Messages

1151

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« on: October 05, 2010, 12:10 AM »

To do anything truly productive I want desktop apps - for me the way to go, out and about, is a netbook with a proper OS and applications and VPN to my desktop (just got a Samsung NS210 and it is really nice to use - esp. as i added extra memory, Win 7 Professional and Office 2010 Pro Plus).

IMHO smartphone apps are only really suitable for picking up mail and making a quick response if you have to - and other apps are useful for opening the odd document but who would really want to use a Blackberry or iPhone as a wordprocessor?

-Carol Haynes (October 03, 2010, 09:57 AM)

Indeed.
But this is very much from a work related POV, and I don't think that is the point of apps, iPhone or Android. Not that they're necessarily worse at it than WM, Blackberry et al.
And I've never found any computer (laptop or netbook) that useful for being out of the office - startup/close times are just too slow; not a problem for those who want to use them for less frequent and longer periods. And smartphones are perfectly OK for email.

1152

Living Room / Re: Best Free and Pay FTP Client

« on: October 04, 2010, 12:19 PM »

winscp can do it too

1153

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« on: October 04, 2010, 03:31 AM »

I only changed once I got into the iOS- first through the iPod, then I was able to use what I had already bought on my iPhone... and all of that works on the iPad, with no more buy in.  That's a major incentive, and it's all around all of them using the same OS... not the apps themselves.

-wraith808 (October 03, 2010, 10:30 AM)

I don't see it being about the OS - it's really about Apple. Everything they do is aimed at deepening their monopoly with current customers and then extending it to others. And everything you do is, of course, collected on their central database.

1154

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« on: October 03, 2010, 10:02 AM »

I disagree.  Once you've bought apps, if they won't work on an OS, then you'll pretty much stick to it unless something catastrophic happens.  So the OS locks you in.  That's one of the reasons it took me forever to get an iPhone- I had too many apps on windows mobile (or whatever it was then).

-wraith808 (October 03, 2010, 08:31 AM)

But it didn't stop you, did it? And just look at how much the market shares have changed in just a few years. How many WM users are sticking with WM? And WM7 won't be compatible with WM6 anyway.

I miss Agenda Fusion /Pocket Informant and ListPro. But there should be an android version of Pocket Informant very soon. I will otherwise just use apps that do what I want.

Next time, I will look at everything available (except iPhone - I won't buy any Apple product because they are so monopolistic) and make my decision at the time. I expect my next phone to work differently anyway, so a new OS won't be an issue. The change this time has been a delight.

Maybe switching from an iPhone would be harder. Apple control a lot of the data and datalinks as well as the OS and hardware so it might be harder to break free. I don't know; I can't see any such problem with Android.

1155

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« on: October 03, 2010, 04:15 AM »

Keep your eye on Samsung's new bada devices.

-Renegade (October 03, 2010, 12:38 AM)

I considered the Galaxy S, and the included Swype was tempting (a little), but the overall UI was so much behind HTC Sense that I just went with the Desire. So I'll be watching it with interest, but without confidence that it will be the next big smartphone OS. MS, Blackberry & Nokia are busy trying to develop their new OSs too. I can't see them all succeeding.

Of course, the thing about smartphones in that the OS is not where the action is: users will switch from one to another without a second thought. It's all about the hardware and the apps.

1156

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« on: October 02, 2010, 11:48 PM »

Desktop applications and the people who actually prefer them are fast becoming the minority.  we're seeing more and more people turn to their phones to do their computing needs.

I find my Blackberry Curve almost useless for anything but reading a few blogs formatted especially for mobile phones, and for basic communication.  I much prefer a desktop.

-kyrathaba (October 02, 2010, 06:26 PM)

That might be because it's a Blackberry Curve.
AFAICS, it is only the iPhone and Android that are really easy & useful for doing lots of things. Blackberry is still too email & business orientated for that and the Curve's screen is too small.

