Ilium Software Blog

eWallet 8.14 for macOS update now available

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 18:03:01 +0000

The new eWallet® 8.14 release for macOS adds additional support for macOS Tahoe 26.

macOS Tahoe 26

The significant visual change in this release is the additional support for Apple’s macOS Tahoe 26. A transparent menubar, liquid glass controls, updated toolbars, and other elements are all designed by Apple to draw more focus on your content. And eWallet’s app icon has been updated as well, so if you’ve select Dark, Clear, or Tinted for the Icon & widget style, eWallet’s icon will adapt to the look you’ve chosen.

eWallet 8.14 for iPhone & iPad

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 17:26:52 +0000

The new eWallet® 8.14 release for iPhone & iPad adds additional support for iOS and iPadOS 26.

iOS / iPadOS 26

The major changes in this release add additional support for version 26 of Apple’s iOS and iPadOS. This means the controls in eWallet get the new glass effects on both iPhone and iPad. In addition, the iPad version has been updated to support flexible window sizes as well as menus. And last but not least, the application icon has been updated per Apple’s guidelines for a better appearance, especially on the new OS versions.

eWallet 8.13 for iPhone & iPad adds Password Reset Option

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 13:00:00 +0000

The new eWallet® 8.13 release for iPhone & iPad adds a Password Reset option and the ability to print cards.

Emergency Password Reset

eWallet now provides the ability to reset your wallet’s password if you have forgotten it. Normally, knowing the wallet password is essential for using eWallet. But if you rely on facial recognition or fingerprint scanning to unlock your wallet, you don’t need to enter your password everyday. You may find that after a while you can’t remember what your password is. If facial recognition or fingerprint scanning suddenly stops working due to device system security, which can potentially happen quite frequently, you would then be unable to access the passwords and other important information in your wallet. If that happens, you can now use eWallet’s Emergency Password Reset to gain access to your wallet again.

eWallet 8.12 update for macOS now available

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:00:00 +0000

eWallet screenshot

This new eWallet® 8.12 release for macOS is packed with a host of new features and improvements.

Revamped Editing Experience

Farewell to the Drawer: Enter the Properties Panel

The once-familiar Properties Drawer for editing cards has now gracefully stepped aside to make room for the new Properties Panel. This panel, which can be moved independently of the main eWallet window, offers a more intuitive and flexible editing experience. It aligns with Apple’s latest design guidelines, ensuring a seamless integration with the macOS ecosystem.

eWallet now syncs via Google Drive and OneDrive

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:46:58 +0000

Cloud image

Cloud options

eWallet® offers multiple options to sync your data securely across devices and computers. In the past, if you choose to sync via the cloud, you were limited to either Apple’s iCloud (for an all Apple scenario) or Dropbox. eWallet 8.11 now offers two major new options for cloud services: Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Configure eWallet once and then sync is pretty much automatic going forward.

Apple, Privacy, and What's my phone's name?!

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Apple has a strong focus on privacy and we believe that’s a good thing. For example, all third-party apps need to ask for permission to access your personal information such as location, contacts, calendars, and photos. An app using the microphone or camera requires your permission as well. And iOS 16 debuts a new feature called Safety Check that allows you to quickly stop sharing your private information if your personal safety is at risk.

Ilium Software spotlighted by Google Play

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 19:37:46 +0000

We have been spotlighted by Google Play on #WeArePlay! We are one of 3 companies selected to represent Michigan. We are of course very pleased and honored to be included in this group. Congratulations to all the featured companies!

Click the graphic above or #WeArePlay to see all the great stories. (And small hint, click on Michigan to see ours).

Thanks for all your support and as always, reach out if you have any questions or comments.

ListPro for iPhone update now available

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 18:00:00 +0000

The latest ListPro® update, with support for iOS 15.5, is now available on iPhone.

Quick note

Just a quick note to let you know about the changes in the latest version of ListPro. Many of them were behind-the scenes infrastructure type changes, but there are some clearly visible updates as well. The biggest noticeable area is better support for iOS 15 (including 15.5). As one example, buttons in toolbars should be much easier to see with this update. We made some improvements to landscape as well, taking advantage of the additional screen width.

eWallet updates featuring thousands of card icons now available

Thu, 19 May 2022 13:00:00 +0000

The latest eWallet® updates, with support for thousands of card icons are now available on Android, iPhone and iPad, Mac, and Windows PC (see below for platform details).

Emoji image

We want more card icons!

eWallet users have told us they really like to customize the look of their cards, and one way to easily do that is with the icon that can be displayed in the card’s corner. This same icon shows up in your list of cards and categories too, making spotting your card quick work. eWallet has more nearly 50 built-in icons to choose from but sometimes that’s simply not enough. Then we thought, what about using Emoji as icons? There are thousands of them on almost every platform; many more in addition to the smileys we usually think of. People, Animals, Food, Travel, Activities/Sports and so many more. There are over 3,000 emoji you can choose from to customize your cards. You can even search to find the emoji that best fits your particular card and eWallet will size it and place it, just like the built-in icons.

eWallet 8.6 update for iOS now available in App Store

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 14:00:00 +0000

eWallet® 8.6 for iOS* (iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) is now in the App Store. The update adds several user-requested features regarding customizing cards.

What’s New in this version

Added new Standard card style setting on cards to improve how card background images look when used in eWallet on multiple platforms
You can now import pictures directly from Files (in addition to the Camera and Photo Library) when adding card backgrounds or picture cards
eWallet now uses a monospaced, serifed font for hidden fields to better distinguish certain characters
Sensitive information copied to the clipboard is now cleared after a user configurable period of time (iOS 10+)
Improved support for camera permission
Built-in password generator will now create random passwords up to 100 characters
Other miscellaneous fixes and enhancements

Card backgrounds

eWallet makes it easy to add information to its cards and it is only a couple of taps or clicks to change the card background color and icon on the card. Some people go a step further and add custom backgrounds to the card, either as a logo, a way to differentiate the card, or an actual photo of a real card. One of the things that’s traditionally been a bit tricky about backgrounds has been getting them to look the same across eWallet platforms where the screen sizes can be significantly different.

eWallet 8.6 for Android now available!

Thu, 06 May 2021 17:00:00 +0000

We’re pleased to announce that we just released eWallet® 8.6 for Android with several new features and it is now available in the Google Play and Amazon app stores. The new release is built to take advantage of Android 11, has improved biometric authentication prompting, and improved clearing of the clipboard across different device types. We added a new font for better password legibility in hidden fields, for those cases where you need to read the password. We also added a popular request: allowing the creation of no-password wallets for those cases where you want to organize information but not password protect it.

eWallet 8.5.5 for Windows PC (desktop) now available

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 14:14:42 +0000

eWallet® 8.5.5 for Windows PC is now available.

Building on the 8.5 release, this new version now has better support for users running in a business environment under Microsoft’s Terminal Server. Ever had trouble telling a capital “i” from the number one in your password? Passwords are more legible now with a new font for hidden fields that makes those characters (along with zeros and the letter “O”) easier to differentiate. We’ve made pasting cards a bit easier too; you no longer need to select the category icon before pasting a card. While we were at it, we remastered eWallet’s built-in documentation (accessible from the ? icon in eWallet’s upper-right corner), and if you prefer PDF or EPUB, those are available now too.

eWallet 8.5 Update featuring Apple Silicon and Big Sur support now in Mac App Store

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 15:00:00 +0000

![eWallet header logo]/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/e-wallet.png)

eWallet® 8.5 for macOS is now in the Mac App Store. The update adds support for Apple’s new Apple silicon chip as well as the recently released Big Sur version of macOS.

New from Apple

There’s been a lot going on at Apple with Macs, not the least of which is transitioning from Intel-based chipsets to their own Apple silicon. Apple also released macOS Big Sur with a refreshed and redesigned interface. eWallet for macOS will run natively on both Intel-based and Apple silicon-based Macs, and has been refreshed as well for Big Sur.

World Password Day 2020

Thu, 07 May 2020 13:00:00 +0000

eWallet requesting wallet password

It’s once again World Password Day today — a day to promote better password habits. As we’ve been in the business of protecting personal and business information for over 23 years, we often get asked for advice on passwords, which usually looks something like:

Create strong passwords or passphrases (at least 14 characters with a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation — it should not be something easy to guess or unaltered from a dictionary.
Use a different password for each account (easy with eWallet’s built-in password generator)
Use a password manager — eWallet ® of course!
Use multi-factor authentication with cloud/server accounts that support it (and eWallet can store backup factor info too)

But today let’s focus on some of the other important but related questions we receive:

eWallet 8.5 Update featuring AutoFill and Dark Mode now in iOS App Store

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000

eWallet® 8.5 for iOS* (iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) is now in the App Store. The update significantly enhances AutoFill and adds support for Dark Mode in iOS 13.

AutoFill

eWallet’s AutoPass feature has long allowed users to click on a URL in their wallet and have the username and password filled in on the website, all displayed directly within eWallet. In eWallet 8.4, AutoPass was enhanced to also work with the AutoFill feature that was introduced with iOS 12. Now this new update takes auto-filling of usernames and passwords even further, adding QuickType bar support, improved domain matching, and search. Tap in a username or password field in Safari or any other app, any you’ll be presented with credentials right above the keyboard; tap the credentials and voilà! We’ve got full instructions in our support area if you would like more detailed information.

Organize your information!

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:00:00 +0000

Time to organize your information

While some of us continue to work remotely, some of you are enjoying an extended, albeit involuntary, “stay-cation”. Now that you’ve rearranged the garage, organized all of the cupboards and closets, and done an amazing spring cleaning, what’s left to do?

Organize your important information!

Have you been meaning to update that favorite password you use to log into ALL of your websites? By storing your logins in eWallet, you have a single password to open your wallet, but now you can up your security game by having a unique password for each login! (Hint, eWallet can create those passwords for you too.)

eWallet 8.5 for Android update featuring Face Unlock available

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 14:00:00 +0000

New version supports biometric authentication

We’ve received quite a few requests (especially from Pixel 4 users) to support Android’s Face Unlock feature. So we’re very pleased to announce that eWallet® 8.5 for Android OS with Face Unlock is now available in the Google Play and Amazon app stores. The new release incorporates Android’s biometric authentication feature, which replaces the fingerprint-only feature with fingerprint, iris scan, facial recognition, or something similar, depending on the device being used. Just tap on the Face Unlock (or related) icon and you’ll get the appropriate system prompt. As always, you decide if you want to use biometric authentication, like Face Unlock, with your wallet.

Customer Service – Question of the Day

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 15:00:01 +0000

question of the day image

Hi!

I’m back with another post for the Question of the Day. Today’s question is, “How do I move eWallet to my newly upgraded phone or tablet?” We get this question a lot from people who upgrade within the same platform. (As a side note, switching between platforms, e.g., Android to iPhone or vice versa, is not that different, you just need to work with a different app store).

Microsoft releases new version of Edge browser

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 19:20:54 +0000

Microsoft Edge logo on background

Microsoft rolled out the newly designed Edge browser today. The new browser is based on the Chromium engine (the same core engine used in Google’s Chrome browser). The goals with the new browser are “delivering better compatibility for everyone, less fragmentation for web developers, and a partnership with the Chromium community to improve the Chromium engine itself.”

The new Microsoft Edge will eventually be included via Windows Update, but if you’d like to get a copy now, you can download it from Microsoft.

Customer Service – Question of the Day

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 15:00:09 +0000

Hi!

My name’s Lee, and if you have contacted our Support department here at Ilium Software any time in the last decade and a half, you may have heard back from me. I’m still here because good companies are hard to find, and I love working here!

You may not see us posting a ton online as we tend to focus on the products (there’s always new versions in the works!) and our customers; in fact, I spend most of my time answering questions about our software.

eWallet 8.4 for Android update featuring Dark theme available

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 14:12:40 +0000

We’re very pleased to announce that eWallet® 8.4 for Android OS is now available in the Google Play and Amazon app stores. The new release includes support for Dark theme, also referred to as Dark mode or Night mode. A dark theme has battery power usage and visibility benefits but on top of that it just looks great!

eWallet for Android, Dark theme

eWallet 8.5.1 for Windows PC (desktop) now available

Wed, 15 May 2019 18:42:24 +0000

Just a quick note to let you know that eWallet® 8.5.1 for Windows PC is now available.

This is a minor update to address user-reported issues with eWallet 8.5 on the PC, including a situation where the password generator wasn’t always immediately updating the Notes field in some situations. That’s been fixed, and while we were making changes, we also increased the default password length used by the password generator to 14.

World Password Day 2019

Thu, 02 May 2019 14:00:26 +0000

It’s World Password Day today — a day to promote better password habits. As we’ve been in the business of protecting personal and business information since 1997, we often get asked for advice on passwords, so here’s some best practices that can help:

Create strong passwords or passphrases (at least 14 characters with a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation — it should not be something easy to guess or unaltered from a dictionary.
Use a different password for each account (easy with eWallet’s built-in password generator)
Use a password manager — eWallet ® of course!
Use multi-factor authentication with accounts that support it (and eWallet can store extra factor info too)

eWallet’s built-in password generator can help you generate random, long, complicated passwords for all your accounts, and of course it stores them for you so you don’t have remember them.

eWallet 8.5 for Windows PC (desktop) now available

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 14:02:20 +0000

We are very pleased to announce that eWallet® 8.5 for Windows PC (desktop) is now available. Before discussing the changes in the release I want to first thank everyone who took the time to write us with suggestions, tested pre-release versions, discussed different ideas, or all of the above! Over the last 22 years we’ve been lucky enough to support some very loyal and passionate users and we’re very thankful for that. As usual, most of the features in 8.5 were based on user requests.

eWallet 8.4 Update featuring Dark Mode in Mac App Store

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 16:31:06 +0000

eWallet® 8.4 for macOS is now in the Mac App Store. The new version has a focus on macOS Mojave (10.14) but includes plenty of improvements for Sierra and High Sierra users as well.

One of Apple’s goals with Dark Mode in macOS Mojave was to provide a “distraction-free working environment” and eWallet fully supports that. We went through every window and panel in eWallet and made the appropriate adjustments so they look great in both Light and Dark appearances.

eWallet 8.4 Update featuring AutoFill in iOS App Store

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 18:59:46 +0000

eWallet® 8.4 for iOS (iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) is now in the App Store. The updated app not only supports the new iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max devices, but also features support for AutoFill in iOS 12.

AutoPass 3.1 now available

Tue, 20 Mar 2018 17:33:20 +0000

eWallet’s built-in AutoPass feature for filling in a username and password is upgraded to version 3.1 for Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari, handling many more login web pages than the previous version.

If you’re using eWallet on your Windows PC or Mac, then you know you could just copy/paste your username and password from an eWallet card to your web page — but why do that when AutoPass will fill in the fields for you automatically. If you haven’t used AutoPass before, it’s easy — the first time you click on a URL in an eWallet card, you’ll be prompted to install a small extension for your browser — from then on for most sites just clicking on the URL will take you to your web page and automatically fill in those fields for you.

eWallet and ListPro support iPhone X

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:48:45 +0000

We still get a few prospective eWallet ® and ListPro ® users asking if the apps support the iPhone X — well, yes they do!

ListPro & eWallet on iPhone X

Although the iPhone X is similar in physical size to the iPhone 8, it actually has more pixels and a higher pixel density than the physically larger iPhone 8 Plus. The iPhone X also has the interesting notch at the top of the screen and of course, no home button. In addition to completely supporting this new high resolution iPhone X screen, eWallet also supports Apple’s Face ID technology allowing you to (optionally) unlock your wallets in the same way you unlock your phone.

eWallet 8.4 for Windows PC (desktop) now available

Fri, 12 Jan 2018 16:49:57 +0000

We are very pleased to announce that eWallet® 8.4 for Windows PC (desktop) is now available. This new version includes the following improvements:

AutoPass now supports the Microsoft Edge browser
eWallet now launches newer versions of Firefox using the new registration method
We updated the AutoPass extension for Firefox (packaged and delivered separately) for Mozilla’s completely new extension system
Updated the Dropbox library code used by SyncPro®
Now include an alternative login method for Dropbox for cloud sync
Updated link color on cards with very dark background
If Microsoft’s .NET 4 is not installed, eWallet will offer to install . NET 4.7
Updated installer for high resolution screens
Several other miscellaneous fixes and enhancements

As you can see from the list of features, AutoPass got a lot of attention in this release, including support for the Microsoft Edge browser. Although we received lots of requests to support Edge, it wasn’t possible initially as the browser itself didn’t support any kind of extensions. Fortunately Microsoft changed that and were very helpful in getting our new extension through the approval process.

ListPro updates for iPhone and PC now available

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:36:04 +0000

ListPro 5.2.2 for iPhone and ListPro 5.1.2 for Windows PC (desktop) are now available. These are relatively minor updates that address some key issues reported by users.

For iPhone, the new update includes a fix for importing lists from cloud drives (e.g., iCloud Drive) as well as a fix where searching through a long list didn’t always scroll the view automatically to show you the selected search item.

eWallet 8.3.8 update for Android OS now available

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 16:43:44 +0000

Just a quick note to let you know that eWallet® 8.3.8 for Android OS is now available in the Google Play and Amazon app stores.

This is a minor release, but includes improved memory management for large images, changes to editing mode including auto-save for partial edits, the latest library from Dropbox for eWallet’s built-in SyncPro cloud sync feature, and several other minor fixes to the product.

As always, if you have any questions or need any help, please contact us!

eWallet Survey

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 14:00:05 +0000

If you subscribe to our newsletter, you already know about the eWallet Survey. Many thanks to the people who already gave us some really great feedback.

If you have not seen the newsletter, here’s the upshot: we’d love to get your feedback with a short survey (12 questions) on your use of eWallet and what you’d like to see in the product going forward.

(Of course if you need help or information right now, please contact us directly rather than using the survey so we can properly track and respond to your case).

eWallet 8.3 Update featuring new wallet format

Tue, 06 Dec 2016 15:00:46 +0000

eWallet ® 8.3 with a new improved wallet format is now available on Android, iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod touch), Mac, and Windows PC (desktop).

" New wallet format? Well that doesn’t sound very exciting…" If you’re thinking that we wouldn’t blame you bit! But it turns out the format is really important as part of the behind-the-scenes storage, organizing, and protecting of your personal and business information.

So what changed? The new wallet format has improved security, better support for international characters in category names, and we’ve bumped up some of the limits so you can now have larger wallets and more content, such as images and other attachments in your wallets. eWallet will upgrade to the new format automatically when you open your wallet, so there’s nothing special you need to do on your end. Since the wallet format has changed, it’s best if you’re running the new version everywhere, so you’ll want to make sure you upgrade all your devices, PCs, and Macs to take advantage of the changes and for the best sync experience.

eWallet 8.0.2 Update in Mac App Store

Thu, 13 Oct 2016 19:22:51 +0000

eWallet® 8.0.2 for macOS is now in the Mac App Store. This small update includes some fixes as well as additional support for macOS Sierra. We fixed an issue when syncing via iCloud and the home folder is not on the boot volume – not a very common situation but we didn’t want it to slow anyone down. We also fixed an issue specific to the new Sierra version of macOS that affected some people who using non-English characters in their category names.

World Password Day

Thu, 05 May 2016 23:02:54 +0000

Did you know it’s World Password Day today? …In addition to Cinco de Mayo of course!

We often get asked for advice on passwords, so here’s some best practices that can help:

Create strong passwords or passphrases (at least 12 characters with a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation — it should not be something easy to guess or unaltered from a dictionary.
Use a different password for each account (easy with eWallet’s built-in password generator)
Use a password manager — eWallet of course!
Use multi-factor authentication with accounts that support it (and eWallet can store extra factor info too)

eWallet’s built-in password generator can help you generate random, long, complicated passwords for all your accounts, and of course it stores them for you so you don’t have too. And with eWallet’s built-in SyncPro engine, you can sync your digital eWallet files between your devices and computers using the cloud or a local WiFi network. And since eWallet is available on Android, iPhone/ iPad, Mac and Windows, we should have you covered.

eWallet 8.2.1 update for Windows PC (desktop) now available

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 16:18:42 +0000

Just a quick note to let you know that the eWallet® 8.2.1 update for Windows PC (desktop) is now available.

We heard back from some of you after the recent 8.2 release about a couple of issues that although perhaps minor, we wanted to get fixed up right away. This included fixing the menu case on the new Office 2016 ribbon style as well as fixing a couple of window related issues. Our installer was updated at the same time and is now digitally signed (as is eWallet itself) using Microsoft’s new Authenticode standards. The complete list of changes is:

eWallet 8.2 for Android update includes fingerprint support

Wed, 16 Mar 2016 17:59:55 +0000

We’re very pleased to announce that eWallet® 8.2 for Android OS is now available in the Google Play and Amazon app stores. The new release includes fingerprint support for entering passwords, copy/pasting of cards within and between wallets, and the ability to rename and change the type of your card fields.

Some Android devices have had fingerprint scanners for a while now, but until Android OS 6 (Marshmallow), the scanners were supported by the device manufacturers rather than Android itself. We heard from many users (loud and clear!) that they really like the convenience of the fingerprint scanner, and now that Android 6 supports it, so does eWallet. And you can decide on a wallet-by-wallet basis if you want to use the fingerprint scanner to unlock your wallet or not.

eWallet 8.2 for Windows PC (desktop) now available

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 15:52:51 +0000

By now most of you have probably already received automatic notification within eWallet® for the new 8.2 version for your Windows PC. This version includes the following improvements:

Several user interface updates for Windows 10
Change to better support high DPI screens on Windows 10
Option to provide bigger click/touch area for list of cards and categories
Shortcut button for editing notes
Office 2016 ribbon style
Improved Updater
Updated installer
Updated Users Guide
Several other miscellaneous fixes and enhancements

Our main focus with the 8.2 update was to improve support for Windows 10, which many of our customers have upgraded to. If you use a high DPI (resolution) screen with your Windows 10 PC, then you should see a big improvement with this version of eWallet over the previous versions, as Windows 10 itself has changed the way it deals with high density screens.

Mac Users Rejoice: You Can Now Cloud Sync eWallet With Mobile Devices

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 15:00:58 +0000

You’ve got a full cup of hot coffee, your Mac is booted up, and the website for the latest awesome software you recently registered for on your smartphone awaits your login information.You’re ready to get started on a crucial project, and time is ticking away.

There’s just one problem: when you originally set up your account, you generated a unique username and random password using your eWallet® password management app on your smartphone.

eWallet 8.1 for Android now available

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 14:49:53 +0000

We’re very pleased to announce that eWallet® 8.1 for Android OS is now available in the Google Play and Amazon app stores.

On the heels of the eWallet for iOS update, the new 8.1 update focuses on fully supporting the new permissions system in Android OS 6.0. The 6.0 permission system makes it possible for users to allow or revoke individual permissions when the product is running, rather than the old model of having to accept all the permissions when you installed the product. You know the saying, “with great power comes great responsibility” and the same applies here — you can revoke permissions on an app, but then it may not be able to do everything you would like. For eWallet, the main area of permissions is around being able to save backups and import information into a wallet.

eWallet 8.2 Update featuring multitasking in iOS App Store

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:30:01 +0000

eWallet® 8.2 for iOS (iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) is now in the App Store. The app has been completely updated to further support iOS 9, especially in the area of multitasking on the iPad (and the new iPad Pro). There are several other improvements including landscape support on iPhones as well as enhancements to Touch ID.

eWallet 8.2 now takes advantage of the Slide Over and Split View multitasking features introduced with iOS 9 on the iPad. This means that eWallet can be sharing the screen with Safari, Mail, Photos, or any other app that supports these new features.

eWallet Gets Cloud Sync in Android version

Tue, 17 Mar 2015 19:00:04 +0000

We’re very pleased to announce that our SyncPro® engine including cloud sync is now included with eWallet® 8 for Android.

The Windows PC (desktop) and iOS versions got the cloud sync upgrade last summer and now the Android version has it too. With version 8 of eWallet for Android you now have an additional way to sync and backup that makes use of cloud services, and doesn’t require a direct connection between devices. With cloud syncing you consider the wallet in the cloud to be the master, and then you can sync multiple devices (desktops, laptops, Android phones and tablets, and iOS devices) to that master wallet.

eWallet 8.1 Update featuring Touch ID in iOS App Store

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 15:00:05 +0000

eWallet® 8.1 for iOS (iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) is now in the App Store. The app has been completely updated to further support iOS 8 along with the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices. In addition, eWallet on compatible iPhones and iPads now supports configurable Touch ID for easy, yet secure, access to the information in your wallets.

The eWallet 8.1 update was fully enhanced to support iOS 8; in fact, iOS 8 is now a requirement. eWallet will take advantage of the additional space on the larger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screens and will run rocket fast with 64-bit support. Oh yes, we did some screen improvements on the iPad as well!

ListPro 5.2 iPhone Update in App Store

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 14:35:46 +0000

We’re very proud to announce that ListPro® for iPhone has been updated to support iOS 8 along with the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices.

People use ListPro for everything from grocery and trip packing lists, to tracking medical information — our List Exchange shows the variety of areas people use the product for. One thing we hear consistently though is that people want to make full use of the available screen space for their lists, and the defaults just weren’t cutting it on the new larger devices. Given that feedback, we retooled the new 5.2 version to take advantage of all the additional space on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and added images in high resolution to make ListPro really shine in the larger sizes too.

eWallet 8.0.1 Update in iOS App Store

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 18:20:57 +0000

eWallet® 8.0.1 for iOS (iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) is now in the App Store. This update includes some fixes as well as additional support for iOS 8. We slipped a new feature into the release too – several people have asked for a direct way to move their eWallet GO! data to eWallet, and this version adds that ability directly on the iOS device.

eWallet for iOS runs on iOS 6, 7 and 8 and on most devices, including the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. This update is free for all users who already own a license of eWallet version 8 for iOS on compatible devices, and is delivered by the on-device App Store. Get all the info about eWallet here on our site.

Windows 10 Video Tour (Preview)

Fri, 03 Oct 2014 14:28:32 +0000

You may have heard about Microsoft’s announcement regarding the upcoming Windows 10 (they’re apparently skipping version 9). Once again, Scott Hanselman has put together a short video (less than 8 minutes), this time covering the major features of the technical preview. The improved Start Menu and better integration between full screen apps and the desktop look like a very positive step forward.

eWallet Gets Cloud Sync in iOS and Windows versions

Tue, 15 Jul 2014 14:56:37 +0000

We’re very proud to announce that eWallet’s SyncPro® engine now includes support for syncing to the cloud. What does this mean? With version 8 of eWallet for iOS and eWallet for Windows PC (desktop) you now have an additional way to sync and backup that makes use of cloud services, and doesn’t require a direct connection between devices. With cloud syncing you consider the wallet in the cloud to be the master, and then you can sync multiple devices (desktops, laptops, iPhones, iPads, iPod touches) to that master wallet.

Protecting your information

Wed, 02 Jul 2014 18:36:01 +0000

More and more people are living their digital lives entirely out of their mobile devices, but the convenience of keeping your data with you may also be keeping all of your eggs in one basket.

Each mobile device is unique and the information you keep on a device is often just as unique as the files and documents you might keep on a computer. So like a computer, you should always take steps to preserve and backup any of the important information you save on your mobile devices.

eWallet 7.6 for Android now available

Thu, 17 Apr 2014 14:25:09 +0000

The new 7.6 version of eWallet® for Android is now available. This release includes the often requested AutoPass feature, some UI improvements, and several fixes.

AutoPass is a feature that automatically sends the user name and password from your wallet to the web page when you visit a site from a link within eWallet. The AutoPass feature can be turned on/off globally as well as on a card-by-card basis.

eWallet for Windows 8/RT 7.4.1 update

Mon, 03 Mar 2014 14:00:16 +0000

The new 7.4.1 version of eWallet ® for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 is now in the Windows Store. This minor version fixes a problem a couple of people reported where the search box would incorrectly take the focus away from the web page when using AutoPass in some cases.

Thank you for all your feedback and please keep it coming.

eWallet for Windows 8/RT runs on Windows 8.1 PCs as well as tablets running Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1. This update is free (from Microsoft’s store) for all users who already own a license of eWallet for Windows 8/RT. Get all the info about eWallet here on our site.

eWallet 7.5.2 Update for iOS in App Store

Thu, 27 Feb 2014 18:07:34 +0000

eWallet® 7.5.2 for iOS (iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) is now in the App Store. This release resolves a synchronization issue with the PC that was introduced by a piece of technology used by many Windows applications called “WinINet”. Unfortunately, the Internet Explorer 11 browser appears to have been shipped with a version of WinINet that included a bug that adversely affected people trying to sync eWallet. We already worked around the issue in eWallet 7.6 on the PC side but wanted to also provide a solution for people who haven’t yet had a chance to upgrade eWallet on their PCs.

eWallet 7.6.2 for Windows PC Update

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 16:05:51 +0000

Today we released eWallet® for Windows PC version 7.6.2, another follow-up to the 7.6 upgrade that went out a few weeks ago. This minor update resolves some screen resolution issues for people who set their display scaling higher than 100% (some laptops now default to 125%).

eWallet 7.6.2 for Windows PC runs on all versions of Windows 7, and runs on Windows 8 and 8.1 in Desktop mode. This update is free for all users who already own a license of eWallet for Windows PC (desktop), version 7; you can download or upgrade to the latest Windows PC version from our site (you do not need new registration codes). If you have version 7.5 or later with automatic updates turned on, you’ll get prompted to update to the latest version (you can press “Check for Updates” in the About screen too). Get all the info about eWallet (including access to a 30-day trial version) here on our site.

eWallet 7.6.1 for Windows PC Update

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:30:58 +0000

Today we released eWallet® for Windows PC version 7.6.1, a quick follow-up to the 7.6 upgrade that went out a few days ago. It’s a minor update that includes a fix to show category names in the Recent Cards and Search lists, and we also added tooltips the Quick Password and Add Details buttons on the edit screen.

eWallet 7.6.1 for Windows PC runs on all versions of Windows 7, and runs on Windows 8 and 8.1 in Desktop mode. This update is free for all users who already own a license of eWallet for Windows PC (desktop), version 7; you can download or upgrade to the latest Windows PC version from our site (you do not need new registration codes). If you have version 7.5 or later with automatic updates turned on, you’ll get prompted to update to the latest version (you can press “Check for Updates” in the About screen too). Get all the info about eWallet (including access to a 30-day trial version) here on our site.

eWallet for Windows PC 7.6

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 20:20:08 +0000

Today we released eWallet® for Windows PC version 7.6 with several new features, many of them user-requested:

Card display updated to simpler, cleaner look
Updated password generator and added new " instant password" button
Editing screen improved for easier entry and updating of information
New interface for adding additional detail fields
Note Card and Picture Card display improved
Credit card images updated
Fix to sync with FTP sites for systems with IE 11
Other miscellaneous improvements and fixes

eWallet 7.4.4 for Mac OS X Update

Wed, 15 Jan 2014 18:44:08 +0000

Today we released eWallet® for Mac OS X version 7.4.4. It’s a minor release that includes a fix for handling invalid bookmarks, a piece of Mac technology that helps manage permissions to files. A big thank you to our beta testers for helping us sort out this issue; not many people seemed to be effected but we’re happy to have it resolved.

eWallet for Mac runs on OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later. This upgrade is free for all users who already own a license of eWallet version 7 for the Mac. If you purchased a copy from Apple using their Mac App Store, then you’ll be able to use the Update feature in that store to get the new version. Get all the info about eWallet (including access to a 30-day trial version) here on our site.

