Today is my first foray into the Mac App Store and is also the day that I release my first publicly available Mac OS X application. Over the past few months, I’ve been working on an application called Shrinkr for Mac. This application allows you to quickly and easily shorten long URLs right from the menu bar in Mac OS X.
Shrinkr for Mac is the ultimate URL shortening tool for Mac OS X. This tool is easy to use and ready to convert any long links you throw at it by using popular URL shortening services like Goo.gl, Bit.ly, Is.gd, X.co, and more. Shrinkr is compact and lives in the menu bar on your Mac and looks like a small anchor. To use it, simply copy the URL you would like to shorten, then select the URL shortening service you wish to use. A few seconds later, Shrinkr will automatically copy the shortened URL to your clipboard, ready for you to paste it into an email message, tweet, or chat. It doesn’t stop there, however, as the application can also integrate with your Bit.ly account to provide shortening history in your account.
Check out Shrinkr today by visiting the Shrinkr for Mac website, or by checking out the screencast below.
In programming, regular expressions are very powerful way to check inputted text against a certain expected format; however, programmers can’t always remember every regular expression syntax available. An online tool, though, can help you easily generate regular expressions for use in your programming project.
Txt2re.com lets you build regular expressions by either entering a string that you would like to match, or by selecting various elements to match using the expression generator.
As you can see, Txt2re is pretty amazing and powerful for developers who constantly rely on regular expressions.
What do you think? Do you use Txt2re or another regular expression generator? Let me know in the comments below or follow the conversation on Twitter.
There are a lot of great code snippet sharing tools out there, from GitHub’s Gist to Codepad to any other number of online services. However, a new code snippet sharing service recently peaked my interest called Chop.
Chop is a project created by an interactive design company called ZURB. They have a few different tools on their Playground website. Chop is interesting not only because of its simplicity and ease-of-use, but also because it’s built with Ruby on Rails.
Chop currently has syntax highlighting support for Ruby, Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Java, C/C++, PHP, SQL, Diff, JSON, YAML, ERB, and XML. The service can even grab code from a Git raw page or another webpage just by specifying the URL to the page.
Once you Chop a piece of code, you will be able to send a URL “to your nerds” or … a special someone (although there may be repercussions after sending geeky code to some people). Once you are in the sharing page, you will be able to comment on the code by clicking on the line you would like to edit.
Overall, Chop is a pretty good service that allows you to quickly and easily paste and share a chunk of code while doing that in style. For a free service, we couldn’t really ask more, but I would like to see the ability to download code snippets that have been pasted in.
The Mac, iOS, Android, and Amazon application stores and other places like it have become the go-to destination for many device owners to find and purchase new applications for their devices. But, they are also drawing large crowds of developers. According to Apple, there are over 350,000 applications; and, that number is growing almost daily.
However, the app store model isn’t perfect. I have always come from the persuasion that you need to step back and look at the past in order to gain appreciation and inspiration for future endeavors. Because more and more consumers are using these app store as the primary point of sale and delivery of software, I believe that we should take a step back and look at the app store model in an overall picture to see what things need to be changed going forward. No app store is perfect, and I highly doubt that it ever will be; but, I believe that there are 4 things that, if implemented, would make the app store a better concept in general. Two of the problems are from a developer’s point of view, and the other two are from the consumer’s point of view.
1. Developers and App Store Listings
At the core of any app store is the developers. Without them, you wouldn’t have any applications available for your platform. They are the “bread and butter” of devices. Imagine an iPad without any apps. Not so “magical,” huh?
I think Apple has implemented a great system for developers to get their applications out to the public with a great distribution system. They have also allowed developers to get their applications out to the press, free of charge, with promotional codes that can be downloaded and sent out to reviewer. However, there are things that Apple and others could do better.
First, I would like to see all development platforms provide developers with the ability to download promotional codes. Currently, Google’s App Market doesn’t support this, and I’m sure there are other app stores that don’t.
