Category: Software

Categories
Software

An Analysis of “Raise Your Prices”

Another really smart piece over at Clark’s Tech Blog:

> So we have a broad market and the traditional solutions don’t seem to work. Simply saying, “raise your prices,” really doesn’t cut it. The current iOS marketplace (and probably a growing percent of the MAS) depend upon people trying by buying. That is your revenue is subsidized by people who purchase but never really use your software. Once you raise your prices you lose a lot of that subsidy. Which means you really need to have a solid understanding of your market, your users, and how to get them. That’s not at all easy.

Having a solid understanding of your market has always been important in business. Now, in this application environment and in this economy, it is crucial.

Categories
Software

Apple Removes Youtube App from IOS 6

Not really a big deal since I [force iOS to use the mobile version of YouTube](http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120524163005655) anyway.

Categories
Software Technology

The State of Instacast Syncing

Martin Hering on the state of syncing for Instacast:

> I thought about this problem very hard for a long time. I would like to have a reliable syncing solution that works instantanously, is fast and doesn’t suffer from erratic glitches. I’ve come to the conclusion that these goals are not achievable with iCloud at the moment and may not be for the forseeable future.

Based on my [experimentation with various podcast apps](https://johnkiv.us/2012/07/20/making-the-best-of-the-current-ios-podcast-player-options/), I agree with Mr. Hering. It seems that iCloud is just not the right solution for this type of podcast syncing. Mr. Hering goes on to discuss alternatives to using iCloud. My favorite is:

> The other alternative would be to find another server provider specialized in data syncing across devices. The advantage would be that I don’t need to maintain server reliability and security and that I don’t need to reinvent the syncing wheel. The disadvantage of course is to give up control. Luckily I found a service provider that looks very promising. First tests have shown that their sync works amazingly well and is very fast and quite reliable. I am talking about Simperium, the guys behind Simplenode. They took their syncing experience and created an awesome service. I am very impressed and at the same time very disappointed by Apple that they are not able to achieve what a small team of four guys did. The service is powered by Google App Engine, so the servers are really reliable and the transfer speed is awesome.

I have used [SimpleNote](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fsimplenote%252Fid289429962%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30) for quite awhile and their syncing has proven to be extremely reliable. I think this would be a great option for [Instacast](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=httpMonday061061itunes.apple.com061us061app061instacast061id420368235061mt?8?o?4PMartnerId?30). I would be willing to pay a subscription fee for that.

Categories
Software

This is not the “Save As” You Are Looking For

> If one edits a document than does Save As, then BOTH the edited original document and the copy are saved, thus not only saving a new copy, but **silently saving the original with the same changes, thus overwriting the original.**

Wow. This could lead to major confusion. It happened for me in minimal testing.

Categories
Software

Monthly Magazine from Don McAllister and ScreenCasts Online

Really glad to see [Don McAllister](http://screencastsonline.com) back in the app store after his SEO Tutor apps were pulled. I bet this is going to be good.

Categories
Software

Omnifocus currently on Sale

I missed this earlier, but [Omnifocus for Mac](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fomnifocus%252Fid402835630%253Fmt%253D12%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30)[^aff] and [Omnifocus for iPad](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fomnifocus-for-ipad%252Fid383804552%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30) are currently both 50% off. I use the Omnifocus ecosystem to keep track of nearly my whole life. This promotion is a great chance for people who have been interested in Omnifocus, but weary of the pricing, to give it a shot.

[^aff]: Affiliate Links

Categories
Software

Tweetbot for Mac Updated

Really nice update. Little tip about the new “docking” columns from [The Next Web](http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/08/03/bye-bye-tweetdeck-tweetbot-for-macs-new-alpha-has-multiple-docking-timelines-a-menu-bar-icon-and-more/?awesm=tnw.to_e2xH):

> If you’d like to create a large Tweetdeck-like interface that lets you move them all around at once, you’re in luck, because you can now dock the windows together. To do so, hover a window next to the right edge of the one previous and let go, they’ll snap right together. To pull a window off, move your cursor to the bottom of the rightmost timeline and grab the undocking handle, dragging it off and to the right.

The advancements in Tweetbot mean I am going to be really sad when Twitter cuts off third party clients.

Categories
Software

Daniel Jalkut updates his RSS Feed Extension

The work Daniel Jalkut is doing is making life a little easier for everyone who uses Safari and a RSS Reader.

Categories
Programming Software Technology

Dr. Drang on Getting URLs from Safari

He shares a Textexpander Applescript snippet that gets the URL of the front-most open tab:

tell application “Safari” to get the URL of the front document

Genius. He [has a github repository of this and similar snippets](https://github.com/drdrang/te-url-snippets/) as well.

