Messages

1

Tools of the Trade / Re: New Break-Time App: Take 10!

« on: Sep 24, 2012, 12:06 am »

Hi folks,

I've got nothing to do with Take10, but I am a developer so I have a different perspective...

Specifically, I've abandoned work on my SM app because it became clear to me that it would be impossible for me to make any money off of it. I put about a year's worth of work into it, and a lot of thought and love, but I wasn't able to create any enthusiasm at all. So one thing I'd encourage folks to think about is this - forget about money - are you willing to support (financially, emotionally, intellectually) those few developers who actually care about your field? My personal experience has been that the answer is no.

Perhaps the reason is that there just isn't a need for software tools at all. Perhaps it's because you guys feel like there have been too many opportunistic and exploitive products out there. Perhaps it's that the products are bad. It can't just be that these tools are too expensive, because let's face it, they aren't. If there were a tool out there that was really good, that saved you hours a week, that made your life a little less stressful, surely it would be worth paying some money for, right? (I can only assume that the one I've been building was none of those things, alas.)

So, my advice, for what it's worth: Devs are just like anyone else, they want to feel appreciated. Anyone targeting your field must be motivated by some sort of affection (there is no way that a rational person would think they could make more money selling to SMs than, say, to MBAs.) Positive, constructive encouragement is going to go further for most of these sorts of devs than dollars. If I felt that anyone cared about my app, I'd still be working on it, even though I know I'll never make a dime from it.

Remember also that, although $15 seems like a LOT of money on the app store, it is about the cost of a roll of gaff tape. The app probably took a regular person months and months of labor to create. The tape rolled off an assembly line and will soon get used up. (Granted, the app probably can't hold your set together...)

2

Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for testers for a new iPhone SM app

« on: May 19, 2012, 02:01 pm »

Hi guys - I'm not approving any new testers for at least another week or two, until I've got a few new features worked out. If you do fill out the application form that I linked above, please drop me a line as well to tell me a little about yourself, I'm trying to limit testers to people who I know will actually provide feedback.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: How to best use Dropbox?

« on: May 15, 2012, 07:32 pm »

One other little-known and super-useful aspect of dropbox is that it keeps a history and previous versions of your files. So if your assistant flakes out and deletes half of your notes, Dropbox has a previous version saved that is still in its pre-flakeout state. (This has completely saved me on two or three occasions. (Sadly in all of these cases, the flaker-outer was me :/ ))

It also keeps track of conflicts, so if someone else edits the file you're working on, both copies continue to exist. It's certainly not ideal for collaboration, but it is better than you might think

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for testers for a new iPhone SM app

« on: May 07, 2012, 10:28 pm »

I think there's a feedback link somewhere in that testflight website, but email or pm is perfectly good too Thank you!

5

Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for testers for a new iPhone SM app

« on: May 07, 2012, 07:12 pm »

There will be an iphone/ipod touch version too, I'm working on it now - want to get the iPad version taken care of first though.

6

Tools of the Trade / URL to apply for tester status

« on: May 01, 2012, 10:14 am »

Hi guys - I've set up a testing team webpage, and a simple form where you can sign up to be a tester for the app.

The link is here: http://bit.ly/IqqvHd

7

Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for testers for a new iPhone SM app

« on: Apr 28, 2012, 04:40 pm »

I'll take you up on that Kay if and when the time comes. I actually have a native android version partly written, it was just desperately buggy - if the webapp route ends up working, that might be the best of both worlds.

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Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for testers for a new iPhone SM app

« on: Apr 28, 2012, 03:30 pm »

Yes and no, Penguin. I've tried twice now to develop for Android - once as a native app and once as a web app. I found developing native android apps really unwieldily and unpleasant, and since neither scooter nor I own android devices there wasn't much incentive to continue. The webapp was a different story - I got pretty far with it but decided I was more interested in the native iOS version, so I've put the web version on hold. Once the iOS version is working and out there, I hope to go back to the webapp version and see if it can be turned into something usable for Android.

The sad reality is that Apple just makes developing for iOS a really nice experience, and with more users it is a lot easier to make money in their app store. :/ Android is a nice platform, but it hasn't gotten the same kind of love. If that changes, or if a really snazzy Android device ends up on my doorstep (or if my boss encourages me to learn Android...) I'll definitely reconsider

9

Tools of the Trade / Re: Looking for testers for a new iPad SM app

« on: Apr 28, 2012, 11:23 am »

Hi guys. I'm Charley, scootersm's husband.

I apologize for the long, long delay since she last posted. I learned a lot from my testers, most notably that the iPhone version of the app was missing a number of important features and had a few bugs that rendered it impractical for real users. I went back to the drawing board and started again from scratch. I have a new iPad-only version which is almost ready for testers.

My goal is to have a simple but polished app that will help sms manage productions by keeping track of shows/scenes/cast/roles/props in a database on their phone or ipad. I'm not expecting to make much money off of it, though if it ever becomes viable I will try to sell it on the app store for a few dollars. Since it's really a labor of love for me as a sort of gift to scooter, it's really important to me that it be actually useful to real people - she designed it, so it is kinda 'by sms for sms '

So - my hope is to open it up to testers again in a week or two. At the moment the app will only run on iPads (an iPhone version will be coming, hopefully late May) so right now I'm only looking for iPad testers. And I'm only looking for people who are willing to actually use the app and write feedback to me.

What's in it for you?

• A chance to help make an app that's actually designed by and for working sms.
• Advance access to something that's hopefully useful
• A free copy when it comes out
• Your name in the 'special thanks' page

In order to become a tester, please tell me (in pm or email):

• Your name
• Your email address
• What model iPad you have
• What version of iOS is on your iPad
• Are you currently working on a show that you could test the app with?

Thank you!!

NOTE: Posting has been approved by me. Have fun, y'all. - PSMK

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Tools of the Trade / Re: How to best use Dropbox?

« on: Apr 28, 2012, 10:24 am »

Dropbox is spectacular, but another tool you might want to look into is Evernote. It's also free, but it has editing and search tools built into it so you don't necessarily need to go over to word/excel/whatever. You can share notebooks with other team members, and if you use the mobile version you can record audio notes directly with it or take snapshots right into it. If you really got into it, they sell scanners for about $100 that will scan directly into evernote and do on-the-fly ocr - might be a licensing nightmare to do that with scripts, but with all your other paperwork it might be amazing.