Update: When we released Chimpadeedee, iPads were new fangled Star Trekish devices and not readily available or accessible to a lot of people or businesses. Over the last several years, more than 84 million iPads have been sold and they’ve become a household name. That being said, we’ve decided to wrap up support for Chimpadeedee and put that focus into Chimpadeedoo for iPad and Chimpadeedoo for Android tablets.
A little while ago we launched Chimpadeedoo, our first iPad app. It’s a simple way to collect email addresses at your store register, at an arts & craft fair, trade show, or any event, with an iPad. No wifi or Internet access necessary. It stores subscriptions locally, then syncs up with MailChimp whenever you’re back online.
One of the biggest requests we received after launching was to make the app available on a laptop, not just an iPad. And since the nerds in the lab were itching for an excuse to play with Adobe AIR, we bring you Chimpadeedee. It’s the same as Chimpadeedoo, but it’ll run on your computer.
Here are some screenshots…
Click on the gears icon in the top right corner in order to access your settings:
In the iPad app, this was a hidden “hot corner” but so many people requested that we un-hide it, we decided to go ahead and do that in the AIR version.
The rest is very similar to the iPad app.
Entering some descriptive text for the form:
Locking the screen with a password, to keep those pesky teenagers out:
Choosing a theme:
Like Chimpadeedoo, Chimpadeedee is a dead-simple way to collect emails for your newsletter while you’re remote.
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Ahem, we still recommend using Chimpadeedoo, at least as a reason to purchase an iPad on your company card. What? It’s a business expense!
sweet, thanks.
Because some people have asked:
No, there will not be a chimpadeedum.
Much to my disappointment.
Chimpy stuff you’re working on!
But… I am curios if you are working on a good iPad alternative for the iPhone mailchimp app. We are using mailchimp for several customers, and it would really help if we can show them a HD version with some good campaign reporting stuff on the iPad. That kinda stuff is like a bucket of banana’s for managers
Would it be possible to add a “Double Opt-In” option to the iPhone/iPad and desktop apps?
So when wandering around a room iPad in hand I can enter a users email address and it sends them a double opt-in confirmation (when it next syncs-up).
Also helps prevent users signing up others without consent if left as a counter display.
Thanks Andy, will add that to the wishlist.
I was also wondering about it because, say, we place one Kiosk at the exit of a course and -hopefully- many people subscribe from there… all of them will show the same opt-in IP which may be seems as… suspicious.
With double opt-in the ip will be from when they click the confirmation link. Which is also why I would like it.
Any idea on when the double-opt in would move from wishlist to reality?
I like this idea, in theory. But without the double-opt in, how would we have proof of IP address for opt-in? At least with a paper sign up sheet, I could save the paper list as proof. Or is that not an issue as long as we use an application directly from Mailchimp?
Also, any chance of expanding this to allow folks to choose interest groups or customize their profiles? Perhaps the welcome email that goes out after they sign up allows them to not only confirm they are opting in, but also pick interest groups and give additional information like name, phone, address, etc?
In it’s current form, I don’t think this is something I would use but I LOVE the idea!
THANK YOU!!! great stuff!!
Does your brains ever take a break. Awesome!
This will please a lot of people at the expo organising comp I work with. (and get you a good few more customers :P )
Awesome. My wish has been granted. hmm what to ask for next. Thanks to all of you at MailChimp
Hey, Thanks for this, it’s great. However I i have a macbook and the latest version of OSX, and there seems to be no way to make it go full screen. It’s not much good if people can browse my work computer!
Thanks..
Matalin
Clicking on the green + button in upper-left window works fine for me in Mac OS X 10.6
I just installed it on and it doesn’t seem to run offline. Is there any setting that I should know about to make this work?
Thanks heaps
I’m having the same issue. Has anyone got this to work offline?
Hi Ben
I’m echoing Matalin regarding the full screen (lack of) issue on OSX 10.6.4.
Thanks banana bunches!
clicking the green button doesn’t make it go fullscreen for me, just fits to the desktop screen area. Really would like to be able to have a true, locked fullscreen.
Thanks
I’m agreeing with Matalin again. This is pretty useless without a true, locked fullscreen.
Thanks for your feedback. I’ve sent this on to our developer who works on this project.
+1 for true locked fullscreen.
Also, it would be awesome to pick my own image for the background.
And to add the sign-ups to a group in my list.
Would love it if there was a way to have subscribers be able to enter more information beyond just the email address, similar to the information we request on our website, such as name, what they’re interested, etc.
That’s definitely something we’ll be working on. Thanks!
Hi- I’m having trouble getting a counter top Netbook setup in a retail location to function in adding to the list when not connected to the internet. It stalls at submitting the name and doesn’t resolve. Any place in particular to request help?
