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- Logos Software Takes a Leap of Faith to the Mac
Logos Bible Software shipped the first version of its Bible study software 18 years ago in December 1991 for the, at that time, brand new Windows operating system. Last year, Logos finally released version 1.0 of its software for the Mac and its story provides a great example of the growth of the Mac market and the strength of the platform.
Just recently, Logos introduced an alpha release of version 4 which introduces feature parity with all 100+ new features in the Windows version. Along with a new iPhone app, Logos is making a big commitment to the Mac platform and it appears to be paying off.
The exciting bit here is not so much another software release on the Mac, but the story of how one company made the move from Windows only to embrace the Mac and the iPhone.
A Massive Digital Library, on your PC, on your Mac, on your iPhone
Logos started out as a very simple piece of software meant to quickly search the text of the Bible. It has evolved into a complete digital library solution for studying everything from the Bible itself in the original languages and in numerous translations to commentaries, exegetical analysis, family trees of people in the Bible, maps and pictures of locations in the Bible and more. The library of books that are available to study and read in the Logos system is massive — over 10,000 titles. There are several different packages to choose from that include various collections of titles at different price points.
The Logos 4 software runs on your Windows PC, on your Mac, and there is a companion iPhone app available as well. All of these versions will stay in sync with each other so you can pull up the titles you have purchased and see your favorites and personal notes wherever you happen to be studying. You can get a great overview of version 4 and how it works in a video introduction produced by Logos.
The Journey to the Mac
The effort to bring Logos to the Mac goes back several years, but the first abortive attempt was never finished. A renewed push came about four years ago. Dan Pritchett tells us that Logos approached the project with some trepidation about how Mac customers would receive a product from the Windows world.
We decided that we wanted to put out the best Mac product that we could. The Mac market is sophisticated and sharp and very particular about their software. We couldn’t disappoint.
Logos chose to build the application for the Mac from the ground up and make it a great native experience rather than do a simple port of the Windows app. In order to find the expertise to build great Macintosh software, Logos went straight to the source — Cupertino. Apple worked with Logos to help it find a partner with the right experience and the Logos for Mac project was launched.
Was Moving to the Mac the Right Choice?
It was challenging to work with an outside group on the Mac version while development on the Windows version continued internally. The end result was not too shabby, even if it did not have all of the extensive features of the Windows version.
We’re ecstatic with the way the market has responded. The Mac world is hard to please. We were preparing for the worst: “You don’t get us, don’t understand us.” But the response has been really positive. The time we put into doing it right was well worth building it from the ground up. Our sales for the first quarter after the initial release were 122% above plan.
That early success was enough to convince Logos to make a stronger commitment to the Mac. Since that first release, a Mac development team has been created in house and one of the Mac-enthusiasts on the Windows team has even switched over. One other benefit of the Mac?
Our software worked way faster on the Mac. It not only works great, but it’s faster.
What Does the Future Hold?
The latest version, Logos 4, is being released quickly behind the Windows version with a goal of complete feature parity. The commitment to dual-platform releases means that installers for both Windows and Mac ship on the same CD. But the importance of the Mac does not stop at being included in the box. Dan told me that some of the design ideas from the Mac version were influencing the Windows version. Logos felt like they learned a lot about designing good software from the Mac effort, something that should come as no surprise to those of us that are used to excellent UI design on the Mac.
One of the cool new features in Logos 4 is that the app will update in the background and pull in new features that are planned to be released over the next several months. While the Mac version is lagging behind Windows development, the gap is closing and this auto-updating feature will mean that Mac users will catch up.
What Does this Mean for the Mac Market?
I think there are two big lessons to be gleaned from Logos’ experience with the Mac. The first is that the Mac market is big enough to support even niche players that cater to a very particular group of customers. Logos took its Bible study software and made it work beautifully on the Mac by partnering with Apple directly and finding a partner that could help them make great Mac software. Once the concept was proven and the market response was measured, Logos quickly moved to bring Mac development in house and increased its commitment to the platform.
