Product Update: BatchBook for iPhone!
- Posted May 5th, 2008
- Filed under: Product Updates
I somehow managed to wrestle this product update post away from Sean. I’m really excited about the latest updates!
Speed Boost
The gentlemen-who-are-far-more-techie-than-I did some big time optimization behind the scenes. I noticed right away that BatchBook is much more zippy, particularly Lists & Reports. I’m sure you’ll notice, too.
Who am I kidding? iPhone is the big story!
We iPhone owners like to brag that the iPhone boasts a full-featured web browser—the same one you use on your desktop. But after the novelty of loading sites optimized for a 17″ LCD wears off, you begin to appreciate a nicely designed mobile-optimized site.
Most of the BatchBlue crew totes an iPhone and often fire up BatchBook to look up a phone number or address. While it is nice to be able to load the fully-functional site in the palm of your hand, there was too much clicking and loading to just get that darn phone number. So, we decided to optimize for mobile, starting with iPhone.
Okay, here she is!
This is very much the first iteration of the iPhone version. We’ll be updating often, but here’s what we have at launch:
Contacts
Currently, contacts are view-only (as that satisfied our #1 use case for the mobile version). Contact Detail pages display standard name/title/company info as well as tags and locations. As you can see below, locations feature big honking buttons that interact with all the coolest iPhone features:
- “map” opens the Google Maps appication
- “phone” dials the phone number
- “email” opens a new email message
- “website” opens the page in the Mobile Safari browser
Clicking on the company name will open the company’s Contact Detail. Clicking on a tag will bring up a list of all contacts with that tag.
To-Do List
As a huge fan of BatchBook’s To-Do List, I had to get this in there. Right now, we display your To-Dos in a read-only list with our styling for “overdue” and “completed” tasks. I’ll add the ability to check off your To-Dos soon. Nothing better than that “I just got something done” feeling while you’re waiting for the train or in line at the grocery store.
Search
We have two search options—by name and by tag.
What’s next?
There are some obvious next steps for the iPhone version, including the ability to add a Contact or To-Do. We also plan to display Communications and SuperTag data on the Contact Detail. There’s also the obvious next step of optimizing for mobile devices other than the iPhone.
If you have other mobile features you’re dying to have, please let us know!
[...] Darowsky describes the need for such a true mobile solution quite eloquently. We iPhone owners like to brag that the iPhone [...]
I am evaluating Batchbook both for computer and iphone. We have offices in Sydney and NYC so need and online system. I have uploaded about half of our client (3,500) and whilst online/computer access is ok iphone seems to be failing. I tested earlier with a small number (20) and it worked but seems to struggle with large numbers. Search function not working and neither are the alphabet search keys in contacts. Any thoughts?
Hi Mark: Since that is account-specific, do you mind sending us an email at support@batchblue.com? That way we can check into the specifics and get you up and running. Thanks!
Is the iphone app available for Batchbook. I can not find where to get a copy of it. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Colin
Hi Colin: You can access the iPhone version of BatchBook by directing your browser to your account URL (https://yourname.batchbook.com). We serve an optimized version for mobile. Thanks!
I cannot seem to login via the iphone interface in os 3.1 on a 3gs. Do I have to enable it in settings? It just refreshes the page and opens the iPhone login screen again!