WhoNews Feed

iStalk App Preview Site

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-02-19T22:56:51+00:00

iStalk for iPhone is brand new app I’ve been developing for sometime which allows you to take photos as seen by the Doctor’s deadliest enemy.

Today I visited the Doctor Who Experience in London and took the opportunity take a number of photos using iStalk and have published them at www.istalk.co.uk

I’ll be posting updates to the site verity soon but thought I’d give you a sneak preview.

WhoNews For BlackBerry v1.0.1 released

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-02-14T09:16:22+00:00

WhoNews for BlackBerry v1.0.1 has been released which has an improved user interface and auto loads the latest news on a first install.

The user interface provides a simple and quick to navigate interface with direct redirection to the news article’s website. The simple ‘Refresh News’ menu item allows users to choose when to update WhoNews for all categories and yet save on the user’s data plans. All downloaded news is stored on the device.

WhoNews for BlackBerry is priced at $1.99

WhoNews is the only dedicated native Doctor Who News app available for BlackBerry users.

Download it here http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/81180/?lang=en

Omega Podcast Reviews WhoNews for Android

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-02-11T16:39:48+00:00

Wes from the informative and thoroughly entertaining The Omega Podcast gives a video review of WhoNews for Android.

For an unbiased in-depth review of the app I recommend heading over to The Omega Podcast or checking out their channel on YouTube or watching the review on the review page on this site.

A big thank you to Wes for taking the timeout to review the app, which available here at the Android Market Place or the Amazon Apps for Android Store

WhoNews for BlackBerry

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-02-11T11:31:06+00:00

WhoNews is now available as a native app for BlackBerry smart phones. The app provides access to the the same news, blogs, podcasts and special fan feeds as the iPhone and Android versions collated from 120+ sites.

Version 1.0 provides a simple and quick to navigate interface with direct redirection to the news article’s website. The simple ‘Refresh News’ menu item allows users to choose when to update WhoNews for all categories and yet save on the user’s data plans. All downloaded news is stored on the device. Please note when you first run WhoNews you will need to perform a “Refresh News” to initially download all the latest news.

More updates are to come and WhoNews for BlackBerry is priced at $1.99

WhoNews is the only dedicated native Doctor Who News app available for BlackBerry users.

Download it here http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/81180/?lang=en

DT Forum added

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-01-23T21:57:44+00:00

The DT Forum has now been added to the blog section of WhoNews. DT Forum is an unofficial David Tennant Fan Site.

The focus of the site is a fan friendly forum where members discuss everything from exercise, photography and last but not least our favourite actor David Tennant. While this main site has a lot of information and news about David, the forum is the heart of the site. We chit-chat, make friends, support charities and have great prizes and draws. They invite you to look around at all our public articles and if it sounds like a place for you, sign up and join the forum.

Find out more here http://www.dt-forum.com/ or follow them on on twitter @DTForum

David Tennant Bear Auction Update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-01-22T15:58:55+00:00

The David Tennant Bear raised £60 for Little Hearts Matter and will soon be winging its way to its new owner.

Thanks to all those who took an interest in the auction and especially who retweeted links during the week.

David Tennant Bear

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-01-14T20:21:34+00:00

Today I attended the Big Blue Box convention and had a terrific time with fellow fans meeting Colin Baker, Louise Jameson and John Leeson. During the day I took part in a charity auction and won a unique David Tennant Bear donated by Louise. The is bear dressed in the 10th Doctor’s outfit.

So I’ve decided to auction the David Bear in aid of one of my favourite charities Little Hearts Matter and it now has the added bonus of being signed by Louise and John. You can follow this charity auction on eBay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150737499149

All profits from the auction will go to the charity and the auction ends on the 21st January.

Don’t miss this great opportunity for a unique item.

Colin Baker @ Big Blue Box

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-01-10T20:25:08+00:00

The 6th Doctor, played by Colin Baker will be making a special appearance this coming Saturday at Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

The day kicks off at 10:30am and is a one day celebration of the world of Doctor Who in aid of a Compaid, a Kent based charity. John Leeson and Louise Jameson will be answering questions along with writers and producers from Big Finish, Doctor Who magazine and Serpents Crest.

You can still book a place at the event. For more info visit http://www.trinitytheatre.net/Whats-On/850-/Big-Blue-Box or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Blue-Box/266550500057405

John Leeson @ Big Blue Box

pgee@moonboom.com — 2012-01-05T17:41:32+00:00

John Leeson, voice of K9, will now be attending Big Blue Box, and joining Louise Jameson to discuss the show's success in the 1970's. John will also be promoting his new autobiography, The Flight of the Budgerigar.

Big Blue Box is a one day celebration of the world of Doctor Who, in aid of Compaid. For more info visit http://www.trinitytheatre.net/Whats-On/850-/Big-Blue-Box or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Blue-Box/266550500057405

Join writers, actors and producers from Big Finish and AudioGo Doctor Who releases as they discuss their work and passion for the show.

Guests* include Big Finish writers John Dorney and Jonathan Morris, Doctor Who actresses Louise Jameson and Susan Jameson, and Paul Magrs, writer of the Serpent Crest AudioGo series.

The event will include moderated panels, Q&A sessions, book and CD sales and signings, and a selection of special screenings, including a rare big screen outing for the classic film Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150AD.

As the Big Blue Box day is right on my doorstep I will be attending the day, so if you see me feel free to say hello. I’ll be wearing a WhoNews T-thirt.

All profits from the event will go towards Compaid's work with disabled people in and around Kent.
SCHEDULE
10.30 Screening of Dalek film
12.00 Welcome and programme
12.10 Big Finish Panel and Q&A
12.50 Interval
13.20 Screening of Cleaning Up
13.35 Louise Jameson interview and Q&A
14.20 Interval
14.50 Screening of Doctor Who Anime
15.05 Will Howells and Time Team session
15.35 AudioGo panel and Q&A
16.20 Thank you to guests and close
17.00 Pulling Faces performance (Separate ticket needed)
18.00 Auditorium cleared

Merry Christmas From WhoNews

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-12-25T08:39:12+00:00

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and thanks for all your support and feedback over the past year, I very much appreciate all your comments and tweets.

See you all on the virtual sofa tonight for The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.

Have a good one.

Paul.

WhoNews for Android Released

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-12-23T10:02:05+00:00

WhoNews for Android is now available at the Android Market.

This initial version provides news, blogs, podcasts and the special content areas for Android users using the same news feeds that iPhone users have enjoyed for so long now.

The price search features and offline browsing that iPhone users enjoy will come in a later version but for now during the Christmas period you can enjoy the very latest news on Doctor Who on your droid.

The initial price is £1.25 in the UK, slightly lower than the iPhone version to reflect the lack of features currently, so it is a good opportunity to buy the app at a cheaper price and upgrade later next year.

Just search for WhoNews in the Android Market or follow this link

WhoNews Charity Results

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-11-29T16:26:23+00:00

The week of donations from WhoNews to Cure Leukaemia and Little Hearts Matter is over and the final figures are in with just under £80/$125 being raised directly from the sale of WhoNews. Unfortunately this was way down on what was raised last year and I must confess a little disappointing, however times are hard for us all and there is far more competition at the App Store than in previous years.

As I previously stated I will personally match this amount and with donations from friends and other Who sites, the total raised is closer to £200/$312 which will be split 50/50 between the charities.

I would like to take the opportunity to thanks the Who community who supported the cause this year, the websites and podcasters who took the time to give me a mention and to all those good souls who helped by purchasing WhoNews or tweeted a link in support.

Many thanks to you all

Paul.

WhoNews Charity Update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-11-24T06:33:56+00:00

The WhoNews charity drive for Cure Leukaemia and Little Hearts Matter is now on its fourth day and I must say support from the Who community has been fantastic with lots of you retweeting my links, posting on websites or mentioning the appeal in podcasts. Special thanks goes out to The Omega Podcast, Kasterborous, Tardis Newsroom, Craig Hurle and his Facebook page, Doctor Who News and Nicola Bryant for tweeting.

