IGG Developers' Blog

In some of our early posts we talked about our forthcoming iPad app and how it was going to be called “iBank Access.” We spent a lot of time discussing this name and many others. One of the driving factors in the conversation was the feature set of the iPad app and how it is significantly different from iBank for Mac; we even considered dropping “iBank” from the name entirely at one point.

However, now that the app has matured it is clear this app is iBank, on your iPad. The features sets have lots of divergence and convergence, but I don’t think you would expect anything else from a well-designed iPad app with a Mac counterpart. So now the official name for our app on the iPad is just “iBank.” (There’s significant precedence for this in the App Stores, with major products like iPhoto, iMovie or Photoshop keeping their names in their iPad versions, despite different interfaces, features or functionality.)

Speaking of iBank for iPad… here is a brief update. We’ve sent an alpha build to some testers and everyone on our team has it installed on their iPads to play with. We will be feature-complete very soon, after which we can focus solely on bug fixes and performance. We don’t have a release date, but once we’ve submitted to the App Store, we will be sure to announce it.

-Ian

When you have multiple apps that interact with each other across multiple operating systems and devices, it’s never easy to just release a major update. If you then throw in some other opportunities (or hiccups?) like sandboxing, GateKeeper and Mountain Lion, it complicates things even further. So I’m here to talk about how a number of our products and some forthcoming updates you’ll be seeing from us.

Let’s first talk about iBank for Mac. We’ve been pushing small releases over the last several months that add enhancements and fix small bugs. However, we have also been working on iBank 4.5, which will offer a number of significant changes. While many of the changes for iBank 4.5 will go unnoticed to some users, the changes are quite significant. First, it will only run on OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8. We are dropping support for OS X 10.5 because we can no longer support 10.5, Sandboxing, Mountain Lion and GateKeeper. For those of you still on 10.5, you will get one more update, iBank 4.3.4, in the upcoming weeks. Unfortunately, we simply cannot compile a single binary that supports 4 major operating systems and keeps up with Apple’s progressive technological changes. Second, iBank 4.5 (and 4.3.4 for that matter) will no longer support iBank Mobile syncing via MobileMe because MobileMe and iDisk will no longer exist after June 30th. Third, iBank 4.5 will add support for syncing with iBank for iPad, including syncing of security transactions. Lastly, iBank 4.5 will be Sandboxed and support GateKeeper via signing the app with a Developer ID issued from Apple. In order to Sandbox the app we will also be removing our backup feature. This is something we aren’t terribly excited about doing, but there is no known way to support backup and Sandboxing. We are working with Apple to get the required APIs, but we don’t have a timeframe for when they might be available. Hopefully most of our customers have moved on to Time Machine enabled backups and if you haven’t yet, now is a great time; you really should be backing up more than just your iBank documents.

I want to talk a little about iCloud. When Apple first announced iCloud, I was excited. It clearly has the potential to be the “digital hub” replacement. However, I’m very much less enthusiastic about how Apple is restricting it. If we want to use iCloud on the Mac to allow people to sync iBank documents, it could only be implemented in copies of iBank sold via the Mac App Store. So we would need to create two separate versions of iBank, or we’d have to stop selling our app from our online store. In a nutshell, it doesn’t make sense for us to do that. I certainly hope that Apple’s policy on this changes, but until then we won’t be supporting iCloud syncing. This is really too bad because I know our customers want it. I want it too, but we can’t do it the way iCloud is currently implemented. So we hope to announce an alternative sync solution in the near future.

Many people have been asking when iBank for iPad will be released. I don’t have a specific date, but I can say it will be this summer. It’s the biggest undertaking we’ve ever done at IGG, and while it has taken a bit longer than we hoped, we are very excited about the end product. When it does ship, we think you’ll really enjoy it. I hope to do a couple more posts about iBank for iPad while it’s still being developed, so stay tuned.

