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Post by grebble
StefanSarzio wrote:From the glorious iOS announcement: "While some simpler implementations require the user to manually disconnect the app, waze has a different approach to background processing and shut down. When waze goes into the background, algorithms are applied to detect whether or not the device is in motion."

There's an simple and easy solution for exactly this problem on Android (without any fuzzing with 'smart' alogrithms doing educated guesses), allowing you to shut down Waze in a clean way at precise the correct time - yet you still didn't get that right, although that solution was available from the beginning...and was requested several times.

In case you see Waze on Android as some kind of second class citizen: why don't you just say that loud and send everybody over to Google Navigation?
I agree, Stefan. I just find it very strange that multitasking has been present for years on WinMo, Symbian, Blackberry and Android, and it has just been taken for granted that the user will simply end the app when they've finished with it. But now 'The Almighty' Steve Jobs has finally got on board the multitasking bandwagon, suddenly the strategy is being rethought in a blaze of glory. Why, again, are iPhone users given preferential treatment? Or is it just that they can't be trusted to end their apps manually, just as they can't be trusted to hold their phones properly? ;) :(

I must say, the only app on my phone that is unstable and crashes regularly is Waze. Yet is was rock solid on my Nokia 5800. Maybe the whole app on Android needs to be re-visited from the ground up.
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Post by grebble
damaniac wrote:I would say that your main priorities should be stability and a better handling of network errors.
Well said, that man :)

I am one of those users that keep bleating about the iPhone being given priority over other platforms for new features etc. but I would be quite happy if I didn't have those fancy features but did have a rock solid app that didn't freeze the phone and could be relied upon to keep running in the background whilst running Spotify and Google Maps navigation (tried this a couple of weeks ago and it was a miserable failure). That said, it would be even nicer if, as above, it could be just left running in the background and automatically quit when it's no longer being used, a la iPhone.

And Stefan, I agree with you. I use Setting Profiles to automatically turn Bluetooth on when connected to the car charger, and then start Waze when I connect to my Bluetooth car kit. That works great, but there's no way to kill it cleanly when I get out of the car.

I upgraded to v1.9 last night and even that crashed on my way to work today - admittedly only once :roll: and it just quit to the desktop rather than freeze the whole phone, so it's an improvement over v1.8.

So devs, please please work on the stability of Waze on Android. I will happily bombard you with Waze log files and OS logs if it helps.
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Post by grebble
alex wrote:Hi grebble,
Did you encounter the stability problems in the latest (1.8.99.106 or 1.9.0.0) versions?
Can you connect the crashes timing to some activity: execution of application, device connection etc...?

Thanks in advance,
AGA
Hi Alex,

The stability problems are in both versions, but 1.8.99.106 was far worse, to the point that it was unusable. 1.9.0.0 seemed better to start with when I loaded it yesterday, but it still crashed on my way to work. There wasn't any error message, it just quit to the desktop. It had been running for about 25 minutes and I hadn't done anything with the device. The log file, just before the crash, said something about a timeout whilst waiting for a tile.

On the way home yesterday, though, it was just as bad as it had been before. Waze would start and run as normal, but as soon as it had connected to the network, the whole phone would freeze. I managed to force it to close using my task killer, and then I switched to a 'scene' (HTC Sense profile) with no widgets, and used the task killer again to make sure nothing else whatsoever was running. Only then did Waze seem to run OK.

I did the same thing this morning on my commute, and it was mostly fine. Once, it dropped back to the desktop (again with apparently no warning), but didn't actually seem to close, as when I re-launched the app it was still connected to the network and didn't come up with the 'we seem to have found a bug' error message with the option to send a log. In the log, however, there is a stack dump in the roadmap_screen_refresh, roadmap_screen_repaint and roadmap_screen_repaint_square call stacks.

So unfortunately Waze seems to be just as unstable as it was, and it seems to be worse when there are more apps and widgets running. There does seem to be a long way to go before it can be called reliable, and I must say, that if I wasn't so keen on the concept of the project, I would have given up using Waze a long time ago, and that is probably what casual users are doing if they are having the same issues as me. The stability of Waze is a big barrier to gaining more users on Android, and it really needs to be sorted out.
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Post by grebble
muchski wrote:Is the hyper social version only for iPhone? When can we expect it for Android? :)
After they've fixed the Android stability problems :P

