Sprouted ~ Software that grows with you...

A *huge* week! Found out this morning that I landed a sweet apartment in San Francisco. Woo hoo!

It really couldn’t be better. The location is incredible, near China Town in the North Beach area. Very central but without the highrises and the madness of absolute inner city. There’s a small park nearby, cafes all around, and you can see the bay and Alcatraz from the kitchen. Absolutely beautiful!

The apartment itself is great: spacious, large, big living room and kitchen area, tall ceilings, places for the bikes. Really just perfect. And if you can believe it, my flatmates are German natives. I’ll be able to continue practicing my German! Could it possible get any better? Yes! All for a really good price, utilities included and importantly wireless access.

Ideal!

Tons more going on this week and I’ve been wanting to write about it but I’ve just been too busy. I’ve done a lot of journaling though, so I’ll be putting together some blog posts as things calm down a bit. Man, Journler is the perfect tool for this kind of stuff.

MacWorld has just posted its review of Journler. The verdict? Four and a half mice! How cool is that? Jason Cranford Teague writes…

Journler 2.5.2, by Philip Dow, may change the way you use your computer to write… Journler allows you to link all of the resources you need for writing—photos, Web links, e-mails, video, audio, other text documents, and even people—and lets you organize them around your written entries, which Journler then indexes for quick and easy searching… Journler 2.5.2 turns the basic word processor into a tool you can use to connect and organize your thoughts and ideas. Whether you need a tool to keep a daily blog, record project notes, or write a novel, if you own a Mac and use it to write, you should try Journler.

So if you haven’t done so already, be sure to give Journler a whirl. One bit of errata. Journler is not actually free for personal use as is stated in the article. I explicity request a donation. If you use and enjoy Journler for personal use please consider making that donation. It is how I make my living.

The Keynote is a few hours past and my first impression is not a good one. “Weird” as one developer friend put it. “WTF are the secret features?” asked another. The Keynote felt like it was missing something. Simply put there was nothing spectacular. No hardware announcements, features mostly covered last year, very little for the developers in the crowd, and no iPhone SDK but rather a “compromise” billed as a great idea. You know it’s a bummer when the WWDC headlines run “Apple launches Windows browser” (BBC) and “Apple: Safari available to Windows users” (CNN). Is a Windows product the most exciting thing to come out of it?

The bulk of the keynote focused on Leopard, but Jobs announced very little that the Mac community didn’t already know about. New desktop? Hardly. Some changes and a few features. Improved Finder? Granted there are some neat additions here, Cover Flow for your files, Quick look and better network connectivity with other Macs, but basically it’s the same old Finder, not an “all-new” one advertised at the new Apple website.

Kudos to the subtle design changes though. The Finder *does* look better. Love the unified window look. Folder icons have been redesigned as well as icons for common file types. The side bar looks great and seems a bit more functional, with quick access to smart folders, network devices, shared computers and so on.

The most surprising announcement was Safari for Windows. I get the feeling this is part of a long term plan that isn’t immediately apparent. I’m really curious what’s happening behind the scenes for this to work. Did Apple port WebKit to Windows? If so, they may have needed to re-code a decent bit of Cocoa as well. Is Cocoa for Windows a long term goal?

Surely all of this is related to the iPhone announcement. Developers have been waiting for an iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) since the device was first mentioned. Such a kit would allow programmers to write their own applications for the phone. In a post back in April I mentioned the lack of this possibility as a reason for my displeasure with the device.

Instead of announcing an SDK Jobs announced that developers would be able to write AJAX Web 2.0 applications that could be run directly in Safari on the iPhone. This was even billed as an advantage — developers wouldn’t need an SDK, how great is that? But the phone has a standards compliant browser. Of course it can run web apps based on dhtml, css and javascript. Nothing new here.

Seen in this light Safari on Windows makes sense. It looks like Apple is moving to position itself as an internet leader, in terms of content distribution as well as consumption. With a Safari offering on Windows, web developers will be more inclined to create sites that display correctly and work completely in WebKit, Apple’s html rendering technology. This guarantees an easy transition to an iPhone targeted app. If it works in Safari, it’ll work on your iPhone.

