BBO mobile app 3.1 released

[semeai]

If you orientate your iPad with the power cable at the top before you launch the BBO app it will present itself the right-way up.

 

Indeed! Thanks for the tip. :)

[barmar]

But I'm still wondering why I can't access the mobile version for my Samsung Mini smartphone - it just doesn't show up in the search for BBO in the Play Store.

We've submitted it to the Apple App Store, the Android Market, the Kindle Store, and if we haven't yet we'll probably submit it to the Nook Store when Fred gets back from Philly.

[Quantumcat]

The mobile app is great, the only reservations I have is that the robot players are truly awful. Is it possible for them to be programmed to play their lowest card unless they have a good reason not to? They behave rather like my 8-year-old niece playing on Bridge Baron, who hasn't quite grasped that bridge is a partnership game, i.e. that you shouldn't play your queen on top of your partner's jack. Another thing that might be improved is that it is difficult to tell who just led a card, and whose turn it is, since the cards all go in the middle of the table and the person whose turn it is isn't highlighted in any way.

That said the Vugraph is awesome, I never even knew that voice commentary was possible! Also the graphics are quite pretty.

[barmar]

The mobile app is great, the only reservations I have is that the robot players are truly awful.

They're the same as the basic robots in regular BBO.

[Jaom]

Why playing tournaments and fining tables is impossible on iPad app? Will this featuure be added in next realases?

[slior]

Love the app [runs well on a Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.1]. One suggestion: most of us have a single userid which we always use. In particular, even those who share desktop machines rarely share mobile devices. It would therefore be nice to have an option so that clicking "Log in to BBO" will just use the stored credential without asking for confirmation. I think this option would make sense for the flash client as well, but for some reason I don't mind the extra click as much there.

[barmar]

Why playing tournaments and fining tables is impossible on iPad app? Will this featuure be added in next realases?

Tournament play should be coming soon, although we won't announce the specific features of the release until we're ready to publish.

[barmar]

Love the app [runs well on a Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.1]. One suggestion: most of us have a single userid which we always use. In particular, even those who share desktop machines rarely share mobile devices. It would therefore be nice to have an option so that clicking "Log in to BBO" will just use the stored credential without asking for confirmation. I think this option would make sense for the flash client as well, but for some reason I don't mind the extra click as much there.

We would then have to have two Login buttons -- one for logging in with the default ID, another for opening the Login dialogue. Seems wasteful just to save one click.

 

In the flash client, there isn't even an extra click. Assuming you clicked "Remember password", you just click the Login button and you're logged in. Or are you counting the "Click here to play bridge" link on the home page?

[mink]

We would then have to have two Login buttons -- one for logging in with the default ID, another for opening the Login dialogue. Seems wasteful just to save one click.

 

In the flash client, there isn't even an extra click. Assuming you clicked "Remember password", you just click the Login button and you're logged in. Or are you counting the "Click here to play bridge" link on the home page?

There is enough space to display the buttons and the login dialog together as one dialog, like the flash client does it.

 

Karl

[slior]

We would then have to have two Login buttons -- one for logging in with the default ID, another for opening the Login dialogue. Seems wasteful just to save one click.

 

In the flash client, there isn't even an extra click. Assuming you clicked "Remember password", you just click the Login button and you're logged in. Or are you counting the "Click here to play bridge" link on the home page?

 

I'm not proposing extra login button but rather an extra checkbox in the options dialogue.

[barmar]

I'm not proposing extra login button but rather an extra checkbox in the options dialogue.

So in order to login with a different account, you'd first have to login with the default account, uncheck the option, logout, then go through the normal login process. Is this what you're suggesting?

[Heron]

Although this app is in the Amazon app market I still canot download it for geographical reasons. Is there any way to be able to download the .app or .apk without going through one of the markets?

 

Just pulling that back up, as I would also be very highly interested. (...and afaik this should be trivial to do, though possibly y'all were waiting for the new version to post before making it available for download?)

 

FWIW I've also filed this as a support request (#132376); no answer yet, though I wouldn't really expect one anyway until after everyone is back from Philadelphia.

[Quantumcat]

They're the same as the basic robots in regular BBO.

 

I don't think so - a hand a while ago I had 2 chances to make a contract, dropping a queen doubleton or finessing and having the suit be 3-3. The robot I would have to finesse led the highest remaining pip. The only chance seemed to be that he had four small. So I went down when he had led 8 from Q82. Another hand my robot partner had Atxx trumps, with dummy having only a singleton, so we have 2 natural trump tricks. Robot leads low to king. So far so good. Then he leads the jack. Does robot pard play small? Or the ace? Both are ok. He plays ... the ten. On another hand, robot opp leads an ace. His pard has K632. You can guess what he plays - giving me an impossible contract. Or what about the auction, 1H (pass) 2H** (2S) pass (pass) 4H**? (**=robot)

Never seen a GIB do anything like this. In fact they seem to be very consistent at giving natural count, and make normal leads. It's rare that they do something totally insane. They do seem to play a random small card when they are basically equivalent, unlike human players who like to clutch their eights "just in case", but apart from that they play rather like people.

