You can get it in the iTunes App Store now.
Claymation version is still available through iOS System Settings (not changeable in app), but the default changes back to the old artwork. I hope everyone likes this version better! We’ll be doing smaller more incremental changes from now on… please let us know what you’d like to see in the iTunes comments. Thanks!
We’ve just released a small bug fix update for WriteRoom for Mac. Thanks to Grey we’ve even got release notes on the website now. I expect to update the Mac App Store version later this morning.
We are getting reports that some people are getting charged twice for PlainText’s ‘Buy Ads’ in-app purchase. This is definitely not our intention, and we are trying to get to the bottom of it. Here’s what we know so far, what we suspect might be the problem, and what we are doing about it.
We know that the ‘Remove Ads’ in app purchase is Non-Consumable… that means it should be impossible for the same iTunes account to be charged twice for it. We also know that multiple users are reporting this problem, and they all seem to buy out of non-US app stores. Since the vast majority of our users use the US app store we “think” this problem is somehow limited to non US app stores.
Here’s what we think: Many of the people reporting this problem might not actually be getting double charged. Instead the problem might be some bad UI on our part that causes them to think are getting charged twice. I’ll explain:
Below the ‘Remove Ads’ button we placed the label “Will restore previous purchases of ‘Remove Ads’ without charge”. Our intention is to let people (in general) know that they wouldn’t be double charged. But it can also be read as a specific message to the user saying that they won’t be changed again even if they haven’t bought the purchase in the first place.
And for international customers it’s quite easy for them to think they did make the purchase in the past. Because in the past we only used the iAd network, and so no ads were ever displayed for most people using non US app stores. With PlainText 1.4 we’ve added in the AdMob network which shows ads everywhere. So its quite possible people are thinking that their purchase got lost when they updated PlainText (that shouldn’t happen) and then think that they get charged twice when really they are buying for the first time.
The next PlainText release will clear up the interface and add an explicit “Restore Previous Purchases” button. We think that should fully solve the problem and we should have added that in the first place.
The above is our current theory. The other possibility is there is some bug in iTune’s validation of In-App purchases. A possibility for sure, but we think lots more apps would be running into this problem if that were the case. If you do think this is the case (you really did get charged twice) please go through your iTunes order history and send us the information about all PlainText ‘Remove Ads’ purchases so we can send the info to Apple. Make sure to include the “total charge” for each of these purchases… you might see multiples listed, but we think only the first one will have a change, the rest will be listed as free.
Thanks, Jesse Grosjean
PlainText 1.4 is here:
Bubbles update reaction is rather spectacular. Live and learn, my fault for not knowing market well enough. Update will be coming soon.
I wrote Bubbles for my daughter Jaeda as a quick and fun project to get into iOS development. It’s been a long time coming, but today we have a major update that I hope you’ll try out now.
Young Hoo started the new version this fall, which I’ve since continued working on. Adam Fisher joined us and has created some wonderful claymation artwork that I think all the toddlers out there will really enjoy. Please try it out on a nearby toddler and let us know what they’d like to see next!
The Bubbles app is just an engine, all Bubble graphics and behavior are provided via plugins that are scripted in Lua. We are using Cocos2d for drawing with Chipmunk for a physics library. And wax for bridging between Lua and Objective-c.
If you’d like to try creating your own Bubble set (Grandma’s head floating around?) email Grey (grey@hogbaysoftware.com), and he’ll send you a Mac version of the app that makes development and testing easier. There’s zero documentation, but you should be able to get pretty far by copying and modifying the default bubble set logic. We are not sure what we’ll do with this plugin aspect, just trying to gauge interest right now.
The short answer is they don’t work together, I thought they would, but 2.2.3 is now a 10.6 only update.
The longer answer… In the back-and-forth process of getting TaskPaper approved by the Mac App Store, we had to swap out the query parser for search. Probably due to developer stupidity (me) I just couldn’t get the antler generated parser lib signed correctly in the app store version. So instead I switched 2.2.3 to use same parser as the iOS version (written in objective-c which I can understand), which seemed to keep TaskPaper from being rejected time and time again during the MAS review process.
But turns out that the query parser is using some NSPredicate strings that don’t parse correctly on 10.5 and thus all the crashing. Grrg, big headache. The joke, is this update is very small functionality wise… just lots of quick hacking trying to get it built for the app store. I think going forward I’m just going to make this a 10.6 release and drop support for 10.5. If you still have 10.5 please just use TaskPaper 2.2.2.
TaskPaper for Mac and iOS hasn’t had many updates for the past year. The iOS version is soon getting a big update that will add Dropbox sync support. But I don’t see any changes coming for the Mac version in the mid term. I am working (with help even) on a big rewrite update, but as the TextMate guy will tell you, those tend to take a long time.
TaskPaper is now available in the Mac App Store. In celebration (marketing!!!) it’ on-sale both in the App Store and on my own website store for $4.99. Price will return to $29.99 on Friday.
The new update to WriteRoom is out, and has also come to the Mac App Store!
For a very short time, WriteRoom will be on sale in the App Store for $4.99 (Mac App Store price only). If you are a current user and want to switch to the App Store for updates, now is the time! The price will be going back up to $24.99 on February 26th.
WriteRoom will still be available from the Hog Bay Software website and you can update the app directly: WriteRoom menu —> Check for Updates.
The only differences between the website and App Store versions are the update methods.
Temporary issue with QuickCursor and WriteRoom: We’re using a different Bundle ID for WriteRoom 2.5, which means that until the next QuickCursor update it won’t show up in the ‘Edit In…’ list unless you manually add the new Bundle ID. Instructions for how to do this are in the QuickCursor User’s Guide (QuickCursor menu bar icon —> Help, see page 5) or see this forum post for step-by-step instructions.
Preferences: If your WriteRoom preferences get reset during the update to version 2.5, see this post for how to restore them.
