Musings about Entrepreneurship, Technology and Software Development

Accidental Technologist

Smile Software Launch Tries to Turn That Frown Upside Down

software launch

Last week must have been a terrible week for Smile Software and their software launch, one I never want to experience.  In case you missed it, you can do a bit of searching around the web to see the result of a new and not well-planned one.  The announcement was for a new version of TextExpander for Mac (v6) and iOS (4) along with a new backend service for syncing snippets.

We’ve updated our pricing model to match our new service. Instead of license purchases and upgrades on an irregular schedule, we’ve switched to a subscription model where you pay monthly or annually for your TextExpander service. This lines up with the regular costs to provide an online service. It also frees you as customers and us as developers from the “upgrade treadmill.” We can offer our apps free of charge. We can deliver incremental improvements as they’re ready rather than wait and package them all into a new “big” upgrade release. We’re really excited about what this change will allow us to offer our customers, and we hope you are too.

The problem being the new backend with monthly subscription, replacing the previous upgrade pricing. The result is a yearly fee that could be quite a bit higher than Smile Software customers were accustomed to. They welcomed feedback, and they got it.

I wasn’t happy and tweeted about it, as did many others. It appeared existing customers would be shut out from support of previous versions; either pay up, stick with unsupported software or find an alternative.

It would have been appreciated if existing customers were notified of the planned changes prior to reading a MacStories post. It seems I receive an email from Smile almost weekly, but this important news never hit my inbox.

Initial Reaction Triage

I would liked to have been a witness in the Smile headquarters as the immediate feedback started pouring in. I can only imagine there were some surprised faces. Smile did take the feedback and announce some revisions to their plans, a bit reactionary but an attempt just the same.

With regards to pricing:

Discounted upgrade pricing is available to customers of any past version of TextExpander. The details are found here. To take advantage of upgrade pricing, sign in to TextExpander.com, click your avatar at the upper right, choose My Account > Billing, and enter any prior serial number or license code. If you have any trouble, please contact support and we’ll help get it sorted.

For those happy TextExpander 5 customers:

For those who prefer to stay with TextExpander 5 for now, we intend to support it on El Capitan and the next major upgrade of OS X (…Humboldt? ?). Beyond that, neither we nor anyone else know what to expect of Apple or OS X. We also hope to encourage you to join the new TextExpander at some point in the future.

It didn’t seem to go far enough:

Loyal customers are passionate and vocal when they feel they weren’t treated fairly. In a very short time Smile realized they had a passionate customer base.

Doing the Right Thing

One week later and I’m sure after some thoughtful conversations at Smile, I received an email with additional refined plan for the new TextExpander launch.

Our changes to TextExpander last week made a number of you unhappy, and many of you shared your passion for the product with us. We are equally passionate about TextExpander and have made these changes so that we can expand the customer base and continue to enhance the product for all users.

To some of you it may seem we don’t care about our individual customers any more and only care about business use. We care about both, and in the changing software world a single focus is not a viable long term strategy for TextExpander. We did not make these changes easily or lightly, but for the long term life of the product so we can all enjoy it and engage with it for many years to come.

Change is difficult, and we didn’t get some things right at the start. Our pricing for Life Hackers was too high. Our upgrade pricing was too high and did not extend long enough. We didn’t offer an option for users who cannot use third party cloud services or cannot purchase subscription software.

We’re listening to your feedback, and are making adjustments, effective immediately.

Standalone TextExpander:

TextExpander 5 for Mac and TextExpander 3 + Custom Keyboard, the most recent standalone releases of TextExpander, will continue to be supported, and available for sale.

We understand this is important if you need: – private-network snippet storage – sync via Dropbox or iCloud Drive

New Pricing:

You, and other current TextExpander customers, receive a 50% lifetime discount on the new TextExpander. This brings the yearly cost of the Life Hacker plan to $20, which is comparable to previous upgrade costs ($19.95). If you aren’t sure about the new sharing features, or just want to test the waters beyond the demo period, you can pay $2.08 monthly to experience the new features before committing to the discounted $20 annual plan. The cost for new purchasers of the Life Hacker plan is similarly reduced to $40 per year.

If you’ve already purchased an annual upgrade plan, we’ll apply two months of credit to make up the difference. Please give us a few days for this to be reflected in your account.

From our team to you, thank you for being part of the conversation that makes the community around TextExpander what it is, and helping us continue to develop and improve TextExpander.It seems Smile could have avoided the unnecessary criticism with a better planned launch. Of course, it easy to tell someone else what they should have done. I’ve handled or been part of a few software product launches myself and try to do things a bit different.

