Monday, June 28, 2004

WARNING: Don't install Talking Panda... [UPDATE]

Alright, I just had a bad experience. This post over at Gizmodo pointed me to Talking Panda, a really cool language guide complete with audio built for the iPod's Notes feature. The problem? Well, installing the guide erased ALL OF MY NOTES without any warning or indication that it would, replacing my entire Notes folder with the Japanese demo. Supremely uncool. Here's the email I just sent them regarding this issue:

Hiya,

I just downloaded the demo of your Japanese book and was going to recommend it to my readers, because it really is a great idea. However, the installer to your program just erased all the Notes I had stored in my Notes folder on my iPod which really really sucks. You should probably fix it so that the book installs in a folder inside the Notes folder rather than simply replacing everything inside the Notes folder. Otherwise, it will make it extremely impractical and hazardous for many users.

Let me know when you've fixed this error.
--C.K.

If you never use your Notes folder, though, go check it out.

UPDATE: Okay, I discovered thanks to comments here that there was actually a backup folder of my Notes made on the iPod during installation. However, I have not heard back from the developers and there is no documentation of this backup in the form of a read me or on their website (only evidently in the installer itself, which I clicked thru). So, at the least, better documentation is needed. BUT, this still cripples my iPod's Notes functionality when on the go. I can either have Talking Panda, or I can have my Notes. I suppose I could drag the backed up Notes over to the Notes folder and have them all mixed up with Talking Panda, but that is extremely messy. I hope they revise the software so that it installs in a folder inside the Notes folder rather than becoming a Notes folder hog, as it currently is.

*cross-posted on 3650...