Categories
Software

Review of Day One by Shawn Blanc

Another excellent review from Shawn Blanc. A sample:

> Over the past few months I have been using Day One regularly and enjoying it. Many of my entries have been nothing more than a photo and perhaps a quick descriptive sentence. That, combined with the automatic location and weather logging, and I’m creating worthwhile journal entries with very little effort on my part.

I am currently upgrading both my [Mac Version](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fday-one%252Fid422304217%253Fmt%253D12%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30)[^aff] and [iOS Version](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fday-one-journal%252Fid421706526%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30).

[^aff]: Affiliate Links

Categories
Software

Get Save As Back in Mountain Lion

I ended up just accepting the new “Duplicate” functionality, so I am not sure I even care about this anymore. Still, I know a lot of people who miss it a great deal.

Categories
Software

Pause Notifications

> Press the Option key while clicking on the Notification icon in the right end of the menu bar. This will pause the display of notifications. To reactivate them, you can either Option-click the same icon again; display notifications at the right of the screen by clicking on the Notification Center icon, then toggle the Show Alerts and Banners switch from Off to On; or just wait until tomorrow, when they’ll go back on automatically.

Nice. Thank you [Macworld](http://macworld.com) and [Macworld Hints reader *guillaumegete*](http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=2b0adaafa9ad8a29fede7758fada1730&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.macworld.com%2Farticle%2F1167930%2Fmountain_lion_pause_notifications_edit_bookmarks.html%23lsrc.rss_main&v=1&libid=1343686246510&out=http%3A%2F%2Fhints.macworld.com%2Farticle.php%3Fstory%3D20120713091051889&title=Mountain%20Lion%3A%20Pause%20notifications%2C%20edit%20bookmarks%20%7C%20Macworld&txt=guillaumegete&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13436862886581)

Categories
Internet Software Technology

Enable Web Sharing in OS X Mountain Lion

Tidbits demonstrates a way to do it without using the command line. I will probably stick to using [Brett Terpstra’s method](http://brettterpstra.com/fixing-virtual-hosts-and-web-sharing-in-mountain-lion/) though.

Categories
Software

Mac OS X Defaults

Brett Terpstra tweeted his favorite Mac OS X default[^spoiler]. It remove the delay before showing a hidden dock[^like]. My favorite might be “Make Text in Preview selectable:”

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE

[^spoiler]: *Spoiler:* defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float

[^like]: Don’t get me wrong, I like that one too.

Categories
Software

80 Mountain Lion Tips from Mac|Life

Taught me how to turn off iCal stuff in Notification Center (which were annoying since I use BusyCal.) I just wish they had not presented it as a slideshow.

Categories
Software Technology

Bootable Mountain Lion USB Key

> UPDATE: Some users have reported getting a “Could not restore – Invalid argument” error at the end of the restore process. Our testing shows the error message can be safely be ignored; the drive can be mounted and will boot your system to install Mountain Lion. As noted in the comments, however, mounting the InstallESD.dmg file before performing the restore process avoids triggering the error message.

Knowing that would have saved me the last hour of my life.

Categories
Internet Software Sports

Apps for Olympics

No real surprises, but [TechHive](http://techhive.com) sums them up nicely.

Categories
Software

Ben Brooks’ Response To Marco Arment’s Piece on the Mac App Store

Ben Brooks makes a great point that I had not considered:

> As for the worry of ‘low-traffic’, well Apple addressed that yesterday — ensuring that the Mac App Store will forever have high traffic: they made the Mac App Store the only place to get your OS updates for OS X, putting a notice in the Notification Center when you need to check for updates. Every Mac user will have to go into the Mac App Store from time to time, and I am certain many will click over to see what apps are featured. I can’t think of a better way to assure an app store of continued traffic.

Categories
Software

RSS Feed Extension for Safari on Mountain Lion

Well done Mr. Jalkut. Well done.

Categories
Software

Fixing the Mail Rules in OmniFocus on Mountain Lion

I was running into some problems with [OmniFocus’](http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/) mail rules on my systems that have been upgraded to [Mountain Lion](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fos-x-mountain-lion%252Fid537386512%253Fmt%253D12%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30)[^aff]. This workaround can be used to fix things until OmniFocus is upgraded.[^aff2]

[^aff2]: This problem should only come up if you have not previously setup your mail rules, however, Mountain Lion’s iCloud syncing of mail rules might end up causing some problems that require you resetting up those rules. That’s what happened to me.

[^aff]: Affiliate Link.