The second important lesson here is that the cloud is having a profound influence on software development across platforms. The fancy syncing features of Logos 4 and the iPhone app that lets you access your entire catalog on the go are only possible with the advance of cloud computing, broadband, and mobile Internet. It is now possible to use the cloud as an easy way to move user data from an application on Windows to another application on the Mac that can share information. Switching platforms is facilitated by the cloud which makes it even easier for people to join the Mac crowd.
Both of these trends bode well for the future of the Mac. We have a large sustainable market for software that can entice even niche players and new cloud computing technologies are helping reduce the dependence on proprietary Windows software.
Other Logos Resources
- Logos iPhone app
- Logos is on Twitter
- Details on Logos 4
- Free Logos Bible Widget for Mac
- 12 Training Videos for Logos 1.2 for Mac
Переслать - Magic Sales for a Not-So-Magic Mouse
Holiday spending has seen sales of Apple’s Magic Mouse soar. According to a report by NPD and covered today by AppleInsider, last month saw a twofold increase in Apple’s share of domestic mice sales. By the end of November, Apple had captured 10 percent of the market.
NPD analyst Stephen Baker told AppleInsider:
Sales in November were through the roof. The Magic Mouse had the best month for a mouse product from Apple that we’ve ever seen.
It’s the first time Apple’s share of the domestic mouse market has ever reached double digits, and even more impressive considering the data was compiled from standalone sales. Units sold with new iMacs were not counted.
While that’s fantastic news for Apple, I find myself wondering whether those new Magic Mouse owners aren’t going to be feeling somewhat disappointed because, despite its name, the Magic Mouse is anything but magical. For a company that gets so much of its user experience spot-on, it does keep missing the target with its pointing devices.
Andy Ihnatko said it best:
I can't think of a single good Apple mouse released this millennium. Ideologically, they've all been covered with spray-glitter and rainbow stickers.
When I got my Magic Mouse I admired its diminutive form factor and minimalist lines but it was clearly not an ergonomic design. That super slimline, ground-hugging shape took some getting used to. But aesthetic and ergonomic matters aside, I think the thorniest issue isn’t with the hardware at all. The problem, as I see it, is one of user perception.
You see, users accustomed to the touchy-goodness of an iPhone or MacBook trackpad lament the lack of similar functionality in their supposedly ‘magic’ mouse. The major criticism is usually expressed in the form of common questions, like, Why is there no pinch to zoom functionality? Why do we have to click, when we could tap? Why aren’t more swipe-gestures supported?
“It’s just a software fix,” reviewers on popular Apple tech sites have concluded, “Apple will likely add that functionality later in a software update.”
Well, I don’t think so. In fact, I think Apple will intentionally avoid adding further touch functionality to this mouse, and I think I know why.
Be Careful What You Wish For
In the relatively short time since the Magic Mouse was released in late October, several third-party applications have appeared, both free and paid, that (ahem) ‘tap’ into the Magic Mouse software and foist upon the device all that pinching, swiping, multi-touch functionality people think they want. Well, I also thought I wanted those things…until I got them.
Remember how, with the Mighty Mouse, you had to handle it with care because those side-buttons could be way too sensitive? They were so sensitive, in fact, many people disabled those buttons entirely because they proved such a nuisance. Turns out, having multifunctional touch-sensitive controls all across the surface of the Magic Mouse turns the thing into a far greater nuisance than its “mighty” predecessor ever was.
I swiftly discovered that controls I wanted to trigger (say, a three-finger-tap) often wouldn’t register. I’d spend an inordinate amount of time obsessive-compulsively tapping the mouse with minimal success. Pinching and zooming was literally painful, transforming my hand into a deformed claw of knotted knuckles and cramp. Yet, for all my efforts, it still never zoomed in a controlled, predictable manner.
Worse still, functions I didn’t intentionally invoke would trigger while I was doing something else entirely. It got to the point where simply moving the pointer across the screen — an action so natural and normal I normally give it no conscious thought — was now an event demanding deliberate care and attention. I tried two of the most popular apps and got the same results each time.
In short , it’s not a software problem, but rather, a limitation imposed by the very form factor of the mouse. As long as Apple wants its flagship pointing device to be small, svelte and sexy, it’s just not going to be the right shape and size for full-fledged multi-touch controls.
