Brickset for iPhone/iPad

 

  • Brickset for iPhone/iPad

    Posted by Huw, 12 Oct 2010 13:47. Filed under Software/Games.

    Over the last few months there have been what seems like hundreds of LEGO related apps released for mobile devices. The need to scan barcodes on the collectable minifigs provided a good excuse for developers to write them.

    This week, the best barcode scanning app, Mini Collector for iPhone, has been updated to v1.1 and it will run on non-camera enabled devices. It can't of course actually scan the barcodes without one, but you can use it to track your collection.

    However the big news this week is that there is a new Brickset app for the iPhone and iPad available.

    Brickset Mobile allows you to manage your collection of LEGO sets on your iPhone. It uses our web services to provide native access to the Brickset database. The more observant among you may have seen this in the app store a few weeks ago. Unfortunately v1.0 had a few bugs which Stuart, the developer, wanted to sort out before I announced it. That's been done and the new version is available in the app store now. One of the best things about it is that it works off-line with a locally cached version of the database -- including your owned and wanted lists -- which it synchronises automatically with the website. Here's a full list of features:

    •  Off-line access to the full Brickset database - no internet connection required - perfect for iPod Touch users and locations with low strength mobile signal.
    • Browse by Theme and Year.
    • Search by Theme, Set Name or Set ID with no limitation on the number of results displayed.
    • Register and display sets that you own or want.
    • View set details and open Brickset.com for more details and user reviews, minifig details and more.
    • Read news from the Brickset.com RSS feed.
    • iPhone, iPod and iPad compatible.
    • It's free!

    If you have a compatible device, I strongly encourage you to download it and give it a 5 star review in the app store!

    Note: this should not be confused with the other Brickset app, iBrickset, which offers similar features. Try them both and stick with the one you like!


    27 comments, latest one posted 31 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Alemas in Germany, 12 Oct 2010 14:11

NOT ANOTHER ONE! :P There seem to be hundreds of new LEGO-related apps...

Posted by Doctor Leg O'Brick in United Kingdom, 12 Oct 2010 14:21

@Alemas, same here!! I don't own a ipad or anything but this does sound good. Its like everything that everyones wants is there.

Posted by izziebitt in United States, 12 Oct 2010 14:30

doesnt it seem silly for people to be making more barcode apps when series one and two are pretty much over and done with and series three wont even have the barcodes?

Posted by Krogh in Denmark, 12 Oct 2010 15:32

Now how about showing some love for Android?

Posted by PEZ in Sweden, 12 Oct 2010 15:35

Yeah, it's a pity they've removed the barcodes on coming series. But a collector app could have its merits even without the scanning features. I guess the app makers will have to figure out how to keep the apps worth using.

Posted by PEZ in Sweden, 12 Oct 2010 15:38

Brickset looks cool. I know my son will love it!

Posted by legobob in United States, 12 Oct 2010 15:46

have both brickset apps I am going to put them in a folder together :)

Posted by legobob in United States, 12 Oct 2010 15:50

the new one stinks it says loading then it just crashes
EDIT it finally loaded how do I log in?

Posted by atkinsar in United Kingdom, 12 Oct 2010 15:54

I think the new Brickset has good potential, however I had a few issues with it synching my largish collection (most of us have got those right :-). It also seems to crash....a lot, especially when browsing my owned or wanted lists. I like the how the app looks and it's features are good but the developer definitely needs to work on the stability. Good effort though.

Posted by superbrick in United States, 12 Oct 2010 17:30

why not ipod?

Posted by joedapoboy in United States, 12 Oct 2010 22:43

are there any brickLINK apps? play a 30 second preview of a lego piece and then download it? :P
no but seriously, I wanna order mah toys on mah handheld.

Posted by PEZ in Sweden, 13 Oct 2010 02:18

Brickset has really good potential. It has the right features and a reasonably neat and clean interface. However it has stability issues. On my 3GS it crashed on the first start and then tended to crash or stop working when using it later on too. I also think it needs some work on the login/sync with brickset.com area. As it stands it's not completely obvious how it's supposed to work.

Nonetheless, it's an impressive app, leveraging an impressive site. How about open sourcing the app so that more people can help in improving on it?

Posted by CharlieTheFunEngine in Australia, 13 Oct 2010 02:35

Brickset Mobile without the need for an internet connection? Sounds great!

Posted by DrDaveWatford in United Kingdom, 13 Oct 2010 03:20

Cheers, Huw. The new app looks great, and with the addition of the news feature it really does seem like a 'proper' Brickset app ! I'm having the same issue with this app as I do with iBrickset, however - I don't seem to be able to port my "owned" or "wanted" lists over to these apps - there's a synching issue, despite me entering my username and password via the "settings" menu. Once these issues have been ironed out it'll be excellent I think.

Posted by Nikola Bathory in Bulgaria, 13 Oct 2010 05:09

Great! I will download it! Off-line access - that's exactly what was needed!

