Fix for Update Problems

Q. I am constantly prompted with “New Version .. has been downloaded, please restart JSMS to install.” After the restart the message still appears… and the version has not been updated. Help!

A. Mostly Windows users have reported this problem but it is easy to fix regardless of which OS you use.

1. First, uninstall JSMS from your system.
2. after uninstall, delete the JSMS folder altogether from your machine (on windows usually in C:\Program Files\).
3. download the latest JSMS installer for your OS  from our website http://jsmsirl.sf.net
4. install it again (don’t worry it’ll still keep all your preferences and settings.)

Then start JSMS and you should be up and running again. And future automatic updates should work for you.

Mac OS X launch issue

If, since the last Mac OS X updates, JSMS has suddenly stopped working, you will be glad to know that we’ve got it sorted.

All you need to do is download the latest version again and re-install. You can download it for free now from:

http://jsmsirl.sourceforge.net/

JSMS 4.2.0 Released!

Hey folks,

JSMS 4.2.0 is available for download now. If you already have JSMS, then simply enable the “Automatic Update” option in the Preferences and select the “Check for Updates” option from the Help menu.

This release brings lots of cool new features, including the ability to run JSMS in the system tray, cancel a message while it is being sent, enhanced message history and many more changes. Plus any issues people have experienced running through HTTP proxies should also be resolved. Check the “Change Log” from the Help menu for a full list of changes.

Thanks for using JSMS, and please spread the word around to your friends.

Happy texting!

JSMS 4.1.5 released…

Hey Folks,

We’ve just released JSMS 4.1.5. This release fixes a few bugs, but it’s primary purpose is to add a check for the version of Java that you use to run JSMS.From now on, you need to use Java 6 or newer to run JSMS. If you see a warning about the version of Java that you are using, DO NOT IGNORE it, as not fixing the issue will mean that the next release of JSMS WILL NOT RUN on your PC.

So why are we doing this? And why make a release with so few features? It’s simple: we have ANOTHER update already beta tested and ready for general release. This new update is jam-packed with improvements and new features. But it will NOT RUN unless you are using the correct version of Java. This is not an idle warning! If you are not using the correct version of Java, the upcoming release will simply crash without any warning why! Thus, we’re now giving you an opportunity to prepare your system for the upcoming release.

Don’t worry, we will be on hand to help address any issues you may encounter with this (or any other) release of JSMS. But your first port of call for help should be to check out the entry regarding Java 5/Java 6 on our blog:

http://jsmsirl.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/jsms-5/

You should also look at our FAQ for assistance:

http://jsmsirl.sourceforge.net/JSMS/FAQ.html

And if after that you still need assistance, then please email us at jsmsirl@gmail.com and we will try to reply to you as soon as possible.

The JSMS dudes…

JSMS 4.2.0 and Java

JSMS 4.2 is coming! You, the user, also need to prepare for this release:

Java 6

All users will need the latest version of Java (Java 6) to enable the upcoming new version to run.

Windows & Linux users

1. Click here to check if you already have it.
2. Follow the instructions on that site to install the latest version if prompted.

Mac OS X (Intel) users

Mac users no longer need to do anything except download the latest JSMS release from http://jsmsirl.sourceforge.net/ and install as usual.

Note: Apple has only released Java SE 6.0 for 64 bit Intel Macs running Leopard.  So if you have a Core Duo Mac or earlier (inlcuding PowerPC), or OS X Tiger you are stuck with Java SE 5.0 and earlier and should not upgrade to the latest version of JSMS. You should only use JSMS version 4.1.2 which you can download from here. (Note: You should disable automatic updates in JSMS preferences after installing the older version. If it says an update has been downloaded, go to the JSMS install folder and delete the file ‘updateArchive.zip’ to prevent the update getting installed.)

So why do you need to do this? It’s simple: we have ANOTHER update already beta tested and ready for general release. This new update is jam-packed with improvements and new features. But it will NOT RUN unless you are using the correct version of Java. This is not an idle warning! If you are not using the correct version of Java, the upcoming release will simply crash without any warning why! Thus, we’re now giving you an opportunity to prepare your system for the upcoming release.

---

iPhone and iPod Touch users

Did you know, you can now use JSMS on your iPhone or iPod? Now you can save cash while on the go!

Jelly SMS is available now in the iTunes App Store.

See JellySMS.com for more information and a demo video.

