General

Fun with Passwords

March 18, 2009 by Ellen

Can you guess the 20 most common passwords?

Sporcle, a really fun site where I’ve been spending too much time, has a game where you do just that.

I only got 5, but looking at the answers, I maybe could have come up with at least 2 of the others, if I hadn’t given up so fast. On the other hand, I’m not convinced their answers are all that accurate. They’re very male, if nothing else.

But, if you use any of these as your passwords - don’t. Pick something a lot more secure. Your passwords aren’t protecting just your email and facebook pages. They’re protecting your money. Probably all of it except what’s in your pocket right now.

Don’t use weak passwords and don’t use the same ones everywhere. Do change them frequently and store them safely.

iPills is Out and Free!

March 11, 2009 by Marc

I wanted to let everyone know that our latest iPhone offering, iPills, is now available in the AppStore. The best is that it is FREE!

So what is iPills anyhow? I’ll describe it by explaining WHY we made it. In this day and age it seems like everyone is taking something. From allergy and cholesterol meds to fistfulls of asprin and “little blue pills”, we’ve all got something we’re on. At the same time, we’re all busier than ever and when someone says “Did you take your pill?” it’s easy to go “Um, well, maybe?”

Enter iPills! With iPills you can easily keep track of what you’re taking and when you take it (or miss it!). You can even email a history to yourself or a caregiver showing exactly what you took and when you took it.

Now to answer the inevitable “Free? Seriously, dude. What are you thinking?” question. I’m going to be honest - WE like this idea but we don’t know if YOU will like it. By making it free, we can find out if this really is something people need. If it is, start sending your requests! If the app is popular enough, we’ll take those ideas, expand the app and create a Pro version (available at a reasonable price of course!)

So go ahead and check out the web page,or just grab a copy today! It’s FREE so you’ve got nothing to lose - and who knows - it just might make your life a little bit easier!

PS: And no, developing this had no impact on eWallet or ListPro. Both of those products are handled by different teams - and to give you an update, we’re all using ListPro on our iPhones here and it rocks. I can’t WAIT until it’s finished and we can fire it off! I’ll definitely keep you updated!

Final App Store Survey Results

March 10, 2009 by Ellen

What One Change You’d Like

Here’s the result of the final question in our survey (check the archives if you want the rest), as well as the winners of the gift cards.

To the question: “What one change would you like most to see in the iTunes App Store?”, over 60% of you picked free trials. I guess given that so many of you indicated that you bought apps regardless of price (or at least didn’t just buy the $1 and $2 ones), trials makes a lot of sense. 18% opted for better categorization, with just under 10% wanting better find. Specifically:

Of the “other” replies, you asked for:

• All of the above!

• All of these, app store is almost unusable

• General change to the style how people use (browse) the app store

• More serious apps like eWallet and less junk

• “Best of breed” featured apps, regardless of popularity (# of downloads)

• Better search and iTunes like search playlists (to exclude junk devs)

• Less crap!

• Moderated reviews

• Review moderation. Many reviews cite problems that are due to apple

• Dated reviews with version reviewed

• Sort by rating

• Rankings based on revenue

• Amazon.com-like functionality: wish-lists, similar-apps-bought, order-by-ratings

• A wish list to keep track of apps, music, etc. until I can decide on them

• Wish List capacity to store for later purchase

• A way to save a list of apps I am interested in.

• Robust wish list (as at Amazon)

• More game options

• Would be nice to have a VIDEO review on apps (esp games) rather than on YouTube

• Demo capability

• The original ability to see all aps by post date

• Canadian redeem codes, for the love of Bob!

I grouped those for better readability, but otherwise didn’t edit them at all.

I’m happy to see that Apple took down reviews from non-buyers late last week. I hope - and believe - we’ll keep seeing improvements to the App Store. Find and trials would be great ones!

