I recently had the chance to talk to Brian Amerige of Extendmac. Thanks to Brian for taking the time for this interview.

Flow makes its public debut on April 4th, 9 Months after the first external alpha testing began. What are you most proud of in Flow?

Yeah, that’s right. I had a smallish group of people for the early alphas, and then moved on to the significantly larger beta group. I certainly didn’t intend to (or want to) keep Flow in beta for so long, but due to time constraints (see http://blog.extendmac.com/a-glimpse-inside-one-year-later/ for what I mean by “time constraints”), I really had no choice. It’s my policy to release by quality, not calendar.

As for what I’m proud of, I’m proud of everything in Flow. Flow was, despite the fact that a number of clients lifted the idea, the first Mac client to bridge the gap between remote files and their HTTP URLs. That is, Automatic URL copying was a Flow-first feature. Naively, I was so excited by this back in April of last year, I believe, I wrote a blog post about it, and since then, a “similar” feature has cropped up in other mac FTP clients. I’m alright with that, though, because the implementation of URL-awareness in Flow is much powerful than you’ll see in any other client.

In your mind, what makes Flow better then other FTP clients?

The fact that it’s a fresh approach to an old problem. At 1.0, Flow’s interface and the experience you’ll have with it is what really sets it apart. It’s a very organic experience: Sebastiaan de With, Flow’s icon designer, said it best: “Flow is an application that is fantastically straightforward in its user interface. there is nothing to be distracted by, and everything you see is geared to do what you want at that moment. first using it is almost uncanny because you simply won’t have to think before acting. it does what you want, when you want it. ” Flow manages to feel light, despite being an application with considerable depth and functionality. It feels awesome to use.

On the Extendmac blog (http://blog.extendmac.com), I refer to Flow 1.0 being a “foundational release.” That means that 1.0 is the foundation Extendmac is going to be building on to do some very cool things — things planned for both 1.x and 2.x releases. Even at 1.0, though, Flow covers what all the other clients do (and some more) in a very beautiful, intuitive, and natural way. It’s a great jumping off point for us.

Flow also has a built-in editor, do you think users will find this a valuable feature?

Definitely; I’ve always hated having to use external editors, and I still do. Flow’s editor is a ton more powerful than any other FTP client’s internal editor — its got tabs, syntax coloring, code sense, and even live previewing. For people who wish to remain in their dedicated external editors, Flow of course honors that — but I think that there’s a large group of people who would be much more comfortable inside Flow. Editing is one of the major areas you’re going to see evolve quite a bit with time, in 1.x.

On January 26, you published a blog post asking the public what they thought about Flow going leopard only, shortly after you decided to take this route for Flow, can you tell us more about why you made that decision?

Sure. Flow is Leopard only because being it’s going to help me make a better product — simple as that. My attitude toward this type of thing is a lot like Steve Jobs’ attitude toward Apple’s stock price: he views his job as helping Apple make the best stuff he can, and believes the stock price will sort itself out. In the same sense, I believe it’s my job to make Flow as terrific as it can be, because that’s really much more important any amount of sales or market research is.

Flow uses the latest APIs, and integrates with some of the coolest Leopard-only technology, like QuickLook. It’s almost impossible to describe how cool it is to walk through a directory on your remote FTP server, and be able to preview images, movies, PDFs, web pages, etc. It’s certainly an experience.

But it’s really more than that. Flow is Leopard-only because the people who are going to love Flow are people who are already on Leopard. As I mentioned before in regard to Flow’s 1.x and 2.x future, Flow is really about progression. Flow has big plans for the future, and we’re not going to let laggards on Tiger impede on that progression that we’re really here to achieve.

Using some of the new core animation techniques in leopard, you have added quite a few nice effects to Flow, effects which are used in apps associated with the Delicious Generation, do you consider Flow to be a member of this movement?

That’s a loaded question ;-). I believe in tasteful use of animation and custom UI in areas where it helps make the experience and/or metaphor better. There isn’t a single animation inside Flow that’s there to be superflous; it’s there to help the user understand how different views fit together.

I think a lot of people misunderstand animation — animation is sexy because it benefits understanding in a beautiful way. So, if you do it right, it’s the best of both worlds — gorgeousness, and a better experience for the user. (Time Machine is a great example of this. The way it tiles backward completes the metaphor in a way that previously wasn’t possible.)

