Archive for March, 2011

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Spark Trophies released, Preview edition out (for now)

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Latest version of Spark Trophies finally removes the ultra-crapulent US server as source of PSN data, and routes all requests through PSN EU, which is faster, and more accurate. Those of you who still use US server should notice a considerable speed boost, especially when refreshing friend list. If you’re already using PSN EU, you will notice that games are now sorted by play order, and not by title.

I have, for the time being, removed Trophies Preview from Market, pending a proper fix of the free edition – it should be back up sometime this week.

Download

P.S. Look forward to a Spark 360 release near the end of the week, or during the weekend

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Trophy counts “fixed”, new Spark Trophies release out

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

First and foremost, if you haven’t read this already, please do. It describes the “fix” put in place in the latest version to re-enable trophy count support in Spark Trophies. With that said, a new version (1.80) of Spark Trophies is now out on Marketplace, which adds better Android integration, and specifically:

  • The trophy count issue affecting US accounts is fixed
  • Friends list can now be searched from inside and outside Spark Trophies. To enable friend searching from your home screen, check “Spark Trophies″ in “Search settings”
  • You can now place direct shortcut to specific accounts and friends on your home screen – to create one, longpress on your home screen, and select Shortcuts, then PSN friend, or PSN account
  • Various bugs are fixed
  • Price for new purchases is now $1.25 (please note that if you’ve already purchased yours, you do not have to pay more for additional installs)

(more…)

Posted in Release, Spark Trophies | 3 Comments »

PSN and the US server

Monday, March 21st, 2011

PSN US’s recent changes (around March 20, 2011) have made PSN US account support in Spark Trophies all but useless. Because trophy data is now in the form of images, Spark Trophies must make several round-trips to the server to pull trophy counts from your account. This is most dramatically noticeable when viewing the friends list – the original (pre-March 21st) implementation made n+1 roundtrips to gather friend information (1 for the full friend list, 1 for detailed data on each friend). Now it must make n*2 + 1 (one for the full friend list, two for each friend, one to pull status information, one to pull trophy data).

So with that in mind, I’d like to refer you to PSN’s considerably more competently designed European server, which requires a single trip to pull your Friends list statistics. As of right now, I no longer recommend using the US server; although if you’ve never used eu.playstation.com before, you may have to migrate your web account first (if you’re a US user, this is a one-time deal, and you can do this easily by logging on to http://eu.playstation.com/. Once your account has been migrated, delete your account in Trophies, and re-add it, using PSN EU in the Server Region selection. As an added bonus, you will also be able to see the last time your friends signed on.

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Trophy counts broken

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Recent changes to the US PSN site have broken the trophy counts for Spark Trophies. Rather than issue a quick fix, I decided to finish the pending work on the upcoming version, which will include better Android integration for the app. So if you’re seeing your trophy counts zeroed, please don’t panic, a fix should be out within a day.

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How many of us have them?

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Version 3.30 of Spark 360 is now on Android Marketplace, and adds several Friends-related features:

  • Search friends – you can now search all friends from inside and outside Spark. To enable searching friends from your home screen, check “Spark 360″ in “Search settings”
  • Find a friend – you can now view an Xbox Live profile prior to sending a friend request, as well as send messages and compare achievements (note that both are subject to the user’s privacy settings, however)

Additionally, this release fixes the Service Status tool that stopped functioning shortly after the last release.

Download

Posted in Release, Spark 360 for Android | 2 Comments »

Another Trophies critical release

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Version 1.74 of Spark Trophies is now up on Android Market. It fixes the updated authentication mechanism (one of the results of today’s earlier PSN outage), but it does require that you sign on to Sony’s site to accept the updated Terms of Service – otherwise, you may not be able to use the app.

To accept the agreement, please visit PSN US, or PSN EU. Once you sign in, you will be asked to agree with the updated TOS, and you should be set. Sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: Spark Trophies Preview has been updated to 1.52; same changes.

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Critical fix week continues in full swing

Sunday, March 6th, 2011

Spark Trophies has been updated to version 1.72. It’s a critical fix release, but it also includes a handful of bug fixes – please update now.

Spark Trophies Preview will be updated shortly as well.

UPDATE
Spark Trophies Preview has been updated as well. It features the same blue theme as Trophies, and includes the same bug fixes

Download

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Posted in Release, Spark Trophies | 2 Comments »

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