Nope, this is not iPhone App of the Week day! This is one of those rare moments that something about a product bugs me so much that it can't wait. I just downloaded the FREE UPS iPhone App. Overall I think the App is great and UPS got a lot of things right such as the ability find your closest UPS shipping location and to get shipping estimates. Perfect timing for the holiday season. However, if you use the app to actually ship a package you'll find one major flaw. When it comes time to enter the destination address you can choose between your online UPS Account Address Book OR Enter it Manually! That's right! The app can not use the addresses from your Contacts already on your iPhone or iPod touch. Sure you can copy and paste, but that will be a multi-step process since you'd have to go back and forth between Contacts and the App to copy and paste each line of the address. There are silly, stupid little apps on the App Store that can look up Addresses from the Contacts list. I can't believe that UPS wouldn't have included this. Luckily it should be a relatively easy thing to fix, but wow! UPS, what were you thinking?
And if you're thinking FedEx does it better, think again. The FedEx app is even a little worse in this regard as it takes you to the mobile version of their site inside the app when you go to ship a package. Of course this doesn't have any tie in to your iPhone/iPod touch contacts either.
There are apps on the App Store written by guys in their basement that can pull up addresses from the Contacts list you guys are Fortune 500 Global giants and you can't manage to do this?
In case you were wondering, yes I did use the feedback feature in the app.
If you ship via UPS, check out the app (after all it is FREE) here on the App Store:
If you're looking for a multiple vendor package tracking app, my favorite is Delivery Status touch. Check it out here on the App Store:
Speaking of major corporations and their native iPhone/iPod touch apps…
Dear Delta Airlines:
Now that you're the largest airlines in the world, how about a native app? As a former Northwest Airlines Frequent Flyer I was able to forgive Northwest for not having a "native" app because their "web" app was so good.
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When you go to mobile.nwa.com from Safari on your iPhone, it's as close to being in a native iPhone app as you can get. The app was able to remember my login info and designed to be very efficient and give me exactly the info I needed when I needed it including being able to quickly check in for a flight on the spot. Not to mention that if you bookmark the site to your home screen you even get a nifty NWA logo just like a native app would give you.
Unfortunately for mobile.delta.com the experience isn't nearly as good. When you first go to the site it looks as if it will be just as good as NWA.
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However, I quickly found the site to be pretty much useless. Not only does it not remember my Delta FF#, when I key it in manually each time with my pin and attempt to log into my account, I get a weird display and never actually can get to my info.
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I finally gave up on their mobile site and just started using the regular delta.com on my iPhone. It's not as fast, but at least it works!
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If you're looking for yet one more example of a company that doesn't have a native app yet, but does have a great web app it would be TiVo. I've been wanting a native TiVo app for remote scheduling of shows since day one. However, m.tivo.com is so good that I can live without it. Again, it remembers my login info and even my default DVR settings.
The Bottom Line
The App Store now has over 100,000 apps! This thing has taken off faster and bigger than ANYONE's wildest dreams. Major corporations can no longer ignore the success of native apps. It's time to step up! However, if you're going to get into this game, please do it right! I'd be happy to help you beta test your user experience 🙂
Here’s another iPhone app to add to your list of losers: Starbucks Card Mobile ver. 1.0. It only gives you your correct card balance when first installed. After that, it stays stuck on that balance until you delete it from your iPhone and re-install it. So, to get my current card balance, I only use Safari to go to the Starbucks.com site. While I love their coffee, this Starbucks Card Mobile sucks, IMHO.
Here’s my problem with the TiVo app: Let’s say you suddenly realize you need to record all of shows you usually watch on Monday night. But you can’t remember all of them. TiVo Mobile fails here. If you know the names of the programs you want to record, it’s great. But it fails at showing a list of the shows broadcast on a particular day/time/channel. Daily Picks and Most Popular aren’t the answer.
Terry,
This is off topic, I have Premiere Pro CS3. I just imported 200 photos to make a DVD movie.
1. Is there a batch or automated mode to auto transitions at once. If so, can you point me to abobe resource to do this
2. I down sized my photos, but when I put them into the frames, It looks like I have to re-size all 200 to “Fit” into the viewing box. Any automated way to do this as a batch command? Please point to an abobe “how to” if you know
Ken in KY
Hey Terry,
In your feedback note to UPS, were you telling them you were “stoned” or “stunned” to learn…? 🙂
Guess their feedback page doesn’t take advantage of the iPhone’s spell correction either.
Just razzing ya! You’re entirely right of course to note this serious omission in the software.
🙂