Software like MagicPrefs introduces hugely varied additional functionality
Apple, I’m sure, did a lot of R&D to determine what were the most appropriate default touch controls for the Magic Mouse. Therefore, a feature’s absence is a deliberate choice. It makes perfect sense. One of the most celebrated aspects of Apple’s user-experience is its consistency; across all Macs the user experience is predictable and dependable. There are rarely unexpected (or unwelcome) surprises. Much of the time, that’s made possible by Apple’s minimalist, ‘less-is-more’ approach to interface design.
That is why so many people disliked the Mighty Mouse. In trying to do so much it was just too unpredictable and ruined the user experience. And that is why the Magic Mouse is so limited. It’s better this way.
I just wonder if all those new Magic Mouse owners will agree?
Переслать - 6 Tips for Getting to Desktop Zero
Many readers are likely familiar with the Getting Things Done craze of the past few years. This task oriented methodology has spawned a system for managing the chore that is email, with battle-cries of “Inbox Zero!” resounding around the Internet.
While I’m not exactly an “inbox zero” kind of guy (close enough I suppose), I have found that the concept of “desktop zero” rings quite true with me. If you’ve ever seen a computer desktop covered in icons, we’re talking about the antithesis here. Read on to find out some compelling reasons to strive for desktop zero, and some tool tips on how you can easily achieve desktop zen.
When I was young I bought a coin dish from a garage sale that read, “A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.” (I added it to my already over-cluttered desktop in my room.) While I still find humor in that memory, the computer nerd in me is pretty particular about my digital workspace being neat and tidy. Just as inbox zero brings clarity, closure, and a sense of accomplishment to each day, so can keeping your computer’s desktop free of clutter and unnecessary files or folders.
A Clean Starting Place
I find it quite satisfying to boot up my machine, and have nothing but a hard drive “cluttering” my desktop. It feels like turning to a clean page in a Moleskin, or using a full-screen text application — there are just no (or very few) distractions to getting started with your work. Not to mention that if you need to drop a file there temporarily for quick use before deleting, it will be easy to find when not amongst dozens of other items.
A Sense of Organization
I’m quite particular about a sound data hierarchy to file things under, yet another place where my physical and digital lives are at odds with one another. If my desktop is littered with random files (email attachments, web downloads, the latest file lazily saved to the desktop to file later) and folders, it just means they aren’t in the place that I should be looking for them in the long term. Though on occasion I’ll relent and (temporarily) drop an alias (’shortcut’ for those of you new to Mac) of a folder on the desktop if it’s for a project I’m working in the majority of the time. At least that way, stuff it still in its proper place when I’m through.
Revel in Your Wallpaper
Here, we move from the arguably practical reasons to the more fun, and subjective. I love a great wallpaper image on my desktop. Sometimes it’s a great repeating vintage wallpaper pattern, or a too-cute-for-words picture of my kids, or a photo that I took and really liked. Every now and then it’ll do wonders to just zone out for a few while looking at a great image on a clean desktop.
HUD Style Interfaces via Geektool
If you’ve tooled around Flickr (with Mac on your mind) or followed the Featured Desktops on Lifehacker, you’ve seen them. A killer mash-up of geek chic, stunning design, and useful information result in some of the coolest desktop Head’s Up Displays you’ve seen. Some are as simple as using Geektool to push logs to the desktop, while others style the fonts, work along with the wallpaper, and sometimes even a custom theme to all of OS X. The results are generally nothing short of spectacular — and you’re not going to get there with a multitude of files strewn about.
Sound interesting? Well it’s not hard to do. More than anything it’s a mindset. But having a process — and better yet, good tools — will help you clear that desktop in no time at all. Luckily there are many utilities and applications available to drill directly down to just what you want, wherever it may reside on your hard drive. But we’ll start simply first.
A Temp Folder
The things that tend to trip me up most, are those temporary files that I need for a short period of time and then forget about. If I’m just emailing a file or printing something, I drop it on my desktop, perform whatever action I need, and then usually delete it. However, sometimes it’s a bit of information that you may need for more than just a few days. At this point I’ll drop it into a folder named ‘tmp’ which resides in the root of my Home Folder. (example: ~/Nick/tmp) It’s as easy as that. Oh, and as an extra tip, add that tmp folder to your Dock as a Stack view for quick access!