Second, developers should have the ability to customize their app store listings a little more. Perhaps the ability to use their company logo and colors, or the ability to have an email contact or support form that can be filled out. Before the app stores, customers interacted directly with the developer’s website. Since then, the app store has abstracted the developer, making them almost “the man behind the curtain,” so to speak, when it comes to interacting with customers. No longer do we get to e-mail a customer when they purchase a piece of software, to ask them how they are liking it. We usually only hear from a customer when they are having problems with the application.
2. Comments and Ratings
Comments and ratings are a tough situation. In part, they are a good thing because it allows a customer to express their opinion about the software they just purchased; however, I have seen many customers complain about a feature of the product not working when they just didn’t read the instructions. This bad review can then turn into tanking sales, and suddenly an application you’ve been working months on ceases to turn a profitable number of sales.
Another problem with ratings and comments is that usually the only time a user actually posts one is when they are having problems with the application. Because the app store listings don’t foster a relationship between the developer and the customer, and because most listings on app stores don’t feature contact information for the developer’s support channel, customers feel they should just post their problem into the comments and give the app a bad rating in hopes that the developer will pay attention to the issue.
Here’s the problem, however: Developer’s don’t have access to the comments, or the e-mail addresses of those users posting their problems.
This is why I think app stores should implement some type of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software so that when a user is having a problem with your application, you will be able to respond to them in the comments to let them (and others) know what is going on and how to solve the issue. Perhaps these messages could be posted publicly, or (if the customer requests), privately.
Regardless, however, developers should have the right to respond to customer’s comments. Especially since we are giving 30% of our revenue (depending on the app store) to the app store, and surely, all of that can’t be going to just hosting of the downloads and credit card transactions.
3. Upgrades
Another thing that really annoys me about the app store is the inability to issue (as a developer) or get discounted upgrades (as a customer) for future versions of the software. Many developers allow discounted upgrades (say, 50% off) for repeat customers upgrading to the newest version (i.e. from version 1.0 to version 2.0) of the software.
To make matters worse, often times when an X.0 upgrade is released for a piece software, the developer takes down the older version, most of time forcing people to upgrade to the new version at regular price. This, of course, leads us to the last problem with the current app store model: Backups.
4. Backups
How many of you have been in a similar situation as this: You purchase an app from the app store, and after a year, the developer decided to upgrade to a new 2.0 release. Because the developer no longer wishes to keep distributing the old 1.0 release, they delete from the app store completely. But, as a buyer of the old 1.0 release, you no longer have access to download the 1.0 release should you wish to in the future. Of course, you can still install the software in the future using a backup stored on your computer, but that is your only lifeline.
My wish is that from a consumer standpoint, Apple and Google would finally see that if you purchase a piece of software it should remain available to you, even if the developer decides to take it down in the future. I further think that even if the app store management decides to take down the software at their own discretion, they should either refund you or allow purchasers to keep downloading the software. It’s not fair to take down the software without any warning, not refund the customer, and then not allow access to the purchase.
What are your thoughts regarding this situation? I think there are other changes that need to be made, but these are just a few big ones. Join the conversation on Twitter or in the comments below. I’m looking forward to your thoughts and comments.
Recently, I launched a new website, thanks to some grant funding I received from the University of South Carolina as a part of their Magellan Scholarship program. This website is devoted to the user interface and web accessibility research that I have been doing since my freshman year at the university.
The website hosts a blog, forum, and plugins, tools, and resources for developers and website administrators who want to make their sites more accessible by using our tools and resources. Below is the introductory post from the AccessibleFutures.org blog:
Welcome to AccessibleFutures.org. This project is a direct result of the accessibility developments and research conducted by the BrailleSC.org project at the University of South Carolina Upstate by Cory Bohon, Dr. George H. Williams, and Dr. Tina Herzberg. You can find out more information about BrailleSC.org by visiting the website.
AccessibleFutures.org provides tools, plugins, documentation, and other resources to developers and website administrators looking to make their websites more accessible. Our plugins for popular content management systems like WordPress, Omeka, and Drupal allow anyone with limited knowledge of website accessibility to create rich, fully accessible websites after the fact.
If you are interested in user interface design and/or web accessibility, then check out AccessibleFutures.org today.