However even with such great the support, sales of WhoNews during this charity period are massively down on last year with just 17 downloads compared to 88 last year on the first day. If you are a Who fan and have an iOS device there is no better time to buy WhoNews and donate to a good cause, with over 60 combined 5 star reviews in the US and UK, you really will be buying a great app.

As an added incentive whatever we raise together I will personally match, doubling the the amount raised.

The last day of fund raising week is Monday 28th, so please make the next few days a busy one at the App Store.

Download WhoNews here http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/doctor-who-whonews/id324696860?mt=8

WhoNews for Charity Starts today

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-11-21T10:46:13+00:00

From today for 1 week all profits from WhoNews will be donated to Cure Leukaemia and Little Hearts Matter. So please spread the word, tweet, post on Facebook, put a link on your site or send a friend an email.

Thanks to everybody who has tweeted, retweeted and given the charity drive a mention, with special thanks to Wes from the Omega Podcast and Christian at Kasterborous.

Just by purchasing WhoNews from the App Store either via iTunes or on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, users will make a donation of £1.21 in the UK, $2.10 in the US and $1.90 in Australia. WhoNews is available from all iTunes App Stores across the world, so everybody can make a donation and keep in touch with the latest news on Doctor Who in return. You purchase can it here http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/doctor-who-whonews/id324696860?mt=8

So if you was thinking of purchasing WhoNews nows the time and make your purchase count or may be gift a copy to a friend who is mad about Doctor Who.

WhoNews for Charity Starts Tomorrow

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-11-20T14:50:36+00:00

Just a reminder that tomorrow for 1 week all profits from WhoNews will be donated to Cure Leukaemia and Little Hearts Matter. So please spread the word, tweet, post on Facebook, put a link on your site or send a friend an email.

Cure Leukaemia is a research charity which works with a number of hospitals to fund extra research nursing posts to drive forward research, provide facilities for world-class research, develop new clinical treatments for leukaemia patients, fund the provision of new drugs and treatments and support patients with blood cancers throughout the Midlands. http://www.cureleukaemia.co.uk/

Little Hearts Matter http://www.lhm.org.uk/ is the national charity for children born with a single ventricle heart condition, more commonly called half a heart. Twenty years ago most of these children would have died within days or even hours of being born. Thankfully, today there is life-saving surgery available for many of these children, however not all survive the complex operations required. This open heart surgery starts when the child is just a few days old and they continue to need surgery at intervals throughout their childhood.

Those that do survive will never have a fully working heart so need to learn to live within the physical restrictions and are likely to need a heart transplant in early adulthood. Around 30% of the children who are born with this condition are unlikely to make it to the age 5. The oldest person with the severest of these conditions is 20, even for the children who do survive the condition is not curable and they will need to learn to live with the disability this life limiting condition creates.

Little Hearts Matter provides support from initial diagnosis right the way through the hazardous and frightening journey the child and family need to take. They also offer bereavement support to parents, when they sadly lose a child.

Just by purchasing WhoNews from the App Store either via iTunes or on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, users will make a donation of £1.21 in the UK, $2.10 in the US and $1.90 in Australia. WhoNews is available from all iTunes App Stores across the world, so everybody can make a donation and keep in touch with the latest news on Doctor Who in return. You purchase can it here http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/doctor-who-whonews/id324696860?mt=8

So if you was thinking of purchasing WhoNews why not hold on till monday and make your purchase count or may be gift a copy to a friend who is mad about Doctor Who.

WhoNews all proifts to Cure Leukaemia and Little Hearts Matter from Monday

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-11-17T21:51:18+00:00

Following last years successful fundraising by donating the profits from WhoNews, I will be doing the same from Monday November 21st to the 28th. All profits from the WhoNews with be donated to two charities Cure Leukaemia and Little Hearts Matter.

Cure Leukaemia is a research charity which works with a number of hospitals to fund extra research nursing posts to drive forward research, provide facilities for world-class research, develop new clinical treatments for leukaemia patients, fund the provision of new drugs and treatments and support patients with blood cancers throughout the Midlands. http://www.cureleukaemia.co.uk/

Little Hearts Matter http://www.lhm.org.uk/ is the national charity for children born with a single ventricle heart condition, more commonly called half a heart. Twenty years ago most of these children would have died within days or even hours of being born. Thankfully, today there is life-saving surgery available for many of these children, however not all survive the complex operations required. This open heart surgery starts when the child is just a few days old and they continue to need surgery at intervals throughout their childhood.

Those that do survive will never have a fully working heart so need to learn to live within the physical restrictions and are likely to need a heart transplant in early adulthood. Around 30% of the children who are born with this condition are unlikely to make it to the age 5. The oldest person with the severest of these conditions is 20, even for the children who do survive the condition is not curable and they will need to learn to live with the disability this life limiting condition creates.

Little Hearts Matter provides support from initial diagnosis right the way through the hazardous and frightening journey the child and family need to take. They also offer bereavement support to parents, when they sadly lose a child.

The charity also provides family days where children and families can get together. This allows the children to be normal for a day rather than the isolated children they can sometimes become at school due the physical and mental restrictions their condition creates.

Just by purchasing WhoNews from the App Store either via iTunes or on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, users will make a donation of £1.21 in the UK, $2.10 in the US and $1.90 in Australia. WhoNews is available from all iTunes App Stores across the world, so everybody can make a donation and keep in touch with the latest news on Doctor Who in return. You purchase can it here http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/doctor-who-whonews/id324696860?mt=8

So if you was thinking of purchasing WhoNews why not hold on till monday and make your purchase count or may be gift a copy to a friend who is mad about Doctor Who.

WhoNews Push Notifications

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-10-10T09:33:44+01:00

Push notifications have been turned off for blogs and podcasts, due to the high volume of notifications from these two channels which seems to be an irritation to users based on feedback. Notifications will still be pushed out for the news and special channels which have a far lower volume of updates.

Last month WhoNews pushed out 1.3m notifications to users, which is a testament to the Who community and how active they are but is an awful lot of updates bombarding users.

I’ll continue to monitor the situation. However if you wish to disable notifications completely, then follow these instructions:

Notification settings are handled outside of WhoNews but here is how to do it:

1. Tap Settings on the iPhone/iPad Screen
2. Tap Notifications
3. Scroll to WhoNews and tap it to configure notifications just for WhoNews
4. Select whether you just want the alert sound off or the alert to be disabled as well. Badges are not currently used by WhoNews.

If you need further help just contact me using the Contact Developer button in WhoNews.

WhoNews for Android

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-10-05T08:50:04+01:00

Work has now begun on WhoNews for Android and I will post regular updates on progress. In the meantime I thought I’d warn you that somebody has a “Who News” app in the Android Market Place and is trying to jump on the iPhone WhoNews following.

This app is no way associated with WhoNews and has no access to the WhoNews server for all the news, blogs and podcast channels.

When WhoNews is released for Android I’ll let you know right here and it will offer the same quality of news as the iPhone version.

WhoNews 2.01 released

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-10-04T08:04:38+01:00

WhoNews v2.01 is released and available at the App Store.

This version increases iOS5 compatibility and more importantly adds a new channel where artists, writers and creative Whovians can publish their work. Included in the new section is the Daily Dalek by Tony Naylor, Beck Seashols wonderful and cute Doctor Who Doodles and Jim Wilkins The Void Noir

More artists and writers are preparing material to be added to this channel in WhoNews and I’m always happy to add Who related fan material, so if you know someone or would like your work included contact me on Twitter at @Who_News or email address at the bottom of the page.