Although there’s some neat stuff going on, and I’ll be writing about it later, all in all it was a keynote that didn’t leave me very excited. From my conversations with other developers it seems I’m not the only one feeling this way.

So I’ve arrived in San Francisco and am getting ready for WWDC. Headed over to Moscone West tomorrow morning to register for the conference and grab the latest Leopard beta. Leopard? Did he say Leopard? Oh yeah, you know you’re jealous.

I’ve already met other conference attendees although I’ve only been here a day. I ran into a certain Ben at the airport after he got off the same flight as me, and I’ve run into a few at the hostel where I’m staying. A couple even know who I am thanks to Journler. Along those lines I’m really hoping to make connections this year so will definitely be proactive about meeting and talking with other developers.

With that goal in mind I set about designing business cards before I left. I’ve never had business cards before, but I figured it might be an important part of establishing lasting relationships with individuals who are otherwise strangers. Designing the cards was actually a bit of fun. I’m not at all experienced in the world of desktop publishing, so I had to fool around a while to get the resolution, fonts and graphics to all match up. Can you imagine getting excited about business cards? It was the case. And shoot, they didn’t turn out all that bad:

Props to Mike Rohde for the icon design. It’s the same one featured as Journler’s application icon.

In the meantime it’s all about the apartment hunting, although I have to say I’m disappointed with the results so far. I’ve sent out some two dozen emails in response to Craig’s List postings but I’ve received only three replies. Are my messages going straight into the Junk Mail boxes? In any case, here’s my latest posting: Chill Indie Mac Developer Looking for Room in Shared Apt/House

MacTech has announced the 2007 MacTech 25: The Mac technical community’s most influential people. With open public voting that started in March, the MacTech 25 allowed the community to recognize those who are the most influential — through their work, writing, or any other effort they may make.

If you can believe it I’m one of the honorees! I want to thank everyone who voted to honor me in the contest. My name appears alongside other huge names in the Macintosh community. Many are individuals I have not personally met but with whom I’ve interacted online, individuals whose names I recognize because of the code and articles they have written or the help they have given me and other developers.

When I began working on Journler some two years ago I never expected the project to take on such dimensions. The program and the community that has developed around it have grown enormously. It’s incredible the interest in Journler and the enthusiasm so evident in Journler’s users. I love to see all the activity on the forums, especially users helping one another out, and to read the positive reviews and comments that appear all over the blogosphere.

Check out the article for a complete write up, which includes images of the honorees.

2007 MacTech 25 List:
Aaron Hillegass, Adam and Tonya Engst, Allan Odgaard, Amit Singh, Andrew Welch, Andy Ihnatko, Ben Wilson, Brent Simmons, Chris Breen, Daniel Jalkut, Dave Nanian, Glen Fleishman, Gus Mueller, Joe Kissell, John Gruber, John Siracusa, Jonathan ‘Wolf’ Rentzsch, Matt Neuburg, Paul Kafasis, Philip Dow, Ric Ford, Rob Griffiths, Scott Stevenson, Ted Landau, Wil Shipley

Honorable Mention:
Adam Christianson, Alex Lagutin, Bruce Lacey, Chris Forsythe, David Pogue, Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Schoun Regan

Woah, the last week has blown by. I’m moved back to the U.S. after four years in Austria. Oklahoma is where I’m at right now, in the middle just north of Texas, as I told my students. The move took place a week ago today.

On Friday I’m flying out to San Francisco for Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, the WWDC. I’ll also be looking for a place to live. Know someone in the Bay Area? Check out my Craig’s List post. The plan is to land a room in a shared apartment or house by July 1st. If it all works out I’ll be celebrating the Fourth of July in Cali.

Life is happening. I’ve moved back to the United States and I’m moving to San Francisco because I’m looking to build a team. I have some ideas for some cool stuff I’d like to see realized, but I can’t do it by myself. Shoot, Journler alone has become more than a one man project.

I’m thinking of ways to meet other developers and engineers at WWDC. I imagine walking up to random people in the hall. “Hi, I’m Phil. I’m an independent software developer. What’s your name and what do you do?” Introductions. Hmm.

