UBot 5.0.12 is Out and Live!

Two very important fixes and additions in this week’s update.

1. The Speed issue as reported here.

I have been working these past few weeks on an important issue that has been affecting compiled executables as well as scripts running within UBot Studio.

This issue caused bots and scripts to slow down significantly over time as they ran and eventually freeze.

I was able to resolve the issue and improve the speed of the running scripts and compiled executables.

The fix has been released in UBot 5.0.12.

2. The UI Editor has some new features!

You can now change the background colour, and add a UI text area!

The Ui Editor

To see the list of features and improvements for 5.0.12, please see here!

If you have any questions or concerns about this update, feel free to let our support staff know at our support portal.

Release Information UBot News June 17, 2014

In Case you Missed It

In case you missed it, here they are again! Important news from UBot HQ as well as a feast of helpful tips, tricks and sample scripts! Dig In!

1. Exciting News from UBot Studio HQ!

2. The document Text function is a small but important feature that allows you to grab the html text of a page. See how it works!

3. UBot Studio comes equipped with hot keys that allow UBotters to access certain functionality within the software with ease.

4. Here’s a quick example of how to remove the last 1, 2, or 3 item(s) within a list.

5. Incrementing while multi-threading can be tricky. Here’s an example that will help!

UBot News UBot Tutorials June 5, 2014

Exciting News from UBot Studio HQ

UBotters,

We hope you’re enjoying the latest updates to UBot Studio. If you haven’t had a chance to check out 5.0, now is a great time. Aside from all of the incredible features we added in October, we’ve just released 5.0.11 today and are excited for everyone to try it.

We’ve also been reading through lots of feedback in support, the UBot Underground, and your emails. Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch and letting us know what you are doing with the new version, and how we can work to keep making UBot Studio the best product it can be.

I wanted to personally tell you some other exciting news. We’ve recently added Jessica Nowell to the UBot Studio team. Jessica is a marketing and sales expert who will be concentrating on customer relations and business development. As we expand, we want to show more businesses and individuals how automation and UBot Studio can improve their day-to-day operations, and she’ll be a great asset in this.

Picture of Jessica Nowell, Corporate Sales, UBot Studio

Meet Jessica Nowell

We are also looking to add a developer to the team. We’ll miss Eddie, but we’re all looking forward to the next chapter for UBot Studio. As our community has grown over the years, so too have the technology requirements and quality standards increased since we hired Eddie 3 years ago. We are taking our time to make sure we have the right fit.

UBot Studio is a big project, and it takes a special person to work on it. We have several tests planned to make sure we find the right match: They’ll start by reciting the names of all the .dll libraries we use, backwards. Then they’ll have to find and fix a bug in UBot Studio. Lastly, they’ll walk across coals to reach a computer where they will have to code and compile a UBot Studio script in under 3 minutes.

I’m kidding (mostly). We do have very high standards and we know you do too, and it may take a while to find exactly the right person. In the interim, I have personally stepped up as developer, and you will continue to see new updates regularly.

If you have any questions about updates, make sure to visit our roadmap at tracker.ubotstudio.com. And for any further questions, please visit us at support.ubotstudio.com.

Yours,

Seth

UBot News May 14, 2014

UBot Studio and a visual history of automation [Infographic]

We are definitely standing on the shoulders of giants at UBot Studio.

First there was the assembly line. Soon, there will be the self-driving car.

Automation is an incredible tool when used intelligently in both your business and your life. The reason that UBot Studio has been so successful for so many people is that it’s the best way to automate in the place where people now spend huge amounts of their time, and where we make huge amounts of our income: the web.

Imagine the companies today that don’t have web sites. How much more limited are they than they were ten years ago! As the number of web sites grows, more and more business is done online, and automation becomes a requirement, just like having a web site is now.

1 in 4 people spend more time online than asleep (I’m probably one of those people–I don’t sleep much). The average United States internet user spends 32 hours online in a month, although many spend that in a week. It’s not going to change any time soon.