Calling all writers and artists for WhoNews 2.01

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-09-29T21:55:11+01:00

WhoNews version 2.01 is now with Apple waiting to be reviewed and released.

This version increases iOS5 compatibility and more importantly adds a new channel where artists, writers and creative Whovians can publish their work. Included in the new section is the Daily Dalek by Tony Naylor, Beck Seashols wonderful and cute Doctor Who Doodles and Jim Wilkins The Void Noir

The channel is growing all the time and I’m always happy to add Who related fan material, so if you know someone or would like your work included contact me on Twitter at @Who_News or email address at the bottom of the page.

Reprint Society and Gary Gillatt

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-09-10T18:39:28+01:00

New feeds have recently been added to WhoNews. So welcome to the Doctor Who Reprint Society whose aim is get affordable reprints of classic publications into the hands of fans that want to read them.

Also stepping aboard is Gary Gillatt, writer for Doctor Who Magazine, who has just reviewed Frontios on his blog. His blog is called Squabbling Rubber if you want to find it in WhoNews under the sites view.

If there are more feeds you like added to WhoNews just let me know.

WhoNews how to disable alerts

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-09-05T08:42:19+01:00

I’ve had a few enquires on how you can turn off the the push notification alerts in WhoNews.

Notification settings are handled outside of WhoNews but here is how to do it:

1. Tap Settings on the iPhone/iPad Screen
2. Tap Notifications
3. Scroll to WhoNews and tap it to configure notifications just for WhoNews
4. Select whether you just want the alert sound off or the alert to be disabled as well. Badges are not currently used by WhoNews.

If you need further help just contact me using the Contact Developer button in WhoNews.

WhoNews Affiliate Links

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-09-04T09:05:18+01:00

If you would like to put a link to WhoNews on your website and potentially earn a commission on every download of WhoNews you generate then take a look at the new Affiliate page

I’ve provided details of how you can easily add this to your website and added images which you can use if required.

Don’t expect to become a millionaire over night though ;)

If you have any questions just let me know.

WhoNews filtering

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-09-03T22:22:14+01:00

I’m afraid I’ve had to add a little filtering to the blogs collated and reported by WhoNews. It has come to my attention that certain sites actively promote the downloading of episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood from the internet and whilst they do not host the videos, they do actively promote links to other sites.

This is not something WhoNews can endorse or support and consequently I have put in place measures to actively removes news articles which promote such downloads. If I don’t take action I run the risk of WhoNews being accused of actively promoting such activites, especially since it actively pushes out over 11,000 updates a day currently to users. This could result in WhoNews being removed from the App Store.

I hope you understand why WhoNews won’t report all the articles from some sites now and the reasoning behind it.

More WhoNews notifications

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-09-02T09:18:47+01:00

WhoNews receives notifications of news updates and now I have also added blogs and podcasts. Each update is either prefixed with News:, Blogs: or Podcast: to indicate where you can find the update.

I’m also pushing all the news, blogs and podcast updates to my twitter feed @Who_News so this can be a great account to follow if you want to stay in touch with all the latest news.

The headline page now also displays the latest headlines for News, Blogs and Podcasts. You can take a look here

WhoNews 2.00 in the App Store

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-08-31T20:57:54+01:00

WhoNews 2.0 is now available at the App Store, so check for updates on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

During the coming days I will migrate some of the current sites from news into their appropriate sections.

New screenshots are available on the site here and under the iPad section here

The changes are subtle to WhoNews 2.0 but significantly enhanced the app. Firstly you’ll notice the new content selector on the right of nav bar. It has three buttons (from left to right) News, Blogs and Podcasts. The Most Recent and Sites view both have this control and the view content will change accordingly. So sites like Kasterborous, Doctor Who News Page, Whovianet will appear under the News section, the likes of Life, Doctor Who and Combom move into the blog section along with Tachyon TV and naturally all podcasts move into the podcast section.

This should allow less prolific content generating sites, not to be swamped by other prolific sites and increase their visibility to Who fans.

WhoNews now has its own dematerialising police box which is displayed when news, blogs or podcast data is being downloaded. So the icon will come and go as you switch views to display the downloading state.

Also new in WhoNews 2.0 is the last updated indicator. If you pull down the Most Recent view it will display the time and date of the last update and allow you to force a download of the currently selected section (news, blogs or podcasts)

When you first launch WhoNews 2.0 you will be asked whether you want push notifications. Push notifications send you alerts of new articles only from sites listed under the News section. This is currently to prevent swamping users with lots of alerts. However if requested I may add push notifications for blogs and podcasts as well. You can configure whether you want sounds with alerts under your notification section in the iPhone/iPad Settings area under WhoNews. As WhoNews sends alerts 24 hours a day you might want to disable the sound...

I hope it has been worth the wait.

WhoNews 4 star review in Apps Magazine (Issue #10)

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-08-29T07:41:41+01:00

WhoNews is reviewed in the latest issue of Apps Magazine. The independent app reviewer awarded WhoNews a 4 out 5.

Apps Magazine says about WhoNews, “This App provides you with all the Doctor Who news you need in one place. From within WhoNews, you can quickly and easily access fan sites, cast blogs and even compare merchandise prices.”

It goes onto say, “…it’s crammed with more news and information than you can shake a sonic screwdriver at.”

The article finishes with, “All the Doctor Who News you’ll ever need. Time Lord geeks won’t complain”

The article reviewed v1.81 of the app and not the soon to be released v2.0 which you can read about here.

Issue #10 of Apps Magazine also reviewed DWO iWho app which received a 3 out 5 rating.

WhoNews 2.0 ready for release

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-08-27T06:17:41+01:00

WhoNews 2.0 is now with Apple and just waiting for its release which I expect to be next week.

New screenshots are available on the site here and under the iPad section here

The changes are subtle to WhoNews 2.0 but significantly enhanced the app. Firstly you’ll notice the new content selector on the right of nav bar. It has three buttons (from left to right) News, Blogs and Podcasts. The Most Recent and Sites view both have this control and the view content will change accordingly. So sites like Kasterborous, Doctor Who News Page, Whovianet will appear under the News section, the likes of Life, Doctor Who and Combom move into the blog section along with Tachyon TV and naturally all podcasts move into the podcast section.

This should allow less prolific content generating sites, not to be swamped by other prolific sites and increase their visibility to Who fans.

Countdown to WhoNews 2.0 begins

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-08-21T10:38:33+01:00

The long awaited upgrade to version 2.0 of WhoNews will be released in the coming week for review by Apple. The new version easily trebles the number of news sources of the current version by including blogs and podcasts. The total number of sites scanned by the new WhoNews server currently exceeds 120, providing a constant feed of news, reviews and discussion.

Finally WhoNews gets push notifications which I’ve been testing with iOS5 and the new message centre. All I can say is what a great feature Apple has added and I’m finding WhoNews news alerts on my iPhone’s locked screen invaluable for keeping up to speed.

Once thing I’ve had to do is raise the price of WhoNews back to $1.99/£1.49 to help cover the cost of push notifications and the new improved servers.

Check back for more news soon...

WhoNews RSS Feed

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-07-27T20:41:32+01:00

To complement the new live feed on the website there is now a new RSS feed providing the latest 25 news stories from over 40 sites, so you can now keep up to date with the latest news from your desktop browsers.

You’ll notice that there is a few WhoNews adverts intermingled in the feed, this is just to prevent unscrupulous app developers lifting my feed or if they do, they will be advertising WhoNews as well!

Just click on the RSS feed next to the ticker or use a direct link to http://feeds.feedburner.com/whonewslatest

WhoNews live update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-07-25T20:08:22+01:00

There is a new Headlines page on the WhoNews website which provides a constant updates of the latest news from the WhoNews server. Just click on a headline to be taken directly to the full article on original website. You can visit the page here

The page is updated every 15 minutes and is a great way to stay in touch with the latest news.