What's New In Windows 8.1 Video

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:39:09 +0000

Back in January, I wrote about Scott Hanselman’s “The Missing WIndows 8 Instructional Video.” He’s since released three new Windows 8.1 videos, including the What’s New In Windows 8.1, below:

Scott’s videos are always concise and helpful, so check them out if your using or are interesting in Windows 8.1. All three new videos plus the original Windows 8 video are available on his blog.

eWallet for Android 7.5.4 Update

Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:57:51 +0000

The new 7.5.4 version of eWallet® for Android is now available. This is a relatively minor release that includes some fixes for images positioning on the card face, as well as fixes for crashes a few people were seeing.

We did add one new feature as well — some of you wrote to us that you did not want eWallet to automatically lock the wallet when your device goes to sleep (the default). The new “Lock on device suspend” security setting can be turned off if you like; this can be handy if you keep your sleep times really low.

eWallet for Windows 8/RT 7.4 update

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 19:49:52 +0000

The new 7.4 version of eWallet ® for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 is now in the Windows Store. This updated version adds full support for Windows 8.1, a search box on the main screens, support for resizing the full screen windows, easier adding of custom details to card, and performance improvements. See our last update for improvements made just a few weeks ago.

Before Windows 8.1, we were not allowed to have a search area directly on our main pages — users always had to go to the charms area first to search. One of the big improvements in Windows 8.1 has been to allow search to be more readily available. Now in eWallet, you can just start typing on a screen and we’ll start searching for the card immediately.

eWallet 7.4.3 for Mac OS X Update

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 15:56:13 +0000

Today we released eWallet® for Mac OS X version 7.4.3. It’s a minor release but includes a fix that was affecting some people after upgrading to Mavericks (10.9). We didn’t see the problem in any of the preview versions of Mavericks and it was really tough to track down so a big thank you to all the customers who helped us sort this out.

If you happen to have been affected by this, we’ve got upgrade instructions in our Knowledge base. Of course if you need help with this, please contact us.

eWallet for Windows 8/RT 7.3 update

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 19:18:55 +0000

The new 7.3 version of eWallet ® for Windows 8/RT is now in the Windows Store. This updated version adds a handy category picker, displaying of subcategories with cards, improved tabbing when editing fields in a card (for the keyboarders out there), a search button and performance improvements.

In previous versions, the only way to see subcategories was by exploring. With this update, subcategories are now displayed right alongside of your cards. This allows you to see quite a bit of your information and organization, all on one screen.

eWallet 7.5 for Android now available

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 20:07:06 +0000

Following up the recent releases of eWallet® on iOS, Mac, and Windows we’re happy to announce that the new 7.5 version is now available on Android. This version is a major update and includes a ton of user requested features, some visible, and some “underneath the hood.”

The biggest visible changes are to the user interface. We added Card View for an alternate view of your data (flex view is still available) and also added a completely new interface specifically for tablets. You’ll see we’ve put a lot of the common functions on new Action Bars to make it easy to access and change your important information.

eWallet 7.4.2 for Mac OS X Update

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 18:47:55 +0000

Just a quick update — today we released eWallet® for Mac OS X version 7.4.2. It’s a minor release but includes a fix for a display issue with categories on some versions of OS X, and updated sample wallet, and several other small fixes.

eWallet 7.5 for iPhone and iPad in App Store

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 13:00:48 +0000

eWallet® 7.5 for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is now in the App Store. This new version includes several highly requested features from our users (some of whom have been with us for our 16+ year history!):

Now includes AutoPass for automatically inserting user names and passwords on websites
Direct editing added for faster and easier entry of card information
New screen for easier adding of new cards
Includes Intro for new users
List of wallets improved and sample shown separately
Updated sample wallet

We’ve got new features coming out soon for the Android version as well; we hope to share something with you on that platform in the next couple of weeks.

eWallet for Windows PC 7.5

Mon, 29 Jul 2013 18:00:04 +0000

Today we released eWallet® for Windows PC version 7.5 with several new user-requested features:

Now uses Microsoft’s .NET 4 technology for improved reliability and speed
Built-in notification of updates with option to download and install directly
Includes support for high DPI screens now found on some laptops
Ribbon bar improved, gets Office 2013 style, background images
Now show more information about cards
First card field automatically gets title when appropriate
SyncPro® updated in preparation for Windows 8.1
Now automatically handle case where Windows decides to mess with settings file
Improvements to recent cards list
Other miscellaneous improvements and fixes

eWallet for Windows PC runs on all versions of Windows 7, and runs on Windows 8 in Desktop mode. You can download the latest Windows PC version from our site.

eWallet for Windows 8/RT 7.2 update

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 19:02:47 +0000

The new 7.2 version of eWallet ® for Windows 8/RT is now in the Windows Store. This new version adds printing, a change to the show/hide password button, the ability to set the default card type for a category, and several other fixes and enhancements.

The new printing feature (always a popular request) allows you to print a single card, all the cards in a category, the cards in search results, or all the cards in your wallet. You access printing in the standard way, from Devices in the Charms area. Several users wrote to us that they didn’t like the default Windows 8 behavior of having to hold the show/hide password button to see the password. We updated the behavior so it’s sticky now, pressing the button will toggle and keep the password hidden or visible, whichever you like.

Moxier Wallet

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 19:00:55 +0000

After getting emails from several Moxier Wallet users about their wallet app being discontinued, we thought it might be useful to put the information they are looking for right up on our blog.

eWallet supports Windows PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.

Since Moxier Wallet exports to a CSV file, users will be able to import their existing wallet data into the free trial version of “eWallet for Windows PC” with little modification. The instructions for getting your data ready to import are here. And you can get more info about how the eWallet importer works here.

eWallet 7.4 for Mac OS X Update

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:27:55 +0000

We’re happy to report that the new Mac OS X version of eWallet® is now available in the Mac App Store. This new version fully supports Apple’s App Sandbox technology:

The App Sandbox in OS X helps ensure that apps do only what they’re intended to do. App sandboxing isolates apps from the critical system components of your Mac, your data, and your other apps. Even if an app is compromised by malicious software, sandboxing automatically blocks it to keep your computer and your information safe. OS X Mountain Lion delivers even better sandboxing protection in Safari. And it adds sandboxing to new apps like Notes, Reminders, and Game Center, as well as existing apps such as Mail and FaceTime.

eWallet for Windows PC 7.4.4 Update

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:02:40 +0000

Today we released eWallet® for Windows PC version 7.4.4. The release included several miscellaneous fixes including:

Improved support for multiple monitors, especially when the configuration changes (e.g., you have a laptop and sometimes use an external monitor)
Improved wireless synchronizing with the Android version of eWallet when you have multiple wallets and are using Bonjour
Several improvements to AutoPass where we can automatically fill in the username and password on even more sites now

You can download the latest Windows PC version from our site.

eWallet for Windows 8/RT update

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:54:20 +0000

Just a quick update — the Windows Store has an updated version of eWallet for Windows 8/RT that includes several fixes including: better drawing of graphics for the Surface Pro, ability to launch this version from a .wlt file, and some minor bug fixes. Thanks as always for your feedback and keep it coming!

The Missing Windows 8 Instructional Video

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 19:57:30 +0000

Scott Hanselman has put together a new video you might find useful if you’re new to Windows 8. It’s about 25 minutes but moves along pretty quickly – he also does a nice job of highlighting the differences between Windows 8 and Windows 7. If you’re looking for a condensed version, I’ve also included a link to an earlier video that’s about 3 minutes long.

And here’s a link to the short one, “How to use Windows 8 in 3 minutes”.

eWallet for Windows 8/RT update

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:25:44 +0000

A new version of eWallet ® for Windows 8/RT should be hitting the Windows Store today. This new version adds several new features including pinning cards to a category (shortcuts) or even the Windows start screen, hiding passwords by default (there’s now a reveal button), supporting Skype from a phone number in a card, and several other enhancements.

Probably the most visible feature in this release is pinning cards. This is really handy if you’d like one of your cards to show up in more than one category in eWallet. The pinned card acts like a shortcut to the actual card and makes your information available in more than one place without having to duplicate it. If you have a card you use a lot, you also have the option of pinning it right to the Windows start screen; when you start eWallet with that pinned tile, you’ll go right to your favorite card (after entering your password of course).

eWallet for Windows RT

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:22:32 +0000

eWallet ® is now available for Windows RT! What is Windows RT, you might ask? Windows RT is essentially Microsoft’s version of Windows 8 that runs on the ARM chipset. Microsoft’s first tablet, the Surface, is available initially as a Windows RT device.

eWallet for Windows 8 has been out since, well…, Windows 8 but until this week we didn’t have support for RT. The two platforms are combined into a single product and are available exclusively in the Windows Store.

eWallet 7.4.1 for iPhone 5 in App Store

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:29:42 +0000

eWallet® 7.4.1 for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is now in the App Store. This version quickly follows the 7.4 release to add support for the taller screen on the iPhone 5.

As always, please keep the great feedback coming!

Get all the info about eWallet here on our site.

eWallet 7.4 for iOS in App Store

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:20:55 +0000

eWallet® 7.4 for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is now in the App Store! This version includes several user-requested features. You can now set the font size bigger in Flex View (back side of the cards) on iPhone for easier reading. On iPhone you can now swipe horizontally to move between cards for more direct browsing. (I prefer search myself to quickly get me to a card, but if you like browsing through your cards, I think you’ll really like this feature.) You can now copy/paste entire cards - very handy for entering information in different cards that is mostly similar. We also made search more responsive, especially for large wallets.

eWallet 7.4 for Android now available

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:48:41 +0000

Not too long after releasing eWallet® 7.3 for Android, we’re following it up with v7.4. The new 7.4 has several new features including a built-in password generator for creating great passwords, the ability to change the Bonjour/WiFi name used by eWallet on your device, and Smart Copy for credit card numbers.

Changing the Bonjour/WiFi name is handy, especially if you have more than one device of the same type in your household. Now your Bonjour/WiFi name can be “Sue’s Phone” instead of HTCEVOV4G. Smart Copy allows you to copy/paste credit card numbers and spaces and hyphens are automatically removed; they make the numbers more human readable but most websites don’t allow them.

OpenDNS features Ilium Software

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:42:21 +0000

Back in February of 2007, I wrote about how I used OpenDNS at home for more reliable Internet access. Yesteday, OpenDNS published a nice article about us: Why cutting-edge technology companies rely on OpenDNS for security. I continue to be impressed with their service, both at home and now at the office too.

eWallet for Metro!

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:37:49 +0000

As many of you know, Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system will feature a new Metro style user interface as well as support a new category of Metro style apps.

You might wonder what this means for our eWallet® product. First, from what we can tell so far by looking at the Windows 8 Release Preview, our current eWallet 7.4 product should run just fine (it looks just like it does on Windows 7). Second, we’ve been working on a Metro version of eWallet that has the look and feel of a metro-style application.

eWallet 7.3 for Android now available

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:48:41 +0000

We’re happy to report that eWallet® 7.3 is now available in Google Play (aka the Android Market). This release includes the ability for wireless synchronization between an Android device and eWallet on a Windows PC using a local WiFi network. The 7.3 release now supports tablet devices (typically running Android OS 3), Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), as well as Android 2.1 - 2.6.

We still include USB sync for devices that have USB Mass Storage but it’s handy not to have to connect to your PC with a wire. Our Android beta group was very helpful in sorting out some issues with Sync Setup; they were really great to work with.

eWallet 7.3 for iOS Released

Wed, 02 May 2012 18:09:45 +0000

We’re happy to report that eWallet® 7.3 is now available in the App Store for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The main new feature in this release is the built-in support for iCloud. If you have a device running iOS 5, you can enable iCloud Sync, which not only backs up your wallet files to iCloud, but also makes it possible to seamlessly sync with another iOS device without having to go through a PC or Mac first. eWallet 7.3 for iOS requires at least iOS 4 and the iCloud support requires iOS 5. To get started, just press the cloud icon in eWallet and then turn on “Enable Cloud Sync”. We’ve heard from some customers that they don’t want their wallets stored in the cloud; that’s fine too, the new iCloud feature is completely optional.

eWallet for Mac 7.3 Update

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:00:24 +0000

Not too long ago when we released the 7.3 update for Windows PC, we promised a new Mac version as well. We’re happy to report that the new Mac version of eWallet® is now available in the Mac App Store. This new version has a ton of new features but I’ll outline the major ones here:

Live search — search is always available now, so finding your cards is very fast
Clipboard — Can now copy/paste encrypted cards both within and between wallets
Category information — added to search results and recent cards list for better context
Password generator — for building high quality passwords quickly and easily to your specifications
Printing support — print your whole wallet or a selection

This upgrade is free for all users who already own a license of eWallet version 7 for the Mac. If you purchased a copy from Apple using their Mac App Store, then you’ll be able to use the Update feature in that store to get the new version. Get all the info about eWallet here on our site.

eWallet GO! update for Windows Phone 7

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:27:22 +0000

Microsoft has released major upgrade for Windows Phone 7 , code named “Mango” (7.5). The 7.5 release has a ton of new features; you can read more about them on the “What’s New” page. We wanted to build a new version of eWallet GO!® that would take advantage of some of these new features and this week we released a new version (1.7) to the Marketplace. The major changes to the new version include:

eWallet for Windows PC 7.3 Update

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:24:19 +0000

Today we released eWallet® for Windows PC version 7.3 with a raft of features requested by our users. You are not shy about contacting us with feature requests and new ideas for eWallet, and we’re very grateful for that!

The new features include:

Live search: search is always available now, so finding your cards is very fast
Improved Flex View: this view has been updated with a cleaner, easier to read look
Skype: now if you have Skype installed, you can click on a phone number/Skype ID in eWallet to make the call
Printing: choose to print a selection (card or category), or print your entire wallet
Recently Used List: by popular request, you can now remove a wallet name from eWallet’s “Recently Used Wallets” list
CSV files are now an import option
Several UI improvements including Ribbon bar changes and a gloss effect on cards
Many miscellaneous enhancements and bug fixes

This upgrade is free for all users who already own a license of eWallet version 7 for the Windows PC. Get all the info about eWallet here on our site.

eWallet for Android

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:38:56 +0000

We’re happy to announce that by popular demand, we’ve developed and released a full version of eWallet ® for the Android platform. In April 2010 we released the eWallet Viewer for Android which let people read, but not change, their eWallet data directly on their Android phone. You’ve made it clear you want to edit as well without using a PC so as of today, we’re replacing the Viewer with this new editable version.

eWallet for iPhone has been updated!

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:36:30 +0000

Hey everyone! We just wanted to send out a quick announcement to let you know that our latest eWallet update was approved the other day by Apple.

This update includes some new features that we’re pretty excited about, added by popular request:

Shortcuts to cards are now available on iOS so you can have the same card in multiple categories
Search is now available at the top of category and card lists making it much easier to find a card

You’ll find this eWallet update in the iTunes App Store. If you already own eWallet for your iPhone, it’s a free update. If you don’t own eWallet yet, what are you waiting for? Get it today!

Thanks for making our sale a success!

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:27:49 +0000

Happy Monday, everyone! Our big eWallet GO!™ back-to-school sale officially ended over the weekend, and we wanted to take a moment to thank you for making it such a huge success! We’re thrilled to read all the great reviews and hear from all our happy new customers.

Missed the sale? No worries! eWallet GO! is only $4.99 now at it’s regular price, and we think you’ll find it’s a really great value for all protection you get in a super-simple-to-use app. We’ve got you covered on lots of different platforms; visit our eWallet GO! page to find out how to buy it today.

eWallet GO! Sale Extended Through Friday!

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:05:37 +0000

We had such an incredible response to our eWallet GO!™ Back to School sale that we decided to extend it! For the next five days, you can get eWallet GO! on any platform for just 99 cents.

Follow the links below to get eWallet GO! for just 99 cents!

eWallet GO! for iPhone
eWallet GO! for Android
eWallet GO! for Mac
eWallet GO! for Windows
eWallet GO! for Windows Phone 7: Visit the Windows Phone Marketplace on your phone.

Thanks again to everyone that purchased eWallet GO! and a special thank you to everyone who reviewed it. We really appreciate your support, and we want to thank you for helping to make eWallet GO! the best-selling secure information management app in the iTunes App Store!

eWallet GO!—Auto-Sync and an Amazing Sale!

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:34:19 +0000

We’re very excited to announce the addition of automatic synching for eWallet GO!™ on Windows PC and iOS. With this update, eWallet GO! can automatically save an encrypted backup of your info to either Google Docs or Dropbox whenever you make a change! And if you set up eWallet GO! on another device to synchronize with the same service, eWallet GO! will automatically synchronize the information between the devices. No more manual backup and restore!

eWallet 7.2 for Mac - now with AutoPass!

Fri, 27 May 2011 14:36:12 +0000

We just released eWallet® 7.2 for Mac! This update to our popular secure information management software adds a number of great new features to the Mac version. The big news is the addition of AutoPass! AutoPass automatically sends the username and password from your wallet to the web page when you visit the site from a link within eWallet.

We also added the much requested ability to tab through fields in the edit drawer and a new-and-improved FlexView design. Not to mention a host of minor updates and fixes.

eWallet GO! SplashID Converter Available!

Thu, 12 May 2011 14:38:15 +0000

You can now convert SplashID data to eWallet GO!™ using the eWallet GO! Conversion Utility. This has been the week for conversion utility requests, and this is another one we had a lot of people asking about. (We just updated the Conversion Utility to support LastPass conversion earlier this week).

With this update, the Conversion Utility now lets you take a SplashID export file and convert it for use in eWallet GO! Just export your data from SplashID, fire up the Conversion Utility, and follow the instructions. It’s extremely easy!

eWallet GO! LastPass Converter Available

Tue, 10 May 2011 15:28:20 +0000

By popular request, we just released an update to the eWallet GO!™ Conversion Utility\* that lets you easily move data exported from LastPass into eWallet GO!

It’s easy to do! Just export the LastPass data and save it into a text file, then run through the Conversion Utility wizard. That’s it! The utility does all the rest!

We hope this helps those of you who were looking for a solution like this!

eWallet GO! now available for Mac OS X

Tue, 03 May 2011 14:57:22 +0000

Hot on the heels of last week’s eWallet GO! releases for Android and iOS, our popular new password app is available for another platform - Mac OS X. With this latest version, eWallet GO! now works on iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Windows Phone 7, Mac and Windows PC.

eWallet GO! is our streamlined, secure information manager that’s really easy to use and gives you a lot of flexibility working with your data. What does eWallet GO! have to offer? How about:

eWallet GO! for Android now available at Amazon

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:22:54 +0000

eWallet GO!™ for Android is now available in the Amazon Appstore. We know that some of you prefer buying from Amazon, so we wanted to let you know! You can find it by searching for eWallet GO! in the Amazon Appstore on your Android device, or by clicking here.

And thanks to everyone who purchased eWallet GO! so far. The response to this great new app is really incredible. We’re so glad you like it and we really appreciate your support!

eWallet GO! now available for Android, iPhone and iPod touch

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:46:32 +0000

We have some very exciting news for you today, in the form of not just one, but two, new platform releases for eWallet GO!™ That’s right - as of today eWallet GO! is now available for Android, iPhone and iPod touch devices, in addition to Windows Phone 7 and Windows PC.

eWallet GO! is our streamlined, secure information manager that’s really easy to use and gives you a lot of flexibility working with your data. eWallet GO! has the features you need at a price that can’t be beat, including:

Just updated: eWallet for Mac

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:33:49 +0000

Happy Friday everyone! We just released an update to eWallet® for Mac OS X and I wanted to spread the word.

What’s new in this update? We’ve made improvements to fix a couple issues. If you’ve been waiting for the improved interface for editing Note Cards, then this update is for you! We also fixed the problem with the Date Field display in certain time zones.

If you already own eWallet for Mac, this is a free update. It’s available on our site and through the iTunes Mac App Store. If you’re new to eWallet and interested in eWallet for Mac, you can find out more right here.

eWallet 7.2 for Windows is now available!

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:21:13 +0000

We just released eWallet® 7.2 and it’s got some great new features. The big news is that we’ve added Chrome to the list of browsers supported by AutoPass. And that’s just the beginning! For this update we pulled out our list of “frustrating little things” you’ve emailed us about, and we started checking them off!

Check out the list:

AutoPass support for Chrome
AutoPass support for Firefox 4 Beta
Right-click context menus for the search results list
Added hot keys
Long text truncated with ellipses instead of being cut off
Improved method for handling duplicate card names
Hover over action displays truncated text as a tool tip
Improved Home Ribbon layout
Improved card list appearance
Android sync improvements
BlackBerry sync improvements
iPhone sync improvements
Corrected minor card display issues
Allow ampersand in search
A bunch of minor bug fixes!

It’s a great update that makes eWallet on your Windows PC even easier to use! We really think you’ll like the polish we’ve added! Get all the info about eWallet here on our site.

eWallet GO! for Windows Is Out!

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:59:19 +0000

We’re very excited to announced that eWallet GO! for Windows PC is now available for just $4.99 through our online store. As you may know, eWallet GO!™ is the newest member of the Ilium Software application family. eWallet GO! is the fastest and easiest way to safely carry all of your most important information with you and to have it at your fingertips whenever you need it. It includes 29 flexible templates, the ability to organize cards by category, backup to Google Docs or Dropbox, and the same 256-bit AES FIPS encryption used in eWallet 7.

eWallet GO! for Windows Phone 7

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:14:58 +0000

We’re very excited to announce the release of eWallet GO!™ for Windows Phone 7. eWallet GO! is a streamlined, stand-alone secure information manager. It allows you to safely store your important information on your Windows Phone 7 device and to backup or restore your information using Google Docs or Dropbox.

eWallet GO! makes it extremely easy to store and access your most important information, and with the power of eWallet’s 256-bit AES encryption, you’ll know that the information you put in eWallet GO! is extremely safe! At just $4.99, it’s an incredible value.

'Tis the season...for making lots of lists

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 18:47:36 +0000

The holidays are almost here! That means celebrating with friends and family, lots of yummy food, and sharing gifts. But we all know the holiday season also means stress - packed shopping malls, last-minute phone calls to figure out who’s getting Aunt Ida from the airport, repeat trips to the grocery store where you break the record for how many times one person can forget to buy the gravy … the list goes on.

And that’s why ListPro® is so very handy - you can make lists of absolutely anything you want to track for the holidays, put those lists on your device, and have them ready right when you need them. No more forgetting your husband’s sweater size, or which Lego set your nephew wanted, when you’re buying gifts. No more mishaps with planning the big family get-together. And when you’re buying the food - you’ll only have to make one trip, and you’ll definitely remember the gravy!

What else makes ListPro great for the holidays? Read on for more details and ideas…

eWallet for Mac Update

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:51:21 +0000

An update to eWallet® for Mac is now available for download. This update includes a new “Launch View” that makes it easier than ever to find and open your wallets. It also includes a number of minor fixes and tweaks designed to make using eWallet on Mac even easier.

If you already own eWallet for Mac, you can download the latest version here. If you don’t own eWallet for Mac yet, go here to find out more about how you can get it today!

eWallet for Windows Phone 7

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:03:56 +0000

With the official Windows Phone 7 announcement going out yesterday, I wanted to let you know that we’re working on a version of eWallet for Microsoft’s new mobile OS! eWallet for Windows Phone 7 is designed to perfectly fit the look and feel of the new OS. It takes the best features of eWallet and adapts them to Window Phone 7’s unique interface.

If you’ve gotten your hands on a Windows Phone 7 device, you know that Microsoft has created a really compelling OS. I know a lot of people had their doubts, but I have to say that Microsoft pulled out all the stops on this. The end results are devices that are really exciting to design software for.

Make a List, Win an iPod touch!

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:22:41 +0000

Exciting news today! Gear Diary is hosting a ListPro list-making contest. All you need to do is make an incredible list, send it to the folks over at Gear Diary, and you have a chance to win an iPod touch! Winning lists are also posted to the List Exchange, our database of user-created ListPro lists.

So head over to Gear Diary right now, and start making some lists!

eWallet Listed at Apple's Mac Software Site

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:14:09 +0000

Wow! It’s been a busy week over here! We just received word that eWallet for Mac is now listed at Apple’s official Mac OS software site. You can check it out here. You can download the trial version from Apple, but you still make the final purchase through the Ilium Software Online Store.

That’s it for this week…check back Monday as we have yet another cool thing coming up next week!

ListPro in the New York Times

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:11:31 +0000

We just released ListPro for iPhone last week. Not only has the response from customers been incredible, but this morning the New York Times mentioned ListPro for iPhone and Windows PC in an article from their Personal Tech section. The article said:

ListPro, a desktop software application that help users manage lists of all kinds, is now available as a free iPhone app. With it, you may create and manage lists, or choose from existing templates. For $20, you can download the desktop version (for Windows only) and sync your lists.

eWallet Update for BlackBerry OS 6.0

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:01:50 +0000

We just released an update to eWallet that improves support for customers using BlackBerry OS 6.0 devices and for customers who are using Desktop Manager 6.0. If you’ve run into problems using eWallet 7 with either of these RIM updates, the newly released versions should clear things up for you.

If you install the update, please install the updates for both Windows PC and BlackBerry.

Just download the latest versions from our site. Typically, eWallet will pick up your registration codes from previous installations, but if for any reason it doesn’t, the eWallet 7 codes you received with your purchase will unlock the software. If you no longer have your codes, you can request them here.

Talk Like a Pirate Day Lists!

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:57:18 +0000

As many of you scurvy dogs may know, I’m a huge fan of Talk Like a Pirate Day. If ever there was a holiday this world desperately needed, it was this one. Officially, Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th, but in preparation for the holiday and to celebrate the release of ListPro for iPhone, I’ve posted two pirate-themed lists on the List Exchange.

The first is the official ListPro Talk Like a Pirate Day list! With the blessings of the good folks in charge of Talk Like a Pirate Day, I’ve created a set of lists that include the origins of Talk Like a Pirate Day, a Pirate Dictionary, and “His and Hers” Pirate Pick-Up Lines! I can’t thank the folks over at Talk Like a Pirate Day enough for their support on this. Make sure to visit the official site to learn more about this awesome holiday!

ListPro for iPhone is now available! And it's free!

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:35:18 +0000

I’m extremely excited to announce that we just released ListPro for iPhone and iPod touch. It’s been a long time coming, but we’re very happy with the result and we think you will be too. Not only does it include many of the great features that have made ListPro so popular on other platforms, but the new iPhone version is free.

As you probably know, ListPro isn’t like other list-makers - L istPro is a complete list-making tool kit. It doesn’t limit you to one or two simple list types. With ListPro we give you the tools you need to contruct the perfect list for your needs. From a project tracking list to a mico-database for your book collection, you can do it all with ListPro.

eWallet for Mac Update

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:58:32 +0000

We just released an updated version of eWallet for Mac today. This update includes a couple of quick fixes that we wanted to get out right away. First, it solves problems some of our Leopard users were running into. Second, it corrects the maximized behavior so that the Properties drawer doesn’t appear off screen.

You can grab the latest version from here and use your unlock codes from the previous release to register the software. Or if you don’t have your unlock codes, you can always request that we send them again using this form.

eWallet for Mac OS X - Now Available!

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:09:08 +0000

We’re very excited to announce that our long awaited version of eWallet for Mac is now available! With eWallet for Mac you get all the security and ease-of-use you’ve come to expect from eWallet, in an interface specially designed for Mac OS. eWallet for Mac offers the same simple synchronization system offered on Windows, including the option to sync with Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch), other computers on your network, or removable storage devices.

Just Updated: eWallet Viewer for Android

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:19:55 +0000

We just released an update to the Android eWallet Viewer. This version improves the Viewer’s new Search functionality, and fixes a problem that some people experienced with eWallet Viewer’s auto-lock functionality after we added Search.

Although not many folks ran into the issue, we think that you can never have too much security, so please be sure to update to this version.

You can get the latest version by searching for “eWallet Viewer” on the Android Market. You’ll need a phone with Android OS 1.6 or greater for the Viewer to work.

Just released: a pair of updates

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:52:12 +0000

This is just a quick post to let everyone know about two eWallet updates we’ve released this week. First up: eWallet for iPhone / iPad / iPod touch was approved by Apple yesterday. The update adds compatibility for iOS 4, so eWallet is now working great on the new OS! Updates for the new retinal display aren’t included yet, but we are working on that as well. eWallet Lite has also been released with iOS 4 compatibility.