I’ll FWD this on to our developer.
Hi Grace,
We’ve released an update for Chimpadeedee that should fix your offline subscription issues.
Try deleting the copy you have installed.
You can then install again from our Labs page.
MailChimp Labs
Problem: Can’t use Chimpadeedee OFFLINE, trys to subscribe and seems to hang on that and doesn’t do anything.
I have tried uninstalling and downloading latest version but with no success. I’m running latest version of AIR, on an XP professional operating system if that help?!?
Please help me get it working as I have a trade show I’d love to test it out on.
Regards
Matt
+1 for full screen
+1 for customizable background (for branding purposes)
+1 for double opt-in.
However, as it is, it is extremely useful and a huge benefit to my newsletter. Thanks for coming up with this!
Will have multi-field options some day???
a solution that keeps the line at your computer moving is to click on “send welcome email” in the options. You can customize that welcome email in mailchimp with as many fields as you would like. ;)
Would love to be able to get users to add some of the other details on our list like First Name etc. so we can have accurate data for merge tags :)
I’m also having problems getting this to work without an internet connection. I uninstalled / deleted the file and then reinstalled as suggested above but this did nothing. This is on ubuntu installs. I’ve also tried on a mac with the same problems.
Also…here’s another vote for a locked full screen option with better control of theme.
Give it another whirl, Mike. Version 1.1.1 is up now (http://blog.mailchimp.com/labs), we’ll be blogging about all the changes/additions in it soon. The short version – lots of bugs with offline fixed and fullscreen mode enabled. Try F11 on your Linux box (and Windows), cmd+shift+F on Mac.
Awesome. Works great. On my ubuntu install (10.04) you need to press Alt-F11 for full screen. On my mac, it works as indicated.
For those of you wanting to customize your background…think outside of the box a little. ;) Chimpadeedee installs to c:\program files (x86)\chimpadeedee. In the subdirectory app\themes you will find all eight backgrounds as jpegs. Simply import this into your favorite graphics program, change the background to your liking (retaining the dimensions ofcourse) and save or export it as a jpeg to the same location and with the same filename as the original. Mission accomplished!
If you do the same for the thumbnail you will have a preview in your themes menu as well.
We would really love this application.
+1 to customizable fields
- Yes, changing the image works for me to changing the background so no big deal there.
When I hit the ‘install now’ button I get the question if I want to install Adobe Air. I already installed this for another program and even reinstalled it. When I again hit ‘yes’ I get the message to ‘try again’.
What am I doing wrong.
btw I am using a MacBook Air (new version)
[...] little Chimpadeedoo project has getting a lot of interest (as well as his brother, Chimpadeedee). When we first launched it, the most common request was for custom backgrounds. [...]
Just installed it today (5/2/11) and when I do a test entry I get the error message “ADOBE AIR: FNAME must be provided – Please enter a value” but there is no blank field for the first name, nor is that a very kiosk-friendly error message.
Also if the bg image could be an animated gif, extra bonus points for that!!
+1 on customizable fields
Just need first name and zip code in addition to email.
Thanks, love you guys
Just discovered and am excited to use this and the iPad app. Any chance the computer app can be as customizable as the iPad app?? I really just want to add fields like FName, LName and a few others…
Will this app work on a Chromebook?
Is there going to be a chimpadeedee 1.2 soon?? It would be great to have all of those amazing iPad options for your computer as well!!!
I was just curious to know if there was any movement on allowing us to customize the background image?
I’m trying to customize my background within the app. Can someone assist? Previous blog post mentioned it has all of the iPad app features including background customization…
Hey Jasmin. Currently with Chimpadeedee, you can only choose one of our provided backgrounds. You can change that by selecting the gears in the top-right corner of the app and then picking one of those backgrounds.
Great tool, there is a little bug, if someone is already subscribed to list.
This is great, however, after changing the API key I’m unable to get the list dropdown menu in the options panel to update. I’ve tried deleting/reinstalling Chimpadeedee but the list from my test account still gets displayed. Ultimately resulting in an error when submitting an email address, “Invalid MailChimp List ID”. Any ideas?
Hey Rob, sorry about the hassles with that. I just fixed that, please re-install the latest version (1.1.2) from http://mailchimp.com/labs/ and you’ll be all set.
I have installed and even reinstalled Chimpadeedee, but I cannot login. Even tried installing adobe air seperately and then reinstall chimpadeedee, but the same happens. The application starts, but when I try to log in, I get an error message and cannot link to my lists in mailchimp. Any advise?
