A quick bug update to Wonder Warp’s addicting freeware game Otis is out.
It fixes an obscure scoring bug, slightly cleans up the graphics, and adds an oft-requested “Fast New Game” feature to quickly start a game with the same settings as the last.
You can download the update through Otis’s auto-update feature, or right here.
The fine gents at Macgasm have interviewed me in their latest podcast about ShoveBox, SimpleChord, and being a Mac developer in Boston.
We’re giving away two copies of ShoveBox to the people with the messiest desktops. Just submit your entry to their flickr pool. The deadline is March 11, 2008. Check out the details here.
The Macgasm blog has posted a glowing and hilarious review of ShoveBox. Reviewer Joshua Schnell’s desktop was “fuller than a frat boy after homecoming” until he tried it out.
ShoveBox, he writes, is like “a clipboard on crack” — not steroids — crack.
Naturally, some have compared Otis to cocaine, but this is unexpected.
I’m not sure which part I like more, that, or the fact that the blog is actually named “macgasm.” Thanks for the kind words!
She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie…ShoveBox.
ShoveBox is the featured promotion on MUPromo.com today. You can buy your copy for half-off: just $12.95 USD.
ShoveBox v1.1 has been released. It’s a free upgrade for existing users.
You can download it here or through the automatic update feature.
Release Notes:
Fellow Boston-based developer Daniel Jalkut has just won a Macworld Eddie Award for MarsEdit.
Since I met him at CocoaHeads Boston, he’s been a major inspiration to me.
Congratulations on a fantastic achievement!
ShoveBox 1.0.4 is a quick fix to an interface glitch that occurred when resizing a PDF window. You can download here or use the auto-update feature.
Productivity guru Merlin Mann has an insightful rant titled It’s Just A Cup, where he explains what he terms the fractal productivity spiral:
“People complain that they find themselves spending huge amounts of time just dicking around: making labels for folders, putting things in files, buying pens, writing things on dry erase boards. All the sort of things that are indicative of a fractal productivity spiral — this is the point at which you stop paying attention to any of the actual work you have to do and you spend all your time trying to refine your perfect system.”
The tools you use to keep track of your work, he goes on to elaborate, ought to be like a coffee cup — you depend on it every day, but don’t have to think about it in great detail when using it.
This sort of discussion about processes and productivity has become prevalent online due to no small contribution of Merlin Mann himself. As such, there has been a plethora of productivity programs produced in recent years.
I’d tried many of these apps, but there were so many times when I found myself writing things on scrap paper (or my hands) instead of using the fancy shiny Mac app I’d bought and configured for every conceivable thing I’d want to store.
I wrote ShoveBox to avoid the fractal productivity spiral. I wanted it to be only slightly more complex than the old Scrapbook desk accessory and I didn’t want to even think about starting it up each time I needed it.
As I finished up development, I worried about people thinking of ShoveBox as a crummy clone of existing apps, but to my surprise, not many people have. In fact, quite a few users have told me how refreshing and unique they find its approach to be.
Mac360 totally gets it. From their recent review:
“As of 2007 the Mac has about twenty eleven personal information managers. Some have every bell and whistle and require hours to learn and cost more than a few bucks. Others, like ShoveBox, take a different approach which borders on elegant.”
Instead of conforming to a set of rules to organize what you want to keep track of, ShoveBox lets you do it with a simple set of folders, labels, and flags. Instead of learning about a complex system, you actually get one that’s ready to use from the first click.
They also ponder the eternal question:
“Do bald women use Macs? And why do they paint their heads?”
I ask myself this every day.
MacApper heaps on some more love in another recent review:
“As a blogger and podcaster, I need to record information as it happens, and ShoveBox has saved more time and information than it would take to find that important file in my big junk folder”
There you have it. There are plenty of productivity apps with item-tagging, message-flagging, file-dragging, auto-nagging, and grocery-bagging. But every day, more Mac users are finding that the best kind of tool, like a coffee cup, is the kind you don’t have to think about using.
ShoveBox 1.0.3 (build 107) has been released. This is a free upgrade for all users with some bug fixes and minor enhancements. Here’s what’s new:
- Fixed bug that could truncate the titles of data imported via bookmarklet
- Fixed bug where the specific face of the selected default font was not stored
- Fixed interface glitch that could occur while entering hotkeys
- New black and white menubar icon
- Works better with Spaces on Mac OS X 10.5
- Increased trial limit to 75 shoves.
- Interface refinements
You can download it here or just use the automatic update feature.
Wonder Warp is participating in MacSanta, a holiday promotion where several hundred Mac developers offer big discounts on their products.
Any day this month, you can use the code MACSANTA07TEN on Wonder Warp’s (or any other participating developer’s) products for a 10% discount.
But if you check the MacSantaDeals.com homepage every day, you can find out which developers are offering 20% discounts. Wonder Warp’s day will be Saturday, December 8th.
