Keep Track of Your Delivery's Status

My favorite retailer is Amazon, and I am the benefactor of a perpetually gifted Amazon Prime account (thanks, Mom!), so it stands to reason that I have a couple deliveries to track every month.

So there’s this great little utility I use called Delivery Status. It’s made by this outfit called Junecloud, and is available both as a free Mac OS X Dashboard widget and a wonderful universal iOS app that is worth every penny.

On Saturday, Junecloud celebrated the fifth anniversary of Delivery Status, giving a brief overview of its history, and some new developments.

Here’s what great about Delivery Status: it supports just about any courier you could shake a stick at, but it also lets you mark your most used couriers, so you don’t have to hunt and peck through the massive list. Then you just enter your order/tracking number, and it gives you updates all the way up to delivery. Heck, it even shows you where the delivery is on a map. Great stuff.

The widget and the app are both extremely well designed and are refined further with every update. At the very least, treat yourself to the free Dashboard widget. However, I highly recommend picking up the iOS app. It’s usually $4.99, but for a little while, it is $2.99.

Now, go order something with my Amazon affiliate link and track it right to your doorstep.

iPhone 4 + Verizon

Verizon just wrapped up its press conference where they announced a CDMA iPhone 4. Some highlights:

• $199/$299 for 16GB/32GB, respectively. Not surprising.
• Mobile Hotspot Included. Impressive! AT&T has some competition now. (Where’s my free Mobile Hotspot, AT&T?)
• CDMA iPhone 4 Doesn’t Do Simultaneous Voice/Data, just like other CDMA Phones. Not surprised. Not a necessary feature, but it is one I do like on AT&T. Of course, free Mobile Hotspot would be better.
• Verizon’s iPhone is not LTE. I’m not surprised at all. LTE isn’t ready for showtime in Apple’s book. I’d be surprised if the next iPhone on Verizon supported LTE. After that, maybe.
• The CDMA iPhone is a mutli-year, non-exclusive agreement. Can you say Sprint iPhone? Not an if, but a when.
• Existing Verizon customers can pre-order on 3 February, everyone else on 10 February from Verizon and Apple Stores. Nice to see Verizon taking care of their own first. A lot of folks have been waiting for a long while.

That’s about it. Verizon has an FAQ page.

Sidenote: Still not going to switch, but that Mobile Hotspot sure is tempting.

AT&T Seems Worried

AT&T seems to be attempting some damage control today on Twitter before Verizon’s big event tomorrow.

Personally, I think AT&T and Verizon both suck in their own ways. What I will be glad to see come tomorrow is consumer choice for a carrier. Fact is, Neither carrier covers everywhere. Some places have better AT&T coverage than Verizon coverage. And vice versa.

Will I be switching? No. I’m in contract until mid-2012, AT&T coverage is fine in my city (or at least in my home. There are some a couple dead spots around town), and the number one place I travel to several times a year (South Dakota) is getting AT&T coverage any time now.

But I am glad that those people who want an iPhone, but either can’t or don’t have decent AT&T coverage, will be able to get an iPhone on Verizon.

Either way, it’s still fun to sit back and watch AT&T wet themselves.

Looks Like the iPhone is Getting a New Coverage Map

So, Verizon sent out some invitations to an event next week in new York. Of course, the Internet lit up with rumors of a Verizon iPhone, and I promptly dismissed them as I figured such an announcement would be made by Apple and not Verizon. Then the Wall Street Journal threw in its two cents saying the event is indeed about the iPhone coming to Verizon.

That certainly caught my attention, as the Wall Street Journal has a great track record with Apple-related rumors. But I was still hung up about who the announcement was coming from.

The Chairman Gruber convinced me. Of course Apple can’t host it. Verizon is going to bash AT&T, and AT&T is still Apple’s partner.

So yes, things are definitely looking like a confirmed Verizon iPhone announcement. iPhone owners: will you be switching from AT&T to Verizon as soon as possible?

Me? I don’t have many issues with AT&T. I have great coverage here Lincoln, Nebraska, and only have troubles when traveling, which is only a few days per year. I may consider when my contract is up in Summer 2012, but I’m not going to shell out termination fees on two iPhone 4’s just to switch carriers when AT&T is doing just fine for me.

Just Like Ripping Off a Band-Aid

It should come as no surprise that many of the apps in the Mac App Store are existing Mac apps — many of them being paid apps.