What do you think of the Delicious Generation movement?

I think a lot of people misunderstand what they’re all about. I’ve talked to John Casasanta, I’ve talked with Austin Sarner, etc., and I don’t see the argument against their work as being non-functional. In my opinion, they were some of the first to deviate from the Aqua guidelines, and that scared the hell out of some people. Change in any sort of ecosystem is always met with at least some form of resistance — it’s natural. But I think it’s a non-issue today; people accept that the Aqua guidelines have pretty much gone to hell, and the new mantra is simply to make things both usable and beautiful. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

You participated in MacHeist and gave away beta versions of Flow to purchasers of the bundle. Now with over 1700 beta testers, do you think this large group has helped Flow to date?

Absolutely, yes! Out of the 1700, a very strong group of around 30 or so testers emerged as the leaders, and they’re responsible for about 80-90% of the feedback. It’s unfeasible to give free licenses to all 1700 testers, but those who were significant contributors will be receiving free licenses. Everyone has my eternal thanks, though.

What is one thing that you want our readers to remember about Flow?

Remember that Flow isn’t static, and you’re going to see it evolve (even more so) into the client that everyone else is going to be copying. We want to be innovators in the market.

Thanks for the interview, best success with Flow, and I look forward to April 4th.

My pleasure!

I’ve gotten permission from Brian to show some previews of Flow before it launches.

Thanks again to Brian, and make sure to check out Flow on April 4th for the launch.

As I am sure many of you know, Apple recently announced the iPhone Software development Kit.

To get a developers perspective on the SDK, I have interviewed Kenneth Ballenegger, the developer of Exces. He runs a personal blog at seoxys.com.

What was your first impression of the iPhone SDK?

This is the coolest thing ever. Apple totally blew me away with that one. I mean, I was totally totally expecting this to be decent at best. But as I followed the keynote, I couldn’t believe it as awesome features kept being announced.

Will the SDK change how you plan your desktop apps?

I’m sure it will affect how I code for the Mac. One thing to consider when creating a Mac application will be whether I can create an iPhone version, or a companion product. Also, the iPhone also has a definite influence on how I think of interface design, even on Mac applications.

What do you think of this $0.99 and $1.99 app concept?

I read an article recently on this (The Beauty Of 99¢ iPhone Apps). The good thing about $.99 apps is the potential for impulse purchases. People will not be afraid to buy an app, because, after all, $.99 is nothing. If the app were priced more expensive, potential customers would have to think about whether they really want to buy the app. With the inability to offer try-before-you-buy, it will be harder to sell a more expensive app. Of course, there are problems with $.99 apps. Firstly, it devalues your product. People will associate your product with the notion of “cheap”. I think the better option would be to price apps between $5 and $10. It is still low enough for impulse buy, but increases profit 5-fold and adds perceived value to the product.

What is your view on the 30% Apple takes per sale, and $100 fee?

In the wake of the announcement, there has been lots of complaining from independent Mac developers about Apple’s 30% profit cut. I think it actually is very decent, and I am totally prepared to pay this. If you do the math, for every $100 I’d make, Apple gets $43 (Apple gets 43% of whatever I get. For every $100 of total sales, Apple gets $30 and me $70. $30 is 43% of $70. Therefore, if I make $100 of sales, Apple gets $43, and the total sales must have been $143). But they take care of all the hosting, Credit Card processing fees, update mechanism, distribution, marketing, and virtually everything other than actually coding the app. Agreed, it is unlikely that it uses Apple’s full 30% to pay for that. They must get a cut from it. But, this does not bother me. What I lose to Apple’s cut, I make up tenfold in extra exposure. My app would be only a few taps away from every one of the 5M iPhones users out there. (Probably around 10M when 2.0 ships). When compared to the rest of the mobile industry, this is actually a really sweet deal.

About the $99 fee, I think it is a good thing. If it was up to me, I would make it even higher, around $500. The advantage of this fee is to let only the serious developers build iPhone applications. We do not want our apps to be drowned in a sea of crappy apps and other junk. The less crappy apps, the more exposure we get. It will also make for a better experience for consumers, who will have a much higher rate of good app to crap app purchase ratio.

Any chance we will see Exces for the iPhone?

