

MacHeist is giving away my Mac app ShoveBox and $154 of other apps - dangrover
http://www.macheist.com/nano

======
ComputerGuru
I love the stupid simplicity of ShoveBox (that's a complement, btw). If I
wasn't already hooked on Yojimbo, I'd probably switch. Sometimes Yojimbo feels
just a tad too complicated for my needs and I find myself just saving a link
as a (temporary) bookmark in Safari instead of creating a Yojimbo note, but by
and large, Yojimbo does the trick for me.

As the only things I write are technical papers, I don't have much use for
either Mariner or WriteRoom (this is where LaTeX and Microsoft Word with its
automated bibliography and table of contents shine).. But 'Hordes of Orcs'
seems pretty cool. I previously trialed Twitterific but didn't like it much -
TweetDeck is so much better.

I don't know whether or not TinyGrab will come in handy; I think it's one of
those apps you've got to live to truly appreciate it.

At any rate, nice bundle. Thanks :)

~~~
alabut
I was thinking the same thing, except with Evernote - I started using it a few
weeks ago and have already built up a sizable switching cost. Maybe it'd help
to hear more about import options as well as competitive differences?

------
crux
Dangrover, I just wanted to let you know that I think ShoveBox is a great
application. I have been on the verge of buying it for a year now because I
enjoy its use and find it so elegant, but I never have done because I haven't
been able to find a superior placement for it in my workflow. I don't think
this giveaway will change that state of affairs, but even as I don't find it
personally necessary I think Shovebox is just very well designed indeed.

~~~
dangrover
Thanks so much!

I'm hoping to return the app a little to its roots and make it something more
hackers will want to use in version 2.0, while keeping the existing
functionality/marketing approach.

For instance, there's a feature called Targets that replaces Rules and makes
it so you can define targets in addition to the existing ways to get info into
the app (e.g. add your own menu items, bookmarklets, floating blob/tab
thingies). And I really want to have bindings for everything in the app in
_some_ language -- I'm thinking Lua. AppleScript is kind of a pain.

~~~
Shooter
Dan,

Captain Kangaroo was a very nice man. He (Bob Keeshan) and Hugh Brannum used
to come into a restaurant where my Mom worked and make me origami. They also
gave me a stuffed toy frog once. He shouldn't be on your list. On a more
serious note, Shovebox looks really cool...can you also organize files with
tags?

~~~
dangrover
Hah. My dad (a nurse) actually took care of Captain Kangaroo in a hospital
once.

Tags are coming in v2.

I should note it's not really meant as a file organizer -- it just-so-happens
to import certain types of files, but that's not the primary use case it's
designed for.

------
kacy
Wow, great job on ShoveBox. I've been searching for something like this for a
while. I'm going to use it for a week or so, and I'll probably end up
purchasing it anyway to support you. Thanks for creating it!

------
jamesbressi
I wish MacHeist provided a box to explain why you would pay the amount you
specified.

When they are collecting this data, how are they going to know why someone
would be willing to put out $20, $25 and so on for the bundle?

Just an observation. For me, I really need to give this ShoveBox a try. Wish I
knew it was out there a long time ago. I've constantly complained about my
Safari bookmark management and that there has to be a better way. Is ShoveBox
it?

~~~
Tichy
That is what I don't like (see my other comment). It is just the same
marketing trick every other vendor in the world uses. You know when you shop
for clothes and you peel off the "reduced price: 50$" sticker, and underneath
you see that the original price was in fact just 40$...

Looking at MacHeist, if you haven't bought those apps before, then they have
not been worth 20$ for you - so you don't save a thing. Instead, you spend
money on stuff you wouldn't have bought otherwise. Yet many users fall for it,
somehow.

------
JohnsBeharry
Dam I love it! Finally I can get rid of that clutter Evernote... Love the drag
function too awesome app guys!

Edit: I'd love to have a web interface with this but.. can't have everything
right? lol Definitely getting the iPhone version to sync up

Edit 2: If you guys could add uploading as well to share on twitter for eg.
Well gosh darn that would be something special right there ;)

------
chaosmachine
Sign up system is pretty awful. Tried 4 different user names, they were all
taken. Had to unhide the hidden reg form every time. Had to re-enter my
password twice, every time.

------
marknutter
Not sure about the apps, but that is one beautifully designed site.

------
jamesbressi
Obviously I'm the only one who can't get the serial numbers generated? How
long did it take for serial numbers to generate for you? I'm using Firefox
3.5.4 on Mac OS 10.6

~~~
JohnsBeharry
I haven't gotten mine as yet though :( I'm pretty sure they'll come in at some
point

~~~
jamesbressi
Ha, I'm going on almost a half hour now, you?

~~~
JohnsBeharry
I think I'm about the same lol, race ya?

~~~
jamesbressi
I'm going to send the server processing the request some left-over candy from
Halloween, so expect to lose.

EDIT: According to @oscardelben above it took him almost two hours. He didn't
use candy.

~~~
JohnsBeharry
Just got mine no candy :P

~~~
jamesbressi
you beat me :(

------
melito
Downloaded it earlier this evening. WriteRoom and Shovebox are the only two
apps I was really looking forward to getting. Can't wait to try it out over
the next few days

~~~
dangrover
I played Hordes of Orcs while waiting for Slicehost to resize my slice due to
the brutal pounding from MacHeist users. :)

~~~
JMiao
just installed. registration code doesn't work. also, there's no way to close
the registration window once you run the app. any ideas?

