@dani has been working on a cool new feature that many of you have been asking for: locked content
Panels 2.3.0 is almost ready and should be coming out next week. It is already available for our beta testers and includes many other new features and bug fixes.
Here is a full list:
Weâve removed the Inbox. Now, comics imported without using the importers inside the app will appear in the Libraryâs root.
You can now start a selection from the contextual menu.
Comics and Collections can now be shared from the contextual menu.
Weâve added a couple of new file UTI to improve the compatibility with comic files when opening them from Airdrop.
Stability improvements: Disk usage has been optimised to reduce crashes due to excessive use of resources.
Bug fix: Changing the home configuration to hide missing titles does not crash the app anymore.
Bug fix: The drag-to-close gesture on the readers now works as expected.
Bug fix: Sharing pages after rotating the device doesnât break the reader anymore.
Bug fix: Some views like SignIn and the contextual menus on iPad now show the right theme.
I used the inbox to manage where comics went in bulk. Now I have to go through my library and look for my comics individually and manage from there which is very time consuming.
That was how I used the inbox too. Mass import from iTunes, then select certain ones and create a new library or add to existing one. My inbox was a staging area to organize my imports.
Thank you for your feedback. We do appreciate it. The decision of removing the inbox was not easy. There has always been some controversy around it. Some users love it, however many others found it confusing and an unnecessary step during the import process.
To be clear, the inbox was never meant to ship. The inbox was born to âfixâ a problem: when using certain importing methods like iTunes or Airdrop, we have no control over it (we donât know, for example, how many comics Panels is receiving). For that reason we canât ask where do you want to put the comics. This is different when you use other importing methods like dropbox, where Panels knows that you are going to import a specific number of comics and can take a decision of placing them on a selected collection.
As we gradually move to our goal âWeâre creating a 1:1 match between the file system and the Library, where comics are files and folders are collectionsâ, we need to take certain decisions to smooth our way into it. One key decision was to remove the inbox. In the future, using iTunes (or other importing methods) will be as easy as creating a new folder for a collection and placing your comics there.
Panels is in a transition period and we hope you can bear with us until we achieve that goal.
We appreciate your feedback.
Please, keep in mind that Panels user base is considerable big already, and keeping everyone happy maintaining the low level of complexity in the app is quite tricky.
You obviously donât have the full picture, but the Inbox has always been very controversial. Overall, it created more confusion to the majority of users than benefits.
We understand that power users liked the Inbox, because it gave an extra layer of control. But for an average user, is something else to deal with and, in most cases, hard to reason about.
The inbox was introduced to try to maintain the same import flow than the one we have on the external services. In retrospective, I regret that decision.
We donât design by committee. We make decisions based on data and, obviously, our own criteria. And the data was telling us that most of our users donât use the Inbox. Most of our users donât spend much time manually organising their libraries. And most of our users donât have a huge amount of titles on their devices at a given time. We also keep track of all the reports, bugs and doubts we receive regarding the Inbox.
We knew that this decision might have a negative impact on some users. But, overall, we are convinced itâs a step forward.
That said, weâll keep iterating on improving the import flow for Airdrop, iTunes File Sharing and the Web Server. Hopefully, weâll find a middle ground between keeping a low level of complexity and offering a tidier way of importing comics using these methods.
I feel like I have to upload twice, once to Dropbox and then to Panels, where the Inbox is one import and I can choose a Collection. I understand that you are in transition, but should have kept the Inbox until that transition is complete.
What makes matters worse is when some of the files do not upload properly to Dropbox and I have to use iTunes to load them manually, and then organize them.
@Comix4Sale@Robert_Arauza_Jr in the upcoming weeks weâll release a beta with a middle ground solution. We think it will make your import flow nicer. Please bear with us. Iâll let you know when the beta is ready so you can give us your feedback.
@baconcow beta is over yes. 2.3 is already in the AppStore.
I want to take the chance to apologise for how we planned the Inbox removal.
I think we rushed the decision and we should have offered an alternative solution instead of removing the Inbox leaving some of you behind.
I personally take full responsibility for that decision.
We want to make up for you and weâve been working on implementing an alternative solution that we think will mitigate the absence of the old Inbox. We still believe that removing the extra step pays off by reducing the complexity of the app for most of the users. But we understand how this made the importing process more cumbersome depending on the import method youâre using.
We are truly interested in your feedback and we want to get to a solution that is as convenient as possible for you all Inbox users.
Alongside removing the inbox, we also increased the minimum iOS version from 12 to 13. We also understand that this puts iOS 12 users in an even more disadvantaged position. Because they canât event update to the upcoming version with the Inbox alternative.
So we have decided to bring iOS 12 support back only for the next version. Weâll have to remove it again in the following one. But at least youâll have this alternative solution and you wonât be stuck in this limbo.
