Our New iPhone Cigar Review Application!

[joncaputo]

Originally Posted by tx_tuff

Thats great, but i don't use a iPhone and don't plan on getting one (Don't like AT&T).

Is there plans to make this App for BlackBerry?

no plans at this time

[joncaputo]

well let me say..never say never - it took us well over 4 months to develop this for the iphone and we have several updates we need to push live asap that we were not able to get to for the launch so figure it will have taken us 6 months to put this together. we may one day get around to doing a blackberry version but it would be a ways in the future before we would have it ready even if we started on it immediately which we cant until the iphone app is exactly where we want it to be

[wisdomwalker]

I think the idea is awesome... I think the App is awesome... and I think it is one of those things that will always be growing and getting better.

BTW: Welcome to the sea Kilroy!!!

[Rodeo]

Just downloaded and played around for a few minutes. This is going to be one handy app!

Its great that there are so many cigars in the database, but the downside is that its cumbersome to scroll around. I went to check out the Monte's and almost got a finger cramp ... good thing I wasn't looking for Zino's

Great job! I do second the need for a search function.

[Rodeo]

Oh yea, that's the "(M)" I see after some cigars in the listings? I thought it meant maduro, but I see a bunch of cigars where "maduro" is spelled out, not abbreviated

[joncaputo]

working on the search - hope to have it in the next release

[AspiringGent]

That is an awesome idea! Thanks.

[Kilroy]

Originally Posted by Rodeo

Just downloaded and played around for a few minutes. This is going to be one handy app!

Its great that there are so many cigars in the database, but the downside is that its cumbersome to scroll around. I went to check out the Monte's and almost got a finger cramp ... good thing I wasn't looking for Zino's

Great job! I do second the need for a search function.

I absolutely agree.. I unfortunately hadn't given much thought to how long it would take to scroll through 967 brands down a list without some kind of shortcut to get to the bottom.

I'm working on a search index for the brands list as well as for some of the countries like the Dominican Republic with 350+ brands.

[tx_tuff]

I have seen so many apps out there for iPhone and BlackBerry that I thought it was easy to adapt it, didn't think you had to start all over from zero.

[joncaputo]

Originally Posted by tx_tuff

I have seen so many apps out there for iPhone and BlackBerry that I thought it was easy to adapt it, didn't think you had to start all over from zero.

yup..pretty much

[MKR160]

Great Job Jon and Kilroy. I just saw this post and went to the app store and bought it for my iPhone. Awsome App. Looking forward to the updates and learning how to use the features. I will be leaving a great review.

[dalbarran]

Just downloaded the app. Nice Job! I do have some suggestions for consideration. These are mostly usability issues.

1) Add an alphabetical index for brands. It takes too long to scroll trough the list. While a search feature is needed as well, the alphabetical index (similar to iPhone contacts) is a must.

2) The text for the review headlines is too large. This would be the page that contains the summary information and the list of reviews. I would suggest a smaller font. Include subject, date, rating, and 2 lines max for the summary review (cut it off after 2 lines). When the user clicks on the review, you can display the entire review. I another note on the review headlines, it is not obvious that you are looking at a review headline as the font is large and many review are cut. It often looks like a bunch on jumbled sentence fragments. Perhaps a "Review" heading would be helpful.

3) When you see a list of cigars for a certain brand, it would be very nice to show the rating and reviews count. Right now I have to choose the actual cigar to see this information. This would give the user a quick glance at ratings for all the cigars for a brand. The number of reviews tells me how reliable the ratings are (think Amazon!).

4) You use "$" signs to give an indication of price but do don't say what one $ means or what 4 $'s mean. I find average price or MSRP more useful. It tells me if the vendor is screwing me on price. "$$" only tells me that the price is between "$" and "$$$" which really isn't that valuable.

5) Puff.com actually shows the top 100 when you click top 25. Something they probably should fix. Can you show top 50 instead of just top 25. More is better but too much is overwhelming.
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Love the favorites and recently viewed function. Very useful!

[joncaputo]

great feedback..will work these into the updates!

[ribletman]

This is awesome! I had been using puff.com via Safari on my iPhone, which is cumbersome and tedious, though functional. I also had been planning on writing an app myself, since everything else for cigars on the iPhone is no where near the level of functionality I require to be willing to use an app. Thanks for writing, since I no longer need to write one myself.

I am downloading it now, and will give feedback once I get it loaded. You can be sure I will give it a good review even if I still have complaints, as that will lead to a more-often-downloaded app, which gives more funding for more features. I am all about features, even if I choose not to use some.

Something I am hoping this will help with is that many cigars that first came out years ago have few reviews after the 2006 time frame. Having a handy way to review everything you smoke, and especially while smoking it, should lead to newer data points for older cigar brands. I am very glad you have provided exactly the app I wanted. Now just give me that Humidor app.

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Finished downloading, and all five of dalbarran's suggestions are on the money. Alphabet hot-links would help much, even an alphabetic page view where you can scroll through just the A's, or just the J's. There is an iPhone "settings" location where apps can be customized. It would be nice on this app to be able to change font sizes, or add and remove columns of information to make my interface as crowed as I choose.

I would also like to be able to:

• "Favorite" a brand instead of a specific cigar
• Go from a specific cigar back to size listing for that brand
• Sort by Top 25 by size/shape (like on puff.com)
• Add a size of an existing brand (like on puff.com)

[RicoPuro]

I'm not sure if I understand, is this application free for download for Puff members? I tried downloading it and syncing my phone but nothing happened. The app is listed as costing $3.99 in the Itunes store.

Jorge