Will you be at WWDC? Do you do hardware engineering or software development? Do you live in the Bay Area? Let’s get in touch. I’ll be in SF from June 9 to the 19th and ideally from July 1st on.

I’ve created a WWDC category for the blog. Let’s see if I don’t take advantage of it. I remember being in the fifth row during the Keynote last year. I’d like to be there again this year and do some blogging about it. Keep an eye out. WWDC starts next week!

David Chartier has just released the 24th podcast for The Unofficial Apple Weblog, or TUAW. The piece is a screencast of Journler in action and highlights features such as smart folders, the drop box and video/audio recording. From the post:

This week’s podcast is a screencast of an app that I finally ‘get’ and have subsequently gone nutty for: Philip Dow’s Journler. It’s an app very much like Yojimbo, Mori and SOHO Notes in that it’s a journal/digital junk drawer for your work and life. For roughly fifteen minutes I cover some of the coolest features in Journler that both grabbed my personal attention and caused me to chose Mr. Dow’s excellent app as my new blogging tool of choice for penning most of my TUAW and Download Squad posts.

David’s cast is put together very well and is a great introduction to Journler. Check it out or grab the cast from TUAW’s iTunes directory.

In just nine days I’ll be moving back to the States after living in Europe for four years. Hardly ready but all manner of excited.

Part of that move is a trip to San Francisco for Apple’s WWDC. I attended the conference last year and had a blast. Not only did I fall in love with San Francisco, I was introduced to a number of Apple technologies and had the chance to speak one on one with Apple engineers and representatives. The experience definitely benefited me, and I’m expecting the same this time around.

Will you be at WWDC this year? Do you live in the Bay Area? Let’s get in touch. I’m keen to meet up with other developers and I love meeting Journler users. If you’re around definitely shoot me an email (contact info).

I have decided to institute a minimum donation policy for personal use licenses. I’ve received a number of very small donations and have in the past issued licenses for them. My reasoning has been, perhaps this really is all a person can afford.

I remember when I was a little kid in New Orleans with my parents. We were in the French Quarter at my dad’s favorite café eating airy doughnuts covered in powdered sugar. A street musician was playing jazz trumpet on the corner. I played the trumpet as well and I loved his music.

There was a penny in my pocket, all the money I had. I wanted to give it to the trumpet player. My parents advised against it, for even with the best intentions it could be taken offensively, as though I thought his music were only worth a penny.

Today I received a donation for $0.01. A penny. Single dollar donations unsettled me, but I was willing to give the individual the benefit of the doubt. A penny starts to push it.

On the one hand maybe this is a kid like I was who can’t afford more than a penny, just as there are probably individuals who cannot afford more than a dollar or two. Maybe I’m wrong to get upset about this.

On the other hand, Journler works whether an individual makes a contribution or not. There are no limitations built into the software. A person making a donation of less than five dollars or one of a penny because that’s all their finances allow need not make a donation at all. You need those dollars more than I do.

A few numbers to put things into perspective. A non-personal use license is $24.95. I make no recommendation for a personal use donation. There are ~580 registered users. Of that number 60 have made a donation of $9.99 or less. That’s 10%. 52 users have made a donation of $5.00 or less, about 9%. The average donation is $17.00. Comparing Journler’s price to related software…

Journler: $24.95 or donation
Kit: $24.95
MacJournal: $34.95
Scrivener: $34.99
Yojimbo: $39.00

Average cost: $31.80.

Journler has one of the most generous license policies of any software in its class. I have instituted this policy intentionally, moving as honestly as I can from a freeware/donationware approach to a donationware/shareware one.

Quite frankly, though, it is not working well. Many users do purchase licenses or make donations, and I am extremely thankful for it. Nevertheless, only a small percentage of downloads actually leads to a financial contribution, and the average donation is significantly less than the non-personal use price.

I am a frugal individual. I need little and want less. I like living simply, and I would stand on a soap box and encourage everyone else to do the same. It’s good for the planet and it’s good for your soul. However, in less than two months my cost of living will double with a move to San Francisco. At the current rate I am only just barely able to meet my projected expenses.