I've managed to get the app to be a bit more stable by turning off the auto brightness, using Launcher Pro rather than HTC Sense, and killing all unneeded tasks before starting it - it only crashes occasionally now. But I really want a stable, reliable app before the fancy social features are added.
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Post by grebble
krankyd wrote:new beta version will come out any day now, and should resolve the issues with the stability on froyo and others.
The problem with swype is due to a problem with Swype, and not waze (confirmed by swype - the delete has a problem in other applications as well).
Next version will support native text box integration, and should resolve this issue as well.
I'll look forward to it. FWIW the minor release 1.9.0.101 does seem more stable than 1.9.0.0 on my Desire. Not infallible, but does tend to keep going on my 20-mile trip to work, and if it does crash, it doesn't kill the whole phone like earlier versions did.
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Post by grebble
FreeMan12 wrote:I must be pretty special. The client I've got reports 1.9.00.000, and it has since I signed up for waze 2ish weeks ago. I think I came across it on AppBrain.com, if that makes any difference or not. I've been puzzled why this post was here and so active...
The latest version available on the Android market is 1.9.00.000. However that is still unstable and is causing crashes for many users. Most of the discussion around the stability of the client was started before 1.9 was released and was being discussed in this thread, and it's just carried on. I too was hoping 'any day now' would have been quicker than 2 weeks away.

I also get irritated about how the iPhone is given priority over everything else when it comes to upgrades. It's not just Waze, it's many other companies too. I'm very anti-iPhone (I think it's simply overpriced, overrated and over-loved, but don't get me started on that), but with Android rapidly gaining market share and overtaking the iPhone in some markets, things may change in the future.
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Post by grebble
eshabtai wrote:We are testing with various devices internally to make sure it works perfectly and stable but need your help to figure out the remaining issues.
...And that is indeed the point of a public beta. :) Thanks for the update Ehud. I have my own 'test script' which I will run with once the update is released, so I can see how it works from my point of view. Top of my priority list is stability.
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Post by grebble
mortuus wrote:Something is wrong for me with this new version, when i enter program i cant access the menu, nothing happens when i press it, also icant zoom in or out as i dont see the buttons, i have uninstalled and try again same again, worked perfect previous version now the program is wrecked..
You'll probably get a better response if you contact Waze directly regarding that issue. Send an e-mail to alpha@waze.com.
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Post by grebble
Yes it is a shame to see people quitting. It depends how much patience users have with the project. I for one love the concept, and that is the only reason why I'm sticking with it. We're indeed not paying for it, and it is still early days so issues will occur. However, that said, I have stopped using Waze on my phone until the new beta arrives, because of the stability issues. I won't go into how and why it crashes on my HTC Desire because I've said it before, and the devs say they are working on fixing the problem. It does, however, seem to be far worse when auto brightness is switched on, but one thing with Froyo is that it doesn't seem to freeze the phone any more, it just reboots it instead :lol:

Going by what has been said on the blog, the number of Waze users has absolutely skyrocketed recently, which is why the drives are taking so long to show up, and the guys need time to get the infrastructure sorted out to cope with it. I'm prepared to give them that time.

But Waze guys, please, ease off on the love for the sodding iPhone! You may argue that 'most' of your users are on iPhone, but even if, for example, 40% of your user base uses it (which I find hard to believe), that's still 60% - the majority - that don't. Issuing updates for the iPhone long before anything else, and really making a big deal of it, serves only to annoy the users of other platforms that don't have - and probably don't want - the overpriced, overhyped POS. Spotify (European music streaming service) have the same kind of philosophy, and really get flamed on their blog comments for it. It would be far better to have simultaneous releases for all platforms, and if that's not possible, at least have a beta available (even better, nightly builds as damaniac suggests), that we can try out and give useful feedback on.

I'm hoping for the new Android beta to be available for Thursday as I have a 250-mile round trip to make. Unfortunately, I'm not holding out much hope.
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Post by grebble
unwallflower wrote:I sort of suspect that the older, less powerful phones are the ones having the force close and crashing troubles. That would explain why my friend's G1 crashes almost every time he tries to use it, while my Evo has rarely crashed at all.
Well I have an HTC Desire which is certainly not older or less powerful, and I have problems with stability. As I think I've said before, if I turn the auto-brightness off, it's better, but still crashes occasionally in navigation.

I am looking forward to a new version in the hope that it's more stable, which the devs have been saying will come out 'any day now' for the past three weeks. It's particularly irritating to see iPhone users being given brand new versions and features all the time, yet us lowly Android users can't even get a stable bog-standard version to work with. :cry:
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