For those of you who stay up-to-date on what’s going on on iBetaTest.com via Twitter or our new Forum, these won’t be any news, however, for others just visiting or those of you who just follow our blog, here’s the skinny on the latest set of updates we pushed over the past week or so.

The Forum - a success!
- in the last post you were informed about the launch of our brand new Forum. I am mentioning this once again because the forum expanded tremendously and the response from everyone involved has been wonderful. In just one week users started over 120 different topics, and over 420 followups have been posted by our members on these topics!
- forum also expanded and it is now the main place for all Fedback/Suggestions, iBetaTest Bug Reports, our Official To-do List, System Updates, and more. We also added some more fun categories for people to chat about every-day issues, technology, gadgets, web sites, etc.

Terms of Service Update (link)
- our terms of service have been updated as well to reflect some of the issues we encountered. The most important changes are:

• developers cannot charge testers for their participation
• developers cannot impersonate other developers, companies or legal entities
• developers agree they will post only real applications for testing, not their ideas
• and developers agree that they have a MAX of 1 week in order to publish files for approved beta testers or, if the reason for not posting the application for testing is unjustified and beta testers complain, the application will be removed

All of these really make sense, but since they were not explicitly written, some people were unsure.

System Updates
- almost every day since the launch we had something new added to the system. These include numerous feature requests and some bug fixes, however, the following add-ons are most important:

• How-to videos section was launched - and it includes videos on how to do things when it comes to beta testing apps on iPhone or iPod touch. More videos will be coming soon, at least once or twice a week. All videos are presented in High Definition, and are also available via our YouTube, Blip.TV, Veoh, and Vimeo video channels as well! Pick your favorite and subscribe .Testers can now subscribe to All betas page via RSS, so they do not have to constantly keep on checking if new betas are available. We offer the feed in following formats:- RSS 2.0: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/iBetaTestRSS2
  - RSS 0.91: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/iBetaTestRSS091
  - ATOM 0.3: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/iBetaTestAtom03

  Pick your favorite format and never miss out on an app again .

• Testers can also follow a special automated Twitter Account (@iBetaTestApps at http://twitter.com/iBetaTestApps), and get notifications of new apps via Twitter. For chitchat and other uses, follow our main account @iBetaTest as well.

• Users with Opera Browsers can now actually see iBetaTest.com instead of a white page .

Our Official To-Do list is also available in the forum. There’s more to come, so make sure you either follow us on Twitter, subscribe to this blog, or even better, come join us in the Forums and meet some new friends!

It integrates directly with all existing iBetaTest.com user accounts - and it’s now the official way for us to receive any feedback and suggestions, bug reports, as well as for publishing announcements (besides this blog and Twitter of course ). On it you can also find our Official To-do List, so you can be always up-to-date with what’s coming to iBetaTest soon.

It’s split into 3 categories: iBetaTest Related, Beta tester forums, and Developer forums. Current categories should be sufficient to satisfy a multitude of topics, and we’ll expand on these as required.

Feel free to join us on it right now if you want to chat, ask any questions, or just kill time while developers populate the system with cool new apps for all of us to beta test .

Many of you have waited patiently for iBetaTest.com to launch, and first and foremost I’d like to THANK all of you for your patience, support, and interest.

Last night at about 10PM we managed to finally kill off most of the last-minute-bugs, deploy the system onto our servers and let the fun begin. Immediately people started pouring in which was sincerely a huge pleasure to watch happening live. I personally never before experienced a launch like this, and even though small by some standards, it’s the biggest one for Peconi Group, LLC

At the moment of this writing, just short of 20 hours after the gates opened, there are already 135 Registered Testers in the system. As for developers, this module lists only those developers who’ve created their user profiles, not all developers who registered. From 44 registered developers, only 15 have created their profiles by now, so I am sure we’re to see a lot more of them any time now.

The only thing missing at the moment are the Applications to be tested. I assume that by next week we should already have some apps in the system for beta testers to dive into. I am confident since I go by the old rule - Build it and they will come

As of now, the main Welcome Page of the system is not yet ready. I was OK with this since most of the people on the site are BETA TESTERS, and as such, a complement to their genius, they do not need instructions on how to use things - they simply love to test them out.

Big shout out to those who already reported some minor bugs. These have been fixed immediately.

Within a day or two, a nice Welcome Page with all features neatly presented with screenshots and videos will be published, so those who love learning while watching, and others who just want to get to know iBetaTest and what it provides can get their information right then and there. This also includes the helpful how-to videos which will be integral part of the whole application.

