After stealing Delicous Library’s bookshelf design for iBooks, Apple now steals Birdie’s very unique counter view background for iPhone OS 4.0′s folder design!!

Here’s the proof:

Just kidding…

Finally: We’re switching to the new Birdie Online Course Editor tonight!

Unfortunately, it’s a little bit more work than just uploading the new web application: The new course editor is based on a new database model, managing Birdie’s course database. The new database is not only much more flexible for future extensions, but also faster (hopefully).

This also means, that Birdie on the iPhone and iPod touch will fetch it’s course data from a new source in the future. If everything is working as planned and expected, the whole switch should be transparent to Birdie users and there’ll be only a short disruption in the availability of Birdie’s course database during the next few hours.

We took the old course editor offline when we started the transition earlier tonight. But the new course editor should be up and running until tomorrow (Monday) morning, CEST.

The new course edior is not only much more comfortable to use and more compatible with all the different web browsers, it also enables users to directly edit existing course data. There’s already one tutorial movie for the new course editor available in German. English tutorial movies will follow soon. The editor itself will be available in German and English localizations.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress right here in the blog. 

[Update: Monday, 11 AM CEST]: The update has finished successfully. The new Course Editor is now available!

Finally: We’re switching to the new Birdie Online Course Editor tonight!

Unfortunately, it’s a little bit more work than just uploading the new web application: The new course editor is based on a new database model, managing Birdie’s course database. The new database is not only much more flexible for future extensions, but also faster (hopefully).

This also means, that Birdie on the iPhone and iPod touch will fetch it’s course data from a new source in the future. If everything is working as planned and expected, the whole switch should be transparent to Birdie users and there’ll be only a short disruption in the availability of Birdie’s course database during the next few hours.

We took the old course editor offline when we started the transition earlier tonight. But the new course editor should be up and running until tomorrow (Monday) morning, CEST.

The new course edior is not only much more comfortable to use and more compatible with all the different web browsers, it also enables users to directly edit existing course data. There’s already one tutorial movie for the new course editor available in German. English tutorial movies will follow soon. The editor itself will be available in German and English localizations.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress right here in the blog. 

[Update: Monday, 11 AM CEST]: The update has finished successfully. The new Course Editor is now available!

With Birdie v1.6, Pleasant Software takes the next step and releases a major update for its golf scoring application for the iPhone and iPod touch. In response to the #1 feature request, Birdie v1.6 enables users to start rounds in training mode. In this mode, Birdie tracks additional data like putts, drive length, fairway hit and more.

New in Birdie v1.6:

• New “Training Round” mode for tracking statistical data like putts, fairway hit, drive length etc.
• Measuring drive lengths with GPS on iPhone 3G.
• Extended scorecards.
• It’s now possible to send game results as CSV files by e-mail.
• When searching for courses by name, Birdie now automatically tries to find nearby courses for the entered location.
• Several more improvements and bug fixes.

The course lookup feature on Birdies Homepage received a major update:

When searching for golf courses in Birdie’s database, besides displaying courses exactly matching the entered keywords (i.e. having the search term in the course name or address), the search engine now also searches for “nearby courses”.

In order to do so, the it tries to determine a geographical location point from the entered search term and then searching for courses in Birdie’s database, located within ca. 40km around this location.

For example: When searching for “Bordeaux”, the search engine not only finds the two courses having “Bordeaux” in their name or address, but also the four additional courses, currently available in Birdie’s database nearby “Bordeaux, France”.

We’ll include this feature also in one of the next updates for Birdie on the iPhone.

Birdie is already able to search for neaby courses from your current location. Just open the “Course lookup” view in Birdie (tap the “+” button in the “Courses” view) and tap on the “Autolocate” button left to the search field. Birdie will then try to autolocate your current position and search for nearby courses.

The course lookup feature on Birdies Homepage received a major update:

When searching for golf courses in Birdie’s database, besides displaying courses exactly matching the entered keywords (i.e. having the search term in the course name or address), the search engine now also searches for “nearby courses”.

In order to do so, the it tries to determine a geographical location point from the entered search term and then searching for courses in Birdie’s database, located within ca. 40km around this location.

For example: When searching for “Bordeaux”, the search engine not only finds the two courses having “Bordeaux” in their name or address, but also the four additional courses, currently available in Birdie’s database nearby “Bordeaux, France”.

We’ll include this feature also in one of the next updates for Birdie on the iPhone.

Birdie is already able to search for neaby courses from your current location. Just open the “Course lookup” view in Birdie (tap the “+” button in the “Courses” view) and tap on the “Autolocate” button left to the search field. Birdie will then try to autolocate your current position and search for nearby courses.

There are good news and bad news. First the good:

Since yesterday (02/18/09) is the new version 1.5 of Birdie available in the App Store.

Here’s a list of the what’s new:

• Fixed column sorting bug in the scorecard view.
• When a hole’s stroke counter is increased for the first time, it now defaults to the hole’s par (not “1″).
• New column option on score cards: “Par Event” (PE).
• New option on score cards: “Preview HCP”. This shows a preview for the new HCP after a tournament according to EGA rules (European Golf Assosiation). This option is switched on in the score card setup view (below the coulumn settings).
• New setting “CSA” on the “Game Edit” view: The CSA value (Competition Stableford Adjustment) is needed to calculate the HCP preview (see above).

Birdie v1.3 is now available in the App Store.

Changes in v1.3:

• Dutch localization added.
• It’s now possible to change games’ names and dates.
• Rotating the device to landscape now rotates a game’s score card to fullscreen landscape mode.
• Several minor changes and bug fixes.

Today we’ve released Birdie v1.2.

New features include:

• Italian localization added.
• Counter switchs now support autorepeat.
• Score cards are now customizable (enable and reorder columns).
• More result options on score cards.
• Improved automatic course handicap calculation.
• Support for course data updates.
• Many more improvements.

For a full list of changes and improvements, see the full version history.

Birdie v1.2 is a free update for all Birdie users and is available through the iTunes App Store.

Birdie is a golf scoring application, made with golfers’ needs in mind.
Besides the ease of use and enhanced speed, Birdie provides many enhanced features like the built in “range finder” or the fully automated calculation of score card results. In addition to counting each player’s strokes during a game, Birdie also automatically calculates the game’s results according to different rules including “Stroke Play”, “Stableford” and “Match Play”.

Features include:

• Count up to four players per flight.
• Automatic calculation of each players course handicap.
• Range finder to determine the approximate distance to the hole.
• Send game results by e-mail.

Perfect for both: iPhone and iPod touch
Birdie is perfectly usable offline, which makes it well suited for the iPhone in low or no reception areas as well as for the iPod Touch.

Birdie is only $18.99 and available on Apple’s iTunes AppStore starting today.