WhoNews Feed Changes

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-07-16T16:27:58+01:00

The WhoNews feed currently delivers the lasts 60 days of news from over 40 sites. I’ve now reduced this to 15 days in order to reduce the size of the feed being delivered to the app and save the amount of data used on users mobile tariffs. This should result in a quicker refresh over slow connections.

I’ve also modified the WhoNews news search facility to provide a full site searches, so all news items regardless of age are searched.

WhoNews is back

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-06-27T16:40:16+01:00

WhoNews has switched web hosts and is back up and running.

A huge thank you to Storm Internet for making the transition so smooth and providing excellent support.

Sorry for the intermittent services during this period.

WhoNews Feed Restored

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-06-27T07:10:15+01:00

I’ve worked out a way to force a manual refresh of the WhoNews feed. The updates will not be as regular as the normal service until the full service is restored however it does mean WhoNews will receive updates on a regular basis.

Thank you for your support and understanding during this period.

WhoNews Feed update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-06-26T21:27:52+01:00

I’m sorry to say the WhoNews feed is still down. The web host responded once today and with nothing useful.

Consequently I have to taken immediate steps to move the WhoNews feed to another web hosting provider in the hope of restoring the feed with in the next couple of days. The account should be activated tomorrow at which point I will begin moving the WhoNews services across to the new host and begin the domain transfer.

I’ve always prided myself on the reliability and timeliness of the WhoNews feed and have unfortunately been badly let down.

Rest assured I am doing all I can to restore the service as quickly as possible.

WhoNews still down

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-06-26T07:58:02+01:00

There is still an issue with the ISP hosting WhoNews which is preventing the generation of the news feed.

Please accept my apologies for no WhoNews feed update since Saturday morning, I have contacted the ISP and I am STILL waiting for a response. They are currently not answering their phones during the weekend period or responding to ticket support.

I will be looking to move to another Web Hosting provider.

I will keep you informed of progress on this page.

WhoNews offline

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-06-25T21:09:09+01:00

There is currently an issue with the ISP hosting WhoNews which is preventing the generation of the news feed.

Please accept my apologises for no WhoNews feed update since this morning, I have contacted the ISP and I am waiting for a response.

I will keep you informed of progress on this page.

Doctor Who: Mazes of Time FREE

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-06-05T13:56:16+01:00

Not often WhoNews actually reports a direct news item but for a limited time the iPhone/iPad app Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time is free...

Here is a link to iPhone version
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/doctor-who-the-mazes-of-time/id404556035?mt=8

Here is a link to the HD iPad version
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/doctor-who-the-mazes-of-time-hd/id405518984?mt=8

Why not download WhoNews at the same time for 59p or 99 cents here

WhoNews v2.0 needs YOU

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-06-01T09:00:14+01:00

The new WhoNews services for blogs and podcasts are now live and checking blogs at a frequency of 15 minutes and podcasts every 1 hour.

This is a call to all content providers and users to suggest sites, podcasts and blogs that I might have missed. You can check whose is currently monitored on the Sites page

The currently released version of WhoNews uses the list of sites under the News category, which includes podcasts and blogs. However when v2.0 is released podcasts and blogs will move to the appropriate categories. There are duplicate entries between the lists and this is intentional.

Please send all suggestions and recommendations to appsupport@moonboom.com

Thanks for all your support and help.

WhoNews v2.0 update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-05-30T21:50:16+01:00

WhoNews v2.0 is under development with the new addition web services now tested and working. The new services check and aggregate all the podcasts of the Doctor Who Podcast Alliance, in addition a whole host of additional blogs. The next version of WhoNews will have the following categories News sites, podcasts, blogs and videos.

WhoNews will continue to be the most comprehensive Doctor Who news iPhone app, collating news and features from over 100+ sources and be the only Doctor Who news app to provide a dedicated iPad interface.

On completion of WhoNews v2.0, work will begin on the Android and Blackberry versions of the app.

Expect releases to come this summer.

WhoNews feed restored

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-05-13T08:24:40+01:00

Following last nights issues with the internet service provider the WhoNews feed is backup and running.

I am still waiting for a response from the ISP as it appears the problem was with the web service hosting and not with the WhoNews services themselves.

I will continue to monitor the situation.

Paul.

WhoNews appears to be down

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-05-12T22:10:00+01:00

The WhoNews feed service appears to down currently. This seems to be a problem with the Internet Service Provider and I am investigating to restore service as soon as possible.

Please bear with me and accept my apologies in the mean time.

Paul.

WhoNews on BBC South East Today

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-04-28T07:32:50+01:00

WhoNews appeared on BBC South East Today, if you didn’t manage to see it you can view it here on the reviews page.

Once again a big thank you to Wes Duellman for joining me on the interview. Also thanks to my wife for her love and support and being filmed when she really didn’t want to.

Cheers

Paul.

Why buy WhoNews?

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-04-23T14:57:27+01:00

With the launch of the new series of Doctor Who tonight there is a very good chance you are looking for an iPhone app that will keep you up to date with all the latest news, spoilers and links to your favourite show.

So why choose WhoNews when there are so many Doctor Who news apps in the App Store?

For starters WhoNews was the very first Doctor Who news app and the only app for over 12 months. So it is mature and stable having been developed for nearly 2 years. It is now used over 22,000 times a month and has logged over 230,000 sessions by fans.

Then there is the fact no other app provides a more comprehensive news service, a dedicated server scans over 40 sites every 15 minutes for the very latest news ready for WhoNews to download and for you to browse at your leisure.

Many of the other Doctor Who news apps are affiliated to particular Who sites, where as WhoNews is completely independent ensuring you get the latest news direct from the original source and don’t have to wait for a particular site to re-publish a story.

Above all there is a real software developer behind WhoNews, that is reason why WhoNews is the only app that is iPad compatible and actually takes advantage of the iPad’s much larger screen. If there is a feature you want added or a site you’d like to see included, you just drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do. £0.59/$0.99 buys you app that runs on all your iOS devices.

It is probably worth knowing that many of the other news apps are produced using tools designed for music bands, celebrities and singers to quickly get an iPhone presence, so the level of support you can expect for bug fixes or new feature requests is very low. Also some of these apps are produced by the same person, so you will be getting the same app repackaged but you will have paid twice.

So choose wisely and if you have a question you would like to ask before you buy, email Paul at appsupport@moonboom.com

Thanks to the Omega Podcast

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-04-21T07:54:12+01:00

I’d just like to say a huge thank you to Wes Duellman from the Omega Podcast for taking the time to join me in an interview for BBC South East. For me this took place at 9:20am, for Wes it was 3:20am and we’d already performed a test call at 2am his time!

We hope the interview will be broadcast over the weekend or early next week.... I’ll post a link as soon as it is available.

Elizabeth Sladen has passed away

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-04-19T21:11:00+01:00

It is very rare WhoNews actually comments on a news story but tonight I’ve heard that the actress Elizabeth Sladen has passed away from cancer. This is devastating news and completely unexpected since she was relatively young at the age of 63.

Certainly for my generation who grew up with the late Pertwee/early Baker stories Sarah Jane Smith was probably the best loved companion of the 70’s. With the return of her character during the 10th Doctor’s adventures Elizabeth Sladen was introduced to a whole new generation of fans and enjoyed huge success with her own spin off series.

The world of Doctor Who has lost another of its brightest stars far too early. My thoughts are with her friends and family.

Adventures in Time, Space and Music

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-04-15T20:51:42+01:00

A quick update to welcome Adventures in Time, Space and Music to the ever growing list of feeds in WhoNews.

In Dr Phillip Serna’s podcast, he samples music from the almost 50 year history of Doctor Who, discussing the technical minutiae involved in the music, how it relates to the story, as well as explore the varied composers and musicians who have worked on the show.

