Almost There! Your Feedback is Shaping the Final Push

HotShoe Testers,

It’s been a week and a half since the last update, and while we aimed to submit the app mid-week, we’re not quite there yet. However, we’ve made significant progress thanks to the great feedback from our testing group. I’m extremely grateful for your sharp eyes on HotShoe—it’s making all the difference!

In This Drop

• Roll Call

• Fixes & Improvements

• What’s Coming Next

• App Store Submission

Roll Call

• Users invited to TestFlight: 47

• Active testers: 37

Fixes & Improvements

Yesterday, I pushed out Build 7, which addressed several issues:

• Stress testing: Successfully recorded a 5h40m clip with a low memory footprint. No crashes, no sweat.

• Camera zoom memory: Front and back cameras now retain the set zoom between flips. However, changing lenses on the same side will reset zoom.

  • Pro tip: long press the camera flip button for more granular lens options!

• Auto Macro lens toggling: Fixed an issue where macro lenses were disappearing on some devices when they shouldn’t have.

• Arc buttons: Outer edges of shaped buttons (especially arc buttons) are now responding to gestures, making thumb accuracy much better.

• Zoom gauge: Resolved refresh issues where certain values weren’t updating correctly.

• UI refresh efficiency: Reduced unnecessary refreshes that were happening multiple times per second in some areas.

• Preview layer resizing: Fixed the issue with the preview layer resizing incorrectly on device rotation—safe edges are back to being safe!

What’s Coming Next

While Build 7 brings us close to the finish line for our MVP release, I’ve got a couple more things lined up for the next few days:

1. Visual cues for secondary menus: Some buttons, like the camera toggle and flash, have secondary menus activated by a long press. I’m thinking of adding ellipsis (…) on the inner radius of arc buttons to indicate this.

   • Fun fact: Many iPads, including the new 2024 iPad Air, don’t have flashlights. I learned this the hard way while testing HotShoe. Thankfully, the flash controls are aware of your device’s capabilities and only offer the flashlight or flash if it’s available.

2. Slider sensitivity tweaks: I’ve noticed that in real-world use, tapping my thumb on the screen to relocate the slider causes it to move under my thumb but also slide a bit. I’m may add a slight initial slide tolerance so tiny thumb movements won’t trigger zoom changes unless intended.

App Store Submission

Last call for feedback! Although we missed this week’s submission goal, your feedback helped us iron out many usability details. If there’s anything else on your mind, now’s the time to let me know.

Barring any major issues, we’re aiming for submission next week. Then comes the fun of taking screenshots and preparing everything for App Store review!

Thank you once more for taking time to test out the app—every bit of feedback matters!

Cheers, 

Brian Barker
Founder of HotShoe