January 2012
1 post
3 tags
Think it later
I love the concept of “read it later” services. Whenever I hit something that is too long to read at that moment I send it to Instapaper. Later, when I actually have time to read, I launch Instapaper app and see the list of the articles that I queued for reading.
In my previous article, “Thinking time”, I described how I love to schedule dedicated time for thinking about my business. Sometimes,...
December 2011
1 post
2 tags
Thinking Time
Being an indie software developer, developing products and running the business, takes lots of time. I work during normal working hours and then often have a “second shift”, when the family, or at least the kids, fall asleep. Still, I have enough planned stuff to do, when I’m near my Mac, to fill months of work. And most of this better be done sooner than later.
I’m pretty sure that if you’re an...
October 2011
1 post
3 tags
Decision aid app idea
As it often happens, I get a new idea for an application, get excited about it and start to “massage” the idea in my mind to see where it leads me.
One such idea that has been in my mind for a long time is an application for helping making decisions. A decision aid tool, as they’re called. I know there are different applications for the same goal but I wanted to play with my...
September 2011
2 posts
Standing desk experience and thoughts
A rising trend
There’s been a lot of positive press lately about the benefits of working with computers at a standing desk, rather than sitting, like most of us do. This includes articles from major news outlets, such as CNN and Wall Street Journal.
This trend, in part, is based on medical research that shows that sitting for many hours has long-term negative effect on one’s...
3 tags
How Apple badly messed up with in-app purchases on...
Background
Since OS X 10.7 (Lion) Apple allows in-app purchase (IAP) of features or content in Mac Apps, similar to how it works on iOS but without some of the advanced features of iOS, like subscriptions.
We converted one of our applications, Cashculator Free to use in-app purchase to unlock full feature set, similar to the regular Cashculator we have in the store and on our own website. I...
August 2011
2 posts
From Paid to Freemium on Mac App Store, how?
The what
Starting with Lion’s release Apple allows Mac apps on the Mac App Store to utilize In-App Purchases (IAP from now on). This means that an application can sell additional functionality or “stuff” to existing customers. This has been allowed for quite some time now on the iOS App Store but it’s new on the Mac.
One of the important aspects of IAP, from marketing...
July 2011
1 post
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss...”
– Anonymous (oft attributed to Admiral Rickover)
“Usability is not just a matter of whether the users can find and press the...”
– skry