[slior]

So in order to login with a different account, you'd first have to login with the default account, uncheck the option, logout, then go through the normal login process. Is this what you're suggesting?

 

That's roughly what I had in mind.

 

However, I now see that with the current architecture this idea makes no sense. The kind of "option" I'm proposing needs to be stored locally on the device and accessed before login (otherwise, how would the app know if the option is set?), but currently the only suported options are user-dependent options that are stored on the server and are hence only accessible after login.

 

So, implementing this idea would require changing the home screen (add a checkbox for the "direct login" option), which I'm not sure you want to do.

[barmar]

I don't think so - a hand a while ago I had 2 chances to make a contract, dropping a queen doubleton or finessing and having the suit be 3-3. The robot I would have to finesse led the highest remaining pip. The only chance seemed to be that he had four small. So I went down when he had led 8 from Q82. Another hand my robot partner had Atxx trumps, with dummy having only a singleton, so we have 2 natural trump tricks. Robot leads low to king. So far so good. Then he leads the jack. Does robot pard play small? Or the ace? Both are ok. He plays ... the ten. On another hand, robot opp leads an ace. His pard has K632. You can guess what he plays - giving me an impossible contract. Or what about the auction, 1H (pass) 2H** (2S) pass (pass) 4H**? (**=robot)

Never seen a GIB do anything like this. In fact they seem to be very consistent at giving natural count, and make normal leads. It's rare that they do something totally insane. They do seem to play a random small card when they are basically equivalent, unlike human players who like to clutch their eights "just in case", but apart from that they play rather like people.

We only have two versions of the GIB program running on our servers: the basic ones that cost $1/week, and the advanced ones that cost $1/day and are used in the robot tourneys. When you play against robots with the mobile app, it uses the basic ones.

 

If you use the download version of BBO, it runs GIB on your PC. It's the same program as the advanced robots, but may behave differently because its speed is dependent on how fast your PC is.

[0_frank]

Well done

[moogal]

I'd like to ditto mrdct's request to show the other table result when kibbitzing vugraph/team games.

 

I'd also like a total for each side on the scorecard. -- a session total in a multi session vugraph.

 

Thanks for a fabulous app.

 

Janice

[Phil]

I'm enjoying BBO on the iPad. I can now be social with others downstairs pretending to interact instead of being holed up in my upstairs cave.

 

WD.

[tonyb48]

Great start on my Motorola Xoom. Well thought-out layout; on the internet version my fat fingers pick the wrong card or bid. I am sure you plan to add tournament play because I play a lot so you make more money. When might I expect this upgrade? My second priority would be to turn off friend-log-in notices. My conversation screen is full. I really appreciate this effort so far. Thank you.

[uday]

we're going to add Tourney support to the next upgrade of the mobile app. Dates? Dunno. few -> several weeks?

U

[boom1925]

Works great on my Kindle FIRE! THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[emmemm]

Today I played the first few hands on my new android tablet (10"). It was a very good experience!!!

Wow!

 

Usability is very good as it is. The way you make use of the limited space on the screen is really great. While playing, just displaying your hand, the dummy and the four cards for the current trick, is such a "space saver".

 

Now for a hint to improve... :-)

When somebody plays the first card to a trick, it is sometimes hard to imagine from which player that card come from.

To improve, I would like to suggest one to three thin frames marking the space for the cards missing to the current trick.

 

Thanks for bbo

emmemm

[Antrax]

Tried out the new application on an iPad 3 yesterday. Very convenient interface once I learned not to confuse dummy's 6s and 9s. Zero misclicks. Some suggestions:

a) Even after I play all my clubs, it would be nice to have a small visual separator between diamonds and hearts.

b) After a hand is over, I'm curious to see how many IMPs I gained/lost. I can figure it out from the change in the total, or I can go to see all results, but it would've been nice to see a quick popup once the hand is over.

c) Can we enable the table with three basic bots also to non-anonymous players? Ideally I'll pass the time until friends log on by playing with the bots, right now I have to hop between playing anonymously and logging in as myself.

d) Some sort of "thinking" button to prolong the timeout until my anonymous session is over. I was interrupted while playing and by the time I was back BBO closed the hand mid-play. It's understandable sessions can't be open "forever", and I think the current timeout (> than the iPad's default sleep timeout) is great, but having a way to say "hey, I occasionally get up and am back after a couple of minutes, please keep my session alive longer" would be good.

 

Thanks.

[lottesr]

Thanks a lot for the latest version. It works great on Ipad. In future versions please allow users to spend their BB$ and attend tournements.

[Antrax]

I've been playing a lot with the "play anonymously" feature, and had two hands repeat twice. Is this a deliberate feature, am I extraordinarily lucky, or did you for some reason choose not to have the server calculate the randomness for the dealing algorithm?