-Ian

As we release more details about iBank Access it generates more and more questions. So this blog post is going to answer many of the questions that were brought up in the comments from the previous post. Unfortunately, I won’t be sharing any new iBank Access screenshots in this post.

How will iBank Access sync with iBank for Mac?

The syncing mechanism with iBank for Mac is based on the same proprietary sync engine used in iBank Mobile. iBank for Mac is the “hub” from which multiple instances of iBank Access or iBank Mobile can sync. We’ve made some improvements to this so that investment transactions will sync between iBank for Mac and iBank Access (but not iBank Mobile for the time being).

When you are setting up a document in iBank Access you will be asked if you want to use this “standalone” or “sync with iBank for Mac.” If you choose to sync with iBank for Mac, Direct Access transaction downloading will not be available. We made this choice because it would inevitably result in too much transaction duplication if users are downloading data from both their iPad and Mac.

Can I transfer my data from iBank for Mac and then use Direct Access without further syncing to iBank for Mac?

Some users have lots of data in iBank for Mac and they might want to start using iBank Access as their primary financial app. For the best iBank Access experience they will naturally want to use the automatic Direct Access data downloading. So the short answer is yes, you should be able to transfer your data from iBank for Mac, then continue to use iBank Access with Direct Access enabled, but you will no longer be syncing to iBank for Mac for the reasons outlined above.

My bank already charges me a fee to download transactions in iBank for Mac. If I pay the subscription for Direct Access automatic downloads in iBank Access will I still have to pay my bank fee?

The short answer is probably not. However, I can’t say a definite YES or NO here as banks are constantly changing their terms and fees. If your bank does NOT charge you to use their website (almost no banks do) then they neither should they charge you to use iBank Access to download your data automatically. If you currently are being charged, you will likely need to cancel your current download service with your bank to make sure you don’t keep getting charged. I reserve the right to be wrong on this though, as it really depends on the bank.

Are you planning to support any banks outside of USA with iBank Access?

iBank Access will support many more banks that what is currently supported in iBank for Mac, including more banks outside of the USA.

Will the app be usable while transactions are downloaded or will I have to just sit and wait?

When you open a document you will be able to do other things while data downloads in the background. This is thanks to our CoreFinance 2 engine which is entirely multi-threaded to take advantage of multi-core processors (like the A4 chip in the iPad 2).

What types of transactions will be downloaded?

This varies a lot depending on the financial institution. If pending transactions are available, they will be downloaded and your “available balance” will be adjusted.

Can I import data that I download through my bank’s website using Safari?

No. Mobile Safari currently doesn’t have the technology to allow us to implement this the right way.

Will there be bill pay?

This is one of the most requested features in our product line and while it won’t make it into iBank Access 1.0, we plan on adding it in the future.

When I can get my hands on this thing?

We still aren’t ready to announce a specific date. While we have made exceptional progress, technologically this app is the biggest undertaking IGG has ever made and there are still some significant components to get in place. If it isn’t released until 2013, then I should be fired because that is way too late.

What types of security safeguards are in place regarding Direct Access?

When you provide iBank Access with bank login credentials, the data is never stored on IGG’s servers. We pass it through to the third party company over SSL where it is finally stored with encryption. Naturally the next question is, how secure is this other company? The answer is, very secure. Their servers, where your login credentials are stored, are housed in a space with physical security and 24/7 monitoring with intrusion detection systems. Additionally, access to servers requires multiple levels of authentication including biometric procedures. Their security infrastructure is regularly audited and inspected. Of the different companies offering this service, theses folks have been around the longest and take security very seriously.

Our app and servers are undergoing security audits to ensure that transmission from the app through our servers is secure.

There is one other point that I want to make that is very important. We do not require you to use Direct Access data aggregation. It is completely voluntary. If you do not want your financial information going through any third party, you can manage everything manually or sync over WiFi with iBank for Mac.

-Ian

@ianggillespie