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A look at our 2010 product release timeline

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Many users have been asking me about our plans for products we haven’t yet updated, namely Witch, yFlicks, and Butler. In response, I offer this generic timeline of our plans for the rest of 2010:

Please note that this is a rough timeline, and subject to change based on our workload, customer demand, the phase of the moon, and the price of soybean futures on the daily spot market. However, it should provide a bit more detail on what our priorities are, and the approximate timeframe in which we hope to ship each of our apps. (It doesn’t show minor releases, which may include bug fixes and/or new features; those will be ongoing for each product.)

Read on for a bit more detail on each of the products in the timeline.
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Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Paddock, Products, Witch, yFlicks | 19 Comments »

The terms of the Many Tricks software license

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

I’ve had a few questions on how Many Tricks’ programs are licensed: is it per computer, per user, per user per computer, or something else? Given the confusion, I thought I’d explain here so it’s (hopefully) clear. I’ve posted this same information to our FAQ pages. And yes, we do have a full, legalese-filled software license, which covers what’s below and adds some required legal terminology.

The objective in our licensing is to keep things simple and fair. To that end, all of our products fall under one general usage license. Here’s how the licensing works: It’s basically a “buy only one” license model, except in the case of possible simultaneous usage. These situations should help clarify that basic rule:

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Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch, yFlicks | Comments Off on The terms of the Many Tricks software license

Name Mangler 2.1.1 released

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Please check for updates in Name Mangler (in Prefs > Updates), as we just released version 2.1.1 with one new feature and one important bug fix:

  • New ‘shuffle’ mode (Command-S in Sort pop-up) to sequentially but randomly modify filenames; useful for images for a picture frame, for instance.
  • Fixed permissions issues for users running on non-admin accounts. Thanks to Fr. Augustine Hoa Tran and Neil Massello for reporting this problem.

Thanks to Sparkle, you should be able to update quickly and easily from within the app. If this doesn’t work, please let me know. Alternatively, you can still use the download link on the Name Mangler product page, of course!

Posted in Name Mangler | 5 Comments »

The future looks all Sparkle-y

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

As I noted in the Name Mangler 2.1 announcement, all future Many Tricks products will include support for in-app updates via Sparkle.

If you’re not aware of Sparkle, the reality is you’re probably aware of Sparkle. If you’ve ever run an app that let you download and install an update directly within the app, chances are good it’s using Sparkle to do that behind-the-scenes magic.

This amazing tool is open source, and supported by donations—and we’ll be doing some stuff in the future to support the project, as we think it’s a great addition to our code base.

Because you do lose some control over your machine in Sparkle-enabled apps (when they automatically download an update you didn’t ask for), all of our apps will include a simple on/off toggle for automatic update checking. If you’d rather check manually, just turn off the automatic updates. Personally, though, I leave Sparkle enabled in all the apps I use that include it; it makes product updates incredibly simple.

I’m thrilled we’re taking this step, as it simplifies what was a too-complex task for our programs—clicking a couple of buttons beats going to your browser, downloading and expanding an archive, quitting the original program, finding the original and new versions on your disk, and replacing old with new. Instead, Sparkle does all the heavy lifting ; you just click a couple of buttons and your app is up to date.

So thanks, Sparkle, for making our users’ lives simpler!

Posted in Butler, Company News, Developer, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch, yFlicks | 12 Comments »

Many Tricks’ Welcome Back sale event

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

I made brief mention in my new site launch tweet that we’d be having a “launch day promo.” And so, here it is. True, it’s no longer launch day, but we’re still in a festive mood here, so what the heck…

Starting right now—but ending on Thursday (March 25th) at 10:00pm Pacific time—you can get 25% off your total order when you buy any two or more Many Tricks products at the same time. (You can do this easily by clicking the Continue Shopping button after adding the first product to your cart.) The eligible products are Butler, Leech, Name Mangler, and Witch.

After adding at least two products to your cart, enter the super-secret discount code welcomeback in the (wait for it) Discount Code box, then click Update Cart. You’ll see the 25% discount reflected immediately.

Even better, if you buy Leech and/or Witch, you’ll get the current version of each product as well as the soon-to-be-released next versions. (Name Mangler was just updated, and a Butler update is quite a ways out, so this bundled upgrade feature doesn’t apply to those two products.) Once new versions of each app come out, we’ll post instructions on how to get your free upgrade.

“But wait, I just bought a product from you, after the site came back to life! So I miss out!?” No, actually you don’t. We’ll be sending you ‘early adopters’ a personal discount code that you can use for 25% off your your next purchase on any Many Tricks product. This is our way of saying “thank you” for purchasing so quickly after our site came back to life.

Once again, this sale ends for everyone at 10:00pm Pacific time on Thursday March 25th, so act quickly to save some yourself some cash.

Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Products, Witch | 1 Comment »

We now support Google Checkout

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

In addition to PayPal, you can now purchase Many Tricks’ products via Google Checkout. On each product’s cart screen, you’ll see both PayPal and Google Checkout logos—just click the logo of your choice to use that method of payment.

Please let me know if you have any problems with the new service—we’ve already received one order via Google Checkout, though, so I’m confident it’s working fine.

Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Witch | Comments Off on We now support Google Checkout

Free Name Mangler upgrades for past donors

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

As a follow-up to the last post, if you’ve donated for Name Mangler in the past, just drop us an email and we’ll send you a free license for Name Mangler 2.1.

Posted in Name Mangler | Comments Off on Free Name Mangler upgrades for past donors

Name Mangler 2.1 released

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

The first product to be updated on our new site is a personal favorite of mine, Name Mangler. Now at version 2.1, there are only three substantive changes in this version—one bug fix, one most-welcomed new feature, and one change in status.

First, the boring bug fix: Name Mangler no longer chokes on colons or slashes in pre-existing file names. But as Peter points out in the release notes, “you still shouldn’t use those.”

Much more interesting to me, and hopefully to all of you, is that Name Mangler is the first Many Tricks product to support automatic updates via Sparkle. No more multi-step upgrade process, just a smooth, slick in-app upgrade, all thanks to Sparkle. We’ll be doing this with all of our apps as we release new versions, but Name Mangler is first out of the gate.

Finally, as noted by its prominent position on our main page, Name Mangler is now an official Many Tricks product, selling for $10. In the past, Name Mangler was a piece of donationware. In the evolution of Many Tricks, we’ve decided that such terms are harmful to both consumers and developers, so we now have only two types of programs: regular and free.

Our regular programs, now including Name Mangler, all give you liberal free trial policies, followed by reduced functionality and/or nagging after the trial limits have been reached. As much as we’d like to build a business around optional donations, donation rates that run under .5% of those who download really aren’t sustainable.

Our free programs—which we’re calling Baubleries—are just that, free. No nags, no reminders, no limits, no request for donations.

It is our intent to continue developing both regular and free programs in the future. As always, our objective will be to deliver a best-in-class experience, regardless of whether you’re using a free or paid-for Many Tricks application.

Posted in Company News, Name Mangler | Comments Off on Name Mangler 2.1 released

Rob Griffiths to join Many Tricks

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Portland, Oregon (February 22, 2010) — Many Tricks, a long-time creator of numerous essential Mac utilities, is pleased to announce that Rob Griffiths, founder of macosxhints.com and previously a Senior Editor at Macworld, will be joining Many Tricks as a partner, beginning March 1st. Rob Griffiths will handle all aspects of the business side of the company, including marketing, accounting, web systems, sales, and support, while Peter will focus on writing code for Many Tricks’ products. Both partners will work together on improving existing programs and on new ideas.

Peter Maurer, founder of Many Tricks, said, “I’m thrilled to have Rob on board to help run the company. For many years, I’ve wanted to do more with my applications, but I’ve had no interest in the “business” side of the software industry. Rob’s strong background in business, along with his experience in the Mac software world, will help take Many Tricks to the next level.”

“I’m incredibly excited by the opportunity to join Peter Maurer at Many Tricks,” said Griffiths. “Many Tricks’ utilities, especially Butler and Witch, have been essential tools on my Macs for many years. I’m really looking forward to working with Peter to help grow the business.”

Many Tricks will be updating its existing lineup of Mac utilities throughout 2010, and launching some entirely new programs. “We’ve got some good stuff in the pipeline, especially for the upcoming iPad,” said Rob Griffiths.

In closing, Peter stated “I’m feeling great about this partnership; it really frees up my time to focus on coding, and I’m confident that the two of us can create compelling solutions in the utilities space on the Mac, the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad.”

About Many Tricks: Many Tricks, co-founded by Peter Maurer and Alexander Schön, has been producing great Mac software since 2003, and its product line currently includes Butler, Witch, yFlicks, Leech, and Name Mangler.

Posted in Butler, Company News, Leech, Name Mangler, Witch, yFlicks | 10 Comments »

Name Mangler 2.0

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

Why is there a version 2.0 of an application you’ve never even heard of before? Here’s why: This is the successor of the batch rename utility with the lamest name ever — File List. And File List didn’t just have a name that wasn’t much help in figuring out what the application actually did. It also had an outdated user interface, it didn’t run natively on Intel processors, and it had an icon that was actually a scaled screenshot.

So we fixed all these issues, and now that we’re done, we think we just created the best file renamer ever. Meet Name Mangler.

Posted in Name Mangler | Comments Off on Name Mangler 2.0

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