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Advanced SearchUser Name mcoad
Member Since 2006-03-27
Total number of Feedback Posts: 23
Total number of comments: 2
Last 10 Feedback Posts by mcoad [ Search for All ]
VersionTracker Pro 4.5.1b4 (Mac OS X)
VT have now been in touch to say the problem was due to confusion over promocodes and the usual support ninja being on vacation. Thanks to the developers of the two apps for responding so quickly and contacting VT. So, if anyone is having the same problem, the same confusion may have arisen. Thanks Tom at VT for sorting it out and I look forward to the serials. [alert admin]
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Tuesday, May 27 2008 @ 10:47 AM PDT
SRS iWOW 2.0.2.255 (Mac OS X)
These people are the pits, the absolute worst
This developer is definitively the worst of the scores I have had dealings with over the years. Everything that has been said below is true. Since upgrading to Leopard the plug-in refuses to accept my existing paid-for registration number. I have contacted the developer several times, through their website and once by direct email to the gent mentioned in an earlier post. Every time I got an immediate message in the browser saying the message had been received and they would be in touch. Shortly after that an email would arrive confirming this. Then, a few days later a bounceback message arrives from some other server saying they had been unable to deliver the message to the right people. From SRS themselves, zilch, not a peep. The only way round this has been to recover the .plist from a backup of my Tiger set-up and copy this over every time the supposed demo period ran out. This would at least give me a new demo period. However, now I'm getting the regeneration bug that means makes quitting iTunes, and hence shutting down my Mac, impossible. Disaster. A developer who behaves like this, with a total lack of concern for users, needs simply to be boycotted. No-one should buy from them. The pity is that, when it works, the product is really good, matching the hype on their website - at least in my experience, though not that of some, as can be seen below. Until they can begin to behave decently, however, it’s off my machine. Not that they’ll care - they already have my money. [alert admin]
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Saturday, February 16 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
SRS iWOW 2.0.2.255 (Mac OS X)
These people are the pits, the absolute worst
This developer is definitively the worst of the scores I have had dealings with over the years. Everything that has been said below is true. Since upgrading to Leopard the plug-in refuses to accept my existing paid-for registration number. I have contacted the developer several times, through their website and once by direct email to the gent mentioned in an earlier post. Every time I got an immediate message in the browser saying the message had been received and they would be in touch. Shortly after that an email would arrive confirming this. Then, a few days later a bounceback message arrives from some other server saying they had been unable to deliver the message to the right people. From SRS themselves, zilch, not a peep. The only way round this has been to recover the .plist from a backup of my Tiger set-up and copy this over every time the supposed demo period ran out. This would at least give me a new demo period. However, now I'm getting the regeneration bug that means makes quitting iTunes, and hence shutting down my Mac, impossible. Disaster. A developer who behaves like this, with a total lack of concern for users, needs simply to be boycotted. No-one should buy from them. The pity is that, when it works, the product is really good, matching the hype on their website - at least in my experience, though not that of some, as can be seen below. Until they can begin to behave decently, however, it’s off my machine. Not that they’ll care - they already have my money. [alert admin]
Saturday, February 16 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
Avenir 2.3.7 (Mac OS X)
Avenir is no more and has been reborn as StoryMill, from Mariner Software (the makers of MacJournal, Montage and Mariner Write). It’s the same app, but with a few tweaks and a whole new timeline feature. There’s a small update fee for Avenir users. See http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=127. [alert admin]
Friday, January 18 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
Avenir 2.3.7 (Mac OS X)
Avenir is no more and has been reborn as StoryMill, from Mariner Software (the makers of MacJournal, Montage and Mariner Write). It’s the same app, but with a few tweaks and a whole new timeline feature. There’s a small update fee for Avenir users. See http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=127. [alert admin]
Friday, January 18 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
Life Balance 4.0.4 (Mac OS X)
And what’s more they expect users to pay again...
