Fun with Passwords

Can you guess the 20 most common passwords?

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

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

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

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

We Changed Apple! New AppStore Rating System

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!

The New Rating System

When we woke up this morning we found that Apple had updated the application rating system in the iTunes AppStore. Turns out they’ve split out ratings for the current version of the application from the overall rating for the application over time.

Why This Rocks

This is great because users can now see what users are saying about THIS version, rather than getting hammered with outdated reviews that have no bearing on the currently released version. It also helps a developer recover from an unfortunate release that drew a lot of bad ratings (something we haven’t had to deal with yet thank goodness.)

Why This Is Still Broken

The bad news is that there are still some serious problems. First and foremost is the “Rate It If You Hate It” system Apple has implemented. I’m referring to the practice of encouraging users who are REMOVING an application to rate it with no reciprocal system of encouraging users who LIKE an app to rate it. This inspires bad reviews and forces the overall star rating down. This is an even bigger problem with the new system because newer versions will inevitably have lower overall ratings (even if they are better versions) because of this.

Second is the fact that the overall reviews are still the number one reviews a user sees - so a review that was posted the day the app was released might still end up as the first review a user sees, rather than something more recent. Users have to specifically choose to switch to the most recent reviews. Seems like this should be the other way around.

Keep Going Apple!

Either way, it is heartening to see that Apple is making efforts to improve their systems. How often have we seen retailers ignore the problems in their systems. I’ll give Apple 5 Stars for the effort! Unfortunately, my overall rating for the store remains a solid 3. Keep trying Apple! And thanks!

iPills is Out and Free!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final App Store Survey Results

What One Change You’d Like

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

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

Of the “other” replies, you asked for:

• All of the above!

• All of these, app store is almost unusable

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

• More serious apps like eWallet and less junk

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

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

• Less crap!

• Moderated reviews

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

• Dated reviews with version reviewed

• Sort by rating

• Rankings based on revenue

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

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

• Wish List capacity to store for later purchase

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

• Robust wish list (as at Amazon)

• More game options

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

• Demo capability

• The original ability to see all aps by post date

• Canadian redeem codes, for the love of Bob!

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

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

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

Once again, thanks to everyone for participating!

Still More App Store Survey Results

Results #3: Everything Else

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

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

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

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

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

and that same number will still installed:

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

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

Marching right along with a new contest winner

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….

The lucky winner for February is: Doug Winenger, for commenting on How Do You Use the iTunes App Store. Congrats Doug! 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.

And to everybody else: if you haven’t read some of our recent posts, scroll on down the page, take a look, and let us know what you think. Be sure to keep the comments coming - the next winner could be you!