1157

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« on: October 02, 2010, 11:44 PM »

My phone has replaced my:
- Personal library, as books in death tree format takes space and weight a ton.
- etc etc etc

-rxantos (September 30, 2010, 09:19 PM)

This is becoming true for me too. I'm surprised by how well it works as an ebook reader, mp3 player etc etc etc.

I've had smartphones/PDAs for a long time. Palm, then WM. Useful and gradually getting more functionality. But never doing anything like so much, nor so easily, as my new Android. And the ease of getting apps that work is part of what makes it easy. (Not that I have many of them added to those it came with.) IThe cellphone aspect was never enough for me to keep them with me all the time before, but now I do and I make sure it won't run out of charge.

1158

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sagelight Image Editor - pay what you want promo (Apil 2010)

« on: October 02, 2010, 02:40 AM »

For 2 different modes, you could also consider Auto Vs Manual (photogs, at least, have a clear idea of this difference).

I would also suggest that, if you want to aim at two different demographics, you do have two somewhat different programs. Extra features will be needed in the complex one (eg emphasis on raw), but possibly also the UI, given the different levels of expertise and interest and features wanted. This is one area that I think Adobe do quite well with PS & PSE (and even + LR as a different prog that uses some of the same technology). It means that each target gets the product they need focused on their needs without one of them being an afterthought.

1159

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sagelight Image Editor - pay what you want promo (Apil 2010)

« on: September 27, 2010, 08:09 PM »

Working out the correct pricing strategy for a product is extremely complex with many factors involved. My example above was just to illustrate that, at this stage in Sagelight development, the optimal strategy will be the one which maximises the sales and reputation. Being seen as cheap does not work because people will just think the product has little value; a higher price means that some people may evaluate and choose it. One off sales may or may not work, depending (for your long-term purpose) on whether those sales are to your target demographic.

My perception of your real target demographic (from Sagelight's features, the forum and most of the blog) is that it is to technically competent people with a real interest in photography and who spend a reasonable amount of time and money on it (there aren't too many other people that interested in RAW yet). This group is quite demanding and will tend to ignore products that seem too cheap or too simplistic. It seems to me that you have a wish to aim at a group with less interest and expertise (and possibly less money) who currently don't use this sort of product. It will not be easy to target both groups at the same time; my suggestion would be to plan 2 versions - one for DSLR & the other for P&S. They would have different pricing and marketing strategies. The top edition would be the one that needs the status as a top product. In some ways it is the way that the camera companies build their brands.

So what should the price be? Well, one way to start is to think what it would sell for if it were fully developed in features and marketing reputation. I assume many fewer features than PS (currently there's very little of the creative/drawing/compositional features: SE is very much a photographers' tool) - which reduces price - but is a very specialist tool - which conversely increases price (basically because the potential number of sales will be much smaller). Ultimately, probably higher than PSE and a lot lower than PS and probably quite a bit lower than LR. Of course, SE is not fully developed in either area atm, so appropriate pricing now may be, say, half of PSE, remembering that PSE requires an expensive pay for upgrade annually. Then you need to look at other competitors to SE and decide whether that puts SE out of line with them. Given this price, you should be able to work out a range which keeps it in this value bracket but gives you a top end price and a low end price.

Given that you want to drive numbers, I would suggest that SE's price spends much (not necessarily most) of the time at the low end of that range. One-off sales and offers can be at dramatically reduced prices - but these would need to be very rare or the whole pricing structure and reputation would be undermined; they should also be very focused on your target demographic (quite a few ways of doing this that don't look like sales such as offering signed-up beta testers a very substantial discount). The absolute target for now should be increasing reputation and sales to people who will contribute to the buzz around the product rather than the short-term absolute amount of $. Unfortunately, that will require an active forum & blog & relevant contributions on photog sites (at least until there are enough users doing that).

1160

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sagelight Image Editor - pay what you want promo (Apil 2010)

« on: September 24, 2010, 05:51 AM »

But as a software user, I know from experience that when the stream of NEW customers gets smaller/small, the author will lose the incitement to develop, without being paid

-Curt (September 24, 2010, 05:16 AM)

Of course, there are some very well maintained programs that have been developed continually over many years as freeware.

