Pivotal Tracker for iOS 1.6.1 fixes Romaji and other text input issues: 失礼しました｡

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

We’ve just released version 1.6.1 of the Pivotal Tracker iOS app, which includes fixes for a number of text input problems.

Most importantly, it fixes Romaji input for Japanese users. While we don’t officially support non-English localizations, we try our best to allow Tracker to be used in any language. This release also fixes a similar bug that prevented auto-completion, spell-checking, and text shortcuts from working in text fields.

Dragging stories is also snappier in this release, because we’ve reduced the delay before beginning a drag. To recap, stories can be dragged to a new location by touching and holding a story for a short time with one finger. We include a momentary delay, otherwise stories would get moved while scrolling through story panels. Touching a story with two fingers will immediately begin dragging a story, which I find really convenient and useful on an iPad.

The new version can be downloaded from the App Store, and we welcome your feedback in the Pivotal Tracker community forum.

Greatly Refined Story Editing in Pivotal Tracker for iOS 1.6

Christian Niles

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Today we’ve released Pivotal Tracker for iOS 1.6 to the App Store. With this release we’ve thoroughly refined the app to make updating stories easier and more enjoyable. While there are all kinds of refinements, we think you’ll be most excited about the following:

All text can now be edited inline

A story’s name, description, tasks, and comments are all editable inline, without transitioning to a new screen and losing context. While editing, text now wraps gracefully across multiple lines as you type.

For example, previous versions of the app provided a separate screen for creating a comment. In version 1.6 this now happens inline, right where the comment will be added. This allows you to continue to scan other comments or details about the story as you write.

Managing labels is easier

Finding and adding labels to a story is much improved, especially for larger projects. The label list now filters as you type, which helps avoid duplicate or mistyped labels. Adding a new label is also much more obvious and easy.

Moving Tasks doesn’t require a separate mode anymore

All tasks can now be moved using the standard move controls, without the need to go into “move” mode. This gets rid of a needless extra taps. To remove a task, simply swipe it and tap the “Delete” button.

Moving or Deleting a story are both more accessible

We’ve gotten rid of the separate “Action” screen, and replaced it with a pair of buttons to move or delete a story. You’ll find these at the very bottom of the story editor, rather than the old icon in the title bar.

We hope you love this release! Please don’t be shy about letting us know in our community about how we can continue to make the app better.

New in Pivotal Tracker for iOS: Search, My Work, New iPhone Interface

Dan Podsedly

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Version 1.1 of the Pivotal Tracker for iOS app is now available in the iTunes App Store. This update adds the Search and My Work panels, a redesigned iPhone interface, and many overall usability improvements. All the details after the jump, below.

Search and My Work

You can now find and filter stories quickly with the new Search panel, which supports all of the Tracker search syntax that you’re used to. The new My Work panel shows you all of the stories that you’re currently working on, that are assigned to you, or that are waiting for your acceptance.

Add Stories Anywhere

Adding stories is easier now, just tap the new story button at the top right corner, regardless of where you are in the app (on the iPad or the iPhone).

Faster Access to Story Panels

Switching between panels on the iPhone is now much faster with the new tab bar at the bottom. It even works while dragging a story – tap the desired target panel with the other finger.

Similarly, the iPad version now has a row of panel buttons at the top right, tap them to reveal a given panel quickly or just swipe the panels side to side as before.

Story States on iPhone

Story states are now displayed for in-progress stories on the iPhone, and easily changed by swiping a story to the left.

Other Improvements

Drag and drop and scrolling has been significantly improved, particularly on older iPhone and iPod Touch models. We’ve also updated the app for iOS 5, and added many detailed interface tweaks to make stories easier to find and work with.

Feedback

We’re committed to bringing the best of Pivotal Tracker to the your iPhone and iPad, while taking full advantage of all the user experience and portability features of the iOS platform. Many more improvements are on the way, but we’d love to know what you think so far! Give us a shout at tracker@pivotallabs.com.

By the way, we’re thrilled to see all the positive reviews in iTunes. Thanks everyone, and keep them coming!

Pivotal Tracker, now officially on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch!

Dan Podsedly

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

We’re excited to announce the release of Pivotal Tracker for iOS, the officially supported Pivotal Tracker app for the iPhone, iPad, and the iPod Touch!

You may find Pivotal Tracker for iOS to be familiar – it’s based on the popular TrackerBot, which Pivotal Labs recently acquired from Vulpine Labs LLC.

Getting Started

Pivotal Tracker for iOS is available now as a free app in the iTunes App Store. After downloading and installing it, sign in with your Pivotal Tracker email address (or username) and password. If you’re not a Tracker user yet, you can sign up here – it only takes a few seconds.

After choosing a project from the projects list, you’ll see the familiar story panels, but streamlined for the iOS touch interface. The current iteration and the backlog are combined in one panel, and you can swipe sideways to move between panels.

You can create stories, edit them, reject them, delete them, add comments or tasks, and view attachments. The interface is designed exclusively for iPad and iPhone, incorporating the seamless transitions and animation you expect from a native app, but it’s also familiar to anyone who’s used Pivotal Tracker on the web.