When I posted below I didn’t realize that Llamagraphics were proposing to charge for this semi-upgrade. Not only that, but a massive US$59.95 (not US$52.95 as stated above, at least according to their website). This is nothing short of scandalous and should be enough to make all even slightly doubtful users abandon Life Balance once and for all. When I purchased it just over two years ago I paid US$64.95. They now expect me to pay a few bucks short of the same all over again for an upgrade that simply tweaks a few minor aspects of the UI and adds support for Spotlight and AppleScript! I have programmes on my Mac by more than a hundred developers, and none, apart from Llamagraphics, has ever come close to pulling something like this. For any responsible developer a significant upgrade, never mind one that is sold to existing users at almost the price of the app itself, involves major new features, even a total overhaul. But what Llamagraphics have done hardly even merits the name upgrade at all. This despite widespread dissatisfaction among their users at the faults of the app’s UI and the near total lack of improvements. Those tempted to buy for the first time should be aware that this is the kind of developer they are dealing with. Don’t be surprised if two years on you are made to pay for the whole thing again if you wish to “upgrade”. Definitely time to move on... Again, try OmniFocus, which you can buy until early January at appreciably less than what Llamagraphics are charging for their “upgrade”. And you’ll be dealing with a serious, responsive, reliable company which can be trusted not to perpetrate such antics. [alert admin]
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Thursday, December 06 2007 @ 09:57 AM PST
Life Balance 4.0.3 (Mac OS X)
An upgrade to Life Balance is a rare event indeed, as many faithful long-time users have grown tired of complaining (and not just for the sake of it, as suggested below, but because of the app’s all too evident shortcomings). But, folks, adding Apple Scripting, Spotlight searching and a few minor interface tweaks is really not a true upgrade. In fact, it looks very much like the evasion of an upgrade, simply throwing the task of improvement back on the user. It’s also hard not to see the timing as a rather feeble response to the first truly serious alternative to LB: the Omni Group‘s superb new OmniFocus. It’s great that there are still users who are delighted with LB. Power to you and read no further. From long ago when I began using it I too remember it as a stimulation to thinking through priorities and getting aspects of life, well, into balance. The pie-chart and the automatic shifting of priorities among tasks to reflect goals was an attractive idea. But in daily use, when the pie chart fades very much into the background and you want to get on with the practical business of organizing your time and projects, I - like many other users - became increasingly frustrated with the app’s truly dreadful, utterly un-Mac-like, interface, its awkward data entry, its quirky decisions about priorities, the difficulty of tweaking the order of tasks once the app had decided their order, and the persistent refusal of the developers to fix any of these obvious problems despite growing annoyance among users. What kept me with it was the lack of alternatives. There are many to-do list apps around, but none that allow this degree of project planning (short of the massive overkill of large project management apps aimed at multi-person situations). Now, however, there is, and it’s a cracker: OmniFocus. If you share these frustrations with LB, do yourself a favour and check it out. It is superb, elegant, flexible, intuitive, cleanly designed, a joy to use - everything that LB could be, but isn’t. All it lacks compared with LB is the overt emphasis on self-help introspection - the pie-chart, etc. But in fact it serves this function perfectly, too. If you truly need your computer to let you know when you should be setting aside your work to spend time on some other aspect of your life, and don’t have problems with the interface, then stick with LB. Otherwise you owe it to yourself to check out OmniFocus, especially as it is on offer at half price in beta. When it’s released in January it will cost the same as LB. [alert admin]
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Thursday, November 22 2007 @ 07:21 AM PST
OmniFocus 1.0 (Mac OS X)
Excellent - take advantage of the pre-release price 
The Omni Group have long been one of the best, most responsive Mac developers around, and OmniFocus is shaping up to be no exception to this record - no, it already is. It is a superb, elegant, clean, intuitive tool for organizing your time and projects, large and small - a joy to use. The only app around at the moment which has anything of its flexible features (long-term and immediate planning, easily repeatable tasks, definable priorities which automatically let you see what is urgent, what less so, etc) is Life Balance, but the truly horrible interface of this, its awkwardness when entering information, its rigid priority scheme, almost nonexistent upgrades and the obstinate lack of responsiveness of its developers have long since exhausted the patience of many of its users. OmniFocus is absolutely the answer. The only reason for sticking with Life Balance now is if you really need your computer to tell you when you should lay aside your work to smooch your partner or smell a rose. And not even then, really. The one thing lacking that would make OmniFocus totally perfect would be some simple time visualization or Gantt-type way of tracking and planning. This shouldn’t be hard for OmniGroup to include, given they also make OmniPlan, which is great but massive overkill for most individual users. Anyone else who would value this, let ‘em know so we can build up a head of steam... No, no interest to declare or connection with Omni Group. Just a very satisfied alpha user. Rush over there people, especially given the low price (that’s the only negative factor, I fancy - some will complain about the full price). [alert admin]
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Wednesday, November 21 2007 @ 10:05 AM PST
Spell Catcher X 10.2.3 (Mac OS X)
Don’t use Safari 3.0 beta with SC X!
Users of Spell Catcher X should be aware that the new Safari 3.0 beta has a bug that screws up Spell Catcher auto-completion in a number of Apple apps, notably Mail. Instead of substituting the text for your abbreviation it will keep the first letter of the abbreviation and add the full text after it (various other oddities have also been reported). The bug is in the version of WebKit that the Safari beta uses and can’t be worked around, in most cases anyway. More information at http://www.rainmakerinc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1357. [alert admin]
Thursday, June 21 2007 @ 12:12 PM PDT
Apple Safari 3.0b (Mac OS X)
Don’t use this beta with Spell Catcher X!
Users of Spell Catcher X should be aware that this Safari beta has a bug that screws up auto-completion in a number of Apple apps, notably Mail. Instead of substituting the text for your abbreviation it will keep the first letter of the abbreviation and add the full text after it (various other oddities have also been reported). The bug is in the version of WebKit that the beta uses and can’t be worked around, in most cases anyway. More information at http://www.rainmakerinc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1357. In short, if you rely on SC X, leave this beta well alone... If anyone knows whether the problem affects other autocompletion apps (TypeIt4Me, Typinator, etc), if would be great if you could you also post. [alert admin]
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Thursday, June 21 2007 @ 12:07 PM PDT
Last 10 Comments by mcoad [ Search for All ]
The site is now working fine.
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, June 14 2007 @ 02:37 PM PDT
The site is now working fine.
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, June 14 2007 @ 02:36 PM PDT
