Mobile App Update Review

My biggest pet peeve with this app in general is its insistence on reinventing the wheel. This isn't the 90s where there are no industry standard apps for these types of features  and no APIs for integration. I get that if you keep everything in house you can control the software better and keep costs down by not having to pay license fees to use APIs but good lord.

This year the mobile application has added the ability to link "friends" schedules together. Makes sense, odds are you didn't go to Dragon*Con alone. Now calendar systems like Google calendar and anyone that supports iCal already support syncing and sharing of multiple calendars across devices, people and the internet  and do it better. Just to test it out I joined an Android phone and an iPad. It's fairly easy and quick. And as a basic feature it does deliver. Of course you can't look at a friend's calendar and yours at the same time. And, if I understood this right, if you use it on multiple devices it considers those all separate "people" so to speak. Makes sense since this is a peer to peer type application. I just see a problem if you edit everything on your iPad but take your phone with you it takes three steps to get to the calendar and you can no long modify it.

The other feature you now get with "friends" is the ability to send messages. It's cute. It works. It's very basic.  You can only message one person at a time and you can't attach a picture or anything. There is also a status box so all your friends can see your status. That, I believe, is the most useful thing they've added.

Now all that being said, if you want current updates to the Dragon*Con schedule this app is a must. Also, the only way to rate each event you see is through this app. You really should do this, especially if it is not one of the major events, because this allows Dragon*Con to see how well attended and liked certain events are.

In conclusion my original review stands: if you would only use this app and do not need integrated calendars or twitter than this is probably a 4 star app. It's 3 star for those of us who insist on better integration into smart phone apps.