Anniversary contest winners

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:17:52 +0000

Well, our anniversary contest is all wrapped up now. I spent some time this morning toiling over the entries to pick the winners - there were quite a few repeat songs, and I wanted to make sure to pick the first commenter in each case!

So who won, you ask? Hit the jump to find out….

Our 13th Anniversary!

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:52:36 +0000

Today is our 13th anniversary! Isn’t that something? We’ve been working in the mobile (and desktop) app game since 1997. And in an industry that changes so often - especially in recent years - we’re very happy to still be here, doing what we love and making software that we’re proud of.

Of course, we know we would never have made it this far without you: our loyal customers, reviewers, friends, colleagues, supporters, partners, beta testers - everyone who has helped us out over the last 13 years, and kept us moving forward. We couldn’t have done this without you, and while we’ll never be able to thank you enough, I’ll put this in all caps so you can tell I’m really serious: THANK YOU!!

You know, some people say that 13 is an unlucky number - but that’s not always the case, especially not today! Hit the jump for some fun factoids about our new favorite number. And did someone say contest? Because we want to celebrate with you and give away some cool prizes.

Latest Update: eWallet for Mac Beta Preview

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:49:34 +0000

I have some good news for all of our Mac users today. We’ve released another update to the eWallet for Mac Beta Preview, with even more new features and improvements!

Note that if you were using the 30 day trial (which you can download here), installing this version will give you another 30 days.

So what’s new? Hit the jump to see the lists!

A pair of updates: eWallet and eWallet Lite for iPad

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:18:56 +0000

It’s only been just over a week since the iPad version of eWallet was approved by Apple, and I’ve already got an update - with some cool new features - to tell you about!

The big news is that we’ve added a method for backing up and restoring wallets from email in eWallet for iPad. Just select a wallet and click the Backup button to send a copy of your wallet to yourself via email. You can also move wallets into eWallet on the iPad by emailing them and opening the attached wallet on your iPad. eWallet will automatically save the wallet and open it on your device.

Just updated: eWallet for Mac Beta Preview

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:36:03 +0000

What a week for software updates and releases! Believe it or not, I have another one to tell you about. We’ve just released a new version of the eWallet Preview for Mac OS. We’ve made some great progress and wanted to share the updated version with you. Note that if you were using the 30 day trial (which you can download here), installing this version will give you another 30 days.

So what’s new in this release? There’s actually quite a bit, so hit the jump to read the lists!

eWallet Viewer for Android is here!

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:29:41 +0000

Hot on the heels of our iPad eWallet release, I’ve got more exciting news for you today. Our eWallet Viewer is now available in the Android Market.

What exactly is eWallet Viewer, you ask? Great question. eWallet Viewer is the latest feature for our award-winning password manager, available to all eWallet owners who use an Android device. And best of all, it’s free!

If you own eWallet 7, you can use eWallet Viewer to access your wallet files on your Android device. Easily synchronize wallets from the Windows PC version of eWallet to your Android phone, and view them anytime, anywhere! And, of course, eWallet Viewer has the same level of security and encryption you’ve come to expect from eWallet.

eWallet for iPad - Now Available!

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:40:18 +0000

Update: eWallet for iPad is available now in the iTunes App Store.

It’s a universal binary, so anyone who’s bought or received as a promo eWallet for iPhone should get this version with no charge.

If you have questions about it, we’ll be back in the office Monday and be happy to answer them all.

Interviews from the interwebs

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:31:12 +0000

We had an exciting time last week, when we were asked to take part in not one, but two, interviews on some popular mobile websites. In case you missed them, I just wanted to take a minute to quickly point out where you can find them online:

First, Ellen answered some questions in a great five-part interview over at MediaBistro. You can catch up on all five days worth of posts from this page (this is the final part, and there are links at the top of the post to all the previous days).

Yes, We've Been Quiet Lately

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:48:26 +0000

A few people have asked me why we haven’t been posting as much on the blog, or on Twitter, lately. We’ve just been busy, and trying to focus more on what we’re supposed to be doing: developing, marketing, product managing and supporting our products. There’s a lot going on in the industry we could comment on, but the reality is that there’s a lot of good comments on all of it already. We don’t have much to add, and we really are trying to focus.

How Did You First Hear of Us?

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:50:23 +0000

I was talking with someone I used to work with yesterday, and he asked me how our users hear about us.

It was a good question, and one that a good marketing person should be able to answer. Too bad I’m not a good marketing person.

So rather than trying to figure it out from not enough information, I’m just going to ask - if you’re reading this, how did you first hear of us? An ad? A review? A friend? Browsing an app store? Something else?

iPhone Password Hacking App

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:54:14 +0000

No, it’s not ours.

And while I can see a need for password recovery, I admit I’m having a hard time seeing the line between recovering a password of your own and hacking someone else’s.

But, that’s actually not my point. My point is that apps like this exist.

Proof the Google Tablet is Coming!

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:23:45 +0000

I found the most convincing proof I’ve seen that Google is making a Tablet. I found it while hunting down screenshots and pictures of the Apple iPad using Google Image Search. No matter how hard I tried I kept coming up with everything but pictures of the iPad.

So I did something I very seldom try - I used Bing…and suddenly I have tons of pics!

Now I love a lot of things about Microsoft, but Bing isn’t one of them. In all honesty, it very seldom returns the thing I’m actually looking for. And trust me - I’ve used Bing a LOT. I was in the beta program and used it enough to get a free copy of Zoo Tycoon.

iPad, Kindle, and an Idea for Amazon

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:28:17 +0000

A lot of people are writing their opinions on the effect the iPad will have on Amazon’s Kindle sales, and their ideas of Amazon should be doing in light of last week’s Apple announcement. Here’s mine:

Turn their eBook collection into an online, cloud-based lending library.

What I mean by this is to offer a service like the one LaLa now has, where I can buy songs for 1/10 of what I’d pay for the downloadable mp3, but I can’t download the songs. I can, however, listen to them any time I want - I “own” the listening rights, but the songs stay online.

The Weird World of Promos

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:38:35 +0000

It’s not the promotional calendar I got a few weeks ago that was so strange:

CES Minus Apple Equals Showtunes

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:41:41 +0000

One thing you may not know about Marc is that he’s a really good singer.

One thing you may not know about me is that I really like musicals.

So when Marc and I decided to bet on whether Apple would exhibit at CES after announcing they were dropping MacWorld, the obvious stakes to put up were that he’d sing a few showtunes of my choosing.

Now that I’ve won (I’m pretty sure that Marc was just humoring me with the whole thing, but I’m not letting that get in the way), I’m working on my choices. I’ve got a big list of songs - my problem is narrowing them down.

eWallet 7.0.2 for Windows and Windows Mobile

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:36:14 +0000

As promised, eWallet 7.0.2 for Windows and Windows Mobile is now available. You can download the latest version here. BlackBerry and iPhone users who own the desktop version should update their Windows PC version, but they don’t need to upgrade their device version.

For the details, read on after the jump!

A Nice Thing You Do

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:04:55 +0000

One really nice thing that a lot of people have done is to call and tell us that we’ve been mentioned in a magazine.

We’ve gotten a lot of mentions and writeups over the last 12 years - I’ve got several shelves of a bookcase dedicated to magazines in which we’ve been written up - but it’s always a thrill to go into a bookstore and find our name in print.

What's with the Windows bugs?

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:54:54 +0000

Although most of the people who have upgraded to eWallet 7 on Windows PCare having no trouble at all, there are a few folks running into bugs. A few of these bugs are really frustrating and we’re not taking this lightly. We’ve got developers working non-stop on these and we hope to have an update in the near future.

Most of the people who are running into trouble are already working with Kevin, Lee, and myself on getting the issues ironed out but I wanted to just take a minute to explain why you are seeing bugs! Understanding the developer end of things may not make everything better, but it might help give some insight into what is going on.

I’m also going to mention a few of the bugs we’ve seen at the end of this post. One reminder, however…please send us email if you need support. We just can’t do it here in the blog comments!

That said…read on if you want the full story!

eWallet 7 Released! (Update 3)

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:44:36 +0000

Happy Monday! The eWallet 7 release is going GREAT. We couldn’t be happier with the response to this new version of eWallet. Thanks to everyone for the amazing feedback, the purchases, and the kind words! It was a LOT of work getting here and seeing how much people like it is just great. Thanks! (If this is the first you’ve heard of the release of eWallet 7, definitely check out the post here that gives all the details!)

And I’d like to repeat something: a special “THANK YOU” to everyone who has gone to iTunes and either added a positive review or updated a review! We really appreciate that!!! iTunes reviews really are very important and we’ve never seen reviews as a customers “job.” As a result, every review is an amazing favor so thank you to everyone for your support!

We released eWallet 7.0.1 last week- it’s an update that fixes a problem folks with non-English Windows installations ran into as well as an issue with unlocking the BlackBerry version. Sorry to everyone who ran into these but thanks to everyone who supplied us with the info we needed to fix them!

Re: SUPPORT ON THE BLOG I just want to repeat something I’ve posted in comments. Although I do my best to answer any questions or concerns the come up in the comments, we really can’t provide tech support here. We do, however, offer email support with real people personally answering every email AND phone support with real people answering the phones. If you have a problem WE WILL HELP YOU! The one caveat is that we’re running a little behind due to the massive amount of interest in eWallet 7 so it may take us an extra day or so, but everyone will get a reply!

Before I close out this blog I’ll hit a few of the FAQs that are coming up…so read on after jump for the rest of the story…

eWallet 7 Released! (Update 2)

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:27:17 +0000

Hey, everyone! The response to eWallet 7 is overwhelming. Thank you to everyone for your excitement about this new version of our flagship product! (If this is the first you’ve heard of the release of eWallet 7, definitely check out the post here that gives all the details!)

And I’d like to repeat something: a special “THANK YOU” to everyone who has gone to iTunes and either added a positive review or updated a review! We really appreciate that!!! Honestly - I can’t thank you enough - around here we DO NOT feel that posting positive reviews as a customers “job”, so we see every positive review as a kindness - thank you again!

On to the updates! The biggst update is this:

We fixed the BlackBerry unlock issue and the eWallet Crash for Non-English Windows Installations!

If you download the latest version from our site you’ll get the fix! Again - VERY sorry for the trouble there - like I said - rewrite an application from the ground up and you’re going to hit some snags.

If you want the rest of the details (some of which are repeats that I want to keep around for new visitors to the blog), read on after the jump!

eWallet 7 Release Update!

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:37:37 +0000

Hey, everyone! As I mentioned in a previous post, this is the biggest release we have ever undertaken and it is extremely exciting. The response we’re getting from customers is phenomenal. Thank you to everyone for your kind words and support! (If this is the first you’ve heard of the release of eWallet 7, definitely check out the post here that gives all the details!)

And a special “THANK YOU” to everyone who has gone to iTunes and either added a positive review or updated a review! We really appreciate that!!! Honestly - I can’t thank you enough - around here we DO NOT feel that posting positive reviews as a customers “job”, so we see every positive review as a kindness - thank you again!

Needless to say, a release of this type is bound to have some hiccups and this one is no different. The following are issues we are currently working on or frequently asked questions. For all the details, read on after the jump!

eWallet 7 Is Now Available!

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:06:36 +0000

We are extremely excited to announce that eWallet 7 has just been released. Not only does eWallet 7 include a completely revamped Windows PC version, a working preview of eWallet for Mac, and a host of new features, we’re working to create a new approach to selling mobile software.

Also - if you’re just coming back to the blog, make sure to read the update at the bottom of the post!

For the full story on eWallet 7, read on after the jump…

eWallet 6 to eWallet 7 iPhone Sync Compatibility

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:06:02 +0000

As some of you know, we made a bit of a screw up in our wording of the iPhone Sync Update message (we apologize for that - it wasn’t our intent to mislead anyone). As a result, our developers leaped into action and busted out a special build of eWallet 6 for Windows PC that lets you synchronize eWallet 6 on the Windows PC with eWallet 7 on the iPhone.

What Is It? A special version of eWallet 6 that lets you synchronize eWallet 6 on the Windows PC with eWallet 7 on the iPhone.

"Oh! THAT statement!"

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:04:34 +0000

So in talking with folks about the upgrade to 7.0 issues, two commenters, Simon and Brett, were able to clearly point out something that I really do see as a significant problem. Our iPhone upgrade information read:

This upgrade requires the latest Windows desktop version to sync your data. If you bought the desktop version before August 30, 2009, you may need to pay for the upgrade. Visit our website for all the details.

Well that’s all well and good - but if you went to our site to make sure you had the right version, we tell you that the “latest Windows desktop version” is 6.1.4.

SO if you upgrade your iPhone, it should sync fine with 6.1.4 right? Wrong!

If you want the rest of the story…read on after the jump!

eWallet 7.0 - Updates and Answers

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:11:47 +0000

I’m in the middle of a major software release right now so I’ll make this quick. I apologize that I can’t respond to all your comments individually, but considering how many of them there are, that simply isn’t possible. So - let’s get started…

Thanks! First let me say thanks to everyone who posted their support. We really appreciate it and we are working very hard to live up to your expectations. The new release is a pretty big deal and I think you’ll all like it. In fact I think you’ll REALLY like it. So thanks for your kind words and we hope you like eWallet 7.0!

eWallet 7.0 Will Be Out Tuesday eWallet 7.0 will be out tomorrow morning. This was the planned release date all along and we’re sticking to it.

More after the jump!

What Happened with eWallet 7?

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:08:01 +0000

It looks like Apple released the iTunes version of eWallet 7.0 before we were expecting it. We submitted it, hoping the release would hit around when we planned to do the desktop and other platforms’ releases - Tuesday of next week - but Apple surprised us and got the iPhone version into the App Store a little earlier than we thought they would.

We will have a new version of eWallet that will sync with the new iPhone version out first thing next week. We planned to release it Tuesday, but we’ll probably bump it up to Monday. If we don’t, we will get anyone who needs it an early copy.

Giving Thanks

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:28:14 +0000

Thanksgiving’s the one holiday I take seriously. I may complain a lot - OK, I do complain a lot - but I am always aware of how fortunate I am. And I always take time at Thanksgiving to think briefly about everything I’m thankful for. This year it includes:

That I can still see and hear (despite needing help with both. But I’m thankful that the help exists and works).
And that I can walk and breathe without any help.
My fabulous and supportive boyfriend, who really hates when I do things like this.
The internet. For all its problems, it’s still the best entertainment I’ve ever found.
And of course, electricity, without which the internet wouldn’t be nearly so good.
And while we’re on the basics, indoor plumbing and central heat.
My wonderful eye doctor, who fixed my problem that no one else could even find.
Showtunes, which make everything so much better.
And mp3 players, which make showtunes even better (or at least more portable).
And finally, that I’ve managed to go more than 12 years without working for anyone else. So thanks to everyone here, and everyone who’s reading this, who made that possible.

Go Falcons!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:41:48 +0000

No, not the football team - the Fortis Academy Fire-Eyed Falcons! Lots of companies sponsor softball teams or bowling teams, but let’s be realistic - most of us over here haven’t touched a piece of sports equipment since Middle School. That’s why, when Lee asked us if we wanted to sponsor the Fortis Academy First Lego Legaue team, we said, “Sign us up!”

Every September FIRST releases the FLL Challenge for that season. This Challenge is based on a set of real-world problems facing scientists and engineers today. It has two parts that teams must complete: 1) Building a robot to compete in the Robot Challenge, and 2) Researching and solving a problem faced by real-world scientists and presenting their solutions. On Saturday, Fortis Academy’s Fire-Eyed Falcons will compete with 18 other teams in this region of Michigan to be one of 7 teams advancing to the Michigan FLL Championship in Dec.

Android Advisory Board Follow-Up

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:33:48 +0000

I wanted to post a brief follow-up to the Advisory Board Assignment from a couple days back about Android. First, a GIANT THANK YOU to everyone for all of your insightful and well thought our replies. You really provided some amazing feedback - you guys never cease to amaze me with the great stuff you post. So again, Thank You! And feel free to keep posting if you have more ideas.

To get my current thoughts and some feedback, read on after the jump!

Advisory Board Assignment #3: Android!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:58:21 +0000

Time for a new assignment for our advisory board! Today I want to hear what you have to say about Android. Let me start by laying out the pros and cons as I see them.

PROS

It’s Google. Google = Success in the technology market right now which bodes well for the device.
It’s a pretty nice OS from a user perspective. Nice UI. Decent look.
It might be the “other phone” along with the iPhone.

CONS

Rate It If You Hate It + In App Purchasing = Disaster?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:49:58 +0000

There is trouble brewing in the iTunes App Store, thanks to the combination of two App Store features. The first is the pre-existing Rate It If You Hate It ratings prompt system, where they prompt for ratings when you uninstall. The second is the recent change that allows free applications to use In App Purchasing to expand functionality, effectively creating a trial version system for the store.

I’m not a fan of how they’ve implemented either of these, but more importantly, when you combine these two it creates a perfect storm of trouble! Read on after the jump for the entire story about the problem Apple has created…

User Reviews Matter!

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:57:55 +0000

There was a bunch of discussion about user reviews over at Just Another iPhone Blog the other day. Patrick was frustrated by reviews that either weren’t reviews, were wildly inaccurate, or were little more than an ad for another product. This sort of thing makes me crazy as well, but when I read the comments I was surprised by how many people don’t think this is a big deal.

In fact this is a big deal for consumers. To explain this, I wrote a new article for Just Another Mobile Monday that talks about the issue. Check it out for my views on the trouble with the way some application stores are handling user reviews and what it means to you guys!

Development Update

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:31:33 +0000

Since a lot of questions about platforms and release plans have come up in the other blog posts, I thought I’d take a second to write a quick update. I hope this helps to answer some of your questions! Keep in mind that in many cases I won’t be able to give specifics, but I will do my best to tell you what I can.

So, if you want some insight into what’s happening at Ilium Software, read on after the jump!

eWallet Lite for iPhone Now Available!

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:19:58 +0000

We just got news that eWallet Lite for iPhone has finally been approved! You can get it for free in the App Store today! eWallet Lite is exactly the same as eWallet except that it only supports one wallet and ten cards and IT’S FREE! Other than that, it offers every feature the full version does, from the 256-bit AES encryption to the many choices for customizing your cards to the rich security options. You can even try synching your information by downloading the Windows desktop trial here.

In Support of Tweetie: The Case for Upgrade Charges

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:22:55 +0000

As some of you know, there was quite a bit of discussion over at the Just Another blogs (Just Another Mobile Monday and Just Another iPhone Blog) over Tweetie’s decision to charge for their latest iPhone application upgrade. They did this by creating a new application and charging for it, rather than upgrading the existing one.

Despite the fact that Tweetie had to do something kind of hacky due to the limits of the App Store, the reality is that they did what they had to. Upgrades cost money - sometimes a LOT of money - and that money has to come from somewhere.

An Honest App Store Article

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:32:34 +0000

If you’ve been reading our blog, nothing that you find in this Newsweek article will surprise you. What is refreshing is to see some honest-to-god journalism going on, and from a major news outlet no less. The article highlights just what a great thing the Apple App Store can be. At the same time, they take a very realistic approach to this, talking about what the reality of the App Store is for the majority of developers and highlighting what it is becoming.

So this password manager walks into a bar...

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:02:00 +0000

Okay - I don’t typically post jokes but I actually heard a joke about passwords today. Considering that there are like four jokes about passwords in the entire world, I thought I’d send this one along. :)

During a recent password audit, it was found that a was using the following password for her computer:

MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofy

When the auditor asked why she had such a big password, she said, “Hellllooooooooo! The tech support guy said that it had to be at least eight characters long.”

Windows Mobile Marketplace: Coming Soon

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:01:53 +0000

Ellen wrote last week about how Apple changed the mobile world with the iTunes App Store. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact of the Microsoft mobile software store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which is scheduled for release on October 6.

First of all, I’m very hopeful that it will be a big success. Microsoft will be including it on all the new Windows Mobile 6.5 devices, as well as making it available for download on WM 6.0 and 6.1 units. I believe that’s the single most important factor in an app store’s success.

The Apple Difference

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:45:14 +0000

I recently found some notes and tasks from March 2008 - 18 months ago - and it really brought home to me how Apple has changed the mobile software world.

Our biggest problem at that time was that people didn’t know they could buy programs for their smartphone or PDA. Apple’s fixed that one - even people who don’t own a mobile device know “there’s an app for that”.

eWallet for iPhone with Copy!

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:45:42 +0000

eWallet for iPhone now lets you Copy your passwords and other information directly from the card face and FlexView. With this new update, you can tap and hold on any Card Face or FlexView text, and eWallet will pop up a Copy button. Click the button and the information from that field gets copied to the clipboard.

Leftovers

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:43:43 +0000

One thing about developing software for mobile devices …. {{ double-space-with-newline }}

NewsBreak Lite Free from Total Access

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:14:39 +0000

I was excited to see that NewsBreak Lite is now available for free from Microsoft’s Total Access service for Windows Mobile. NewsBreak Lite is the free version of our NewsBreak feed reader/podcast grabbing software. The app is great and the price is right so if you have a Window Mobile device you definitely want to grab a copy.

If you aren’t familiar with the Total Access service, here is the official blurb from MS:

The Myth of "Not My Problem"

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:51:06 +0000

I’ve read some really interesting comments regarding the problems in the AppStore. One thing that came up a few times, however, is something like this: “Who cares? This sort of stuff has no impact on the consumer.” I’m posting today to explain why this is a myth - problems with the AppStore that developers are having directly and negatively impact the consumer.

If you’d like to hear why a silly icon rejection is a big deal to you, read on…

New Wave of Apple Rejections - Including eWallet!

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:07:02 +0000

Apparently someone is on a graphics kick over at the Apple iPhone app approval center. Thanks to the iPhone card icon in our application, Apple has rejected the eWallet update. Even though the icon has been there since we released eWallet (the week the AppStore went live), apparently the icon is now a problem so we have to remove it.

We aren’t the only ones running into this sort of thing lately. The folks over at TapBots ran into almost the same thing- an icon that’s been in their app for ages that Apple has suddenly decided is a problem. Like I said, it seems more like an “issue du jour” than a real problem.

And the Power Returns

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:16:11 +0000

Our electricity came back late Friday afternoon. We’ll try hard to return all the emails and phone messages today. Apologies to everyone who was inconvenienced.

No Electricity Today

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:19:26 +0000

Our office lost power about noon today (Friday), and it looked very much like it was going to be down for a while, so if you’re trying to reach us, please try again Monday. Thanks, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Public VS. Private in the Virtual World

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:45:34 +0000

It’s Friday, Apple still hasn’t approved the new version of eWallet, and I want to post something new on the blog, so I’m going to drag out the soapbox and talk about privacy issues. As I said in my Pinchgate post, I’m very sensitive to electronic privacy issues. I’m perfectly happy to share information, but I want to be part of the process. I want an application to ask before it starts sending my secrets off to some distant server for compilation and analysis. At the same time, tracking web usage is a universal aspect of the internet, so where does that fall in the privacy debate?

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, read on after the jump to hear me toss out some ideas!

More Windows Marketplace Buzz...

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:06:11 +0000

There is another great article out about the Windows Marketplace, this one at Digital Media Buzz (and it just happens to talk about us.) It’s always fun to see your name in print, especially when it’s associated with something cool like the upcoming Windows Marketplace.

I know folks give Microsoft a lot of grief, but I’m really excited about the new versions of Windows Mobile and the Marketplace. I think Microsoft really has the right approach on this one. I’m excited to see consumer response to the new projects.

Pinchgate: The Info Tracking Debate

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:58:42 +0000

I’m a stickler for privacy, so the recent furor over Pinch Media’s analytics is really interesting to me. The debate (in a nutshell) is whether information gathered by companies like Pinch Media through iPhone applications, for the purpose of developer marketing, is spyware. I thought I’d take a second to toss in my own 2 cents on this issue.

So, for my take on the subject, read on after the jump!

Could Apple Do This? Would they?

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:46:56 +0000

I’d been thinking about how much Apple is able to do - when they want to - with iPhone App distribution, because of how they set it up.

And I’d been thinking about how much I’d like - both as a user and a developer - trial versions of iPhone apps. But I know what a can of worms is opened by giving developers the ability make and unlock trials.

Apples2Oranges: Now Just 99 Cents!

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:13:51 +0000

Haven’t tried Apples2Oranges? Well now is your chance! We’ve just reduced the price to 99 cents!

Now I know this is unlikely, but there just might be some folks who don’t know what Apples2Oranges is. Let me explain it this way…it’s frustrating to figure out different conversions in your head - impossible if you’re looking at units you aren’t familiar with. You can waste lots of time standing in the store with two different packages in your hands, trying to do the math on which is a better deal, or which has fewer calories per serving.

eWallet iPhone Update Sent to Apple!

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:40:00 +0000

We added a new feature to eWallet on the iPhone! The update is submitted and as soon as the approval goes through, I’ll let everyone know the details. In the meantime, here is a “subtle” hint about what the new feature is! :)

Our newest contest winner

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:34:51 +0000

It’s time again to pick a new winner in our monthly blog contest! I’m sure you’re all anxious to find out who the lucky person will be, so let’s get right to it….

This time around, the winner is Boon Chye for commenting on the Great AppStore Article post. Congratulations! I’ve just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Great AppStore Article

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:38:44 +0000

I have to share a great article about the iTunes AppStore over at AppleInsider. I don’t have much to say that isn’t already covered in the article, but I will share a quote that I think highlights a very real danger:

“In some respects, the App Store has taken its place alongside YouTube, where poor taste is the defining metric,” Wolf wrote. “More ominously, it has led to a deterioration of the entire pricing structure for iPhone applications. The risk is that developers who hope to build quality applications that have a long shelf life may be discouraged from doing so because prospective development costs exceed the revenues they expect to earn on the applications. In short, this race to the bottom has the potential to degrade the overall equality of the applications sold at the App Store.”

Windows Marketplace News

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:45:32 +0000

Microsoft released another Windows Marketplace update a few days ago, and I’m excited to share that we were part of the announcment! As you can see from the article, we are working closely with Microsoft as they get ready for launch. I thought I’d take a second to share an insider’s perspective.

Read on for my two cents on the Marketplace!

No, Bob. "Password" Isn't a Good One.

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:04:30 +0000

Hi Twitter Management,

Correction: This post was originally meant to be tongue-in-cheek, where we would offer Twitter employees a free copy of eWallet to keep track of their passwords. It’s not an offer for the general public. It looks like you’re having a little problem with your passwords. I know you know that using “password” isn’t a good idea, but I imagine you’ve all probably been pretty busy lately.

We’ve got this program called eWallet - you may have heard of it. It not only lets you store passwords safely so that you don’t have to pick the ones anyone can remember - and hack - but it also has a built-in password generator so you don’t even have to think of one. It’s network compatible, so your trusted employees (though you might want to rethink them as well, from what I’ve been reading) can all use it, and it’s compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones.

Just iPhone Art

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:46:21 +0000

Just iPhone Art is a great new site our friends over at JAMM have launched. I’m fascinated by the incredible art people are producing on their iPhones. The JAMM team’s new site delves into this phenomenon and focuses on this cool new artisitc medium.

Definitely pop over and check it out!

Developer Pro-Tip: Show the Clock!!

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:01:13 +0000

If any casual game iPhone developers are listening I gotta rant a sec. Hey, guys! Show the clock! I play casual quick games when I have a few minutes to spare but don’t want to dig into anything too complex. If you hide the clock (the Status Bar if you want the technical name) it means I have to exit the application to see if my few minutes are up.

RIM AppWorld has 2,000 Apps - but not eWallet!

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:14:33 +0000

Endgadget reported that BlackBerry’s AppWorld now has 2,000 apps in it. Unfortunately, eWallet isn’t one of them. We submitted eWallet, but it turns out AppWorld won’t accept any applications that encrypt files. You got it - according to the terms of their contract, we can’t get eWallet into the BlackBerry AppWorld store.

Note - you can get eWallet for Blackberry - just not in RIM’s AppWorld. Get it directly from us here.

Screen Capture Update Available

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:41:49 +0000

If you’re using our free Screen Capture utility for Windows Mobile , we just released an update to it. The main goal was to bring the UI up to date with the latest version of the Windows Mobile OS. We also made a few tweaks to fix a couple bugs we found, and we gave it a new icon (woo hoo!) Yes, I know the MS Paint style icon we had before was super retro cool, but we figured it was time.

We now return to your regularly scheduled contest

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:13:34 +0000

Some of you may have noticed that we didn’t run our monthly blog contest on June 1st. Of course, we had our big anniversary party that week, with three blog contests instead of just one, so I’m sure no one minded much.

But, I’ve dusted off the ol’ contest hat and I’m ready to pick a new winner for our blog comment contest from the month of June. This month’s winning comment actually comes from one of the anniversary posts: Chantelle, who commented on “Contest Three: Finish this sentence”. Congrats! You may not have won the original contest, but your comment still earned you a prize! I’ve just sent you an email - if you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

A Snail Mail Story

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:33:18 +0000

Someone here - and I won’t name names - forgot to pick up our physical mail for a few weeks. Like 12. And none of us noticed.

If we’d done this years ago, we’d be in trouble. Our phones would have been turned off, as well as our internet, and we’d have racked up some serious late charges on the credit cards, if not had them cancelled as well.

But since we’ve been moving more and more of our bills to electronic only, it turns out that ignoring our paper mail for over two months wasn’t a big deal. Macworld sent a few testy “reminders” about our bill, and at least a few of us now have bigger than usual piles of stuff to read, but the only real problem was that Marc had ordered some live tadpoles to be sent here, and by the time we found them, they weren’t live anymore.

eWallet for iPhone OS 3.0 is Out!