Effective immediately I am instituting a minimum donation policy for the personal use license. A donation of $10.00 or more is required for licensed, personal use of Journler. I will simultaneously be recommending a donation of $20.00, where I once made no recommendation at all.

If you have already made a donation and it was less than $10.00 don’t worry. I don’t want you to feel guilty or bad in any way, and you don’t need to make another payment to cover the balance. A personal use license was and is yours. If you were wanting to make a donation but cannot afford the $10.00 minimum, also don’t worry. You need the money more than I do, and Journler will continue working whether you donate or not.

This is part one of a two part post on touch screen technology and the Tablet Mac.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Leopard’s Delay and the iPhone. I expressed frustration at the direction Apple is taking with the iPhone and criticized the limited nature of the device. At the same time I hoped for an Apple product which the iPhone would herald, a tablet Mac just as powerful as your MacBook but with a touch screen like the iPhone.

The personal computer is on the verge of a paradigm shift, with a well used standard facing replacement. Along with the rest of the industry Apple is at that edge and closer to affecting the change than any other company. The iPod and even the original Apple computer are parallel examples. MP3 players were already around, computers as well, but they were difficult to use, bulky and certainly not elegant. In both cases Apple created a product that not only was generally available to the wider public but was appealing. Apple is about to do the same with touch screen technology.

I’m giving birth to an acronym. You heard it here first: What You See Is What You Touch technology, or WYSIWYT.* Normally you interact with your computer using a keyboard and mouse. This is the old paradigm, the old way of working the hardware side of a user interface. In the coming future the mouse and its associated “click here” standard will give way to a “touch here” interaction. The click will be replaced by the tap. It is a historical irony that the company which made the mouse popular may also do the most to see its demise.

From a user’s standpoint WYSISYT technology is a much more intuitive way of manipulating data on a computer. Instead of moving an attached device on a distinct two dimensional plane — your mouse on a mouse pad or desk for example — to interact with the visual representation of a thing on another two dimensional plane — your screen — you touch the visual object itself. In the simple act of reaching for that visual representation, of confining interaction to a single surface, you replace a complex process with a much simpler one. See. Touch. It is the future.

I believe that the passing of the mouse will see the demise of the keyboard as well. Surely the keyboard won’t become entirely obsolete, but the hardware version of it will. Rather than a physical thing, the keyboard will become a visual, on-screen way to enter text that appears and disappears as needed. Because the screen is touch everywhere, this WYSIWYT business, you’ll be able to type on the display like you type now on a keyboard. And imagine, just as you may use and perhaps define gestures — you’ve seen them on the iPhone — you’ll also be able to customize your virtual keypad.

What You See is What You Touch. It’s been around for a while. You use it when you get cash out of an ATM, when you cast your vote in the last election, and when you work with any of the new tablet PCs featuring WYSIWYT by way of a stylus. But the iPhone is WYSIWYT at its best, and Apple may once again be the company that brings this technology to the masses in a revolutionary way.

As exciting as this is, at the edge of a paradigm shift, the iPhone is too small for my tastes. It may be selfish, but I don’t want a cell phone, I don’t want a PDA, and I don’t want a cute or slick media device. I a want a computer that does WYSIWYT, and I want it to be a Mac. Well, I’ve found one that comes very close. I’ve already taken a look at the emerging widespread use of WYSIWYT technology. In part two of this post I’ll talk about the Axiotron ModBook. Turns out this guy was a Best of Show at MacWorld 2007, and it is the first step towards a WYSIWYT Macintosh tablet.

*The Origin of WYSIWYT
Well shoot, after some more research looks like WYSIWYT is already in limited use. Maybe you didn’t hear it here first, but let’s put it on the map! UK Haptics uses the phrase to describe a virtual reality training simulator for medical professionals. Not quite what I’m getting at. A page over at the Tachi laboratory in Japan employs the acronym at a site about interacting with three dimensional objects. Closer. Dead on the mark is Panasonic in what is as far as I can tell a marketing campaign for the CQVD7001N, an in-car CD/DVD player, although the phrase and acronym don’t seem to appear on any of their English language pages. WYSIWYT. Use it proudly and expect to see more of it. What you see is what you touch is the future.