eWallet Open Beta: The Results Are In!

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.

Statistics Here are a few statistics about the Open Beta:

     Number of People Who Viewed the Page: 4000      Number of People Who Downloaded the Beta: 1500      Number of People Who emailed Comments: 28

Although I don’t have much to compare it to, this struck me as a pretty good response! Particularly considering how short a time the beta ran. While we didn’t get many email comments, what we did get proved very useful. Those 28 emails alone were worth the effort of setting this up!

A few more interesting statistics for you number crunchers out there:

     Pocket PC Downloads: 912      Smartphone Downloads: 266      Palm OS Downloads: 172      Windows Only Downloads: 167

Duration What about the length? Well we knew from the start that this was going to be quick. In the future I’d like to run a longer open beta. One of the things we weighed was just how “beta” of a version we wanted to send out there. We’re sort of perfectionists over here and we hate to send out broken software. Still working on this one but I’m thinking at least three weeks next time. We’ll see!

Conclusions The conclusions I draw about the Open Beta in general is that I’m really glad we did it. Not sure that it would work for other developers but it certainly worked for us. My thanks to everyone who downloaded and especially to those that sent us comments!

Looking at the other numbers (the fact that Smartphone downloads well outnumbered Palm downloads for instance, when we have very strong sales for both platforms) leaves one wondering as well. Does it mean something? Is it a sign of use patterns? Or maybe Palm people are just less likely to try betas? Feel free to throw in your 2 cents! We’d be happy to hear it!

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Aximsite!

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

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!

And if you’re new to eWallet, it’s always been simple to use, but we’ve streamlined much of the program to make it easier than ever to use. Quick access to your primary wallet, easy synching, and a built-in step-by-step help guide called the eWallet Companion make this the best version of eWallet ever!

So try it out and send your comments to beta@iliumsoft.com to let us know what you think!

Get complete information - and downloads - here.

It's crazy....but it just might work!

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 as for this whole “open beta thing”, I’ll be sure to blog about it once eWallet is released so you can find out just how it went!

And the Winning Number Is....

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.

Thanks again to everyone who played and thanks to SolSie.com!