But where an income is needed I agree. Lifetime licenses can be good, when it is helping to build the user base and the overall numbers are increasing - but not viable if sales peak and then decline. Of course, some progs have a steady supply of new users and lifetime can work fine forever. Lifetime as an extra cost option can also work; it's what I would suggest at the point there is a move from a lifetime to a major version upgrade system.

1161

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sagelight Image Editor - pay what you want promo (Apil 2010)

« on: September 24, 2010, 04:38 AM »

On www.sagelighteditor.com (on the main page and the purchase page), it should say that there is a current promotion for a lifetime version.  I want to do it permanently, but I am not sure if I'll be able to do that.  I am at least doing it until version 4.0 is out.  I'm just really looking for ways to keep the software cheaper but not devalue it at the same time.  I'm not really a good salesman because I'd rather be developing.  Everyone tells me I should charge more, but I'd give it away for free if I could.

-Rob Nelson (September 24, 2010, 02:58 AM)

I'm pretty certain that charging more (now) is not the best way to maximise your income from the program. Lifetime for now may be good. Offers are probably also good. You need high numbers of evangelistic users generating publicity for you all over the net. Your blog is very good. Wasn't so good that your recent public downtime immediately followed what appears to have been a very successful (in terms of publicity & numbers) offer. I agree with all CWuestefeld's comments. Longer-term users are likely to be quite happy with paying for upgrades so long as the upgrade discount is significant and there is a substantial advance in features/usability. A number of developers have moved from lifetime to paying for major version upgrades and this has usually been with no problems if the original lifetime terms are preserved for those who bought them. I think it might be worth your while looking at the idimager model of gradually increasing prices as the program's traction in the community and numbers of features has grown; and all on the back of very supportive forums and support.

For most end-user software, it really is a numbers game. Ten users at $10 are worth more than one user at $100, especially if they think that the proper price of the software is $50: more sales of upgrades, more recommendations to other people, more life in the forum, more overall publicity. Of course, this only works if they are happy users; if your users are going to be unhappy then you are much better off getting the biggest price up front and the least feedback on the net - but all your users seem very happy  .

1162

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sagelight Image Editor - pay what you want promo (Apil 2010)

« on: September 24, 2010, 04:20 AM »

is there any sort of upgrade discount available if I'm upgrading from the gizmo edition?

I've been a little conflicted about that.  I mean, I'm not trying to just get more money wherever I can.  But, some people paid $1 and others paid $25+ for it during the sale (though, I do have to say I thought, on average, people were very nice).  So, it doesn't seem right to just upgrade everyone automatically.    What I'm thinking is that since the Pay What You Want was a promotional thing, that if anyone who has that version just wants to pay the difference between the current price and their purchase price, then I would go ahead and upgrade it ito a lifetime license.   Does that seem fair?

-Rob Nelson (September 24, 2010, 02:58 AM)

I think that is entirely fair.
I paid a relatively small sum (can't remember what it was) as a way of having an extended trial. I have 'played around' with using it on a number of photos to see what it can do, but don't make extensive use of it (atm) - I do have lots of other editors I am used to using. (I'm afraid that with me, it often takes a year or two before I am able to decide whether I will use a program extensively (usually with very intermittent use over that year) and so any opportunity I get to have a cheap extended trial is taken if I am at all interested in the program type). I did intend to purchase v4 when it came out (though I do remember seeing somewhere that upgrade to v4 was included with the Gizmo sale), partly because I wanted to support you/your blog/sagelight development and partly because I thought I might make extensive use of it; given the indications of v4 being quite different to v3, I didn't want to get too hooked on the v3 system when v4 was imminent.

1163

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« on: September 05, 2010, 06:23 PM »

we passed by the Apple department in Best Buy and my wife told me I should go ahead and get it.  Then proceeded to take the nook to put it back on the shelf.

