ideas on canvas

MindNode touch Update

Mon, 14 May 2012 14:10:00 +0200

We released MindNode touch 2.1 last week and while this update adds several new features, there is one important and promised feature missing: iCloud support. Before updating you on our current iCloud status, I’d like to talk about some of the new features and improvements.

Send to App…

This is probably my favorite feature of this release. It’s finally possible to send documents created in MindNode to other apps installed on the device. For example you can now send your mind map to an outliner (using OPML) or upload it using a file transfer app.

New User Interface Style

When I started working on this update I really wanted to update the visual style of the document picker as I was never happy with the sold grey background. The new style is “a bit” darker - compared to the old one - and has slight texture. I think the new style really emphasizes that MindNode is all about your ideas, the UI no longer pops out, but almost fades into the background.

Other New Features

Retina screen support on the new iPad.
New localizations for French, Spanish, Italian and Chinese.
200% zoom level.
Improvements to selection in document picker on iPhone.
Display strike-through text.
New setting to toggle screen mirroring.
And several bug fixes…

Pre iCloud

While MindNode touch 2.1 didn’t ship with iCloud support, it comes with several iCloud related changes under the hood. To enable iCloud support we had to completely restructure the way we store and manipulate documents. All file management related operations now go through a new API that coordinates file access. To ensure the user interface doesn’t block during those operations we also move everything to a callback based structure, which has the nice side effect that the UI is now a lot snappier. If you are interested in this code, you can find an older version of our document management code on GitHub.

One other noticeable change is that all documents now require a unique filename. This was necessary because the system’s iCloud UI on Mac and iOS allows the users to browse the iCloud container. (We previously used UUIDs for the filename).

Current iCloud status

We started beta testing iCloud enabled version of MindNode touch and MindNode Pro in early January. We initially ran into several iCloud related issues, but Apple really did a great job fixing open issues in previous iOS and OS X updates. In fact the recent 10.7.4 update fixes our last serious Mac related iCloud issue (a hang when saving a file).

Sadly we are still experiencing an issue on iOS that is related to documents no longer sharing with iCloud. We have no idea what is causing this issue or how we can reproduce it. It might even be that this issue has already been resolved by Apple. We simply don’t know as this issue only appeared for two beta testers and sadly so far Apple Developer Tech Support was unable to help us. However what we know is that our bug report at Apple is still open and that I’m not willing to risk that this issue can surface on a customers device. (Just image the customer support nightmare and all the one star App Store reviews.)

What does this mean for iCloud integration in MindNode? We are currently working on other things that will help improve document exchange and we hope to receive some answers from Apple at next months World Wide Developer Conference. Hopefully we will be able to release our iCloud updates shortly thereafter.

— Markus

Preview: iCloud for MindNode

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:18:58 +0100

We have been working on adding iCloud integration to MindNode for some time now and today I’d like to give you a short preview of MindNode’s iCloud integration.

MindNode touch 2.1

iCloud support in MindNode touch will be pretty similar to how Apple implemented iCloud in their iWork applications. When you first launch the app, it will ask you if you want to enable iCloud. If you do, it will upload all existing documents and it will also enable iCloud for all new documents.

The main UI to interact with iCloud in MindNode will be the document picker. It will display status updates for documents via a flap on each preview and it will also provide a simple UI to resolve sync conflicts. Besides those changes, we also slightly updated the visual appearance of the UI elements.

MindNode Pro 1.8

Adding iCloud support to our Mac version turned out to be a bit more complicated than initially expected. When moving a document to iCloud, OS X will remove the file from its current location in the file system and will move it to a hidden folder. As there is no system provided way to access those documents, we decided to go with a document picker similar to the one we use on iOS.

Release

As we are still working on this release, we are unable to share a release date at this time.

— Markus

Apple used the MindNode touch 2 icon in Thursdays Education...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:04:04 +0100

Apple used the MindNode touch 2 icon in Thursdays Education Event.

Minor MindNode touch and Pro updates.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:46:00 +0100

We released minor updates for MindNode touch and MindNode Pro today. MindNode touch 2.0.3 fixes several crashes and MindNode Pro a pretty annoying bug related to undo and Smart Layout.

MindNode touch 2.0.3

Fixes several crashes.
Fixes a bug related to Dropbox uploading.
Updates the german localization.

MindNode Pro 1.7.5

Smart Layout will no longer register two undo operations.
Fixes an issue related to saving newly imported FreeMind or OPML documents.
Smart Link Detection is now enabled per default.
Updated Japanese localization.

A new company.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:52:00 +0100

I’m excited to officially announce my new company IdeasOnCanvas GmbH. IdeasOnCanvas will replace my existing company - MindNode e.U. - and will continue to focus on developing easy to use applications for the iOS and Mac platform.

The new company is a Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH), which is the austrian form of a limited liability company. I’m its founding member and currently its sole employee. My plan is to hire a developer later this year to enable me to better focus on improving MindNode.

With the exception of the name, everything stays the same. IdeasOnCanvas will continue to support all existing customers and will continue to improve all existing version of MindNode.

— Markus