Login was deprecated in our API, sorry about that. You’ll have to use an API key to integrate the app. I just fixed that and added a handy link to find your API key from MailChimp, please re-install the latest version (1.1.2) from http://mailchimp.com/labs/ and you’ll be all set.
Echoing Robs request. When I switch api keys and log into another account, the lists dropdown does not update itself. So I still have the lists from the old account to choose from. Any remedy for this? It looks a bit like this project is not being worked on anymore?
When trying to change Mailchimp accounts, it won’t disconnect from the old account. I can’t login either. It says “login disabled” – so I try an API key, and nothing happens.
Hey Stephen, sorry about the hassles with that. I just fixed that, please re-install the latest version (1.1.2) from http://mailchimp.com/labs/ and you’ll be all set.
Hey there,
This is a a great thing…but I’m having a little problem. When I enter an email and hit “Subscribe”, a window appears saying “Subscribing email@domain.com“, and then that window just hangs forever. I’m using MAC OS X (10.6.8), and I’m connected to the internet. When I check in our email list, the new email HAS been added, but the “Subscribing” box still hangs forever and won’t go away.
I also vote for adding more fields and also letting them choose their preferences, basically like a subscribe form right in the app.
Thanks!
I second Ekta’s comment. When I add a subscriber, it sits forever with “subscribing email@domain.com“. I tried removing all required fields except email and still no go. The emails do seem to get added if I continue to type new ones in and press ‘enter’. When i disconnect from the wireless internet, the add claims to succeed, showing “saved to list”. When I reconnect to the internet, those emails to not post to the mailing list. I tried quitting and restarting the app and still no sync.
I think it would be helpful to have a ‘sync’ button or some feedback on the success or failure of the sync process. Also, being able to view the pending list would be excellent.
Did anyone find a solution to this?
Hi Chris, Stephen just posted a new version of Chimpadeedee that should fix this issue for you. It can be found here: http://mailchimp.com/chimpadeedee/Chimpadeedee.air Please uninstall your existing installation before installing the new one.
Is it possible to add backgrounds?
I have tried Chimpadeedee on three computers, one PC, two Macs, on two different networks. Like others, it seems to hang. When I look at the API calls in my MailChimp account I can see that all the list subscribes fail. So it’s basically useless.
We’ve been having the same problem for months now. We’ve tried deleting it and reinstalling it on multiple computers, but it just doesn’t work. The ‘loading’ icon just carries on forever.
Help!
Sorry about that Meegan. In case you didn’t see, Stephen just posted a new version of Chimpadeedee that should fix this issue for you. It can be found here: http://mailchimp.com/chimpadeedee/Chimpadeedee.air Please uninstall your existing installation before installing the new one.
Hi Kerry,
We’ve made some fixes and posted the update here: http://mailchimp.com/chimpadeedee/Chimpadeedee.air
Be sure to remove the old version before installing the new version.
Just tried to install Chimpadeedee with the link to the new update that @Stephen provided in the comment above – I get an error saying that ‘The instillation of this application is damaged’ whilst trying to install. Are you able to provide a solution for this?
Also – I original tried downloading Chimpadeedee from the Labs (as suggested in this post), but it does not seem to exist on there any more?
Hi Anthony, I’m sorry you’ve had trouble with Chimpadeedee. When we released Chimpadeedee a few years ago iPads were new, not readily available, and we thought they might even be a fad. Eighty-Four million iPads later as well as the addition of Android tablets and it looks like they are here to stay. We’ve decided to deprecate Chimpadeedee and redirect our focus to improving Chimpadeedoo for both iPads and eventually Android tablets.
I have tried to install this updated version after removing the old version but I get this error
The installation of this application is damaged.
Hi Marcus, I’m sorry this last version of Chimpadeedee wasn’t working for you. We put together Chimpadeedee a few years ago in a time when the future of tablets was really unknown and iPads weren’t a household name. Eighty-Four million iPads later and the introduction of Android tablets and it’s pretty certain that tablets are here to stay. This explosive growth has led us to deprecate Chimpadeedee and focus more on our Chimpadeedoo app for iPads and eventually Android tablets as well.
Will this work on either an Android tablet such as the Nexus 7 or on the Kindle Fire?
Sorry, Chimpadeedee isn’t currently available for the Android platform, but stay tuned to the blog for future developments.
Hey there, any news on when the Chimpadeedee program will be available? Would like to install that on a client’s computer.
Hi Jeremy, Actually, Chimpadeedee is no longer available unfortunately. There is an update at the very top of this blog post, but the general summary is that we created Chimpadeedee way back before millions of iPads and Tablets were sold and it wasn’t clear if they were here to stay or just a passing fad. Now that they’ve become more accessible in both price and availability we decided to focus more of our efforts there.