Old version of the iGrill app

[Lightning]

There are a number of things that really do not sit well with me on this.  Sure, I understand wanting to get the user interface pinned down before adding features. The way they did this is so totally wrong. First off, you do both in development builds - without deploying this on customer equipment. Especially not in an environment like the Apple App Store where it's next to impossible for average customers to roll versions back after getting foisted with a turd.

Secondly, adding the missing features back in should be trivial. Not removing them in the first place should have been trivial.  We all know the code base for them exists and works - it was in the previous version of the software.  Redoing the interface shouldn't be difficult because the user interface is well detached from the actual control logic with the way the Model-View-Controller programming model used for iOS is designed; this is not new, it's been in use with various versions of the XCode development environment for all of iOS, OS X on Macs, and Nextstep/Openstep right back to the late 1980s.  Reskinning an app designed this way while leaving the programming that does the heavy lifting untouched - and complete - should not have been a problem.  I don't have any experience with how Android development is performed but detaching user interface from everything else shouldn't be all that difficult in most modern development models and tool chains.

Never understood needing apps to BBQ/Grill. Guess I'm just old fashioned and do it the way I've always done it.

I don't need it.  I got the iGrill 2 so I could use a grate level ambient temperature probe in my WSM because the lid thermometers are known to be off. I know mine's well off, and I didn't want to kludge it with a long stemmed thermometer hanging in through the top vent. Being able to track ambient plus multiple food temperatures helps me keep control over my cooking that much more thoroughly and being able to do so remotely helps me do more than one thing at once. I'm not retired; my time off work is limited so if I can do other things around the house or yard while a long cook is in progress, it really helps me avoid trading off activities in an either/or proposition and lets me do both more often.  Me?  I'm old fashioned. That pentode vacuum tube schematic symbol pretty much gives that away.  I'm also old fashioned in that I also think things should be tested, validated, and proven before being turned over to customers, which very clearly did not happen here in spectacular fashion.  But I'm an older style electronics technologist trying to make my way in an information technology world where standards aren't the same.

[kettlebb]

Well said @Lightning but remember we've been in a paradigm shift in IT with trying to be more agile and process driven. I think a lot gets lost or missed along the way. My last job I ran and maintained infrastructure which hosted hundred of in house written apps and you'd be shocked how much is missed in testing. I don't try to stereotype but a lot of developers out there are trying to cut corners and circumvent processes in place just to deploy junk ass code to production then deal with the aftermath later.  I think Apple should absolutely be adding a feature to roll back an app to the previous version if you aren't happy with the update. I'd sacrifice a small portion of my local or iCloud storage for that feature.


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[OldAPK]

And look at those fools they pulled the crap app off the Google play store.

[LabRat]

Still on iTunes and still getting panned

[Don_]

I was one of the many disappointed reviewers. The one update they've since released has made it marginally functional again, but it is still shockingly disappointing. Makes me want to buy a Smoke instead. That would be overkill though. I was really happy with the igrill2 as it was. It worked fine for me. It helped me learn to keep stable temps for long periods of time in my current set up. Now it's not much different from the unit I bought it to replace.
I hope they do something crazy good to it to make up for the pile of_______ they have turned it in to now.


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[ClubChapin]

It looks like they dropped a new version of the iOS app today. I have downloaded, but haven't tried it yet.

[LabRat]

Just downloaded. Thanks for the heads up. Haven't tried it yet, but noticed that on the home screen, there is a new "Presets" button and the most interesting part is that it pulled up my presets from the old version before they messed it up. So, those must have been stored in the program but not part of that last abomination of an update.

It also allows you to set a temperature range again.

So it looks promising.

[Lightning]

I downloaded it on my iPad mini.  This is yet another new version and not a re-release of the old one.  Anyways, I and gave it a very quick test with the ambient temperature probe and one food probe hanging in free air just to get values of some kind to be read in I made a couple of observations:

When you toggle the probe type to ambient, you can't set a range for it anymore.  This means you can't set ranges and alarms for pit temperature - only food temperature.  This is somewhat of an improvement but it's of limited value since you're still hobbled in not being able to set warning thresholds for your pit temperature.  This is essential for keeping an eye on long running cooks.

The graphs now function on the iPad mini, and aren't obscured by a huge label that you can't close.  This is an improvement.

