TOPIC: My heart is broken...

Blame Apple. We had a good number of inspectors with corrupt uploads. We found out that Apple couldn't handle file names that were past a certain length. The latest version automatically appends the date, so don't do that manually. Without it you might be able to fit everything you want.

And I would be the one who made the typo!

Well, that figures. Leave it to a multimillion dollar software company to not be able to handle a long string of letters and numbers. I guess maybe I'll just rename them when I load them to the desktop. I just finished my first inspection with the new mobile version so I got a good taste of it and all the new features. Here's a couple of thoughts:

- I noticed there is a significant pause when a picture is being saved. It's about 3 to 4 seconds every time a photo is taken which is noticeably longer than before. I closed and restarted the program several times just to make sure it wasn't a memory issue, any thoughts?
- I got a "Uh-oh unexpected error" notice about three times when clicking on the camera button above the list of photos. I don't exactly know how to re-create the problem, but it seemed that it happened in this order: 1. The error occurs for some unknown reason, 2. I hit the camera button a second time just before the error message shows up, 3. after I close the error box the program does open the camera, when I try to either cancel or save a photo The program locks up and I have to close it in order to make it work again. I lose whatever I was working on in that particular section.
- It dawned on me as I was using the program that the "Done" button just above the bottom right corner when inserting a preloaded caption, is totally unneeded. You don't need to hit "Done" in order to cancel entering a caption, you don't need to hit "Done" in order to save a caption and you don't need to hit "Done" in order to switch from the preloaded captions to typing a custom caption. It's a totally unnecessary button which I have been hitting after every caption for almost a year now.
- With the preloaded caption button now at the top center of the page, taking a photo and captioning it once again moves your hand up-and-down the screen repeatedly. Could the scrolling list of preloaded captions just drop down from the top? It seems you have to switch your grip or tap all over the screen in order to insert a caption. The more all these buttons and menus could be located in the same place the better.
- I was excited about the feature of being able to take photos in a generic or miscellaneous gallery. Unfortunately, that gallery is not accessible everywhere on the program so you still have to get out of the section you're in in order to take a generic photo. It was still significantly easier and faster to just swipe to the iPad camera, take a photo, and then swipe back to continue reporting. Could the generic photo gallery be set up so that the camera stays on and you simply take a photo, approve the photo, take another photo, approve the photo, etc. etc.? It seems like the majority of photos taken in the miscellaneous gallery don't need to be captioned and are more likely going to be photos for the home inspector's benefit, not photos for the report. It would also be nice to be able to access the miscellaneous gallery on every page of the program.
- The double arrows at the bottom of each section which allow you to automatically jump back-and-forth between the sections in your template is really sexy. The only thing which could make it better is if the title or a portion of the title of that section was written there.
- What's the purpose of being able to select "black" as your comment background color? The text doesn't automatically change to white so you basically end up with a black screen. Incidentally, after changing the color of the background one time, I could never get that drop-down list to open up again. The only way I got it to switch back from black background to white was by hitting the default settings button.
- Something has changed in the operation of the summary page as well. The photos are all very small in the center of the screen to start with and they do not swipe from one side to the other very easily. Trying to switch between the photos using the dots at the bottom doesn't seem to work anymore either. Did that ever work, could you ever select an individual picture using it's representative dot? Anyway, it would really help to have arrows which switch between the photos or a more user-friendly swiping response. I found it very difficult to switch between photos once I zoomed in on any particular photo. That zoomed in photo would slide all around the screen instead of swiping to the next one.
- Lastly, the order of the photos in the summary is awesome when it's in the list mode. The new lineup using the template sections is really slick. The only problem is, this lineup does not continue to the actual summary as you flip through the photos with your client. I found myself jumping from exterior photos of windows and doors to a leaky faucet in the kitchen, two items which happen at opposite ends of the inspection.

There's my two cents, HIP keeps getting better, I just need to get used to these updates.

Just curious... WHY? If pulling files for a client, you have their name and year of inspection. Any other use is, well, useless, as it is OLD information, and is no longer relevant to the current inspection.

Not useless at all. With the address in the name I can find a house when I do a reinspection of the same property. In those cases I rarely have the original clients name or date of inspection so the address is the only thing to go on to find the old report. I can also sort my inspections by the city they are in and track how much business I'm getting from certain areas. I also like to have my date first because it forces the files to list in the order I actually did the inspections. The mobile version puts the date on the end but that doesn't really help in this regard.

One very unique benefit showed up last year after the tornado came through our area. Based on the path of the tornado I was able to search for client homes which may have been affected using the street names where the tornado hit. This allowed me to follow up directly with clients who were affected with hardly any searching.

Thanks for the awesome feedback Cameron. You're running the latest beta from TestFlight right?

I'll definitely check out the slideshow order, good catch!

The text for the forward/back buttons makes a lot of sense for tablet sized machines, let me check that out.

You can change the background to white and then change the foreground text to another color. Did that not work for you?

We're looking at adding Misc to all sections, I'm just worried about adding confusion for the guys just starting. Maybe it could be an option to enable under Settings.

Let me know if you can replicate the crash and tell me the steps, that would be a huge help.