This might not be news to everyone but after much downtime we’ve just completed the re-branding of Anagram as Copy2Contact.
It’s the same great program with the same features, but with a new name that I know will be the starting point for great things to come.
Copy2Contact completely replaces Anagram but is a free update.
In other news, Copy2Contact for BlackBerry is finally at release 1.0! Info and a free 14-day trial are here: copy2contact.com/bb
So be sure to head over to the new Copy2Contact Blog as well as the Copy2Contact Web Site.
No, really! A number of users have written in wondering why it’s so darn hard to push the buttons on Anagram’s dialogs on their BlackBerry Storm devices. We didn’t have a clue… everything works fine for us. But we recently discovered that Anagram is running in “Compatibility Mode” for some people, which is causing this problem.
Fortunately, tons of other BlackBerry software vendors are having the same problem and came to our rescue. The solution is simply to turn off Compatibility Mode for Anagram. Go to Options (the wrench icon) >> Advanced Options >> Applications and find Anagram in the list. Click the menu button on it and choose “Disable compatibility mode“.
And voilà! Anagram works as it should on the Storm.
Be sure to download the latest version here: http://www.getanagram.com/blackberry/
A recent post described an issue some users have been reporting where they see an “IndexOutOfBounds” error when attempting to update an existing contact with Anagram.
Some investigating has revealed that this issue occurs on some BlackBerry models and not others. For now it looks like all models running OS 4.5 are affected, while others are not. If anyone sees this issue on another OS level, please post a comment.
We’re hoping RIM engineers will help us investigate why this is happening during the upcoming week. More will be posted soon!
UPDATE: RIM engineers have confirmed this to be a bug in some BlackBerry OS 4.5 and 4.6 releases. They suggested a work-around that we were able to implement and it seems to work well! Download Anagram 0.9.7 here: http://www.getanagram.com/blackberry/
It took much longer than expected but I think we have a very solid work-around for the missing linebreaks issue mentioned in the last post.
Basically we created an html parser to decode the html email, search for the captured text, and put the linebreaks back in! You would not believe the amount of fiddling and optimization that was required to get this to work.
Feedback is greatly appreciated! Download Anagram for BlackBerry 0.9.6 here.
Just got some great new press on Anagram for BlackBerry on BerryReview.com and Crackbery.com! Response has been great but users uncovered a couple of issues…
The first is a Java “IndexOutOfBounds” error that occurs when updating a contact that already exists in your BlackBerry address book. We’ve been able to reproduce this now in the lab and it’s not clear why it’s happening, but we can definitely find a work-around.
The other error is more annoying in that it seems to be a bug built into the BlackBerry itself. Some users were reporting that contacts were coming out with the fields run together and upon investigation, it seems that the BlackBerry itself omits line breaks from the text copied to the clipboard from certain HTML email messages. Then the text cannot be scanned correctly by Anagram since it doesn’t know where one line ends and the next begins!
It’s not clear which BlackBerry models and OS versions are affected, or what the exact formatting of email messages is that triggers this issue. But one thing is clear: Anagram has no control over how the BlackBerry copies text to the clipboard.
Fortunately, it looks like there is a technical work-around that we’ll be testing out here over the next couple of days. I’m certain this issue can be worked out as well.
Lastly, it looks like BlackBerry Storm users are having problems with some of the standard dialog boxes that Anagram presents. Specifically, it’s difficult to press one or the other button on yes/no dialogs. We assumed they would work properly and did limited testing since they’re standard and built into the BlackBerry! We’ll have to research alternatives.
Overall, we’re happy to have some great feedback and exposure for Anagram!
Just got a very basic implementation of Anagram up and running on the 3.0 beta iPhone. Here are some screenshots of the alpha version in action!
Very exciting stuff. Will be demoing this at CTIA Wireless next week!
[Click images to enlarge]
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Copy contact info from an email
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Activate the Anagram application
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Anagram scans the text and fills the fields
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Contact saved!
Click the “Save Contact” button and voila! New contact in your Address Book.
The Anagram iGoogle Gadget has been out for a while but recently we got word that you can install Google Gadgets into Gmail now. Very cool! Only trying it out with the Anagram Gadget did not produce good results… there is much less space available and everything gets cut off.
So we’ve fixed the formatting and have the gadget working seamlessly with Gmail. Now you can add contacts and appointments without switching to your iGoogle homepage.
Instructions for installing Anagram in your Gmail sidebar.
Here’s how it looks (click to enlarge):
Anagram for Gmail Gadget
Even bigger news than Anagram for BlackBerry is that the long-awaited iPhone OS 3.0 was just announced and it includes copy-and-paste functionality. Good news for everyone who’s been complaining about that missing feature, but good news also for us since it means developing Anagram for the iPhone is finally a possibility.
iPhone Copy/Paste
I’m a firm believer that Anagram Technology is more useful the smaller the form factor of the device in question. It’s already brilliant on the PC and even better on the tablet PC, but who takes the time to copy-and-paste contact information into the address book on a tiny PDA? If you do, leave a comment. You’re my hero!
We actually put some serious resources into creating Anagram for the iPhone around the time of the 2.0 OS release. I was convinced that it would have copy-and-paste since it was billed as a business-focused release. So the bonus here is that the Anagram engine is already up and running on the iPhone, and it works like a dream.
More info and screenshots coming soon as we turn this into a beta version…
It’s official… Anagram for BlackBerry was chosen by AT&T as an official contestant in the AT&T devCentral Fast-Pitch Platinum Awards at CTIA 2009 coming up April 1-2 in Las Vegas.
I’ll be there showing off a beta version of Anagram for BlackBerry to a panel of judges to compete against other applications in innovation and creativity. How can we lose???
Anagram for BlackBerry
The bigger news here may be that Anagram is coming soon for the BlackBerry platform. You can see how cool it is by watching a 1 minute video at the above link. And you can download the beta version now to see for yourself.
This blog will be a place for news and updates about Anagram Technology and the company behind it, Textual. Welcome!
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