~~~
dangrover
Make sure you didn't move the app while you were running it.

~~~
JMiao
if you mean move the app's directory location, then no. i ran the app, but
there doesn't seem to be a way to close the registration window after i've
exited the game. i can't even force quit.

~~~
dangrover
Oh. I have nothing to do with Hordes of Orcs. I thought you were talking about
my own app. I had the same issue with that game. You can still close it by
clicking "later" or whatever, it just doesn't seem to be attached to anything
with a dock icon.

------
st3fan
The nano bundle was disappointing. Only TinyGrab seems like a nice app. The
rest is poorly written or just low grade. Not the usual MacHeist quality.

~~~
jamesbressi
That seems to be my impression of this years offering. But still willing to
give it a shot and I really want to try ShoveBox.

Maybe the big values (like in MacHeist past) will come in later?

~~~
oscardelben
Also, writeroom is a very popular app among bloggers

------
Tichy
Isn't MacHeist just a clever way to make Apple fans buy stuff? Nothing against
the apps in question, but I hate to see this marketing scheme on HN.

~~~
unalone
Yeah? And Paul Graham made Hacker News as a clever way of sucking people into
YCombinator, and lots of people here comment as a clever way of getting their
product name out. There is nothing inherently wrong with marketing whatsoever.

In this case, a supposed $150 value is being offered for free. That's news
worth posting.

~~~
Tichy
"There is nothing inherently wrong with marketing whatsoever."

So can I sell your email address to all the spammers?

~~~
unalone
That's your best response? To conflate all marketing with spam? Grow up.

Know how you found the computer you're using? It was marketed to you. The
books you read, the movies you watch, all marketed. Do you read content
online? It's paid for by advertisers who're marketing their products. If
you've seen a movie in the last decade you've seen things paid for by product
placement. Every article of clothing you wore was marketed to you, either in a
catalogue or just positioned in the store in a way to catch your eye.

Marketing is an incredibly subtle trade. I should know: It's what I'm
learning. Practically everything counts as marketing. When I make my headline
big on a web site, that's to market the title to you. When I make my fonts
attractive, I'm marketing a certain attitude as a designer, which is why a
site that uses certain fonts looks and feels different than other fonts. It's
all manipulation, which isn't to say it's bad. Manipulation is a natural part
of life, and it helps us find things we wouldn't see otherwise.

Because I'm learning this, and spending quite a lot of effort to comprehend it
all, it rather bothers me when you, Anonymous Internet Person, denounce it
while simultaneously showing you don't know what marketing is. I follow
politics, too, does that mean I approve of Naziss? And I really do like
technological advances, which means I definitely support nuclear weaponry. Of
course I don't like spam. But this isn't spam. It's marketing.

~~~
Tichy
First off, I am not anonymous. My HN profile is public and contains links and
my email address.

Second, yeah, my response was a bit short, as I did not have enough time.

Third, I hope as you study more, you'll abandon your tunnel vision with
respect to marketing. At the moment "to a person with a hammer, every problem
looks like a nail" comes to mind.

I have nothing against people writing interesting articles for marketing, that
is, marketing essentially paying for those articles. That doesn't imply I have
to like EVERYTHING that is done in the name of marketing. For Hacker News
there is a certain expectation. I don't think "save 20$ on groceries with this
cool voucher" would be welcome here, for example. The expectation is that the
articles posted have some relation to "hacking" (in a certain wider sense),
that is, enables me to learn stuff.

That is why I mentioned spam, because if you pour marketing content into a
channel where it isn't welcome, it is spam - that is the analogy I saw, even
though it is a grey area. I just wanted to refute your argument that marketing
is always OK. Some people might subscribe to a "the best free offers" list,
and they would welcome news about vouchers.

Since this MacHeist stuff got a lot of upvotes, obviously opinions in this
community also differ. I am just surprised, that is all - I think it is an
Apple effect... Because I don't see the big difference to a groceries voucher.

Perhaps one could argue that the MacHeist way of selling stuff is in itself an
interesting hack (a marketing hack). They sold a frigging 4 millions pieces of
software people wouldn't probably have bought otherwise. I would be interested
in discussion on how they pulled it off...

Edit: to make it clear, if the news had been something like "new version of
ShoveBox is out", I would have felt differently. It would have been new
technology that is available. "ShoveBox now costs 20$ less" is just a voucher.

~~~
unalone
Fair enough. I thought you referred to marketing in general and not in the
context of Hacker News.

I was fine with the submission, because it let me get six applications for
free. That's a good alert to send out.

As for anonymity: I consider everybody I don't have a personal relationship
with to be anonymous. Knowing who you are doesn't make you any less of an
Internet Person to me.

------
MikeCapone
Thank you for posting this. I think I'll use Shovebox and maybe Writeroom.

------
9turningmirrors
i think it's fixed now. I couldn't signup it yesterday, but no probs earlier
today

------
BearOfNH
Just reading the headline I couldn't tell if the poster was proud of having
been included, or annoyed at piracy of his app. The name _MacHeist_ actually
suggests the latter, and their website only says they supply licenses -- not
saying what they are doing is legal.

Now that the comments indicate everything is above board, I wonder if MacHeist
plans on having an "Android Annex", or will leave that to another company...

~~~
jamesbressi
It's not piracy, lol. MacHeist has been around for quite a few years now and
developers opt-in to the program. Although, I don't remember a year that they
offered the bundle free, or am I forgetting?

~~~
oscardelben
No it's the first (and probably last) time they are giving away for free.