This email probably contained most of what should have been sent to customer before the MacStories post was published, days before the launch.

My Software Launch Checklist

This should be common sense, but maybe not:

  • Communicate well from the beginning –  Once you have a plan for a new release, make sure everyone is on the same page. This doesn’t just include those people on your team and in your company but, more importantly, your customers. Make them aware early, before the press and social media gets ahold of it. Hopefully your customers can give you feedback before the larger world has a chance to tear you apart.
  • Step into your customer’s shoes – Given the plan, how do you think your customers will react? Maybe there’s nothing to react to, but maybe there is. In the case of Smile, there was a lot to react to. Current customers are why you are where you are now and they should be treated as such. In the case of a pricing change, loyal customers should know their appreciated, reward them for their loyalty.
  • Be clear why the update is better – Again, this is about the customer and not about your company. You may be changing things to improve your aspects of your business such as cashflow or support, but give current customers the reasons this will be better for them. “We screwed up our pricing and need more money” is not a very good reason, unless of course you want to reset your customer base and start over.
  • Provide a special offer, if applicable – If pricing or service terms are changing then reward the loyal customer. Give a discount or even grandfather existing users. They will appreciate you are thinking of them and in-turn know you appreciate them.

My approach isn’t magic. It isn’t revolutionary but reflects what I’ve learned over the years. Planning and communication trump bad surprises every time.

I still haven’t decided if I will upgrade to the new TextExpander. I’m not clear on why I should; features aren’t better than I have now but the pricing is fair. The story from Smile isn’t complete, they are still busy fixing things.

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Are we fighting ads, or are we fighting garbage? →

John Gruber is right:

If you want to block all advertising, I don’t understand you, but I won’t argue with you either. No one’s going to stop you. But most people just want to block garbage — privacy-invasive trackers, JavaScript that slows our devices and drains our batteries, obtrusive ads that cover the content we’re trying to read.

Are we fighting ads, or are we fighting garbage?

I’m on the side of content blockers and agree with John. When it comes to blocking ads, this is the feature of content blockers that appeals most to me. Truth be-told, I don’t mind good, targeted ads that introduce me to great products and services.

The garbage ads are the ones that offend me. The ads the pop-up modally and force me to wait to close, for me to read them. These are the ads I want the option to block.

I’m in the fighting garbage camp but how would this be distinguished? How is a content blocker now supposed to show me ads someone has deemed “quality”? I’m not sure this is not just another can of worms.

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From Products to Platforms – Stratechery by Ben Thompson →

I watched the Apple Special Event on September 9th with excitement. The iPad Pro was announced and has been on my wish list for a long time.

Ben Thompson had an excellent piece on Stratechery, which highlights some points about the event and iPad’s future that I hadn’t considered.

Talking about Tim Cook’s iPad Pro introduction:

Note that phrase: “How could we take the iPad even further?” Cook’s assumption is that the iPad problem is Apple’s problem, and given that Apple is a company that makes hardware products, Cook’s solution is, well, a new product.

It sounds good, Apple recognizes the need for a different iPad, something with more. Bigger, with needed peripherals to make the user’s job easier, better.

My contention, though, is that when it comes to the iPad Apple’s product development hammer is not enough. Cook described the iPad as “A simple multi-touch piece of glass that instantly transforms into virtually anything that you want it to be”; the transformation of glass is what happens when you open an app. One moment your iPad is a music studio, the next a canvas, the next a spreadsheet, the next a game. The vast majority of these apps, though, are made by 3rd-party developers, which means, by extension, 3rd-party developers are even more important to the success of the iPad than Apple is: Apple provides the glass, developers provide the experience.

So right. The iPad is an excellent device I use everyday, often for long periods of time. 90% of my usage is as a consumption device and very little to produce content. Why? Well, there’s not a lot of applications that transform this piece of glass to a device running software I can’t live without or use on my MacBook.

It becomes apparent the success of the iPad and now the professional iPad Pro is reliant on developers. Developers who can and are willing to create great apps to take advantage of what these devices can provide.

As an iOS developer, I can attest first-hand how hard it is to make a living on the App Store. It can be done but it’s not easy. Apple needs to change the way the App Store works, the way developers have been saying they need it to work:

The problem for iPad developers is three-fold:

First, the lack of trials means that genuinely superior apps are unable to charge higher prices because there is no way to demonstrate to consumers prior to purchase why they should pay more. Some apps can hack around this with in-app purchases, but purposely ruining the user experience is an exceedingly difficult way to demonstrate that your experience is superior.

