General

Random iPhone Thoughts

January 11, 2007 by Ellen

Everybody’s thinking and writing about the iPhone, so here’s my 2 cents worth ….

As a consumer - I never bought an iPod because my 2 top requirements for an mp3 player are that I can use it with gloves on (this is Michigan, and I walk to work), and that I can easily replace the battery (I may not have been born with a battery curse, but I’ve definitely picked one up somewhere, batteries tend to die when I’m nearby). The iPod doesn’t let me do either of those, and I doubt the iPhone will either.

As a developer - there’s not a definite statement that the iPhone won’t allow third-party apps, but that’s the way it looks. Too bad for us, if it’s true.

As a market watcher - Microsoft imitates a lot of Apple’s successes, but I can’t see them ever adopting the “closed to third-party apps” approach. Michael Mace wrote about the consumer vs. professional audience, and I think he’s called that exactly right. In fact, I think he’s written the best commentary on the whole thing, and anyone who’s interested in the iPhone and hasn’t read that yet should do so.

Tag - I'm It Too!

January 5, 2007 by Julie

Ellen walked into my office this morning and told me I’d been tagged, and I had no idea what she was talking about. It sounded like a bad thing at first, but I’ve found out that it’s just my turn in an online game of tag that’s been going on for a few weeks now. Doug over at Just Another Mobile Monday chose me. The rules are pretty simple, I have to tell everyone five things about myself, and then I get to choose five unsuspecting bloggers to tag next. It’s like a big ol’ chain letter. So here are my five things; I’ll try to make it as fascinating as possible:

1. This June, I will finally get my Bachelor’s Degree in web development, after eight years of going to college full-time. That’s right: I’ve changed my major four times, and dropped a heck of a lot of money in the process, but it’s almost over, and I can’t wait. I actually want to take a year off and then start working on a Master’s, but I haven’t found a program yet that interests me.
2. I love to read. I don’t get a chance to do it while I have classes, but I read three books while I was on my winter break. I read Lamb and Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore, and Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.
3. I have two cats. Seuss weighs 22 pounds likes people food, including lettuce and pasta. Campbell weighs 14 pounds and does not like people food. Unfortunately, he eats everything else, inlcuding duct tape, wood, and plastic. (Don’t call the Humane Society - he has a chewing addiction. I’ve tried several methods to stop him, but none work. He was never weaned right. If anyone has ideas, I’m not kidding, I’d love to hear them.)
4. I had my dad make me a wooden Christmas tree this year, so Campbell wouldn’t eat the branches. It was pretty darn cool, too, but the cat still chewed through three of the limbs. That’s determination!
5. I collect Converse hightops. Right now I have eleven pairs. I’m trying to pick a favorite pair as I’m typing, but that’s too hard. I think it’s a tie between the red plaid, the ones with comics printed on them, or the black ones with little skull and crossbones on them.

So, there you have it. That’s me, in a nutshell. So now I get to tag five more people. And let me tell you, it wasn’t easy trying to think of five people - this game has been going on for a few weeks now, and a lot of bloggers have already been tagged! I chose:

1. Jimmie Geddes (GadgetsontheGo)
2. Sammy McLoughlin (PalmAddict)
3. Todd Ogasawara (MobileViews Blog)
4. Warner Crocker (GottaBeMobile)
5. Doug Miller (Daily Gadget)

Tag, guys, you’re it now!

Where's my template editor?!?

January 3, 2007 by Marc

Every time we release a new version of the software we not only get to announce what new features we added, but everyone quickly finds out which features we didn’t add. This makes a new release the best thing in the world for some people and a real frustration for others. For those of you who are frustrated, we hear you. It’s always annoying when a product you really like does an upgrade, and you discover that they didn’t include that one thing you’ve been asking for since 1997!

It happens to everyone, including us. Take ActiveSync as a great example. Pocket PCs have File Synchronization. Smartphones don’t. With every new release of ActiveSync or Windows Mobile for Smartphone we all cross our fingers and chant “Please include file sync! Please include file sync!” and every time….nothin’. Why Microsoft? Why?

Well, I can’t speak for why Microsoft does what they do but I can tell you about us. Here is what we consider when we try to make decisions about new features. There are always additional things that can influence a decision but these are the biggies.

What Users Want This is huge. We keep all sorts of lists of the things that users ask us for. We research the ideas, check out the options, and explore ways we could do them. The more people that ask for something, the more likely we are to include it. This is a prime area that we look at when considering a new feature.

