ajlburke

A lot of these kinds of 'Automatic Diary' apps use Twitter feeds as a key data source (especially now that Twitter accounts are integrated directly into iOS) - is anybody else worried that this valuable source of life records might dry up if Twitter starts shutting down API access?

Now that so many things in our lives are timestamped and available online, collating it all together is a natural next step. It's interesting to see all the different ways that this is being done by different apps and services.

When I came up with Remembary in 2010, I thought I was the first to mix diary-writing and all these public feeds - and then I discovered that Momento had been doing a similar thing for almost a year beforehand. I feel like there's been a lot more of these kinds of apps and services popping up lately.

I like the Annual Reports idea - I'd be interested to see what gets tracked and how it's analyzed. It's also a great monetization strategy, although I know from experience that print fulfillment and shipping can be a headache!

Also, their "Blast From The Past" feature highlights one of the less-known benefits of keeping a journal: seeing what you were doing in the past and comparing it to what you're doing now - and thus getting perspective on both the past and the present. I have about six years of handwritten diaries, and I'll often go through them and check the same day in each one. The new version of Remembary (just finished QA testing - should be in the App Store in a few weeks) has "1 Year Earlier" and "1 Year Later" buttons just for this kind of thing.

Congratulations on a cool looking app. Trust me when I say I know how difficult it can be to make something that seems to simple.

Yes I did. They even noted it was a known problem. That's part of why I was so eager to see if they had finally fixed it. I'm really hoping they do so in iOS6.

In the interests of full disclosure: I haven't had the chance to try this out on the new iOS6 betas yet (I'm in crunch mode right now finishing up Remembary 2.0).

Also, the jab at the end against "Rich Corinthian Leather" was totally unfair, since one of Remembary's big selling points is the vintage-looking skeumorphic themes.

That looks very cool. The daily reminder email is a great touch.

These are very interesting times for diary-keeping - we're leaving so many more traces of our lives around these days.

The book output option is nice. I'm thinking of this as an option for future versions of Remembary, too. Aren't these books quite big and expensive though? Or is that the point?

Thanks! By the way, the upcoming version will also work on iPhone/iPod Touch.

I'm currently in that crazy-making pixel-perfect OCD design polish phase that takes so long in iOS apps. If the design gods and the testing gods smile on me, it should be out before the end of the month.

+ 1 on journal-keeping.

I've been keeping a diary for the last 8 years or so. The act of writing about and reflecting on each day is useful - but it's also very helpful to be able to look back on what your daily life was like in the past. It's easy to forget what you were really thinking about several years ago, and a diary is a great way to give yourself some realistic perspective.

Brief pitch: A big problem I had in getting started with diary keeping was that I'd get busy and not write anything for several days, and then I'd have trouble remembering what I did, say, last Tuesday. Sometimes, to be honest, I forget what I did this morning. I gather this is a common reason for losing the diary-keeping habit.

A few years ago I scratched my own itch on this and built "Remembary": an iPad diary app that collects photos, tweets, Facebook updates, and RSS feeds and organizes them by day, giving you some context to help you remember what you did each day. It's a bit like the iPhone app Momento, but iPad-native and focused more on writing rather than just collecting feeds.

If you're just getting into diary writing or have tried before but have had similar problems getting traction, you might want to check it out. I'm wrapping up a major version 2.0 update that should (hopefully!) be out in a few weeks. You can find out more at http://remembary.com (I'm about to revamp the site too).

It's cheaper than a Moleskine (if you already have an iPad anyhow), is easily searched, and can be backed up to DropBox or email, too.

/pitch

On the topic of getting up early and finding that time between 6 and 9 when "nothing happens in the tech world": I happen to live one time zone over from most of my clients (I'm in Halifax and my clients are mostly in Toronto), which means that the emails/phone calls/meetings/etc. doesn't start until at least 10am my time. I never use an alarm clock, usually have a real breakfast, and walk to work.

If you already work remotely, it's worth considering a time zone shift. It's even better if you can live in a place with a lower cost of living than where you bill. If you have a lot of California business, try living in Denver. Chicago business? Try Montreal or Columbus Ohio. Customers in London? Try Berlin.

Obviously, this won't work for everyone - but in certain situations it can be a great way to get an extra hour in the best part of your day.

Not to mention 'blockquote' for horizontal padding and hundred other dirty little tricks.

I couldn't help noticing, though, that the page loaded wicked fast. Can't say I would mind it if more of the web was still that efficient.

This sounds awesome, but I couldn't help but think that once they've built a fleet of robots capable of moving entire asteroids around, there's another viable backup business model to which they could easily 'pivot':

1. Assemble several dozen (hundred?) of the non-platinum-bearing asteroids with your robots and aim them on a slingshot-accelerated path towards Earth.