Why not drop by his website here and take a listen to the latest podcast.

Upgrade to WhoNews v1.81

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-04-06T20:32:37+01:00

Due to the increased news activity in the run up to the start of series 6, I’ve had to turn off the old WhoNews generator as it just couldn’t cope. Now this doesn’t affect anyone using v1.8 onwards of WhoNews, however if you are using an older version then the news feed will stop being refreshed.

I recommend those few people still using an old version of WhoNews to upgrade for free now.

Cheers

Paul.

New Sites feature

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-03-25T08:50:36+00:00

A quick update to the website....

You can now see the complete list of the sites aggregated by WhoNews and the status of each site on the new Sites tab. So you can check to see if your favourite site is included and if not let me know.

Cheers

Paul.

DoctorWhoBar Feed

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-03-24T21:25:24+00:00

A new feed has been added to WhoNews, so welcome to DoctorWhoBar... It is a ever growing group of Doctor Who fans who get together every Saturday from 7.00pm – and watch episodes from the show’s past. So why not join them behind on the virtual sofa.

The @DoctorWhoBar is a new Twitter based project for all Whovians! They meet once a week on Twitter to watch and discuss all manner of things concerning our favourite Time Lord. Don't forget to join them each and EVERY Saturday night from 7pm GMT and press play on your DVD/VCR at EXACTLY 7.30pm GMT so we can all stay in sync!. The winning story will be announced at 5pm GMT every Saturday! Don't forget to cast your vote for what YOU would like to see!

They are now live on WhoNews so you won’t miss any updates from their site at http://doctorwhobar.blogspot.com/

WhoNews in Apps Magazine

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-03-03T17:32:09+00:00

WhoNews hits the news stands in issue 4 of Apps Magazine where it is reviewed alongside the Mazes of Time.

Apps magazine says about WhoNews “you’re given a constant stream of information that’s a must for any serious Doctor Who fan.”

They reviewed WhoNews v1.7 at the price of £2.39/$3.99 and award it 3 stars out 5, the same as they awarded Mazes of Time.

Given WhoNews has the new merchandise finder and news search capabilities of v1.81, plus a new price of £0.59/$1 it must surely be 5 stars now ;)

Kasterborous iPhone Roundup

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-03-01T21:36:54+00:00

The guys over at Kasterborous have reviewed a number of the iPhone apps currently available on the market.

So if you interested in what the apps have to offer before buying, I suggest you take a look, WhoNews gets a nice mention.

Paul.

WhoNews 1.81 now at the App Store

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-02-25T21:10:21+00:00

WhoNews v1.81 is now available at the App Store. This version has the new WhoNews icon and logo and is likely to be the last update before v2.0 is released with extra features.

To celebrate the new look from today I’ll be dropping the price of WhoNews to an all time low of $1/£0.59 for one week so don’t miss this opportunity to grab it.

Cheers

Paul.

New look for WhoNews

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-02-20T10:40:11+00:00

WhoNews now has a new look. Version 1.81 which should be available to download very soon has a new set of hi-res icons to replace the old CyberRSS. This ties in with a new look for the website, I hope you all like it. As with all regenerations it takes a little time to get used too...

WhoNews price drop £1.19/$1.99

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-02-18T20:58:18+00:00

I’m announcing tonight another price drop on WhoNews to £1.19/$1.99

The are three reasons behind this. Firstly there are a number of other apps which are offering news on Doctor Who which are nowhere near as extensive as WhoNews in their coverage but are slightly cheaper. WhoNews has always been about providing the best service, the most comprehensive news resource for fans and providing regular app development.

Secondly the more WhoNews slides down the charts the less visible it is and consequently it runs the risk of disappearing in the thousands of apps in the App Store.

Finally I’ve learnt this week I’m likely to be losing my day job and whilst I hunt for another role, the little money WhoNews brings in each month helps fund the new server and pays something towards the bills each month.

Cheers

Paul.

WhoNews v1.8 now at the App Store

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-02-09T07:34:22+00:00

Just a quick update to say v1.8 of WhoNews is now at the App Store for download and existing users can upgrade by visiting the App Store on their iPhone, iPad or Touch.

I hope you all enjoy the new features and find them useful. Let me know what you think.

Cheers

Paul

WhoNews v1.8 more for less

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-02-06T20:50:17+00:00

It has been a long wait but tonight I completed testing on version 1.8 of WhoNews and submitted it to the App Store for review, so it should be with you all within the week hopefully.
Version 1.8 brings a lot of behind the scenes enhancements and new features including:

All news transmitted between the server and the WhoNews app is now compressed. This results in much faster data transfer to the WhoNews app especially over slow data connections. Typically WhoNews downloads around 900 kilobytes of news on a refresh and this is now reduced to 140 kilobytes.
Pull down news tables to refresh news articles.
Full text search on news. A highly optimised search engine on the server is now available which allows WhoNews to search every feed in near real-time. This allows your to search over 30 websites from WhoNews.
Full and free searching of DVDs, games, books, CDs, plus search on actors, sort by release date, best match or title. Tweet, Facebook or email individual links from stores of your choice.
Inbuilt browser supports forward and back buttons for easier navigation.
Hi-res iPhone 4 icons

Best of all I’ve dropped the price of WhoNews to £1.79/$2.99 following feedback during the recent charity appeal before Christmas.

Here is an appeal to my US fans and users, I need your help. The price comparison services in v1.8 are very focussed on the UK and I’d like to expand the same features to the US, so let me know which web based price comparison sites you use.

I’d like to thank you all for your patience and I hope it has been worth the wait.

Cheers
Paul.

Tachyon TV feed

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-01-26T17:12:01+00:00

Since the relaunch of the Tachyon TV site, I’m using a mixed feed which combines all the feeds from the site.

The Behind The Sofa blog will continue to be included until the feed becomes too old. This is following recent announcement that the blog is closing down. You can read more here http://www.behindthesofa.org.uk/

Cheers

Paul.

A quick WhoNews update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2011-01-18T19:35:20+00:00

It’s just over 3 weeks since my last post and I’d like to start by saying thanks to all those who have been kind enough to send their best wishes and support during this period.

It’s been a pretty tough time and I’ve just put everything on hold whilst looking after my dad after loosing his wife of nearly 47 years. All I can say is without the love and support my parents have constantly provided over the years, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Dad and I are over the worst part now and just starting to adjust to life without mum. My wife and family have been a great support during this time and I can’t thank them enough.

This week I’ll start getting back into developing WhoNews, preparing the v1.8 release which includes searching and direct access to the WhoNews feed engine, which in turn removes a download limit of 1MB of news in versions up to 1.7 and also introduces the compression of news on the fly between WhoNews and the server.

I’ll start posting on a more regular basis from now on.

Cheers

Paul.

Taking a break

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-27T20:02:47+00:00

This is just a courtesy post to let WhoNews users I won’t be responding as quickly to your emails as quickly as a I’d like and the next version will be delayed for some time.

This morning I received the news that my mum had passed away in her sleep. This wasn’t to be expect and I can only be grateful it was such a peaceful end. A times like these life stops momentary.

That’s all for now.

Paul.

WhoNews charity appeal now closed

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-24T04:13:01+00:00

The month of donations to charity by WhoNews is now over. I hope to have the final figures today but this may be delayed due to Apple closing the App Store for developers over the Christmas period but there is a chance sales figures may still come in. I’m confident that with your support over 500 copies of WhoNews were downloaded raising over £800/$1234

Well it has been quite a month and I’ve learnt a lot about fund raising, the politics of it, how much promotion you need to maintain interest and how people even in hard times are willing to support and give to others. Looking back I think a month was too long and probably 2 weeks is a better period to fund raise over.

Is it a event I will do again? The answer is a definite yes. So put a note in your diary that from 23rd November 2011 WhoNews will be raising money for charity for two weeks.

