j0dan Posted December 15, 2012 Posted December 15, 2012 Since AtHome appears to no longer be in development I needed to find a new iPhone app to work with my iPhone 5 (AtHome is no longer compatible with either new iOS or iPhone.) I purchased eKeypad Pro for $100. I'm running it on a new iPhone 5 with the latest iOS. [*:35586x2d]Despite the most recent version being released in the last month, it does not use the full iPhone 5 screen. [*:35586x2d]It does NOT support multi-tasking (seriously?). Every time you tap the app icon it reloads the app and has to refresh all your device and program information. [*:35586x2d]Often, the status of devices or programs is not correct and requires a restart of the application to show. [*:35586x2d]Sometimes when you tap to turn a device on or run a program, it does nothing. To solve this, you need to restart the app and try again. [*:35586x2d]The app often crashes when scrolling through the program list or other options. This happens the majority of the time so it often requires 5+ tries to change a program status. [*:35586x2d]Video feeds from HD cameras appear low-def, even when using HD streams. I don't know if this is the apps fault as I haven't tried other programs yet. The concept of this app is great with a single unified interface for all your devices and systems and I LOVE the fact that you can put different program buttons and statuses on your main page. But charging $100 for such a buggy program is just plain wrong! The developers should be ashamed to be selling broken software especially without a trial option.
inline Posted December 16, 2012 Posted December 16, 2012 I use it all the time and think $100 is a fair price. It works well for me. The developer is very responsive.
j0dan Posted December 21, 2012 Author Posted December 21, 2012 I should also add that the new version just came out. It added support for the iPhone 5 screen, but still no multitasking. The bugs are worse. Some programs and devices have disappeared since the upgrade. They show up fine in the ISY and web interface. Also, the upgrade swapped some of my device favorites with random ones.
jaysonc Posted December 21, 2012 Posted December 21, 2012 I am sorry to hear you are having issues with eKeypad. I wish you had taken advantage of our support. There is a dedicated set of support screens directly in the eKeypad application itself. I would have been more than happy to help you with these issues. eKeypad is a robust and complex application. Bugs do appear on occasion but we work very hard to address them quickly. Sometimes users reporting an issue to us is the only way we are aware it exists. Take the crash you were having in the programs list. This was an issue, fixed in the most recent update, than only affected a small number of users. It turns out to have been exposed with the iOS 6 release and was very device specific. I was only able to fix it with the help of a user that reported it. To this day, neither I or my beta testers have ever been able to re-produce it. Well it sounds like we are past this opportunity at this point since you have already requested a refund. But here are comments about the issues you encountered for others finding this message thread. - We added support for the larger iPhone 5 screens in our December 2012 release. - We specifically do not support multi-tasking. eKeypad has a strong security component. 4 different alarm panels and almost 400 IP video surveillance devices. We choose to not support multi-tasking to remove your personal details from memory when the application is not running. Combined with the application startup passcode in eKeypad and our internal settings encryption this will ensure you have no worries if your iPhone is lost or stolen. - The crashes you reported were all resolved in our December 2012 release. They were all tracked down to bugs that for some reason did not cause any issues in iOS 5.x or earlier. WIth the release of iOS 6 a small number of devices (it is dependent on how you use your iPhone) exhibited these crashes. - The low quality video is almost certainly a configuration setting we could have tweaked. Without knowing the manufacturer and model number you are using it is hard to say here but there are quality settings in the cameras, DVRs (if you are using one), and in eKeypad. eKeypad rarely restricts the resolution it requests unless your camera is more than 3 megapixel. I wish you luck with your automation system.
One2ManyLights Posted March 20, 2013 Posted March 20, 2013 I am obviously late to party, but Wow. Don't suppose you happen to be the same person who left the following in iTunes Store? Title: "Rip off poorly coded app" By: "j0danbuhler" Did the developer completely refuse to help you or did you just decide to try and hit the guy in the wallet? Just from reading your posts it is clear that you have had a lot of trouble getting various things to work. Sure is great that there are so many good people that are willing to help you.
j0dan Posted March 20, 2013 Author Posted March 20, 2013 I am obviously late to party, but Wow. Don't suppose you happen to be the same person who left the following in iTunes Store? Title: "Rip off poorly coded app" By: "j0danbuhler" Did the developer completely refuse to help you or did you just decide to try and hit the guy in the wallet? Just from reading your posts it is clear that you have had a lot of trouble getting various things to work. Sure is great that there are so many good people that are willing to help you. Thanks for your concern and detective skills in determining that I also reviewed this app on iTunes. I encountered so many serious problems with the application that I wanted to warn others before they spent $100 on it. All I asked for was a refund (which would have removed the app from my phone). I did not receive any refund. So in the end I paid $100 for an app I do not use that does not function anywhere near as well as the $15 application AtHome. After experiencing that many problems with an app, I didn't bother contacting the developer directly. I stand by my original review and list of problems. If you don't think my review was fair, so be it. Yes, it is great that there are many helpful people on this forum. You will also notice upon reading my posts that nearly all of my problems have turned out to be unknown bugs that have later been fixed by new software or replacement hardware.
One2ManyLights Posted March 20, 2013 Posted March 20, 2013 "... I didn't bother contacting the developer directly." "... I asked for was a refund..." "... I also reviewed this app on iTunes."
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