The Convertbot Plan (Currencies, Releases and More)
- March 28th, 2009
- 36 Comments
We’ve been getting a lot of similar emails about Currencies, Units and what else is coming to Convertbot. This post is an attempt to clear some of that up.
Currencies
We currently grab the currency data from Yahoo twice an hour and serve that up from our servers to Converbot whenever it launches. The code currently grabs about 130 different currencies so pretty much anything that you’ve ever heard of, and a lot you haven’t, is available to Convertbot. For release 1.0 we hid the majority of these units from the UI because obviously you don’t want to have to rotate through 130 different units most of which you don’t care about. For 1.0.1 we’ve enabled a handful of other currencies but have still tried to keep the list manageable. We of course understand that even with 1.0.1 we aren’t going to please anyone with a small static list of currencies. Which is where 1.1 comes in.
Conversion Categories and Units
We wanted to ship with a manageable number of Conversion Categories and Units for our first release. Again the goal here is to not inundate you with a million choices a lot of which you’ll never use or care about. We patterned our choices after the Mac OS X conversion widget since that’s been around for a while and Apple does a good job of trimming down options. That being said we never expected this original list to be our final list of supported Categories and Units. We expect to add more as they are requested and we release new versions of Convertbot. If there’s some Category or Unit that’s missing from Convertbot and that you really want please let us know. The Convertbot code was built to support a number of different conversions and so adding new ones is relatively simple, in a lot of cases the hardest part is going to be doing the icon for the Category. Regardless of how many Categories and Units we add we still want to make the list manageable which again leads into 1.1.
1.1
Our top development priority right now is to get 1.1 finished up. The main new feature in 1.1 is going to be the ability to Show and Hide individual Categories and Units. This will allows us to add new Categories and Units without overwhelming the main interface. Most of the low level code to support this is already in place within Convertbot and the rest is pretty straight forward and simple The part that will take time is to get the UI for this designed and implemented. As everyone is hopefully aware we take a lot of pride in our unique look and feel. While most companies might just stick a set of standard elements to let you manipulate your selections we aren’t like most companies. Mark will design the UI, I’ll implement it and we’ll go through a number of different iterations to try to get it just right. This takes time but we think the result is worth it.
So when’s 1.1 going to be ready? Well the short answer is when it’s ready and not before. Longer answer, sometime in April is the most likely timeframe. We will post on our twitter account once we submit to Apple.
1.2
We’re not going to say much about 1.2 other then we plan to add at least one cool new feature that I don’t think anyone has really asked for but that will add a new dimension to Convertbot. We’re not sure when 1.2 will come out but we need to do a refresh of Weightbot before we can fully hit 1.2.
Localization
The last thing I want to talk about is Localization. We both think this is very important and Convertbot will be localized in multiple languages. And yes for our UK friends we do plan to support metre vs meter. The trickiest part about localization isn’t the localization itself, its what happens after an application is released. Suddenly instead of having two people being involved in a release it mushrooms to possibly over a dozen. All these folks are in different countries and have their own jobs to worry about, so release complexity increases quite a bit. Robert Heinlein coined the term TANSTAAFL and its very apropos for localization. For a normal application I’d like to get the second or third feature release to be the localized one, in other words 1.2 or 1.3. Convertbot, however, is not your typical application and I think its more important to have it localized sooner rather than later. Localization will happen, I’m just not sure if it’ll happen before or after 1.2 (and if its before it may cause 1.2 to be called 1.3).
Well that’s about all I had to say, please stay tuned we’ve got things in the pipeline. Again if you have any Category and/or Unit that you want let us know, feel free to add a comment and we’ll consider all the suggestions.
Paul, thanks for the well thought out write up. Convertbot is a great app and is well loved by many already. Your transparency on the currency side and future development plans are greatly appreciated. Whatever time it takes you and Mark to release the next version(s) will be well worth it.
Hello, just FYI, currencies are not working at all. Otherwise is a pretty app, but I really need currencies… You should place a buttom to force the update of the currencies.
Very nice utility. Clever GUI and code…
Thanks for your effort. I saw that 1.1 will fix my request but can you add Turkish Lira to currencies with a quick update that is the only problem why I didn’t buy this program for now…
Also your blog writings are very nice a lot of developer are not give usefull information about their programs. I like your viewpoint…
Thanks
Well, I’ve been doing Japanese localizations for a while. I’d love to work on Convertbot.