Finally a genuine thank you to everybody who downloaded WhoNews during this period, to all the websites and podcasters that have posted articles and promoted the appeal and contributed so much to the success of this charity phase.

So I wish you all a very merry Christmas and will join you on the universal sofa at 6pm to watch a Christmas Carol. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

Paul.

WhoNews Charity Ends Tonight

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-23T19:35:04+00:00

Tonight is the final night bringing to a close a month of donations to charity.

Wednesday saw just 5 downloads bringing the total for Cure Leukaemia to £128.29, with just today’s downloads to be added before I announce the grand total.

So if you want the very latest news on Doctor Who from the internet’s finest Doctor Who sites and would like to support a great a charity then download WhoNews tonight.

Paul.

FINAL DAY to download WhoNews

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-22T19:25:18+00:00

A dramatic title for this entry but Thursday 23rd is the Final day to download WhoNews and make a donation to Cure Leukaemia.

Tuesday’s downloads fell by over 50% to just 11 from Monday’s 24. I think Wednesday will be very similar. So this is it the final day to make a difference as the appeal draws to a close.

I’m off to do a final appeal on forums, facebook groups etc and if you’ve like to do the same I sure would appreciate the help.

Thanks to you all

Paul.

2 days and counting...

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-21T19:57:01+00:00

Good news! Downloads on Monday saw a jump to 24 adding another £37 to the Cure Leukaemia fund, it really does go to show what kind of difference a mention on a popular Doctor Who site can make. This means we’ve broken the £100 barrier for this charity which is terrific.

I’m proud to say with the help of 478 new WhoNews users a total of £763.27/$1181 USD has been raised for charity and I think that is quite an achievement. I think in the time remaining breaking the £1000 barrier has probably slipped out of reach but you never can tell.

Cheers

Paul.

3 Days and counting...

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-20T19:46:14+00:00

Just 3 days remain to download WhoNews for charity and I’ve been really encourage by the support offered by various websites including Omega Podcast, Nebula One, DoctorWho.com and Doctor Who News page.

WhoNews has already leapt back up to 16 in the UK charts and is hovering outside the top 100 in the US. Hopefully this trend will continue as yesterday I posted on a number of forums and Doctor Who related Facebook pages. I appreciate their is a very fine line between spamming and promoting, hopefully I haven’t crossed that line.

Cure Leukaemia were kind enough to contact me today to say they’ve posted a link on their site about the appeal.

A big thank you to all those helping support appeal in the final stages.

Paul.

4 Day countdown begins tomorrow

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-19T15:11:51+00:00

From Monday there are just 4 days left to purchase WhoNews and donate to Cure Leukaemia.

Downloads are starting to creep up very slow with 4 on Saturday, taking the total of 33 in the past 9 days for Cure Leukaemia. Converting this to cash equates to £55/$85. I’m hoping for a big surge in the final fews days and be able to give this charity a nice Christmas bonus.

I’ll be hitting various forums and facebook pages later today to spread the word. I’ll post updates everyday in the run up to the 23rd, so be sure to check back everyday to see how the appeal is going.

Cheers

Paul.

One week left

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-16T07:22:21+00:00

The first week has almost passed raising money for Cure Leukaemia and only 22 copies of WhoNews have been downloaded as of yesterday. I always assumed there would be a low spot in sales during the 2nd and 3rd weeks.

However we are now entering the final week with the 23rd being the final day for purchases of WhoNews going to Cure Leukaemia and I’m hoping for a big surge towards the very end. So if you are reading this, please post a link on your website, facebook page, tweet or anything you can do to spread the word. You can either post a link to WhoNews website (www.who-news.com) or direct to iTunes with this link

I thought I’d also give you a little update on Andrew the young boy who inspired the appeal. Andrew turned 13 on Monday but had to spend the day in hospital topping up his platelet levels which were very low. On Tuesday he was rushed to hospital after his speech became slurred and the Doctors suspected this may have been caused by a small clot which resulted in a mini-stroke. On Wednesday his speech had improved and he under went an M.R.I scan and we hope to hear the results very soon.

If I miss a couple of posts over the next few days forgive me but I received the news last night that my friend of 20 years had suffered a heart attack, only aged 44. So I will be quite busy over the next fews days and weekend but will post when I can.

Thanks for all your support so far and hopefully over the next week,

Cheers

Paul.

WhoNews Search

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-12T21:31:36+00:00

Firstly a little update on the WhoNews charity appeal for Cure Leukaemia. Since Thursday it has got off to a slow start with just 12 downloads in 3 days which is about £20, hopefully it will pick up a bit in the week with the press release I’ve put out and support from a few websites. Due to family commitments I haven’t had as much time to push the appeal as I would have liked.

Secondly tonight saw my first tests of the new WhoNews search facility to be included in v1.8 and I’ve thought I’d share the results with you. The current number of articles from all the 30+ websites totals just under 1000.

The WhoNews search page allows you to perform queries on the title and summary provided by each news article. Based on my initial tests on a iPhone 3GS over WIFI, from the point of pushing the search button, the results from the server are returned and displayed in around 1 sec.

The WhoNews server now has a highly optimised search engine which is updated every 15 minutes. The search server provides near-realtime performance for queries from WhoNews. This is coupled with a big change for v1.8 which is all data transmitted between the server and the WhoNews app is now compressed. This results in much faster data transfer to the WhoNews app especially over slow data connections. Typically WhoNews downloads around 900 kilobytes on a refresh and this is now reduced to 140 kilobytes.

The search facility is something which has been requested for sometime now and in the very near future I hope to provide you with a very powerful solution.

WhoNews v1.8 lays the foundations for the big changes coming in v2.0....

Cheers

Paul

WhoNews & Cure Leukaemia

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-09T18:25:10+00:00

Two items of good news to report today.

Firstly the final total raised for the wish giving charity was £661.72/$1043.14 and funds will be shortly be transferred to the satellite charities in each country that WhoNews was purchased in. So in no particular order yours donations will be going to UK, America, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, Thailand, Austria, Denmark, Belgium and Korea. It keeps it nice and local on a global scale ;)

The second piece of good news is that from 9th - 23rd December all profits from WhoNews will be going to Cure Leukaemia, a charity that enables patients access to potentially life saving, ground breaking drugs and treatments. The charity supports the Haematology Centre at the University Hospital Birmingham, UK and also those hospitals woking with the centre through joint research into the condition. This includes Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Stoke on Trent, Dudley, Worcester, Stafford, Heartlands and Sandwell. Check out their website for more details.

The charity are delighted to be receiving support from WhoNews and the Who army. So in the final 2 weeks of the appeal, I’d like to ask you all to help spread the word and try and help me raise the profile of the appeal. Don’t forget with Christmas coming you can use iTunes to Gift WhoNews to family or friends and donate at the same time. What better stocking filler could a Doctor Who fan ask for and something they will use everyday. Just visit WhoNews in iTunes (Click here for a link) and instead of clicking Buy App, click the little arrow to the right and select Gift App.

Cheers

Paul.

Charity update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-08T19:45:04+00:00

Following last nights letter I have spoken with the UK charity and we have agreed that all trademarked names are removed from my website and I am now in the process of transferring all donations between the 23rd November to 8th December to the UK charity. They will then distribute the donations between the countries. So US donations will go to the US, Canadian donations to Canada etc.

Just to reiterate there was nothing underhanded about this, it is just that for US based charity gets its funding from large corporate organisations who pay the charity considerable donations to use their name and trademarks in association with their business. If a lone developer comes along and starts using their name without prior agreement this can upset the relationship between the charity and the sponsoring businesses.

I am now contacting a blood cancer charity to agree they are happy for me to continue fund-raising until the 23rd December on their behalf. I do learn from my mistakes and will provide more details when they hopefully agree.

