Splasm Software Discussions

October is well under way. I just turned 69. Will I see 2.0 before I turn 70? or even before I stop caring what my checking account balance is?

If you read the splasmata posting it looks like it will probably be this time next year before we see 2.0 (given the current glacial pace of development).

I like the fact that they have determined pricing for both the regular and pro versions, but havent solidified the Pro feature set or started on the code.

Perhaps its time to look for an alternative ?

Feh!

Our recent posts at Splasmata actually state Pro's only lacking two or three major features. And, we haven't previously revealed the feature sets for either product because we reserve the right to under promise and over deliver, if it comes down to it. While we could release CheckBook 2.0 today and probably have a reasonably smooth rollout we would rather make sure things are done right and have the best possible rollout. Now for the good news: CheckBook 2.0's features are frozen and it's down to getting the 1.x to 2.x migration process down, then testing and user documentation.

_________________
Keith Gugliotto
Primordial Sea Captain
Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com

Well, although I am a bit disappointed that we've got to wait longer, CheckBook is still the closest match to what I want and need so I guess I'll have to be patient.

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Simon Wolf

Any news?

Thinking about switching to Moneywell or Cha-Ching if no updates soon

I agree. I was wondering the same thing. I am about to switch back to Quicken myself unless 2.0 comes out soon. I like a lot of the features in CheckBook, but a lot are annoying. Why can't the Types and Payees be one file across all accounts? Credit card accounts are not able to accept credits. If you want to know how much you spent on groceries and you paid by different credit cards and checks, you can't get a total which includes all accounts. You have to add up the totals from each account by hand. Correct me if I am wrong about these things. I hope some of the features are included in 2.0, when ever it comes out. I hope I am not back to Quicken then.

Promises, promises. Without a significant update soon, I may go back to Quicken or find something else, while I don't have a lot of input to do from the start of the year. Too bad, it looked like I would be happy with this product.

O.K. Keith. It's time to crap or get off the pot. Give us a date certain for the new Checkbook of we'll all start moving to an alternative. The power of the blog is great. For me, I really like Checkbook, although it needs a little bit of fixing, BUT... enough already. Yes, I have been active in suggesting changes (that aren't all that big). IT'S TIME! If there are Leopard issues, just tell us. Most of us really just want a dependable checkbook app that you ALMOST meet. The changes that MOST of us want aren't that big. So ENOUGH ALREADY! Do it!!

I'm done. Tired of waiting. I'm going back to Quicken. So much for trying to support the litte guy.

Please do not speak for me! I am not thinking of moving from Checkbook to something else!

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Wayne Dreier

Using OS X 10.5.1

Frustration is the name of the game at the moment.
Please communicate so I and the users who are still interested know what is happening.
Life is full of unplanned for changes but If Checkbook isn't part of Splasm's future please let us know so I, for one, can find an alternative sooner rather than later.

On February 16, 2007 Keith wrote:


I think the issue is that 11 months ago when this was written, we had been waiting for at least 6 months for an update. We are now at 18 months, and 2.0 is most definitely vapor ware. In the mean time Splasm continues to place ad's for CheckBook on Mac sites dotted around the web, so I guess 1.6 is still a good earner and Splasm does not see / feel any urgency to ship a V2 product. Couple that lack of urgency to Keith still being at College where he probably has more pressing things to get done, and I would guess we are now realistically looking at the end of the academic year (May) before we possibly see anything. My guess is that come May he will then be looking for a full time job, so even that might be a bit optimistic.

Keith, please could you be honest and let users know whether you are really committed to CheckBook, and if you are when we might realistically be looking at an update to V2. In my experience it is always better to be honest and realistic, than to make promises that you can not keep. If you want to placate users it might be an idea to invite users who have signed up to this forum to download an alpha or beta release, and make it very clear that this release may be buggy, have features missing, and not be ready to trust your data to. That way you are covered, but users can see that 2.0 is more than a couple of PhotoShop screenshots.

Nick

If we could share all the details of the delay in CheckBook 2.0's production schedule we would, but there's honest and then there's too honest. Please settle for honest: events outside our control made it nearly impossible to complete CheckBook 2.0 in 2007. You can choose to not believe this but we have never knowingly misled our users concerning CheckBook 2.0 and almost all of our development effort during 2007 went into 2.0, just like we promised. It's been a long road, and if we could have we would have shipped it over three years ago, a year after we drew up the first plans for it. We are painfully aware that regardless of our reasons we are treading on thin ice with many of our users, some of whom have threatened to walk away from our product in this very thread. Frankly, we agree with you - it's time to get 2.0 out the door - but discussing it negatively here can't help. As much as we want to ship the bottom line is it is almost done and software that (we know) almost works is software that we can't stand behind and so we won't ship it until it's ready. A beta is not out of the question - in fact, Randy has been advocating a beta since before the holidays. Stay tuned and we'll try to get something moving on that front, but it could cost us some time as we try to get the final release ready.

A few counterpoints to some recent posts:

- CheckBook 1.6 was a good earner. The current version is 1.8.1, which is also doing well.
- CheckBook 2.0 is not vaporware and the screenshots we have posted so far were of actual in-progress builds of 2.0. Randy and Terra have been managing their personal finances with similar builds since last summer. No lie.
- Randy and I are most certainly not in college. We are full-time at Splasm, if you cut us we bleed Splasm green and we will not be looking for jobs come May, even if our sales stop cold.
- CheckBook is a very big part of Splasm's future.
- In the development side of our business dates certain are possible but we find them impractical, as when things slip we have to choose between meeting the date certain and dropping features. Dropping features is easier said than done as many are not simply modularly dropped into a product and may be in concurrent development and/or are interdependent with others. Support and customer service are different matters - we always prioritize those parts of the business.

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Keith Gugliotto
Primordial Sea Captain
Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com

Keith,
I apologize if I thought you were in school and doing that part time, but I thought I read that on splasmata. Obviously I am mistaken.

I think that the thing that is hard to deal with is how tightly you are holding your cards to your chest. Secrecy is fine, but why ? What are you scared of ? Even Apple the most secretive company out there gives public previews of its OS. They showed the iPhone six months before releasing it. If you believe in your product you wont be worried about the competition, and if you are worried about the competition, all the more reason to show what you have, let users comment and improve it further. Omni just went through about six months of that with OmniFocus, many consider it to be the best GTD app out because they listened. The GTD space has many, many participants. Many of which share a very open development process. Omni, Hogbay, bartek:bargiel (http://bargiel.home.pl/iGTD/), Actiontastic . . . The result is ever improving products because of the diversity and competition.

Is Splasm scared of the competition ?
Do you really believe that you know what users need and want more than they know themselves ?
Or do you not care about users, and want to sell them the product you want, not the one they want ?


edit:
Looks like the competition just raised the bar http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank3/featu ... ibank3_nav