Method Community

Ok, I'm officially hooked on the Ipad... Signature capture for credit/debit transactions, beautiful presentaton abilities for sales/technical uses, easy google maps/GPS, and only for ~$800 for a 64GB 3G version with $30  month/unlimited. Heck, that's saving $360/yr in wireless costs right off the bat. Beats our laptop systems hands down.

So, ......for my semi-obvious hint...., while the web browser/method route should work, I'd LOVE to see an Ipad method app, somewhere in the future!

So it seems a bit unfair that our neighbours to the South often get their hands on these cool gadgets well before us in the North.

Having said that…I’ll keep my bitter feelings to myself. Thank you for the feedback as we take this into consideration for the future.

Finally tried method on an iPad today, and found it hanging on field services calendar and work/order list.

Will try on mobile site later. I had no appreciable issues with iPhone on the mobile site, so I'm hopeful.

But, what about coding for iPad? any possibility for that, or is that something that can be done by us end users?

Since we don’t have our hands on the iPad just yet it’s difficult to answer questions.  There’s no intention of creating apps specific to the iPad right now but that might change down the road.

I will tell we are currently creating optimized versions of Method screens for the iPhone which is something to look forward to. This may lead us to testing on the iPad later on but there is no ETA.

Glad to hear you are developing for iPhone. I finally picked one up yesterday at an Apple store, and the process was very groovy. Walk in get checked in by a rep with an iPad. A sales rep meets me, brings my new iPhone and completes the whole process in 3 minutes, credit card swipe(on the iPhone no less), entering and checking customer info, capturing my sigs, printing out the receipt. Simply put, as David Pogue said years ago, the interface is just elegant. I'd add efficient and effective too.

I asked to look at the GUI they were using, but was refused, but from what I saw it was typical swooshy, easy to nagivate Iphone/iPad stuff...Which really helps the experience, speeds things up..makes us more money.

I tried method mobile, and while it does work on iPad/IPhone, it's hard.. well at least harder than iPhone apps. I'm hearing complaining from younger folks and older folks alike here who are trying method out... for instance, navigation elements don't seem to scale well, so you really have to work hard to nagivate to next page,etc. I need a stylus to navigate succesfully, and that won't cut it. Remember, we're not all in HVAC controlled cubicles, we're out in the field, sweaty, tired and need good GUI. :-)

So, if there's anyway you can step up iPhone/iPad, I... (and I'm sure many others), would be most appreciative.While I consider it kinda clunky, I want you to know that Method is working for us..Pricing is helping us out, you guys jump on problems, questions and are there to help, and it works well with QB. If we can get a great iPhone/iPad  app delivered..well, i'd bring loads of Fresh Florida Lobster up your way(or, heck,  jump in a cold canadian lake)

Richard Martyniak

Hey Richard -

A big Method update went out today.  Lots of great stuff, including a new import / export tool (beta), Google Maps (beta)...............and much better iPhone and Android support.

Personally I use a DROID, and found it tough to use it as everything was too small. Sound familiar? :)   I find the new version is a little cleaner for high resolution smart phones, so it should be a little better for an iPad now.  I know, it isn't an iPad app, but right now we are focusing on the browser and will continue to push the browser as far as it can go.

You see.....the problem with an iPhone/iPad app is you wouldn't be able to make your own screens, which would be very unmethody.

Paul

Thanks Paul.

I look forward to trying the updated mobile method.

unmethody...nice.. I understatnd your reasoning, and user customization is THE thing. But, would anything prevent me from creating an iPhone/iPad app on my end (I'll look into hiring a developer ), so we end up with a better GUI? Or are there things you could do to make it easier for us to create them?

Richard -

Nothing would prevent you from creating a 3rd party application. That's why we created the Method API.  Your developer can create an app for your specific purposes and use the Method API to push data into Method as well as pull data into Method.  The Method API is very rich and used often.  In fact, the Outlook Plug in, the actual Method website, as well as even the new Import / Export feature, all use the Method API.  So it is heavily used both by 3rd parties, as well as by our own developers.

If you want to learn more about the API, go to Customize > Integration Tools from within Method.  It's free, by the way.

Now, with that said, we will keep on adding more functionality and UI features to the browser based versions of Method.  But I really don't know when it will get to the point where it matches what a standard iPhone "feels like".  The nice thing about doing it in a web browser is we don't have to think about any syncing considerations.  Syncing is what will take your developer the vast majority of his / her time.

Paul

Thanks Paul,

Thanks for the info about the API. I figured that would be the way to go.

By 'syncing', do you mean updating the app to match method updates?

Richard

Richard -

By syncing I mean that I expect that the iPad app would keep a local copy of your customers, work orders, items, employees, etc. and store them on the iPad. That way you could work away while offline and then sync when you get back online again.  This adds tremendously more work for your developer because they have to efficiently handle new entries from Method to your app, deletions, new entries from your app to Method, modifications in either place, as well as the ability to handle what happens when an object was modified in both places since the last sync.  That just scratches the surface, you'll then start to find issues like ordering - making sure you sync customers before work orders in case you try to pull down a work order for a customer that doesn't exist on your iPad yet.....hopefully that wasn't too techie....all I'm saying that if you are making an app that is offline, speaking from a lot of experience.....it isn't a quick job.

So, if you don't need it to store data offline, and only store the data in Method, then your app will be way easier to create.  The downfall is when there is little or poor connectivity - just like a browser - you'll be out of luck.

Paul