This wasn’t exactly how I planned for the fund raising to go but in hindsight I should have investigated the implications of fund raising globally before embarking on the project.

I am extremely grateful for the immense amount of support for WhoNews from all over the world and the fund raising so far.

I will publish the finals figures for the first charity and tomorrow once I’ve received them.

Cheers

Paul.

Very Important Please Read

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-08T07:18:28+00:00

A little background when I embarked on the charity appeal with WhoNews I naively thought it was a simple case of stating how you was going to raise funds and who those funds would be donated to. I been to fairs, fetes and fun runs and seen people being sponsored or raising money for their chosen charity. I thought fund raising using the profits from WhoNews would be no different.

How wrong could I be.

I have received a letter from the charity I had pledged my fund raising too, telling me to cease and desist using their name with regards fund raising in the US. I had been in close contact with the UK side of the charity and I didn't realise I needed prior authorisation to raise money for the charity. I have been told to stop using their name on the website, provide evidence of sales and pay the donations to date to them. None of this is a problem as I have all the figures, records of downloads and it was always my intention to donate 100% of the profits to the charity.

This is a real blow for me, however my current intention is to send the original charity the first 2 weeks proceeds, which is when I received the letter. I then intended to switch the remaining two weeks to a Leukaemia charity but I will check with them first before announcing them as the charity of choice. I have a learnt from this experience. I always said I would be donating the profit till the 23rd December and it would be wrong to change that date.

I hope to be talking to the Director for Fund Raising UK for the original charity today, to find out the best way to proceed. I must say the UK charity has been a great support throughout the appeal.

My biggest fear is that people will think I am some kind of fraudster or con-artist when a charity asks you to stop promoting them. Nothing could be further from the truth and I have always been as open and transparent as possible.

Paul.

14 days later

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-07T19:57:50+00:00

Two weeks have passed since the launch of the Wish appeal and we are really now down at the normal WhoNews download rates with just 2 on Monday. So for anyone who thought WhoNews was a money making exercise and not a labour of love then think again.

14 days have passed and a total of £653.29/$1029.48 USD has been raised. I spotted that a couple of sites have been kind enough to try and boost the appeal again and my thanks go out to Nebula One and Life, Doctor Who and Combom. I’ve already spotted a boost in the iTunes ranking and I expect it is down to you guys.

Tomorrow I plan to have a busy night with a big push again to try and raise interest during the third week and then I plan to get really busy for the final week of the appeal.

For those of you who have supported the appeal so far by purchasing WhoNews, I’d like to ask one more favour. Can you spare 15 minutes from your day to spread the word. Tell people what you think of the app and post a link to www.who-news.com on facebook, blogs, twitter, your website or to friends and families who are fans of the show.

You been great so far and together we hit £600 in a week, so surely we can raise £1000 in a month. Where’s the harm in trying ;)

Cheers

Paul.

Wish appeal update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-05T11:36:42+00:00

Saturday’s figures have just arrived and we’ve dipped down to normal levels of downloads for WhoNews with just 4 downloads. This takes the total number of downloads to 30 since November 30th. However it nudges the total raised up to £643/$1014 USD which is a figure to be proud of.

This week I’ll try give the numbers a boost by posting on forums, facebook etc. I’m hoping a couple of local newspapers are going to run articles on the fund raising and I’ve tried contact local and national TV channels without much success so far. If anyone out there has contacts in media who may be able to help please let me know.

Cheers

Paul.

WhoNews feed engine

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-03T17:34:37+00:00

The new WhoNews feed engine is now live. This is brand new and been an on going project for sometime. Version 2 has a stack of benefits:

News updates on a more regular and reliable basis
The time period over which feeds are aggregated is now 45 days, compared to 15. So you can go back in time.
Increasing the number of feeds no longer causes performance issues at server.
Allows me to add many more features such as search, blogs, podcasts, video, push notification in future releases of WhoNews.
Better service monitoring for me and the public.

I will be monitoring the new service very closely over the weekend but if you experience any issues please contact me.

Cheers

Paul.

Week 2 update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-12-03T12:58:53+00:00

Firstly an apology for no updates over the past couple of days. I’ve been very busy on other projects and testing the new WhoNews feed engine.

Downloads of WhoNews have dropped dramatically since this time last week but to be fair that was only to be expected. In the period from Tuesday to Thursday the have only been 20 downloads and this has generated just over £32 for the appeal.

If you are a user of WhoNews and you find the app useful, it would be really great if you could help spread the word, posting on forums, facebook, twitter or putting a link in your signature. Anything you can do to help perk up the sales a little would be greatly appreciated.

Don’t forget I always love hearing feedback about the app, good and bad so please drop me a line.

Cheers

Paul.

WhoNews the first week. Updated

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-30T19:34:07+00:00

Well it’s one week since the WhoNews wish appeal got under way and I can already tell you the appeal has racked up 375 downloads and raised £594.42/ $925.56. Now nearly £600 in a week is an exceptional achievement and we will make a difference to many children’s lives.

That kind of sum will allow Make-A-Wish to buy sparkly tiaras to transforms 30 little girls into princesses for a day or send 6 children to Paris via the Eurostar. Maybe 4 boys will receive a mini tuxedo and become James Bond or 3 children can now swim with dolphins in Florida. Who knows, what you can be sure of is that by purchasing WhoNews you will be touching a life and putting a big smile on a face.

I’d like to say a big thank you to 375 fans who have downloaded WhoNews, I sincerely hope you are finding the app useful and continue to find it so in the future. Rest assured it is constantly under development and we are heading towards v2.0, I’ll say no more about that for the moment. As River Song would say “Spoilers...”

I’d also like take the opportunity to express my special thanks to the following:

Wes Duellman of the Omega Podcast. Wes hit the ground running as soon as I mentioned the idea of donating the proceeds to charity. Whether by spread the word through the Doctor Who Podcast Alliance, posts on his website or through his Facebook group his support has been rock solid.

Christian Cawley of Kasterborous.com has constantly championed WhoNews from day one, well over a year ago. The wish appeal has received unwavering support from this fine site. As a small way of saying thank you, an Android phone has been purchased as a future test platform for WhoNews.....

The guys at Radio Free Skaro for taking the time to mention WhoNews and the wish appeal during their great podcasts.

Alwyn Ash of Nebula One Another great supporter of WhoNews and more than willing to give space to the appeal.

Life, Doctor Who and Combom for throwing their support behind WhoNews and the appeal at very short notice. I’m really glad to have you guys onboard, the honour is mine.

Ellis over at A Police Box for getting in touch and supporting WhoNews.

Harry Ward over at Doctor Who News page for reporting on the wish appeal which provided a big boost from the US.

Jonathan at Anglotopia.net Again for continued support of WhoNews and championing the appeal.

If I’ve missed somebody out please accept my apologies and nudge me to put it right.

The support from the Doctor Who community has been superb from the fans of the series and to the “High Council” whose passion is the creation of sites, podcasts and blogs listed above. Thanks to everyone of you.

Cheers

Paul.

A Quick Update

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-28T21:25:28+00:00

Just a very quick update today. Saturday saw a slight dip down to 55 downloads but does mean we’ve already broken the £500 barrier which I was convinced was likely to be as much as I would raise in the whole month!

A stirling effort by all those involved which is the Who army for buying the app and the terrific support from websites and bloggers all over the planet. I salute you all.

In a couple of days time I plan to honour those who have help me get this off the ground and spread the word.

I’m drowning in tasks at the moment with testing the new feed generator for WhoNews. I’ve been bug hunting in the find-BOOK and find-CD apps which have just been released which have a few issues. Writing a speech for presentation tomorrow, updating the community news for the local newspaper and now the cat has appeared and is SHOUTING at me.

So I’m waving the white flag for the night.

Cheers

Paul.

