Tubular

Fixes for everyone! It’s time for the third public beta of Tubular, bringing some much needed fixes for all:

• Changed the bottom bar back to white. And there was much rejoicing.
• Fixed a major issue where the app would lock a registered user out after two weeks
• Fixed an issue where the app would crash if you clicked the back button while a movie was loading
• Switched to a system-standard toolbar, which allows for customization and persistence
• Fixed the issue where a hidden window titled “Do Not Modify This Window” would be shown while videos were being loaded, visible with Expose
• Lots of little UI tweaks, such as pressing Command-W to close the current window, and having the Tubular window re-open if it was closed when reactivating the application

Almost all of these bugs were submitted by users. Also, each bug is tracked by who submitted it. One of the ways this is nice is that very soon I’ll be able to have an automated system that goes through the fixed bugs every release, and emails people who submitted the bug saying “this bug you submitted should be fixed”. But anyway, thanks to everyone who’s submitted bugs so far. Please keep them coming!

Due to some bounced and dropped emails, I’ve moved the support email system from one that’s hosted on-site to one powered by Gmail. This should hopefully mean better reliability for the support email system. However, there is a limbo period of about 72 hours before everything is definitely 100% set up, so it is possible that any emails between now and Friday may not be received by me. If you’ve sent an email between yesterday and Friday, and don’t get a response by Friday night, please send it again.

You don’t have to update any email addresses or anything like that. The support email address is the same as it was before, and all correspondence from me in the future will still look exactly the same. I’ll put up a post when the process is 100% complete. Sorry for any inconvenience ahead of time.

Just a quick update tonight. Tubular 1.0 Beta 2 is now available. This release is nothing but bug fixes, making it now the most stable release of Tubular yet (there aren’t any more crashing bugs in the database). Specifically:

• Fixed the issues with people being unable to register. If you were affected by this issue, please go into the Registration section in Preferences, and re-enter your information.
• Fixed a bug that caused Tubular to crash if you entered a YouTube user name with no favorites
• Fixed a bug with the importing preferences pane that caused undesirable behavior

You can download it directly, or get it through the auto-update in Tubular by selecting “Check for Updates” from the Tubular menu inside the app.

Also, as a reminder, I am updating the Tubular Twitter account as the new releases come out, so feel free to follow it.

Update (2/4/08 11:18 PM ET): It appears that you may have to activate twice if you’ve already tried and failed.

Update (2/4/08 10:26 PM ET): From what I can tell, the problem occurs when the user types in their name and email address, and then clicks the Activate button (as opposed to pressing the Return key). This causes whichever text field you last typed in, typically the email address, to not get recorded by the program. This isn’t a problem with the algorithm, and it’s something I didn’t pick up on in testing because, well, I’m primarily a keyboard user. I have a fix for this issue, but I’ll need to gather some information from people affected to make sure this is the actual cause before I put this one to bed. To work around, simply type in your email address and press the Return key instead of clicking on the Activate button, and it should work. If it continues to fail, please contact me by email or in the comments.

Registration with the beta released last night seems to be broken for many people. I’m aware of the issue and am looking into it. If you’re concerned about the app not working without being registered, don’t worry. The app is 100% functional without registration for 2 weeks from the first day you opened the Tubular public beta. During testing of registration, I did test every single actual registration, and they all worked, so this was an unexpected issue.

I have not handled the Tubular project properly. I admit it. I have not kept my customers up to date on what’s been happening, and have been misguided in handling the delays. And I let the lack of information go on for way too long. I’m truly sorry for the way that I’ve behaved over the course of this project. I’m going to use this post to explain everything that has happened, to hopefully answer all the questions everyone has had about what I have been doing. I know that many of you are extremely upset with me about this course of action, and I accept that. I’m not looking for pity or expecting anything out of this, but it’s the explanation that everyone rightfully deserves.

The first signs of trouble with Tubular began developing at the end of December, 2006. At this point, we were still using the default Flash-based YouTube player. Up to that point, it was ugly, but it worked. However, suddenly, using this method stopped working. When you’re writing an app like Tubular, any change to YouTube has the possibility of breaking the app. I quickly noticed that there were changes to the way that Flash players were created on YouTube’s site. A small “key” string was being passed around, and was generated from YouTube’s servers. I couldn’t find a way to work around the issue while still using Flash. This is what led to the decision to switch from the Flash player to a QuickTime player based on the open-source Perian codec.

Tubular is now finally ready for public beta. This release brings with it:

• Registration support
• Leopard compatibility
• Increased reliability with locating the video raw video file (so playing or converting videos will be quicker, and will be less buggy)
• An all new preferences window, with settings for registration, auto-updating, caching, and your YouTube account
• Bug fixes for the bottom bar, video conversion, and the player

The update is available through the usual methods, as well as the download link above. The beta is now open to the public, but is time-restricted to two weeks before it must be registered. For everyone who has preordered, I’ll be sending out emails with the registration information, but all that is needed is the name and email address I have on record for you.

To do this, Tubular is using server validation to process registrations. This means that the app will be sending the name and email address you provide (again, the ones I have on file from your purchase) to our server, which will communicate back down to the program if you are registered. The server does not record any identifying information about your computer, nor does it keep history of previous validations, and the only time that registrations will be turned off is if they’ve been identified on an actual piracy site.

However, if there is still serious concern about using server validation, please let me know in the comments or by email. Otherwise, if you find any issues with the new version, please email support.