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:19:40 +0000

Good news! It only took three weeks (ack!) but the eWallet update is approved! The point of the update was to tweak a few things that cropped up after 3.0 was released. As you probably know, Apple is retesting every app under 3.0 so we wanted to make sure that there were no problems. Even the things we did fix are so minor I bet most folks never would have seen them (like a funky keyboard appearance where is popped up instead of slid up with animation.)

1 Million Apps = 7 Free Apps per Person

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:32:21 +0000

I’m glad Palm is giving the Pre everything they’ve got but I gotta tell you, I’m a little worried. Current estimates place the sales at around 150K units sold. Not bad, but that’s around 1/2 of what the original iPhone did in two days two years ago. (Although it’s pretty close to the Android sales numbers.) meanwhile, the SDK still isn’t out, and the hints we’ve seen of it suggests that we could face some pretty powerful development limits.

Desperate Marketing

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:22:58 +0000

There are certain marketing techniques that just scream desperation. They move the retailer from “dignified and disappointed” to “creepy stalker.” It’s something that could happen to any retailer, us included, in tough economic times. When times get tough people start tossing around all sorts of ideas, searching for something - anything- to change their fortunes. Fortunately, I like to think we’ve avoided this so far, but I ran across one painful example of this yesterday.

Read on after the jump for the whole story…

eWallet for BlackBerry Update

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:08:07 +0000

I’m excited to announced that we just released a new version of eWallet for BlackBerry with our good friends over at WebIS. This latest release is a free upgrade for current eWallet for BlackBerry customers. It addresses a few minor bugs but also adds a number of great features.

UPDATE: This upgrade will change the version of both the eWallet sync add-in for Blackberry Desktop Manager, and the Blackberry version, to 6.1.4.3416. The desktop eWallet does not change - it will stay at 6.1.3.24746.

eWallet for iPhone OS 3.0 Awaiting Approval

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:06:14 +0000

I figured I’d drop a quick post about this. Over a week ago we sent a new version of eWallet with minor OS 3.0 compatibility updates to Apple. As you might have guessed we’re still waiting on approval. I’m sure they’ll get to it soon. In the meantime there isn’t anything about eWallet that doesn’t work ion 3.0. There are just a couple of oddities we smoothed out. For example, in one screen the keyboard *pops* into view as opposed to sliding into view. This new update lets it slide again. That sort of thing.

iTunes Gift Card Blocking Workaround

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:35:47 +0000

I’ve seen some complaints online recently about people no longer being able to buy iTunes Gift Cards to be sent by email, or that iTunes Gift Card amounts are now being limited. In fact, our account is one of the ones affected by this: our company iTunes account suddenly became unable to buy Gift Cards on iTunes. We get the message:

Twittering from WWDC!

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:28:05 +0000

Hey everyone! Marc asked me to write a quick little post on his behalf, to let you know that he’s at the WWDC this week - and he’s twittering (tweeting??) all about it.

Marc has been twittering like crazy since he got there - so there’s a whole lot to read: http://twitter.com/iliumsoftware

I’m sure there will be more to come so keep an eye out for his updates all week. And if you’re at WWDC - try to find Marc (that’s his photo with this post) and say hi!

Winners: the ideal device

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:06:11 +0000

It looks like you guys had a lot of fun with our contest over the weekend - there were so many creative ideas for mobile devices, I can tell that this is something you’ve all thought about on your own for some time! Now, if only we could find someone to build these devices for you….

Well, in the meantime, while you wait for your dream devices to become reality, how about I announce the winners? Yeah, I thought you’d like that idea. The first place winner of a $50 Amazon or iTunes gift card is: spmwinkel, who cleverly posted a wish for every letter of the alphabet. Great thinking!

Contest Three: Finish this sentence....

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:33:15 +0000

This is it: the final contest in our week-long anniversary party. What will it be? Well, with the weekend coming up, we didn’t want to make you work too hard, because I hear it’s supposed to be sunny and I know you’ve got lots of gardening and stuff to do. So all you have to do is finish this sentence:

My ideal mobile device would….

That’s it - easy as pie! You can be honest, you can be imaginitive, or you can be both. For example, I sometimes honestly wish my computer would sprout arms and legs and start cleaning the house like Rosie on The Jetsons. (I get to cheat and say ‘computer’ because I don’t have any mobile devices of my own.)

So here’s your chance to tell us about the cool gadget ideas you’ve had. Maybe you’ve wished your phone could send music via Bluetooth to your hearing aid. Or you’ve always dreamt of being able to say “beam me up, HTC Advantage” and get teleported to work, avoiding the stress of rush hour.

Winners: Kickin' it old school

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:27:34 +0000

Yesterday’s contest took us all for a walk down memory lane - and does anyone else find it strange that two of the comments were from people living in Zimbabwe when they were 12? One of those weird little coincidences, for sure.

Anyway, on to what you really want to know: the winners! There were a lot of great stories that reminded some of us here of our own childhoods. But, unfortunately, not everyone can win, so we finally settled on our four favorites.

The first place winner of a $50 Amazon or iTunes gift card is Robbie - your brilliant plan to use “Pong” to (try to) win yourself a girl won us over during voting!

Our three runners-up, who each receive a $25 Amazon or iTunes gift card, are: Singh (your calculator watch was probably pretty cool back then - I remember those), Melvyn (I actually do believe about your teacher’s name; it’s one of those things that’s so awful, it has to be true), and Patrick(wow - I didn’t have to run the mile until high school, but it was still dreadful then).

Contest Two: Back in the day

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:35:36 +0000

For today’s contest you’ll need to exercise your memory, dust off the old photo albums, and think back to the good old days. As you know, we’ve just turned 12, and we want to know what to expect of the next year. So that’s where you come in. All you need to do is answer the following question:

What were you like when you were twelve?

Simple, right? Everyone was 12 once, and it lasted a whole year, so you’ve got to have lots of great stories about it. Were you the president of the computer club, or maybe a jock-in-training, or perhaps you were like, totally, the cheerleading captain. Did you have one of those awesome, giant cell phones like Zack Morris on Saved by the Bell? Maybe you liked to take apart toasters and turn them into shortwave radios, build model cars, or put together little dance routines with your friends (yes, I admit it, that was me).

Winners: MadLibs fun!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:24:44 +0000

The votes are in! There were a lot of strange, weird, and funny headlines from our MadLibs game yesterday, so it took us some time today to narrow down the list to four winners. But we’ve picked our favorites and now it’s time to let you know which headlines we liked best.

The first place winner of a $50 Amazon or iTunes gift card is Melvyn, for the crazy headline: “Today Microsoft announced its merger with Amazon and unveiled its plans to sell toenails to Bolivia.” Eww…gross. Can you even imagine a merger like that - or living in Bolivia and seeing toenails for sale at your local store?

Contest One: Say what?!

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:39:29 +0000

We’re going to start off our week of anniversary contests with a blast from the past - er, a blast from one year ago, that is.

One of the best contests we ran for last year’s party was a fun-filled game of mobile-style MadLibs; we got a lot of hilarious responses. So, I decided we really should go for another round!

If you don’t know what MadLibs are, well, that’s just sad - they were a childhood staple where I grew up. I’ve got some fond memories of rainy afternoons sitting around laughing at the crazy MadLibs my friends and I used to make up. And that was just last week! Anyway, you can get a crash course on MadLibs here, then head on back to this post more details on our contest.

Our 12th Anniversary!

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:08:07 +0000

Today is our 12 year anniversary! Yes, we’ve been making and selling mobile and desktop software for 12 years. How amazing is that?

I wish I could take credit for it all, but I’m a little too honest for that. We’ve been smart - I’ll never downplay that - but we’ve been very lucky too. I never know what the future of mobile software will be like, but we’ll be trying hard to keep up with it, without compromising our commitments to high quality software, in-house development, ethical business practices, and world-class tech and customer support.

eWallet for Mac, ListPro for iPhone

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:48:07 +0000

My first draft of this was about four pages long. After giving it a lot of thought, I took another whack at it. I’ll try to get straight to the point in this version. I’m not going to sugar coat things or pad my comments with biz-speak. I’m just going to give you the info you need in plain English.

ListPro for iPhone and eWallet for Mac are not done yet. I’ve made some guesses about when they’ll be done but, frankly, they’re guesses. The reality is that we won’t release them until they meet the standards of quality we’ve set for ourselves. We WILL release them (we always finish what we start) but it will be when they are ready and not before.

May-be it's time for a new contest winner

Tue, 05 May 2009 20:01:54 +0000

Well, May is here and it’s off to a nice start so far. Relatively warm weather: not too rainy, not too windy. And I think - I really think - I can safely pack my snow boots away without any negative consequences. But maybe I should hold off on that so as not to jinx things.

And best of all, May means it’s time to pick another blog contest winner! Last month Marc posted some good news about Mac eWallet, and that produced a lot of comments from happy readers - including our winner: Mark. Congrats, Mark! I’ve just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Microsoft SYNC

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:51:13 +0000

I just bought a new car yesterday and it came with Microsoft SYNC. SYNC, which apparently comes standard on pretty much every Ford vehicle these days, syncs your mobile device to your car and provides full voice control over that device. Besides the fact that it’s pretty sweet, there are a few other reasons I wanted to blog about it.

Microsoft Rocks

I know, it isn’t a phrase people say very often but frankly, they should. Microsoft takes a lot of bashing from a lot of fronts, but the reality is that they are successful not due to luck, stupid consumers, or momentum - rather, they continue to succeed because they actually do quite a lot of stuff really well.

Mac eWallet

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:50:29 +0000

That get your attention? Thought so! Well, Mac eWallet isn’t out yet but it is being worked on. After the latest in a long line of challenges getting this project finished, I’ve pulled the project back in-house (it had been assigned to contractors). We now have one of our in-house developers assigned to the project full-time.

I still can’t tell you too much about it BUT I will offer a few tidbits. First, it looks every bit as good as the iPhone version of the software does. Second, it has a distinctly “Mac” interface - we didn’t just port over a copy of desktop eWallet - we know full well that you Mac folks have certain expectations and we’re doing what we can to meet those expectations. At the same time, the end result is something you’ll still recognize - one look and you’ll say “Hey! It’s eWallet!” Getting it that way was tricky but I think you’ll be please.

No joke: we have a winner

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:47:36 +0000

Well, the contest is now officially over - the secret text on the secret page has been changed back to normal, and I have a winner to announce!

I got a lot of great entries - thanks to everyone for playing! There were only three correct guesses, so it’s interesting to find out that some of you took other “serious” text on our site as a joke!

I put the three correct guessers’ (is that a word?) names into my magic contest hat, and the winner is: Greg. Congrats, Greg! I’m going to reply to your entry email now to get the details I need to send your prize out.

Ilium Software to give away millions in cash and prizes!

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:09:32 +0000

As you may already know, the first day of the month is when we pick a winner from our ongoing blog comment contest. And as the headline of this post suggests, boy do we have a great contest today for one lucky winner! That’s right - cash and prizes totaling more than one million…more than two million…could it be more than three million? Read on after the jump to find out all the details about what may possibly be the coolest contest ever!

Windows Marketplace, here we come!

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:35:18 +0000

As of today, I can officially tell you that our software works great on Windows Mobile 6.5 AND that you’ll find our products in the new Windows Mobile Marketplace. We’ve been working with Microsoft on this for a while, and as of today the news is official. In addition, we’re working on a number of updates to our core Windows Mobile products (eWallet, ListPro, and NewsBreak) that will take advantage of some of the cool new features 6.5 offers.

In addition, we’re working on many of your requests that came out of the last Advisory Board Assignment! Thanks again to EVERYONE who participated. That feedback is invaluable to us!

UPDATE: I grabbed some cool screenshots from the promotional video Microsoft released. Turns out our applications are in the video a number of times! Check them out after the jump!

Adventures in Formatting

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:52:13 +0000

With help from Marc, Dan and Lee, I learned a really bad - albeit effective - way to format a hard drive yesterday:

It turns out that:

It’s a lot easier than you’d expect to snap hard disks.
They break into many, many little pieces that fly everywhere.
And the pieces are extremely sharp.

If you’re wondering whether we take our data security seriously, yes, we do. That’s my personal blood on the disc pieces and the desk.

Palm Pre = Foleo 2.0?

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:37:25 +0000

I was reading yet another article about the Pre today, and something hit me. Could it be, that the Palm Pre’s WebOS is actually the Foleo OS tweaked for a new device format? The reason this came to me was that I was reading an article recently and saw this quote:

The company plans to establish a WebOS ecosystem that goes “well beyond our base.”

I mean, if the OS was originally written for a totally different device, WebOS would be well positioned to do exactly that. There are other hints as well but rather than speculate I’d like to turn it over to you.

Interview at AppCraver - AppStore Pricing

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:43:40 +0000

The good people over at AppCraver read my blog post about pricing and asked to do a short interview. They asked some great questions that further illuminate the challenges iPhone developers face. If you’d like to take a look you can find the whole article here.

Rate It If You Hate It!

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:33:17 +0000

The AppStore “Rate It If You Hate It” system is such a spectacularly bad idea that I really need to talk about it for a second. I certainly appreciate what Apple is trying to do. Like I’ve said time and again - I’m VERY, VERY happy with Apple’s clearly demonstrated policy of working to improve things. I’ve seen other companies allow their flawed systems/devices/OS’s to sit around for YEARS with no effort to improve them. So, please don’t take this frustration with one aspect of the system as an overall indictment.

But seriously - a system that specifically encourages people who are removing an application to review it, with no reciprocating system to encourage people who LIKE their applications to review them, is a terrible plan.

Read on after the jump for the whole story…

AppStore Prices - Is Cheaper Really Better?

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:20:16 +0000

Over at the Apple iPhone Group at Yahoo, a discussion has cropped up about application prices in the AppStore. We think (and hear) about this a lot, so I want to take a minute to talk about application pricing (on any mobile platform). It is a topic that is important to developers, retailers, and customers alike.

So, if you’re curious to hear a developer perspective on pricing, read on after the jump!

Fun with Passwords

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:50:41 +0000

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.

We Changed Apple! New AppStore Rating System

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:53:42 +0000

OK, I’m just guessing but it is pretty cool that on the heels of our survey Apple has implemented a change in the AppStore rating system. I don’t honestly believe they did it just for us, but it is nice to know that Apple is trying. Unfortunately, it doesn’t solve all the problems of the AppStore rating system but it’s a start.

If you’d like to learn more about this change, read on after the jump!

iPills is Out and Free!

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:50:56 +0000

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?”

Final App Store Survey Results

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:31:15 +0000

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:

Still More App Store Survey Results

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:01:47 +0000

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

Marching right along with a new contest winner

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:11:07 +0000

It’s time once again for the latest monthly installment of our blog comment contest. We had a lot of great comments in February - so many helpful replies and suggestions from Ellen’s iPhone survey posts and Marc’s updates to all the exciting things we’ve got going on around here. It makes me glad I don’t have to pick the winner myself! So, let’s get on with it and find out who the computer has chosen this time around….

More App Store Survey Results

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:53:06 +0000

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.

Advisory Board Assignment #2: Windows Mobile Ideas

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:03:45 +0000

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!

Update from the Front Lines: Palm, Android, and Other Platforms

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:48:28 +0000

Although iPhone, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry get the most attention around here lately, we keep a close watch on the other mobile platforms. Personally, I think this is an exceptionally exciting time for our industry. The smartphone (which frankly is just an old school PDA with a phone built in) has really come into its own. People really care about these devices, and more and more people feel like they have to have one!

As an example of how much a part of the public conciousness these devices have become, I offer up the latest “cardboard drink cozies” from Starbucks - you know, those little cardboard sleeves that keep you from burning the skin off your hand when you get your drink. Their most recent sleeve has the following statement on it:

The only handheld device you’ll ever need.

This might not seem like a big deal to most folks, but to me it’s huge. Three, even two years ago, when people asked me what I did I’d say “We write software for handheld devices.” The answer was invariably “For handheld what?” Most people didn’t know what the heck a “handheld device” was. But just a few years later, the term is so common place that Starbucks can use it without explanation.

With my long winded intro complete, I’m going to take a few minutes today to talk about these other platforms and share my opinions of them. If you’re interested, read on after the jump!

App Store Survey Results

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:54:44 +0000

Results #1: How You Find Apps

The short version: OK, I’m surprised.

The longer version follows. In case you missed it, last week we posted a survey about how people use the iTunes App Store.

Update from the Front Lines: Windows Mobile

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:40:59 +0000

Of course my news wouldn’t be complete without some updates on Windows Mobile! Due to some top secret stuff that’s underway I’m afraid that in this area I’m going to be a bit cagier than on other topics. In a nutshell, however, we do have some very cool plans for both Windows desktop and Windows Mobile.

I will say that I’m SUPER excited about Windows Mobile 6.5. Not only are the UI updates very cool, but for the past decade we’ve been begging Microsoft to take applications more seriously. With this new version of the OS they really are. I think the changes are going to be an enormous benefit to users and an equally big benefit to developers.

Update from the Front Lines: iPhone ListPro

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:32:12 +0000

Next up on the news extravaganza is ListPro for iPhone. I know a lot of people are eagerly awaiting this one so I want to make sure to fill you all in as to what is happening, especially since we got so much incredible advice from the advisory board.

So if you’re one of those people who can’t wait to use ListPro on their iPhone, this post is for you. Read on after the jump!

Update from the Front Lines: Mac eWallet

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:27:29 +0000

It’s been a little while since I last gave folks an overall update about what’s up here at Ilium Software, so I want to take am minute today to do that. I started this as a single post but as always, I got a bit wordy so I’m breaking it up. Some of it I’ll post today, some will go up on Monday.

I have couple of reasons for doing this. First, I’m extremely excited about the future of our industry and our company. There is a lot of very cool stuff to talk about. Second, one of our blog commenters - Henry - gave me some excellent advice yesterday. Based on that I want to offer you guys some news.

First up on the agenda is Mac eWallet. If you want to know more, read on after the jump…

Password Builder added to eWallet for iPhone

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:01:38 +0000

Hey, everyone! I wanted to let you know that we got word that our latest update to eWallet for iPhone has gone live in the AppStore. eWallet 6.1.4 includes our PassBuilder password generator. Now you can generate passwords for any Hidden (aka: Password) field.

The interface is as easy as ever and the new feature works great! I included a couple screenshots below so you can see how it looks. If you already own eWallet you should get the updated automatically. If you don’t own eWallet yet, what are you waiting for! Get your copy here!

How Do You Use the iTunes App Store?

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:16:07 +0000

There’s a lot being written about iTunes and the App Store this week. And a lot of it is by developers who are guessing what people want, how they find it, and how much they’ll pay for it.

Rather than guess, I thought I’d ask.

I’ve put together a very short survey. If you’d like to fill it out, please do! We’d appreciate the answers. And we’ll give away a bunch of iTunes or Amazon gift cards to people who fill it out (and include their email addresses, which we won’t do anything else with), so you’ll have a good chance to win.

Double the winners, double the fun

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:30:55 +0000

Hey everyone! It’s time again for another installment of our monthly blog contest. To anyone who may have noticed, I apologize for slacking a bit and not announcing a winner in January. I was pretty busy, and by the time I realized I’d never done my usual contest post, the month was half over! So I decided to keep on slacking and double up my contest today.

All right, I’ve got two winners to pick, so let’s get started! First up, the lucky winner from December ‘08: vi, for commenting on the post eWallet for Mac Update. And our winner for January, the first winner of the new year: Duncan, for commenting on Macworld Thoughts. Congrats to both of you - take a bow! I’ve just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Apples2Oranges in the New York Times!

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:18:20 +0000

I always love it when our products get on TV or into one of the big newspapers. I’m not sure if it sells more software, but it is definitely fun. You get that giddy “Woo hoo! We’re famous!” feeling. It’s just a blast. Anyhow, I just found out that Apples2Oranges got a mention in today’s edition of the New York Times (B5, lower right corner).

Bob Tedeschi wrote an article about Free Internet Calling services and at the end did one of his “Quick Calls” sections, where he highlights a few cool apps he has come across. It’s there that he mentions Apples2Oranges! You can pick up a copy at your local brick and mortar store, or read the whole article here. (You might need to register.)

Apples2Oranges Now Available!

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:26:07 +0000

Apples2Oranges, our latest iPhone application, is now available in the AppStore! Compare prices and nutritional information with a few simple taps! Whether you’re looking to save a few bucks or trying to drop a few pounds, Apples2Oranges offers an easy and fun way to do it!

We’re extremely excited about this one because it really is a first-of-its-kind release. There are other unit comparison apps out there, but nothing that really focuses in on one of the most common reason people buy those things. You can read all the official stuff in the product description and on our website, but I’ll give you my personal slant on this one.

Kings Corners Free!

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:13:50 +0000

So you heard that Kings Corners on iPhone was the coolest game ever, but let’s face it - the economy isn’t what it used to be - and you probably thought “A dollar? For a card game? Nah, I’ll pass.”

Well good news! We just made the decision easier for you! Now you can get Kings Corners for FREE!

That’s right, Kings Corners Free is now available in the iTunes store. It’s like an “Entertainment Bailout!”

Email problems - all fixed!

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:09:43 +0000

Hi everyone - I just wanted to let you know that we discovered a little problem with our email system this morning. First, the good news: the problem is solved now! I’ve been sending test emails from our site, and we’ve received them all.

The bad news is: if you sent an email to us between yesterday evening and earlier this morning, we may not have gotten it. If you didn’t get an auto-response back from your email, that means it didn’t go through.

Apple is/isn't going to CES next year!

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:16:57 +0000

It’s the big talk around town - will Apple attend CES next year? Some folks say “Yes! Absolutely!” others say “Never! They wouldn’t stoop so low!” Which is true? Only time will tell, but even here at Ilium Software the debate rages on. As a matter of fact, Ellen and I have a little bet going. She thinks Apple won’t be at CES next year, I say they will.

So if you’d like to hear why we differ and our arguments for and against (AND see what we’re betting!), read on after the jump! And once you read it - weigh in with your own opinions!

Macworld Thoughts

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:40:01 +0000

Well, I’m back from Macworld! For those of you who are interested, I thought I’d share a few thoughts. I’ve also included a few pictures I took.

I’ll give the extended version after the jump, but for those of you in need of a sound bite I’ll summarize.

It was very cool. I loved getting to talk to so many great people, especially folks who I’ve long known by their email address but not face to face! It was also neat to take part in something I’ve heard so many people rave about. I saw some very interesting things and got some excellent insight into the Apple market. All in all a very satisfying experience. Plus San Francisco is great so how could I go wrong!

So, on to the details…

What's up with the eWallet Web Companion?

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:56:00 +0000

In a comment on the last post, someone asked what was up with the eWallet Web Companion. For those of you who don’t know, the web companion is a web based application that allows you to view your eWallet wallet files online. You can sync to it, just like to any other mobile device, and securely view your wallets from any computer with internet access and a web browser. We even have a page about it here.

If you want to learn more about the Web Companion, read on after the jump!

Have Coffee with Marc!

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:06:43 +0000

If you’re attending MacWorld (or if you live in the Bay Area) come have coffee with me tomorrow morning! I’ll be camped out at Starbucks in the Marriott lobby from 8am to 9am, stocking up on caffeine to get me through the day.

It’s your chance to ask me your burning questions (yes, we’re working on the Mac version), offer up your ideas, and find out what we have planned for the future. We’d love to hear from you so come on over.

Election Day is Here! We Need You!

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:52:08 +0000

THANK YOU to everyone who nominated us for the BestAppEver contest! Thanks to your help, eWallet and Kings Corners have made it to the finals for the BestAppEver! This means that out of 17,758 nominations for 1,259 applications, eWallet and Kings Corners made it to the Top Ten for multiple lists. What’s more, eWallet got SO many votes that it is now up for the mother-of-all awards - the Best iPhone Application Ever! You guys rock!

Podcast with Todd Ogasawara

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:10:19 +0000

Todd Ogasawara, who runs one of my very favorite blogs: the really excellent MobileAppsToday, did a podcast interview with Marc and me yesterday. It’s published on his site and I’m going to add the player here once I make sure it will work.

We talk about products, platforms, trends and how to find us at CES and MacWorld next week.

Here’s the player, if you want to hear it directly:

Vote for Ilium Software!

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:27:06 +0000

We know you probably forgot to get us a Christmas present - that’s cool. We know everyone is busy. But IF you still want to get us something before the holiday, here is your chance!

Vote for us today in the 2008 BestAppEver Contest! The folks over at 148Apps are having a best iPhone applications contest, and we need your vote! To make it easy for you, we’ve created a page full of handy links:

And I Thought We Had a Problem with Imitators

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:46:39 +0000

There are seven apps - today - in the iTunes app store with a name containing “iFart”.

I’m just amazed.

Support Snowed Under

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:06:54 +0000

We got a lot of snow last night, and it’s still going on, so we’re a little short-handed, and it may be a little harder than usual to reach us today phone or email. We’re here, so don’t hesitate to email or leave a message, but please be patient about getting an answer quite as quickly as usual from us. Thanks for your patience!

Holiday Thanks

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:57:20 +0000

If you’re reading this, we want to thank you for all the support you’ve given us this past year (and other years too). Reviewers, readers, people who link to us, comment on our posts, and use our products: we couldn’t do what we do without all of you!

I’d like to thank everyone in person, but I still can’t teleport (not for lack of trying). So I’ll just thank everyone here, and of course wish you happy holidays (whichever ones you observe) as well.

MacWorld Bound!

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:51:00 +0000

MacWorld is just a couple weeks away and both Ellen and I are planning to attend. If you’re going to MacWorld, or live in the area, let us know, or just look for us in the main hall. We’ll be wearing our Ilium Software apparel so we should be easy to spot!

We’re even bringing some presents, so if you catch us before our bag is empty, we might have something cool for you! The Expo runs January 5th to 9th and we’ll be around for the whole thing. See you there!

Blogs, mobile devices, and....talking cats???

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:46:01 +0000

Yep, you read the title right. After the BlackBerry eWallet release and all the technical problems we had last week, I wasn’t up to posting anything too deep today, so I figured this was a good time to mention a couple of fun things. This first post is really a bit of self-promotion, but it actually does have a mobile device slant to it.

As some of you might know, I live a secret life. In the dark of night, when the office is closed and my family is asleep, I sneak down to my basement and become…a writer! That’s right, I’m secretly a writer. I’ve published a number of short stories and with luck I just might have a novel out within the next year or two (depending on approvals and publishing schedules.)

Return of the Blog

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:12:47 +0000

Good news - the blog is back! Hopefully it will stay, and we’ll get back to normal posting next week. As before, if you run into problems with our site or store, please let us know.

Is it me, or is it always December when something major breaks?

Store Problems - We're On It!

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:26:47 +0000

Apparently we’ve got some store problems (and it affects more than just eWallet for BlackBerry folks). Our crack team of emergency technicians are on the job, and hopefully we’ll have everything sorted out soon! In the meantime, if you have had problems, drop us an email at support@iliumsoft.com or call us after 9:30AM ET at 888-632-5388. If you email us, you can help us expidiate responses for this problem by using the subject “Purchase Problems.”

eWallet for BlackBerry is Out!

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:12:33 +0000

eWallet for BlackBerry is now available! That’s right! It isn’t a beta - it’s the real deal. For a limited time, eWallet for BlackBerry is only available directly from Ilium Software and WebIS. We are working on getting it into your favorite retail stores, but rather than delaying the release further we figured we would make it available through our direct store today.

It has all the great features you’ve come to expect from our products, syncs with the current version of eWallet for Windows PC, and is fully compatible with all of your existing wallet files. We worked with WebIS to bring this great product to you, and please contact Ilium Software directly if you have any questions. Our support staff is here to help you with eWallet for BlackBerry just like we do for eWallet on all the other platforms. (For those of you who are new to eWallet, we’re available toll free at 888-632-5388 M-F 9am to 4:30pm ET or via email at support@iliumsoft.com.)

ListPro for iPhone Update

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:09:12 +0000

When we asked for your comments on ListPro for iPhone, I was thrilled with the response we received. You guys gave us a wealth of fantastic ideas and insight. Based on those comments, our own experience in the iPhone market, and quite a bit of heavy thought, we have a tentative plan. Note that this is in no way a guarantee of what we will do, but rather an estimate of what we hope to accomplish.

So if you want the inside scoop on ListPro for iPhone, read on after the jump!

How would you like a free iPhone app?

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:21:57 +0000

As you may have already heard, Apple just started making promo codes available for their iPhone apps. That’s right - we get 50 codes for each of our programs. It’s great news for us, and we’re very happy that Apple has decided to implement this. To celebrate we’re going to hand out some free codes right off the bat!

The first 10 people to grab one of the codes below get a free copy of Kings Corners on the App Store! Please leave a comment mentioning which code you used so others won’t try the same one - they only work once. Right now, promo codes only work in the US iTunes Store, and they will expire in 4 weeks (although I have a feeling it won’t take you that long to use yours).

The last winner of the year!

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:45:59 +0000

Sorry I’m a little late bringing you this month’s contest winner! Marc wrote some really interesting posts yesterday and I wanted to make sure everyone had lots of time to dig in and read those before I published this entry.

So, this is it - the final blog contest winner of 2008 is about to be announced! There was a lot of great discussion in November, so the competition was fierce, but now one lucky commenter has been selected. The last contest winner of the year is: TommyC from the post eWallet for BlackBerry Open Beta. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Release Dates

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:40:36 +0000

I swear I wrote about Release Dates here once before, but based on some of the comments and questions, I feel like I need to address the topic again. My personal feeling is that unless a product is completely finished and ready for release, software and release dates just don’t mix.

Read on after the jump to learn more about my philosophy on Release Dates…

eWallet for Mac Update

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:40:30 +0000

Just a quick update on eWallet for Mac. Contrary to what I’ve seen posted in some of the blog comments, we are in fact making eWallet for Mac. As a matter of fact, we’ve ALWAYS planned to make eWallet for Mac at some point. This is something we’ve had in the works for a few years - pre-iPhone even. If you want to know more about eWallet for Mac, check out the rest of the post after the jump!

eWallet 6.1.4 for iPhone - Now With Search!

