Helium Foot Software

One Fifth of a Five Fingered Discount

The ever popular MacHeist is gearing up for another bundle. As a developer of (hopefully!) fine Mac software, i definitely can see both sides of the controversy: Getting so much software for cheap can lead users to think that it's not worthwhile to pay full price. On the other hand, developers are free to . Into the breach between the two steps Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software maker of the excellent MarsEdit blog editor in which i'm typing these words right now. Riffing on the idea that MacHeist is a steal, Daniel organized the "One Fingered Discount" (as in 1/5 of a five fingered discount, in NO WAY related to the "one fingered salute") where participating developers are offering a 20% discount on their products. If you're the type who loves a steal (or at least 20% of one), then check out all of the great software you can get on the cheap(er).

On the Job, On the Train

My very sincere thanks again go to Hey Mac software, the makers of Narrator and Briefcase for bringing me this moment:

Hey Mac

At WWDC this year, i befriended a fellow software craftsman named Mike Taylor of Hey Mac Software. I would place Mike firmly in the category of my friends who are much smarter than i am. Following Mike on Twitter, i became aware of the License to Mod contest, promoting Hey Mac's Narrator for iPhone. Narrator provides synchronized audio and text which can help you learn to read english or just to tell an interesting story with sound, words and images. The contest involved listening to the Motive Games audio book and solving the mystery therein. The story was very cute and although aimed at a young adult audience i found myself pretty engrossed in the climactic scene. Getting engrossed in a story like this has certain benefits because i won the contest! I'm writing this post on my circa 2001 Titanium PowerBook, but soon will upgrade to the brand new 13" Mac Book Pro of my dreams. At my desk, i of course have a machine that is a little more modern but for my mobile commuting computing i'm thrilled to be getting an upgrade.

If narrator doesn't sound like your cup of cocoa, then definitely check out Hey Mac's Briefcase. Briefcase sits at the head of a class of applications that lets you transfer files from a desktop to your iPhone/iPod Touch for viewing anywhere. What sends Briefcase to the head of the class is how it can connect via ssh (a secure connection) to your computer from anywhere in the world, at any time and let you view pretty much any file. When i first tried it, it was one of those experiences where the technology seemed almost indistinguishable from magic and definitely made me feel grateful to be living in the 21st century.

Dog Fed

I recently threatened the food supply of my entire family but am happy to report that supply lines remained unaffected. People who write software like to use the phrase "eating your own dog food" to mean using and living with the software that you write. Well last week, i ate the dog food and successfully made a shopping list and then took it to the store to shop from it! To my competitors, i say: you've got nothing to worry about yet. This app is missing a lot of features and is very rough but as of today, we're off to the dog races.

20 Questions

A few weeks ago, i had the opportunity to virtually sit down with David Allen of Mac 20 Questions for a chat. David's a peach of a guy who can spin a really nice story out of how people use, and what they create with their macs. He's done about 60 of these interviews, but if you don't have time to add 60 hours of podcasts to your listening regimen, then definitely give a listen to Keith Blount talking about his writer's word processor: Scrivener and especially Double Edge Films talking about their new movie: Ink. You can subscribe to Mac 20 Questions via iTunes.

A Gallon of Milk and an Onion

I've been a little cagey here about the exact nature of the iPhone app which isn't entirely fair to my loyal reader since i've talked about it elsewhere. It's a grocery list app. I realize that this is a pretty crowded market, but as i've said before, i strongly believe that an app that works differently and is (to enough users) better than the others will succeed in the marketplace. I'm going to keep my app's secret sauce close to my chest until we get a little closer to launching lest the more established players squash me like a bug. For now, i'll say that it's sufficiently different in its focus from the competition to be worth bringing to market. Frankly, it's kind of hard NOT to talk about it so watch this space for loose lipped updates.

Progress for the past few weeks has been steady, but the time has come to take a plunge. This morning, i went to the grocery store and purchased a gallon of milk and an onion. I hereby resolve: i will make no further grocery purchases until i can do so based on a list created with my app. Nothin' like a little hunger to keep you motivated.

The iPhone Doesn't Need Me

There's been a lot of discussion recently about the viability of the iPhone as a means for indie developers to make a living. As someone working on an iPhone app, i'm obviously voting with my code. The good gentleman from Austin, Manton Reece, wrote very poignantly:

But the iPhone doesn't need me.

And then a little later in the same post:

If you're a Mac developer, my message to you is the same: just because the iPhone is awesome and runs on Objective-C does not mean you are required to build software for it. Maybe your time would be better spent refining old apps or building new ones on the Mac. Maybe... the iPhone doesn't need you, either.

Of course, i have to take exception. My reasons for getting on the iPhone are twofold. Firstly, it's a really fun platform to develop for. There obviously are huge annoyances associated with playing in Apple's walled (and double padlocked) garden. I have to chant the secret incantation and do the sacred belly dance in order to get a new app to run on a device (or get an old app to run on a new device) and i haven't yet gone through Apple's dreaded review process. However, from purely an engineering perspective Cocoa Touch is really incredible and feels even more like Cocoa than Cocoa does. Creating a new platform enabled apple to jettison 20+ years of baggage and the results are downright liberating. Additionally, the constraints of the device give rise to apps that are focused and pure of vision. My own app is very focused and it feels like such a natural fit on the platform.

The second reason is that there is a real opportunity for my app to succeed. I'm entering a crowded market, but none of the apps in this space function in the same way that mine does. I think the part of Manton's post that i disagree with most viscerally is this:

It's also because most of the apps I would write have already been done, and in some cases done very well.

The image editing market was already sewn up by Photoshop when the indie offerings of Acorn and Pixelmator came out. Microsoft Word is the undisputed king of the word processing market, yet smaller more nimble apps such as Scrivener or Mellel continue to thrive and new offerings like Pagehand are still coming out. These apps provide something that their more established brethren do not and that's what users will pay for. This is especially true on the iPhone where (for better or worse) the pricing model makes it easy for users to try multiple apps that accomplish the same thing. Face it, how many Twitter clients have you purchased?

In the end, it comes down to what you can provide that users will want. The iPhone certainly doesn't need me, but that doesn't mean that users won't want my iPhone app.