Fresh and Hazel
If you don’t mind spending a few dollars, there are a couple of applications/utilities that I swear by for this kind of organization. (It’s worth mentioning that there are many applications that can fulfill these actions, but these are ones that have proven themselves to me.) Fresh ($9) hangs just off-screen as a transparent tab, where it gives quick access to recent files, as well as a ‘Cooler’, which functions very similar to my tmp folder idea above. Hazel ($21.95) can monitor files and folders and perform actions on them based on user defined rules. So perhaps you’ve got a temporary file on your desktop for 3 days, Hazel will see it’s been 3 days (based on a rule) and move it to your tmp folder where you can access it later on. Hazel’s terrifically powerful, and we’ve written about it before if you want to learn more.
We all approach our workspaces differently, and get different uses out of different methodologies. It’s entirely possible that Desktop Zero is not for everyone. For me, it was an easy and rewarding change to make, but as with all things, your mileage may vary. If you’ve got an alternative method for keeping your desktop (or any portion of your computer) clean and tidy, we’d love to hear your secrets too.
Переслать - Apple DIY Projects for the New Year
One of my new year’s resolutions is to pursue more DIY projects. This includes things like putting Jolicloud on my Hackintosh netbook, swapping out the hard drive on my iMac, and, most importantly, doing something with my old Apple hardware.
I currently own a Powerbook G4 and a Blue and White G3 Tower. They are sitting in a closet collecting dust. I would love to find something truly unique to do with the computers. The easiest answer is “turn them into servers.” In fact, we published an article a few years ago with similar suggestions — music servers, file servers, etc. My goal is to do something creative with the hardware and put them on display. Leaving them in the closet is boring.
Here’s my favorite project for the Powerbook: the WallMac. Basically, I would reverse the Powerbook’s monitor and then put the laptop inside a thick frame. A wireless keyboard and mouse would control everything.
As for the Blue and White Tower, my favorite DIY project idea is the BlueIce. The case was converted to become transparent, and some neon cold-cathode light tubes and LEDs were inserted into the case.
What do you think? Are there any other projects I should know about? What do you do with your old Apple products?
Переслать - Packaging Mixup Hints 8GB iPhone 3GS on the Way
The iPhone 3GS has never been available in anything other than 16GB and 32GB capacity models, leaving the 8GB shoes to be filled with its older brother, the iPhone 3G.
And that was just fine for a while. The problem now is that we’re just months away from a new iPhone, and then what will we have? Three models of iPhone on the market? Each with slightly different capabilities? Catering to slightly different capacities? That’s just not the Apple way.
If this terrifying prospect was keeping you up at night, rest easy, because news from Europe of an innocuous packaging mixup hints at the upcoming availability of an 8GB iPhone 3GS. An eagle-eyed customer in Germany posted on the apfeltalk.de discussion board that his refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G arrived sporting a SKU packaging label describing something the same, only different — an 8GB iPhone 3GS.
Image by .david at apfeltalk.de
The customer, known as .david on the Apfeltalk.de message board, had this to say (translation by Google via Gizmodo):
Seems to be an iPhone 3G (back and no compass, FW) 3.0.1 on it. However, the packaging is clearly designed for an iPhone 3G [S] 8GB. Ordered was a refurbished 3G iPhone 8GB.
Vote: who have a refurbished iPhone 3G in a new packaging of the packaged iPhone 3G [S] 8GB, because the enhancement is clearly new. Which clearly indicates that the sale of the iPhone 3G [S] 8GB immediately imminent.
.david’s mind is made up; he’s certain this means an 8GB iPhone 3GS is on the way. Another possibility, of course, is that this is a typo. But I tend to agree with my Teutonic neighbor. Apple’s next revision to the iPhone is not too far away, and it makes sense to establish the 3GS feature-set as the de-facto for all iPhones moving forward. Because, y’know, that magnetometer makes a difference!
What’s your take on this? Obvious indicator of things to come, or some dispatch technician’s unfortunate mis-type?
Переслать
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