The Iconfactory Turns to Kickstarter to Reboot Twitterrific for Mac

[itguy06]

Well, then I'm afraid you're like the people who think YouTube is all cat videos. There are lots of uses for Twitter that have nothing to do with celebrity or vanity.

Like what?
Customer service? Have a phone for that.
Alerts? Most places push to their app or phone/SMS me.
Vapid ramblings from celebs? Ok got that but I don't care what they think. Their job is to entertain not anything else.
Distributing news? LOL.

Still have no idea what Twitter is good for. YouTube has tons of uses besides cat videos. It's easy to see that. Twitter? Not so much.

 

[John.B]

Kickstarter for Abandonware: Version 2.0?

 

[AndyK]

Are you sure it's Java, I don't see any jar files in it's package nor do I have Java installed yet it runs fine.
I know little about programming but inside the App Container/Folder are dylib files and those only run on OS systems
based on Mach Kernel.

Unless they've done a redesign lately, Viber is written with Qt frameworks (so mainly C++) then wrapped in Java & Obj-c for Android / iOS respectively.

Like what?
Customer service? Have a phone for that.
Alerts? Most places push to their app or phone/SMS me.
Vapid ramblings from celebs? Ok got that but I don't care what they think. Their job is to entertain not anything else.
Distributing news? LOL.

Still have no idea what Twitter is good for. YouTube has tons of uses besides cat videos. It's easy to see that. Twitter? Not so much.

Twitter is excellent for developer outreach and networking. It's also excellent for CS from small indie app developers. Just because YOU don't have a use for one of its niches doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

[justperry]

Unless they've done a redesign lately, Viber is written with Qt frameworks (so mainly C++) then wrapped in Java & Obj-c for Android / iOS respectively.

Ah, that explains it, Cheers.

 

[Toutou]

$75k for a pimped up iOS app. What. The. ****.

 

[bartvk]

If they really think there's a large market, they should invest their own time and $, and then price the app accordingly.

That's the whole thing, but you're turning it around. They're unsure if the market exists and they're saying "we'd like to build this app, are their enough people who'd like to invest?"

It's a great way to see if there's enough interest. It's the whole point of Kickstarter to WAIT before investing their own time and money.

$75k for a pimped up iOS app. What. The. ****.

Let's run a little calculation.

Software engineers in the US earn about $100 per hour before tax. An agency often bills 25% above that, but let's ignore that for a moment. $75.000 / $100 = 750 hours. So you have 750 manhours, i.e. 4,5 months. And you have to divide it over 1-2 software engineers fulltime, plus parttime 1 designer, 1 QA person and a project manager.

Take it from me that this company could earn more money elsewhere. They're doing this because they love this project.

 

[KALLT]

If they feel like they can make a good product, front the costs and take risks like other developers.

They outright admit that they don’t have confidence in a success, which is why they won’t risk personal or company resources. That is precisely what crowdfunding is for: to gauge the interest in a product and cover the sunk costs upfront to make it happen.

 

[crashoverride77]

Still trying to figure out a use for Twitter. Seems like a bag of nonsense to me.

Yet you are on macrumors.
[doublepost=1487153030][/doublepost]

I am not even 30 and it all seems so vainglorious, inane and vapid to me.

You should look up even bigger and more complex words, it will really impress the mac rumours readers.

 

[MacBH928]

it takes 6-7 months to build a twitter client?

how much does it take to build a proof of concept for a web service like Twitter? 5 years?

 

[mdelvecchio]

That's the whole thing, but you're turning it around. They're unsure if the market exists and they're saying "we'd like to build this app, are their enough people who'd like to invest?"

It's a great way to see if there's enough interest. It's the whole point of Kickstarter to WAIT before investing their own time and money.



Let's run a little calculation.

Software engineers in the US earn about $100 per hour before tax. An agency often bills 25% above that, but let's ignore that for a moment. $75.000 / $100 = 750 hours. So you have 750 manhours, i.e. 4,5 months. And you have to divide it over 1-2 software engineers fulltime, plus parttime 1 designer, 1 QA person and a project manager.

Take it from me that this company could earn more money elsewhere. They're doing this because they love this project.

If these are staff devs their time isn't being billed at $100/hr. An annual salary of $100,000 is half that per hour.

 

[skellener]

My copy of Twitteriffic for Mac works just fine. Still running Yosemite. Does it not run on the newer OS's?

 

[mhoutman]

Vey interesting story on this project.

I think The Iconfactory make wonderful software but most of their apps are not updated on regular base. In fact only Twitterrific iOS is. Perhaps Linea for iPad will be too, but hat must be proven.