I’ve been thinking about this ever since I bought my first iPhone. The main problem is not technical, but more of a design decision. Would Exces be a vault on your iPhone? Or would it be a full app with the ability to open Exces vaults? With the absence of an open file-system on the iPhone, it is really hard to decide how to implement Exces for it. To be honest, I have not decided yet what I will do, and I will keep my options open. However, I am planning on building a new iPhone app that has nothing to do with Exces. But for now, it’s still a big secret!

Thanks Kenneth for the interview. Make sure to check out Exces at excesapp.com, and Kenneth’s blog at seoxys.com.

I had the chance to interview UncleMiF of Translate It. They have recently released a mac version of their software.

Why did you want to make a translating program for Mac?

First of all, I’m not a professional interpreter. I’m just an ordinary man who likes reading
English and French sites, articles and news.
And I have some problems with translating and understanding some foreign words.
My mother language is Russian, my second language is French which I’ve studied at school and
university, and my third language is English (I study it by myself.)
I also like to communicate with foreign people to ask them about happenings in other countries
of the world, to talk IT-related topics, etc. After migrating to the Mac platform I wanted to
improve my command in foreign languages… I liked StarDict project on Linux, but I wanted to
have a native Mac OS X app for reading StarDict-compatible dictionaries on my Mac. However,
I’ve found no solution that would have been good enough for me: StarDict has no native Mac OS X
ports, and in X11, it has very unstable behavior, it is almost
useless. So I decided to create MDict (’M’ comes from my nick name MiF) for Mac. After a year
of developing the software has been re-branded to TranslateIt!.

Now TI! has many tools for convenient foreign language learning:

1. History with the Word Quiz add-on
2. Double sided cards printing tool
3. Translation on the fly
4. Notes
5. TI Dashboard Widget
6. Users are able to make their own dictionaries using the built-in DictBuilder utility.

Who do you see using TranslateIt?

I think it may be useful for many people. First of all, it is used by professional translators,
software localizers, philologists, students and those who want to learn a foreign language. Next,
it’s used by the rest of us simply for reading foreign sites or emails from time to time, or for
chatting with foreign friends. With a good and fast dictionary like TI! it becomes easy to
discover the world and find new friends anywhere in it. For example, my friend Zac from Acqualia
company (located in Australia) has visited Moscow recently during his trip, and we have met and
had a great time together. TI! is the offline dictionary, so it is very useful even in places
where no Internet access is available.

When did you start developing for the Mac?

I started developing for the Mac in 2005 after I’d switched to Mac from Gentoo Linux.
Now I’m teaching students at our university generic Mac OS X technologies and Objective-C & Cocoa programming.

What’s your current “setup”?

A: In our labs, we have: an old PowerMac G4 (1GGz Dual Processor, 728 Mb RAM) with
Tiger installed for OSX 10.4 backward compatibility tests, a PowerBook G4 12″ (1.5 Gb RAM)
with Leopard, a MacBook Pro 15″ Intel Core 2 Duo, a Mac mini Intel Core Duo, an iMac 20″
Intel Core 2 Duo with dual display for multi-screen tests, and fifteen 20? iMacs for our students and developers.

So there you have it, UncleMiF of Translate It.

I had the opportunity to chat with Steven Frank, the co-founder of Panic, the makers of Coda, Transmit, CandyBar, Unison, Desktastic and Stattoo. Panic was founded by Cabel Sasser and Steven Frank in 1996, and they operate out of Portland, Oregon. Since when they where founded they have been changing the way software was made and have done a very good job at it.

Before we start, I just want to thank Steven for taking the time to answer my questions.

Since 1996, when you and Cabel founded Panic, what has changed?

Assuming you mean in the Mac universe, pretty much everything. Apple’s CEO, the Mac’s processor architecture (twice), the operating system (we started around Mac OS 7.5), the developer tools, Apple’s stock value, the iPod and iPhone introductions… Google didn’t exist when we started. I was developing on a 133 MHz PowerMac 7500. We were sharing a dial-up connection for internet access, so figure about 2 KB/s bandwidth for each of us. Now I sound like an old man — but this was only about 10 years ago!

Which Panic Application do you use most?

I’d say it’s a close race between Transmit and Coda. I use them both constantly.

Which part of development are you most involved with?