What Users Hate Sometimes people come right out and say what they hate, other times it becomes clear in frustrated support emails about a particular issue. Either way we track this stuff and work to improve it. Areas of major annoyance get top ranking on the big list-o-future-features.

Where the Market is Headed We need to watch which way the wind is blowing. If we don’t keep up with current market trends we’re not going to be around to MAKE another upgrade. These are tough because sometimes people aren’t asking for the thing yet, but if we don’t add it we won’t be competitive 6 months from now. Windows Mobile Smartphone is a great example of this. We wrote a smartphone version before there was a smartphone on the market. This meant taking time that could have been used to add features to Pocket PC, but that’s where the market was going so we had to blaze a trail in that direction!

What Microsoft/Palm/Etc. Tells Us To Do I posted about this awhile back. There are things we have to do whether we like it or not. A great example in eWallet 5.0 is moving around a lot of files the software uses. From the info we’ve received, files that change as the user does different things (templates, sync files, custom graphics etc.) must NOT be in the program directory in the future. This means we had to redesign the file structure for eWallet 5.0, a big undertaking, at the expense of adding features. Failing to do so could lead to the software not working at all on new versions of Windows Mobile!

Making Things Better for New Users There are times when we need to make changes that will benefit new users more than existing users. For the existing users, they’ve often become used to whatever weird thing we did in the past. The problem is that every new user has to “get used” to that thing as well. To that end, we often make changes that will make the experience for a new user significantly better. This can be really frustrating for people who are used to the product working a certain way. There are a few of these in eWallet 5.0 and I’ll blog about them later, but these are things we just have to bite the bullet and do sometimes.

What We Love I’d be misleading you if I didn’t include this one. Every so often there is a feature that we really love so we add it. Sometimes these turn out to be the things everyone wanted but didn’t know they needed. Other times they are that feature that makes everyone wonders if maybe there is something in the water over here in Ann Arbor. Most features get added for the other reasons I listed but this one does come up every so often.

So there you have it. A few of the big things that we look at as we add new features to our products. Not a comprehensive list since there are LOTS of ways a feature could end up in the product, but a good descriptions of the major ones.

And don’t forget the first thing I posted! We take requests VERY seriously so send them our way! (Or post in a comment here even! We’re listening!)

Happy Holidays from Ilium Software!

December 22, 2006 by Kevin

Santa, I want eWallet 5.0 and Screen Capture and world peace and a pony….

(Thanks to our product manager Marc for arranging to have Santa come in during his annual pre-Christmas publicity rounds!)

'Tis the Season for New Freeware

December 21, 2006 by Julie

Maybe it’s the holiday spirit, or leftover giddiness from the release of eWallet 5.0 last week, but I’ve decided today would be a great day to release another new product - and this time, it’s free!

Ilium Software Screen Capture is a fast and easy-to-use application that lets you take screenshots quickly on your Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone. In only a few steps, the program is ready to take all the screenshots you need at the push of a button.

Ilium Software Screen Capture is the newest of many handy utilities and fun games available for free on our website. Visit our freeware page today to download any of these great programs.

eWallet 5.0: Just What Your Passwords Have Been Waiting For...

December 13, 2006 by Julie

That’s right - eWallet 5.0 has been released! You may have heard us talking lately about eWallet 5.0 in the open beta, or maybe you even downloaded the beta version yourself, but now - the real deal is here!

For those of you who didn’t test drive eWallet 5.0 in the beta, or haven’t heard about it yet, let me recap some of the great enhancements we’ve made with this release. eWallet 5.0 includes a simple-to-use Sync Setup Interface, and gives you lots of options when it comes to synchronizing your information: you can sync with multiple PCs or PDAs, even USB drives and computers on a network. Plus, we’ve partnered with FilesAnywhere so you can automatically synchronize all your wallet files on your Windows PC to a secured location and access that data from any computer with an internet connection.

If you’re a current eWallet user wondering if you should upgrade, or if you’ve never tried eWallet before, version 5.0 gives you the benefits listed above, and more. We’ve updated eWallet with a great new set of icons, and added “Always-On” password protection to give you that extra little boost of security. Plus, the same great features of previous eWallet versions are still included, like nested categories, limitless wallet files, and the ability to set up your information however you want, so you’ll be able to find it all as quickly as possible.

Sound interesting? You can visit our site to find out more about eWallet, or read all about upgrading here.