JSMS 4.1.4 is out now

We have just released JSMS 4.1.4

Keith has put a lot of work into this one and has completely re-written the communication mechanisms used in JSMS, so hopefully it should feel faster and more reliable. However, some operator sites such as O2, are very unreliable these days so if you have a problem sending, check your operator site to see if it is down.

Here’s what’s new in this release:

• Reimplemented all HTTP communications code to achieve greater reliability.
• Added parsing of the customer’s user name from Vodafone accounts.
• Fixed import of O2 contacts which have apostrophes in the contact name.
• GMail import now works better when a contact has multiple phone numbers.
• Removed Meteor statusbar tooltip as it was showing garbage.
• Added buttons to some Help dialogs to open webpages.
• Disabled automatic update for PowerMac users due to phasing out of older Java version.

Get the new release here.

JSMS comes to the iPhone and iPod Touch

After almost 3 months waiting on Apple to approve our app, we are proud to announce the release ‘Jelly SMS‘ for the iPhone and iPod Touch. We have brought all the powerful features of the JSMS desktop version to Jelly SMS, making it easier than ever to send free or cheap text messages when you are on the go.

Features:

• Landscape SMS typing
• Saved sent messages
• Sent message forwarding by SMS or Mail
• Send to multiple recipients at once
• Works with over 25 providers including O2 Ireland, Meteor Ireland and Vodafone Ireland
• Fetches remaining text balance (where applicable)
• Message signature and more…

 
Jelly SMS is available now in the iTunes App Store. See jellysms.com for more information.

Google Sync’s contacts to and from the cloud

Google has begun rolling out Google Sync to many types of smartphones including the iPhone, Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Windows Mobile devices. Yesterday, I tried it out on my iPhone and it works great (altough it’s still in beta so be sure to backup before you try it out). The benefit is this: If you modify a contact in GMail, the change automatically gets “pushed” to your phone in the background (and vice versa). Same goes for calendar. If you add a new appointment on your iPhone, your Google Calendar gets updated automatically, (and vice versa).

One big advantage of this is your contacts are now accessible from anywhere. This means you can also import your contacts into JSMS on many different PC’s as JSMS supports importing your Google Contacts via the GData API.

Another advantage is your contacts are always backed up in “the cloud”, so if you loose your mobile, your contacts are still in your Google account.

Rumour has it that Google will extend this push functionality to GMail email soon. Nice work Google!

JSMS passes 10,000 downloads

Yesterday, 3 Feb 2009, JSMS reached another milestone. According to sourceforge.net, JSMS has officially been downloaded over 10,000 times. This has been brought about by the increase in user base in recent months and also by the addition of numerus features requested by users. JSMS is being used by people at home and in the workplace. It is trusted by many to send short messages to friends all over the globe. The open source nature of the program allows transparency and openness among users and developers. Also, JSMS has a reputation for being stable, something which cannot be said for some of the operator sites such as O2 Ireland, which has had a lot of “”down time”" recently.

In the latest release of JSMS, support was added for over 20 VOIP providers. This took JSMS to a new user base. Before, it was limited to only Irish O2, Vodafone and Meteor users. Now it reaches an international audience and can be enjoyed by many more texters worldwide. Another thing that helps is the fact that it is free.

We are proud to say that the popularity of JSMS is going from strength to strength. We’ve had over 2,000 downloads of the app in the last two months alone! And we have almost no support issues to deal with these days which shows how stable the application has become.

We are still working away on new features and hope to improve the application further in the coming months.

So here’s yet another thank you for helping make JSMS so popular… Keep spreading the word to your friends!

JSMSirl.sf.net

The move away from PowerPC

[Note: This post affects Apple Power Mac users only]

We will probably release a version of JSMS in the future for Apple Power PC (non Intel) users where will will force the automatic update preference to be False, therefore it will not update itself when subsequent (Intel only) releases come out.

JSMS will then continue to work on PowerPC Macs until the operator you use changes their website and breaks JSMS. This could mean it works for you for weeks or years depending on your operator.

This also means that you won’t get any of the new features which we will be including in the Intel builds.

It is unfortunate that we must do this, but the version of Java on older Macs has been holding us back for some time. We didn’t take this decision lightly (I own a Powerbook G4 myself!).

It may be a few months until we drop support for Power Macs. In our poll, 76% of users said they are now moved over to Intel based Macs so I guess this means that we shouldn’t disrupt too many users by doing this.