Apple has apparently updated the iTunes App Store, specifically with regard to ratings and reviews.
First, you may now rate an application without writing a review. Previously, you had to write something, unless you were using Apple’s “rate on delete” feature. I hope this will restore some balance by making it easier for people in a hurry to provide a positive rating, although it is still up to developers to direct satisfied customers to the app’s review page. ;-)
Second, and I think this is a big deal, reviews are now tagged with the version of the software being reviewed. Average ratings are computed for both the current version and across all versions. Thanks to this change, I was able to compile following table for FatWatch:
| Version | ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ | ★ | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.4 | 3 | 1 | 4.75 | |||
| 1.3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4.63 | ||
| 1.1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3.43 | ||
| 1.0 | 1 | 2 | 1.67 | |||
| Total | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3.86 |
(In case you think I’m cooking the books, version 1.2 was never released to the public.)
iTunes reports that FatWatch’s average rating of 3 stars is based on 50 ratings but only 22 reviews. With some algebra I can determine that the remaining 28 reviews have an average of 2.32 stars. If those are all from “rate on delete,” that’s seems pretty good.
I think this paints a more favorable (and honest) picture: FatWatch got off to a rough start, but its grades have been steadily improving. I’m relieved, because two of the negative reviews about version 1.0 were voted as Most Helpful and used to appear on the main page.
I’m happy that Apple has improved the App Store in this way. A lot of developers are quick to criticize them, but I know they aren’t out to get me, and that running a huge operation like the iTunes Store isn’t easy.
Anyway, you’re probably wondering what I’m up to and when the next update to FatWatch will be released. I have been dividing my time between FatWatch and consulting, and lately the divide has not been as even as I’d like. I have several pages of ideas sketched out, however, and I’m eager to work on them. The next update will probably focus on improvements to the Trends feature, specifically on making the calories per day number easier to interpret and apply to your goals.
I like the look of FatWatch, but I don’t think it’s worth $10 for me until it has trend analysis (lb/week and cal/day for the last week, fortnight, month, etc.) and/or Hacker’s Diet exercise tracking.
FatWatch does the trend analysis you describe. Here’s a screenshot; you can see more of what it does on the tour.
Ah, cool. Sorry I missed that. I guess I was looking for the familiar table view used by the original book.
Are there any plans to include the rungs of the exercise tracker or the flag check box? Those are the only bits left to make it a feature-complete port of Eat Watch.
FatWatch offers a checkbox and a note field on the weight entry screen. There is no separate field for exercise rung; it can be recorded in the note field, which is considerably larger than Eat Watch’s note field.
Since a few people have requested a separate rung field, somewhere down the road I will probably add a separate rung field, along with a way to import values for people who are currently using the Note field for this.
Yeah, a separate rung field would be nice, along with a reference screen as a reminder of how many reps are in each rung.
In any case, I now plan to make FatWatch my first app purchase once I have an iPhone… I’m waiting until this summer in case there’s a new hardware rev when OS 3.0 comes out.
Thanks! Maybe I’ll have an update out before then.
Well, I got the new 3G S yesterday, and yours was the first app I purchased… I’m looking forward to using it regularly! This should be way easier to manage/remember than paper logs and Web apps.