-wraith808 (September 05, 2010, 03:54 PM)

... so that's the secret of Apple

1164

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 Advanced at GAOTD (Aug 26, 2010)

« on: August 30, 2010, 06:27 AM »

Thanks for that. Just missed it at GOTD. Have 9 on other computer & use it regularly (feel no need to upgrade that); nothing much on this one, so this is good.

1165

Living Room / Re: How to manage large clipart collections?

« on: August 16, 2010, 01:14 PM »

Extensis Portfolio is worth every penny of its $99.95 price tag (single user edition).

-app103 (August 16, 2010, 12:20 AM)

I make it $199.95 for the full version with the $99.95 being for the upgrade. And prices twice as high in the UK (and nearly that in Euroland). Decent product, but definitely at the pricey end.

1166

Circle Dock / Re: cranioscopical: "Markham what we could do to further the project."

« on: August 06, 2010, 08:52 AM »

The first point I would make is that developing a successful business strategy requires vision, and a lot of time and consideration (often, but not always accompanied by market research) or a great deal of luck. It's not something to be rushed at.

Secondly, AFAICS, most small software vendors have nothing that remotely resembles a strategy that will  even break even on costs (if their own time is given a reasonable value) and nor do they have strategies that are likely to maximise their income. So I wouldn't just jump to a sale and pricing scheme you see used elsewhere.

The next point is that open source or free can be a route to making more money than selling software. Look carefully at the business models of RedHat and Canonical. In some ways Evernote is even more interesting - but I may come on to that another time. Genuinely working with OpenSource gives them the support of the OS community and software and being OS and free gives their products a lot of publicity, buzz and users (with associated bug finding - and bugs are an important issue for business sales). They then leverage that into addons/products that they sell. The first proposal seems to come closest to this, but with the addition of a few artificial limitations typical of many small software vendors. But to make this work you actually need to have a clearly defined addon/product that you will sell to a carefully defined market. I can see the possibility of a CD for businesses, but it would need careful consideration, individual tweaking and high quality sales/marketing/manuals and support to work. [I don't mind discussing details off forum; I'd suggest not discussing anything in public that might help competitors]

The open/closed source issue is an interesting one that I'm not going to address. But I would suggest that you look at how many downloads you have against how many sales or downloads the copycats/pinchers are making. And then, if you have even more publicity & buzz and are free, what scope is there really for them?

Selling CD to all users, however low the price, is fraught with difficulty. Your user base is used to free. And from what I've seen of the posts/questions likely only to use free in the vast majority of cases. The competition is mostly free. My guess would be that your first year would be your biggest as you convert some users into customers; declining after that because your free publicity and mouth-to-mouth recommendations would be gone.

One problem you have is time. Current situation is unsustainable. Changing it will require some initial funding at least. With that number of users, torrents are feasible, and all the solutions mentioned above and elsewhere are worth looking that. Distributing downloads would reduce costs, but long-term you want people visiting your site, so I'd personally only go for solutions that required that. I would strongly suggest having advertising on the site (and managing it carefully as a source of income and also making sure that your image is protected - not something that many sites do well); not something you are able to do whilst on the DC server, I assume. Looking at the numbers, this might be more than sufficient on its own to pay your costs; but you would want to maximise the number of pageclicks agains the MBs of downloads. Your server usage is your big variable cost atm (the other being time spent on support); your fixed costs are the coding time. Ideally you want your variable income to vary in line with (but be higher than) your variable costs; advertising can be a very good way of achieving this. Ideally, you would also have your fixed costs at the lowest possible proportion of total costs (assuming variable income to exceed variable costs) as that gives you personally the biggest return on your efforts. If you get seriously into sales/marketing etc, then you should be able to make these variable too.

1167

General Software Discussion / Re: Whoa, this gal hates MS Office 2010 -- 5 Reasons Why You Don't Need It

« on: July 23, 2010, 01:23 PM »

These points are pretty vacuous. 3/5 about price, 1 about the ribbon (which has been contentious for 3 years now) and 1 about a minor feature. Since most people can get hold of a very cheap version, the upgrade price issue ultimately matters to few. And it seems to me that the version of the ribbon in 2010 is very much better than that in 2007. I certainly find 2010 a compelling upgrade from 2003 & 2007 whereas I saw few advantages in 2007 to compensate for learning the new interface.