For now, here is the outline of the features currently in the system, in a logical order of beta testing Life Cycle:

• Beta testers and developers register for a free account
• Beta testers log in and go into the Device Manager and add all of their devices
• Developers can go to Manage Betas module and create a new beta
  - at this point they specify beta type (public, manual, invite only, the auto approve setting, etc.)
  - select which devices are required to run their application (iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod touch v1, v2, or All)
  - set number of desired testers (2-100)
  - write the application’s description
  - provide info on any incentives for beta tester participation
  - upload the application files, license file and any screenshots they want
  - write what needs to be tested and add any special instructions and voila - the app is up and running
• At this point (if app is set public), beta testers can see it and apply for it
  - ONLY beta testers with devices the application supports, and with UDID’s already entered can apply for a given beta
  - If the application is set to auto approve - they are automatically added to the list of testers, until the limit set by the developer is reached
  - If it is not set to auto approve - the developer gets an email, and then either approves or denies the tester 
• During this time, no matter if the application is public or private, developer can also send invites to anyone to come and join the beta
  - Users not yet registered on iBetaTest.com get an email, and once they sign up, their Pending Beta Testing Invitation will be shown on the Dashboard from where they can accept or deny it
  - Registered members also see it on the Dashboard, and can approve or reject any invitation straight from there
  - NO INVITE CODES are necessary. It’s all seamless and based on user’s email address, for both registered and non registered members  
• There is a convenient “Get ADC Import File” feature for developers, which lets them download a file containing beta tester’s names and UDID’s which is directly importable into Apple’s Developer’s Connection portal; no more copying and pasting
• At any time developer can simply click Close For Signups button under My Betas module and close the beta signup process (which is not necessary)
• Approved beta testers can access all features the system offers right on every application’s home page
  - From there they may send reports (bugs, feature requests, comments) and communicate with developer and other testers
  - Everyone can also download Application files, documentation, and license files straight from there
• The system AUTOMATICALLY checks developer’s .mobileprovision files to see if the tester’s UDID has been provisioned in that version, and notifies a tester if he/she should be downloading any files yet.
  - This way, developers do not have to send the files individually to each tester. They are all available in the same pool, and as soon as the license is uploaded, beta testers know if their device can run and install it yet or not.
• During the beta testing - developers can also email users from My Betas module at any time (one by one, or all at once) with any info they have that has to get to testers right away. If a support email address is provided in developer’s profile, these emails are shown as if they are coming from that address, however, if none is entered, they are all sent from system@ibetatest.com
• Privacy is STRONGLY guarded on iBetaTest.com. From initial interviews with developers, before the system was even built, all they cared about was what the beta testers have to say - not, what their personal information is
  - The only piece of information a developer can see on their tester is the First Name (for a more professional communication), and tester’s username.
  - The system itself sends all information via integrated mailing system, thus enforcing the use of Reports Module for all direct communication with the developer
  - Each report can be set to either “for all” or “for developer only”, making it easy to talk to the developer “in private”
• Both developers and beta testers can set their personal profiles (with addition of developers also having a developer profile), where they can publish all other info they’d like to share with the world: Short bio, and links to their Linked-In, Facebook and Twitter profiles
• Once the beta testing has finished, the developer has a chance to rate the beta testers (1-5 star rating) and write a short note, which will become a part of Tester’s Testimonials Page (located right on their profile with all other info)
• Rating system is an interesting one, to say the least. Each star is 10 points. THERE WILL BE REWARDS for first testers to reach 200, 500, 1000, and so on points - and these won’t be shabby either! Stay tuned for more info on this.

The above is an intended scenario which outlines the Life Cycle of a beta, and shows off some of the integrated features.

There are a LOT more useful features on our to-do list - and these will be published on a regular schedule throughout our Beta runtime.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please, email us at hello@iBetaTest.com, or chat with us from any page on our site (when we’re on-line of course).

For now I would only like to make a personal call to all developers out there to please publish their apps. Testers are very anxious and ready to help out. As I suspected, many are genuinely interested in HELPING and having an early access to the apps not yet seen. Their profiles tell the story.

For everyone, if you’d like to help us out, you can of course register, however, if you would like to push it further, feel free to either put our little iBetaTest badge onto your site, or give us a Digg here.

Thank you!

Petar Smilajkov - Peconi
Peconi Group, LLC Owner/Founder
iBetaTest.com Lead Developer

While you all wait for iBetaTest.com to launch within just two weeks, you may like to browse our Zazzle Store and get yourself some nice goodies, T-shirts, Apparel, etc.