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:04:36 +0000

Good news, everyone! eWallet for iPhone with search is out! You can get the update from the AppStore today! I think you’ll like it a lot. It works like a charm. It also includes a few tweaks and fixes. Here is the full list:

Search
Delete confirmation for cards and categories
Auto-lock from card edit view
Updated VISA and Discover card logos
Hidden fields now wordwrap in FlexView
Card now opens for viewing upon creation
Carriage returns missing in Notes bug fixed

So, there you go! Let us know how you like it!

Windows vs iPhone vs BlackBerry vs Palm vs ...

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:16:00 +0000

Which mobile platform is the best? It’s a war that rages on and on. Vocal supporters of every desktop and mobile platform mount vigorous assaults in defense of their favored system. And yet, I think that’s not the right approach.

Read on after the jump for my take on the debate about “Which Device is the Best?”

This is the first of a series of posts designed to answer a long list of questions folks asked in my last blog post. I started to write it as one post but the thing got so dang long it was getting silly. If I don’t answer your question or address your favored topic today, don’t worry…I’ll get to it over the next couple of days!

Does iPhone User = Mac User?

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:57:32 +0000

There is a perception out there that iPhone users are Mac users. Now before I say more, let me make it clear right now that this is NOT a “Which OS is best?” article. From a business perspective, the quality of the OS doesn’t matter to me as much as how many users of a particular OS are out there, and whether they will buy our software. I PREFER a high-quality OS because of the cool stuff we can do with it, but in the end its about which OS will pay the bills.

Nice Kings Corners review

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:23:56 +0000

I just wanted to share a great Kings Corners review from Doug over at JAMM. He really captures what is fun about the game and as always, does a very thorough review of the app. I especially like his “just one more try” comment, since I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve said that! I also really like his timer idea. Playing in a speed mode would be very fun. After playing hundreds of games, I put a lot of thought into my moves now and a timer would add a cool element of excitement. (Puttin’ that one on my list. :) )

Kings Corners from Ilium Software!

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:58:47 +0000

Kings Corners for iPhone is now available in the AppStore! I’m extremely excited about this, and the best part for you is that it’s only 99 Cents! If you want the official marketing pitch, we’ve got a web page here. Or if you just want to buy it now, go here! In this post I’m just going to tell you my own thoughts on the game.

So if you want the candid scoop on our new game, read on after the jump!

Hey, Apple. Where's the "Gift This App" button?

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:24:44 +0000

If there is one thing that is missing from the AppStore, it’s a “Gift This App” button. Don’t get me wrong. Depsite a few hiccups early on, overall we’re quite happy with the whole AppStore experience. It’s just that we’d love a way to buy promo copies of our software for people. And then there are reviewers. We know about Ad Hoc, but splitting 100 Ad Hoc licenses between in-house devices, beta testers, and reviewers just isn’t enough. We’ll pay full price for our software - we just want it to be free for the other person.

As I mentioned, this is a problem for promotions. It’s an even bigger problem for reviewers, though. Read on after the jump to see why…

eWallet for BlackBerry Open Beta!

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:15:29 +0000

eWallet for BlackBerry is finally here! It isn’t available for purchase yet, but we’re very excited to announce that you can download a Beta version of the software today! This version is a full featured version and will synchronize with eWallet 6.1.3 for Windows PC. (If you do not have 6.1.3 on your desktop PC yet, click here.)

Although this is a Beta version of the application, it is extremely solid and works great. It IS a Beta though, so all the usual warnings and disclaimers apply (for instance, be sure to make a good backup of your wallet files before you start using it, use at your own risk, etc.) Again, it is extremely solid but officially it is a Beta.

Subtle Reminder: VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:37:04 +0000

To all of our readers in the U.S., I want to encourage you to get out there and vote today! No matter which side you are for, this is an important election for our country. I went this morning, and amazingly I got through in around 15 minutes! The poll workers are busting their backsides to make sure that everything runs smoothly! So don’t assume the worst about the lines.

The contest is over - time to pass out the treats!

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:29:29 +0000

Happy Halloween guys and ghouls! Well, our costume contest is over, and it’s time to find out who won. As you may have guessed, every entry is a winner, which is great news not just for the them, but for me as well. It means I don’t have to pull my hair out trying to choose which costumes to pick - because I thought all the entries were very creative, and I was not looking forward to narrowing it down.

Calling all goblins and ghouls - it's contest time!

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:13:20 +0000

I love Halloween. It’s easily my favorite holiday. I like Halloween decorations, lights, and colors, and the people who take the time to make their yards look like haunted houses. I’m also a fan of the day after Halloween, with the half-price sales - that’s when I add to my collection of Halloween stuff. You can bet I’ll be the first inside the store this Saturday morning, ready to scoop up all kinds of great things, running around like a kid in a candy shop.

But don’t get me started on stores these days. The past few years, right alongside the Halloween gear, they put out the Christmas decorations. This year, it was still September when they started stocking the shelves with Christmas lights. It’s too early - and it’s enough to put me in a really Grinchy mood and ruin my Halloween cheer. So then I decided - why not throw a costume party to keep me in the Halloween spirit (ha! spirit - get it)?

And that’s where you come in. Sure, we could throw a party here at the office, but how would you get to join in? So what about a costume party with a twist; something with, say, a little competition added in and a chance to win an awesome prize? Well, boys and ghouls, if that sounds like fun to you, join me for the details after the jump.

The Last Quiet Week

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:47:11 +0000

While we’re all eagerly waiting for Julie’s fun contest next week, and of course for the U.S. election after that, I’ll take this chance share a few mobile-related links:

GoodShop.com - Here’s a great way to support schools and causes you believe in, with no direct cost to you. Click on a link on this page before you buy something on many major sites, including iTunes, Amazon, and eBay, and your kids’ school, or your favorite charity, gets a kickback. With no extra cost to you, some worthy cause can benefit from your purchases.

Best - Advisory Board - Ever!!

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:50:26 +0000

You folks are amazing! Thank you to everyone for all the incredible answers to my post about ListPro. I knew we’d get a couple of in-depth replies, but the sheer number of well thought out, insightful, and considerate responses were beyond my expectations. THANK YOU for all the help.

Everyone is welcome to keep posting ideas at the ListPro post and I will continue to read them. We are working right now to create a definitive roadmap for ListPro, based in large part on your responses. Once we come up with a solid plan, I’ll fill everyone in. Normally we keep this stuff a little closer to the vest, but considering the response I only think it is fair to keep you in the loop.

Advisory Board Assignment #1 - ListPro for iPhone

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:40:40 +0000

Last week I let you know that you are the Ilium Software advisory board. When we’re trying to determine the best course of action, we really listen to our customers. That said, we’ve got an assignment for you.

As you know we’ve been planning to release ListPro on the iPhone. Working with a contractor, we actually made quite a bit of progress. Of course ListPro, even though relatively simply to use, is an extremely complex piece of software. Anytime you offer the level of customization that ListPro does, you’re looking at a ton of work. Throw synching into the mix and you’re talking about a monumental task.

That said we’re faced with a bit of a dilemma and we want to get your feedback. So if you’re up to the challenge, read on after the jump!

The Ilium Software Advisory Board - YOU!

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:17:04 +0000

I just wanted to take a moment to reinforce how much we appreciate all the input we’ve received from all of you. Even if we aren’t able to add something that you’ve been waiting for, much of what we do here is based directly on customer feedback. From features, to fixes, to new applications, we always look to what our customers tell us as we go to make decisions.

Good News for Internet Radio

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:26:16 +0000

Yes, I’m being off-topic again, but as people who read this blog a lot know, internet radio is the one thing I’m just fanatical about. Anyway, the good news is that the Webcaster Settlement Act was approved by both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate this week. To quote the press release at SaveNetRadio.org:

“This legislation is not the final answer,” said SaveNetRadio spokesperson, Jake Ward, “but it is an essential step toward a lasting and much-needed solution.

Witch One Will be the Winner?

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:20:37 +0000

No, that’s not a typo. Or, at least, yes I did it intentionally. With October here, and Halloween coming, I’m feeling a little festive today so I decided to pick our monthly blog contest winner from my new holiday-themed contest hat.

So, let’s see who the lucky person is this time around. The winner for September is Adrian, for commenting on the post My Release Philosophy. And here’s an extra little fun fact you may not know: Adrian was the first person to notice and comment when eWallet 6.1.2 went live in the App Store - the time the comment came out was a few minutes before we even got notification from Apple!

eWallet at the Apple Stores

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:39:32 +0000

Although you still have to buy eWallet for iPhone through the iTunes AppStore, if you visit your favorite brick and mortar Apple Store you just might spot eWallet there! The Apple Stores revealed a new window display this month that includes a display of 54 application icons. For your viewing pleasure I’ve included a picture of one of these displays below*. Sure enough, if you check out the right hand column, there’s the eWallet icon! With thousands of applications to choose from, it’s a real honor that they chose to include us in the display!

Android - Dream or Nightmare?

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:40:01 +0000

With the Android G1 officially announced, and a plethora of videos of it sprouting up around the web, I thought I’d take a second to throw in my two cents. I’d also like to hear what your thoughts are as well!

Now naturally, we’re watching Android very close. Any new entry into the mobile market is extremely important to us. Will Android be a major player? Or just another neat idea that never takes off? Will they change the mobile marketplace? Or simply offer more of the same with a new UI?

If you’re interested in my take on this, or would like to throw in your own opinion, read on after the jump!

eWallet 6.1.3

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:54:31 +0000

Hey, everyone! We just released a new version of eWallet for Windows PC. Based on some of the great feedback we got from iPhone customers, we were able to make a couple of tweaks that should help to avoid some of the iPhone sync problems some people have seen.

We’ve sent this version to many users now and it does seem to help with the following issues:

Some cases where it can’t find the iPhone.
The problem where it can’t find the wallet on the phone and tries to create a new one there very time.

So, if you’re running into either of these issues, give this new version a try. Just install it over the old desktop version and it will auto-register. You can download it here. And this way, if you’re still having trouble, it will let us eliminate a variety of problems.

Avast, me hearties!

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:54:38 +0000

Ahoy! As ye likely know tis the finest of all holidays today! Tis the day that sends shivers of fear through the hearts of god fearing folk from one end of this great land to the other, while swelling with pride the tiny little hearts of true blooded sailors everywhere! So weigh anchor, raise the sails, and draw yer cutlass, for today is none other than:

Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The Return of Electricity

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:16:15 +0000

I’m happy to say our power is back on, so we’ll be catching up with phone messages and emails today. Thanks to everyone who sent good wishes, and we apologize to everyone who has to wait a little longer than usual to hear back from us.

I really appreciate electricity. It’s truly one of my favorite things.

No Power Today

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:42:26 +0000

We have no power in the office today, so we won’t be answering phones or email. I’ll update this as soon as it comes back on, but until then, there’s not much we can do. As DTE says, “we appreciate your patience”.

eWallet: As seen in the New York Times...

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:34:15 +0000

We were pretty darn excited to discover that eWallet got mentioned in the New York Times today! Bob Tedeschi wrote an excellent article about how smartphones are opening up a new route to the internet (pg. C7). With the arrival of robust, powerful web browsers on smartphones, combined with high res screens and faster networks (not to mention WiFi), more and more people are using their phones as one of their prime gateways to the internet.

Answering questions...

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:37:24 +0000

Morning everyone! Today I’m going to answer a few of the specific questions that have come up. Not all of these are related to iPhone sync, but they are things we have either heard a lot or that we think should get answered.

Getting Sync Help (and the Blog)

It’s great to see so many people taking an interest in the blog. The one problem we have at the moment is that we simply can’t provide support to people through the blog comments. If you have problems, you are still welcome to post here and there is a chance another reader can offer advice, but if you want a response from us please contact technical support. Logistically, it just isn’t possible to provide good support through a blog.

eWallet Sync Troubleshooting

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:09:23 +0000

Hey everyone! As I announced, eWallet sync is out and it’s going really well. For most folks it’s a simple process and is working like a charm. Of course as one would expect with the number of folks we have upgrading right now, some people are running into some problems. Fortunately, most of these are pretty easily fixed.

So if you’re one of the folks who are having some trouble, read on. I’ve got some easy fixes, and if you’re still having trouble let us know via our support lines! We’ll get you up and running.

It's Out!

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:43:41 +0000

In case you hadn’t already heard the news, eWallet iPhone sync is out! It went out yesterday evening. Thanks to everyone here who worked so hard to make this happen, and thank you to all of you out there who stuck with us and gave us your support along the way. It’s great to hit the “finish line!”

So, on to the other sync topics!

My Release Philosophy

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:32:40 +0000

I know everyone is waiting with bated breath for the release of the sync component for iPhone. I’ve heard the grumbling and I don’t blame people for being impatient. And what I talk about here isn’t meant to make you feel happy or wash away frustrations. I just want to address these concerns, especially for folks new to dealing with Ilium Software, so you understand the way we do things.

I’m also writing this because when we first created this blog, we told you that we’d give you a little insight into what happens behind the scenes at Ilium Software. The things I talk about here really highlight the sort of decisions and challenges we face everyday. So if you’re interested, read on after the jump!

This may not be the post you've been waiting for

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:28:36 +0000

Warning: this post is completely non-Apple related. It’s just me and my little contest hat again. I thought now would be a good time to offer a happy little diversion to you. Take a break from clicking your mouse and refreshing the eWallet page on the App Store - hurry, before you get carpal tunnel!

It’s now time to reach into my hat and see who the monthly blog contest winner is for August. It looks like the lucky winner this time is David, for commenting on the post It’s Syncing! It’s Syncing! Congratulations! Now, there were quite a few Davids commenting on that post, so to preemptively clear up any outcries of “Which one? Was it me?” the David that was chosen left his comment on August 24th at 11:23am. So, “David at 11:23am” - I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Apple Really Does Review Apps!

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:59:11 +0000

For a while now, there has been a lot of speculation about just what the Apple AppStore review process consists of. Do they actually run the applications? Is it simply a rubber stamp? Is there any sort of criteria for acceptance or rejection? As a developer with a product in the AppStore I can confirm that the review process is very real and frankly this is a good thing!

The reason I bring this up is that besides having to prove export approval, Apple asked us for a copy of the desktop portion of eWallet so that they could review the synchronization process. Never that I know of have we had a distributor specifically tell us that they were going to test sync. Maybe they did, but I’m not convinced of that. I’m fairly certain the review process for most device software stores is much looser.

An eWallet Success Story!

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:21:09 +0000

Every now and then we receive an email from a customer who shares an eWallet “Success Story” with us. Now admittedly, as is the case in this example, these stories usually involve some sort of misadventure, but eWallet is the silver lining! We love to hear these, because stories like this are part of the reason we created eWallet. Making enough to pay the bills is certainly a motivator, but the thing that makes this job so fun is working on a product that really does help people!

We have liftoff...

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:00:50 +0000

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know that as of today, everything for eWallet 6.1.2 with complete iPhone Synchronization is on it’s way! Apple has the software, the desktop portion is locked and loaded, and all preparations are complete! We expect it to go live sometime next week!

Full details after the break, and as a warning, there are quite a few screenshots in case you’re running wireless…

Goodbye, Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:16:29 +0000

It’s a sad day for Windows Mobile: Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine have announced that they’re suspending publication as of the last issue in 2008.

The magazine - first called Handheld PC Magazine, then Pocket PC, then Smartphone and Pocket PC, has been around 11 years - just as long as we have. The first issue (Volume 1, Number 0) is dated “Fall 1997”, and if I knew how to work the scanner, I’d show our first ad and give everyone a laugh.

It’s no surprise that the magazine is suspending their Windows Mobile publication. Hal and his staff did an amazing job with it. I saw it in every major bookstore, and every airport magazine counter (I always checked). The articles and art were professional, the content interesting, and the information useful.

Kudos to Lee!

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:50:03 +0000

I’m going to risk sounding like we’re patting ourselves on the back here, because I really want to publicly acknowledge the great job Lee is doing. Lee is one of our support folks and has been with us for almost 7 years now. She does a fantastic job of helping people out, and if you ever call here for support it’s very likely that she’s the person you’ll talk to.

The Trouble With the No Reboot Challenge

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:49:59 +0000

Let me start by saying I think it’s great that Mike at Mobile Jaw and Chris from GearDiary are doing this. It’s a neat idea and I’m looking forward to the results. At the same time, while I think this idea is interesting, it also has some inherent flaws. Again, I’m not saying their idea is a bad one or that the results won’t be interesting. I just feel that since our app is one of the ones being used in the experiment, and could thus be blamed if the device still crashes, that I need to say a thing or two about this idea.

So if you want to hear my take on device stability and the “No Reboot Challenge”, read on!

It's synching! IT'S SYNCHING!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:22:14 +0000

IT’S ALIVE SYNCHING! I’ve been responding to the various comments on the other posts, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that we are in fact synching with our iPhones and iPod Touch devices here at Ilium Software! We don’t see anything that will stand in the way of our release so watch this blog and your email. As soon as it is out we’ll let everyone know!

Once More, with Feeling

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:59:05 +0000

I’m going off-topic today because of Pandora.com’s recent’s announcement that they may shut down soon.

mocoNews.net says:

Pandora is “approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” a potential “last stand for webcasting” as royalty fee increases begin to take hold. It’s clear he wants legislative support—and if that can be helped by spurning a coordinated outcry from the company’s million-plus users who listen to Pandora daily so be it.

What's Next Windows Mobile?

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:39:13 +0000

Despite all the iPhone posts around here lately, I’m still a big fan of Windows Mobile. For that reason, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what is next for Window Mobile. What sort of plans does Microsoft have for the OS? Are they gearing it for the consumer market? Or are they only interested in enterprise? And what about rumors of a scalable version of the standard desktop OS that would run on a mobile device?

So if you’d like a little insight into the sort of things a software company thinks about as they decide on their future plans…read on!

R.I.P.: Ilium Software email server

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:14:35 +0000

So here we are, fielding hundreds and hundreds of email questions, desktop software requests, and much more, and guess what happens?

The email server dies.

Again.

OK, to be fair it didn’t die on Monday. It just went down for awhile which put us behind on our email responses. Today, however, the thing finally went belly up. Although we didn’t lose any emails UPDATE: It looks like we COULD have lost some emails if they came in between 12AM ET and 8AM ET. If you think you may have emailed us during that period you might want to resend!

Copy and Paste - Do You Need It?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:10:38 +0000

It’s Soap Box Time! Matt Miller over at ZDNet recently wrote an article about Copy and Paste. His question was whether or not people really need Copy and Paste. To me, this is really one of those “you don’t miss what you don’t have” sort of scenarios. Fifteen years ago, the number of people who would have “missed” the internet if it went away was pretty small. Today if the internet went away, entire corporations would go under, governments would fall, and scores of stores would go belly up in a few hours.

Time to Get Out the ol' Contest Hat Again

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:33:40 +0000

Wow. July sure was full of excitement, wasn’t it? eWallet 6.1 came out, the AppStore launched, and we pretty much chewed off all our fingernails trying not to go crazy waiting for the iPhone version of eWallet to get approved…well, you were there, you remember. But all that news just means we had lots to post on our blog, so you had many chances to leave a comment and try for some free software. Can’t beat that, can you?

4 out of 5 Pirates Choose eWallet!

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:03:39 +0000

Apparently everyone knows that eWallet is the best way to keep your information safe! Even software pirates*!

I’ve always said that one of the key indicators of success is how many people are trying to steal your software. This has always been something we’ve seen with eWallet and apparently eWallet for iPhone is no exception. With hundreds of applications to choose from in the AppStore, the software pirates have chosen eWallet as one of 30 or so applications they’ve stripped Apple’s DRM out of. What is more, in articles about it (which I’m afraid I won’t be linking to here) they actually chose an eWallet screenshot to advertise this.

eWallet iPhone Sync: Part II

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:18:41 +0000

Aside from the thundering cries for a Mac version of eWallet (we’re working on it!) the most popular questions are all iPhone sync related. Well, the wait for answers is over. If you’re one of those folks who is dying to find out more about sync, hopefully we’ll answer all your questions in this post!

DISCLAIMER: We firmly believe that everything in this blog post is how it will be when we release it, but experience has taught me that something unexpected always pops up so this is my “we MIGHT do something a little bit different” disclaimer (but I don’t expect we will.)

eWallet for iPhone Answers III

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:12:20 +0000

Well, I think this is going to be one of the last “answers” blog posts for a little while since we’re hitting the point where most questions have been addressed. If you still have a question though, definitely contact us! You can email our support folks at support@iliumsoft.com or call them M-F, 9AM to 4:30PM toll free at 1-888-632-5388. We’re always happy to personally answer any questions you have.

So, that said, here we go…

eWallet for iPhone Answers II

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:25:17 +0000

I’m sure you heard the news, but eWallet is finally in the AppStore! Over the last three days we’ve watched as eWallet raced up the charts and it is already one of the top 100 applications. Thank you to everyone for all your support during this time and thank you to everyone who ran out and bought a copy!

Now, let’s get on to the many questions we’ve been receiving about eWallet for iPhone! Some of these we’ve covered before so I apologize to our regular readers, but I want to make sure to cover all the bases.

And we’re going to try to answer every question, so if we didn’t anwer yours yet, we will, and if you have new questions, let us know!

eWallet's in the iTunes App Store

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:28:18 +0000

We’re there! Check it out! (Start iTunes and search for eWallet - I’ll get our links fixed later today.)

Thanks to everyone for their support. I’m on my way out right now, but will post more news and fix the links this afternoon. We’ll answer all the questions you probably have on Monday.

(And if anyone wants to repeat their nice comments in a review on the store - we always appreciate those too.)

Waiting for Apple

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:39:55 +0000

Wow. If you think waiting for eWallet is painful out there, try being in here. We were really fired up for the big launch and now we’re just pulling our hair out wondering what is happening (and if you’ve seen pictures of me, additional hair removal is a serious problem in my case.) We were told that the app would appear by the 11th, talked to “thrice-removed from the actual AppStore” support personnel, emailed every person we can think of, and stared endlessly at the status screen willing it to change. Still, nothing.

eWallet for BlackBerry Preview

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:51:10 +0000

And here you thought all we thought about was the iPhone! Besides all the new improvements to eWallet on Windows, Windows Mobile, and Palm in eWallet 6.1, we’ve also been working with WebIS to bring you a BlackBerry version of eWallet. The BlackBerry version, which will be available sometime in the next few weeks, offers many of the same features you’ve come to expect from eWallet and full synchronization with the eWallet 6.1 Windows desktop software.

Answers!

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:57:01 +0000

Wow! It’s really exciting to see so much interest in eWallet for iPhone. Even negative comments are great from my perspective because it tells me you are at least giving us the opportunity to help you! Thanks!

That said, this entire blog post is dedicated to answering the many questions that have come up over the past week or so. I hope that this will help everyone to understand what is going on and know what the future holds!

eWallet for iPhone Sync

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:19:27 +0000

Well, it’s the 11th and we’re still waiting on Apple over here. Yeah, it was supposed to be in the store today but as of right now it’s not there. Of course “today” isn’t over so we’ll see what develops!

That being the case and not knowing when they will go live with our application, I’m going to go ahead and answer some of the burning questions rather than waiting on Apple to release it before we talk about it.

eWallet for iPhone: The Movie!

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:27:15 +0000

Pull up a chair and grap the popcorn! It’s eWallet for iPhone: The Movie! We know people are dying to get their hands on eWallet for iPhone but we’re still waiting on Apple!* In the meantime, we put together this short (about 1 minute, 40 seconds) demo video for you so that you can see the new software in action! Enjoy!

The movies are in Quicktime format (seemed appropriate considering it’s for an Apple product) and are provided in three different resolutions for your viewing pleasure!

eWallet 6.1 is Out!

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:55:38 +0000

eWallet 6.1 is now available! With features like customizable field types, card shortcuts,a new search, and easier to edit templates, this new version has a lot to love. And best of all, it’s a free upgrade to owners of eWallet 6.0.

I’ve already mentioned the main new features but let me elaborate a little!

Customizable Field Types: Now you can change the type for any field in your cards. Set additional fields as “hidden”, add more live URLs, specify which fields are used in AutoPass, and more!
Shortcuts: Create card shortcuts in your wallet to access cards from multiple categories. This is a great way to build a “favorites” category that contains your most used cards, without moving the originals around!
New Search: No more hopping card to card when searching! eWallet 6.1 provides you with a list of cards that match the search criteria.
Improved Template Editing: We’ve cleaned up template editing to make it even easier to make your own card templates. Mix in the Field Type feature and eWallet gives you a ton of power when it comes to designing your own cards!

And of course we’ve made a number of minor changes, but in some cases they are requests we’ve been hearing from you so for those of you who asked for them, these “little things” are a big deal!

We're Not Being Cagey

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:55:07 +0000

We’re not trying to be cagey with iPhone info about our apps - there still are a lot of unknowns. We hope we’ll have eWallet in the iPhone App store Friday, but we haven’t yet seen confirmation of that. We want to send reviewers copies as soon as we can, but we’re not quite sure when the mechanisms will be in place. We’re not sure if we’ll have a way to give existing users a discount on the iPhone purchases, but we do have a plan in place to be sure they’re taken care of.

eWallet for iPhone Sneak Preview...

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:31:59 +0000

With the (predicted) AppStore release date swiftly approaching, I wanted to take a second to give you a sneak peak at eWallet for iPhone. I am extremely excited about this application. It looks great, it’s easy to use, and while we’ve captured the iPhone feel it is in every way the eWallet software you’ve come to know and love.

Of course this will generate the usual question:

“When will it be released?”

We Now Return to Your Regularly Scheduled Blog Contest

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:13:01 +0000

Some of you may have noticed that we haven’t run our usual monthly blog contest since May. Of course, many of you probably didn’t mind, since the reason we skipped a month was due to our 11th anniversary in June. Instead of picking one winner, we picked something like 30. (Really, I’m not going to go back and count, but I’m sure you’ll agree that there were a lot of happy people on this blog last month.)

The Revolutionary iPhone App Store

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:57:52 +0000

More and more of the analysts and commentators are starting to realize predict that the coming iPhone Application Store will be as revolutionary for third-party software sales as the iPhone has been for smartphones.

Despite the analysts’ bad track record for mobile market predictions in general, I think they’re right about this one. There will be a huge advantage to having the App Store on the device, supported by the maker of the device and the OS.

Microsoft and Palm have been missing this for years. They’ve relied completely on third-party stores. There’s been no major advertising of the availability of software for Palm or Windows Mobile phones. There’s been very little promotional activity, and not much effort to raise users’ awareness of the fact that they can buy software.

Apple’s already changed this, and the store’s still 3 weeks away.

Secure Info Managers go Head to Head. eWallet Wins!

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:49:03 +0000

PDA Essentials Smartphone and GPS Magazine held a Head to Head comparison of Secure Information Managers in their recent issue (Issue 75), and I’m delighted to say that eWallet won!

eWallet was rated 10 out of 10 and awarded the Editor’s Choice Award, coming out ahead of Spb Wallet, Handy Safe and CodeWallet. The competition was tough, but we’re not surprised that when the smoke cleared, eWallet was rated the best.

How low are your expectations?

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:00:10 +0000

Last week we had a glitch with our anniversary discount for users wanting to pay with PayPal, and with everything going on, it took us a little while to notice. We were shocked at how many orders this affected, especially when we realized that exactly two people told us about it.

I know that when I run across a problem, especially when ordering something online, I try to at least email someone at the company to let them know. But, then again, by nature I am a “fixer”. (I guess my job in Support is a natural fit, eh?) The results of my contact with companies are pretty much a mixed bag, everything from no response at all, to the occasional automated reply that has nothing to do with my original email, but more often I’ll get a real response from someone who is at least trying to correct the problem.

The Votes Are All In

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:29:58 +0000

You know, I found that trying to write a double dactyl was really difficult. I’m glad to see that for many of you, it was the opposite, and that gave us a lot of great entries to read this morning.

The first prize of a $121 Amazon gift card, plus a complete package of our software and swag, goes to Bob. If you’ve scrolled through the comments this weekend, you probably know Bob wrote quite a few, and it was hard to pick just one. We especially enjoyed the ones about Freud, the racecar, and - well, like I said, they we all really good!

Double Dactyls

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:00:47 +0000

Today’s contest is a little harder than the others have been. But - that means you’ll have less competition for the prizes! We’re asking you to write, and send us, a double dactyl.

What’s a double dactyl? Here’s the definition, plus a few examples. To be clear, we’re asking for the 8-line poem, not just two dactyls in a row. Here are a few more examples, though I’d take issue with the third one. There are many others online too, you don’t have to look hard to find them.

I'm a Geek, You're a Geek...

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:58:06 +0000

…we’re all geeks! I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised. But 47 comments - wow! First of all, it’s great to see everyone so willing to share their geekiness with the world. Thanks for showing up and not being afraid to admit that you’re a geek. But second of all - 47 comments! Come on, do you know how hard it is to sit here and try to choose a few winners out of all of these? However, we’ve done our best.

You Know You're a Geek When

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:00:41 +0000

You know you’re a Geek when you think you get jokes like this. Just from the headline. Or when you think LOLCode is just as funny as LOLCats. Or when you do something dumb and your left hand tries to -Z.

Today’s contest is: leave a comment below with an original example of how you know you’re a geek. Enter as many comments as you’d like - just as long as you don’t mind admitting how extra-geeky you are if your comments start piling up.

And Now for the Winners List...

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:58:49 +0000

Yesterday’s contest was all about making lists, and this morning at the office, we had to make a list of our own to decide the winners. I have to say, looking at some of the lists you guys have found, you sure do get in close proximity to some famous people! You should consider selling those lists on eBay.

