Helftone Blog

Apple has completely lost the goodwill of Mac developers. The one and only reason the ones that haven't gone bankrupt are still staying is because they have no other choice due to platform lock-in. Every single conversation that I've had with indies recently have gone along the same lines: Apple is killing the indie scene.

I wrote about the MAS exodus [1] more than a year ago and people were skeptical back then. Think again - here's a list of great apps [3] that are only available outside the MAS. Those are not just small time hobbyist apps - those are professional tools.

Pieter (founder of Bohemian, company behind Sketch) listed many problems with the MAS at a recent conference [5]. Wil Shipley (well-known within the community) has also written about it [6].

And now you have another flagship OS X app ditching the MAS due to the multitude problems it creates. The message is loud and clear - if you're a real software business, not a hobbyist at home, don't waste your time with the MAS - it simply does not allow you to run your busienss properly.

When the companies building the flagship apps for the platform publicly state they cannot do business due to the restrictions of the Mac App Store and then abandon the dysfunctional virtual marketplace, then you know Apple have pushed them beyond the edge. No company would just decide to leave the MAS unless the situation is hurting them significantly and holding them back. And unfortunately, there are almost no words to describe…

Stuff like this helps. I have looked at this for my lists app (http://itunes.com/apps/fastlists - mostly for checklists and repeated use lists rather than todo lists) and may look again but there are still scenarios where you have to do one of the following:

1) throw user data away.

2) ask the user a question about how to resolve the conflict

3) save both copies and leave the user to figure out which one they actually want.

As a developer I'm not yet comfortable with any of these approaches for casual user scenarios although option 2 or 3 is probably right in many more serious/professional set ups. I've gone with email as my transfer mechanism which also allows sending to other users and to be used as a backup although I do keep looking at sync systems and solutions.

I found this a good write up of the potential complications even for a simple list app like mine.

http://blog.helftone.com/clear-in-the-icloud/

Funny. The front page (still) states:

"We're a small studio that loves to make delightful apps. We just launched Monodraw."

The blog says:

Maintenance Mode With immediate effect, Monodraw is entering maintenance mode. This means that there will be no more updates in the future. While I'll be aiming to provide OS compatibility updates, if required, those are not guaranteed. Accordingly, the price has been reduced from $19.99 to $9.99.

Why?

Monodraw was released in May 2015, about three and a half years ago. Unfortunately, it did not achieve commercial success and it meant I had to get a job. In the years that followed, I could only work on Monodraw in my spare time. Due to recent changes in my life, I can no longer devote any meaningful time to the app. ""

https://blog.helftone.com/monodraw-maintenance-mode/

Your point makes more sense for the iOS App Store, but this was desktop software and the Mac App Store is a different animal. It's nowhere near as successful, even "top" apps are't selling many copies. The sandboxing also means your apps can do less than apps that aren't in the store. You also can't do demos or paid upgrades. Same 30% tax though.

There have been many similar rants:

http://www.panic.com/blog/coda-2-5-and-the-mac-app-store/

http://sixcolors.com/post/2014/10/bbedit-at-max-q/

http://blog.helftone.com/mac-app-store-the-subtle-exodus/

http://www.macstories.net/news/textexpander-4-first-casualty-of-mac-app-store-sandboxing/

https://www.omnigroup.com/blog/update-no-upgrade-pricing-for-mac-app-store-purchases

Etc

I stumbled on this, very likely here on Hackernews, long back. Back then, I loved the App Icon, and then the interface, and even used it few times. I bought it and kept it, hoping to use it but my needs never needed to do this on a regular basis.

This is a tool that outputs plain text that can be opened by any other tool. Definitely not a painkiller but a good to have vitamin by your side.

I believe the team is a tiny two-member team, and they are NOT yet subscribed to the dark side. Reading on their blog, here is there first post when they released it https://blog.helftone.com/monodraw-reveal/

Update: Looked up my purchase history. Bought it for $19.99 on Apr 6, 2017.

What makes you think it's abandoned? The author is active on Twitter, the last update for dark mode was in May 2019 and I don't see any show stopper bugs or crashes on Catalina. Small utilities like this don't need an update every month. I bought it a while ago because

1) It's very cheap and a great show case for a small niche Mac app that's both beautiful and works well

2) The two times per year I use it, it's already worth it and fun to play around with.

https://blog.helftone.com