A lot of free convertion app out there, but i still bought this! Very nice app! Looking forward for your update. I hope philippine peso will be added. :) Keep up the goodwork guys!
A lot of conversion does not work, sure hope it will be fixed very soon. Otherwise a very nice program, very easy to use.
La conversion Longueur (ex. pied/pouce vers mètre) ne fonctionne pas.
Même chose pour la masse, le volume, l’aire, les devises)
Que dois-je faire ?
J’utilise un iPhone 3G v. 2.2.1
Merci à l’avance.
Sounds like a lot to look forward too :) I bought this app after using ‘Units’ pretty much since the app store opened. I love convertbot’s UI, it’s beautiful and wonderfully functional and much easier and quicker to use than Units. A category I’d love to see is memory (eg Mb to MB) it is the only thing I miss from units. Keep up the great work guys. I love he attention to detail you have, it makes your apps stand out from all the rubbish that’s on the app store, a becon of quality.
Currencies are not working at all. I’m in french setting but it’s same if I set in english.
@Juan @Gnyffe @robert and @Rouault please check the blog posting right before this one.
@Can it’ll have to wait for 1.1, we’ve already got 1.0.1 off to Apple and really don’t want to do another release between those two (it takes at around a week for Apple to approve an update).
@Brandon we’ve got the JP conversion lined up but thanks for the offer.
@collide007 that’ll be in 1.1.
Excellent. Awesome. Superb.
Thanks for the update on the currencies.
Just a small request – if possible can you please include the Indian Currency (INR) in your next release.
Thanks.
@Satpal INR will be in release 1.0.1
Great app but severe failing in not having Imperial pint meaured at 20 fl oz. Hope you’re going to fix this major shortcoming.
Please add more currencies (I’m missing Russian RUB) and probably more Categories (like Cloth Sizes, etc)
And thanks for such a beautiful app!
One category I’d like to see Convertbot get is Number conversions… i.e., Decimal, Hex, Binary, etc.
Convertbot is the 3rd conversion app I bought (also got Unity & Polar Bear Farm’s Convert) but it is the first one I’m happy with. You guys’ commitment to excellent & fun UI is amazing! Give me number conversions and I will be able to uninstall Unity!
Also, your anthropomorphic icons are a smart idea… Convertbot & Weightbot feel like they have personalities, especially contrasted against the other boring apps on my iPhone.
What a great insight as to what you two have coming down the road.
Quickly reading the comments so far, I agree 100% with adding support for converting computer memory: bits, bytes, gigas and tera-whats? Ha, ha.
My suggestions/feature requests could be tricky I suppose…
First, as a print designer, I’d love a reference on my iPhone for typographic measurements: points, picas, mm, cm, inches and pixels when I work digitally.
The second request was actually inspired by my wife. While I was showing her the sweet UI, she saw the “cooking” units within volume: teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, etc. While doing a sample conversion, 12 tablespoons converted to .75 cups. She said “well it would be nice to keep the decimals simple, but what if I couldn’t tell that was 3/4th of a cup?” Wow… good point, I thought. Granted, we’re not all quick-draws when it comes to converting decimals into fractions—and some rounding would no doubt be implemented in cases, but it would be totally awesome if you guys could find some way to implement that—be it an option the user can select, or a nice, little decimal > fraction button there in the interface.
Think about it, at least? Thanks.
By the looks of my previous comment, It doesn’t seem like your system likes em dashes…
We need (read: would like) more scientific units, such as electron volts (eV) as a mass, and new categories such as magnetic flux density, so can then have Teslas.
But with these and much much more, it will become confusing. So we need (read: need) an advanced mode option in the info panel.
Thanks for reading :)
I also own Units, and once Convertbot can convert all the same quantity of items, I will be able to retire that app.
Units has been a good app for me, but the design was never quite completely there. The icon is not great, the calculator fascade is not quite polised enough, the sounds are a little cheesy, and the buttons look plain.
Fortunately, now there is Convertbot. :)
Here is the list of categories that Units currently supports:
Area, Currency, Energy, Temperature, Time, Length, Weight, Speed, Pressure, Power, Volume, Data Storage(!!), Fuel Consumption, Typography (!!), Density, Astronomy, Torque, Luminance
In addition to the number conversions somebody mentioned you should add roman numerals as a unit in it.