Okay, seriously, on to the winners. The first prize of a $121 Amazon gift card, plus a complete package of our software and swag, goes to: Stefan (spmwinkel) for the LOLCats ten commandents. Anything in LOLSpeak just cracks us up, so there was no way we could resist!

ListPro Files of the Famous and Fictional

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:00:44 +0000

Imagine that you’ve found a handheld of a famous person, alive or dead, real or fictional, and that the owner was a ListPro user. What would be on their lists - packing, shopping, to-do, or others? Send as many items from a single list (that is, one list per entry) as you can think of. Again, send your entries as replies to this post, and enter as many times as you like.

Hats Off to You!

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:58:55 +0000

It’s been another busy morning here, filled with tough decisions as we tried to narrow down the photo captions to see who would win. First we should thank everyone for not being too mean or picking on us and making us cry - and with photos like that, I think we were prepared for the jokes. So, onto the winners:

The first prize of a $121 Amazon gift card, plus a complete package of our software and swag, goes to: Pony99CA who, inspired by Kevin’s photo, rewrote the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. How could we not be impressed by that?

Everyone Looks Better in a Hat

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:00:36 +0000

I’m convinced that everyone looks better in a hat. Not these hats, however.

We had so much fun with our earlier caption contests (here and here), that we can’t resist having another one. But rather than trying to caption yet another picture of the 9 of us standing outside our building, you get to caption a few of us as individuals. And to make it really easy, we’re wearing hats, wigs or masks.

The Blanks Have Been Filled In!

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:58:57 +0000

All right - it’s been a busy morning here at Ilium Software HQ. We’ve had a lot of news headlines to read through. All of them were really great, and, just as we suspected, many of them were weird and confusing. Some of them, however, actually sounded believable, didn’t they?

But, as with any contest, many will enter and few will win. However, we were only able to narrow it down to seven lucky people, because there were just too many good comments. So here it comes - one BIG winner and six great runner-ups:

Fill in the Blanks

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:46:50 +0000

Fill in the blanks to win a prize! Today’s contest is a fun-filled game of MadLibs.

If you don’t know what MadLibs are: where the heck have you been hiding? Okay, seriously, if you need a refresher or want some more details, read a quick explanation of MadLibs here.

Julie has “doctored” a NewsBreak page with fake headlines. To get the full MadLib-ian effect of this contest, we recommend that you first find a partner: grab a friend, a co-worker, or just tap the guy’s shoulder next to you on the train. All you need to do is ask your friend for the words in blue - don’t read them the full headlines! Write down their answers, and when you’re finished, read them aloud - you should get some pretty silly results!

We're 11 Years Old!

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:45:03 +0000

Today is our 11 year anniversary! Yes, we’ve been making and selling mobile and desktop software for 11 years. We’ll be celebrating it all this week, and you get the presents!

Every day this week, we’ll have a contest. Of course we’ll have copies of our software as prizes, but since we know that many of the people who read this have most of our software already, we’ll also be giving away one or more $121 Amazon gift cards(that’s 11 times 11), each day. So check back daily - we’ll have entertaining reading and fun prizes.

Fabulous Handheld Spider

Wed, 21 May 2008 13:38:00 +0000

I’m getting ready to go on vacation, so of course I checked out new games I can load onto my Pocket PC and bring with me. I’ve been addicted to Spider on my PC for a few years now, but never found a good implementation of it on a handheld until now. But Astraware has finally done it - made a version of Spider that’s actually playable on a handheld.

Dangerous Marketing

Mon, 19 May 2008 14:45:28 +0000

Marketing is a tricky business, and one wrong move can set you back twice as far as a good campaign can move you forward. We recently posted an article entitled “Windows has left the building!”, talking about an ill-conceived marketing tag-line that appeared at the Microsoft website. The reason this caught our eye wasn’t just a chance to laugh at Microsoft. We happen to like Microsoft a LOT over here at Ilium Software. Instead, it was a chance to see how even a company like Microsoft, with all of its resources, can miss something simple and end up hurt by it.

Marc on TV

Fri, 16 May 2008 12:54:24 +0000

WDIV, our local NBC station, stopped by Wednesday and interviewed Marc about eWallet. We were all pretty excited to see him - and our software - on the evening news!

You can see it here; the video link is right under the photo.

The emphasis on the iPhone is theirs - Marc showed versions of several devices, and they picked which parts to use (in the car, going back to Detroit, apparently. I’m impressed).

Most People Wouldn't Call These Mothers' Day Videos

Fri, 09 May 2008 15:18:46 +0000

Even the FTC is getting into the video act. They’ve released videos about phishing, identity theft, and protecting personal information on YouTube. I’ll admit I only watched the short ones, but they were pretty good.

I’m guessing that everyone who reads this blog knows all this already, but I’m also guessing that everyone who reads this blog knows someone who could use a reminder. I’m very careful what I click on, but I know too many people who forget, or just don’t realize, that what looks like a very, very legitimate email might not be.

"Windows Has Left the Building"

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:26:46 +0000

No, I’m not quoting one of the Microsoft-bashing sites. It’s not from one of the articles that says Microsoft’s lost their vision, is years behind Apple, or will never catch up with Google. It’s from Microsoft’s site - in fact, it’s from the biggest graphic on Microsoft.com’s top page today.

Here’s a screenshot of the page, in case it goes away by the time I finish writing this. The top graphic says:

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Mon, 05 May 2008 17:23:13 +0000

The next time you head on over to your neighborhood newsstand, bookstore, or wherever you go to grab the latest copies of your favorite magazines, be sure to pick up the June/July issue of Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine, which recently hit the shelves. Just look for the fancy pictures of the iPhone and the new Sony XPERIA X1 on the cover. The issue takes a look at the new device and sizes it up to the Apple iPhone.

And the Winner Is...

Thu, 01 May 2008 20:35:28 +0000

May is here, and it’s time to pick another winner out of our Blog Contest Hat. Well, there really is no hat, but I think I might start referring to it as the Contest Hat, because that sounds fun and exciting, and I really like this new graphic I found.

For April, the lucky winner is Chris Baggott, for commenting on the post eWallet for Apple Newton. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

6 Best iPhone Tips

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:10:30 +0000

Yes, the iPod Touch is very easy to use right out of the box. But I’ve been frustrated, both by the on-screen keyboard and by using it as an mp3 player while I was walking. And I thought - it’s supposed to be easy to use; I must be missing something. So I poked around, and found some slightly hidden features that really helped.

I figured everyone else knew these already, so wasn’t going to publish them, but it turned out that wasn’t true, at least around here. So in case anyone else might benefit from them, here are the 6 most useful things I’ve learned about using an iPhone or iPod Touch. In the tradition of top 10 lists everywhere, they’re in reverse order, so you might want to read bottom-up if you’re impatient.

Update: the 2.0 version of the iPhone and iPod Touch software changed some of these. I’ve made a few changes, below. And I’ve put all the tips here, as well, which I may be a little better about maintaining.

Customizing Web Output from ListPro

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:21:17 +0000

So you’ve decided to export some of your ListPro lists in HTML format to publish on the web but you’d like a bit more control over how the published lists look… If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty with a bit of HTML and CSS, then check out the article in our new Knowledge Base on customizing ListPro for the web.

Let us know if you find this type of article (or others) useful; we want to continue to add information that you’ll find helpful.

Ilium Software is Windows Mobile 6.1 Compatible

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:26:30 +0000

Windows Mobile 6.1 is officially out and we’re pleased to report that all of our products for Windows Mobile 6.0 are 100% compatible with Windows Mobile 6.1. We’ve put the products through their paces, tested the software, and verified that when you move to Windows Mobile 6.1 you can count on your Ilium Software products being there for you.

Worst New Mobile Idea Ever

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:18:14 +0000

NTT Communications has announced a pilot test of its new Mobile
Fragrance Communication service. Apparently this lets people download a “Fragrance Playlist” of recipes for specific smells, and then transfers the fragrance data to a dedicated device similar to a plug-in air freshener that is loaded with a cartridge of base fragrances.

I know it’s tempting fate to call this the worst new mobile idea ever - it’s like calling a movie released in January the worst of the year; you just know something even nastier will come out and prove you wrong - but if someone’s going to come out with something worse than this, I really don’t want to know about it.

Definitely Not April's Fool

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:04:13 +0000

It was not some strange or intentional April Fools’ trick that our monthly blog contest went unannounced yesterday. I was out at a conference, learning lots of great stuff. Incidentally, it was all about you - the user, the reader, the site visitor. But one thing I know, without needing to be taught, is that if there’s a winner to be chosen, you just want me to get right down to it and tell you who it is. So, here we go:

New Windows Mobile Site: My Today Screen

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:03:04 +0000

It’s April Fools’ Day, but this isn’t a joke: there’s a great new Windows Mobile site officially launching today. It’s called My Today Screen, and is run by Doug Goldring and Tariq Bamadhaj, two people with a lot of experience in the area. Their mission is to:

provide users with an all-in-one resource for Windows Mobile, providing reviews, tips, guides, and other expert analysis, all designed to help you realize the full potential of your Windows Mobile device.

eWallet for Apple Newton!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:25:07 +0000

It’s been a year of big announcements for Ilium Software and today is no different! We are extremely pleased to announce our plans to release eWallet for the Apple Newton!

With the overwhelming success of the iPhone we’re certain that it is only a matter of time before the Newton makes its big comeback. That said, we think it makes a lot of sense to make sure that we’re ready! The Newton is a fantastic platform and the opportunity to be the first to offer our products with full Newton compatibility is something we just couldn’t pass up!

Some Useful Mobile Info

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:10:15 +0000

I’ve always thought that the kind of information people need - and the way they want to get it - when they’re using a mobile device isn’t really the same as on the desktop. While I very much like being able to get any kind of info on my mobile, without having to go through a non-standard browser, I also like being able to find specifically what I’m looking for, without going through pages and pages of options.

Finally Fashionable

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:55:08 +0000

Marc just forwarded me an email with some scans from Simply Her magazine, a womens/fashion magazine based in Singapore, that mentioned eWallet! We’re all pretty excited to be in a fashion magazine, especially given some of the comments on our wardrobe choices posted in response to our group photo a few years ago (yes, I know, we did ask for them).

Anyway, the April issue isn’t on their site yet, but I’m hoping the eWallet mention is included when it is. And I’ll definitely looking for a copy of the magazine in our local B+N and Borders.

Wouldn't You Like to Know?

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:24:19 +0000

No, seriously, wouldn’t you? I’m talking about finding out when we have iPhone or Blackberry versions of our software available. You don’t need to keep checking our blog every day (although we appreciate the visits, and the enthusiasm!) waiting for an update - we can notify you as soon as we have something ready.

All you need to do is fill out this form to tell us who you are and what you’re waiting for. That’s it! We’ll let you know when we have software available for your device.

The Apple Time Warp

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:27:09 +0000

Cleaning out my Big Drawer of Geeky T-Shirts (the new one that came out of my recent Google visit just refused to fit), I ran across my original Newton Developers’ Conference t-shirt. I’m pretty sure there was only the one conference, and yes, I was there. As the shirt says:

A smart step for Newton. A giant leap in technology.

And a long time ago.

I think that if Apple pulls off the iPhone/iPod Touch third-party apps the way they might (and I know that’s an “if”, not a given), they’ll do what they tried to do 15 years ago with the Newton - make a PDA that’s really mainstream. And, no,

eWallet for iPhone

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:39:41 +0000

Yep, as you have already heard, Ilium Software is definitely supporting the iPhone. In fact we’ve planned to support it for quite some time, but until the SDK went public we wanted to keep it quiet. As I mentioned over at JustAnotheriPhoneBlog, we actually started work on eWallet for iPhone earlier this year and have made significant progress. It’s a very exciting opportunity for us because we’re big fans of the iPhone. We feel that Apple really “got it right” in their design and user interface and the SDK announcement proves that they’ve followed the same philosophy when it comes to the support of 3rd party applications.

Thanks for Asking

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:25:08 +0000

Yes, we absolutely plan to have our apps on the iPhone just as soon as we can. Like everyone else, we’re very excited about yesterday’s announcement. And no, I have no idea right now how we’ll pull it off. But I never do.

PocketGear for Sale

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:54:01 +0000

Motricity, the owner of PocketGear.com, Smartphone.net and a few other mobile software portals, announced yesterday that they’re restructuring their company, laying off about 250 people, moving their headquarters, and selling their portal sites. Here’s the complete story.

I’d thought for months that they were going to drop software - they were just paying way to little attention to it, but then I went through some calculations and decided it had to be bringing in too much money for that. Which goes to prove - once again - that my instincts are a lot better than my math.

eWallet 6.0.1 Released!

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:07:32 +0000

I’m happy to announce that we just released eWallet 6.0.1. If you aren’t having any trouble with eWallet 6.0, don’t worry about getting this one. It just cleans up a few things, corrects a couple of specific problems, and improves on a few things like graphic installations. Here is a short list describing some of the things we changed in this release:

- Improved startup speed
- Added an extra Vista icon
- Plays nicer with UAC in Vista
- Humanized some error messages
- Fixed a couple problems with FlexWallet conversion
- Auto Backup now does a backup whenever you close the wallet (as opposed to before when it only backed up if you exited the program)
- Optimized FlexWallet icons for different devices and now FlexWallet Icon Pack only installs the icons you need for your device (which should speed up startup time as well!)
- Plus a bunch of minor tweaks

And as some of you know, we’ve had a few folks who, when they install the full FlexWallet icon pack, see a slowdown in the startup. The changes in this version should help but we’re still working on this issue for 6.1 as well. We’ve got some ideas that we think will speed things up even more.

Marching Forward with Another Winner

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:05:11 +0000

March is here - does that mean spring is around the corner where you live? Not for us, unfortunately, where it isn’t surprising to have random snow showers even into April in Michigan. Oh well - so March might not necessarily mean spring is on its way, but the good news is a brand-new month means free software for one lucky person!

We had some really good discussion this past month, particularly on the post Sneak Peek at eWallet 6.1, which started back in January but just kept right on going through last month. And that post is where we found our latest winner: Sharon - congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Any Mobile Masterminds?

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:44:58 +0000

Several years ago, we registered MobileMasterMind.com, intending to make a general info/help kind of site for mobile device info. Like too very many of our good intentions, we never got around to doing anything about it, and our ownership of the domain is expiring this week.

I was going to let it expire, but Marc suggested that someone who reads this blog might want it, so if anyone does, post a reply here saying so by Wednesday of this week. I’ll renew it for a year and transfer it to anyone interested. If more than one person is interested, I’ll let Julie pick who gets it using her secret random winner picking method.

I Love this Article

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:33:29 +0000

Sascha Segan, of PC Magazine, wrote a great column called Pay Now or Pay Later. He points out the real costs of buying low-cost electronics, including

“hidden charges, shoddy products, lousy tech support, a poisoned environment, lost U.S. jobs, and starving workers … the loss of things like customer service, reliability, durability, and flexibility”

and says that

“the relentless cost-cutting brought on by a culture where low prices are the ultimate goal has led to the complete demise of tech support, the most labor-intensive part of the tech process and one that’s invisible in advertisements and on shelves.”

Developer Series Part II Published

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:44:24 +0000

If you’re interested in mobile development, check out the interview with representatives of a few of the major mobile developers being published by Tariq at Eten Blog dot Com. The interview is being published in 4 parts - Part II went live yesterday, and provoked some really interesting comments. Read it here.

"Smart" Systems

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:36:55 +0000

People are always talking about “smart” systems. These are automated systems that are meant to make a company more efficient, drive sales, and provide a great customer experience. Often, and unfortunately, the implementation of these systems goes hand in hand with cutting back on the role of real people in the process. Time and again, these “smart” systems prove incredibly stupid.

This whole issue is particularly important to us right now, because we’re working on some “smart” systems of our own. Where are they a good thing and where are they a pain? How do you use them in a way that really does make life better rather than more complicated? Read on for my thoughts and a chance to voice your own opinion!

Monday* Morning Mobile Miscellany

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:00:58 +0000

*(I wrote this Monday. I’m publishing it Tuesday because we updated our blog software yesterday, and couldn’t publish new articles.)

A few related posts and articles I found interesting this morning:

Apologies to Our Loyal Readers

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:56:25 +0000

If you subscribe to the comments feed on this blog, or read them online, and have been seeing a lot of spam among them recently, we apologize! Somehow, our filter plug-in got disabled. We’ve fixed it now, and are in the process of upgrading our WordPress installation to get the very latest in security. Thanks to everyone who wrote us about the problem, and I hope it won’t happen again.

The Second First of the Year

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:07:51 +0000

Is anyone else surprised that it’s already February, or is it just me? Either way, you should all be happy to know that, since it’s February 1st, I’m ready to announce the latest contest winner!

We had a lot of great comments in January, and the lucky winner this time around is: Gary, for his comment on Dusting Off the Crystal Ball. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Dusting Off the Crystal Ball

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:51:41 +0000

Before January gets completely away from me, I thought I’d put out some predictions for the mobile software world in 2008. Here’s the obligatory disclaimers - these are my opinions only, and do not (as the movies say) reflect the views or opinions of Ilium Software. Or anyone else. They’re just about mobile software and content, not anything useful like the stock market or lottery numbers. And I’ll freely admit I’m not the best predictor, despite our nice crystal ball with Jeff Hawkins’ signature.

Sneak Peek at eWallet 6.1!

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:08:00 +0000

eWallet 6.1 isn’t out yet but work is in progress on the next version of our eWallet software. Normally we stay pretty tight lipped about new features, but I know we have a lot of FlexWallet users eager to hear about when their favorite FlexWallet features are going to find their way to eWallet. So I’d like to take a few minutes to let you know what we have in store!

Uninstall Survey Winner!

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:46:09 +0000

Congratulations to Chris, who won our most recent Uninstall Survey Drawing! As many of you know, when you uninstall one of our products it brings up a quick “Why are you uninstalling?” survey. As a thank you to those of you who take the time to fill this out for us, we draw a name randomly from the list of submitters and give away a $100 Amazon.com gift card. So congrats Chris! Hope you find something fun to buy!

The First Winner of the New Year

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:49:37 +0000

Happy New Year! Looks like I’m making the first post of the year on our blog, and it’s a good one too, because today is the day when I announce our latest monthly blog contest winner.

So - drum roll please - here is our first winner for 2008: Eric, whose winning comment was on the post eWallet 6.0 is Here. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

eWallet 6.0 is here!

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:35:04 +0000

eWallet 6.0 is out and we are really excited about this one. Not only do we have a ton of great features, we also have two incredible surprises to tell you about! I hate to keep people waiting so I’ll jump right in with the surprises first!

eWallet + FlexWallet = The Best of the Best! Ilium Software and WebIS have teamed up to offer our customers the best electronic wallet ever. WebIS is focusing their efforts on their flagship products and Ilium Software is going to take the electronic wallet helm! In eWallet 6.0 we’ve taken the best of iphn_allcards.jpg FlexWallet and added those features to eWallet (and there are more FlexWallet features on the way!) We’re also providing FlexWallet owners with the full “eWallet Owner” experience, plus an easy migration path from FlexWallet to eWallet. You can get all the details here! (And if you haven’t tried out WebIS’s products, you need to! Check them out here!)

10+ applications for getting down to business with Windows Mobile 6

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:05:49 +0000

Here’s a list I like - 10+ applications for getting down to business with Windows Mobile 6 - published on the Tech Republic blog today. Not only because we’re on it twice (thank you very much), but also because it’s a great reminder - along with 10 reasons why the Samsung i760 is better than the iPhone for business users, by the same author - of how flexible and functional these handhelds can be. Thanks, Debra Littlejohn Shinder and Jody Gilbert!

The Last Winner of the Year

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:31:30 +0000

Time flies when you’re having fun, and now it’s already December, which means today I’m picking the last blog contest winner of the year! It’s also the holiday season - of course, according the every retail store I’ve been in this year, the holiday season started before Halloween… Anyway, since it’s December, the holiday season is officially upon us, in my mind. So today’s lucky winner is getting one of their gifts a little early this year, and let’s see who it will be!

Our Partner Store is Open

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:39:56 +0000

We’ve just started selling a few partner products - titles developed and maintained by other companies. You may have seen other of the mobile sites doing this already, and you’ll probably see more over the next few months. We’re still a pretty small industry, and at least some of us are trying to work more closely together and give each others’ titles some extra exposure and sales. Plus, like Amazon selling shoes and hairdryers (both of which I’ve bought from them recently), we’re hoping that our featuring other titles will make it easier for visitors to find what they want, even if we don’t make it ourselves.

You Can't Be Too Rich, Too Thin, or Too Careful

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:49:16 +0000

More and more, I realize you really can’t be too careful.

I got an email this morning, looking like it was from PayPal, telling me to login to my account and update my information. I have enough experience to know what to look for before hitting any link, and also to know what kinds of emails to be suspicious of in general, but I also know that a lot of people don’t. I used to think things like the personal images and extra security questions were overkill, but I’ve changed my mind. I’m taking security a lot more seriously now, because some of the tricks the bad guys are pulling are pretty impressive.

Mobile Software in an Always Connected World

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:52:09 +0000

No matter how badly some folks hate them, the terms “Web 2.0” and “Web OS” just won’t go away. For many, these are the holy grail of software development…a multi-platform single language environment that allows instant upgrades with no downloads, making software available to the customer from any connected device. For others, the terms are empty promises or overused marketing phrases that never seem to live up to expectations.

But consider this. A recent survey discovered the following:

Thanksgiving Week

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:24:33 +0000

Well, it’s Thanksgiving week in Michigan, and I think we’re all pretty thankful that we have jobs - way too many people around here don’t. As well as that people are still buying our software, that we’re still winning awards (we just won 3 Best Software Awards from Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine, announced today), that the guy who broke in a few weeks ago only took the one laptop, and that our offices aren’t freezing all the time (unlike the last two). And for the internet, which made this all possible, and which has given us all so many new and improved ways to goof off. And of course for our customers, friends and supporters in the mobile world. We couldn’t have made it without you.

Things Always Change

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:45:08 +0000

Things always change. I’m sure it’s true for any tech company, though I think it’s more true for mobile developers than for those who develop desktop apps. I’ve lost count of how many versions of Windows Mobile (formerly Windows CE) and Palm OS we’ve been through, not to mention different screen sizes and shapes, color depths, and even basic interface components like touchscreens and navigation controls. But I think the next few years, with the iPhone and Google announcements, will change the world for mobile software developers even more than any in the past. My guess is that Microsoft and Blackberry will split the business users, while Apple and Google split the consumers, but given that my last 2 predictions (both of which I was fairly confident of) were:

Information Security

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:20:58 +0000

I’m thinking a lot about information security lately. Not because we develop and sell eWallet, but because of two things that have happened recently:

Our office was broken into. Nothing but one laptop was taken (and it was just used for testing, so had no valuable info on it, plus was password-protected). We think that our alarm scared the person or people away, and they just took the nearest good-looking piece of equipment. While we’re all feeling a little rattled by the thought that someone was in our office, we’re also very aware it could have been much worse.

And the Winner Is...

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:11:21 +0000

Halloween is over, but don’t despair, because even though it’s November now, I have one more treat to give out! It’s time for our monthly blog contest, so let me just reach into my goodie bag and see what I can find…

This month the lucky winner is i-bystander, who commented on the post Happy National Identity Fraud Prevention Week. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Vampire Electricity on Halloween

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:04:11 +0000

Happy Halloween, everyone! No, I don’t have a picture of all of us in wigs (and it’s not because I didn’t think of it, or don’t have enough wigs), sorry. But I did run into such a timely article today, I can’t help linking to it.

Apparently things like leaving charged phones and PDAs plugged into their chargers, as well as PCs and TVs in sleep or standby mode, and all those other things quietly running when not being used, take a lot of electricity. It’s now being called vampire electricity, and there’s an interesting and timely story here. My favorite quote is:

Happy National Identity Fraud Prevention Week

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:01:10 +0000

OK, I realize it’s not as much fun as Talk Like a Pirate Day, but this is National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, at least in the UK. And there are some pretty scary stats (from a survey by McAfee) in this article, including:

43% of respondents never change their password
24% use the same password to access all online accounts
59% ‘always’ or ‘mostly’ use the same password for everything
30% of respondents surveyed use passwords of only one-to-six characters in length
22% use only alpha characters

While I don’t believe everything I read on the internet, and I do understand that surveying a few thousand McAfee users isn’t the most representative group, the numbers are still pretty alarming.

Trick or Treat!

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:31:58 +0000

Yes, October is upon us. In honor of Halloween, I’ve decided to retire the usual “man chasing carrot” contest graphic for something a little more festive. But don’t despair - this is still the same ol’ first day of the month contest post you’ve come to know and love!

This month the lucky winner is Andrew R., who commented on the post ListPro 6.0. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Tipster 2.1 is Now Available

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:34:04 +0000

We’re very happy to announce the release of Tipster 2.1, an update to one of our most popular free applications. Tipster is your personal restaurant assistant! Frustrated with trying to figure out how much to tip? Let Tipster work it out for you! Splitting a bill between a group of friends? Tipster to the rescue! Plus, with Tipster 2.1 you can do it all on the sly with 1-handed navigation!

Order Like a Pirate

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:25:18 +0000

Avast me hearties! As many of you lads and lasses know, today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day! And by Blackbeard’s braids, ya can’t be a pirate without the lure of treasure!

SO, today (and today only) call your order in by phone and get a 50% discount on any of our titles IF you order like a pirate! That’s right ya bunch a scallywags. Half-off just fer talkin’ like a pirate!

What a Mess!

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:27:30 +0000

You may have seen my other post with a pic of how many PDAs there are on my desk. Well, there are still a lot of PDAs on my desk, and with all the support email and testing I do, it’s just hard to keep it clean:

I’ve been trying to solve this problem for a while, and it’s compounded by a few things.

I need a lot of USB ports.
I need a lot of electrical sockets.
I need to be able to have people come and take devices away and bring them back.
I need it to be easy to use without getting in my way.

After a lot of finagling and a trip to the office supply store, I solved my problem with a box cutter, a mailing tube, and some shipping tape. (Why does this sound like the way MacGyver foils some enemy contraption?)

Palm - Do You Need Your Crystal Ball Back?

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:17:36 +0000

Yes, we have a crystal ball. It’s blue, about 6" in diameter, and autographed by Jeff Hawkings. One of our staff won it at a Palm conference several years ago.

When Palm announced the Foleo a few months ago, we thought about offering it back to them - we thought they might need it more than we did - but that seemed egregiously catty. As well as somewhat premature.

It's Time to Pick Another Winner

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:51:12 +0000

Yep, that’s right. September is upon us, and we had a lot of comments in the past month, so it should be especially exciting to find out who posted the lucky comment in August! I know I’m a little later than usual in getting this post out, so, without further ado…

This month the lucky blog contest winner is Mark, who commented on the post ListPro 6.0. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Who Wants to be My Guinea Pig?

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:19:35 +0000

You can all be my guinea pigs! I don’t know if you remember (and 10 points to anyone who does) but several months ago, I added a handy little script to the home page of our site that would automatically redirect users to the mobile version if they were browsing on a mobile device. We tested it a lot, but I also wrote a post about it right here on the blog, to ask you guys for help to make sure you didn’t find any problems. Everything seemed to be going great, until Ellen found an issue no one else noticed, so I had to go back to the drawing board.

ListPro 6.0?

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:50:38 +0000

ListPro 5.0 is officially out and so far the response is great. We’re really glad that so many of you like it. One tricky aspect of ListPro, however, is that the flexibility that makes it so popular, also allows each person to use the software in a completely different way. As a result, the feature request lists for ListPro are longer and more varied than for any other product we’ve ever released. Each person wants different features based on the way they use the software.

Extra Thanks for an Extra-Great Writeup

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:44:31 +0000

One of the most fun parts of my job is wandering into the bookstores every week or so, and finding that one of our products has been written up or mentioned in “real” magazine.

PDA Essentials Magazine had a fabulous writeup of eWallet in their last issue. It’s on the stands in the U.S. now; I think it’s already gone in the U.K. I knew it was coming - someone had told Kevin about it on the phone, and Judy mentioned it as part of a comment to our “Hidden Features of eWallet” post, but I had no idea it was going to be so extensive. Or so flattering.

ListPro 5.0 is here!

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:53:45 +0000

lpssh_ebay.jpg It’s been a long wait for many loyal ListPro fans but ListPro 5.0 is now available. We’re very excited about this new version and we think you’re going to like what it offers. The “main event” of ListPro 5.0 is a feature that we received more requests for than any other. Pictures!

That’s right! With ListPro 5.0 you can add pictures to all your favorite lists. Link to pictures of people for your contacts list, book covers for your book collection, or maps for a list of your favorite restaurants. With a couple clicks you can easily add pictures to the notes pane of any list item.

The Lost Features of eWallet

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:40:54 +0000

ew_list1.png desktop.JPG

When you near the planned release date for a product, it isn’t uncommon to find yourself with features that work great and are very cool, but that you just don’t have time to fully implement. When this happens, getting the product out takes priority over adding this one last feature. This is precisely what happened with a “lost feature” that I’m going to tell you about today!

So read on to learn about one of the Lost Features of eWallet (and even try it out in your own copy of the software!)

Happy Birthday Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:07:45 +0000

We want to wish a very happy third birthday to Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com. Many of you may already be familiar with Clinton’s site, and for those of you who aren’t, you should definitely check it out! It’s full of mobile news and reviews of some of the coolest hardware and software out right now. And today is a good time to visit the site, because Clinton is celebrating with a contest, and you don’t want to miss out!

It's a New Month, and You Know What That Means

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:42:03 +0000

There were some great discussions last month about technical support and customer service, and now it’s time to see whose comment was the chosen one for July!

This month the lucky blog contest winner is Bill Griffin, who commented on the post Support and Sunrocket Alternatives. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Where Are They Now?

