Starting Monday, we shall be starting the slow Test rollout of our new app - called RailFan.
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What is RailFan?
It is expected that RailFan will be the future of the IRI site for mobile phones. A full dedicated offline-capable messaging/blogging app, encompassing all the features of the IRI site. The RailFan app has been in development for more than a year. The...
more... design of the app has gone through several reworks and iterations over the past year, and has been carefully customized for our special audience. At this point, the app has a very simple messaging interface. As we add more RailFan-centric features over the years, the basic simple interface is not expected to change.
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The following are the release phases:
1. Closed Beta starting next week: Members who provide their gmail address will be given a dedicated link to download the app. There will be MANY updates made in the next few weeks, and there will be bugs here and there. Updates will be made twice or more times daily, and there will be frustrations.
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2. Open Beta: Feb, 2019. Beta version of the App will be available in the Google Play Store. Everyone will be able to download the app. The feature set will be complete. Bugs will be fixed. Performance will be improved.
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3. April: Full Android Release.
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4. April/May: Full iPhone Release.
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New development on the app will continue after release, and is expected to last another year.
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At this time, basic IRI blogging, messaging, PNR predictions, Ratings, etc. can be done. Many important features like Spotting, Adding Imaginary Trains, Posting News, etc. are disabled at this time, as they are going through some additional testing.
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Thanks.