Secondly, the lack of a simple upgrade path (and upgrade pricing) makes it difficult to extract additional revenue from your best customers; it is far easier to get your fans to pay more than it is to find completely new customers forever. Again, developers can hack around this by simply releasing completely new apps, but it’s a poor experience at best and there is no way to reward return customers with better pricing, or, more critically, to communicate to them why they should upgrade.

That there is the third point: Apple has completely disintermediated the relationship between developers and their customers. Not only can developers not communicate news about upgrades (or again, hack around it with inappropriate notifications), they also can’t gain qualitative feedback that could inspire the sort of improvements that would make an upgrade attractive in the first place.

The introduction of the iPad Pro is an opportunity for developers and for Apple. It’s a chance to truly be able to develop pro-level applications, but it won’t happen if things don’t change for developers. We have to be able to charge a reasonable amount for our hard work and allow users to try it out. We need to be able to charge for upgrades without having to resort to obscure tactics.

Ben also discusses this in more detail on his Exponent podcast with James Allworth in the Segue episode.

Apple, it’s obvious you need the support developers to continue to grow the iOS platform.  Apple it has to be more about getting developers to write software for free so you can sell more hardware. 

Source: From Products to Platforms – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

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On the iPad Pro and the Constraints of iOS | carpeaqua →

I was hoping we were going to hear some really special news about the new iPad Pro from the recent Apple event. I hoped we were going see the iPad Pro running OS X and an Intel Skylake processor. Why? This would allow such a wide array of existing great applications. Applications like Xcode, Microsoft Office or the Adobe Creative Suite.

Justin Williams beat me to the punch with his thoughts on the iPad Pro:

In their current incarnations, I believe that Windows 10 is better suited to the Surface than iOS is to the iPad Pro.

Granted both Microsoft and Adobe demonstrated tools developed specifically for the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil. It’s a clean slate and the invented-for-ipad-pro apps are very few. There are so few apps that even look good and even fewer designed for the iPad today.

And we haven’t even started talking about the third-party ecosystem for the iPad. I can count the number of apps on my left hand that are thoughtfully designed for the iPad screen size. Most are, for lack of a better phrase, blown-up iPhone apps. Just this week, Twitter updated their iPad app to be exactly like the iPhone version but with a bit more padding on the edges to make up for the larger screen size. That’s fine for the iPad mini and mostly tolerable for the Air. On the iPad Pro? That’s approaching clown shoes territory.

I had dreams of using my iPad Pro with Xcode as Microsoft Surface Pro developers are fortunate enough to be able to do with Visual Studio. A truly portable, pro-level, device with powerful applications.

iOS may be a better choice of operating system than OS X here but iOS is the limiting factor. I doubt we will ever see Xcode running on an iPad Pro. Developers are one example of pro-users, that means we have to stick with our MacBooks for the time being.

Source: On the iPad Pro and the Constraints of iOS | carpeaqua

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A Laptop for Writers – and Developers →

Matt Gemmell:

I used to be a software developer, and my computer use was split between my desktop machine (a big iMac with the maximum amount of RAM, upgraded processor, extra display, and all kinds of attached gadgets), and my “evening or travel” machine. I didn’t code, or design, on the evening machine if I could possibly help it – and since I work from home, the big desktop was always within reach.

I’ve been using the new MacBook for the better part of a month and haven’t had much time to write a review just yet, but it’s coming. Matt’s post pretty much reflects my experience with the new laptop. It’s great and the new keyboard and trackpad are fantastic. The keyboard worked for me almost instantly. I had gone into it with the idea I wasn’t going to like it. Marco Arment’s post about the MacBook came out while my MacBook was on order so I had some doubts.

I have a different use-case with the MacBook. I am a developer, unlike Matt. I use Xcode and Sublime Text for Ruby development. I have no problems using the little MacBook for the projects I build. I use both Xcode 6 and 7. I don’t baby the laptop, often have PostgreSQL running alongside an instance or two of Sublime Text and an Xcode IDE up and running. Works great.

No, it’s not as fast as my main machine, an iMac 5K, but I didn’t expect it to be either.

 

 

CODE Keyboard – The Best Mac Keyboard

I have an addiction to keyboards.  It’s more like an addiction to the pursuit of my ultimate keyboard. I’ve tried many including:

  • Apple Keyboard, wired and wireless
  • Microsoft Ergonomic
  • Microsoft Ergonomic 4000
  • Matias Quiet Pro Keyboard for MAC

Each seemed to work well at first but after a short time their weaknesses surfaced. I was able to return the Matias but I have a pile of lackluster keyboards.

