I excitedly purchased this application sometime around late 2004, early 2005. At the time Tinderbox proved to be a useful tool. Fast forward some three and a half years and the only sizable change is the price. The current version of Tinderbox isn't worth the upgrade amount much less the sticker price. Tinderbox has a knack for making less progress than a slippery snake on an ice rink.

Tinderbox is still as visually unappealing as it was over three and a half years ago. The Tinderbox interactive experience was more palatable back then, possibly because OS X was going through it's own aesthetic growing pains and Apple had yet to sever all memorable ties to OS 9 due to the Classic Environment. In addition to a modernized application icon I believe Tinderbox has blessed map views with a shape or two and maybe added a bevel or drop shadow effect here and there, but overall this is the pinnacle "Windows 95" experience available on the Mac today.

At the (June) 2005 WWDC Apple announced their move to Intel Microprocessors. Since then WWDC 2006, 2007, and 2008 have come and gone, meanwhile Tinderbox still only runs under Rosetta, Apple's dynamic translator. Rosetta enables applications compiled for PowerPC processors (e.g., G3, G4, G5) to run on Apple systems that use Intel processors. Apparently Adobe isn’t the biggest putz on the block, as previously crowned.

According to the TInderbox site, a Windows port of Tinderbox is currently underway. Anyone with experience using cross-platform products knows that there are few (if any) exceptions to the guaranteed, third-rate experience. Cross-platform applications are generally only as good as the greatest common factors (amongst OSes) allow. In other words the bar for highest quality across all platforms is lowered to the level of maximum capability of the worst constituent, and guess who usually ends up with the short end of the stick on this one.

These are glaring indications that the antiquated Tinderbox has no plans other than to remain thus. Long gone is any hope that Tinderbox will harness the insight of user experiences (along with that of it’s developers) and leverage the improved capabilities of underlying technologies (e.g., OS X 10.5) to advance the (now stale) ingenuity of what has become “Bummerbox 4.5”. All prospective improvements and innovations of Tinderbox features have been neglected in favor of producing overpriced books and chintzy ports.

The only remaining critical acclaim for Tinderbox is in regard to the incredible level of success their sales department has achieved. For despite an inability to hoodwink most people into buying such winkware, there was still enough talent to get the developers to buy into it.