soonr’s not so big day
Topic: code|I decided to give the SoonR service a try when I read Om Malik’s blurb about SoonR’s big day when they are launching their service for OSX. Great, I thought. I would love to access my MBP from my blackberry. That would be uber cool.
Well, I installed the SoonR for Mac today (which is in beta, of course). Installation was NOT so smooth.
- I was not given a choice for the destination. It installed directly in Applications. I hate it when installations do that. Sure, I can drag it to somewhere else after it installs - but thats the problem. Its after the fact.
- As soon as installation completed, a prompt came up - apparently there is an updated version already! Either the developers at SoonR are so super-productive that they spewed an update 40 seconds after I downloaded the version from their site, or they are plain lazy to *not* update their download page with the latest drop. Somehow me thinks its the later.
- So I click Ok to install the latest drop. Well, the installer simply hung. Forever. Turns out, the “older” SoonR was running. I had to ForceQuit it! Not cool.
Ok, after the ugly install experience, SoonR asked me to register. This step went smooth (hard to screw this up anyway). Then came the real litmus test. Will it actually work?
Turns out it will not.
SoonR stays in the perpetual “Connecting” state. It complains about username/password being empty - but they are not. Ok, maybe I should login from my blackberry to bootstrap the firsttime (Note- this is a guess, no troubleshooting info from SoonR. I even checked the logs!). The login from my handheld was fine, but it says my “Desktop” is empty. Also noted that the icons thats showed up in my blackberry were the Windoze Desktop and Outlook icons. No indication about my Mac install. Again, not cool.
This is really disappointing. I was so looking forward to using the service. I guess SoonR has all the hype but not much code to back it up - yet.
Well, SoonR, I’ll see you LateR.
July 10th, 2006 at 12:48
Sri, sorry to hear that it was not a good experience for you. We had a huge influx of users due to the Mac version release and last week there were a few service interruptions due to the load. Yes, we had a crash, and had to monitor it closely. It looks like you were trying SoonR during this period of time. We have been able to get every user up and running since.
There is an error log that can be turned on. By default, it only logs a crash, but not all the stuff leading up to it. We don’t do that without permission from the user.
If you are willing to give SoonR another shot, I’d be glad to get a support person in touch with you to get your system up and running. Our beta users have been invaluable in helping us stabilize the service. We can’t test all the configurations ourselves, so our users are a great ally here. I’ve noted all your observations and will pass it on to our developers.
SoonR really is an amazing service and works great on BB devices. I hope we can earn your confidence. Please email me if you are interested. Thanks.
July 10th, 2006 at 12:56
Song, thank you for your response.
I will give it another spin and will let you know.
Sri.
July 10th, 2006 at 17:19
Hi Sri,
Sorry you had a bad experience. Feel free to email me at the email I left or write at support@soonr.com. I’ll be more than happy to help with any issues.
Regarding the problems you’re seeing: There were some people who had problems with out initial Mac release (build 1840) where the username and password did not get saved from the install under certain conditions. We fixed that right away, but it’s responsible for the issues that you’re seeing. If your SoonR Agent isn’t connected, you won’t be able to see anything on your computer.
If simply re-entering your username and password isn’t working (click SoonR icon > Preferences > General tab > click Change), then you can do the following:
1) Shutdown the SoonR Agent
2) Delete the /Users//Library/Preferences/com.soonr.agent folder
3) Re-start SoonR.
4) Check “I already have an account” and you won’t be prompted to create a new account
The only build 1840 that is still online anywhere is the one at apple.com and I’m working on getting that updated now.
Again, sorry you had a bad initial experience. I’m happy to help get you up-and-running if you have any additional questions.
Steve