All versions are much better than OO. Softmaker Office has some advantages for those who like the old menu system but doesn't have equivalents for all the members of the suite.

1168

Living Room / Re: warmouse

« on: June 30, 2010, 01:34 PM »

The whole thing looks pretty shambolic to me. References on the warmouse.com site are to sales in a number of regions (including UK), but the price on the site is only in dollars and a US state is a required part of the address.

warmouse.co.uk does exist (with a ukstore directory), but hasn't been updated since 25th June and not showing anything on the net. I haven't checked to see if it is the same business, but I assume it would be.

As a mouse biased person, I would be interested in this (though worried about quality and ergonomics) - but the organisation of everything doesn't give you confidence in them or their product.

1169

General Software Discussion / Re: If you think OpenOffice is a competitor to MS Office 2010, think again

« on: June 16, 2010, 01:37 PM »

I find 2010 much better than 2007 & 2003. Used to have both of them installed - now just 2010. Mostly just easier to work with.

Haven't really seen OO as a competitor for some time. I'm not sure what its changes actually do, but they don't seem to make it better to me. Textmaker & friends seem a better, different alternative.

That said, for my producing my own stuff, I always use other programs and not office suites.

1170

Living Room / Re: Microsoft lashes out at Googler for making Windows vulnerability public

« on: June 12, 2010, 03:40 AM »

(Though I'm honestly not so hard on Microsoft ("karma"). I've seen enough of the good that they do and never get credited for. The ONLY press that Microsoft gets is bad press. If Microsoft cured cancer, the press would scream that they didn't cure lukemia. Microsoft simply cannot win. Ever.)

-Renegade (June 12, 2010, 12:01 AM)

Hmmm.
MS are still sneaking unwanted stuff onto computers with their security patches, see theReg (orig from ArsTechnica). They even grey out the ability to uninstall.

1171

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: TeraCopy Pro for $9.00 (only for another 9 hours or so though)

« on: June 09, 2010, 02:59 AM »

Regarding the price, it seems the author is reducing the price as the last half price sale had it going for $11 with the normal non-discount price being $22.

-Innuendo (June 08, 2010, 09:16 PM)

I think it's just the Euro/Dollar conversion rate that changed.

1172

Living Room / Re: Approaches to computer builds

« on: June 05, 2010, 05:32 AM »

I feel like if you're going to be cheap, you're better off buying two computers or more.

-Paul Keith (June 05, 2010, 12:53 AM)

I would note that my approach, while being cheapskate, is not actually cheap.

Probably  the cheapest way of buying is to buy complete cheap/moderate systems when there is a good deal going. I was looking to build a cheap/moderate system a few months ago, then saw a review of one in a magazine. Company I hadn't seen before, but quite a bit cheaper than I could buy the components for and they were all decent components. Bought it instead of building; works perfectly well. Looked at the same company for my current build - but price for that sort of system seems about 2-3 times as high as I can do it building it myself.

1173

Living Room / Re: Approaches to computer builds

« on: June 05, 2010, 05:19 AM »

Sorry if I missed your question. I couldn't narrow it down and I interpreted that you want a perspective of how different people approach their computer building.

-Paul Keith (June 05, 2010, 12:53 AM)

Sorry, there wasn't really a question as such. Just got fascinated by how many different approaches there are to computer builds when reading the Superboyac thread. My needs & his, very similar; approaches to the build, quite different. And in the thread, lots of different approaches implicit in the recommendations.

Most discussions tend to be structured around components/recommendations or usage, but it seems to me that even if everyone shares exactly the same knowledge and usage, we'd do it differently. And probably even if we are going to end up with exactly the same components and computer, we'd get there different ways. I found the different ways of thinking more interesting than the actual recommendations. I possibly should have just posted at the end of the thread - but felt that would be diverting an old thread that wasn't mine.

