Time flies...

Wow, nearly a year has gone by since I last posted here. That's a bit too long!

It's been a rather momentous 10 months overall. Lot's going on at the day job, at home, travel, buying an iPad app and now watching the shifting role of Steve Jobs.

So, buying an iPad app. I don't mean that in the sense that I just added another to my ever growing collection of apps that I need to organize on the iPad in addition to the hundreds on my iPhone.

My partner, Dan, and I bought... the entire app... and are now selling it in the App Store. If you get a moment go check out Agendas. Our up-and-coming business app that is very sleek, straightforward and just poised for us to add some great features to push it forward in the business space.

I've got outlines sitting waiting to go onto Macappgem.com as well. And I'm still blogging a few other places as time and inclination permits. That is, when I'm not mowing the lawn or trying to get the rest of the frame siding painted these days.

Oh, right, Steve Jobs. There was a bit of news about him recently. The wild speculation from both the doomsayers and the intense Kool-Aid drinkers just has me shaking my head and waiting for the furor to die down. :P

Do people really think he doesn't remember AT ALL what happened when he left Apple all those years ago? Do people really think that no-one else on the planet has any vision for cool and innovative?

I agree with many — yes Jobs absolutely is a visionary and an amazing CEO and took Apple to insane heights. He's not the only person on this planet who is capable of things like that.

I've been using Macs since 1985, I'm a shareholder and now I'm an Apple Developer as well. I've enjoyed a fair amount of that Kool-Aid myself. But I have no fear that the company whose computing products and software I prefer is going to be doing anything but keeping it's customers happy and ensconced in intuitive software and sleek wonderful engineering for years to come.

Texting... Really? Stop Already! - Update

So, I contacted ShopKick via their feedback and they do have a workaround for those who choose not to text. However, the drawback is, it appears you need to contact them via their feedback to know this (or maybe it's on their web site?).

Communication with your target consumer is a good thing. Give me pop-ups and info about things so I'm not ranting about your app to the whole world when I'm frustrated and annoyed using it.

I also learned via their feedback that the bonus points for walking into a given store are only good in a few markets right now. But I only learned that after I was frustratingly clicking away on those bonuses I thought I should have been getting at stores I went to specifically to test it out.

I do see that the markets are defined in the About section now. More in-your-face when you are clicking madly would be good though. It will also cut down on some of the repetitive "Hey, this didn't work right" emails to feedback. ;)

If I have an iPhone in my hand, assume I want nearly 100% of my information about your app... in my hand. Don't assume that I'm going to go to your web pages, your blog and read little details like... it doesn't work where I am right now. Oh, a lot of us won't read the About either most likely.

I do give them kudos for quick and informative responses when you do send questions or suggestions though. Bravo.

Tired of the standard bundle? How about Build Your Own?

I mentioned TheMacBundles in a previous post, but only gave the link to their main page.

Here's a bit more info if you are tired of all the bundles that shove together a bunch of stuff you'll never make use of. The build your own bundle (BYOB) might get you a reasonable discount on a group of apps you really could use. Their preset bundle is done for September but you can still choose your own.

They give you the option to pick 5 or pick 10 apps to bundle at a discount.

Pick from:

A-Dock X
CallitADay
Compress Files
Divvy
Duplicate Annihilator
File Juicer
maComfort
MoofMenu
MyTunesRSS
OmniGrowl
Print It!
Prospects
Slink
Super Flexible File Synchronizer Pro
WhatSize

Texting... Really? Stop Already!

Okay, I get it. SMS is a big thing. It's probably a great money maker for the cell companies too. But, I don't use it. I don't have it on my plan. I have it turned off for everything but the free messages from my carrier. You may well ask... WHY? Everyone uses SMS, partakes of texting.

Because I have...

• Email
• Games that have chat
• Apps that specifically do chat
• Twitter

...to list a few.

Why the heck would I pay more than my data plan when I have all these other methods of communication?

Now the frustration kicks in a bit when apps I used on my iPhone want to text me instead of using any of the various other methods of communication already available via my device and data plan.

Having it as an option for those who don't have the devices with more capabilities is just fine, but making it the ONLY option? Hey, devs, consider what you are programming for and take advantage of the capabilities of the device. Don't just cater to the lowest common denominator... PLEASE?

(I might just be referring to ShopKick and Starbucks here) ;)

The bundles keep going...

There's another that was brought to my attention... MonthBundle. The September bundle is, no surprise, available through September 30th.

There are a couple in there I don't actually have. But for the bundle price I'm not sure it's worth it if you only want one of the apps. If 3 or more appeal to you it might be worth checking this one out.

About those shoes...

A few months ago I got back into wearing heels... in a rather big way. I had been primarily wearing Crocs and Teva sandals. I still do wear both of those, but I'm increasingly wearing heels to work every day.

It started innocently enough. I'd lost some weight, started clearing out the wardrobe and decided to give skirts a try again but I had exactly one pair of shoes that might work. I still have them, they fit fine. They are a black velvet, low heel Mary Jane style. What you might see on a low-key ballroom dancer.

So, when I was out shopping for something entirely different — tools — I wandered into the shoe department and found low heel snakeskin pumps, on sale of course. They were a bit pointier than the velvet Mary Janes, but still a low heel and very inexpensive. I wore them quite a lot for a bit.

Little-by-little, I ended up in front of sale racks of shoes, matching a new wardrobe as inexpensively as I could manage. The height of the heel kept increasing too. Then... I found I needed a shoe rack (well, 2 really but I haven't found a place to actually put a second rack yet).

So, after an amusing conversation with a very dear friend — who hasn't learned yet not to joke about these things with me (you know who you are and I hope you never stop joking, btw!) — we determined I have a bit to say about shoes... and it's not terribly Mac related. So I've started theshoegeek.com. ;)