When we started, it was pretty clear: Cabel did design, the web site, and business-y things, and I was a programmer. Now we have a team with several engineers and my function has split in several ways. I still do a little programming but not as much as I used to. I do a bit more of what could loosely be described as management now, and I help maintain some internal tools like our bug tracker and ordering system. I drop in and do web stuff when needed, help resolve support escalations, help plan projects, and I’m currently working on some tutorial videos for Coda. So, I’m all over the place. I guess I’m roughly a CTO/CIO, but it’s hard to pin it down.

Do you consider Panic part of the Delicious Generation?

I’m not really even sure what that phrase means. I know that, when we started, we were one of very few companies to be really concentrating on providing a user experience on par with Apple’s, to the extent that we could, following their guidelines to the letter, and so on. The Apple guidelines have pretty much gone out the window now, so we try to concentrate on providing a clear interface that also looks nice for what are some fairly complex tasks. That’s priority one. We don’t go crazy with eye candy unless it helps visually communicate a tricky concept in some way. The flip animations in Coda’s Sites view are a good example.

What is your all time favorite mac?

I have a soft spot for the original blueberry clamshell iBook, because it was my first ever laptop, and such a unique design at the time. But the MacBook Pro I use today is fantastic — a nearly perfect balance of desktop power and portability. But I’m going to be trying out a MacBook Air soon, so maybe that will change my mind.

Does the iPhone count as a Mac? Because that’s probably the best overall “thing” I’ve ever owned.

What is your favorite feature of Leopard?

Time Machine. I was already pretty disciplined about backing up, but it was not an elegant process. Now I just plug in an external drive and forget about it. It’s something you don’t really appreciate until you’ve lost everything a couple of times.

And the transparent menu bar. Just kidding.

So there you have it, Steven Frank of Panic Inc. Make sure you check out their site, and all of their Shockingly Good Mac Software.

I recently interviewed John Casasanta and Austin Sarner to get more information about MyDreamApp. A is Austin, J is John and E is EDIT-XTREEM (me).

E: Can you give me some background information on My Dream App?

J: My Dream App is like American Idol for Mac apps. We held a competiton where people submittied ideas for apps they’d like implemented and then they were voted on by the public, with encouragement from celebrity Mac judges.

E: How many application entries did you get?

J: We got over 2,700 submissions.

E: What are the names of the 3 winning apps?

A: Atmosphere, Portal, Cookbook

E: Which one is your personal favorite?

J: Cookbook

A: Cookbook

E: Which one could you see being the most successful app?

J: Even though Cookbook came in 3rd in the competition and it has a lot of competition, I see it as doing the best overall. The reaction to what we’ve done so far has been incredible.

A: They all certainly have potential, and I could see something very flashy like Atmosphere making a big wave.

E: Can you tell me about the plans for Cookbook?

A: Right now, we’re just working on evolving and implementing the app. Expanding the initial vision has been quite a task… but we’re very pleased with how it’s going

E: What was the update from Austin Sarner and Cookbook yesterday (April
4th, 2007)?

A: This update offered the first look at the work we’ve been doing on Cookbook over the last few months, namely the new design and style. We also announced Wolfgang Bartelme as the designer and provided a selection of pictures that show the evolution of Cookbook’s style.

E: Which app do you think is the public’s favorite?

J: Atomosphere was the overall winner so I’d say that one’s currently the favorite.

E: I heard about a possible “My Dream App 2”, is there anything in store?

J: Yup. Once at least one of the My Dream App 1 apps is released, we plan to kick MDA II into gear. We have something coming up for Apple’s WWDC that’ll be starting the festivities off.

E: What is your job at My Dream App?

J: I’m the development manager which means I’m overseeing the app’s development and helping with design. I’m also doing much of the marketing and promotion since we’re a small company and we all have to wear a lot of hats.

A: I’m handling the development of Cookbook, as well as helping with odd jobs here and there.

E: What are some of your past projects?

J: My main project is iClip. In the past I’ve worked on things ranging from various color management apps, image processing apps, and games. And there are many, many unfinished projects that I’ve started over the years.

A: My other main projects include Disco and AppZapper, and I’ve been involved in far too many things going back to mention here. One of them was a competitor to iClip, though :).

E: What are some of your goals for My Dream App?

J: To develop successful apps that are beautiful and functional. And to have fun doing it.

Thanks to John and Austin for taking the time to talk to me. You can visit MyDreamApp by clicking here.
Austin’s current apps are AppZapper, and Disco. John’s current app is iClip.

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