The team uploaded the latest iOS version of ShopSavvy to the App Store. The update resolves a few long standing issues with the 4.0 version of ShopSavvy.

First, lots of users didn’t realize they could scan QR codes with the app. We decided to show the user what sort of codes he could scan on the scan screen. Now there is a picture of a UPC as well as a QR Code. The user can tap them to learn more about each type of code or they can simply scan the codes. Additionally, we have retained the popular ‘Shake to Scan’ screen. Finally, we determined our focal point was not in the center of the screen – for some reason it was just under the spinning ‘scanning barcode’ symbol. We moved the focal point to the center of the screen just under the red line.

Second, the tool bar turned into a tab bar whenever a user looked at a product screen. This always bothered me since I couldn’t figure out how to get back to the scan screen or how to use the List or Deals feature. Very few users figured out the three lines at the center of the tab bar actually let you slide the screen up to see the scan screen. It was sort of a cool feature, but it was buggy and caused the app to crash in other areas. Additionally, we had three different new buttons that were confusing. In the lower left part of the screen you could save the product to a list. In the lower right part of the screen you could send the product to a friend. In the upper right corner you could edit the product. In the updated version there is our standard tab bar at the bottom of the app and an “Options” button in the upper right corner. Tapping “Options” allows the user to A.) Edit Name & Image, B.) Add Local Price, C.) Share This Product or D.) Save to a List. We think these changes will make ShopSavvy more stable and easier to use.

Third, we added iAds to the retailer listing screens and besides not generating much revenue they screwed up the UI of the app. They slid content down and then when you moved forward or back through the app the area vacated by the iAd was empty. We could have resolved this through a bug fix, but we decided to pull the iAds altogether. No more iAds. Here is a picture of the new screens: