Lonnie Knows Everything

After a long, anguishing wait, I was finally greeted with notice that SwirlyMMS 2.0 was available for download on Cydia today.. I will first list the pro’s and then the cons, then I will provide some pictures of the new App..  (visit them at www.swirlyspace.com)

Pro’s / What’s New:

1. There is a simple but effective voice recorder that saves in “amr” format, this is nice because the file sizes are minimized and virtually all phones support this.
2. They have incorporated GPS support, now you can optionally attach your coordinates in outgoing messages and a link to google maps will be presented to the recipient.
3. Delivery notifications are built in.
4. You can now change notification sounds.
5. You can hold your finger down on an incoming image and save it directly to the camera role, which is convenient.. you may also save incoming sounds as ring tones or as a notification sound.
6. New start up screen and background image is pretty slick.

Cons:

1. The GPS coordinates in my test seemed to be considerably inaccurate, more so than google maps when I ask it to pinpoint my location, this requires some further testing.
2. SwirlyMMS still does not properly render MMS messages, the items are still only broken into parts apparently, there’s no rendering of Wap encoded messages, or at least if there is it’s not been working for me.. essentially an MMS should be able to include multiple images on one page, with sound.
3. Still no ability to create custom folders and manage your messages within SwirlyMMS
4. Still no “Auto Download” functionality within SwirlyMMS (an often requested feature).
5. If you have a lot of picture messages, the load time is still quite slow, I haven’t verified but I believe the messages are still stored in flat files rather than a database for quick loading.
6. The image viewer is still the same as previous versions, there is no ability to use the normal gestures to zoom on an image.
7. As I mentioned in #5 in my pros, the start up image and background image is slick, but the UI has pretty much not changed.
8. The ability to record video directly would also be nice, but it’s not present in 2.0

My Overall Opinion:

The new SwirlyMMS comes in at $12 for new users, or $6.00 for upgraders .. if you do the math, that means that upgraders are paying $8.00 + $6.00 for a total of $14.00, this means that existing customers have to pay more overall than new customers, this is something that makes no sense to me.

While the addition of the voice recorder is nice, the other features are rather minimal, the GPS implementation is basic and the other features something you’d have expected should be there anyway.

Bottom line:

If you’re an existing user, unless you need voice recorder then I find it difficult to suggest upgrading at this time, the additional cost to upgraders to me does not make the upgrade justifiable (yet).. It’s a decision you have to make on your own.

If you’re a new user, then SwirlyMMS 2.0 will seem like a nearly complete solution for you even though the price tag of $12.00 is more than most apps that exist in the iPhone world right now.. Keep in mind however that SwirlyMMS 2.0 also does more than any other iPhone app is capable at the moment. If you’re a 3G user and a currently SwirlyMMS 1.3 customer, I would say it’s safe to wait until Apple’s offering in OS 2.0

One last thing I’m not knocking Swirly at all, I’ve known the guys since the first version came out, I’ve donated twice, offered my help as a beta tester and have been very active in the support forums, I plan to continue my support .. SwirlyMMS still holds the top spot in my list of favorite apps.

Read on for pictures..