Unfortunately, transitioning to the Mac App Store isn’t exactly a cake walk for either developers or users. Developers already have users on the old business model of issuing serial numbers and such, and users have that software. There isn’t a way for developers to easily move customers over to the Mac App Store, so there are a couple avenues to travel down:

1. Continue down the old road — selling and maintaining software through a web store.
2. Support the web store and the Mac App Store, essentially having two different variations of the same app out in the wild. Or,
3. Dive head first into the Mac App Store exclusively, and have customers re-buy apps they already own.

I don’t foresee option 1 lasting for very long. Many users, especially customers that don’t fully understand computers, are going to embrace the simplicity of the Mac App Store very quickly. Especially new Mac owners, since the Mac App Store will be their first and primary way of installing apps. One exception are apps that don’t meet the requirements of admittance into the Mac App Store. These apps will have a lot of extra work ahead of them to remain seen.

Option 2 is great for the short term. This is where many developers will sit for the time being, waiting to see which business model is more successful. Some developers may be utilizing this method until their next major release, requiring users on the old model to move to the Mac App Store at that time, as users are more likely to be understanding.

And then there are the developers who are bold and take option 3 right away. These are the developers who like to get things over with and rip off the band-aid quickly. It stings, its kind of ugly, but it the long run, the agony fades rapidly.

As I was listening to Episode 7 of Build & Analyze, Marco Arment said something profound about the Mac App Store [quoted tot he best of my ability]:

“I’ve always heard from developers that payment processing, serial number issuing and recovering, and installation support were always the three biggest support needs. This has solved all three of those. That’s awesome!” -Marco Arment

The developers behind Pixelmator are doing just that — diving head first into the Mac App Store in order to focus on their product. They explain their transition plan for existing customers very well, and sweeten the pot quite a bit. It is advantageous in the long run for existing customers to re-buy Pixelmator, which is now exclusive to the Mac App Store. However, they aren’t abandoning existing customers, they will receive free updates right up to version 2. But there will no longer be new customers under the old model. This allows the developers to focus less on supporting a store and focus more on development.

I mentioned the other day that Realmac Software has moved one of their products exclusively to the Mac App Store. I think they are dealing with this very well, too, in that they are refunding existing customers, who can then re-buy at a lower price. It has to sting in the short term, but I imagine in will pay off for Realmac in spades in the long term.

Not all developers are transitioning as gracefully, in my opinion. Existing users of CoverSutra are getting left in the cold at version 2.2.2, with no future updates, while version 2.5 goes exclusively to the Mac App Store. This doesn’t sit well with me, as buyers of CoverSutra 2 were promised free updates to version 3.0. Instead, users have to re-buy, or sit there knowing they won’t have support. It also doesn’t thrill me that the developer isn’t even apologetic in the slightest. Granted, everything would probably be peachy if the developer would have just slapped 3.0 on the app instead of 2.5. I understand her wanting to make a clean cut, but more respect should have been shown for those who bought CoverSutra. Hence, I am voting with my wallet, and not re-buying.

This transitional period of business models is interesting to say the least. It is especially intriguing to see how different developers handle the experience. I expect it won’t be too long until the dust settles.

The Mac App Store Opens for Business

Finally, the Mac App Store opened for business today (though far earlier than the rumored noon release). It is bundled with the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update, so you’ll need to run Software Update. Once you reboot after the update, you’ll have a shiny new blue icon in your Dock — App Store.

You’ll have to log in with your Apple ID — the same credentials you use for iTunes — and then you can be on your merry way to purchasing apps. And it has never been easier.

Say Goodbye to the .DMG

Installing apps has never been, well, all that easy. That’s not to say one couldn’t learn the procedure and just go through the menial steps, but there has been room for improvement for quite some time. I have seen many people running their apps from inside disk images (.dmg) because they didn’t know they needed to move the app into their Applications folder. Also, try explaining what a disk image is to someone that doesn’t know much about computing. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

The App Store makes installing apps as easy as two clicks. You click Install (or if the app is paid, you click its price), enter your password, click Buy to confirm, and the app literally zooms off the App Store page and into your Dock. It is also automatically delivered to your Applications folder. Honestly, installation doesn’t get a great deal simpler than this.