OK, and now for the 12 gift card winners. Congratulations to: Ken M., David B., Robin C., Addison H., Gina G., Dennis B., Drew C., Terry W., Louie L., Susan L., Nicole T., and Paul T. You’ve each won a US$10 gift card. People in the U.S. will get iTunes gift cards; people outside the U.S. will get gift cards from your local Amazon site. I’ve sent out emails about these already; if you think you’re one of the winners and didn’t see one, please be sure to whitelist emails from iliumsoft.com. I’ll re-send them to anyone I didn’t hear back from.

Once again, thanks to everyone for participating!

Still More App Store Survey Results

March 4, 2009 by Ellen

Results #3: Everything Else

Here are the results of most of the rest of the questions on our App Store Survey. Earlier results are here (how you find apps) and here (how you evaulate apps

To start - I’m not going to publish anything about the pricing questions. Not because I want to keep the info to myself, but because too many people wrote to me that the questions didn’t make sense. I think the answers are probably pretty useless, except to say that people really don’t insist on free or even inexpensive apps, at least not the people who took the survey.

For the question of How do you browse and shop on the iTunes App Store?, the result was split so evenly between on a desktop, on a device, and both that the chart’s really boring:

For the question of about how many apps you add to your iPhone/iPod Touch per month, almost 80% of you said 1 - 10.

Of those apps, most of you said that 30% to above 60% were free, rather than paid:

and that same number will still installed:

This seems to contradict Pinch Media’s really exellent presentation analyzing how people use apps on their iPhones. I’d believe them, rather than me. They have a lot more - and better - data. If you haven’t seen it, check it out; it’s really interesting.

OK, very soon I’ll post the response to the question of what one change you want to see most, as well as the names of the gift card winners. I’m closing the survey today; once again, many thanks to everyone who participated.

More App Store Survey Results

February 26, 2009 by Ellen

Results #2: How You Evaluate Apps

Today I’m writing about the questions that asked how you evaluate apps. And yes, I’m still surprised.

The longer version follows. In case you missed it, last week we posted a survey about how people use the iTunes App Store. I published results about how people find apps a few days ago.

So you all do a lot more reading than I’d have thought. I really thought people skimmed descriptions, looked at screenshots, and pretty much ignored reviews.

I was wrong.

For the question about what you look at when evaluating apps, screenshots and descriptions got the highest score, but reviews were very close behind, and even other apps scored between “sometimes” and “usually”.

But in answer to how carefully you read the descriptions, almost 70% said you read them completely, with only about 27% choosing “just skim”. I’ll admit it - I’m a skimmer.

And most people read reviews. Over half read enough to get a good consensus, another quarter read or skim a few. Only 11% just glance at the average (read later this week for info on why the averages don’t seem to be accurate), though only about 6% read a lot of reviews.

Again, more results, plus the prizes, soon! And the survey’s still open so jump in if you’re interested.

Advisory Board Assignment #2: Windows Mobile Ideas

February 25, 2009 by Marc

The Advisory Board is back! For those of you new to the blog, the “Advisory Board” is you! Here at Ilium Software we’re extremely interested in what folks have to say about our products. We take the advice we receive to heart and it plays a major role in deciding what to do in new versions of our applications.

So, let’s get to the assignment! Read on after the jump!

Advisory Board Assignment #2

As most people know, Windows Mobile is a big deal for us. We love the platform and love writing software for it. Even with the excitement that the iPhone has whipped up, we still love Windows Mobile. And with WM 6.5 just around the corner we are really geeked about the future of the platform.

What I’d like to hear from you is what YOU want to see us do for Windows Mobile in the coming year. Examples of the sort of ideas we are looking for include:

• Ideas for improving eWallet and ListPro.
• Old products that you’d like to see us spruce up or bring back.
• New products you’d like to see .
• Stuff you want us to avoid!

Don’t hold back on this. No idea is too big or too small. We want to hear them all. And let us know what is the most important to you. New features? New products? Updated appearance? And what is the one thing you can’t live without?

Considering how fantastic the replies were in the first advisory board assignment, I’m extremely excited to see the results here. Thanks everyone!

-Marc