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Product Version Numbers
The normal scheme of version numbering for products seems to work for most developers. Going from 1.x.x to 1.x.x+1 is a minor bug fix; going from 1.x.x to 1.x+1.x is maybe a few new features and bug fixes. In some cases, developers only charge for 1.x.x to 2.x.x updates which makes a lot of sense to me to differentiate the products. That's how I like to do things. Today I downloaded a new version of a freeware product I was using (I was using version 1.1.2) and when I downloaded the 1.2 version, was extremely surprised to find that it was now shareware ($34). While the developers said that they would be charging in the future, a minor version number update caught me off guard. Furthermore, they didn't provide release notes on what changed, but instead on first launch, I got an alert to buy it. I poked around for a few minutes and then reverted to the freeware version. I'm not opposed to developers making money, but they should have called it 2.0 and added some additional value to it (or charged money from the beginning). I'm a bit disappointed in this, but on the flip side, it reinforces my desire to write a new application based on ReceiptWallet.
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First impressions of the Garmin Training Center for the Mac
Last January, Garmin announced that they'd have a Training Center version for the Mac. That was one of the reasons I bought my Forerunner 305. Last week, they delivered (a little late). I saw a few screenshots before Macworld on the Garmin blog and posted a comment that it looked very un-Mac like just from the 3 screenshots I saw; Garmin didn't approve my comment. I guess the truth hurts.
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My take on Macworld
Now that Macworld is over and everyone and his dog has blogged about the good, the bad, and the ugly, I've decided to post my reactions. I had a chance to watch the keynote yesterday (no time last week as I was working a booth) and the one thing that came to my mind was iSnooze. So Apple announced AppleTV and the iPhone. I have no interest in the AppleTV as we don't watch many movies and any TV shows we watch, we just record on our TiVo. If I want to show pictures on my TV, I just turn on the TiVo desktop software and presto, I have it; I don't want to stream music to my TV as I just use my Squeezebox. So, the AppleTV buys me nothing (at least nothing I can see right now).
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One of the worst products of the decade?
The other day, my wife and I were watching CNET's video blog on TiVo and they had the top 5 worst products of the last decade. Number 4 on the list was PocketMail. This really pains me; PocketMail is/was a device/service that allowed you to send and receive email by putting the device up to a phone and dialing a toll free number. This worked quite well before wireless data was relatively inexpensive and ubiquitous. It also appeals to RV owners who drive around the country and may not have access to good cell phone coverage and want to keep in touch. So, I really believed in the product, but what really hurts is that I worked on the Backflip with was the PocketMail device that clipped onto a Palm OS device. So, I was involved in what CNET considers one of the worst products in the last decade. How does that make me feel?