Store is located at this address: http://www.zazzle.com/peconi

We created a bunch of interesting and useful items (with more to come), like: Coffee Mugs (everyone’s favorite), Men and Women’s T-shirts, USPS Stamp Books, and even an Apron - so you may clearly state that you Beta Test even while cooking .

Let us know how  you like it.

Like our design? Download it here:
- http://iBetaTest.com/*/ibetatest.pdf

Feel free to let us know if you put it onto anything fun, interesting, or useful .

It’s been a while since our latest post in this blog. We intended it this way simply because everything was still way under construction. What everyone needed was to find out what iBetaTest was - which was all the blog contained until now. Starting today, it’s all going to change - and iBetaTest’s Blog is getting jump-started into it’s new life!

If you’ve been following us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/iBetaTest), you did not need the blog - since the status of iBetaTest has been announced via that channel for some time now. I must admit we’re quite happy with the following iBetaTest got on Twitter, however, we can always use more friends so feel free to add us if you haven’t already .

For those of you who haven’t been following @iBetaTest, here’s the skinny on the current situation:
We are due to launch THIS JANUARY!

A lot of development hours have been put into getting the iBetaTest to where it is now, and even with some hurdles we had to jump over (which pushed December launch date into January) - we can gladly say - we’re almost there!

If you have signed up for a Beta, then you already know about our first ever Sneak Peak Video of iBetaTest.com in action. Couple of modules were shown off at http://iBetaTest.com/demo. Head over there to check them out if you haven’t already.

During this time we’ve been actively looking for a web host for the service. Thank you all Twitterers who helped us in figuring out the best ones out there. After some testing, benchmarking, etc. - we’ve settled with SliceHost.com. Their support staff and fast VPS machines really blew us away. Once we outgrow the VPS environment, which we hope happens quite soon after the launch, we’ll most likely be moving to WiredTree.com - in order to run on a couple of their Dedicated Servers.

Thanks for all your help, patience, and excitement during these past few months. You’ve all been a great inspiration - and a justification behind 19 hour days that have been put in at times .

We’ll keep you informed more about the status of everything in the upcoming days, both via Blog and via Twitter.

If you haven’t signed up for a beta - DO SO NOW! It’s completely free and it will guarantee you a spot the day we launch - especially if you are a developer; hit: iBetaTest.com for a registration form.

Cheers!

The first 2 and a half days since iBetaTest has been announced have been very successfull. Over 200 people have already registered and I am very happy to see such diversity. I expected there would be a lot more Beta Testers signing up than Developers, and while that is the case (and it is something encouraged), I am amazed at how many actual developers there are.

This really tells me a lot about the future success of the site, and kind followers on Twitter really encourage me even more.

My goal is to have at least 2,000 beta testers and develoeprs before the launch (which is estimated to be in about 2 months), and with this rate of registrants pouring in - I am confident we’ll have even more.

Thank you all for writing about iBetaTest on your blogs (news.weiphone.com, justanothermobilemonday.com, apple-blog.info, and others) and thanks to all Twitterers for constructive comments and support.

Today I put a post on Digg about iBetaTest and your help in getting the maximum number of diggs and better exposure is much appreciated:

• http://digg.com/apple/iBetaTest_com_iPhone_Beta_Tester_Developer_Community_Store

  or for short:

• http://tinyurl.com/diggus

You may find a lot more updates on our Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/iBetaTest!

Today is the day I officially announced the iBetaTest.com to couple of people. Let’s see how the beta signup goes - at the moment we have 2 people on the list (and that was before the announcement). I sincerely have no idea how they found us so quickly.

I’ll keep you posted, right now, I’m off to my Bat Cave to work.

Stay tuned and if you like the idea, please let the others know about us! Here’s what you can use as a “template”:

As you already know, there are so many crappy iPhone apps, and so many buggy ones as well.
The problem is that developers have no way of communicating with quality beta testers (those that actually test and report bugs), and even worse, those developers whose apps did not pass through Apple’s approval find themselves stranded.

iBetaTest.com wants to bridge the gap between developers and beta testers, help those stranded developers and apps denied in the app store by giving them ability to sell their apps to up to a 100 users (since that’s the limit set by Apple on how many phones can be provisioned for such tasks), help developers create better apps by giving them access to quality testers (who are rated by developers so we all know who’s worth what), and give the beta testers what they need: the early/vip access to the apps before they are launched, and even ability to make some money in the process: developers can choose to sponsor beta testers by paying them for their participation.

Thanks!

Here you will be able to find all kinds of news about iBetaTest and about our progress on the upcoming Beta launch. For now, please register by entering your email, sit back and relax. We’ll be up and running in no time