Latest News and Updates


Version 1.9.9.1- The Little Big Update

July 11th, 2011

We’ve just submitted version 1.9.9.1 to the app store for review as we prepare our big version 2.0 release.  While the number on the update may seem incremental, this update is not!  We’ve decided that some of the things that we wanted to release in version 2.0 just couldn’t wait that long, so we’ll be releasing them now!   Here are some of the things you can look forward to.

Completely Overhauled Setup

One of the biggest complaints that we receive about Smiley Mail is that it’s too hard to set up.  Additionally, about 90% of our email inquiries are related to setup problems or issues.  We’ve addressed this problem with a vastly overhauled setup that is akin to the iphone’s own mail program.  We’ve stripped away all of the difficult language, confusing fields, and preloaded the program with several popular email servers to choose from to help you set up Smiley Mail quickly and easily.

   

Japan-Exclusive Packs now Available for Purchase

All of the packs that have been deemed as Japan-exclusives until now have been included in Smiley Mail version 1.9.9.1 for purchase in the shop.  This totals to over 15 new packs (yes, 15!) to purchase in the store.  Additionally, all of these packs have been left in all of their untouched, Japanese glory with their original Japanese text and comedic flare.  From version 1.9.9.1, all Japanese packs will be released simultaneously in Japan and overseas!

5 All New Icon Packs

In addition to the over 15 Japanese language packs, there are 5 completely new packs being added to the mix.  There’s plenty to love and plenty to browse and look through with this latest set of icons, which includes fancy, stylized sketches for greetings in our “Applique” pack and fun emoticons designed to look like pencil drawings in our “Pencil Doodles” pack.  Browse through the shop and you’re sure to find something you’ll like among the over 20 new packs available!

   

Emoticon Keyboard Icon Pack Categories

Icon pack selection in the emoticon keyboard has a bit of memorization task up until now.  The packs didn’t have any particular order or logical organization- all of the banners or HD icons weren’t grouped into a single place and looking for a particular pack involved scrolling around until you got lucky.  We’ve changed all that by adding easy to see icon category labels within the Emoticon Keyboard pack browsing bar.  You’ll see labels for “Icons”, “Banners”, “Chibi” (Mini Banners), and “HD Icons” while browsing through the bottom.  Additionally, icon packs within each category are now organized from old to new.  Looking for an icon pack will now be easier than ever!

Coming Soon

We’ve already submitted the latest update to Smiley Mail, so look for the update by sometime next week!  We’re not resting yet though, because there’s still more in store for version 2.0- including SMS functionality, improved Twitter functionality, and a revised flow between composing and sending messages.

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More in the Cooker

June 29th, 2011

We haven’t provided you with any recent news (our apologies for that) because our English support staff was out of town, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been working.  We’ve got plenty of things a brewin’ in our kitchen these days.  In fact, we’ve got almost too many things on the stove!  We have new features coming to Smiley Mail version 2.0, as well as a new… game!  (Yes, you heard that right!)

We have lots of ideas for things that we’d like to fix and change in version 2.0, and some of the things that might see the light of day in our upcoming big release will be…

Revamped Setup

SMTP on, SMTP off… what is an SMTP anyway?!  We get this question more than you could possibly realize (or maybe you do realize it), and we understand that the settings are quite a bit more confusing than we would like them to be.  However, there will soon be no more of that!  We are planning to drastically simplify the setup process and make it as familiar to you as that of your iPhone’s mail setup.  In fact, the setup process will look just about identical to the setup process of your iPhone’s Mail App!  You’ll be greeted with familiar screens upon opening the app to guide you through a very simplified setup process.  No more worrying about an SMTP and whether to turn it off or on.  Smiley Mail won’t have multiple confusing modes anymore, just plain old Smiley Mail!

SMS/MMS/Text messaging

We’re working on it, and we’re hoping to finally get it out to you!  The much awaited, much-anticipated, and much requested feature will finally be making its way to Smiley Mail!  ’nuff said.

Editable Emoticon Keyboard

The number of icon packs that have been added to Smiley Mail since its humble beginnings with 3 icon packs is staggering.  In fact, we now face the problem of not being able to find the icon pack we’re looking for because there are so many to choose from.  That problem will soon be solved!  In the works, we’re developing a way to simply turn on and off the packs that you want to appear in the emoticon keyboard.  If you don’t like a pack or don’t use it often, simply turn it off in the Settings Menu.  This will keep your search for the perfect emoticon short and simple!

So…what’s with this Game?!

It’s not Smiley Mail, but we’re working on a brand-spankin’ NEW project which is an iOS GAME!  The game doesn’t have an English name yet, but involves a very simple, yet very addictive concept with an art style that is fun and amusing.  We can’t reveal too much at this time, but we’ll be sure to tell you more soon!  Stay tuned!

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Version 1.9.9 has been Released!

