"Upgrade Now" Problem on "Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - 5th Edition (LDOCE5)"

For those that are interested, I have forwarded the following message to Apple, Enfour and Oxford. You will note that I quote this thread within the email.

Oxford Dictionaries for iPad

I am having a problem with Encour products. A message box is appearing with the words "Upgrade Now" and an "OK" button - NO 'Cancel' button is present. This appears to be a recent problem and this message will continue to appear between 1st February and 31st May - see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4773884?start=0&tstart=0 which outlines a similar problem with another product, the Longman dictionary from Encour. The first few times it appeared, clicking the message would make it disappear. Now it is persistent and even after 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 clicks -- I have tried them all -- the message remains persistent. The only way to remove it is to tap the search bar, very quickly, whilst the system is processing the response to the depression of the "OK" button - a matter of quick timing that often takes three, four or five attempts. Once the search bar depression has been accepted, the "Upgrade Now" message is cleared, provided the app remains active.

The persistence of the "Upgrade Now" message, and the solution to overcoming its persistence, severely disrupts the writing process. One cannot get the and is akin to NagWare - the difference being that I have paid a license for the use of the product.

Below I have listed the dictionary products that I have purchased and I have tested each of them to determine the likely cause of the problem. The product from Handmark and Macquarie is fine. Enfour's Roget's Thesaurus appears not to have the problem. I could not test the Enfour Australian Dictionary as it does not appear to be on my iPad. I am at odds to discover why it is not. Given the reference to the Apple support page above, my conclusion is that the issue is probably with the Enfour software.

I then went to the iTunes store in an attempt to download any later versions and to re-download Enfour's Australian Dictionary, only to find that their products are no longer in the store.

This experience leads to a the following questions:

• For Apple: The consumer is encouraged to keep the faith with Apple and rely on the iTunes Store and the App Store. The concept of near seamless updates is appealing and I have often purchased OS X based products from the App Store at a higher price even though I price has been higher than direct purchase with coupons and the updates are slower in coming through. If the policy of Apple is to delete product from the stores when they have a problem with a software publisher, the security of the Apple stores disappears.
• For Apple: It appears from the email quoted above that the error message is built into the software. I am a computer scientist and software engineer by profession and understand the difficulties of software testing and validation. If the case is as posited in the above mentioned entry on the Apple support site, has Apple incorporated into the application validation, a test for the demand for upgrades on of software after a fixed date.
• For Apple: When there is a problem with a vendor, or one of their products, and the product is removed from the app stores, surely a message should be placed on the entry to state that a problem exists and, if it is not Apple, then who to contact for complaints.
• For Oxford: The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus is a core reference work for those writer's resident in the former British Empire. The iPad product is a great resource. To have it disrupted by the problem I have outlined above and to have it disappear from Apple's iTunes Store is almost beyond belief for such an august institution as Oxford University Press.
• For Oxford: This is a problem that surely confronts many of your loyal disciples. I have searched the website, http://oxforddictionaries.com, and I can find no mention of the problems that iPad users are confronting. It would be comforting to know that Oxford University Press care about their clients.
• For Oxford: What actions are you taking to assist or replace Enfour (Handmark?) as the distributor of your product on the iPad platform? If you appoint another distributor, will the purchaser of a license from Enfour be forced to purchase a complete new license?
• Enfour: The apology letter on your website - http://www.enfour.com/OpenLetter.pdf - would, on the surface appear genuine. There are several detractions from this favourable view of your organisation. Why was the letter published with the copy and print capacity disabled? What has happened since 14th November, 2012 - several months have passed without another word? Was the content of your statement the truth? Had you followed this letter with additional information, and action, instead of silence, my view of this memo may have been supportive. I understand the challenges of being a small software developer. I have lived in your shoes.
• Enfour: The questions - there are many. Are you still in business? What is the real reason for this problem? From the first reference above, it appears that your code has been hardwired for this message. What valid reason can be offered for such an action? My advice to you would be to act honestly and truthfully and let the consumers of Oxford and your North American focussed products know what is happening.

