I recently made a Favicon for iAppblog. Though it looks similar to the Apple Apps Icon, I have remade it, no copy/paste here!

I would enjoy your feedback on it. I have further plans for it, watch the site in the coming days.

The MacHeist Retail Bundle is now available. It is a great way to get into Mac Shareware for a very reasonable price. For only $49 you get 12 Great Mac Apps.

The included apps are:

Awaken
Cha-Ching
CoverSutra
DEVONthink Personal
iClip
Overflow
Wallet
WriteRoom
XSlimmer
Enigmo
Bugdom 2
Nanosaur 2

Best of all, they are running a referral program, you can sign up for the site and earn credits by referring friends to buy the bundle. The credits will be redeemable for some great apps (which will be announced on Monday).

Check back here soon for a hint at one of the referral apps.

In the mean time, check out MacHeist!

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.

While working today, I thought of an interesting concept, .Mac for the iPhone. What if you could get an @iphone.com email, similar to those of the blackberry users’ (@*carrier*.blackberry.net)? Backup your iPhone from anywhere, access files on your Mac and upload your pictures directly from your camera roll to it? And Sync your calendars and contacts to it?

Would you be more willing to pay the $99 a year for .Mac with these ideas included? I can tell you that I would.

So why would Apple do this? To me, this idea is interesting, but it doesn’t appear to be so revolutionary. For one, and @iphone.com email would help emphasize the iPhone brand. Backing up your iPhone on the run would be essential to users in small businesses, not big enough to worry about full size enterprise management, but concerned about their sensitive and valuable information. You forgot a valuable file at the office, why not just use your iPhone to get it back over the internet. Or you’re at a party, you pull out your iPhone you take a picture, and click upload within the camera roll, and its on your .Mac iPhone page. You add an event in or a contact, and your iPhone automatically syncs it up with the server, also getting synced to your Mac.

This seems like an obvious next step for .Mac. I think this could be a very valuable tool for iPhone users. I’ve already started crossing my fingers that this will be announced alongside the iPhone 2.0 software.

Got any ideas? Post a comment and let me know what you think.

Thanks to Nik Youdale of Acqualia for feedback on this idea.

If you’ve got a chance, please digg it.

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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.

Dave Watanabe just announced that NewsFire is now free. Joining NetNewsWire which recently did the same.

For those new to this, NewsFire is a news reader for blogs, news sites, and anything else that publishes an ‘RSS’ syndication feed. It watches for news so you don’t have to. When a new story is published, NewsFire brings it to your attention with some super-slick animation. Unlike other readers, NewsFire is designed with a deliberately minimal interface. The news is what matters and it takes center stage.

- Dave Watanabe

But I’ve just downloaded the version and noticed something. Try removing a subscription, works perfectly, now try removing the subscription to Dave’s Blog, doesn’t work. Anyone see where this might be going?

I am trying to setup a Subversion Repository for a project of mine, but I’m not sure if there are any good apps for mac to access it (other then terminal). If you have any suggestions, please feel free to send me an email, edit-xtreem@iappblog.com.

Thanks

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.

The long anticipated YouTube Video downloader and player application, Tublar, has enter its public beta phase. You can grab the beta from http://tubularapp.com.

Here are some screenshots just to show off this new app.

I recently had the opportunity to test out some GelaSkins from GelaSkins.com. GelaSkins are removable artwork for Mac Laptops, iPods, iPhones, the RARZ and even PC Laptops. The GelaSkins website has a ton of designs for all of these products, and its a very cost effective way of putting some style on your device. For our review we got 3 different styles of GelaSkins and 3 different sizes.

Application

To apply the GelaSkins it is relatively easy once you have it in place, and if you do not like the placement, just peel it up. They are printed on a 3M adhesive that does not bubble, but unfortunately, it can get creased. The iPod Touch GelaSkin took me a matter of seconds to apply, next I got to work applying the MacBook GelaSkin, it took me a little longer to get the placement right, but it was very easy to do, and looks great.

Quality

The quality of these GelaSkins is superb. They come in a clear sleeve with application directions, and they are pretty tough, and we realized in our testing. Printed on 3M Adhesive makes them removable with no residue left behind. The GelaSkins are also fit and cut to the exact size, be it MacBook or iPod, they fit perfectly.

Conculsion

I would highly recommend GelaSkins to anyone who wants to add some personality to they laptop, iPod or cell phone.

Product: GelaSkins
Price: $29.95/Laptop, $12.95-14.95/iPod, $14.95/iPhone, $12.95/RARZ
Availability: From the GelaSkins Website
Website: http://gelaskins.com
Raiting: 4.5/5