App Updates and Model Change

When one starts out creating an application, it is usually with the intent of keeping it up to date with all of the latest enhancements and changes that newer operating systems might bring. That was my intention with my apps, wwrite, wwrite - iPhone Edition, and wwriteFree. However, as many have experienced, life sometimes gets in the way.

History

Back in March of 2010, before the iPad was launched but after it was announced, I got an idea for an app for the iPad: a plain-text editor. The idea was to use the iPad for productivity; which seems to be well ahead of the curve. I submitted my app to the iOS App Store in early April 2010 and it has been on sale ever since.

I kept it up to date on a semi-regular basis after that. That was up until June of 2014. In June of 2014, right before the introduction of iOS 8, I updated wwrite and wwriteFree to be compatible with iOS 7. I did this because I knew I would be spending the summer writing two e-books, iOS 8 for Users and Developers, and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for Users, Administrators, and Developers, so I would not have a chance to do any updates on the apps.

Back on August 10th, 2014, I removed the iPhone version of my app, wwrite - iPhone Edition, from sale. The biggest reason for this was that it was a lot of work to update the application and not many people had purchased it. To be honest, besides the lack of sales, there is the Notes app, which is absolutely free and included on all iOS devices.

Fast Forward

Part of the reason for not getting updates was just a lack of motivation. I have been toying with doing an update for over a year. One would have been a complete re-write using Swift, but this was a bit too daunting. I must have started this at least four times, but it never got that far. It may be bad for a developer to say, but I do not use my own application that often. This is mostly due to how bad it looks like on a 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Regardless, I did still want to update it, I just needed to get the motivation and time. The final push for motivation was this exchange on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/waynedixon/status/865998697942974464

https://twitter.com/jamesthomson/status/866012536172367872

In case you are unaware, James writes an application called PCalc. You should go and purchase PCalc as well as PCalc for tvOS.

So, a couple weeks ago I decided to really get down to updating my app. When I decided to update it, I knew I wanted to use be a Universal app (one that works on iPhone as well as iPad). The second thing I knew I wanted to do was make it work in Slide Over and Split Screen, just a James suggested. So that is what I have done.

wwrite 3.0.0 now supports full Split Screen and slide over. Here are the rest of the new features:

• Now a Universal application, supports iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
• Supports Split View and Slide Over.
• Keyboard Shortcuts for Save, New File, New File From Template, Help, Show/Hide file list, Do word count
• Ability to import plain-text files from other applications using the "Share Sheet".
• Fixed word count miscalculation
• Reworked Template Customization
• Jump Directly to App Settings from "Tools" drop-down
• Support for system Emoji within files.
• Other "under the hood" changes to bring everything up to date.

Pricing Model

Since its initial release in April of 2010, wwrite has always been a paid application and this will continue to be the case. wwriteFree was designed to be ad-supported with Apple's iAd platform. Since Apple discontinued their iAd platform, I have decided to change the way that the model for the two apps. wwrite will still be paid but it will have more up to date features. Whereas wwriteFree will stay free but will not always have the latest features. For instance, it does not support Slide Over nor does it support Split View.

wwriteFree has received a minor update to remove the advertising, and make it somewhat more up to date. Previously it required iOS 7, wwriteFree now requires iOS 9.

If you already have wwrite, it will be a free update. If you do not own, now is a good time to go and buy a copy.