This issues is important to me, I am currently writing a thesis and have invested in the following Oxford Dictionary products via the following distributors:

• Enfour Inc
  • Oxford Deluxe (ODE & OTE powered by UniDict) v3.9
  • Roget's II: New Thesaurus v3.9.6
• Handmark Inc
  • Critical Theory - Oxford Dictionary v1.0.0
  • Education - Oxford Dictionary v1.0.0
  • English Etymology - Oxford Dictionary v1.0.1
  • English Idioms - v1.0.0
  • Philosophy - Oxford Dictionary v1.0.1
  • Proverbs - Oxford Dictionary v1.0.0
  • Rhymes - Oxford Dictionary v1.0.0
  • Sociology - Oxford Dictionary v2.0.0

In addition I have purchased the following from Enfour

• Australian Dictionary v3.9
• Companion Thesaurus - with Spelling Dictionary V3.9

I have purchased the following from Macquarie Dictionary [Australia]

I outline the above to indicate that I have made a substantial investment, particularly in terms of time in setting up a writing environment to suit my method of work. The majority of the investment is with Oxford products.

I await your prompt response with eagerness.

Bruce Hunt

Higher Degree by Research student

Curtin University

Perth, Western Australia

I don't sure if you will ever get an answer. They had disappeared. I'm trying to contact with Enfour since 2 weeks ago without luck. I have the same problem with LDOCE 5, I reinstalled the app and the issue persist. The version that we have (4.1.6) is supposed to have been upgraded to version 5 by now and they actually coded that inside the app. Since the version 5 launch date already passed but there's no version 5 the app would show this message forever.

Thank you for posting the message from Enfour. That confirm that they had the account removed from the app store. I'm remember when a couple of years ago, the app Camera+ released an update with a hidden feature to take pictures using the volume controls, they got banned for more than 6 months. I not sure about Enfour case how much it would take and if they ever would be allowed in the app store again.

About your question, what I mean to say that after the first day of the next month of June, the message stops to appear (the app check the date everytime you switch to it and if the date of your device is between February 1 and May 31 its shows 'Upgrade now!".)

Hi George,

Which version of OTE/ODE are you running? (go to "About" and then "Email support", a new email draft will be generated with the app version, you can delete the draft after).

The last version is 5.3.

Thank you.

George.

Maybe we have different apps? I got the Oxford Deluxe OTE/ODE.

I just checked the cached version of the iTunes page for the app

and the last update was on july 29, version 5.3. Let me know if

I'm wrong.

Either way, I have bad news. Enfour was a sub-licensee (via DioTek) of

Oxford Dictionaries. The license of DioTek expired on the 10th August,

and now neither Enfour or Diotek could sell Oxford products. The app

was pulled from the app store.

However, Enfour pulled the app from the international market 1 month before

the licence expiration (version was 5.0 at that time). They only offered the

app in the Australian market. I was able to pick the following 3 updates

by changing the country of my iTunes account to Australia (and then back).

I don't know if their Oxford apps are available to download via purchase history.

(developers could allow this no matter if the app is not available at the app store)

The other previous apps of Enfour that had the same update bug, were always

triggered on certain date, not for a change in the iOS. I have yet to update to

iOS 7 final version, but I tested the app with the beta 4 and it crashed a lot,

but not displayed any update message.

Your only chance is to check if you can download a more recent update

from purchase history. In any other case, there would'nt be more updates.

Enfour mentioned one time, that the update message (in other app) was programmed

to show between two dates and never show again.

You could try to change the date on the iPhone to december 2013, close and

launch the app and see what happens.

I had trouble after the iOS6 update, so Enfour sent me a new version (v5.4), which works differently: the app requires an in-app purchase of the dictionary (which they set up to be available for customers who had already paid). I do still have the old version in iTunes, so perhaps I should try reloading it.

I managed to get past the problem that I had in February of this year (see my post of 12th Feb, 2013, above) after Enfour provided an update. I have been using the dictionary and thesaurus constantly without problems until yesterday....I upgraded to iOS 7 and the old problems are back. At first the screen was locked in portrait mode and the keyboard in landscape....useless. Then tonight I opened the app and up comes a message asking for $59.99. It may look useless. Oxford Press are not interested, Apple deny any responsibility. However, for those of us in Australia it may be worthwhile looking at consumer legislation. I am not sure of the status of software under the legislation, but for physical products has to be "fit for purpose" and this product is certainly not. How many users out there are in Australia? If there are a few, then I may look at going to the ACCC and making an enquiry. I may be contacted at the mail anonymiser oedproblem@hmamail.com (this is a temporary account) and I will reply with my full email contact details.

Apps crashing

See:

iOS: Troubleshooting applications purchased from the App Store

Contact the developer/go to their support site

One extra bit of information, the 'Upgrade now!" message is programmed to show between February, 1 and May, 31.

Has anyone solved this problem? My ODE/OTE app started having this problem with iOS7.

Hi Diego,

I'm unable to open the About menu in the dictionary app itself, but in the Purchased tab of the App Store app, I see that my version number is 5.4.

George