Once a change

The last few days have passed with a lot of variety! Unfortunately, I have not managed to release the next iOS update yet, but stay tuned. What I mainly did was to make further preparations that are necessary so that we can release the first official release version soon!

What I've done for the most part has actually been more related to Android and the server backend. Therefore, I will first go into these two points, followed by a few more news about iOS beta.

Android

My personal opinion on advertising

Yes, as Julia already wrote, we are currently testing advertising in the PixelGrid. Personally, I'm not a great proponent of putting ads into our pretty app. As a developer, it even hurts me to see the PixelGrid like this. However, I'm convinced that the ads in the app will be there only temporarily. Actually, our focus should be more on the development of new features. Therefore, see the ads rather as a means to an end, which will eventually no longer be necessary.

Preparing for the new code base

As the technically savvy among you already noticed, the development of the iOS app will automatically lead to the creation of a new code base.
What does this mean exactly? The plan is that I only need to rewrite the core code once for new features, and both platforms (Android / iOS) can access it. Solely for the user interface will an adjustment on both devices still be necessary.

Well, on Android we already have a code base, right?

That's true, but it was very bloated and changing it so that it could be used by both platforms would have been an even longer process. After careful consideration, I then decided to develop a new code base optimized for cross platform.

What's missing for the transition to the new code base?

What is very complicated, but also important: On the day of the first Android update, which should then build on the new codebase, none of your projects may be lost. The update must feel like it's a normal update, even if in the background (you will notice little if anything of this) data may be converted into a new format.

For this I have already developed a concept with Fabi, which will later migrate the data to the new devices. Of course, I will also write the necessary automatic tests, so that the conversion also works 100%, even if one of our users should have previously installed an ancient update of the app.

Backend

GDPR??

As things stand, I have begun to reorganize the server structure internally. I have also decided that we will start from zero again. For some, of course, this has the disadvantage that at a later stage, if you want to have a Wooltasia account, you will have to re-create it. For many, however, this also comes with the following advantage: We certainly don't have any of your data on our server

Wait a moment, data?

Yes, but this is really just about the users who participated in our beta releases back when it came to selling systems for Wooltasia Pixels and Colorful. The data, however, were just addresses for the delivery of the products. That means we are absolutely GDPR compliant, yay! 😄

.app

Yes, as you have already seen, we change our domain from wooltasia.de or wooltasia.com to wooltasia.app. Further access to wooltasia.com will be redirected to wooltasia.app as of today. In the next few weeks we will probably also put our e-mail address on .app, but we will let you know.

iOS beta

Some of you wouldn't believe it, but I actually use the same conversion technique for the iOS version as the current version of Android (Unfortunately, there were users who had a different opinion, but it's really true!). This means, in turn, that the results should be the same in principle. What should, however, be added (first on iOS, then on Android) is a slider, which should replace the previous selection of (Normal, Tolerant, No dithering). It will then also be possible to achieve finer gradations and thus better results.

Color adjustments

Furthermore, I'm currently testing automatic color adjustments of the selected images. Unfortunately, I haven't quite achieved this goal yet, but later thereby it should be possible to achieve better results in some pictures.

New palettes

Finally! There will be several palettes to choose from in the new versions. Where previously only colored / black-and-white existed, several palettes will be available for selection in the future. This still has to be tested properly, but secretly we already see great potential in it.

Okay, that's it for today, I hope for one or the other this was useful and interesting information.

I wish you a wonderful evening!

your Christian