May 26th, 2011

Not so long after we posted about our version 1.9.9 submission to Apple, it looks like the latest version of Smiley Mail has already been approved and released! An approval in less than a week’s time makes this possibly the fastest approval processes yet from the App Store! Thanks Apple!

Go out and download Smiley Mail version 1.9.9 now! Woo hoo!

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Version 1.9.9 has been Submitted!!

May 25th, 2011

Great news on the Smiley Mail front lines!  Version 1.9.9 has been submitted to the app store and is currently waiting for approval by Apple.  The newest version of Smiley Mail will be kept as under a 20 megabyte download, includes stability improvements, and has 3 new icon packs!

Under 20 Megabytes

Smiley Mail’s icon library has grown significantly since its release over a year ago.  Surprisingly, all of those little icons add up to a significant amount of memory, which has increased the overall size of Smiley Mail.  In an effort to keep the download size of Smiley Mail down to a minimum to reduce installation and update times and to avoid the 20 megabyte limit imposed by the App Store on apps that can be downloaded over a 3G network, version 1.9.9 limits itself to under a 20 megabyte download.

Icon packs are now downloaded from our servers and stored within Smiley Mail on an as-needed basis.  When starting up version 1.9.9, Smiley Mail will perform a one-time install of its preinstalled icon packs.  You can always perform this install at a later time if you wish (the install will take a few minutes) by accessing the download button in the settings menu.  Additionally, if you’d rather not download all of the preinstalled packs at once, you can choose to download individual packs when accessing the ones that haven’t been downloaded yet within the editor.  New icon packs will also perform a one-time download of the icons after purchasing them.

Overall, these changes will result in quicker updates, installations, and will most importantly keep the app available for download over 3G with (hopefully) as little intrusion and inconvenience as possible.

Smiley Mail won't weigh you down with it's new download system. Now the application will stay as a less than 20 megabyte download.

3 New Icon Packs

We’ve created 3 great new icon packs for you in the latest update, including one inspired by a popular Japanese dance and music group!  You’ll find plenty of variety in icon packs 11 and 12, including cute puppies and characters of all different kinds.

Lots of characters in Smiley Mail Version 1.9.9's Icon Pack 11 Cute Puppies and more in Smiley Mail's Icon Pack 12!

Click the images for a full-size preview

Additionally, we’re particularly excited about our “Taking Care of Business” pack, which is full of….dancing businessmen?!  Yes, that’s right, dancing businessmen!  If you’ve never seen or heard of “World Order”, we suggest you take a look the video below and then you’ll see why dancing businessmen are so cool!  ”Taking care of Business” has plenty of dancing business men doing all sorts of cool moves!

Coming Soon

Look for the latest update to hit the App Store by the end of the week!  We’re excited and we hope you are too!  Thanks, as always, for your support!

Next up on our laundry list…the much anticipated and much awaited SMS support!

We're working on more goodness for your iPhone! Stay tuned! ..and look for Taking Care of Business in Version 1.9.9!

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What’s Coming Up

May 10th, 2011

There are so many things that we’d like to do with Smiley Mail , and we wish we actually had the time to do and tell you about all of them.  What we can tell you are some of our priorities that we have some of our short-term coming updates.

Templates

You wanted more, and you’ll be getting more.  Our artist is hard at work on plenty of easy-to-use templates for birthdays and general for the next Smiley Mail update.  Thanks to Myron Mack for the suggestion and the feedback!

Smaller App Size

Shrinking the app size like a shrinking MarioWe’re shrinking the size of the app to ensure that you can always download it over 3G and without having to connect to a WiFi network.

The App Store restricts app downloads over 20 megabytes to WiFi networks only.  Given that Smiley Mail is messaging app and one that you are likely to use from an iPhone, it would be quite cumbersome to have to install it over a WiFi connection.  Additionally, if the app was restricted to a WiFi connection, it would mean updates would also be restricted to WiFi.  A smaller app will decrease its footprint on your iPhone, decrease download times, and also decrease update times.

To help shrink the app size, we’re working on a system of downloading the app’s icons from our servers on a one-time-basis.  This will keep the app smaller and minimize the icon loading times that are often experienced with other emoticon apps that load images from the internet or their servers.

The app is currently just barely under the 20 megabyte mark, and we’re working on getting this change made soon.

SMS/MMS/Text Message (Whatever you’d to call it) Support

Smiley Mail will be compatible with text messaging soon.Yes, the wait will soon be over!  Your voice has been heard and we will answer your call!  The most requested feature for Smiley Mail will soon be a reality as it is very high on our priority list!  We’re adding support for sending Smiley Mail messages via text messaging with all of the icons, fonts, and colors!

We’re working on getting this feature out to you in a not-too-distant future update.  Be sure to stay tuned to our blog to see when the feature will be released.