You still can't name probes, check the battery level of the iGrill, and landscape still doesn't function.  You still can't view graphs of more than one probe at a time.

So, from what I've been able to see so far, this is a very incremental update.

In fairness to Weber, I do blame Apple for some of this in that they've made it so you can't (easily) download old versions from the App Store and they've made version management very difficult at the iTunes end.  In my case, iTunes hasn't been syncing some things properly and the iGrill app is one of the ones that hasn't backed up properly on my computer along with a lot of football team pictures that I had to get replacement copies of.  I'm going to ransack it again and see if I can unearth the .ipa file.

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Weber contracted app development out and changed software houses, or had some serious programmer turnover if it was done in house.  The new version of the iGrill app is very clearly being built from scratch.  It's also clear that whoever's doing it now doesn't really have much experience with barbecue and electronic instrumentation since the way things were done with the new version don't reflect an understanding of the needed requirements of people who are serious about barbecuing or cooking in general.   Whoever made the previous app had a good understanding about what was needed/wanted and the app was quite good.  The only major change I'd have asked for was being able to export chart data.  This is why I'm wondering if maybe the developers have changed; that theory would go a long way to explaining why the app's so incomplete, why code from the older version couldn't be reused and would have to be rebuilt from scratch, and answering the question what on earth are they doing?

I reviewed version 4.0.1.  It's the first time I've ever written a review on the apps store but I felt it had to be done.  If the customer dissatisfaction over this isn't expressed, they won't feel any pressure to fix it up.

Well said @Lightning but remember we've been in a paradigm shift in IT with trying to be more agile and process driven. I think a lot gets lost or missed along the way. My last job I ran and maintained infrastructure which hosted hundred of in house written apps and you'd be shocked how much is missed in testing. I don't try to stereotype but a lot of developers out there are trying to cut corners and circumvent processes in place just to deploy junk ass code to production then deal with the aftermath later.  I think Apple should absolutely be adding a feature to roll back an app to the previous version if you aren't happy with the update. I'd sacrifice a small portion of my local or iCloud storage for that feature.

I fully agree about Apple's iOS version management for customers.  It's completely absent.  Not being able to roll back app versions when situations like this happen or entire iOS versions if an upgrade cripples your device (I remember the last version of iOS for the iPhone 3G turned it into an almost unusable piece of junk).  I've made a couple of observations about the IT industry.  Outside of desktops and servers running Windows which is where the bulk of the expertise is by necessity, a lot of IT people become very dicey very quickly.  Non-Windows platforms and hardware, especially outboard hardware interfacing with outboard equipment that deals with real world stuff - temperature data gathering like the iGrills would be a good example - seems to give a lot of career IT people a hard time.  A lot of people I've worked with over the years have made the observation that it's been much easier to get engineering/technologists to do IT and software engineering work and obtain good results than to go the other way, and that's been my experience too.

[selfservebrewer]

I too was one of the more than  irritated iGrill 2 users after the Weber 4.0 app update. As mentioned above, some of the needed features are back (temp range, alerts). One of the things I just found is that setting an alert for a temp range only sounds audibly once. So, once you drop or escalate above your set temp it alerts you, but never again after being dismissed. FAIL! You have to stop & then reset the range for it to audibly notify you again.

If you're going to challenge a classroom of 6th graders to develop a mobile app, don't do it with a perfectly good functioning app that already existed.



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[Lightning]

Success!



Remember this?!?!?!  After some serious legwork, I've gotten my hands on the 3.2.1 .ipa file.

If anyone needs it, send me a personal message.


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[LabRat]

PM sent. Grate find!!!

[LabRat]

The developer's comments on the latest update is promising and is why we should continue to submit feedback and wishes.

The valuable feedback we received from our consumers will assist us in introducing continuous improvements to our app, which is why we have scheduled a few exciting updates of the next several weeks, bringing back some of the features you have come to know and love as well as introducing new functionality. Stay tuned!

Not to be the grammar police, but man, they need to learn about run-on sentences.

[FuzzyMan88]

PM sent.

[fljoemon]

Fantastic @Lightining .. I was looking for this and now that you found it, we can use this until they put back all the features in their updated app. Thanks for offering to share it with us. I also sent you a PM. Thanks!

[Kneab]

Pm sent.
Thank you Lightning!