Steff.me

Suddenly, my interest in these new-age Mac freebies has been lost. It may be due to a discussion with a room mate over the “Delicious Generation” and everything that followed from it. The room mate in question is developing a app at the moment (I won’t go in to details because I don’t think I’m allowed to yet…) and we were discussing the UI. Does it need to be pretty? Transparency? Can it just do whatever it’s actually just meant to do without all the nonsense and just be a clean and simple app, unified toolbars and no over the top novelty features that just get irritating. Disco, the perfect example; I think I left transparency on for the first two times I used that application and then the novelty wore off. I don’t use UNO for the heck of it, I actually want my apps to look unified throughout and yet Disco won’t let me.

I like pretty things, I really do and in all honesty it is part of the reason I use a Mac however, when the overall “prettiness” outweighs the actual usefulness of the app something is wrong. I also don’t like the idea of the “pay now and get the app… oh, wait… beta app that doesn’t have all the features”, beta is not an excuse for lazy and incomplete work. I actually bought in to the creation of this app, too, I paid on macZOT before I even knew what it was (like countless others) and watched it’s “development” on the blog. I wanted to use an analogy here of how the app can be compared to a fourteen year old girl wearing too much make-up (see way too many of those trying to get into clubs) — trying to act like something it really isn’t and it’s far from pretty, it’s a mess. Did that work? No? Well it is early for me. Not to have too much of a dig at the “Generation”, as I don’t know what’s included or not, I just want to clarify that it’s style over substance that I don’t like and not the pretty factor. In my mind one of the better delicious apps actually comes in the form of the aptly named Delicious Library, which is an app done right! Getting back to my room mate, my main concern is whether developers are now expected to join in with the “Generation” or whether there’s a market out there who hate it and can be targetted for very useful applications for home users.

—

Alternatively the reason I may have lost interest could also be due to the fact I’ve got enough applications on my Mac that I’ll never use due to macZOT. That’s no fault of macZOT, it’s purely my fault for allowing myself to buy the bundles when they come out. It could also be partly to blame on MacHeist. I expected MacHeist to be a bit like Nokia Game, which when I played it last freaked me out so much I stopped playing. I was young, I didn’t expect a game to be so real. MacHeist’s idea was there, it was solid and seemed to be well thought out. You complete a mission, you get a reward. The “Loot” of applications contain nothing I’ll ever use, which is a shame because it’s off-putting for the next mission. The only reason I’m still playing is because of news of a final bundle which will have to be bought. My thinking is that if I have to pay for the apps, they are probably going to be decent and of value to me - and if I get to see them before hand, great!

So that’s about it for my rant this morning. If you bare with me, I’ll update the MacAppADay section with yesterday’s and today’s applications - right now it’s DevonAgent, go check it out.