Edit: The update has been posted to the App Store!

I’ve just submitted iFlash Touch 1.0.2 to the App Store for approval. The release fixes the big crash that iPhone OS 3.1 caused when trying to export card decks from your Mac. Additionally, there are a few more fixes that should get rid of some other occasional crashes.

Keep an eye out for the update to be posted. Looking at past historic updates, it will probably take around a week for Apple to approve the update. I have emailed the app review team to see if they can speed up the approval process this one time.

Sorry for the trouble!

- Davey

iFlash Touch will crash when importing decks on iPhone OS 3.1. I will be posting a fix for this really soon to the App Store.

- Davey

Hey everyone,

I’ve just submitted iFlash Touch 1.0.1 to the App Store. It isn’t a big update, and only fixes a few small bugs that iFlash Touch had when running on iPhone OS 3.0. I’ll be working on the next update from now on, which will add score and interval memorization.

Enjoy!

- Davey

Update: There may be some confusion. iFlash Touch 1.0.1 does not add interval and score memorization. I am working on that for the next update (presumably 1.0.2).

iFlash Touch is now available from the App Store, so go ahead and download it now! Or, learn more about it from the new iFlash Touch site.

Along with the iFlash Touch release, there’s also a new version of iFlash available for the Mac (2.8). The biggest change that 2.8 brings is, naturally, support for exporting to the iPhone. It also fixes some key bugs that have been affecting many users (like card decks ballooning in size with images). If you already have iFlash, it’ll tell you about the update next time you launch it.

Please, enjoy iFlash Touch 1.0 and iFlash 2.8. They’ve been cooking in the oven for a long time, and I hope the overall result is worth it!

- Davey

I have some good news to report! I was just contacted by someone at Apple over the phone, and we cleared up all the confusion that had surrounded the rejection of iFlash Touch.

The person from Apple made it clear to me: iFlash Touch was not rejected because it requires a companion desktop application (the person from Developer Technical Support was wrong about this). It was rejected because the reviewer downloaded the public version of iFlash for the Mac, which did not have support for iPhone exporting. I explained that to the person from Apple, and emphasized that the reviewer should download the unreleased iFlash 2.8 instead. He completely understood, tried it out himself over the phone, and assured me that it would get into the store.

Expect to see iFlash Touch available in the App Store for free within a week or two.

Thank you to everyone who offered me support. I am extremely grateful for all your awesome comments. It was because of you that this story got noticed and resolved.

- Davey

Update (5/6/09): I have been contacted by Apple! Read the full explanation here.

I never imagined I would have to say this, but iFlash Touch has been rejected from the iTunes App Store. I was originally going to leave it at just that, but I feel that I owe a full explanation since it’s already been such a long wait (short story: I don’t know why it was rejected. I’m looking into it).

On Monday, April 27th, I received an email from the App Review team stating that they couldn’t get exporting to work from iFlash on the Mac into iFlash Touch. I found this strange, since I had posted in the original submission notes that an unreleased version of iFlash was required to export, along with a download link. I promptly replied to explain the situation, and didn’t hear back from them again.

On Friday, May 1st, I called Apple Developer Technical Support to find out what was going on with the review process, and to see if my earlier comments had been received. They then told me the shocking news that writing an iPhone app that requires a desktop “companion” app was prohibited.

I say this is shocking since I have seen many, many other apps in the store that require a companion app (including Apple’s own Keynote Remote). When I mentioned this to the support person, he said that Apple could not comment on that. When I asked to speak to whoever approves or denies the applications, he told me to send an email to the same team which hadn’t responded to me in a week.

I have no idea whether that conversation led to iFlash Touch’s rejection, but thirty minutes later iTunes Connect said it was rejected, so there may be a link. However, at this moment I am stuck in a state of limbo, since I have not received any official communication from Apple as to why iFlash Touch was actually rejected.

So that’s where everything stands right now. I can’t start fixing anything, since I have no idea what Apple found wrong with it. All in all, I wish that it would be simpler to get in touch with someone at Apple about this matter. This could probably be solved with a three minute phone call with an App Store reviewer, but that’s impossible to do.

I’m really sorry for this delay. I know many of you have been waiting a long time for iFlash Touch, and I’m going to keep emailing Apple until I find out what I need to do.

- Davey

iFlash Touch is still waiting for approval by Apple. I’ve been contacted once by them with a problem, and sent an email clarifying the solution (they weren’t using the right version of iFlash for the Mac), but I still haven’t heard back from them (that was 3 days ago).

I’ll update again once I get some good news :-).

- Davey

As part of iFlash Touch being submitted to the App Store, I am going to be posting details about the app all throughout the week. This is the last in the series of how iFlash will work on your iPhone. Read “Exporting Decks” and “Viewing your cards” for more iFlash Touch info!

I spent a while figuring out how studying should work on the iPhone, and I think I’ve come up with a good compromise between simplicity and features. Here are the settings for studying:

There’s not much there, but that’s on purpose :). I tried to keep iFlash Touch as streamlined as possible, which carries into the design of the study view…

Basically, the entire screen is devoted to your cards. Flicking left and right changes cards, while up and down switches card sides. Pinching changes the text size of the current card side. And, tapping the bottom of the screen will go to the next side/card, if you don’t want to flick :).

Once you’re gone through all the cards, you’ll see this screen:

… and that’s it! Now, you’ve pretty much seen all of what iFlash Touch has to offer. There are a few little tidbits, but I’ll leave those to be discovered :). I hope you’ve enjoyed these previews!

- Davey

P.S. And yes, landscape mode works while studying!

Hey everyone,

I’m still waiting for iFlash Touch to be approved by Apple. I was hoping it’d be done by this week, but it’s looking like it may take another week or two (I honestly have no idea how long it’ll take, as Apple doesn’t provide any timeframe).

I’ll update again soon with another preview of studying your cards with iFlash Touch :). And, once iFlash Touch is approved, iFlash 2.8 will be released for the Mac to enable exporting!

- Davey

As part of iFlash Touch being submitted to the App Store, I am going to be posting details about the app all throughout the week. Stay tuned, as each day will bring more information!

iFlash Touch will allow you to view all the categories in your deck, as well as all of the cards inside each category. Here is the view that lets you see all categories:

Tapping a category will initiate studying, while pressing the blue arrow will show you all the cards in that category:

From this view, you can check/uncheck cards and begin studying all the cards in the category.

For the next update (tomorrow!), I’ll post how studying your cards will work.

- Davey