in when you use the phone’s browser.
    • Tapping on the URL in Entry details will now use the integrated browser by default. If you’d want to use phone’s browser, you can:
      • Disable integrated browser in Settings page, accessible from Databases page.
      • Tap and hold the URL to choose which browser to use.
  • A free version of 7Pass: 7Pass now has a free version, which works exactly like the trial mode of the paid version. I think it will help introduce 7Pass to more users as not all know that they can use the trial version of 7Pass.

I’ve expect the new version to be available by Thursday.

Hi to PocketPC members

My blog have received frequent visits from this thread from PocketPC. Unfortunately, I cannot speak German so I could not sign up for the forums. Chrome was able to machine translate the page though, so I hope that someone will notice this post and have their questions answered here.

How do I update my database? Removing it and add again through DropBox is such a pain.

You don’t have to type in your database again every time. Whenever your database has changed, no matter it was downloaded from DropBox or your Web server, you can tap and hold on the database, just like how you delete it, and click on update. 7Pass will display a progress bar of the updating progress, and display a download icon when the database is updated. Of course, if the update failed, 7Pass will notify you that the update was not successful, and your database was not updated. When the update fails, the current database is not affected so you can still use your database as normal and update at later time.

How 7Pass update my database?

DropBox

When you download your database from DropBox, 7Pass stores the following information about your database:

  • Your authentication: token and secret key, just as DropBox team suggest. You’ll see 7Pass in My Apps tab of your DropBox’s Account Settings. If you revoke this access, databases already added to 7Pass cannot be updated anymore.
    7Pass will use this token and secret key to authenticate with DropBox. This is not your email and password, so changing your email/password doesn’t affect 7Pass’ authentication.
  • The path of your database: 7Pass will use this path to download your database for an updated version. If you’ve moved your database, you’ll have to add it again so that 7Pass will know the new location to download/update your database.

Web server

When you add a new database from your web server, 7Pass stores the following information:

  • URL of the database: 7Pass will use this URL to download/update the database. If the url has changed, you’ll have to add the database again so that 7Pass will know where to download/update the database.
  • Authentication information: 7Pass will use these information (user, password & domain) to authenticate against your web server. If any of this information has changed, you’ll have to add your database again.

For key file, the download is one time only, since you don’t often update your key file. Updates to the database will not update your keyfile. If you’ve changed your keyfile, please download it again. You don’t have to clear the keyfile before downloading the new keyfile.

So the idea of 7Pass databases handling is that you add the database once, and then the updating will be very simple: tap & hold, then tap on update. That’s all you need to do.

Is there any difference between trial and paid version of 7Pass?

There are some difference between trial and paid version for 7Pass:

  • Trial notification: if you’re using trial version of 7Pass, 7Pass will display a trial notification to let you know that you’re using the trial version. Every time 7Pass is activated/launched, it will display the notification after 3 seconds, for 10 seconds and then disappear. This notification doesn’t prevent you from using 7Pass, nor does it requires any action from you. You can use 7Pass trial forever (just like I do, yes, I use trial version too, to make sure that 7Pass doesn’t piss off trial users, and also to monitor MarketPlace updates). If you tap on the notificationm you’ll be taken to the purchase page, where you can pay $.99 for the app to let me know that 7Pass doesn’t suck.
  • Demo database source: in trial version, Demo database is displayed as one of the 3 database sources: DropBox, Web Server and Demo Database. For paid version, since the user doesn’t need to evaluate 7Pass anymore, the Demo Database is moved to the application menu bar, which can be shown by tapping on the “…” at the bottom right corner of the page.

The functional of 7Pass is exactly the same between paid and trial version, even bugs. If a trial version has a bug, the paid version have too. Basically, you pay for the app because it doesn’t suck. If it suck, let me know as comments to this blog is not censored or require approval to be displayed. If you’d want to give 7Pass one star rating, let me know first an your issue will be solved much faster than rating it low, as I cannot response to ratings on MartketPlace.

I’d also thank zehlein for introducing 7Pass to others. I hope that 7Pass was useful to him enough that he’ll share it with others.