Newsletter: So how do you store your collection?

Here’s the August 2012 Collectorz.com Newsletter. With everybody back at the
office after well deserved vacations, work on all projects is speeding up again.

Let’s go over the current projects one by one:

• iOS apps 2.0
• Collectorz.com Core
• Updates for Mac editions
• New Windows project

Then at the end of this newsletter, something fun
that kind of evolved on Facebook last week:

• How do you store your collection? -> Collection photos on Facebook

iOS apps 2.0

I know, I know, CLZ Comics 2.0 still hasn’t appeared in the App Store…
This gigantic project has seen some delays again:

• We had to change the barcode scanning, because the one we were using just
  didn’t perform well enough to scan 17 digit comic barcodes on older devices.
  The good news is: it now works well on 3GS and up, and iPad 2 and up.

• Apple is going to release iOS 6 soon, so we lost time fixing our 10(!)
  existing apps to make em iOS 6 compatible (updates coming soon).

• Tweaks: designing an easy-to-use mobile interface for complex features like
  Connect Syncing and Add Automatically is a challenge, but we’re there!

Anyway, CLZ Comics 2.0 is feature-complete now.
We’re currently just testing and fixing bugs. The plan is to submit it to
Apple for approval in the 2nd week of September.

IMPORTANT: if you’re using one of our apps on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch,
then make sure you are a member of our iOS Club. To join, just sign up here:

The 2.0 updates for iOS will be free, but you need special instructions to get
the free update. Instructions that will *only* be sent to iOS Club members…

Collectorz.com Core

Core for Books has been live for 3 months and it’s getting better and better!
( Core is our new system that lets users share the data they entered manually,
by submitting it to Core. Doing so helps other users who own the same book, CD,
DVD, etc… and at the same time improves the central online databases. )

As announced, we’re doing Core as an incremental, “improve as we go” project.
We started out with a very basic version, planning to just tweak and tune
based on user feedback, then see where it takes us, no end goal in sight. Fun!

And feedback we got! Most of it very nice and friendly, some less so 🙂
But all of it was super useful, so thanks to everyone who helped!
Robbert has implemented many of your ideas (and also fixed a few bugs):

• It’s now much easier to sign up for the needed Connect user name.
• Core now (optionally) remembers your log in, making subsequent submits easier.
• Reports of missing ISBNs/barcodes are now processed immediately/automatically,
  so that you can and your fellow users can immediately enjoy the new entry.

• Data error reports are now handled faster (within a day on weekdays) because
  of Robbert’s and Martin’s optimizations of the content management tools.

Using Book Collector 8 for Windows? Then please help us and other users by submitting your missing ISBNs and data corrections.

Coming up next week: Core for Music !

Update for Mac editions

This month brought the releases of two more Mountain Lion compatible and
fully bug-fixed updates of our Mac editions: Music and Book Collector.

Updating to these new builds is free (that is, if you already own the latest
version) and is highly recommended, especially if you have upgraded to OS X
Mountain Lion or are planning to do so. To update your software,
just start your current version and choose Check for Updates from the menu.

Bernard is still hard at work on more updates that will soon bring new
Database Totals and Export to Text/CSV features to all Mac editions.

New Windows project

With all new Mac editions updated and live, Ronald is finally freed up
to get back to his core programming duties: the Windows editions.
I am afraid I can’t say anything (yet) about what he’s working on,
but I can promise that you will all be very happy with the results.

How do you store your collection? -> Collection photos on Facebook

Not really a project we planned to do, but it turned out pretty cool:
After a recent post by Sytske on our Facebook page (about how everyone
stores their collectables), many of our “Facebook fans” started posting
pics of their own collections of CDs, DVDs, books, games and comics.

So we collected all these cool photos into a Facebook photo album.

Now, how do *you* store and show off your collection?
Post your photos on our Facebook wall!

Here’s our favorite picture, user Francois Richer posing in front of his collection of 8,000 CDs: