iAlertU / News: Recent posts

Today I received word that the service I rely on to send notifications from iAlertU to the (now decomissioned) iOS app is closing down.

I have no plans for the forseeable future to try and migrate to a new service; the effort required is too much.

I think there's still a demand for iAlertU, and I would love to rewrite it to be more up to date and friendly; I just don't have the time.

So, sorry to everyone; as of May 16, the notifications system will no longer work. I'd have liked to give you all more notice, however I've only just been informed myself.... read more

It would seem that the ability for iAlertU to send emails out is not working in Mojave. I've also had a report that the camera isn't working anymore. Having not done anything on the app for some time, opening up the project today shows that it's way out of date with the various frameworks and libraries. There appears to be a lot of work involved in getting it running properly again.

So for those of you that have it working OK, that's brilliant, but for the others, I'm afraid it will be a little while before I have time to rework the app.... read more

I'm pleased to report that, contrary to what I said in my last post, I've managed to get Push Notifications working with a new service from buddy.com.

Buddy have provided a terrific amount of support whilst I migrated the data from Parse.com and it all seems to be working.

So, iAlertU and uAlertMe will continue to be available for the foreseeable future.

If you're looking for a push notification service, or a Parse replacement, Buddy is brilliant. Take a look at:... read more

For those people using the uAlertMe sister app so that you get notifications when an alarm is triggered in iAlertU, I'm sorry to say that this service will soon be retired.

This is because Urban Airship, the push notification service provider for the app has decided to start charging for the service, and I can't take that cost on given that I make next to nothing from sales of uAlertMe.

If this is a problem; meaning you actually use the uAlertMe app (I can see indications of about 100 notifications per month) and find the push notifications service helpful, please let me know via this site, or by contacting via my own support email: support@pkclsoft.com... read more

A couple of days ago, I posted a new version of iAlertU. This new version had one change it in, and that was to replace the now-obsolete use of whatismyip.com with a new service.

iAlertU used whatismyip.com to retrieve the Internet Address of the Macbook. Late in 2012, that service started asking for money and turned off the free service. I hadn't realised the impact on iAlertU at first.

A recent bug report brought it to my attention so I decided to deal with it by creating a similar service myself via my pkclsoft.com website.... read more

I've just released v0.79 of iAlertU.

This is not a big change, but it adds two new alarm sounds created and provided under license by Stephen Angelini.

The other change I made this time around was to allow passwords to work to unlock even if you've disabled the arm from system menu option.

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As of v0.78, I will no longer be committing code changes to the SVN repository. I've created a new GIT repository here, and future updates will be delivered there.

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I've finally done an update to iAlertU. This is basically a bugfix release in that it addresses a number of issues with false alarms, allowing the app to be armed without being properly configured, etc.

I'm hoping that this will mean I get fewer emails from people who have not finished configuring (i.e., no password) and then closed the lid.

There are also a number of improvements with connection management for the uAlertMe app, and enhancements to better allow iAlertU to work with Mountain Lion.... read more

I've just released v0.77 of iAlertU.

New/Fixed 0.77
* Prevent arming without a valid disarm password.
* Optimise the interface to uAlertMe so that connections are quicker.
* Fixed an intermittent problem that could prevent photos being included in emails or displayed on the Camera tab of the preferences panel.

Hi there,

I've issued another update to uAlertMe which improves it's management of the camera roll within the iPhone. One user had reported lock-ups when he turned the "save photos" feature.

Get it from: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ualertme/id432090826?mt=8&uo=4

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v1.2 of uAlertme is available in the app store.

Get it from: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ualertme/id432090826?mt=8&uo=4

This version should be far more stable as I've revamped the interface to the camera roll.

Thanks to a very helpful iAlertU user, uAlertMe also supports Korean now.

I've also added a history function to the app, so that you can track where your Macbook has been by remembering the location of each alarm event. Locations are also tagged to images.... read more

For people that don't know, I also have an iPhone app called uAlertMe that can be used to control iAlertU remotely.

Take a look at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ualertme/id432090826?mt=8&uo=4

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I have just released a new version of iAlertU. This adds support for Korean, plus it attempts to fix the problem that some people have had when they haven't configured a password.

As usual, let us know if there are **NEW** problems.

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Hey people,

A couple of people (and only a couple) have had problems with using their disarm password with v0.74.

It would seem that some people have managed to skip releases. A couple of releases ago, I changed the encryption method for passwords. When I did, I kept the old method in so that passwords stored with the old method were automatically converted.

When I released v0.74 I mistakenly assumed everyone would have gone through this phase, so I pulled the old method out.... read more

I have tonight finally released v0.74!

There have been a few minor bugs fixed, plus a couple of biggies, mainly relating to device change detection, and recovering from sleep mode.

The big new feature is that iAlertU can now send Push Notifications to your iPhone if you have uAlertMe 1.1 installed, and have used it to connect to iAlertU at least once. Now, you'll get a notification directly to your iPhone whenever the alarm goes off!... read more

I've recently been trying to add Leopard support into the latest version of iAlertU, with no real success.

At this point, I'm deciding to stop supporting ongoing Leopard with any new releases. It's too time consuming, and with Lion about to hit our doorstep, I need to draw a line in the sand.

I will continue to support Snow Leopard for the foreseeable future as I'm sure a lot of us won't upgrade to Lion straight away. I will however try to ensure that iAlertU continues to work in Lion.... read more

I've just released 0.73. This fixes a couple of problems, one with email and one with new installations that aren't setup properly with a disarm password.

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As of today, uAlertMe, the iPhone app I've put together to interface with iAlertU has been made available on the App Store.

You can find it at:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ualertme/id432090826?mt=8&uo=4

For updates on this, I've also created a Twitter account, that you can follow at:

http://www.twitter.com/pkclSoft

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A couple of people were experiencing problems with gaining access to the Macbooks after having closed the lid. This release addresses this, plus an issue with first time users that enabled the "Save password language" feature.

I've released v0.71 which fixes a few minor bugs, and adds the iPhone server functionality required to allow uAlertMe to work. Assuming that all goes well with Apple, uAlertMe should be available on May 1. You can read about it at http://www.pkclsoft.com/pkclsoft/ualertme.html

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Well, v0.70 has finally been released to those of you using the auto-update feature.

Release notes can be found in the usual spot.

Please use the support request mechanism if you need assistance with anything, ensuring that you have a configured email address so that I can contact you if I need to ask questions.

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For those of you wanting to update or contribute new translations, please see the new (though brief) instructions downloadable as a PDF from the files section.

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For those users of iAlertU that celebrate Christmas, have a great Christmas. For all of you out there, thanks for the support, and have a prosperous new year.

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I've released 0.69 today. See the release notes for changes. Note that I haven't updated the auto-update settings yet as I'm hoping to get some testing done first by a few willing testers.

As soon as I'm happy, I'll update the auto-update settings.

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See the release notes for more information.

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