Version 1.0.7...
We're planning on releasing version 1.0.7 the week of MacWorld (January 9th) -- all current customers will get a friendly little in-app notice that there's a new version ready, which is a prequel to the full-blown automatic-download-and-update mechanism that's included in 1.0.7. Tim here just wrote it, it's pretty darn nice. I mean, I'm a techy guy, but I hate downloading new versions of apps, opening the DMG, figuring out where the old version is, replacing it, unmounting the DMG, throwing it in the trash, and running the new version. I can only imagine how my mom feels about this process. (Answer: she can't do it.)
Well, with the 1.0.7 version (and beyond) you just click a button, and in a few moments you're running the new version. No muss, no fuss, no fishy aftertaste.
1.0.7 will also feature a couple more bugfixes, and one or two kind of neat features, but nothing earth-shattering. We're simultaneously working on 1.1, which is the version that can download from any Amazon store anywhere in the world, and that one is really cool. 1.1 will be a free upgrade, as well any "." release, while 2.0 (and 3.0, and 4.0...) will require $$$.
Hopefully 1.0.7 be up on our website a few days before the 9th, so you can avoid the huge crush of people by downloading early. If so, I'll post a URL here in a week or so.
-Wil
Well, with the 1.0.7 version (and beyond) you just click a button, and in a few moments you're running the new version. No muss, no fuss, no fishy aftertaste.
1.0.7 will also feature a couple more bugfixes, and one or two kind of neat features, but nothing earth-shattering. We're simultaneously working on 1.1, which is the version that can download from any Amazon store anywhere in the world, and that one is really cool. 1.1 will be a free upgrade, as well any "." release, while 2.0 (and 3.0, and 4.0...) will require $$$.
Hopefully 1.0.7 be up on our website a few days before the 9th, so you can avoid the huge crush of people by downloading early. If so, I'll post a URL here in a week or so.
-Wil
posted by Wil Shipley at 5:53 PM
14 Comments:
I hope that the 1.0.7 release will tell me that there is an update and ask me if I want to download the update first rather than downloading it and installing it automatically. I might not have the time to let my Mac download and install the update when I check for it.
Also will there be an upgrade path to versions X.0 when the time comes to go beyond the version 1 release?
Thanks,
Mark
http://www.allwithin.com
Pay for 2.0? Jeez, 1.0 has been so buggy ... 1.1 better be much improved, or no way in hell will I pay for a 2.0.
Hey, Wil and Mike,
Just thought you might like to know. I've had at least five people so far ask me if I've seen this *amazing* library program. Word is actually spreading beyond the Mac community.
I was at a party last night, and I overheard a couple of people talking about your app, and they seemed impressed that I know you. I've actually added you guys to my name-dropping repertoire ;-)
Congrats, and keep up the good work. See you at MacWorld.
-jcr
sorry to ask here...
any chance of support for a logitech quickcam? it appears to work, then crashes the program.
here's hoping for IMDB integration for the movies before version 2.0...
We're certainly planning to fix more bugs in 1.1, but I can't promise that we'll fix every bug that has ever annoyed any user. (I can pretty much promise we won't, actually.)
1.1 is mainly going to be focussed on international support -- that's certainly the single thing we've had the most requests for / negative comments about. (Despite our posting on our website that 1.0 doesn't support international databases, we're still getting slammed on VersionTracker for, uh, not supporting international databases. Other things we don't do in Delicious Library: Look words up in the encyclopedia. Make toast. Wash your sheets.)
I doubt we'll add IMDB support to 1.1. Not because we're stingy, but because we have a fairly full plate of things we're adding and we want to get the release out soon -- overseas customers are champing at the bit (note correct use of cliche -- look it up!). We absolutely DO want to add support for other databases. I know IMDB has a lot more cool information. It also does NOT have a stable, documented interface, so it's a bit scary to add support for it -- if they change their site, we have to rev our app INSTANTLY or we have 8,000 (and counting) angry customers. Amazon (essentially) guarantees that their XML interface will stay the same, so it's a safe foundation upon which to build a business. (If we were freeware, of course, we wouldn't be forced to care about long-term stability -- we could slap on IMDB support and say, "If they change their web pages and it breaks our app... meh! Who cares! You get what you pay for!")
We're excited to start working on 2.0. I know that there will be some customers who are upset at having to pay, again, for software they've paid for once. It is, however, a fact of the software business that we make our money from upgrades. To take an extreme example, how many "new" seats of Office does Microsoft sell a year? Pretty much every man, woman, and child already owns it. They upgrade, they charge, they stay in business. I don't admire them, but I'd be an idiot to not notice the trend.