But yes, I would be interested in anyone's perspective on doing this.

1174

Living Room / Approaches to computer builds

« on: June 04, 2010, 09:10 PM »

Having reached the point where I feel I need to build/rebuild a computer for my own use, I reread Superboyac's thread for any ideas & info I might pinch and it struck me how many different approaches there are to the task. My needs/situation are very similar to his, though I do a fair bit of image stuff. Neither of us need gaming rigs and neither of us change computers often. In recent years, my approach has mostly been to go cheap on the basis that I don't need to pay more in most areas and I will only pay more for things I think I specifically need.

This time I mostly need more speed. I nearly always have lots of apps open and my current computer (only bought as an emergency stopgap 4 years ago, when I didn't have time to fix what was my primary computer - still haven't found time to do it) is getting bogged down. Partly that's because it needs stripping back down & having everything reinstalled (well, on the things I  am still using); I always used to reinstall Windows every 3 years or so anyway, though I've not found it so necessary recently. So that means lots more RAM (the current 2GB tends to be 90%+ used most of the time + the same amount of paging). I have a naive belief that this sort of usage will benefit from as many cores as I can get (not that I'm clear that there is really much evidence for that; and it might well be the number of threads that matters more - and Intel beats AMD clearly there). Image processing benefits from multicores & lots of RAM anyway, especially with increasing file sizes. And moving stuff around will benefit from usb3 & sata3.

So that leads me to AMD (cheap & good for IG) new chipset mobo & the slow 6 core CPU (I'll take my chance that a fast 4 core would have been more productive for me). 8GB RAM (in 4GB sticks so I can double up later if I need). I can always add a graphics card later if needed. I'll try the integrated sound - and if I don't like it, I can go back to my old relatively high end sound card; will be nice to get my speakers working again.

I'll probably put them into a very old full tower I have (I can always change it later if I don't like it). I'll start by using HDDs, DVDs & floppy drives I already have (I know there's no need to use floppies, but it is nice to be able to read floppies I might come across). I'll also test the system with a PSU I already have before doing anything else; though I know I will get a new one when I make my mind up which to get. I will also need a new HDD for the OS drive to get the best startup speed; don't like raptors, so am thinking of trying a SSD - but might wait to see what the price of one with sata3 is. I'll keep my monitors, input devices etc. Will install W7 (bought my copy last year & haven't touched it yet).

So, a very cheapskate & piecemeal approach. Reluctantly buying some of the latest stuff because I believe (probably mistakenly) that I'll get a productivity gain with the new features. The full build will probably spread over a few months & I'll keep it to Linux until I've got it all together. And then I'll add the software (gradually), keeping both computers in use, and then really cut back on the progs on my current computer and/or reformat it and start installing from scratch there too. As I've found in the past, having a spare available can be critical if you have work/deadlines that must be done/met.

1175

General Software Discussion / Re: PikyBasket replaced by Copywhiz

« on: June 03, 2010, 11:18 AM »

We really wanted to be frank in conveying why we made the changes to PikySuite.

We have had 4 products till now (Notezilla, RecentX, PikySuite & QNP). We are completely enthusiastic about Notezilla, RecentX & QNP. We enjoy selling them because of their quality, idea & design.  Somehow we were not satisfied when selling PikySuite to our customers. We wanted to deliver the best to our customers.

-conceptworld (June 02, 2010, 11:43 PM)

Being open is good.
Wanting to deliver the best to your customers is good.
Realising that one of your products is not good enough is OK - and certainly better than ignoring reality.

But charging customers who had bought the deficient product an upgrade price for a move to a revised, presumably better, product is much less fine - especially when the upgrade price is a fairly standard one (50% off). For products I like, I personally virtually always upgrade when the upgrade price is 75% off and never upgrade when it is less than 34% off; I think about it carefully when it is in the middle as your 50% is. Given that upgrading customers have been making do with (or probably not using) a product you consider deficient, it would have come across much better if you had offered them a free upgrade.