An International Effort. Updated

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-27T15:01:42+00:00

Well I now have Thursday and Friday figures and as I kind of expected we’ve dipped in sales to 29 downloads on Thursday. I’m not complaining as it is still beats my highest download rate which was when the 10th Doctor regenerated. However Friday’s figures leapt back up to 72 downloads which is just brilliant. As of 2PM (GMT) Saturday WhoNews is #3 in the UK, #27 in the US and #26 in Australia in the News chart.

So I’ll give you a few stats as promised....

Total downloads from Tuesday to Friday is 266 which raises £420.02 or roughly $655. The table below gives a breakdown by country and what people may find interesting is how different taxes and exchange rates in each country change the amount received by an iPhone developer.

I’m over the moon by how much has been raised so far. I expected a dip in sales during Thanksgiving in the States as people will be out and about visiting friends etc. However I’m glad I was wrong.

Thanks for a great international effort and it just goes to show what a little kindness and the love of a great TV show can do.

Country	Downloads	Amount
United Kingdom	159	£230.55
United States	70	£123.72
Australia	13	£25.62
Canada	13	£22.72
Germany	2	£3.09
France	2	£3.09
Ireland	2	£3.08
Austria	1	£1.54
Estonia	1	£1.55
Sweden	1	£1.54
Belgium	1	£1.54
New Zealand	1	£1.97

Day 2 Figures

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-26T07:36:13+00:00

Well I’ve received the second days sales figures and we had a slight drop from 88 to 77 but this is still an amazing level of support and as a consequence I can tell you that together we’ve raised £260.55

Having looked a the UK Make-A-Wish website a sum of £200 would send a child to Florida to swim with dolphins and £50 would buy a uniform for a child to dress up as a policemen, fireman or may be even the Doctor.

It will be interesting to see the yesterday’s figures as WhoNews was constantly high in the US and UK charts throughout the day. So hopefully we can stay around the 70 downloads.

I know I mention the UK and US a lot but the rest of the world is doing it’s bit with terrific support from Australia, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, France, Estonia, Germany and New Zealand.

Tomorrow I will reveal which country has contributed the most so far..... just for a little healthy international competition :)

Thanks for all support from where ever you are and keep spreading the word.

Cheers

Paul.

A huge thank you

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-24T21:26:34+00:00

Wow what a day. I never expected this level of support from Who fans all over the world. You’ve propelled WhoNews to #2 in the UK App Store News chart, just behind one of the national newspaper apps. In the US WhoNews has soared into the top 40 of News apps which is a great achievement.

So total downloads for day 1 were 88 worldwide, which may not sound a great deal but let me tell you it is 30-40 times the normal download rate. If the momentum can be maintained for 1 week at that rate you would have raised nearly £1000 or $1500. A sum like that is beyond what I hoped to raise over the 30 days.

So a huge thank you for all your support and I intended to reward your efforts with a major upgrade which I shall be working on over the Christmas period.

Just to mention two new feeds have been added A Police Box and Life, Doctor Who and Combom.

Cheers

Paul.

WhoNews for charity from Today

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-23T21:23:58+00:00

From today till the 23rd December all profits from the sale of WhoNews will be going to charity. 47 years ago the Doctor started his journeys through time and space and what better way to celebrate than watching an episode and kicking off my attempt to raise a pile of money for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Your kind donations are already pushing WhoNews up the charts and I would like to say a big thank you for a great start.

To find out what it is all about take a look at the WhoNews Wish Appeal page

WhoNews Wish Appeal

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-14T21:22:19+00:00

From 23rd November to 23rd December all the profits from the sale of WhoNews will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This organisation grants wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses.

Recently the cousin of my step-children was diagnosed with Leukaemia. Andrew Brown is only 12 years old and recently underwent chemotherapy for the condition which thankfully seems to be in remission but Andrew still has to have a lot of treatment.

I'm donating 100% of the profits from the sale of WhoNews for a month from the 23rd November to 23rd December which marks the 47th anniversary of Doctor Who. The profits will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help other children like Andrew.

To find out more take a look at the WhoNews Wish Appeal page

WhoNews running on backup

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-08T18:28:15+00:00

Apologies for the lack of updates today. The master feed for WhoNews stopped working today when the host site provider vanished from the internet.

I have switched the standby feed generator back on for the time being and am now working on a new solution. Please bear with me over the coming days whilst I fix the situation.

Cheers

Paul.

Dimensions 2010 12-14th November

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-11-06T21:49:02+00:00

Just a reminder that 10th Planet are hold their 3 day convention at the Holiday Inn - Newcastle upon Tyne from the 12-14th November. Guests include Paul McGann, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Mary Tamm, Matthew Water House, Daphne Ashbrook, Nicola Bryant, Jennie Linden, Andrew Skilleter, Beth Chalmers, Rob Sherman and Nick Briggs to name a few.

You find out more details here

Be sure to mention WhoNews when booking tickets.

Cheers

Paul.

The other Doctor Who News App

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-10-28T20:47:03+01:00

I noticed recently that a second Doctor Who News app had appeared in the App Store and I decided to check out the competition. It is called simply Doctor Who News.

Well firstly the app uses Doctor Who in the app name, the TARDIS as its icon and pictures of Matt Smith in it. As a non-licensed BBC produced app, it is breaking copyright and so there is a good chance it will either need to remove these images or it will be pulled by the BBC.

More importantly I feel potential buyers need to know that app is created using an automated process using an app builder called Mobile Roadie. In fact you can go and sign up yourself. Basically you log into the Mobile Roadie website, pay your fee and upload some photos, music/podcasts, you tube videos and RSS feeds. crank the handle and out pops an app which then appears at the App Store in a week or so.

If you checkout Mobile Roadie at the App Store you’ll see there are hundreds of apps for bands, celebrities etc. That was why it was created so bands could quickly and easily generate an app for their fans to follow them on.

So why do I mention this, well because on the face of it this new kid on the block is cheaper, has video and looks a bit swish but there is no developer behind. When you send feedback and say I’d really like this feature added, the guy using Mobile Roadie hasn’t written a line of code for the app and can’t customise the app beyond changing a graphic.

WhoNews isn’t about a quick buck, it is a labour of love, it’s spending time in front of a keyboard and crafting code to produce a better experience based on feedback from you guys.

So feel free to go and try the new version but WhoNews and I will still be here when you come back.

Paul.

Anglotopia Feed

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-10-26T22:40:18+01:00

I’ve now added Anglotopia.Net to the list of WhoNews feeds. The website is for people who Britain and they have a regular Doctor Who feed which comes up with some real gems now and then.

For example the have a some wonderful Doctor Who Posters by a French Graphics designer. I recommend checking out the site http://www.anglotopia.net/doctor-who/doctor-who-really-cool-minimalist-dw-posters/

Cheers

Paul.

The Ood Cast & Feed News

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-10-15T15:49:36+01:00

Another feed has joined the collective with the welcome addition of guys and girls over at The Ood Cast. So welcome to Andy, Chris Alpha & Sigma, Laura and The Littlest Doctor.
I recommend checking out the site and listening to their latest podcast. You can listen to their podcast from within WhoNews by clicking download on The Ood Cast web page.

In the background I’ve spent many hours working on the news generator. I have a new solution which should ensure slightly more regular updates as the old version was starting to creak under the strain of processing 30+ feeds in under 30 seconds. It is now live and I will be monitoring it closely.

Cheers

Paul.

WhoNews the sticky, time-travelling app

pgee@moonboom.com — 2010-10-03T12:47:41+01:00

I was very flattered to discover an article by Bill Siwicki at www.internetretailer.com on WhoNews.

Bill is the senior editor for mobile commerce and has used a WhoNews as a great example of what keeps users coming back to an app and keeping it on their home screen.

You can read the article here https://www.internetretailer.com/commentary/2010/10/01/sticky-time-travelling-mobile-app
Paul.