The last 9 years I invested a lot of money in iOS apps but decided that only apps getting updates on a regular base will have my further attention.

That said I don’t buy many new apps anymore as I am served well with the ones I use today.

Now about Twitter. Twitter app itself is great in iOS but it lacks sync with its macOS sibling. So, if you want timeline sync, Tweetbot is the app to go (iOS, macOS). BTW Tapbots is also an perfect example of a developer abandoning apps at random. In fact Tweetbot is their only app getting updates. Calcbot seems (again) forgotten and Pastebot is macOS only.

Back to Twitterrific. The Iconfactory always excused themselves with the story on the limited Twitter tokens, but my guess is also that they could get more money working for Third parties. (They are an design/app studio after all).

Now at a sudden the problem of Twitter tokens seems solved and they need a Kickstarter project to fund app development.

Why the heck would I fund a developer with an history of neglecting app updates? Sure Twitterrific iOS is a beautiful app, but without sync to macOS for me not useable.

Also a 75k goal seems rather high. (only 30K after 1 day but my guess is that it will not reach the lowest goal. Mind you, the 75k app edition will not even have DM build in.

Amazing, really and not worth my money…

 

[WinstonRumfoord]

Yet you are on macrumors.
[doublepost=1487153030][/doublepost]

You should look up even bigger and more complex words, it will really impress the mac rumours readers.

Tweet about it?

 

[Apple 26.2]

Still trying to figure out a use for Twitter. Seems like a bag of nonsense to me.

I see a few good uses for it (actually, I wish it were more like it was back in 2008/2009), but the blowhards on it now drown out the legitimate voices.

 

[spliffmon]

Still trying to figure out a use for Twitter. Seems like a bag of nonsense to me.

It's a good source of alternative facts.

 

[bartvk]

If these are staff devs their time isn't being billed at $100/hr.

It's probably more if you believe it.

Before I started freelancing, I had a regular job. When I quit, my boss his boss took me aside to wish me luck. He told me not to make my rate too low, because freelancers are already very cheap. He noted the internal rates are often more expensive than freelancers.

This is in N/W-Europe.

 

[vmachiel]

How many bloody twitter clients do you need.

Tweetbot. That's the only one you need.

 

[huperniketes]

Like what?
Customer service? Have a phone for that.
Alerts? Most places push to their app or phone/SMS me.
Vapid ramblings from celebs? Ok got that but I don't care what they think. Their job is to entertain not anything else.
Distributing news? LOL.

Still have no idea what Twitter is good for. YouTube has tons of uses besides cat videos. It's easy to see that. Twitter? Not so much.

Dealing with customer service over the phone requires both parties to participate at the same time. Have you ever experienced being on hold when trying to speak to someone in the support department? If so, did waiting on the line prevent some other important activity you needed to do? That's one using Twitter, perhaps more than any other social media platform at this time, helps you save time and be more productive. Real-time person-to-person interaction isn't required.

You could send an email to customer service, and perhaps also get a result. But the interaction on Twitter, being so public, is often able to provoke a quicker and better response. Another benefit to Twitter as a customer service platform is you can determine the level of customer satisfaction for services or products before spending money on it.

Besides that. Let's look at what's in it for you. Marketing professionals are on Twitter. Sales professionals are on Twitter. Designers. Engineers. Educators. Law enforcement. Health professionals. Legal professionals. Government officials. Manufacturers. Scientists. Realtors. Entrepreneurs. VCs.

Reaching an expert in almost any field is quite easy to do on Twitter. In almost any language. If there's anything you need info on, Google it. If that fails, Twitter it.

 

[Apple 26.2]

Tweetbot. That's the only one you need.

I've been thinking about getting Tweetbot... worth it? Pros/Cons?

 

[vmachiel]

I've been thinking about getting Tweetbot... worth it? Pros/Cons?

Super clean interface, regular updates, nice dark mode, cool "activity view". It's just soooo much better than the Twitter app. I love the Mac version as well, although it's expensive. I bought it when drunk one night, and haven't had any regrets . The iOS app is a no brainer value-wise.

 

[Apple 26.2]

Super clean interface, regular updates, nice dark mode, cool "activity view". It's just soooo much better than the Twitter app. I love the Mac version as well, although it's expensive. I bought it when drunk one night, and haven't had any regrets . The iOS app is a no brainer value-wise.

Many thanks for the reply... the Mac version is $10 right now, so I might do it!

 

[vmachiel]

Many thanks for the reply... the Mac version is $10 right now, so I might do it!

Was 20 when I bought it. 10 is a no brainer. Just skip a couple of to go coffees and you're done.