Mustache Blog

Summizer Free Now Available

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:24:00 -0500

In January, we launched the 2.0 version of our popular iPhone app, Streaks. We decided to take the old version and release it as a free/trial version. We wanted to provide future customers with something to play with before they threw down their $2.99. Today, we did it again for Summizer.

Summizer Free features every single feature of the full version of Summizer ($2.99). The only difference is it only lets you save two trends. This allows someone to use Summizer and learn why it’s the best Twitter trend tracker on the iPhone.

Apple provides no simple means for trial ware. Time limited demos of full featured applications would be a huge boon to iPhone developers. Every Xbox Live Arcade title is available in some sort of demo. This allows customers to download it for free, try it out, and make a buying decision. The game is already downloaded on their Xbox 360. Purchasing just unlocks the full version ready to play right away.

There’s absolutely no reason Apple couldn’t do this in the iPhone app store. Their DRM already supports timed expirations. Movie rentals become unplayable after 24 hours. Why can’t iPhone apps? All the screenshots, reviews, and screencasts in the world can’t do what actually using the software does. Trials let the user fall in love with the software or helps them realize the value it will play in their day to day work/life flow. Screenshots cannot do this.

The third party software market on Mac OS X (which is one of the most thriving software circles around) would be no where without allowing their users to try before they buy. Shareware and Trialware has been around forever. It became obvious to software developers VERY early that letting people use their software was the best marketing they could come up with. Apple ships iWork trials on every computer they make. Why, in 2009, do we have a whole new platform that is rejecting this proven idea?

The current solution is to just release a “Free” or “Lite” version of your iPhone software. This means the developer has to maintain two branches of their iPhone app. A free version and a pay version. This isn’t fun. Depending on how you want to ‘limit’ the free version, it can get complicated. If Apple added time limiting DRM to the iPhone app store it would mean free trial versions for everyone. This lets developers concentrate on adding awesome new features to their software, not removing them for trial versions.

For the record, Streaks 2.0 has sold 30-50 copies per day without a single piece of press. Seriously, do a Google search for it. You won’t find it anywhere. 30-50 might not sound that great compared to what the top downloaded apps do with links from popular blogs or being featured by Apple, but considering it hasn’t received a single piece of big press, something must be selling it. We think it’s the free version.

Streaks goes to 2.0, Announcing Streaks Free

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:02:00 -0500

Streaks 2.0

Alot was going on when we released Streaks, so it never got a proper announcement. But that isn’t going to happen with its 2.0 version!

Announcing today, Streaks 2.0. Streaks 2.0 is all the greatness that was Streaks, but with the absolutely #1 most requested feature: Multiple Calendars.

Yes! You can now track multiple calendars using Streaks. Its a very simple interface. Just go into your settings and add a new calendar, give it a title, and you’re in business. Simply slide your thumb up and down to drag the calendar you want into view.

The second big feature that comes with Streaks 2.0 is the ability to browse future and past months. No longer are you trapped looking at just the current month. Need to fill in some dates from last month? No problem, just tap the arrows on the right and left side of calendar and you’ll shift months.

Streaks Free

After adding all of the great new features to Streaks and bumping the version to a well deserved 2.0, we thought maybe the old version could be put to good use.

Announcing today, Streaks Free. Streaks Free is almost exactly what Streaks 1.x was, but without the themes. And its FREE!

Streaks Free was designed to be used as a kind of demo for Streaks. So if you’re still not sure if you want to buy Streaks, give Streaks Free a go. We know you’ll love it!.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone that posted reviews or contacted us. We really wanted to test the waters first with Streaks 1.x to see if anyone was even interested in the idea before investing more time into it.

It was immediately clear what everyone wanted and we really hope that we delivered that.

richmondmeetups: We’re on. Come have a (good) beer with us at...

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:28:23 -0500

richmondmeetups:

We’re on.

Come have a (good) beer with us at the second Richmond Tumblr meetup! We’re going to be at the downtown Capital Ale House at 6:30 on Wednesday, December 10th in the downstairs bar. As usual, everyone pays for their own food & drinks, unless you want to pay for a round, in which case, we really want you to come ;)

Again, we have two favors to ask of you if you live in the Richmond metro area:

If you know Richmonders on Tumblr, please share the meetup details with them by reblogging this post or by copying and forwarding it via email. (Reblogs will have the added benefit of helping Richmonders discover each other on Tumblr.)

If you are coming to the meetup or are likely to come, please indicate that in your reblog. And, please also indicate if you are likely bringing others with you.

Hope to see everyone there!

View Larger Map

Is this something you might be interested in? Let us know in...

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:34:00 -0400

Is this something you might be interested in?

Let us know in the comments.

Summizer 99¢ Sale

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:23:00 -0400

Because we want as many people to try Summizer as possible, we’ve put it on sale for just this week.

For this whole week you can buy Summizer for just 99¢! Tell all your friends! Get it while its hot!

Advanced Queries with Summizer

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:56:37 -0400

Summizer supports most of the advanced queries allowed when searching Twitter. This allows you to create really powerful trends. Here are a few examples of advanced queries.

“new iPhone”

graffitio OR grafitio

github -commit

from:maddox

to:leolaporte

Read more on Twitter’s advanced query system.

Summizer's Price Drops To $2.99

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:40:49 -0400

With Summizer 1.1, we want as many people using it as possible. So we’ve decided to drop the price from $4.99 to $2.99.

We hope this puts the awesome power of Trends into more people’s hands.

Summizer 1.1 Has Hit The App Store

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:37:52 -0400

Summizer 1.1 has finally showed up in the iPhone App Store. If you’ve been holding out on downloading it, then now is the time. If you’re already a Summizer fan, go grab the free update!