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:45:43 +0000

I just finished reading (OK, skimming) an interesting book called Founders at Work, interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in their earliest days. It turns out that a few of them were involved with handhelds - PayPal started out as a service by which Palm users could beam each other IOUs (do people even beam using Palms anymore? I haven’t seen anyone do that in years). Another of the founders interviewed was involved with General Magic and the long-forgotten Magic Cap handheld, which we looked at for about 2 minutes in the very early days of Ilium Software.

Support and Sunrocket Alternatives

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:09:14 +0000

Like everyone else who used Sunrocket as their VIOP provider, I’m now looking for a replacement service, as they’ve just announced that they’ve stopped their service. And because I went to Sunrocket in the first place because Vonage customer service was so bad, I’m spending a lot of time reading reviews of other VOIP providers.

I like the convenience of having phones all around my house - it’s a small house and I have 6 phones, and still have a hard time finding one when it rings - so going cell-only, while an option, isn’t my first choice. And I briefly worked for our local phone company once, and will do almost anything to never give them any money again. So finding a VIOP provider I don’t mind (I don’t even have to like them, just not find them too objectionable) would be the best option for me.

More and More ... it's about Support

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:29:56 +0000

I’m in process of switching away from a program I’ve liked for many years. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but a bad support experience was what pushed me off the fence. The support people weren’t rude, or even hard to reach; they just didn’t know the answer to my question, said they’d find out and get back to me, and never did.

More and more, I’m basing my buying decisions on support. I dropped Vonage for VOIP because their support was clearly outsourced and had no idea what they were doing. I don’t mind outsourced, but I do mind not giving support people enough information to answer questions, or enough authority to solve problems. I’ll never buy anything from Dell again for the same reason. Their PCs are fine, their prices can’t be beat, but their customer service people can’t fix a problem, and can’t even escalate it to someone who can.

And the Winner Is...

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:26:51 +0000

We had a lot of great comments in June, with so many people tuning in during our anniversary celebration, and joining all the quick blog contests that we had. So I was very excited to see who the lucky winner would be in this month’s Giving Stuff Away contest. Could it be you? Let’s find out…

This month the lucky blog contest winner is Software Guru, who commented on the post Wanted: Ten Good Captions. Congratulations! Last month our judges may not have chosen your caption to win that contest, but your entry still paid off! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it, reply to this post and let me know.

Once More, with Feeling

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:15:36 +0000

Today is the Internet Radio Day of Silence. To quote from the official press release:

“The arbitrary and drastic rate increases set by the Copyright Royalty Board on March 2nd threaten the very livelihood of thousands of webcasters and their millions of listeners throughout the country.

Major webcasters like Yahoo! Launchcast, Rhapsody, and Pandora.com will silence their streams along with other Day of Silence participants like KCRW.org, Live365, MTV Online, Radioio, RadioParadise, and AccuRadio.” (full list)

Hype Meter: Harry Potter and the Killer iPhone

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:35:01 +0000

Comparing the two most-anticipated and hyped events of the summer. Yes, this is only tangentially related to mobile computing, but one too many news stories just put me over the edge. Harry Potter Book 7Apple iPhoneWinnerRelease DateJuly 21June 29iPhonePriceList: $34.99; street: $17.99 – $20.99$499 - $599HPAvailability after releaseEverywhere. I expect to see it in grocery stores, gas stations, and probably on street corners.Best guesses are that it will be hard to get, or even to find.HPAppeal / Cool factorMass / Probably notCult / Very highiPhoneSecrecy surrounding releaseInfo, or at least rumors, are starting, but clearly unauthorized. (I’m trying hard not to read them, so please don’t post any here.)Lots of official info leaks. This article says “Issuing nuggets of news may be a marketing tactic.” We say: may be??HPBiggest decisionWhere to buy it? Amazon, get the best price (and a $5 coupon) but wait for delivery, or a local bookstore, and pay more and fight the crowds.How early to show up at the AT+T store to wait in line.iPhoneBiggest open question:Is Snape the ultimate good guy or the ultimate bad guy?Will it ever run third-party apps?tieBuzz v. hypeBuzzHypeHPGoogle matchesLoosely 30 millionAbout 55 millioniPhoneTotal44tie!

Alex's Letter to Warez Sites

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:35:28 +0000

Probably everyone who reads this blog has already seen this elsewhere, but in case not:

Our good friend and fellow mobile developer, Alex Kac, has written an Open Letter to Warez Sites in his forum, and asked some other developers to help publicize it. Of course I agree with what he wrote (or most of it - maybe not the “have a great day” part), and while I’m not at all convinced that this will change anything (do people really go to warez sites without realizing they’re stealing the content?) I’m completely behind any efforts to do anything to stop software (or any intellectual property) piracy, and happy to do whatever I can to help publicize the problem.

We Couldn't Have Done it Without You!

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:06:35 +0000

Our big tenth anniversary party is over now, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate. I know I had a lot of fun with the contests on this blog, and I hope you guys did too.

Speaking of blog contests, there’s still one more contest to announce the winners to. We spent some time and voted on our favorite five haikus, and the winners are: spmwinkel, Dave, Tim Heimerl, doog, and Mark Jones. Congrats to everyone! All of the submitted haikus were really creative, and you can read them in the comments to this post. The winners should see an email from me shortly requesting their info so I can ship out their swag packets.

Ode to a Pocket PC

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:22:50 +0000

It’s time for another contest, and since you guys did so well making up captions for our anniversary picture, we decided to see if we could squeeze any more creativity out of you!

For this contest, all you need to do is write seventeen syllables about mobile devices. Or about Ilium Software. That’s it! Of course, the technicality is that they need to be in the form of a haiku. Before you rush out and dust off your old textbooks - let me remind you what haiku is all about, and the rules for this contest:

Found: Ten Good Captions

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:15:43 +0000

It’s time to announce the winners of our recent caption contest. We stayed up all night, and even had a couple of pretty good screaming matches trying to decide….well, maybe not. But there were a lot of great entries, so it wasn’t easy!

The winners, in no particular order, are:

Jaimie Birk: “It was a banner day at the Ilium Home for Wayward Programmers.”
spmwinkel: “The Ilium Software team shows the result of another productive day”
Judy Dye: “The Harry Potter Wizard theme party got off to a slow start. Only 2 people managed to conjure up non-standard hats”
Brian: “This is the best picket line I’ve ever been on! Hats and streamers! Just wait until those scabs at Developer One show up to work!”
David Tucker: “Don’t laugh at our thinking caps. When all 10 of us touch the tips of our hats together, our brainpower is amplified beyond all human imagination.”
Joe D: “Kirk to Enterprise: Scotty, we have installed NewsBreak 2.0 on our tricorders. Nine to beam up.”
Melvyn: “The new range of Ilium Garden Gnomes promises to make your lawn the talk of the town.”
Ernie: “Ok, ok, just so you promise you won’t post this picture on the webpage”
Aaron: “It’s been 10 years, can we take the hats off now?”
Timothy: “See I told you..We couldn’t get jobs at Jack in the Box, but the hats came in handy anyway!”

Congrats - you should see an email from me shortly, so I can get the info I need to send out your prizes! Thanks to everyone for playing, there were a lot of funny entries. I’ll have another contest up and running soon!

Screenshot Search-and-Find

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:39:26 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I love scavenger hunts. And, because of that, I’ve decided that we will have another contest all about finding stuff on our site. Earlier this week I hid our anniversary party hat inside our website, but this contest is going to be a little different. If you think you can handle it, read on!

Here’s how it’s going to work: below are six questions. The answers to the questions can be found in the product screenshots on our website. The rules are similar to the last contest. The first THREE people who search our site and find TWO of the answers each are the winners. All you have to do is copy the two questions you’re answering (and your answers, of course) into the comments for this post. If you figure out more than two, please don’t post more answers - that way three people will have a chance to win. To win, you just have to make sure the questions you’ve picked haven’t already been answered in the comments.

Wanted: Ten Good Captions

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 17:44:19 +0000

Are you ready for another giveaway? This one should be pretty fun. All you have to do is think of a caption to go along with our tenth anniversary picture, above. We’re going to choose our favorite 10 captions as the winners, so be sure to put on your thinking cap and get creative! The winners will get an Ilium Software swag pack - 2 click-pen styluses, one stick stylus, and one luggage tag. Again, make sure you enter a valid email address when you comment, so I will be able to contact you if you win.

Have a Happy Hat Hunt

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:21:02 +0000

Just in case you haven’t heard, all this week we’re having a big, surprise-filled anniversary sale. But we decided, why let the website have all the fun? The blog should get to join in the celebration, too! And so, without further ado, below are the rules to the first mini-giveaway we’ll be having on our blog this week.

This first little game is going to be a scavenger hunt. Throughout our site, I’ve hidden six of our little party hats, just like the one the guy with the binoculars is wearing above. So here are the rules: the first THREE people who search our site and find TWO of the hats each are the winners. All you have to do is copy the URL of the two pages into the comments for this post. If you find more than two hats, please don’t post more URLs - that way three people will have a chance to win. To win, you just have to make sure both pages you found haven’t already been answered in the comments.

We've Made It - 10 Years!!

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:55:37 +0000

I can’t believe it - Ilium Software has been in business 10 years.

We’ve grown to 9 fulltime (or close) employees.

We’ve released 12 products, discontinued 5, and converted 2 to freeware. We also have 8 currently supported free titles.

We’ve rented 4 different offices, as our space requirements changed, or needs of the people renting us space changed.

We’ve used 6 different web hosting companies, 5 different merchant services (credit card) providers, plus at least 39 different distributors (in our database, 9 are flagged as “gone”, 11 as “discontinued”, one as “should be gone” and one as “don’t ask”. I’m not sure why, but I’d bet it was me who wrote that).

Of Course We're Celebrating

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:53:44 +0000

Here we are, celebrating:

OK, not really. The party is next week. But I made everyone put on a hat and pose for the picture so I could use it in this post.

Check out our home page for Julie’s fabulous falling hat show.

A New Contest Winner (and a little something extra....)

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:22:53 +0000

Thank goodness for little electronic reminders - without them I never would have remembered that today is June 1st. Where did May go; it’s such a long month but it just flew by! Ah, well, I didn’t forget, and I’ve just waved my magic wand (or clicked my magic mouse, rather), so now it’s time to give stuff away!

This month the lucky blog contest winner is Scott B., who commented on the post eWallet 5.0.2 is out (and other news). Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it just reply to this post and let me know.

eWallet 5.0.2 is out (and other news)!

Wed, 30 May 2007 14:09:35 +0000

We’ve released a tiny update to eWallet. It’s version 5.0.2 and it fixes a couple of little things that were bugging us. For 5.0.1 users, you don’t need to download this one but it doesn’t hurt. It primarily smooths out the experience for new and upgrade purchasers in the future.

ListPro 5.0 Closed Beta continues apace. So far things are looking quite good. We’ve got a few more features that have to go into it still so the release is undetermined. Sorry everyone! It will be worth the wait!

GTD + ListPro, Take 2

Wed, 09 May 2007 18:58:22 +0000

The GTD ListPro template that I made has turned out to be quite popular. As in, it’s been in the top 3 most-downloaded List Exchange files list pretty much since I posted it almost 1 year ago. It’s even been #1 quite a few times.

In that time, I’ve had an on-and-off relationship with David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Starting up with GTD is like trying to get a new habit. When you don’t want a new habit, it’s very easy. When you want one, it’s very hard. I’ve had almost 26 years to get in the habit of brushing my teeth when I wake up, and that’s not a very complicated task. Organizing myself using GTD is about 100x more ’things to do’, and it’s a lot more difficult.

Extra Security Questions

Wed, 09 May 2007 14:27:04 +0000

Are people being tripped up by the extra security questions the banks, credit cards and insurance companies seem to be adding lately? I was.

I’ll admit it was my own fault - I didn’t read their page very carefully, and just assumed that I’d have to answer the questions to convince someone on the phone to reset a password I’d lost. And since I never lose passwords, I didn’t bother keeping track of the answers I gave.

And the Winner is....

Tue, 01 May 2007 13:14:51 +0000

I’m so happy that May is here - it’s finally warm, I think it’s safe to pack my snow boots away, and since it’s a new month, I get to pick another blog contest winner!

This month the lucky winner is Dianna, who commented on the post Extreme Makeover - Ilium Software Style. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it just reply to this post and let me know.

Keep Track 2.1.4 Released

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:50:22 +0000

Just a quick note! We’ve released a minor update to Keep Track. It doesn’t include the pile of updates we’d like to release right now, but it does fix a couple of minor things that we don’t want folks to wait for. In particular, it now supports the Motorola Q landscape display, fixes a couple of Smartphone bugs, and smooths out a couple of wrinkles in Windows Mobile synching.

So if you’d like to grab the upgrade just download a trial version from our site:

Life as a software tester for Ilium Software

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 17:48:51 +0000

This picture illustrates two things. One is that I have terrible handwriting, especially on a white board. It also gives a glimpse into what software testing is like here at Ilium Software.

I’ve been meaning to talk about testing, but between testing eWallet 5.0, InScribe 2.0 and just finishing up on a Keep Track update, not to mention supporting our existing and new software… there just wasn’t time. If you have some time, read on!

The Changing Definition of "Mobile"

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:09:59 +0000

More and more it becomes clear that the definition of “mobile” in our market is changing. From wi-fi connectivity on the Nintendo DS to more obvious candidates like the iPhone, mobile computing is evolving before our very eyes.

My mobile future? Personally I use my UMPC for everything, have a Windows Mobile Smartphone, and a dedicated MP3 player right now. I also wear two USB drives (one of which is a U3 device) around my neck almost all the time…it’s a little like I’ve got some sort of technological talismans protecting me from the demons of the disconnected world! :) My laptop meanwhile sits gathering dust in the corner and my poor Toshiba E800, with all it’s high-res glory, spends more time running Dockware than anything else.

Extreme Makeover - Ilium Software Style!

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:27:15 +0000

So I’m toying with our free products the other day and I think “Holy Cow! These babies need some help!” I figured this was a good time to turn to you guys and get some advice.

If you could choose only one free product from our free software section to get updated, which one would you choose, why would you choose it, and what is your number one request for how we should update it? (and you can already assume that we’ll update them to be WM 5.0, WM 6, and screen size compatible.)

CTIA Post-Game Report

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:19:09 +0000

Hey everyone. Just a quick CTIA follow-up. Rather than a blow-by-blow or other less than exciting method of telling you about it, I’ll give you the CNN news-blurb version including the most interesting things I saw (or didn’t see as the case may be!)

Handango was present with a nice booth. Got to spend some time with them.
Motricity had a HUGE MTV2 party (2000 people) at Hardrock with focus on downloadable media/entertainment.
Handmark had a nice presence as well and I got to talk to them.
Palm had a big booth with lots of people showing off their phones.
There was ONE Palm OS device on the entire show room floor (which was huge.) (The Treo 680).
Motorola had a big booth but dedicated as much time to music players, bluetooth headphones, and other electronics as to mobile devices.
The UMPC had equal positioning at the Microsoft booth as all other devices. The newest tiny UMPCs are REALLY nice.
Every Kiosk at the Microsoft booth including Windows Mobile devices.
Saw the new HP WM 6.0 Smartphone (Standard) device. Very nice.
HTC was at the MS booth as well.
Saw more Windows Mobile devices in the hands of attendees than ever before although I still saw 2 Franklin Planners. :)
Most people I met didn’t know what my UMPC was but as soon as they saw it they had to ask about it and closed with “Oh my god, I WANT one of those.”
Plenty of Symbian devices being displayed. Some Blackberry devices as well but a smaller presence than I’d expected.

So there you have! Marc Tassin’s “in-a-nutshell” review of the CTIA Wireless show. A great show though and lots to think about!

It's April, and You All Know What That Means....

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:36:58 +0000

It’s time to pick another winner in our ongoing blog contest, and give stuff away!

This month the lucky winner is m m, who commented on the post eWallet 5.0.1 is Now Available. Congratulations! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it just reply to this post and let me know.

To everyone else, it’s not over yet - I’ll pick another winner in the beginning of May. Keep the comments coming and maybe this month, the winner will be you!

CTIA Orlando and NewsBreak 2.0

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:09:14 +0000

I’m packing up and heading out for CTIA Orlando. I’ll be meeting with a number of friends and business partners while I’m there so if you plan to attend drop me a line! It should be a great show this year and I’ll be sure to post my thoughts when I return.

I also wanted to thank everyone out there for the fantastic response you’ve given to NewsBreak 2.0. We’ve been hearing some wonderful stuff and some great ideas for future versions as well. I think the thing I love to hear the most are comments like “I never saw the point of RSS but thanks to NewsBreak I’m hooked!” Hearing that is a dream come true since one of my goals with NewsBreak is to have a product that makes RSS easily accessible to everyone. Thanks!

We Interrupt This Blog ...

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:03:13 +0000

I’m interrupting our “regular” blog to post about something I feel very strongly about. And while we have a rule here (as much as we have any rules, we’re not big on them) that blog topics need to be at least somewhat related to what we do, one of the perks of being an owner is that I can break the rules and no one gets to say much.

eWallet 5.0.1 is now available

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:01:55 +0000

Earlier this week we released NewsBreak 2.0! Now we’re very excited to announce - eWallet 5.0.1! wallet120.jpg OK, well maybe “very excited” isn’t quite the right description but hey, it’s finished and released so “Woo Hoo!”. We’re happy!

eWallet 5.0.1 is a minor update to eWallet for all platforms. It includes almost a hundred (sorry, I’m not going to try to list all 100!) tiny changes, mostly fixes or tweaks to smooth out things we discovered after the release of 5.0 . None of these are earth shattering and if you never install 5.0.1 you probably wouldn’t notice a difference. For instance, on some cards on some smartphones an extra line got left on the screen when you scrolled through card fields. On the off chance that you use that card on the affected smartphones, 5.0.1 fixes it - no more line! Woot!

NewsBreak 2.0 - With Podcast Support!

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:02:45 +0000

We’re excited to announce that we just released NewsBreak 2.0. This new version of our award winning news reader includes a number of great new features. The one we are the most excited about is full support for podcasts and enclosures.

Listen to your favorite podcasts, watch vidcasts, view enclosed images, and much more with this new version of NewsBreak. With an interface even novices find easy to use, NewsBreak makes it simple to take advantage of this new feature.

Arcade Reality - The Future is Now!!

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:09:30 +0000

Like flying cars and household robots, the future is notorious for its many unfulfilled promises. Turns out it isn’t all talk though! I just downloaded a game called Arcade Reality. Here is what they promise:

“No more killing feeble aliens on the tiny 2” x 2" screen! In this game you must handle hostile creatures floating around you in the real world. "

My first thought is “Um….yeah, right.” I’ve seen these promises of games that you play in the real world. “Just a few more years and every game will be like this!” they promise. Surrre. So when I heard about Arcade Reality all I could think was that it would be one more bit of false hope for my already broken gamer dreams.

Another Month, Another Winner

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:15:46 +0000

It’s March, and you all know what that means - it’s time to pick another winner in our ongoing blog contest, and give stuff away!

This month the lucky winner is Kay, who commented on the post Spread the Word - it’s National Consumer Protection Week. Congratulations, Kay! I just sent you an email explaining how to get your prize. If you don’t receive it just reply to this post and let me know.

Another Smartphone Tip

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:36:11 +0000

I’m seeing a lot of Smartphone tips published lately, so am jumping on the bandwagon and adding one of my own. And since I’m suchan advocate of simplicity, mine is a very simple one. It even works on any cellphone, not just Smartphones.

When setting up any kind of off-site meeting, appointment, or date, send the person you’re meeting your cellphone number. When they send theirs back (which everyone does, if you write “in case anything comes up, here’s my mobile number”), put it into your cellphone. It takes about 20 seconds, and if something goes wrong - either on your part or theirs - you have a very easy way to reach them.

OpenDNS for More Reliable Internet Access

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:41:59 +0000

At home I’ve had pretty unreliable Internet service through the local cable company. Turns out they have a tough time keeping their DNS server(s) up and running so when I type “www.iliumsoft.com” into the browser, they often can’t translate the domain into the IP address and send me to the correct web page. Yesterday I read about an interesting solution to this kind of problem on Scott Hanselman’s blog, called OpenDNS.

Daylight Saving Time Update for Windows Mobile

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 18:59:04 +0000

You may have read about the changing going into effect in the United States, Canada and Mexico this year with Daylight Saving Time: DST will now start three weeks earlier and will end one week later. The newly announced Windows Mobile 6 devices won’t require an update but earlier devices including Windows Mobile 5.0, 2003 and 2003 Second Edition will require an updated DST table to automatically switch to and from DST on the proper dates. The good news is that there are information and tools available on the Windows Mobile site to help with all this now. You can find it all on the new Windows Mobile Updates for Daylight Saving Time page.

Do Me a Favor, Will You?

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:06:32 +0000

I just uploaded a new little trick for the home page of our site. It is now set up to magically send you to the mobile site if you’re browsing on your PDA. But that’s not all! If you decide, for whatever reason, that you want to visit our “big” web site from your PDA instead, and you click the “Visit Main Website” link in the mobile version, you should magically not be sent back to the mobile site. So, here’s the favor I need….

This Just In: Software Site Goes Nuts for NewsBreak

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 21:45:29 +0000

The site FreeFunFiles.com has just chosen NewsBreak as the February winner of their Golden Acorn Award. They’re nuts for software over there (get it, nuts, acorn…ah, you get it) and they think NewsBreak is a pretty cool app. After hearing the good news, NewsBreak excitedly cheered “I’m going to Disney World!”

You can visit our site to find out more about NewsBreak, our news feed reader that helps you stay informed on your favorite news, sports, weather, and blogs (like this one!) wherever you go. Try it free for 30 days on your Pocket PC or Windows Smartphone and see for yourself why the Golden Acorn has now been added to its list of awards. Oh, and I’m having NewsBreak bring me back a pair of those mouse ears from Disney World, so if you want anything, let me know….

WM 6 is here - and Ilium Software is ready!

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:42:49 +0000

It’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.

Lunch with Clinton Fitch

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:13:16 +0000

Just wanted to mention that we had a great visit with Clinton Fitch of ClintonFitch.com yesterday. He was in the area and he was able to make some time to have lunch with us. Clinton does some of the best reviews for mobile software out there. If you are looking for in depth, well thought out reviews of mobile software you definitely need to check out his site.

Clinton is also the co-webmaster of a site called HPCFactor. HPCFactor is the definitive information site for folks still using the Microsoft HPC devices. The OS and devices might have been discontinued but the HPC community is still going strong. Plus, HPCFactor is the sole distributor of the HPC versions of our software (available for free I might add!)

Spread the Word - it's National Consumer Protection Week

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 15:07:16 +0000

Apparently this week - February 4-10 - is National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW). Their official website is here, and offers links to info for businesses and consumers, as well as an packet you can get in the mail.

While their info is pretty general, it’s still worthwhile. And it never hurts to be reminded to protect yourself and your information. Especially now, when there’s so much online fraud, scams and viruses. But in addition, there’s a lot of bad security just because people don’t know how to protect themselves, or are just too busy to think about it.

(Not So) Stupid eWallet Tricks!

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:24:53 +0000

We’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!

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:50:04 +0000

Well, 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?

Confusing Names!

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:16:44 +0000

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?

Getting the Word Out

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:50:13 +0000

One 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??”

New InScribe Keyboard Layouts!

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:23:50 +0000

We just posted a brand new keyboard layout pack for InScribe! This new pack includes eight layouts including Cloemak, Dvorak, Hcesar, Maltron, Plum, Qwerf, Quicktype, and Staggered. The layouts are self installing. All you need to do is download the pack here and when you run the installer it will automatically install the layouts for you. I want to extend special thanks to the folks at Plum for giving us permission to distribute a copy of their great layout.

UMPC: The Missing Link

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:31:57 +0000

Michael Mace wrote a fantastic article about the mobile computing market. If you haven’t read it, you really need to read the entire article. I think he is on the money with his analysis and I quite literally could not have said it better.

BUT

The one thing he said that I disagree with is:

“Information manager [device] innovation has basically ground to a halt, and the users in this space are very frustrated.”

I agree that the users are frustrated. I don’t agree that innovation has ground to a halt. In fact, the information manager’s dream device is already out there.

The UMPC.

Voice Reminders

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:33:11 +0000

I’ve always liked using the Record/Notes option on my Pocket PC to remind myself of something when it’s not handy to type a note – this is especially useful when driving, I just press and hold the Record button and my reminder is saved as an audio file, accessible from the built-in Notes application. The problem is, I often forget to look and see what reminders I’ve saved – D’oh!

2007 Windows Mobile Partner Summit

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:08:05 +0000

Just returned from attending the two day Windows Mobile Partner Summit held in the Seattle area. The summit included OEM, Mobile Operator, and key strategic partners to discuss what’s coming down the road from the Windows Mobile team. We’re under a NDA so I can’t say much about the meeting right now, but I can say that I very much liked what I saw. Stay tuned for more details as we’re allowed to release them. A big thank you to the Windows Mobile Partner team for putting on the event and sharing future plans with us.

Belated Congratulations ...

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:19:59 +0000

… to a great site - PDA24/7 - on their 5 year anniversary! We wish you all the success you deserve for the next 5.

My Toaster Won't Make Cookies!!

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:50:17 +0000

With every release of new technology a million so-called experts jump up and start shouting about all the things that are wrong with it. I’m as supportive of critical analysis as the next guy, but I’m also a strong proponent of “appropriate analysis.” Too often people attack new technology from the wrong direction. The iPhone and the UMPC are two great examples of this…

Identifying Installation Files

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:42:24 +0000

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).

Random iPhone Thoughts

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:52:43 +0000

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.

Caching vs Copyright

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:33:42 +0000

One of the top requests we get for NewsBreak is that we download and cache the web pages that the “Read More” links go to. The reason people want this is that many news feeds don’t provide the full story. They just give you a teaser. If you’re off line this means you can’t read the entire story without going back online. Annoying, I know, especially for those feeds that only give you like one line of the story.

So why don’t we do it? I’m glad you asked! Read on for the full story…

ePochette-eMappe-eCarpeta: Translating Software

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 15:15:41 +0000

Lots of people want to know if we’re going to release localized (that’s the same as “translated” for those of you not in the biz) versions of our software. So far we’ve always said “Sorry, not yet.” Of course this leads to the inevitable response of “WHY??” Good news! I’m about to tell you!

It comes down to one simple thing. Support.

Tag - I'm It Too!

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:55:35 +0000

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:

Tag, I'm It

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:35:22 +0000

So apparently there’s this new game among bloggers where someone “tags” another blogger. If you’re tagged, you have to post 5 facts about yourself that most people don’t know, and then tag 5 other bloggers. I just got tagged by spmwinkel at solsie.com who had been tagged by Patrick from JustAnotherMobileMonday.

OK, this is going to be pretty easy, and fun. First, the interesting people I tag are:

Dan Hanttula a hugely interesting person who has more credentials than I’ll even try to list.

Where's my template editor?!?

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:27:23 +0000

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!

Giving Stuff Away

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:08:22 +0000

There’s a lot being written right now about Microsoft’s giving Vista PCs to bloggers, and the ethics of the bloggers taking them. If you’ve managed to miss it, there are a few links at the bottom of this post that you can read, but frankly, I’m already tired of the whole subject, and imagine that many other people are too.

But since I’m no longer averse to stealing good ideas (way too many of mine have been lifted), and since we’re trying to drum up more activity on this blog (both posts and comments), we’re going to start a monthly giveaway to people who comment on the posts.

Opera, eWallet and Me

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 15:37:07 +0000

I recently installed IE7, and for a lot of reasons, didn’t like it much. I’ve never managed to get along well with Firefox, but after spending some time with Opera, found that it worked pretty well for me. There’s a lot it doesn’t do - I do keep IE7 and Firefox both available as well, but I decided to use Opera as my primary browser. Given that Opera imported my IE bookmarks and that I only ever let IE save the passwords I didn’t care much about (things that I don’t really consider very secret, like my logins to sites where I have to register just to read an article), I figured the hardest part about converting would be retraining my fingers.

Happy Holidays from Ilium Software!

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:57:57 +0000

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

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 17:54:10 +0000

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.

eWallet Open Beta: The Results Are In!

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 20:12:50 +0000

When I announced our open beta I promised that I’d let everyone know how it went. I mean this is a ‘behind the scenes at Ilium Software’ blog after all! I’ll start by saying that overall, this was a great experience. We got some really excellent insights into how people reacted to changes, caught a number of bugs, and found out how folks liked the new features. Without question I plan to run additional Open Betas in the future.

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

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:07:26 +0000

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.

Happy Birthday Aximsite!

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:15:50 +0000

We want to wish a very happy 4th birthday to Aximsite. We watched Aximsite wade into some pretty deep waters four years ago as they went up against a lot of well established PDA and Pocket PC sites. They’ve proven their worth and have not only survived but thrived. Congratulations Aximsite, from everyone here at Ilium Software! You’ve got a great site! Here’s to your continued success!

eWallet 5.0 Open Beta Now Available

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 13:45:14 +0000

The eWallet 5.0 Open Beta has begun! If you want a look at the new version of eWallet, use the link at the end of this post to hop over to the Open Beta page and get your copy! For current users there is a lot here to like including a completely rebuilt sync setup UI, greatly expanded sync options (including FTP sync, synching to other computers on a server, as many PCs as you want and devices synching with each wallet as you want, and much more), a new partnership with FilesAnywhere to provide online synching of your data and all new icons!

It's crazy....but it just might work!

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:51:01 +0000

It’s official! We’re going to hold an open beta for eWallet 5.0. Although we’ve been doing this software developing thing for quite awhile, we’ve never done an open beta before so we’re heading into uncharted territory. Will it be a smashing success? Will we regret it each and every day for the next couple of years? Only time will tell!