Now, mind you, I hate to compare DMS to them, because basically they appear to just move some menus around, add some checkmarks to the outside of their boxes, change their numbering scheme (Office v5? Office 2000? Office XP?), and call that an "upgrade". (Whenever I talk about Microsoft's evils to a new victim I always say, "Hey, which new feature of the latest version of Office do you use the most?" Try it, it's funny.)
We, on the other hand, intend to write really cool new features, and completely wow you with them. And, having done so, we're going to ask you to pay if you want to use them in addition to the features you've already paid for.
We're going to try really hard to make sure that 1.1 is a release that all our current customers will be happy with, so that when we release 2.0 nobody says, "Hey, I thought 2.0 was what I thought I was going to get when I bought 1.0, and now I have to pay for what I REALLY wanted!"
But to that note, I'll add two comments: (1) you can't actually buy the software unless you have downloaded it, so it should be possible to get a pretty good idea of what you're paying for up-front, and (2) if you thought you were getting something else when you bought 1.0 and you're not happy with what you did get, please write to delicious@delicious-monster.com and we'll do our best to make you happy.
-Wil
Well,
You will have my money for version 2.0 and beyond.
Looking forward to seeing you guys at macworld!
—Max
There is really only one feature that I think I would consider paying more money for: Rendezvous sharing. Right now, I keep my Library on a computer that's hooked up to my TV via DVI, and use Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, which is great. It's in the same room as most of my books and DVDs, and we can access it at any time. But often I am in my office, or elsewhere in the house, and I want to view the library without resorting to VNC or going to the living room.
And I don't want to have to pay additional license fees for each client, either. That is, as long as I am only using it to view a shared library, and not store a library on its own, there should be no additional fee.
Cheers ...
Wil, I agree that a person should buy software based on what it actually does, not what one would hope it would do. But people's approach to shareware is a bit different from Microsoft-ware. No one's running out to buy Microsoft apps just because they want to support Microsoft as a whole. Microsoft doesn't need the help. On the other hand, some people look at shareware (some at Delicious Library in particular) and say hey, this is cool stuff. It doesn't quite do what I want it to, but I'll register now and help support development; maybe the next feature they add will be the one I'm waiting for.
In that sense, you have people making a pretty direct investment in Delicious Monster. So to release a 1.1 update and then jump for a 2.0 where you can charge $XX more again seems premature. Sure Microsoft makes a lot of money off upgrades, but their installed base is immense. With so many current customers, charging big for upgrades is a necessary course. All due respect, DMS is rather on the far end of the spectrum.
So comparing DMS to Microsoft is certainly ambitious, but the effect is a bit hostile. DMS needs to win long-term customers, convince them that they need an app that isn't essential but is cool and in some ways useful. Customer relations are key, and starting a blog like this is a really good move in that area--gives people even a small sense of what's happening behind the scenes. But make sure customers at least feel like you're working for them, not just looking to squeeze out an extra tenner.
Maybe I've misread, and 2.0 isn't the next upgrade on the map. But if that is the case, you're giving potential customers no reason to buy now unless they're absolutely satisfied with the present feature set. Reading blog posts about DL, reviews like the one at Ars, that's a lot of people who'll be waiting for v2 before they think about buying again, and who knows what will reach the market by then? I'd rather have a sale now than a possible upgrade fee and/or sale in the future. An upgrade path is part of the selling point, too.
I am in love with the current version. My girlfriend keeps saying "that software was made for you, wasn't it?" everytime she sees me clicking around in it ... more.
That said, I can't wait for v.2! I understand the int'l support is important for many, but not me. I'm just dying for the HTML export options promised as a future update... PLEASE include it in v.2, and soon! Delicious Exporter works well enough as a stopgap, but there are a lot of issues with it. I just know you guys can do it the right way! Putting my DVDs online is really important to me... I use this feature very frequently. I wish it were free, of course, but I will gladly upgrade if (and only if) a decent HTML export is included in v.2. The current version is good enough, meanwhile, that I'll stay put until that feature shows up, otherwise. Please, guys... even if you just put back the export you pulled because it wasn't "good enough" and update it later, I'm sure you can do better than Delicious Exporter does, currently! A simple alphabetical listing (with cover art) is not even alphabetical!
Oh, and I echo the request to synch with a Palm... even a simple text list under memos would be a huge help to me when I'm browsing DVDs at Fry's and trying to remember if I ever got around to picking up that great 80's movie that's on sale, which I had been considering picking up for years but never did because it was $20... I appreciate the iPod export, but let's get real... I take my iPod many places, but shopping usually isn't one of them. On the other hand, my Palm is ALWAYS with me, whether we're talking about my current m505 or my planned Treo 650.
