I just wanted to post an update to keep everyone in the loop. Obviously it's taken us longer then we anticipated to get the new major release out for testing. Here is what's going on.
In the past GasTracker+ was a connection required app (no offline access) that allowed Fuelly users to submit and view their data with Fuelly. A major upgrade of GasTracker+ was released in June when the new Fuelly platform was released. Since then we had to build the offline functionality and the syncing mechanisms which is more work than most people would expect. We have the offline data storage in place and have submitted the rebuilt app to the app store for approval. It was submitted last week but it looks like a seasonal backlog due to Christmas might hold up approval.
GasTracker+ is going to be renamed Fuelly Beta. Fuelly Beta will be our official ongoing beta app with our newest features. Gas Cubby (FREE) will ultimately be renamed Fuelly Basic and Gas Cubby (Paid) will be Fuelly Pro. The difference between Fuelly Basic and Fuelly Pro will be that no ads are shown on Pro and we plan to build other tools only available on Pro such as advanced analytics including more charts and other features that we cannot be disclosed at this time.
After the new version of GasTracker+ goes live (which will be called Fuelly Beta) we plan to monitor and address issues to make sure the product is working perfectly. This might take a few weeks for us to get a significant amount of feedback and release another version with fixes. Once we feel Fuelly Beta is stable we will then start the beta process of testing the import from Gas Cubby into Fuelly Beta. We will be sending out email invites to some of the folks who have signed up to help with the Gas Cubby beta. We had thousands of people sign up to help test the beta so not everyone will get an invite. We will probably follow up with everyone asking them about the time available to help us with beta testing and their technical knowledge so we can pick folks who have the time and technical understanding to help out. We are hoping for this to take place in January/February.
Here are some screenshots of the new app:
I did not show the screenshots of the new graph pages as we are still working on those. We will post some more screenshots when those pages are done.
Gas Cubby 3 has a totally new database model and thus requires us to migrate the data from the old database to an entirely new database. This might sound like a basic task but it's something we need to test considerably before rolling this out via an update to the app store. We will be working with beta testers on this in batches. Once we feel 100% certain that we are ready to roll this out to everyone then we will publish an update via the app store.
When we are on the new app we will be in position to start iterating and adding more features. We have some basic but useful new tools planned for 2015. One that I am excited about is the ability to add attachments to records. You could include photos of the pump and your odometer at each fuel-up or take a photo or attach a PDF of a service record. We also plan to introduce more drive level tools so you can track the individual drives during each tank. We plan to evolve Fuelly so you can track all your vehicle expenses including insurance costs, parking, tolls, depreciation, finance charges, etc. Our vision is that Fuelly will provide you a cost/mile (or cost/km) for your vehicle and allow you to compare your costs with others and when looking for a new vehicle be able to quickly get a sense of what it's real world costs will be for you.
I apologize for the apps taking so long to get done. We have four people working on the system and they are making progress chipping away at a very long improvements list. You would be amazed at how many little details have to be taken care of. The nice thing is that as we make progress we are doing things right so we can focus on great new features for the future.
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