As soon as we’re ready I promise we’ll make some noise about the open beta so you can go grab your copy! In the meantime, for those of you who are reviewers and old friends, we’re sending emails this afternoon so you can get a sneak peek! If you don’t get one by tomorrow morning, drop us an email and we’ll set you up.

And the Winning Number Is....

Fri, 24 Nov 2006 20:05:37 +0000

Here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The winning number for the ListPro contest at SolSie.com is: 16!!

I just checked the comments on SolSie.com, and it looks like someone guessed that number right on the nose. Good job! And congrats to everyone else who guessed close enough to win. Thanks to everyone for playing - I had fun with this contest myself!

And, in case anyone is curious how I chose the lucky number 16…I just added all three of my nephews ages together - so there you have it.

I'm Thinking of a Number From 1 to 100....

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:45:00 +0000

There was a recent post on SolSie.com in which the author described a very handy list he had made using our own ListPro software. To thank them for this article, we decided to let them give away five copies of ListPro for free this week!

All you need to do to enter the contest is visit this post on their site and pick a number from 1 to 100. Then just come back here on Friday, November 24th at three p.m. EST where I will announce the top-secret number that I’ve picked. SolSie.com will check through their comments and the five people whose guesses are closest to my number will win!

Please Don't Photocopy Your Wallet

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:56:31 +0000

I really hate it when people suggest photocopying your wallet contents for extra safety. Call me crazy (many people do) and paranoid (there’s some truth to that as well), but a photocopier is nothing but a scanner plus a printer. There’s no guarantee that your info is cleared out as soon as the pages are printed. If it’s your own copier in your own home office, fine, but if you take your wallet to Kinkos or CopyMax or any commercial place, keep in mind that what you’re doing is using their scanner to scan all the numbers you’re carefully protecting other places.

A Whirlwind of Activity!

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 22:20:08 +0000

“Hey, remember those Ilium guys? Didn’t they used to have a blog?”

We’re not gone! It’s a whirlwind of activity here at Ilium Software as we rapidly approach the completion of eWallet 5.0. Needless to say everyone has their hands full and it wasn’t until today that someone finally said “Um…has anyone updated the Blog lately?”

So please pardon the long silence! You’ll hear much more about eWallet 5.0 in the coming weeks and we’ll likely talk about it first right here!

Turn Any Computer into Your Personal Computer

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:22:10 +0000

I just found out about this amazing new product called MojoPac that lets you shrink your personal computer so it fits in your pocket! If this sounds like a line from a really bad infomercial, trust me, it’s not; and if it doesn’t sound entirely believable, well, it is. Okay, MojoPac won’t literally shrink your computer, but it does let you install any of your programs, files, and personal settings on devices like iPods or USB drives, so you can access them safely from anywhere. Now, to switch back to infomercial mode: But wait, there’s more!

Unintentional Success Story

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:01:19 +0000

Every once and a while, Ilium Software tech support gets a heads-up about an interesting and unexpected use of one of our products. We aren’t the only ones; Patrick at MicroISV on a Shoestring had the same experience and his story prompted me to think.

Sometimes the use case isn’t much of a stretch; ListPro is a program to make lists, so it’s hard to find a use for ListPro that isn’t obvious by definition. Prayer lists, scavenger hunts, web bookmarks, flight checklists… they’re all still just lists. NewsBreak is the same way; RSS and ATOM are usually used for simple ’newspaper headlines’, but all sorts of information such as your NetFlix queue, Gmail account, eBay search results and weather reports are available via RSS. These uses are just part of what NewsBreak is designed to do.

Congratulations to Marc!

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:45:15 +0000

Marc Tassin, our Product Manager (who introduced himself here a while ago) has just had a story published in a real book! The book is called Furry Fantastic, and Marc’s contribution is a very entertaining and well-written story about … well, I’m not going to say what it’s about. If you want to read it, you’ll have to pick up the book yourself. And if you do, be sure to read Marc’s description of himself at the end.

You Like Us! You Really Like Us!

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:01:49 +0000

The winners of the Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards have just been announced, and we are happy to say that we’ve won four different awards!

eWallet (Professional Edition) for Pocket PCs won the title of Best Secure Information Manager. ListPro (Professional Edition) won Best List Manager, also for Pocket PCs.

And our news reader application, NewsBreak, won Best News Reader for Pocket PCs, as well as Best Feed Reader for Smartphones.

Friday the 13th

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:57:09 +0000

I’m sure the fact that our network server seems to have completely bit the dust has nothing to do with the fact that today is Friday the 13th.

And my PC crashing every time I try to upload that picture of a calendar showing a 13 doesn’t mean anything either.

Who needs Exit?

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:39:01 +0000

A big challenge developers face are requirements given to them by OEMs (the people that make your hardware) and demands from folks like Microsoft and Palmsource. There are times when these requirements conflict with what we want to do or with what customers tell us they are looking for. Microsoft just put up a great blog post about one of these requirements (the missing Exit feature in Windows Mobile discussed at the Windows Mobile Blog).

Having read that, I figured I would share a developer perspective on this often frustrating topic…

The Danger of Cleaning House

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 18:30:23 +0000

I had to share something that came up in a support call yesterday. It’s either really horrible or incredibly funny depending on your point of view.

We received a panicked call from someone trying desperately to access an eWallet file that they didn’t know the password for. This isn’t all that unusual. We all know that it’s easy to forget the “really good” password you came up with (one of the things that makes eWallet so handy!) The problem of course is that eWallet, being a secure information manager, really IS secure. If you forget your password there is NO backdoor, NO way to reset the password, and NO reasonable way to hack the wallet*.

Making the Switch...

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 19:07:10 +0000

Every day people contact us to change their software from one device type to another, Palm to Pocket PC, Pocket PC to Smartphone, Smartphone to Palm, etc. I’m curious to know what drives this switch. What single thing, or combination of things, makes people drop a perfectly usable, high-dollar device and buy a different one?

I started out PDA-dom with a Palm Kyocera 6035, but when I spent more time banging it on the desk in frustration than actually using it, I started looking at other devices. I looked very hard at the Pocket PC phones, but the ones with the functionality I wanted were outside my price range (I will only pay so much for something I can lose or trash so easily!). The interface for the Windows-Powered Smartphones gives me hives, so they weren’t even in the running, and that brought me right back to Palm. Surprisingly, to me at least, the Treo suits my needs pretty well.

eWallet 5.0 Beta About to Commence!

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 14:24:12 +0000

That’s right! We’re about to start a full beta on eWallet 5.0. We’re very excited about the new features and look forward to getting reaction from our customers! One truth of software development is that sometimes things look amazing from our perspective, but once it hits the masses we discover that the “great idea” is far less impressive from a user point of view. Hence the need for a good beta run!

Arrrr! Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:12:19 +0000

Ahoy there! Unless ye’ve been stranded on a desert island, ye know that today is Talk Like a Pirate Day . The crew here at Ilium Software want to wish all of ye good sailing. And to celebrate, we’ve created this special InScribe 2007 keyboard layout just for pirates! (Ye can spy InScribe 2007 here if ye haven’t already!)

Also, be sure to check out the booty offered by our mates over at Astraware. They’ve got some special offers on Pirate Software ye might like! May the wind be at yer back and yer powder stay dry.

InScribe is Now Available!

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:06:00 +0000

It’s done! InScribe 2007 is finished and it’s now available for download. And the best part (besides being a really great piece of software) is that it’s FREE! That’s right. Call us crazy but we’ve decided to offer InScribe 2007 for free. Just pop over to our website and you can download it from there!

I also want to take a second to thank everyone who helped to make this possible including everyone here at Ilium Software (it’s always a group effort at Ilium Software!), our fantastic beta team, JkOnTheRun, and of course Lora, Ken, and Elliot over at Microsoft. It was a lot of work and at times a bit of a whirlwind but we’re really proud of the result.

Getting Picked Up in L.A.

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:42:39 +0000

Not, as you might think, that some guy in the street tried to strike up a conversation, but that Randy Eisenmen, Handango’s CEO, for some reason decided to lift me up about 2 feet when he gave me the Handango Champion Award we won for eWallet. To say I was shocked doesn’t even begin to cover it - no one has tried that in many years. Apparently I looked so freaked out that he had to send someone over to ask if I was OK (I was fine. I was worried about him - I was having visions of him falling over, and seeing headlines like “Ilium Software Exec Kills Handango CEO”. I’m short, but I’m really not all that small). Anyway, it was lots of fun. Someone asked Randy why he’d picked me up (everyone else just got hugs or handshakes) and he was blaming Ken Landau from LandWare, who won the award before ours (congratulations, Ken), but I’m pretty sure that was just an excuse. If companies get their personalities from their CEOs, I can certainly see why Handango is so high-energy.

Customer Service Etiquette

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 20:02:53 +0000

In eleven days, I will have been working for Ilium Software for two years exactly. I think. I’m really bad at numbers. In those two years, I have slowly drifted towards being something of a Good Customer Support advocate. Now that we have a blog, I can actually say something about what goes on in my head.

I get to be on both sides of the fence when it comes to customer support. I’m a customer getting support from other companies, and I provide support to our customers. Some people probably don’t reconcile this state very well; I can’t imagine that spammers are delighted to sift through spam email every morning while they have their coffee and wake up, nor can I imagine that telemarketers are very pleased when someone selling vinyl siding interrupts their dinner.

Good News From the Handango Summit

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:38:39 +0000

We’ve just gotten two pieces of good news from the Handango Summit:

eWallet (Professional Edition) won the Handango Champion 2006 award for Best Application for Life on the Pocket PC platform. The Champion awards are Handango’s annual awards recognizing the top software in various categories. Users choose their favorite programs to be nominated, then the final awards are chosen by an independent panel of judges made up of industry experts in the mobile software field.

CTIA, Handango Summit, and a Long Weekend

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 18:18:24 +0000

Hi everyone! The blog has been a bit slow lately because we’ve been working feverishly on that UMPC product we talked about before (along with the updates to eWallet and ListPro that we’ve got in the works!) But the UMPC work is done, the beta is complete, and the final version should be out soon! We’ll be sure to let everyone know when it goes out.

A week from now I’m heading to California for the Handango Summit and the CTIA Wireless show. If you’re a blog watcher here and plan to attend either of those, let me know. I’d love to meet you and say “hi!”

Why don't you support my OS?

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:21:31 +0000

With so many great mobile operating systems out there, we often get asked “Why don’t you support my OS?” Like my previous post about upgrades, I hope this one will help shed some light on the challenges of supporting an operating system!

Upgrades anyone?

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 20:23:46 +0000

There was a great discussion over at Pocket PC Thoughts about upgrades. Upgrades are something we spend a lot of time thinking about, and since this blog is a place where we can let you see behind the curtain, I’ll share some of our upgrade thoughts with you.

UMPC Beta Test About To Begin

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 14:26:46 +0000

We’re getting ready to release a new program for the UMPC and we’re looking for a few good beta testers! If you’re interested in giving it a shot, please email us as soon as possible. Due to a tight deadline it’s going to be a short beta so we’d like to get people started as soon as possible!

Just email us at beta@iliumsoft.com with your name, the model of UMPC you are using, and any other info you think would convince us that you’d make a good beta tester! Slots are limited so please let us know as soon as possible! Thank you!

Fun with Market Analytics

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:55:12 +0000

The two leading analysts in the mobile space, IDC and Gartner, came out with their quarterly reports this week:

Gartner Says PDA Shipments Reached Record High in Second Quarter of 2006 Worldwide Handheld Market Experiences Tenth Quarter of Year-Over-Year Decline, According to IDC

I know, they definite “PDA” and “Handheld Market” differently, but general, it’s why I don’t put much faith in what the analysts say. That and the fact that their predictions have been consistently wrong about the mobile market for the last 13 years, starting with the Newton.

MicroISV on a Shoestring

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:55:25 +0000

A plug here for a really excellent blog about development, release, marketing and support of a new product. I especially liked the two posts: Support Does Not Scale and The Passion of the Customers. How Patrick has the time to write this much as well as actually do everything he’s writing about is beyond me.

"Who Makes This Stuff" article on Just Another Mobile Monday

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 18:23:01 +0000

Patrick Jordan of Just Another Mobile Monday has published a Who Makes This Stuff article about us:

“For our second post in this series, we are very happy to have Ilium Software, makers of eWallet, ListPro, NewsBreak and other great titles. Two of their principals have provided some great answers and thoughts on what makes a useful and useable app, which other developers they rate highly, the future of Windows Mobile, and lots more!”

Read the full article here.

Meet Marc, Ilium Software's Product Manager

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 14:23:11 +0000

Hi everyone! I’m Marc Tassin, the Product Manager here at Ilium Software. I’ve been with Ilium Software since 2000 and I am “Employee #0001”. That is to say, I’m the first person to start working at Ilium Software who wasn’t one of the three founders.

So….want to know more about me? Then read on!

MySpace and Blogs: The more things change...

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 18:40:10 +0000

OK…time to get a little philosophical.

So here is what we have: a whole bunch of personal homepages where people would put a bunch of info about themselves, their favorite music, movies they liked, and other bits of personal chit chat and then sprinkle it with some favorite photos and links to their friends.

Sound like MySpace or maybe your favorite blog? Sure does. But actually that isn’t what I’m describing!

Who Are Those Guys?

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:34:27 +0000

No prizes for recognizing the reference in the title here - it’s much too obvious (please don’t tell me if it isn’t).

Here’s the current staff of Ilium Software (click for the big version):

Standing, left to right: Ken, Julie, Dan, Sheri, Matt, Ellen, Marc Kneeling: Kevin, Lee

OK, we’ll have a prize (one of our programs, or, if you have all of them already, a handful of excellent stylus pens) for anyone who comes up with a good caption. Put any entries into the comments.

Laridian Adds Blog

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 10:36:15 +0000

Our friends over at Laridian have recently added a blog to their website. Laridian offers first-class bible software for Windows Mobile, Palm OS, iPod and BlackBerry devices – check out their new blog when you have a chance.

Good for the Customer vs Good for the Business

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 14:52:14 +0000

I’ve been running into more and more crazy corporate policies that might help the business in some fashion, but do nothing for the customer. In fact, a lot of these policies are downright bad for the customer and yet they still exist.

My personal theory is that if a policy is “Good for the Business” but “Bad for the Customer”, it isn’t actually good for the business at all! Read on!

* When I wrote this today I saw Kevin was getting ready to post and I was going to hold off until tomorrow. As it turns out we’re talking about the same basic topic (great minds think alike!) So I’m going to post it today anyhow as a complimentary piece!

Retention? Nope.

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 14:22:16 +0000

Ilium Software is really happy to have customers, but not so happy to have them that we would do anything to keep them. On the surface, doing anything seems like ‘bending over backwards’ to satisfy the customer. That’s not a horrible idea - we really try to make people happy within reasonable limits and company policy.

When I say ‘do anything’, I include threatening, badgering, obsfucating, hard-selling, and otherwise retaining. The first - and quasi-official - thing that I want to get across is that we don’t have a retention policy or a manual. Ilium Software does not have a document that says how to retain customers when they say, “I don’t like [product], I want a refund.”

For more examples and some ranting, keep reading.

Form & Function: A Developer's Perspective

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:40:17 +0000

How important is appearance? Is it a vital part of any application design? Or just a nice thing to add if you have time for it?

There have been a couple of great posts about this subject today. One of them is at Just Another Mobile Monday and another at Treonauts. Both of these address the subject from the point of view of a user. I thought I’d take a second to discuss it from the developer end.

Common sense is neither common nor sensical. Discuss!

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 19:45:42 +0000

One of my little Google Homepage widgets is for a blog by one James Bach, who knows more about testing than me. A lot more. He recently blogged about his dislike for the words ‘intuition’ and ‘common sense’ being used as explanations in arguments.

Bach has a very good point when it comes to using those two concepts as ways to explain away a problem.

The article also made me think about how often I run into issues of common sense or intuition while providing tech support. Keep reading for some examples, and a little discussion on how I think the common sense and intuition pitfalls can be avoided.

What is RSS? Here's a short answer.

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:39:14 +0000

One thing I’ve noticed in terms of support is that people usually come to us wanting to make lists (ListPro), keep track of passwords and such (eWallet), keep track of financial transactions (Keep Track), but when it comes to NewsBreak, it’s a bit up in the air. It lets you… read news! Specifically, it’s an RSS feed aggregator, and if you know what RSS is, you understand the concept immediately.

A Good Name is Hard to Find!

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:41:21 +0000

With the recent announcement of the Microsoft Zune I just felt a need to talk about naming products. I’ll give Microsoft a little credit. It’s really hard to name a product these days. Most of the good names are already taken by something. That leaves new products stuck with either made up names or names that squish two words together and pretend that it is one word (yes…we’ve done this too…I know).

Now, some of the made up names end up being quirky cool, like WOOT! and Google. Unfortunately, it seems that this has led big corporations to think that a wacky new word for their product name is the smart way to go.

You got "Getting Things Done" in my ListPro!

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:16:25 +0000

Ten points to whoever recognizes the advertising throwback in the title. “Getting Things Done” is a methodology developed by one David Allen to help create a ’trusted system’ for tracking what you need to.. get done.

GTD focuses on helping you dump your brain into this trusted system, so you don’t leave obligations looming in the black uncertainty raincloud over your head. If you don’t have time to read his book, you can probably get a good sense of how the core of GTD works by looking at this flowchart [PDF file, 30KB].

GTD is pretty popular with geeks, probably because it takes quite a bit of fiddling to get it done (geeks love to fiddle with things, in my experience), and because it’s a “Life Hack”, a way of optimizing your life to make things work better.

GTD is also something that is basically a bunch of lists. We make a product called ListPro that is very good at making bunches of lists. So inevitably, the two will collide. For the collision, keep reading after the cut thingy below.

Who's Going to Denver?

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 13:48:15 +0000

By “who” here, I mean which electronics - I’ve picked up the developer habit of at least sometimes calling them “he” or “this guy” (yes, of course they’re male. Here’s the official joke).

Any trip of any kind gets at least a cellphone, 1 PDA (just in case I need a quick game while I’m stuck waiting for something) and my mp3 player. More and more, the pedometer comes along - not only do I like to “get credit” for how much I’m walking, it also has a built-in clock, and since I don’t wear a watch (or always carry the cellphone if I’m just walking around for exercise) that’s very handy. And of course if I’m on a business trip, I also bring a laptop for taking notes and checking email, and usually at least 2 PDAs, just because my business trips are PDA related.

Meet (yet another one of) the staff!

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 18:40:00 +0000

I’m Lee, part of the support team, and if you call or email for tech support you will probably get Kevin before you get me, unless you are a bulk-purchaser or one of a select bunch of resellers.

I have been doing tech support of one variety or another for about 15 years, nearly five of those here at Ilium Software. It truly is a great place to work; it’s nice to be around people who are caring and honest, and really believe in what they are doing.

Screen Resolution Rant VS. Samsung Q1:Fight!

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:58:59 +0000

After writing my little opinion essay on screen resolution, something was missing. “What about the new UMPCs!? Those have tiny screens!”

Actually, they’re not so tiny. The Samsung Q1 for example has a 800x480 screen, which seems small but it’s adequate. Anyone who remembers (or still uses!) the Handheld PC devices will recognize that as a similar format to the famous 640x240 screen, but with more wide and twice the tall.

The problem was, we didn’t have a UMPC to play with so I didn’t have any real-life experience. Well, now we do, and I’ve played with it.

In short, my verdict is: Needs Work. This is on a scale of, “Dismal Failure” to “Sliced Bread”. For a first-revision device in a ’new field’, Needs Work seems to be a pretty decent assessment. Certainly not a Dismal Failure.

For more details, a quick review, and a picture, read on.

Meet (another) Member of the Staff

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:49:06 +0000

Hi, I’m Julie. I’ve been working at Ilium Software since last September, and I help work on the website and marketing end of things. I also help answer the phones when everyone in support gets swamped. So, if any out there ever calls and gets me, you might not get technical help right away, but I am great at taking messages!

Besides working on the web site here, I am still going to school, online, for a degree in web development, so I am pretty much in front of a computer screen either here or at home, about 12 hours a day. Of course, I’m not complaining, really – I’m glad that there is such a thing as online school. I don’t know if I would be able to work here and attend a traditional college – there just isn’t much flexibility in on-site schools, but the Internet is always open.

I have to admit, before I started working at Ilium Software, I didn’t know much at all about PDAs. I mean, I’d heard about them, seen commercials and ads, but I couldn’t have told you the difference between a Pocket PC and a Palm handheld to save my life. Of course, it’s not like they always make it easy out there, as in the new Palm Treo 700w Smartphone, which actually runs a Pocket PC operating system. I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s ever been confused by handheld devices. So I’m really glad that I’m starting to understand more about mobile devices and that I am able to use them when I need to around here – the world is definitely becoming more mobile, and wireless, and all those other technological-type adjectives.

Meet (one of) Our Founders

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:53:41 +0000

I liked Kevin’s introduction so much that I’m going to encourage everyone else here to write one. Which I’m pretty sure means I should do one first.

I’m Ellen, one of the people who started Ilium Software, back in 1997. I’ve met some of the people who are reading this - many of the people who run the PDA and mobile related websites, as well as many other developers and even quite a few users - at various conferences and events over the years. I’ve also talked to a number of users (fewer in recent years, but still keep my hand in a little) over the phone and by email. And of course I’ve seen many companies and individuals drop out of mobile software completely. Like people say about old age, it’s definitely not for sissies.

If companies reflect the personalities of the people who started them, I guess Ilium Software reflects mine to a large extent. Certainly our emphasis on providing really good support is a direct result of my frustration with the very bad support I’ve received from too many companies over the years. I don’t accept bad support from anyone (at least not more than once), and as long as I’m in control, we won’t provide it.

Screen resolution: The (not so) Big Picture

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 16:22:47 +0000

I really love those parenthetical titles! The software industry - and in fact anyone who wants to sell something - is driven by either addressing customer needs and wants, or trying to invent a need/want so that customers will buy a product.

Push email is a good example. Do you need it? Maybe. Does everyone need it? Probably not. Do you want it? Maybe. Do you need it because you want it, or because your job depends on you actually being able to respond to an email within one minute even when you’re taking a pit stop? That depends entirely on you and your boss. Or do you want it because someone says, “Push email is big!” [Incidentally, here’s an article about why Push Email may not be so great over at Modern Nomads that touches on the issue of want vs need.]

4 Tests for Mobile App Success

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:17:29 +0000

Michael Mace wrote another great post (I’m a huge fan of his) about 4 tests that a mobile application has to pass in order to be successful: meeting a real need, being easy to install, being easy to learn, and being something the user is aware of.

Ilium Software, meet Google Homepage.

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 21:01:18 +0000

Here at Ilium Software, we now have three RSS feeds: the one for this blog, the one for our News Page , and the one for our ListPro List Exchange. These work great in desktop RSS aggregators like NewsGator, FeedDemon, or in Windows Mobile software like our own NewsBreak.

I’m not much of an early-adopter. I bought my car as soon as it was introduced because I needed a car, I bought my shiny Apple iMac Core Duo because a refurbished one went on sale for a good price, and I bought my first PDA because I was going through that age where I wanted to buy everything that was a gadget. These things were coincidences; I didn’t intentionally jump on the bandwagon while it was still a skateboard, I just happened to step on it and didn’t fall off.

Great Article on Getting Organized with Windows Mobile

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:24:58 +0000

Todd Ogasawara wrote a great article about Getting Organized with Windows Mobile. Of course I liked it because it mentioned eWallet and ListPro, but even without that, it’s very useful information. Everyone I know can use all the tips they can get about getting (and staying) organized.

I personally find it easy to get organized - it’s staying organized that’s much harder. Good software helps.

Thanks, Todd!

The Best of Everything: A Lesson in Great Ideas

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:05:22 +0000

When Pocket PC Magazine first suggested the idea of building a huge CD filled with the winners of their annual software awards, and then giving it a $300 price tag, I’ll admit…I was skeptical. I just couldn’t envision a person shelling out that much money for a collection of PDA software. Still, the folks at Pocket PC magazine have always been good partners so we agreed to give it a shot.

Win bets using your mobile device and ListPro!

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:50:57 +0000

Some people may not know it but we have a great mobile version of our website (in fact we’re only officially announcing it this week). The thing that I like best is the mobile List Exchange. You can get access to any of the 600+ lists on the exchange from your Pocket PC or Smartphone, even performing searches and downloading whichever lists you need. I thought of it again over the weekend because my friends and I were arguing about which season finale of Deep Space 9 had that great battle with Klingons and the Jem’Hadar (it was Season 5 if you’re interested…yeah, this is the kind of thing we argue about) and we ended up betting on it. I won the bet and proved it by pulling the DS9 episode guide down from the list exchange onto my e800 via the coffee shop’s wireless network. Woo-hoo! Free coffee for me. :)

Our New Online Service

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:04:06 +0000

Today we released our newest online service, PassBuilder.com. It’s a free password generator program that can create unique passwords based on the different criteria that users choose. It’s really great - it lets people pick lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and punctuation. They can even choose to get a memory aid when they generate their password - which is important these days, when nobody has just one password to remember! I admit, for some things that I need a password for on my home computer, I still use jumbled versions of my cats’ names and book titles. Maybe now that PassBuilder is out, I’ll go home tonight and fix some of those passwords online!

Meet (one of) the support staff!

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 20:04:02 +0000

Since we now have a blog, I can introduce myself officially. I’m Kevin, and if you call or email Ilium Software for tech support, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll talk to me at some point.

I’m not just a tech support guy who provides PDA software tech support - I actually use the things I support on a regular basis. In general, Ilium “eats its own dog food” - I think that’s the saying. We use eWallet for company passwords and other super-secret things, and we use ListPro for keeping track of not-super-secret things (including many of our QA test lists, the phone support log we keep notes in while on calls, and our feature request tracker.)

Responsible Customers

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:47:20 +0000

Seth Godin writes today about customers and their responsibility, whether companies can (or should) blacklist customers, and consumers gaining power. I wish he’d written more, actually, but since he didn’t, I will.

Anyone who spends any time with the public knows that some people are going to take advantage of, or behave irresponsibly in, any situation. I think it’s the responsibility of the company to their other customers to control this behavior however they can. For example, if someone is talking on a cellphone in a theater (I can’t believe this happens, but it does), I think it’s the theater’s responsibility (not just their option, but their responsibility) to throw the offender out. Their responsibility is to the other people who have also paid for their seats (upwards of $110 on Broadway).

Price Wars by PC Makers

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:10:46 +0000

There are a bunch of news stories around this morning about Dell announcing “more aggressive pricing”. Analysts are writing about potential price wars.

Dell apparently also announced a planned improvement to its customer service and support, but either the analysts just didn’t believe it or they didn’t think it was important enough to write about. But I think a serious customer service war between Dell and anyone would be such a huge benefit to the PC users of the world.

NewsBreak and ListPro Get More Action

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 17:38:55 +0000

A great review of NewsBreak by Todd Ogasawara showed up on Microsoft’s website. Thanks very much, Todd, for cheering up a day that really needed it (though the weather’s beautiful) (though not as beautiful as it no doubt is in Hawaii).

ListPro got a bunch of sales from being featured on Bits du Jour, and one very nice comment about how well it runs on Kubuntu under wine. I’m fuzzy about what that is, but am very happy it works!

Many Nice Words about ListPro

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:44:02 +0000

Thanks, Andrew and Jeff for the very nice words about ListPro.

And thanks to Pocket Goddess and Clinton Fitch for the great reviews too!

To the people who commented and asked: Yes, we’d like to do a Mac version, but I’ll be honest here and say don’t hold your breath waiting for one. Each additional platform takes away from adding features. It’s a difficult trade-off.

Motorola Q Review

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:52:36 +0000

Don McDougall has a review of the new Motorola Q phone on the Mobility Site. The “Q” looks a bit like a Pocket PC but is actually a Windows Mobile-based Smartphone with a high-resolution screen. Thanks very much to Don for his kind words about our NewsBreak RSS reader.

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The More Things Change

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:10:19 +0000

Our second product, back in 1997, was called PhoneTone. It generated touchtone sounds on a Handheld PC, so people could hold up their handhelds to a phone, and have it dial the number. This was before everyone had a cellphone (though they did exist). The program was fairly popular, given that there weren’t all that many Handheld PCs in use at the time. I’m mentioning it today, not out of nostalgia, but because I just ran into information about how to do the same thing on an iPod.

9 Years

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:06:18 +0000

I should have some profound thoughts about lasting 9 years. But I don’t.

My less-than profound thoughts are:

9 years is a long time. It probably feels a lot longer to me than it would for many people (I keep hearing people say “time flies” but around me it never does), but it’s a long time in softwareland. Especially handheld software land. We’ve outlived a lot of companies - every time I go through old papers or business cards I’m amazed at the companies who have quietly disappeared, or dropped out of the PDA market.

Nice Stuff Today

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 13:58:43 +0000

We’re getting a lot of nice coverage today:

Quite a few sites covered our anniversary sale. Just look at this list of people we have to thank for helping spread the word of our celebration: Pocket PC Thoughts, Mobility Today, SmartPhone Thoughts, Clinton Fitch, Pocket PC Magazine, Aximsite, Daily Gadget, Boston Pocket PC, Pocket Goddess, GadgetMe, Mobile Gadget News, Pocket PC Louisville, The Gadgeteer, 4WinMobile, and Geek.com.

PocketNow did a comparison of the 3 top wallet programs, in which eWallet came out on top, and which also generated some nice discussion.

User Interface Thought

Wed, 31 May 2006 14:15:00 +0000

I was reading - OK skimming - a book about user interface design. Much of the theme was that too much UI mirrors the underlying design, rather than the users’ mental model. Which I completely agree with. But then the author (whose name I’ve already forgotten, along with the book title) at one point gave the example of that when you drag a file in Windows to somewhere on the same drive, the file is moved, but if you drag it to another drive, it’s copied.