Enter The CODE Keyboard

I used to love the original IBM PC keyboard. You know the one, it was loud and had a very responsive feel. I knew when I was pressing a key, no doubt about it. The feedback is fantastic from the IBM keyboard but those are a thing of the past.

Apple once made a keyboard very similar the one from IBM, but those are also a thing of the past. I understand you can still find them from time-to-time on eBay.

I remembered a post by Jeff Atwood where he talked about his dissatisfaction with keyboards, the solution…create his own. I never thought of creating my own but since Jeff is a developer, then maybe his wants were similar to mine. The result is The Code Keyboard.

The Hardware

code keyboard

The keyboard is actually manufactured by WASD Keyboards, a company known for great keyboards with very flexible configurations.

This keyboard is HEAVY. It feels like the IBM PC keyboards of old. A solid, beefy and well-built keyboard. The CODE website says it weighs 2.42 pounds, but I don’t know which version it refers to.

The keyboard is offered in 87 and 101-key options. I chose the 87-key version because it uses less space and I don’t need a numerical keypad. The key options is what really drew me to this keyboard. Cherry keys switches are used offered in green, clear and brown. I’m using clear and picked these due to sound; of the three the clear switches have the last “click” sound but still offer the tactile feel.  Even though I have the clear switches, they aren’t silent:

Ultra-rare Cherry MX Clear mechanical key switches are the heart of the CODE keyboard. These switches are unique in the Cherry line because they combine solid actuation force with quiet, non-click activation, and a nice tactile bump on every keystroke. These hard to find switches deliver a superior typing experience over cheap rubber dome keyboards – without deafening your neighbors in the process.

The keyboard is backlit, which is really nice. It’s not a feature I required but after having it, I love it. It’s useful when I have the lights off in my office and I’m working.

Configurable

There are a set of DIP switches on the underside, used to control various functions; such as turning backlighting on and off, keyboard layout (QWERTY, Dvorak or Colemak) and Mac support.

Keytool

Mac support was critical for me when searching out a new keyboard. I hate having Mac support as a second-class citizen. I want the command key where it belongs, next to the space bar. This is easy with the CODE, just a DIP switch change. The only problem, now the Alt key is in the wrong spot. Thankfully WASD has take care of this for us, they include a keycap puller in the box that allowed me to easily swap the keys I needed.  Really nice touch.

WASD also offers replacement key sets in various colors and custom key sets such as the Mac command key and others. I found them to be a bit pricey so I just stuck with what came stock.

Usage

I’ve been using this keyboard for going on 3 months and could not be happier. I use this keyboard for writing software as well as my daily writing, emails and Twitter. It’s not ergonomic and I wondered if it mattered. So far, it has not mattered at all.

The key presses are smooth, no binding, just nice press with tactile response and a clean release. This is how a keyboard should be…no mushy keys. For the same reasons I use an Aeron chair, spending money on a good keyboard is as important as any piece of furniture.

IMG 2671

A nice touch is the media keys on the far right of the keyboard. These keys allow me to pause and play podcasts in Instacast and control the volume. A really nice touch with great positioning.

All the media keys are clustered together for easy reach, not spread out along the top of other keyboards.

I’m hoping this keyboard lasts a really long time because I love using it everyday.

Recommended?

You bet! This is a great keyboard. Considering the keyboards companies dare ship with their computers today it’s not really hard to make something better.  The CODE is great, not just better.

The price is probably what will keep people from buying it. At $171 delivered to my door it’s not exactly inexpensive but either are the other tools I use. A craftsman who has the best tools isn’t necessarily a better craftsman but at least he can’t blame his tools.

If you’re in the market for a really well-built, durable Mac-compatible keyboard then you should at least consider this keyboard.

Apple iPad Air 2 – The iPad for Which I Have Been Waiting

When Apple announced the iPad Air 2 at it’s press event on October 16, 2014, I watched with interest to see what the new device had under the hood.  My current iPad Air constantly crashed (out-of-memory errors) running Safari with iOS 7 and I had been hoping they would bump the memory some.  The event disappointed and did not mention anything about more memory.

No where on the iPad Air 2 Tech Specs page can I find a single mention of memory. I decided to order one anyway.  The updated processor, Touch ID and other sensors made it hard to refuse.  I order the 128G space gray model with only WiFi this time, no cellular service.  If I need, I can use my iPhone cell service and save $20 a month.

It came in only 6 days after the announcement and it’s a beautiful device and does not disappoint in the hardware department. Just so other can confirm what rumors have mentioned:

IMG 0017

3 cores

IMG 0018

And most important, 2G memory

It’s a really nice upgrade, lots of little niceties and the one i really wanted.  Thanks Apple.

