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8/1/2021 10:25 PM
 
I suspect that like most iFly users - I've been watching and waiting for "The Big Announcement" to drop during Oshkosh.  Yes, I've seen the video announcing the next version iFly EFB, but frankly that was way too little information - and the lack of any real news from iFly about the new EFB app is pretty disappointing.
 
FWIW, iFly has great products in the iFly GPS app and 740b - and frankly the input from users forum has been a big part of what has made iFly as good as it is. In the past you folks at iFly have been very open to suggestions for improvements and have put a lot of faith in the feedback posted on the forum, both from the general forum users and the beta testers group.
 
That said, the non-event of "The Big Announcement" has led me to feel that iFly has either taken the beta testers out of the loop or the new EFB app isn't ready for release yet.  Either way, I'd really like to see Walter take the time to tell us what's going on.
 
Dropping the beta testing?  OK, that might make a bunch of dedicated iFly users unhappy, but the beta testing program has been by invitation only so it would be an iFly business decision (and - IMHO - likely detrimental to the development of iFly apps).
 
New EFB not ready for production? - or even ready for release to the beta testers?  If so, kudos to iFly for not rushing an untested product out on the market - but from the info posted by Brolin over the last few months asking iFly users to be patient and wait for the new app - I was led to believe that Oshkosh was the time when the new apps details would be announced and/or available.  The lack of info - other than the video - makes me wonder just what is going on at iFly headquarters.
 

iFly has had a reputation as being responsive to user input and feedback.  For whatever reason over the last few months, iFly has become less and less responsive to requests for new features or to simply acknowledge or address bugs that have cropped up with the app.  Neither Walter nor Brian have posted since around the first of April.  I get it - creating a new app takes tons of creative thinking, but let's not forget all the faithful users that have supported iFly's growth and contributed to the iFly GPS app development in the past.

 
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8/2/2021 2:40 AM
 

Well said

 
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8/2/2021 5:59 AM
 

Got up this morning with Oshkosh as a done deal and felt exactly the same as you Mark.

 

 
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8/2/2021 6:48 AM
 

I don't know anything more than anyone else here.  But my guess is simply this:  AP made a huge push to be ready to announce their new EFB at OSH, but they didn't get as far along as they were hoping by the time the show arrived. 

Walter probably had to make a choice:  Keep the product under wraps and miss the opportunity that OSH provides, or take off the wraps a little earlier than he would have liked, given the maturity of the product.  It kind of sounds sort of like Walter ended up in the middle...I wasn't at OSH and don't know what he showed there, but it doesn't sound like it was the full "HERE IT IS!" reveal that he was probably really hoping for.

The "lack of responsiveness" from AP over the past many months is clearly because the (very small) team was fully heads-down working hard to meet this milestone, and could not afford distractions.  Even so, it seems it wasn't quite enough.  Anyone who has any experience working on large projects with limited resources is familiar with this outcome.

I seriously doubt that Walter has decided to leave beta testers out of the process. But there are a LOT of people who have been accepted as beta testers, and it's an informal group.  I'm sure that Walter is being cautious for competitive reasons about when and how he shows the new product to anyone outside AP.  My guess is that the product is simply still not mature enough to even be ready for beta testing, or perhaps they are trying to do more in-house testing and hopefully minimize the beta test window for competitive reasons.

There are certainly reasons to be disappointed.  But I think they fall more in the arena of "Christmas is still a long way away" rather than "Santa has forgotten us".

 
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8/2/2021 8:59 AM
 

I do think I remember in one of Brolin's early posts that he stated that iFly hoped to have the new EFB available for all by the end of the year. While I look forward to see what that brings I have no problems flying with the product as it currently exists. It is so much better than paper charts and the E6B I first started flying with I would be comfortable if there were no new updates (other than bug fixes) to the product, but then again, I am not a "bells and whistles" consumer.

Patience Grasshopper

 
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