Cor.kz 2.2 — Quick Update

We’re continuing to work on the 2.2 update.  Really, if we were proper marketing and branding types, we’d call it 2.5 or 3.0 or something, because it’s a pretty huge advance.  In addition to truly impressive wine bar code detection, a ton of work has gone into improving performance, simplifying the user interface, and offering really unique new features.

One of the things we’ve always struggled with is the sheer volume of data that the app has to access.  CellarTracker gives us data on nearly 700,000 unique bottles of wine from about 5,000 wine producing regions.  There is just no practical way to pack that into the app itself; even a 32GB iPhone wouldn’t be able to hold all of the data, label and bottle pictures, and reviews that Cor.kz offers.

For 2.2, we’ve completely rewritten the application startup code.  In 2.1.2, it takes an average of 4.5 seconds for Cor.kz to get its bearings, identify your CellarTracker, Twitter, and Facebook accounts, and prepare your custom menus and wine lists.  In 2.2, that startup time has been reduced to an average of 1.5 seconds — and the quality of data is even better than before.

As a bonus, the Cor.kz architecture means that a lot of the stuff we’ve been working on for the 2.2 release benefits existing 2.1.2 users (you are on 2.1.2, right?  If not, you should run off to the app store right now and get the free upgrade!).  Even without having the 2.2 bits on your phone, you should be seeing startup times of 2 seconds or less in most cases.

We’re excited for 2.2 and will post more in the next few days.  The current plan is to push to Apple in the next day or two, which means the free upgrade should be available in the next week or two.