version 2.0 (Released On August 27, 2008)
- Enhanced handling for huge number of Bluetooth® devices: In older versions of BlueMagnet, we used a queue to determine the order of devices and how they should be contacted. In this new version, we have implemented a smarter algorithm that will prioritize devices according to the previous history of the device. This will enhance the performance of your campaigns. For instance, if a device didn’t respond to BlueMagnet’s request in the first time (has timed out), this means that the owner of the device may be away or unable to answer BlueMagnet’s request. In this case, the device will be given less priority than other devices which will make BlueMagnet contact other devices that most likely will answer the request.
- Enhanced the speed of contacting multiple Bluetooth® devices: The new algorithm is optimized to contact devices in a much faster way which will enhance the performance of your campaigns.
- Enhanced BlueMagnet performance in mobile environments: There are two major problems in mobile (dynamic) environments. The first problem is in detecting the devices as fast as possible. The second one is the need to ignore all the devices that moved out of detection range. In v2.0, we have solved both problems to make your campaign run faster and contact the devices which will most likely answer your request.
- Enhanced Interface: We have made some changes to the interface of BlueMagnet to make it even easier to use. We’ve added a splitter that will enable you to change the size of the “Advertisement List” and the “Devices List”. We also made some changes to the error handling and fixed some interface problems.
- Added a feature to rename the sending Bluetooth radio automatically: The Bluetooth radio name is normally displayed to all the recipient devices when asking for their permission to receive content. So, using a reliable name like “Dell Computers”, the chance of accepting the advertisement will be much higher than if the radio name was “Computer1”. In the first case, the recipient will feel much safer accepting the content. In the previous versions of BlueMagnet, the user had to rename the Bluetooth radio manually from the Bluetooth icon in the system tray. With this new version, you can change the radio name by updating the campaign name inside the Campaign Properties dialog. This way, if you have 2 campaigns saved to your computer. One with name “Dell Computers” and one with “HP Laptops”, BlueMagnet will automatically rename your Bluetooth radio according to the loaded campaign.
- Adding a feature to keep watching for detected devices and ignoring the ones which become unavailable (When they disappear): the new version of BlueMagnet will show the status of each detected device in the “Devices List” status field. The field will show the device as “Disappeared” when it moves out of range. This will help your campaign perform much better and show the real-time status in your environment. Of course, BlueMagnet will keep watching for the Disappeared devices in case they came back. When this happens, they will be contacted again.
- Speed up the drag&drop feature to make it load huge number of ads faster: Some of our clients have reported that BlueMagnet is very slow when loading a huge number of advertisements (from Drag&Drop). This problem is fixed.
- Add tracking features and reports when detected devices disappear: In the new algorithm, we’re keeping track of each device status and we also display that to the user. The status field in the “Devices List” will show the current status of any device at a specific time. So, when a device disappears, it will show that in the “Devices List” status as “Disappeared” with a strikethrough line. The device will also be added to the “Disappeared Devices” report. In case the device came back again, its status will be reset and it will be added to the report again as “Reappeared”.
- Added support for device manufacturers: With this new version of BlueMagnet, we can determine the manufacturer for the detected device. For example, we will show “Nokia / Texas Instruments”, “Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB”, “Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.” Or any other manufacturer in the manufacturer field in the “Devices List”.
- Added feature to show the progress of sending ads at each device level: when a device accepts the advertisement. The status field will show the progress of the sending process, it will start like 1% and continue until 100% then the status field will be set to “Sent”.
- Enhanced "Sent", "Rejected", "Timedout", "Failed" & "Disappeared" reporting: We’ve added some new fields to these reports in order to provide as much information as possible about your campaign’s performance.
- Added support for "First Seen, First Served" and "Last Seen, First Served" priority feature: While BlueMagnet is running, it will keep searching for new devices all the time. By default, BlueMagnet will try to contact the devices in the same order as they have been detected. Now, depending on your business and advertising requirements, you may need to override this. So that, all devices that were detected recently receive advertisements before the old ones. This option controls exactly this behavior.
- Added option for optimizing search process for new devices: In busy environments where hundreds of devices are detected in each search session, the search process may become very slow. The two reasons behind that is the big number of devices and the currently active connections with the devices. To optimize the search process, we have set an option to stop contacting new devices while searching. This should optimize the search process and make it end faster.
- Added option to control how long BlueMAGNET should wait between each search session and the next: In the previous version of BlueMagnet, it used to wait for 30 seconds between each search session and the next. Normally this is a good setup, but in some situations (busy or dynamic environments), this value may be changed to optimize the performance of the campaign. In the previous version, this was impossible. We have fixed that.
- Added option to control how long BlueMAGNET should wait before giving up on a device: When BlueMagnet contacts a device; it will try to connect to that device first. In order to avoid waiting forever, we use a fixed timeout value. After waiting for that period of time without getting any response, BlueMagnet will stop contacting that device and report it as “Timed Out”. This value was fixed in the previous versions of BlueMagnet. In this new version, the value can be changed. By default it’s set to 30 seconds.
- Added option to control how long BlueMAGNET should wait for a device to respond before dropping the connection: In our tests, some phone models kept blocking BlueMagnet indefinitely. This will keep allocating one of the 7 maximum connections that BlueMagnet use to send the advertisements. In this new version, we’ve created a maximum connection drop timeout. If a device kept a connection with BlueMagnet for longer than this period, the connection will be dropped. Be careful if you’re sending advertisements with large size. This option should be set to give the chance to the device to receive the advertisement before dropping the connection.
- Added support for "Timed-Out" feature. That's when a device doesn't answer BlueMAGNET's request: We’ve discussed this in previous point. When a device does not respond to BlueMagnet request, BlueMagnet will wait for a specific amount of time (can be set from the options). After that, BlueMagnet will ignore that device, lower its sending priority and report it as “Timed Out”.
- Modified "Reset Days" option in the campaign properties to become "Reset Hours": BlueMagnet keeps a record of every device that was detected and/or contacted through the campaign. If a device is detected and contacted before, BlueMagnet will not try to contact that device again to avoid spamming and annoying the customers. That record will be kept for a specific number of days (in the previous version) and after that period, the campaign will clean that record and start all over again. The problem was that the “Reset Days” option is not very practical as we thought it would be. Instead, “Reset Hours” is going to be a better choice. This way, you can set BlueMagnet to reset automatically every hour. This way, a passing customer who receives an advertisement will receive another one after the hour has passed.
- Updated the diagnosis tool to become more user-friendly: We have modified the diagnosis tool to become more user friendly and to help you fix any Bluetooth hardware problem.
- Fixed a memory leak bug: BlueMagnet had a memory leak and we fixed it.
- Fixed a bug that caused BlueMagnet to hang in some special cases: In some special situations, BlueMagnet used to hang. We’ve found the problem and fixed it too.
