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WM 6 is here – and Ilium Software is ready!

by Marc

crossbow.jpgIt’s semi-official! Windows Mobile 6 (aka Crossbow) is here (sort of)! The good news is that all the latest versions of Ilium Software’s products are 100% compatible with the new versions of the OS. We’ve been working with Crossbow for a few months now and tested all of our latest releases. From eWallet and ListPro to NewsBreak, Keep Track, and DockWare Pro, your apps will continue to work great on your 6.0 devices.

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to drop us a line. Our support folks are here M-F from 8:30am-5:00pm ET. We’re plowing through the eWallet 5.0 release flood (people seem to REALLY like it) but we’re still getting back to folks within 48-hours so you shouldn’t have to wait. Or call us if you need something right away!

(Not So) Stupid eWallet Tricks!

by Marc

trick.jpgWe’ve all found them. Little tricks, tweaks, and techniques that make our favorite programs even better. I received an email recently from KS recently suggesting that we do a blog post where we ask all of you to share your favorite eWallet tricks.

“Great idea!” I said! So here it is! Please take a moment to share your favorite eWallet shortcuts, tricks, and advice!

Time to Give Stuff Away!

by Julie

carrot2.jpgWell, the month of January is over, and it’s time to announce the first winner of our Giving Stuff Away! contest. And let me tell you, it was no easy task. Not the choosing, because that’s completely random of course, but the writing of the script that would do the choosing was more than I had anticipated. I thought, oh sure, I’ll write up a little somethin’ to grab a random comment from the database. In fact, I didn’t think I’d have to do any work at all to get it done, because I’d just done something very similar a few weeks ago. But it turns out all that crazy spam we delete is still lurking around in the background, and we sure don’t want those spammers winning anything, now do we?

But don’t worry, I’ve got it all under control now, and here it is, the winner of the contest for January: Johan, who commented on the post Caching vs Copyright.

Congratulations, Johan! I’ve just sent an email to the address you supplied when you wrote your comment. If you don’t get the email, check your junk folders – I did use some “spammy” words like congrats and contest – or reply to this post and we can get it all straightened out.

To everyone else, it’s February 1st and time to start all over again. Keep the comments coming and maybe this month, the winner will be you! 

Confusing Names!

by Marc

I’ve written posts about naming products before and I gotta say, it’s a tough job. You search and search for just the right name, think you’ve found something really cool, and then…well then you usually realize it’s taken…so you search and search for ANOTHER name, think it’s really cool, go with it and find out later that it confuses the heck out of everyone!

A great example (and my current naming challenge) are our Professional Editions. Our Professional Editions are just a bundle that includes the product for a PDA AND Desktop for one price. Unfortunately people constantly get the impression that there is some sort of feature difference. Maybe the “Professional” version has more bells and whistles? Better encryption?

Unfortunately I can’t blame them. Often a “Professional” version of something IS a version with a number of different features not present in the “standard” edition. Well, it’s time to clear things up.

We’re getting ready to select a new name for our Professional editions bundles. So far we aren’t happy with the results. The biggest problem is the names just end up really long. Then it struck me…just ask the world! Someone is bound to have a great solution to this problem. So anyone have any ideas, insights, or comments?

Getting the Word Out

by Marc

wallet120.jpgOne of the toughest things to do as a (relatively) small software developer is to get the word out about your product. We don’t have a multi-million dollar ad budget or a marketing department filled with people thinking up clever new ways to let people know how badly they need our software. At the same time we have some great products that people get really hooked on once they start using them.

Eric Sink, a person in our industry who I have a ton of respect for, wrote a blog post today about a near disaster with his laptop. It no longer recognized his fingerprint and he couldn’t remember the ultra secure password he’d selected for it! I read articles like this one quite often and all I can think is “We have the solution! Why doesn’t everyone know about it??”

[Read more…] about Getting the Word Out

Identifying Installation Files

by Ellen

File Properties

When I bought my newest PC, I started keeping my program installation files. I do this because I don’t necessarily want to upgrade if I need to reinstall something – this isn’t a cost issue; I’ve just learned that if I’m happy with a program version, I’m not necessarily happier with a new version (as is probably obvious by the fact that I’m still using the “classic” Windows interface, above).

But I’m not quite disciplined enough to remember to erase the installations when I decide not to keep a program, so I’ve got quite a collection at this point. And as a result of some PC problems over the weekend, I ended up trying to clean out the folder where I save them.

I’d never given much thought to the program properties of the installation files we make – I know that checking them for correct descriptions, version numbers and digital signatures is a part of our QA process, but pretty much had that in the “necessary evil” thought pile, or maybe even the “unnecessary overhead” one. But trying to figure out what installation files went with what programs on my PC made clear to me the value of that info. I didn’t have that many installation files that I wasn’t able to identify without running them, but the ones I had were pretty irritating (and I wasn’t in the best mood to start, given that my PC wasn’t booting well, or writing CDs).

Anyway, it’s nice to see that following the rules does have a point, at least once in a while.

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