iPhone app update really a downgrade?

Thank you all for this feedback. In order to centralise the discussions, please add any further comments or feedback to the post linked to below. You'll find all updates from the team there, going forward:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/10906

Oh, I've not used the old app for a long while as I found it almost useless for me and the way I work.  The new one seemed to be much more useful and I could work around the few bugs that I saw (html code instead of tones in some words).

I can see this app could be expanded to be pretty useful as it reflects the site more clearly.  A really good flash card section would be good though.  Or even a clear way to transfer data to pleco.  Of course that will only work well if a better way of ordering vocabularies was in place on the main site :-)

CPod have written on their Facebook page with the following:

we definitely know that there is some functionality missing much room for improvement. We are planning on pushing out a new version every couple of weeks to address these issues, and improve the app in ways that extend far past the previous app. It was important, though, for us to launch an app that worked with the new API and lesson management system, so that what you see on the app and what is on our dashboard sync up. We'll iron the bugs out as we move forward with the app.

Ach weel...

If anyone hasn't upgraded yet and still has the old version's ipa file in their iTunes directory, it might be possible to restore the app safely via CNet's workaround with a little tuning. Unfortunately, my last backup doesn't have it, so I can't try. Otherwise, can only wait and see what CPod has to say. If you are going to upgrade, I'd recommend backing up your iTunes app folder, as it might allow you a recourse that we didn't have.

OK, just tried the new app: Bug City.  I agree not being able to scroll / slide through cards is a major loss of function in the new version.  Why in the world they would disable this I can't possibly imagine, unless it was built from the ground up and rushed out before this feature could be replicated.  Also, several of the pinyin words were garbled into uselessness.  I also observed that the only "option" under the "option" tab is to log out (?!)  Navigating backward from there the app simply crashed.

Since this looks to be quite a new version, with a separate tab for the player, is there somewere on the site that documents how everything is *supposed* to work?  It looks like lesson management is going to be an improvement (at least I can see more lessons in one screen) . 

Cpod, please restore the flashcards to their former user friendliness, and put some options in the options.

Thanks,

Loyal User

Ouch! wish I had read this thread before installing the new version.  My older version had gotten buggy/corrupted, so I was just waiting for the new one and had stopped using it altogether.  Just now I installed the new version of the OS and was happy to see the new CPod app which I hoped would solve my lesson management problems.  Now I read that many of the valued features in flash cards are gone.   D'oh!

I hope they can rush out some upgrades / fixes, or that there will be some way to reinstall the older version, ideally in a way that irons out some of the problems I was having with the indexing of lessons.

Maybe should have just given this app a different name, not a new version number.

AAAAArgh! This is almost as bad as the android version!! Last year I found out how bad that one was after i specifically bought a phone to use for chinesepod... Only to have to get an ipod two weeks later, and then be reasonably happy. Now, two ipod touches later, this; downgrade is right... Maybe should have just given this app a different name, not a new version number.

I know someone's probably worked hard on this and perhaps there's some new feature in there somewhere (for example, I notice it plays a lesson in the background when switching apps - did the previous version do this? I don't know) and I don't wish to sound unkind but the previous version seemed pretty slick and actually put a smile on my face while I was using it - I was thinking, 'hey, I can use this - it fits how I study'. Not this one though.

Would it not have been possible to have created a separate ChinesePod 2 or beta app and get the community's feedback first, especially bearing in mind how problems can't be resolved quickly and there's no easy way to revert to a previous version?

Well, just hope that you guys fix it as I really really like the ChinesePod content and I also liked the app in its previous form.

Unfortunately I could not go back to the previous version, my itunes is also updated...I can't find any link in Itunes to download the old version...

any ideas?

thanks!

*Sight* I should have known better by now as well. Just upgraded my iPhone to 4.2.1 and decided to upgrade all installed apps as well, so yes, I got the new 're-imagined' ChinesePod iphone app as well. 

10 points for trying. 3 for implementation. This one is a complete failure. 

I can live with nearly all of the above short comings, although not being able to slide though the flashcards with just your thumb is a biggie. Now you need to tap 4 times. Thats is just dumb. 

The killer new "feature" for me is however its inability to use Traditional Chinese. The old iPhone app used traditional chinese if you set it up in the Chinese pod website. It wasn't perfect but it worked most times. 

This bricks my studies as I study 100% in the train and bus. So now I need a way to get the PDF lessons into my iphone and a new flashcard app.  

Advise from me: if you haven't upgraded yet DON'T touch that button.

Woah, I just submitted a support ticket with almost exactly the same title (I said 'downdate').

Got an iPhone a couple of days ago and just tried the app for the first time today and thought, hmmm, it's pretty good. It asked me if I wanted to update - thought, 'updates are good (usually)' and went for it.

Now, flashcard display no longer seems to work properly, many of my cards had escape characters in them (not sure if already an issue), can't sweep through the dialogue as before, whereas before the fonts in the dialogue were pleasantly large and helped avoid eye strain, now they are tiny and even teeny-tinier for the Chinese vocab. And to boot, where is the traditional Chinese? That last one is really rather important!

And this was just after a few minutes of using it. Clearly, with HongKongNik's points included there's a ream of issues here from this one fell update.

So, this morning I tried the app and thought it's pretty good, chewing over the Black Friday deal, half an hour later, check again, update and it suddenly became worse. I was thinking maybe I just need this iPhone App and nothing more this morning so this is all pretty disappointing and makes me wonder if I can depend on this app and service and for its stable development. Please fix.