Read here about the awesome new updates in Summizer 1.1

Summizer 1.0 Video Review

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:55:00 -0400

AppVee.com gave a nice review of Summizer 1.0. They obviously get the whole idea of Summizer and realize what an invaluable tool it is to be able to follow trends.

They had a few complaints about the lack of functionality, but the great thing is, all of their complaints have already been resolved with the Summizer 1.1 update!

So it looks like the implemented features for 1.1 were well chosen!

Thanks AppVee!

Summizer 1.1 Update

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:56:00 -0400

Summizer 1.1 has been submitted to the App Store. The new features are really exciting!

The #1 feature with this release is something that everyone has been begging for, active links. Tapping on a tweet now allows you to choose to follow the link that was posted in the tweet. The link also opens in an embedded browser window to avoid disruptions in trend watching.

The other big feature is updating. You can now check for updates on your saved trends from the main view. No need to travel to each saved trend to see if there are updates. Summizer will let you know with the typical “Blue Dot”.

All in all, I think Summizer 1.1 is a pretty big update and makes the application even more compelling. Be sure to let us know what you think!

Regional Format Bug in Summizer 1.0

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:47:15 -0400

There seems to be a bug for our friends that are using Summizer outside of the United States. When using Summizer 1.0 with a regional setting other than “United States”, it will crash during a search. This has to do with the date formatting.

Summizer 1.1, which has already been submitted to the app store, fixes this problem. But for now, change your regional format settings to “United States” and Summizer should work for you without problems.

Settings -> General-> International -> United States

Summizer Goes Native!

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:13:00 -0400

Mustache just submitted and pseudo launched its first native iPhone application. Summizer!

Summizer got the native treatment this month and man does it rock! I think everyone is going to have a ton of fun with it.

If you don’t know Summizer, its a Twitter search application. But the catch is, it allows you to save your searches. This saves a ton of time. For those who watch Twitter for certain trends like their products and companies, its very productive.

Who Cares?

Ok, that’s a valid question. If you know Twitter, then you know its essentially an enormous real time conversation. People all over Twitter are spitting out their opinions on everything from the current football game, presidential nominees, to the video game they’re playing.

With Summizer, you can narrow all that noise down to just your topic.

Can’t I Just Search Twitter On My Own?

Sure! But, if you follow multiple trends or your search queries are complex, its annoying. You have to type in your search over and over again. If this is on your iPhone, then that is going to take some time. The speed in which you can check your trends lowers dramatically with each new trend you want to follow.

With Summizer, you save your trends. Then the results are just a touch away. Waiting in line? Pop out your iPhone and check your trends in under a minute. Summizer is the perfect “check it” app for the iPhone.

Use Cases

There are lots of things to track with Summizer. See what people are saying about:

your product
your newly launched product feature
your company
YOU
your conference
a national event
a sporting event
a natural disaster
a new movie
a new video game

And see what they’re saying in REAL time. We’re talking about in the last few minutes here. Its truly amazing. Twitter rocks!

Anything Else?

Yeah! Also added to Summizer is a way to see all the current top trends on Twitter. So once you’re bored checking your own trends, go see what everyone is talking about on Twitter. This is an awesome way to get in on the top news stories.

Summizer should hit the App Store soon. Mustache will let you know as soon as it is available.

How The Internet Works

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:45:00 -0400

How The Internet Works

Fun Little App: Summizer

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:36:00 -0400

UPDATE: Summizer for the iPhone has been released! Check it out here

I got sick of having to manually search Summize all the time. I wanted a way to FOLLOW a trend, not just remember to search it constantly. But no one offers this.

So I did what any programmer would do, I did it myself.

So now there is Summizer

It’s real simple, doesn’t track what you search/follow, and is fun!

It was designed for the iPhone but works fine on a traditional browser.

playlist.maxfm.fm Project Launch

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:11:39 -0400

A couple months in the making, the latest Mustache project is finally launched.

Today playlist.maxfm.fm is officially official. The idea of the project is to allow 100.5 MAXFM’s (a Hampton Roads rock radio station) listeners to program the station.

Users can sign up and create their own playlists from the library of songs that MAXFM has the rights to air. Users pick up to twenty songs and submit them. MAXFM administrators review the playlists and broadcast them giving full attribution.

It was a pleasure to work on a project that gives power and respect back to the customer, and Mustache applauds MAXFM for understanding that their listeners make their business.

Mustache Success @ RailsConf

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:08:13 -0400

This year’s RailsConf was a freaking blast. The talks were great, the sponsors did a great job getting people ‘mingling’, and my Mustache invasion was a bigger hit than I’d thought it would be. Peter Cooper wasn’t able to make it, but even he was in on the action.

Here are some choice shots:

Chris Wanstrath keeps his promise and wears it during his talk

Mr. Adam Keys liked his.

Even the MacBooks were wearing them

Mustache at RailsConf

Wed, 28 May 2008 10:16:00 -0400

I’ll be landing at 11am in Portland for our yearly meetup in RailsConf. I can’t wait to hang out and talk to everyone again. I’m bringing some goodies with me to hand out.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

That’s a real fake mustache. You can peel it off and wear it!

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

It’s so great to have a mustache. Buenos Aires...

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:19:20 -0400

It’s so great to have a mustache.

Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival: Tom Sellecks (via )

BeCamp 2008 is this weekend. Come hang out and get a Mustached...

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:38:00 -0400

BeCamp 2008 is this weekend. Come hang out and get a Mustached sponsored breakfast on Saturday morning!

Standards Haiku

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:41:26 -0400

Mike Schrag: not supporting webkit is unacceptable these days
Jon Maddox: people think they're being cute
Jon Maddox: that they know
Jon Maddox: the market share is exploding
Jon Maddox: its ridiculous
Mike Schrag: is that a haiku?