Get Everything Done

Hey everyone,

We're keeping a feature request tally and working through them based on popularity for http://www.blanclist.com/ (when they're FV compatible). We use BlancList as part of our in-office process, and being web developers internet connectivity isn't an issue for us, so we're happy to support a free web app, for as long as it stays FV. And as FV is final I can't see that changing...

We've had a huge number of requests for iOS versions of the app, mainly iPhone. Naturally this represents a fair amount of development resource. This leaves us with a few thoughts:

1) Mark: Is this something you'd be happy for us to build if it was viable? We don't won't to go anywhere we're not allowed with this. We only offered out the web app because we'd built it for our team, then figured it'd be a good way to give back.

2) Everyone: iOS dev isn't cheap, let alone the fun and games with the App Store Approval process. We'd need a way to cover the costs, either via a kickstarter style approach, or afterwards in App Sales. If we did, keeping in mind that we're realistically looking at an absolute max of 2000 users (4000 on the mailing list, guessing half prefer paper/something else) how much would you be prepared to pay to make this happen?

3) Be honest. If we completed a HTML5 offline mode that sync'd with the server when you reconnected, would that be enough? Is the App Store your need, or is it the native feel?

4) Would you prefer a pay once or yearly model?

We really didn't want bring money into this project, but you can't be serious about iOS development without first counting the cost. Let alone guaranteeing lifetime support for people.

Would love to hear peoples thoughts on this. Be gentle :)

Steve from Blanc:

I like the approach: try it, do it, fix it, try it etc - isn't it also called 'prototyping'or is that terminology obsolete, like me sometimes?

Outlay: I do not like the annual premium method with auto-renewal in case I drop the app and forget about the renewal. I prefer a monthly or quarterly subscription, which you could increase or decrease at any time to recoup ongoing development costs.

Kickstart: how about asking if anyone wants to pay in an amount that would give them lifetime free access, or a smaller amount that would make the 'founder' subscriber get special treatment for support in the future.

When Mark's book come out, you could well find the potential would grow more than you think right now!

Good luck.

Steve,

As I've said before, I'm gung-ho for an iPhone app and I'm more than willing to pay. I want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will like the app more than my current setup before I'd pay a cent, however. Perhaps offering a free/limited/ad supported version along side the paid app?

I too would eventually like an iPhone app due to the native speed. Blanclist is fast to access from of course a desktop, but also from my iPad. However, accessing from my iPhone 4S is a bit slow.

I would be willing to pay annually for maintaining then service.

-David

Hi Steve,

My main mobile platform would likely be Android, at least until next Android 4.0 generation, currently on Android 2.3 (SGS2). I've tried my test 30+ BlancList on SGS2 browser. The scrolling of the list is way slower than I'm comfortable with, specifically the redrawing of the bottom bar.

I'm okay with a browser app with HTML5 offline mode. For that matter Evernote Android native client doesn't do a full synch either (at least the free subscription don't), it just synch/cache those tasks you've viewed/edited. Dropbox Android client also synch/cache similarly, rather than full synch.

So, if you develop the HTML5 offline mode, you may have me and other Android users too, not just iOS.

Having said that, I do have an iOS device (iPad 1st edition) that I use to peer/test the apps in Apple's walled garden. I'll compare my perception of Android vs iOS using http://www.blanclist.com/app/ later today.

Just tried http://www.blanclist.com/app/ on my iPad. It appears it's a bit more responsive to scrolling than SGS2, but the bottom bar doesn't work well at all. It didn't go to the bottom of the screen, instead overlap on some portion of the list.

Hi... I am in the market for a native App that can be used offline - for me it has to be iPhone.

Personally I like a pay once model and would for a fully rounded app pay a few pounds. If it fully synced with a PC/web version (PC is what I use at work in the office, iPhone and Mac is what I use everywhere else) and includes some of the 'additional' features I have already fed back on (such as tickler, hot key entry etc) I would be fine paying the same sort of amounts that say omnifocus users pay for in the App store .. or even a little more.

One funding model I have been involved in was with Think Buzans iMindmap. This I paid a moderate amount for in its first beta release. This gave me three years (i think) of free upgrades and an open channel for feedback. After this period I was reverted to the normal upgrade model, however I already was working with the top of range product and so the upgrades whilst not cheap are still good value ( and for any of you that are mind mappers, I thoroughly recommend this product in all its guises). I'd be OK with a similar approach here although I suspect the admin overhead would be quite high
as for HTML5 type approach, I'm ok with that ... I need an easy to use function my iPhone - I don't really mind too much if its an App or an offline webpage, however I do need to be able to invoke it and use it with minimal keystrokes (Currently I am using focus pad from my menu-bar = 2 button presses before I am entering task text = pretty good) It also needs to be robust!

All for now

Grik, have you seen this thread about using the iPhone app Clear for FV: http://www.markforster.net/fv-forum/post/1760734

I would love an iPhone app. And I would gladly pay for it. I would prefer to pay once (as opposed to a monthly/annual subscription).

I just started using accomplist for iphone http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/accomplist/id530169066?mt=8. It's makes implementation of FV very simple. And has got some killer features like filteration , search , tagging and a really really cool feature called "Smart tags". It looks clean nd nice and has very happy sorta feel to it. I definitely recommend this for everyone

Hi there,

Just read through the new FVP method and had an app brain wave on a beautiful way to execute it that I was missing when I built BlancList.

I'm interested in Kickstarting this if I get some positive feedback.

Anyone interest (like the idea Mark?)

I'm definitely interested.

I was using blanclist and loving it and just switched to amFVP [http://markforster.squarespace.com/fv-forum/post/2506783] when Mark published his "Final Version But For Real This Time". :)

Both tools are very well executed. Thank you so much for sharing blanclist. I'll totally support a Kickstarter!

Great - could people suggest 'must-have' and 'would-like' features and we'll get a kick starter underway.

I'll repeat one feature (or robustness) request from the amFVP thread:

For me a key feature of FVP is, as GTD puts it, having a system where you can dump ideas and put them out of your mind with complete faith that your system will bring them back to your attention. So I'm wondering if it would be safer to drop the database and instead have the program write the tasks to a text file every time.

If you could also specify the location of that text file you could point it to a Dropbox folder and have the best of all worlds: local execution and no login, but also the ability to use the same list on different computers. And I'm pretty sure that even if someone went completely overboard and accumulated 100s or 1000s of tasks there'd be no noticeable performance hit from writing and re-reading it all from a text file with every task addition/completion.

(Also, do you by any chance use Beeminder? I'd love to talk about how best to integrate this with Beeminder. dreeves@beeminder.com if that's easier by email.)

We already had Dropbox integration on our list (and mostly completed for the current Blanclist) with their new API we can get that really smooth.

Happy to talk about API tie-ins.

~Steve

@ Steve

I would be very interested in an updated app...in fact I would also like to help. If you are in need of a graphic design for building a solid logo and proper packaging. Simple does not mean it has to be boring ;-)