Updates

Another great feature is the App Store will notify when any of your apps have updates available, along with a list of the changes. Many third-party apps prior to today utilized Sparkle to notify and install updates, but Sparkle requires that a user opens the app for the updater to run. (By the way, it appears the developer of Sparkle “designed and implemented exciting new technology for the Installer that will be employed throughout Mac OS X” when he interned at Apple a while back, according to his resume).

Fact is, it’s easy to go for some time without an app, and you could miss out on some updates, even ones that introduce new features that might interest you in using the app again. The App Store should help mitigate those lapses. Either way, update notifications are welcome in my book.

The Future

I have no doubt about the Mac App Store being a wild success. I imagine the App Store will be the way most folks (read non-techy) discover new apps from here on out. Especially switchers. They’ll be introduced to it when they buy a new Mac at the Apple Store, and may not ever know that there is another way to get apps on the Mac (kind of unlikely, but you never know).

At the end of the day, I am all for making user experience easier.

Mac App Store Expectations

With the launch of the Mac App Store (and presumably Mac OS X 10.6.6) a mere 18 hours away, some developers are taking a moment to set expectations regarding pricing and upgrade paths for existing customers.

One of the more notable developers in the Mac Community, Realmac Software, weighed in with their opinions and product roadmap. Yesterday, Realmac shared their thoughts on how Mac software will take shape in the near future, becoming more focused in experience and lighter on consumers’ wallets.

And then today they put their money where there mouth is when they detailed pricing for their apps on the Mac App Store. Realmac’s flagship app Rapidweaver will debut at a steep discount. On their web store, the app sells for $79, with upgrades from previous versions running for $39. The Mac App Store price will match the upgrade price, so upgraders can choose which path they wish to take. For new users, it’s nearly a no-brainer to go with the Mac App Store.

Realmac’s second most notable product, LittleSnapper, has it’s price lowered to $25 in both stores. LittleSnapper normally runs $39.

Finally, Realmac’s newest app, Courier, is taking the most drastic plunge — it has been removed from the company’s own store entirely, going exclusively to the Mac App Store. And that’s not all. The app’s usual $19 price is being cut to $5. As you can see, Realmac is leaping into the Mac App Store in a big way. Thankfully, customers who previously purchased Courier can get in touch with Realmac for a refund after they go grab the App Store version.

I am sure other developers have begun to announce things in preparation for tomorrow, but Realmac really caught my eye today. They are taking a bold plunge, and I hope it pays off for them. I, for one, am an avid user of LittleSnapper, and I’ll be scooping up Courier straight away tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see how developers handle the transition to the Mac App Store. My guess is that many will sell and maintain a version on their own site and the Mac App Store for a while, and then go exclusively to the Mac App Store with the next major release of an app.

Interesting times indeed.

Mac App Store to Launch at High Noon Tomorrow

Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop has little birdies telling him that the Mac App Store’s launch tomorrow will take place at high noon on the east coast (that’s 9 AM for west coasters).

As far as I can tell, Dalrymple is rarely wrong when it comes to Apple rumors. I’d wager he has some very well-informed sources at Apple.

Apple Introduces Support Profile

This morning Apple provided a new service for users to make things easier if support and service is ever needed. The Apple Support Profile is a central hub of information for you to keep track of your past and current Apple computers and devices, their serial numbers, warranties, and records of any service performed on those products.

Another nice feature is VoicePass. If you register your phone number(s) with Apple and allow them to use the number for VoicePass, the next time you need to call Apple, they will know who you are straight away.

Also, if you choose, you can have Apple send you a text message for service updates.

All in all, Support Profile looks to be a great resource for both the user and Apple.

A Very Happy Mac

Press the power button. Hear the delightful ‘bong’ of the bootup chime. Smile upon seeing the Happy Mac.

One of my fondest memories from my early days of computing was getting to toy with my parents’ Mac Classic. There were few games, but I was fascinated nonetheless. Our home Mac was light years ahead of what we had at my elementary school (IBM’s running DOS). Ever since, I’ve always liked to be ahead of the curve technologically.

I have always loved that Happy Mac, and I am a bit saddened that it isn’t around in OS X anymore. Thankfully, my wife knows how much I love the Happy mac icon, and when the icon’s designer, Susan Kare, started selling prints, well, let’s just say my wife gave me the perfect Christmas gift.

I have the 8.5 x 11” print, No. 55 of 200, signed by the artist herself.

This is by far my most prized gift from Christmas, and is the perfect blend of geekery and art. Ms. Kare has many icons to choose from. Check them out.