First off, I should say, I have worked with David Ashman in the past (Developer of Weathericon, Lockscreen Info, and other nice tools for the iPhone/iPod Touch). He is a well respected iPhone Dev. in my book.
For the last few months, I have been BETA testing lockscreen info by David. I played with creating plugins, theming etc. Until recently Lockscreen Info has been in Public Beta, some people feel public Beta is freeware (Free Software to use forever) it's not. You should expect after public beta, there may be a charge for the software you have grown to love and you now have a decision to make.
1. Keep running the last version of the beta (As long as it doesn't expire).
2. Pay and get all the goodies/updates that come with supporting a developer.
3. Ditch it, you never liked it much anyway ;)
As a developer myself, I would certainly hope my loyal beta testers would upgrade to the final release and pay for it. I always give "good" beta testers (The ones that provide a lot of good de-bugging information and details to support issues they are seeing) a FREE copy of the software.
Back to Lockscreen Info... It has been updated many times in the last few weeks - most bug fixes, some noted in the "Changes", others not. Until recently! The last update was posted, I check the "Changes", nothing noted, so i expect it's some minor bug fix.
The last update added not only an expiration date, but its no longer in beta. Lockscreen Info is now commercial software. GREAT TO HEAR, right... I guess what im trying to say is... wouldn't it have been nice to offer this IMPORTANT information in your "Changes" (Change Log)? To me, it felt like "Bait-and-switch". If David would have simply noted these changes in the description and change-log, No problem, I would have purchased right away. Since he decided to omit this drastic change, I felt rather misinformed when I got the popup telling me Lockscreen Info would expire in less then a month and I could pay using two methods (Use Paypal, and you get a convenience Tax, yeah it's more if you use paypal).
OK, enough said... Im back to Intelliscreen and tweaked my Intelliscreen "Skins". FYI, Intelliscreen 3.0 will be released VERY soon and Im sure you all are going to love it even more!
4 comments:
I do appreciate your candor and honesty, and I will admit that LockInfo's push to production as a commercial application didn't go as smoothly as intended. I carried on a lengthy dialog with the beta testers on the forum that I ran the beta test through, and when I pushed a version of the beta that included the licensing code for testing, people got a little bent out of shape.
Do I regret the push to a commercial product? No. Could I have done it smoother? Yes, but there's no way to turn back the clock.
I do think it's a bit harsh to call it a "bait and switch", though. It was a public beta as you mentioned.
David Ashman (Stimpy5050)
David, I appreciate your comment(s). You're right, "Bait-and-switch" may in fact be a bit harsh for what seems to be a simple miscalculation on your part. At the same time you should understand there are many people utilizing LockInfo, designing lockscreen themes, which is the main reason why LockInfo is popular.
LockInfo is a great "backend" to front-end design and many of us felt slighted by the process.
I respect your decision as a Developer, and it does seem it was NOT intentional.
As always I continue to watch the progress and will purchase even if it doesn't reside on my lockscreen.
Something I posted on "Everythingicafe"
I wanted to say something on Dave's behalf because there was so much anger it seemed toward this becoming a charge app...
I know a lot of ppl are irked over the charging of Lockinfo and I was too at first, i'm not in the best of financial positions at the moment. But, I would say compared to Intelliscreen, this is a superior product and cheaper.
Some ppl have quoted the "hackthatphone" site and it is great. I went through those 3 pages the first week i got my iphone and lockinfo. I couldn't stand how the lockscreen from apple told you NOTHING. It was very easy to program the gruppled theme and I still use that with lockinfo as the base.
I tried the lockinfo background too but I found the fonts too big and I needed to see a full monthly calendar. Anyways, I went back to gruppled and it works fine and is fast. David Ashman was nice enough to email me programs I could try that would add onto his lockinfo screen and give me the monthly calendar but I figured since I programmed this the way I wanted, I would keep using that. But that was nice of the guy.
Anyways, I just wanted to post something in David's favor because I believe that this is a superior product and 4.99 isn't too much even though it was a surprise. After 4 days of mulling it over and trying to find a free replacement or something better, I realized it was the best and easiest to manipulate. In the end, I think what he did surprised us but is very fair. We love free stuff but it is a great piece of intellectual property that he developed.
That's all i wanted to say whether you agree or disagree.
Ken... I agree with you Lockscreen info is a great product. And the price is very reasonable, even cheap! My objection was never price at all. It was simply the process at which this software went from Beta to Commercial without warning.
It's not a big deal, and Im over it as well. David is a great developer and I fully support him.
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