One thing I like about UBot is that it’s constantly evolving into a better product. UBot 4.0 is no exception, and there are a lot of exciting new features in the latest release that just came out a couple of weeks ago.
The big thing that I’ve noticed while playing around with UBot 4.0 is that it has become a lot easier to use. UBot has always been a little bit quirky in the way it does things, but Seth has done a good job in making things more intuitive.
Here are some of my favorite features of UBot 4.0.
UBot code view – Now you can switch between the default drag and drop interface (UBot’s Visual Scripting Language) and the text based version of the commands (Uscript). Why is this cool? Because having a text based view makes it much easier to view (and edit) bigger bots, as well as making it easy to clone different parts of your code.
Easy Element Selection – Selecting items and operating on them used to be a two-step process with previous version of UBot. UBot 4.0 is now a lot smarter, and all you need to do now is drag over specific elements into the scripting area.
Better Debugging – Debugging your bots with UBot used to be a pain. Ubot 4.0 now includes a built-in debugger window that allows you to see your variable values. Plus there is the new Step button in the UI that allows you to step through each part of your code which makes debugging much simpler as well.
Better Performing Bots – UBot is a lot faster than previous versions. It now uses a faster built-in browser (instead of Internet Explorer), supports multi-threading, and you have the option to turn off images, css, javascript and flash in the bot’s browser window to make your bots run much faster.
If you are an existing UBot user, make sure to check out the new UBot 4.0 tutorial videos that Seth and Lily have put together. They do a good job of demonstrating most of the new features that have been added, and more and more videos are being added all the time.
Upgrading to UBot 4.0
One source of confusion for many previous customers (and for me to) is the UBot upgrade policy. Unfortunately, the UBot team, in my opinion has not done good job detailing this.
Currently, when you buy UBot, you get 12 months of free updates. After that, you need to pay $4.99/mo to get future updates.
What annoys me a bit is that while I bought the original version of UBot in 2009, I did pay $325 to upgrade to UBot 3.5 in December 2010. It seems reasonable to me that paying so much for the upgrade should at least reset my 12 month upgrade window.
Alas, this is not the case and I still ended up having to pay the $4.99 fee to use my copy of UBot 4.0. Even though the upgrade isn’t much, it’s still kind of lame if you ask me.
With that said, UBot 4.0 is still a worthwhile upgrade. If you’re interested in creating some automated bots, then check it out.
{ 0 comments }