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Golden Week Holiday

May 2nd, 2011

Koi for Children's Day, one of the many Golden Week holidays

Spring is in full-swing in Japan, and a big part of spring is the Golden Week Holiday here in Japan.  Golden Week is a series of national holidays that line up around the end of April and the first week of May.  The number of consecutive days off depends on the year, however the national week of holidays generally creates an entire week off of work and school.  Many Japanese people use Golden week as a time to travel abroad or around Japan, and that is what many of us will be doing during this time.  Our artist headed off to Iwate Prefecture to help with the tsunami and earthquake relief efforts and another team member will be going to Kyoto.

Because we’ll be out of the office, we’ll unfortunately be slow, or in some cases, unable to respond to our email until we come back to the office on May 9th.  We realize that this is an inconvenience, and we apologize for the trouble.  That being said, we’ll definitely do our best to respond to you as quickly as possible!

Although you may not be in Japan, Happy Golden Week to you too, and we hope that you can find reason to celebrate something wherever you are this week.

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Happy Easter!

April 25th, 2011

We’d like to wish everyone a Happy Easter Sunday!  It’s actually Monday in Japan, but it’s still Easter out in the Americas!   Keep sending those Smiley Mails and as always, thanks for your support!

Happy Easter from the Smiley Mail Team!

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Version 1.9.8 has been Released! …and a Small Problem

April 22nd, 2011

Exactly one week after submitting Smiley Mail for approval, it is now available for download from the App Store!

Smiley Mail Version 1.9.8 includes a number of small bug fixes and improvements, as well as 3 new icon packs!

All of the goodness aside, it appears that there is a problem with the shop not displaying the new icon packs that we’ve released.  The new icon packs showed up in our tests of the application, but are not appearing in the release version of the application.  We suspect that Apple’s servers may not be displaying the updated shop’s contents.  We’ve contacted Apple regarding the situation and are hoping for a reply and a fix to the situation soon.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this and hope to have this situation resolved for you soon.

UPDATE: The problem has been resolved and you should now be able to find the new icons in the shop.  You will see a “New” label appearing next to each new icon pack’s price.  Thanks for your patience!

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Uploading Version 1.9.8 to the App Store!

April 18th, 2011

Version 1.9.8 has gone through some beta testing and is now being submitted to the App Store for review by Apple!   After our initial tests with the new download system, we’ve decided to put the system in place for the next update of Smiley Mail.  There are still some kinks that need to be ironed out, and instead of making you wait, we’ve decided to save the new download feature for the next Smiley Mail version and roll out the tweaks, bug fixes, and new icons that we already have in store.

We’ve made some small fixes to the editor in version 1.9.8, and added 3 new icon packs!

Moms and Babies

Just in time for Mother’s Day, our “Moms and Babies” pack will have you squealing for joy with plenty of cute mothers, babies, and baby toys.  A perfect way to greet mom or for mom to greet you this mother’s day and throughout the year.  Especially great for sending to people who’ve just become mothers or are expecting mothers too!

Icon Pack 10

“Icon Pack 10″ features a variety of different characters, including animals, people, objects, and other ways to lighten up your messages.  A nice combination of icons in a light-hearted style to make brighten up your recipient’s day.


Cartoon Pack

Our artist was hard at work to create everything in these icon packs, and the “Cartoon Pack” is no exception.  Featuring over 80 toon-styled icons of everyday objects, decorations, and characters, the Cartoon Pack will be a great addition to your icon collection.  Additionally, the Cartoon Pack icons were made on a slightly larger scale than our normal icons to provide additional clarity and detail!

Coming Soon

Assuming the latest version gets approved without any problems, expect version 1.9.8 to be available for download later this week!

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Smiley Mail Version 1.9.8 Enters Beta

April 4th, 2011

Since the events of the earthquake, we’ve been working hard on improving and bettering Smiley Mail with additional content and by tackling some new problems that have come up.  One of these problems is the related to the actual size of the application.  As Smiley Mail’s icon library has grown over the past year, the size of the application has also ballooned.  Each of those tiny images can take up a surprising amount of memory given enough of them, and Smiley Mail contains well over 2500 of them now!

In an effort to keep the app smaller and under the 20 megabyte download limit imposed on the app store when browsing with a 3G network, we’ve been working hard over the past few weeks to create a system by which the app downloads the images from a server and then stores the images within the app.  We realize that waiting for downloads and loading times aren’t fun, so unlike a lot of other emoji apps which download images from their servers every time you open the app, the download from our servers is a one-time thing.  Smiley Mail will download the images once, and store the images within the app to use whenever you’d like. This not only eliminates image loading times when using the app, but also helps us keep Smiley Mail’s initial download size to a minimum.  Additionally, Smiley Mail will only download images as needed, thus it will begin the downloads as you open icon packs whose images you haven’t downloaded yet.

Smiley Mail version 1.9.8 will use a one-time download emoji from server system to make the initial install take up less memory

The system has just entered a beta phase, and we’ll be continuing to refine it and test it in the coming days.

Smiley Mail Version 1.9.8 will also include several new icon packs from our hard-working artist.  We’ll see the introduction of as many as 3 new icon packs!  Stay tuned for more details.

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