I read your post and understand the potential issues with IMDb. But PLEASE. I'm begging. Make it an advanced option, with lots of warnings that the feature could break at anytime and it will take a good amount to time to fix if it does. But PLEASE make it work.
Beyond that, keep up the good work you've shown so far. I love your program, and am glad to hear it has sold well for you!
I'm not sure how long you're planning on before releasing v2 but if it's less than a year, personally, I'm going to be pissed. A year will, in my mind, be acceptable, with updates to update it, and a year from now, a full rewrite, but i just spent $40 on this software like 3 months ago, and there's talk about version 2? no f'n way.
That's a bit crooked to me. I understand you guys would like to make money, but screwing customers isn't the way. Whne i spent the money on this product, i didn't expect version 2 to be out 6 months later, or i would have stuck with my original and just waited for version 2.
Personally, I'm not happy with this business model you seem to be going for.
Reading through all of the comments, it seems to me that it would make a lot of people happy to see some sort of roadmap. The feedback feature inside the app is great, but it would be really nice (and cut down on duplication) if there was a list on the site of features you're seriously developing and an estimate of where in the roadmap they might appear. I realize that this won't make everyone happy ("but MY suggestion is more important/urgent than...!) but it would go a long way toward making most more comfortable with where things are going.
My biggest issue is that there is no easy way to separate things I want from things I have already added to my library. The fact that it's so easy to get stuff out of Amazon and into Library makes it a great tool for managing my wish list (not to be confused with an AMazon Wish List). I'd rather take a list of things I want, to the book store, than things I have. But I'm not a collector, I can see how it would flip as a collection got huge. BUT since the default view is the entire library it would be really great if my wanted list didn't show up along with everything else. It seems like it would be an easy feature to implement (pardon my naivety!) and I may or may not have previously requested it.
Which brings me back to why I want a roadmap! Great app I look forward to seeing what's next. Cheers, Alex
We've still got one more bug-fix and feature release before we go to 2.0. We're tentatively calling it "1.5", but maybe Mike will get a wild hair and decide to call it 1.6.3.4. Who knows?
I think it's a bit of a misnomer to call us a shareware company. I mean, we are small, but, honestly, we don't put out shareware. It's a commercial app. We have a demo mode, and you can check it out, but "shareware" is when you let people use the full functionality of your app and just politely ask for money.
We, in fact, require you to pay to use our app. We even have a really rudimentary, easily-cracked license scheme in there to help remind honest people that we'd like them to pay.
I think it's great that people see potential in this company, and I hope we live up to their faith in us. But, and I have to stress this, I don't believe sales of Delicious Library to exclusively new customers in the Mac market would sustain us for more than a couple years. (Especially now that I've started collecting Faberge eggs.) I believe we need the revenue from upgrades in order to have the money to keep doing upgrades.
If it were a choice between free upgrades and paid upgrades, I can see why people would want free ones. But if the choice is between no upgrades (or company, for that matter) or paid upgrades, hopefully our customers will agree with us that the latter is more fun.
From nine to fifteen months is considered the "optimal" time between upgrades, according to what I've gleaned from the industry experts. 2.0 is going to run on Tiger, and nobody is quite sure when that's coming out, but we'd honestly like to be out the day Tiger ships, so we can co-market with Apple.
For a second, it seemed strange to me that one poster actually said he'd be angry if we come out with a paid upgrade in six months. I would have thought you'd be ecstatic that we're working so hard on a product you bought... I mean, we _could_ take some time off, travel to Italy, and THEN start work on 2.0.
But now I think what you're trying to get at is, you don't want us to add a single feature and then charge you, and then add another and charge you, and so on. You'd feel ripped, and you've invested your money and time and energy into this product, and you don't want to have to switch. And you'd be disappointed that a company you felt good about is gouging you.
Well, we're not planning on gouging you. We're going to release "1.5", and it should be a pretty darn nice release with good international support and some more bug fixes and support for Amazon XML 4.0 and page counts and some new features thrown in to make it more fun. It'll be the fourth free release we've put out, and the international support and XML 4.0 are both pretty major features.
Then we're going to work on 2.0, and we hope to add some stuff that will totally amaze you. We're planning on making it so darn amazing that you're happy to give us money for the new features. You'll say, "Darn, they really went to town on this, I'd feel bad taking this for free." If we fail to do this, we've failed as a company.
I think it would be wonderful if there were a free version of Delicious Library, possibly with some of the options/features disabled. I really need something like this just for at home catalogue needs but there is no freeware app that even comes close.
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