The Future is the Apple Watch

I’ve been anticipating the official announcement of the Apple Watch since rumors surfaced many months ago.  I’ve spent much time thinking about the features I’d like to see based on my day-to-day routine.  Since I am an avid runner, my main use cases revolved around what I want related to running; no phone required, GPS built in, great fitness application to track my pace, distance and heart rate built in.  I didn’t get many of the things I had hoped.

I don’t even wear a watch today, except when I run.  After the Apple announcement of the Watch, I upgraded my running watch since the Apple Watch met almost none of my running needs and wouldn’t be available until 2015.  The last thing I want to do is run with my new iPhone 6 and a watch.

Apple watch

Witness the Future

Even with the Watch not meeting my set of requirements, I still want one. I think this is a paradigm shift in how we interact with the world.

What we witnessed in the keynote from September 9th introduced a new product platform which will change the future. It’s unlike any wearable to date in the sense that it truly extends the iPhone and delivers only the most important bits of data to the Watch screen.  It acts as a filter we control, where we determine the notifications and data points most important to us and puts them in a convenient location; right (or left) on our wrist.

Today we see many people with their smartphones out everywhere, checking Twitter, Facebook, texts and email.  Tomorrow we could very well see people quickly checking their watches to view these updates. Less disruptive and much more of our attention.

Developers! Developers! Developers!

Applications being available the day the Apple Watch is released is important.  There are plenty developers already chomping at the bit to get started with the Watch. These are the developers who will make a difference, have the ideas that will drive the platform into the future. 

Jeremy Olson of Tapity is one of the those outspoken developers who has described his vision for using the Watch with their Hours application.

The Watch takes this to a whole new level. It means you can switch timers without even taking your phone out of your pocket. Just glance at your wrist and tap. Boom.

We absolutely cannot wait to start time tracking on the Watch and you can bet Hours will be available for Watch on day one.

Jeremy explains it well in a post on Medium, The Apple Watch’s greatest superpower:

For example, my time tracking app Hours could have a unique tap that reminds people every so often that they have a timer running. This kind of notification would be useless on the iPhone because it would result in a lot of obnoxious buzzing that may or may not mean anything related to your time tracking.

Apple Watch White BG

Jeremy represents exactly what I think the successful applications on the Watch will be. Small windows into their bigger apps with a small subset of features. Perfect for a watch.

I don’t think there will be an Apple Watch Store, but rather applications for the watch will be an extension of applications we already have on our phones.  Just the way we now have app extension in iOS 8.

Developers are the ones who are going to make or break this device. Creatives will be the ones who see the potential and extend the great ecosystem we have in the Apple App Store today.

Apple will need to get a Watch SDK and devices to developers long before a release.  I’m hoping for a Watch Kit that will give us a device and all documentation to start creating this next generation of applications.

If we don’t get these kits then applications will only be from Apple and key partners at first.

Finally

The Apple Watch represents the future.  We are all bombarded with data looking for our attention everyday and when we look to our phones it can be overwhelming where to turn our attention.

A device like the Apple Watch will help filter out the noise and focus our attention to what we feel is important. Developers who get this will be the successful ones on this platform and help guide others.

I’m excited to see what comes to the Watch.

AirPrint Where You Couldn’t AirPrint Before

Our household has several iPads and iPhones. I use my iPad all the time to surf the web, reply to emails and view my Twitter stream, among other things.  Occasionally I find it would be nice to print from the iPad, since it has AirPrint and all, but our Canon MX860 printer doesn’t support AirPrint.

Enter handyPrint….

handyPrint™ v5 is a 64 bit Mac OSX application that allow you to print from your iPods, iPads and iPhones on printers that do not support the AirPrint protocol. v5 has been re-designed as a standard application similar to the ones you would find in the Apple App Store. You simply copy it to the Applications folder and run it from there. Once you turn the application switch to ON it will start on its own every time you login to you user account. No need to manually start the application.

handyPrint is a simple download which is a DMG, just click to install.  It’s an application needs to be running while the user is logged in on the host Mac.  I noticed there’s a Pro version that runs as a service to alleviate this requirement but this didn’t matter to me.

Once installed handyPrint is run and sits in the OS X menu bar after it’s turned on. The user interface is really simple:

HandyPrint

A list of available printers shows up and you just select the ones you enable AirPrint support.  This particular printer is actually wireless, I just happen to have the driver installed on my Mac.

Printing from the iPad is simple.  While you’re in the application you want to print from, just select Print as if you had an AirPrint-supported printer around:

IMG 0001

Select the printer and that’s it.  handyPrinter works seamless.

Thanks to Eric Davis for pointing it out on Twitter.