Posted by shinukage in Netherlands, 13 Oct 2010 05:20

Is this a follow up to iBrickset? As I had that one on my iphone 3gs for some time. And i have the same issues as DrDaveWatford. Porting my owned and wanted lists doesnt work. Even if i tag sets through the app it doesnt seem to remember what I tagged.

Posted by Farmer_John in United States, 13 Oct 2010 08:46

Too bad there isn't an app that we can download and use on regular PCs for tracking sets...or is there?

Posted by PEZ in Sweden, 13 Oct 2010 14:37

@Farmer_John, what would such an app provide that the Brickset.com site doesn't already give us? I'm asking out of curiosity and because I might try make such an app if I can be convinced that it's cool. =) NB. I have very little time for playing with fun stuff like this, so if I started on the app, it would take quite a while before it was ready...

Posted by stu241273 in United Kingdom, 13 Oct 2010 16:49

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and comments, and also e-mails. We created the app to meet a specific need, to be able to access the brickset catalogue offline, useful when out shopping in places with little or no mobile signal. I have been using it on my iPhone and iPad for month, and typically have not had any synch errors! I'm sorry to those of you having issues, we are working on solutions. One problem appears to be related to people who have more than a certain number of sets in their owned or wanted lists. Please do keep providing the feedback and we will keep working on problems or new ideas. But please do bear with us, this is a hobby so we rely on free evening and weekend time. I can reassure you, the app has been created by Lego and Brickset fans just like you.

@shinukage no, this has been developed entirely seperately from ibrickset, but it seems much of our work was done in parallel, proving that if you have a good idea, you shouldn't hang about getting it out of your head.

@drdavewatford thanks for the kind feedback, we will do our best to fix your problem

@PEZ open source would certainly speed things up, may well consider this kind of development in the future.

@superbrick the app should work on iPod touch too, but beware of the sorts of issues that others have reported with synching. The iOS requirements are detailed in iTunes

@Huw thanks for the announcement and help with the webservices, but most importantly for your time on this site. When you embark on something like this you appreciate how much time it takes. By the way, most of the hard work was done by Richard Roe, I just developed the ideas.

@legobob enter your login details in settings-brickset mobile. Synching won't start immediately, so just leave the app running and let it synch withou interruption. Let me know how you get on.

@all android users. Maybe one day, If you get together and buy me an android phone!!!!!

You can email us at bricksetmobile@kellino.co.uk

Cheers

Posted by DrDaveWatford in United Kingdom, 14 Oct 2010 09:53

Thanks, Stu - glad to see you're listening to feedback ! I have a huge number of sets logged in the 'owned' database, so my sync issues could indeed be related to this I guess.

Other than the sync issue the app works great for me, so well done and keep up the good work !

Posted by Grateful11 in United States, 14 Oct 2010 13:03

Sorry but the App crashes repeatedly, says it's loading and then poof it crashes. I'll wait and give it a rating after the next revision. I'd love to have the App in working condition.

Posted by legobob in United States, 14 Oct 2010 16:41

@stu241273 - thanks so much. How do I get to settings ?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 14 Oct 2010 17:37

^ press 'settings' on the home screen of your iPad/Pod/Phone

Posted by legobob in United States, 14 Oct 2010 18:48

@Huw thanks a lot :)

Posted by PEZ in Sweden, 16 Oct 2010 05:54

My son tested the Brickset app yesterday and I can tell you he totally was sucked in. Even though it crashed now and then he kept at it. He can't even read yet. And certainly not speak English. But he can "read" well enough to recognize the titles Harry Potter, Star Wars and Power Miners which are his fav themes. I think he spent an hour non-stop just flipping around in the app.

I realize illiterate kids might not be the prime target group for the app, but here are a two things I noticed would have made the app even better for my son:
- Thumbnail images for the list of different themes.
- Bigger images on the pages for a particular set. I think the image should be sized to fill up the width of the iPhone screen and be place at the top. Clicking it could bring up an image viewer where the image can be panned and zoomed (my son is crazy about details).

Here's a less immediate enhancement idea: I don't think the Brickset site has images on the boxes? But one thing my son does when we're in a toy store is that he checks the boxes and "what you can do" with the set. That's those key "action" features that LEGO has pointed out on the box covers. If Brickset supports (or could be made to support) more than one image per set we could start uploading photos on these different "action" features on the boxes and apps like the Brickset app could use this.

That's it for now. =)

Posted by CaptainRex110 in United States, 16 Oct 2010 16:19

Just downloaded it from the App Store. Love it. Thank you.

One, question, though. I put my credentials into the settings, but it still doesn't seem to have logged me in within the app itself. Any suggestions? Other than that, it's a great app that ties in well to the rest of iOS.

Posted by quiddity in United States, 19 Oct 2010 13:32

You know, this app COULD be really cool and it looks a lot nicer than the iBrickset app that was released earlier, but this new app crashed pretty much anytime I try to do anything. I hope this is an issue that is fixed with an update.

Commenting has ended on this article.