Prioritizing Stories

Drag stories to move them using one or two fingers. With one finger, touch a story, hold it until you see it’s shadow, and drag. If you’d rather not wait for the shadow, use two fingers to drag the story immediately.

Finding the right spot for that story is easy – the multi-touch interface lets you easily scroll through your stories, even while you’ve got a story in your other hand.

Offline Access

Pivotal Tracker for iOS keeps a copy of your project offline, allowing you to access your stories even without an internet connection. You do need to be online to edit stories, though.

Upcoming Features

We’ve got lots in store for the app, and you can expect frequent updates. We’re starting with features that will bring Pivotal Tracker for iOS closer to parity with Pivotal Tracker on the web, including search, improved panel management, and My Work, but we also plan to add unique features that take advantage of iOS and the mobile platform. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, we’d love your feedback. Let us know what you think of Pivotal Tracker for iOS in the comments here, by email to tracker@pivotallabs.com, or in our community forum. And if you do enjoy the app, please post a review at the app store!

Note: If you’re using TrackerBot, the app will continue to work, but it’s no longer supported – all future development will be focused on the new Pivotal Tracker for iOS. Download it now for free from the iTunes App Store!

iPad 2 As A Remote Presence Device?

Joe Moore

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Since last summer I have been one of our few “remote Pivots” after I moved from San Francisco, CA to Atlanta, GA. Pivotal and I agreed that I’d try working remotely, remote-pair programming full time with fellow developers in our San Francisco and NYC offices. Overall it’s worked out wonderfully for me, my teams, and clients. I use the same technologies that fellow remote-Pivot Chad Woolley recommended in 2008 — a VPN connection, Mac’s Screen Sharing.app and Skype video chat, but we’re always looking for ways to more seamlessly integrate our remote developers into their teams.

With that in mind I became very excited when the iPad 2 was released, with its front-facing camera and FaceTime app. How perfect! For the last month our team has experimented using an iPad as a “remote presence” device for me.

How did it work out? Keep reading to find out!

The Setup

The goals were as follows:

Integrate the remote person more seamlessly with the team.
Offload cpu and network intensive video chat off of the pair programming machine.

As for why an iPad 2:

Ultra-portable.
Super easy to use.
Video chat software, FaceTime, is built in.
Less expensive than a MacBook Air (we’re an Apple shop.)
Less likely than a laptop to be borrowed and used for other tasks.
It’s an iPad! I mean, just look at the thing!

The Results

After a month of on-again, off-again iPad-Joe experiments with pair programming, meeting attendance and other tasks the results are in! Drumroll please…

The iPad 2 is a horrible remote presence device.

Overall, it’s a total bust. Oh well.

What Works

The iPad does function well as a remote presence device in a few cases:

Fully passive: If all I need to do is watch and listen then it works pretty well.
It’s very easy for a team member to pick “me” up and take me to a meeting, where I was a mute participant.

What Doesn’t Work

While the iPad has a ton of potential as a remote presence device, there are many kinks that need to be worked out first.

Skype

There’s no dedicated Skype app for iPad. The iPhone app works, but poorly, though it’s noise-canceling does seem a bit better than FaceTime.

FaceTime

FaceTime is the largest disappointment.

FaceTime “mutes” the remote person when the iPad-user is speaking. Also, the microphone is extremely sensitive, picking up all background noise. Thus, in our noisy office, FaceTime mutes me for most of the time. It’s like a walkie-talkie only random, or AT&T service in San Francisco.
FaceTime does not route sound through external speakers, such as the iHome iD9 device we tried, forcing all sound out of the extremely quiet internal speakers. Thus, even when FaceTime allowed me to speak, nobody could hear me.
FaceTime does not recognize external microphones other than the iPhone earbud mics. Other apps, such as Garageband, supposedly will work with mics like the Snowball (which has excellent noise cancelation) when connected via the camera connection kit.

Finally, hauling an iPad, an iHome, and a Snowball mic around the office totally defeats the purpose of ease-of-use and portability!

Many of these limitations might be solved via software updates. We’ll try again when Skype delivers an iPad app and when other iPad software updates come along.

(Edit: typos.)

TrackerBot: Pivotal Tracker on your iPad/iPhone

Dan Podsedly

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

TrackerBot, from Vulpine Labs, is a great new app that brings Pivotal Tracker to your iPad and/or iPhone, complete with multi-touch, drag and drop, and off-line support. It’s available now in the app store.

Standup 1/20/2011: Admin flag with Devise?

Pivotal Labs

Friday, January 21, 2011

Ask for Help

“Any suggestions for analytics on iPad events?”

Questions like, how many times has this video been played or how many times has this object been tapped.

One suggestion was to hit a web server somewhere with some details and use splunk to analyze it.

“Any experience using a flag to indicate an administrator in Devise?”

Some indicated that this is difficult to do with Devise, and recommended against it. Someone else pointed out that the Device site actually includes this as an example.