Beautiful app. Might I recommend adding hectares to the area units. If you’ve got acres, you need to have the metric cohort.
Thanks!
Nice app!.
Instead of trying to support lots and lots of different units, how about allowing users to add their own?? (I’m looking for mm-pica-points as used in typography (!) and I’d be the first to recognise that this is not something everyone wants.
Sayling (in the UK)
This looks amazing, and I will definitely be getting it.
As mentioned before, it does need many more units available, as It barely covers a portion of what I need for my Chem, Physics, Geology, and Astronomy classes.
Some suggestions, it would be cool to see the conversion rate displayed when you convert something.
Official SI units should be labeled with a little SI symbol to identify their status.
Include either a metric convertor, of just a metric table that can be displayed that will show most of the prefixies (Mega, Kilo, Deci, Centi, Nano…), abbreviations (M, k, d, c, n…), and their factors (106, 103, 10-1, 10-2, 10^-9…). All of them from yotta- down to yocto- would be great! This would eliminate alot of converting as you could just quickly check the table instead of typing in long numbers.
Here are some recommended units:
1. Add rankines and electron volts to temperature
2. Add angstroms, microns, fathoms, links, rods, chains, etc. to Length.
3. Density category if so inclined, the best symbol I can think of for that is the lowercase greek letter rho.
4. Astronomy category for sure! Units include Light years, minutes, seconds; parsecs, astronomical units, miles, km. The symbol could be one of Saturn (think Sci Fi channel logo) or a rocket.
5. Torque (I have no idea what symbol, sorry)
6. Luminance (a lightbulb or sun picture)
7. Data storage (pic of computer)
8. Typography (pic of calligraphy)
That’s all I can think of for now. Thanks!
I’ve just purchased the app and am enjoying the interface and unique sense of style.
It’s great to see the transparency around what’s coming up in future versions. Looks like some good feedback has been posted too…
As for mine, I’d really like the New Zealand Dollar (NZD) added to the currency list.
What a great app! I read the mini review on iLounge and went straightaway to the App Store to check it out. Read a string of extremely positive comments and bought.
ConvertBot is absolutely beautiful and makes a tedious task actually fun! I do a lot of metric/Imperial conversions and this is a lifesaver! Your attention to detail is wonderful and extremely refreshing! If only there were more developers out there with similar mindsets!
When will you produce a Mac OS X version? All the groundwork is there programming for the OS X iPhone/iPod touch platform! Weeeeeeellllllll… ?
Please add Bulgarian Lev to the currency list. Actually, ALL the EU countries would be helpful.
Also, thank you for the rough update outline. So many software developers keep users in limbo (or worse) about their development roadmap.
Thanks again and keep up the great work!
I would also like to see a category for computer memory.
Keep up the good work!
Great app. But where is the update? Having huge problems with Currencies, mph kmh, etc. etc.
The UI is beautiful. Only the currencies aren’t updated!
A lot of conversion does not work : Pound/Kilogram ; Gallon/Liter ; Square meter / square inch ; Currencies
The interface is superb but severe failing, hope it will be fixed very soon.
Sweet work guys. I’ve been waiting for someone to come out with a unit converter with a decent user experience and beautiful interface. When I saw the title “Convertbot” I knew exactly who made it and got all excited. Well done… and I look forward to the new features you’ll be adding as well.
AWESOME UI work.
I would love to see conversion for data transfer. The question I often face is “How long will it take to move this data?” So for example…A 30Gb virtual machine moved over 1 gigabit ethernet will take how long? I realize there is an issue of theory vs. reality speeds here…but I’m just talking ballpark it for me.
Thanks again and keep up the good work.
currencies are not functioning (eg US$ to €); when can this be fixed because I’m leaving for the States on short term …?
thx !
euros I mean of course … ;-)
three weeks now and… 1.0.1 still unavailable so currencies still not working in “comma countries”!!! :-/
@pl_svn – It’s been about 2 weeks. :) And Apple just approved 1.0.1 today. We are very sorry for the wait, but as we said, Apple prevented the update, not us. We fixed the bug the day we released the app.
Category idea: wire gauges. There are several gauge systems to convert between, in addition to length units like mm and inches.