Thursday, December 18, 2008

Next Read 1.0 Released

Here is our press release announcing Next Read 1.0.

Square Wheel Software releases Next Read for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Now available on the iTunes Application Store, Next Read for the iPhone and iPod Touch is an elegant and easy-to-use application for avid readers.

Westford MA - December 18, 2008 - Square Wheel Software is proud to announce the release of Next Read, the company's first in a series of software applications. Next Read allows users to build and manage their lists of desired books - perfect for the avid reader who is constantly trying to manage an ever-growing list of books to buy.

Next Read uses an ingenious scoring system that allows users to automatically rank order their book lists. Each time a book is added to the list, the user specifies where they heard about the book by selecting from a customizable recommendation menu. Each recommendation source is weighted (magazine = 1, book review = 2, friend = 3, and so on), and the set of possible recommendation sources is completely customizable to maximize user control of the resulting list.

Next Read leverages search results and book detail from Amazon.com, the leading online book seller. Using Amazon permits Next Read to provide the user with the most accurate information currently available for each book. For each book list entry, convenient links let the user to go directly to Amazon to view reviews, purchase the book, or add it to a wish list.

About Square Wheel Software

Square Wheel Software, located in Westford, MA, focuses on providing iPhone and iPod Touch users with useful utilities to help them with everyday tasks.

iTunes Application Store Link:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299379727&mt=8

3 comments:

  1. I just wanted to say thanks for the recent update, which has the capacity to sort by Source. My review on iTunes specifically asked for this enhancement, and I was very happy to see it added to the app so quickly. However: it does not work retroactively, which is disappointing. I had already added about 30 books to the book list, and when I sorted by source immediately after installing the update, the only sort category available was "All." I then entered a couple more books to see what would happen, the sort function now includes the sources that I assigned to these books, but still ignores anything added to the list prior to the update.

    It would be great if you could apply another fix to make this work retroactively.

    A couple more requests: rather than take the user to the regular Amazon.com site, could you take us to the Amazon mobile site?

    And -- this may not be possible, but it doesn't hurt to ask: when a user clicks through to Amazon to read about a book, there is no fast way back to NextRead. It would be great to have an enhancement that allows the user to go back to NextRead at precisely the spot they were at when they clicked through to Amazon.'

    Kudos on this excellent app -- I hope you get lots of uptake.

    Shelley Martin

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  2. Hello Shelley. Thanks for the comments.

    On the first comment - unfortunately - there isn't much we can do. The original version didn't even save the sources - so they are gone forever. That's why we added the All, so at least they would be listed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

    We tried to make it launch the mobile Amazon. For some reason, when you first launch Safari from outside, the Amazon redirect does not happen. We have put in a ticket with Amazon asking them how to directly link to their iPhone version of the website (its actually more hocus-pocus than you would think). Hopefully, we can correct this in the near future. I dislike it as much as you :)

    The last comment - this has been the topic of an internal debate here. If you notice, when you click on the arrow to read the reviews of a book, we actually leave you inside the app. You don't leave at all. The reason the "View on Amazon" feature doesn't do this is that we figured people might want the control of the full browser in this case. Your idea is not a bad one though. Perhaps we could just "remember" where you where and bring you back there when you reopen. Ideally, we would like to be able to keep you inside Next Read, however, as that is clearly the most convenient.

    Keep up the feedback!

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  3. hello.

    I tried to purchase next read and I keep getting the message. Not available for the IPOD Touch

    I really want to purchase

    Jill smith Jcsmith@logic.bm

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