That’s why we released UBot Studio 5, and why we continue making automation easier for businesses. To celebrate its release, we created the infographic below. Forbes.com was kind enough to publish it. Click on the link to see the full article and take a look at the history of automation, culminating not in UBot Studio, but in places we can’t even begin to imagine.

Automation Mindset Ideas & Tips UBot News February 10, 2014

I have a Mac! Can I use UBot Studio?

[6/16/2015: We now have a full blog post detailing how to set up AWS to run UBot Studio on a free VPS. See here: Set up UBot Studio on a Free Amazon VPS in ten minutes]

The short answer is that UBot Studio is designed to run in Windows, and the bots that you can compile work only in Windows.

But if you’re a design geek, an Apple fanboy, or just a big fan of Macs–don’t worry. There are many resources for you to use UBot Studio even if your main OS is OSX.

Get started here with some great information on The best way to run Windows on your Mac as well as 5 Ways to Run Windows Software on a Mac.

We also spoke with several of our customers about how they do it.

Boot Camp or Parallels:

Cost: Windows Required, $0 – 200

Boot Camp and Parallels let you run Microsoft Windows on your Mac. Learn how Boot Camp runs Windows and what the installation requirements are by clicking the first link above, or check out Parallels at the second. Both require that you have a Windows license, and the Windows software, but a copy of Windows can usually be had for under $30.

If you are looking for a cheap version of Windows, check out Ebay.

Wine:

Cost: $0

Wine (originally an acronym for “Wine Is Not an Emulator”) is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OSX, & BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop.

It might sound complicated, but it isn’t. Check out some additional instructions: http://www.cultofmac.com/185565/how-to-run-almost-any-windows-game-on-your-mac-without-boot-camp-or-parallels-feature/. (We don’t know for sure if Wine works for UBot Studio, but it should.)

Wine Bottler

Cost: $0

With Wine Bottler, there’s no need to actually install Wine itself., or for your customers to install Wine. “No need to install emulators, virtualizers or boot into other operating systems – WineBottler runs your Windows-based programs directly on your Mac.

WineBottler can pack your .exe into an Mac .app. Double-click your .exe or .msi and convert it into an app with WineBottler. You can run the generated app like every other program on your Mac. For advanced users, WineBottler gives you a selection of options: install special dependencies and even turn your .exe into a self-contained app – that is an app, that contains everything to run it… even on other Macs. Porting to OS X never was easier ;).

You don’t care about generating an app and just want to run it? Double-click the .exe, choose “Run directly” and Wine will run it in a generic environment.”

Virtual Private Server

Cost: Variable, $40 – $200/month. (Various providers, LiquidWeb recommended by some customers)

A Virtual Private Server running windows lets you host your websites, your apps, and your bots. Many customers run their UBot Studio-created bots on VPS, but you can also run UBot Studio itself there. With a VPS there’s a monthly fee, usually, but no maintenance fees, no electricity costs, no bandwidth costs, and often times a very quick processor/ram. And a bonus is that you get to use what is usually significantly faster internet connection than the one you have at your house.

Amazon Web Services VPS

Cost: Variable, $0 – $4/hour

When Amazon got into the cloud business, they didn’t screw around. Amazon Web Services has a free tier VPS which for tiny instances of bots is a great idea. You can pay on an hourly basis if you want a faster VPS with more GB and bandwidth. Uploaded and running software basically freezes when you turn off the instance, and, you can turn on and turn it off remotely with a mobile app.

A cheap/refurbished Windows machine

Cost: Variable, $30 – $250

Newegg, EBay

You can easily buy a computer for running UBot Studio (and the many other applications that only run on Windows). Check Newegg, EBay, or your local computer shop for something around $100-200. (It should fit these requirements to run UBot Studio properly.)

So, if you’re on a Mac, and you want to use UBot Studio – there are plenty of options. We don’t plan on building an OSX version of UBot Studio currently, but we want you to have access to the best web automation software on the planet.

UBot FAQs January 24, 2014