2. Threaten the entire world (or at least rich countries) with massive kinetic orbital bombardment.

3. ... profit!

Brought to you by the guy who coined "Nuke them from orbit - it's the only way to be sure."

With my diary app Remembary, I occasionally get empty emails submitted from the app's "Support Email" button in the help popover. The "?" button, the "Support Email" button, and the popup email's "Send" button are all in the top right part of the screen, so my best guess is that it's people's children tapping repeatedly in the top right area of the iPad. Good thing I don't have anything particularly destructive up there.

So thinking "what about the children?" is a good idea when doing any kind of app layout. It's good to make sure that repeatedly tapping or clicking on one part of the screen doesn't trigger deletions or other dangerous side effects.

In my case, it's nice to get an email every so often that doesn't have any calls to action in it.

I'm "level 41" as well - a big thrill for me now is that when I was growing up in the early 80s I thought the best thing in the world would be to work with computers for a living - and that's what I do, on devices that I couldn't even have imagined in 1983 or so. Since I clearly remember Apple IIs and TRS-80s, I still get a bit of a "wow I'm in the future!" thrill whenever I fire up a modern computer or mobile device.

Being a bit older helps me recall the amazingness of the modern world.

Several commenters have pointed out that levelling up means cutting off choices - but I managed to mostly follow what I enjoyed when I was younger, and I would much rather be a capable developer than an olympic athlete or a rock star. I MAKE THINGS. THAT CHANGE PEOPLE'S LIVES. EVERY DAY. Most 'successful' people my age can't say that, if they ever could. Middle management doesn't MAKE anything, unless you count meetings and memos - but I do.

Random advice for younger folks: making at least some kind of a living doing what you love and making a difference is way better than making big money doing something pointless that you hate.

Part of me still thinks that I'm 25, but another part of me is now old enough to reflect on the clueless jerk I occasionally was when I was 25. Growing up is a balance between who you were and who you are now, and especially in technology it's important to not forget your 25-year-old self while still keeping the 40-year-old as well. If you can be both 20-something and 40-something at the same time, it makes for a great combination of enthusiasm and perspective.

I tried doing my own finger cursor and it ended up just looking creepy - and you couldn't really see taps. I'll take a serious look at this one though. Thanks!

The camera focus, the light balance, the difficulty of interacting with the iPad from the side - the cat was the last straw. I just went with an edited screencast instead: http://remembary.com

In my experience, glare was the most difficult thing to address in making a live iPad demo video. The black plastic sheet with a hole in it they came up with here is an ingenious solution.

Many app videos (including my own) just end up screencasting the simulator. I originally avoided that since it seemed like a cop-out, but then I noticed it in a lot of other app demo videos.

Live demos are also tricky if you have pets, though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIG6rPvfKnw

My tale led to an interesting discussion on Hacker News a few months ago:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2878871

Congratulations! I went through a similar process with my first app as well. A few things I'd recommend:

- Use appfigures.com and appannie.com to track your sales and rankings. They provide much nicer reports than those provided by Apple. Also, they'll tell you if reviews come in, and even translate them for you. I'm personally addicted to the hourly ranking updates from AppFigures.

- Never stop promoting. Do something (even if it's something small) every day to raise awareness. Getting on the front page of Hacker News is an excellent start! But don't stop there.

- Get a 'press kit' of screenshots and descriptions to send to popular app review sites and tech writers etc. Many will ignore you, but the hits are worth it. A great review in AppAdvice completely turned around my app's fortunes.

- Don't bother with AdWords - at least at the start. Generally the price per click and the conversion rates won't support the revenue you would get from an app sale. Some people spend big on AdWords to push their rankings, but that's not a reliable way to make money.

- Expriment with pricing. Price changes are quick and easy to make. Don't be afraid to raise your price. You might be pleasantly surprised by the result. And if it doesn't work out, you can lower it again. I found I got fewer cranky reviews when my price was higher. but YMMV.

- Continue writing honest reports about your app's progress. We see so many news items about huge successes and huge failures, it's a good corrective to see how a 'normal' app fares.

- Work on your next app. I just launched my second app in the store and while I'm still not making enough to live on, it's great to get twice as much money coming in.

- Have fun. Building something of your own and selling it is great. You might start resenting your day jobs, though.

Addendum: Having a post about your app on the front page of Hacker News = several thousand hits, but no extra sales. Funnily enough, this is the exact same experience I had with AdWords.

Have to say I feel much better with the hits from HN than AdWords.

My next step is to extend Remembary to be a Universal iPhone/iPad app, and to build a cheaper 'impulse buy' iPhone version with only a few of the key features. I'll definitely be writing a follow-up with the details of how that goes.

I just need to find some time to actually build these versions!

It actually gets easier to read over time - but I'll admit I didn't include it for legibility but rather how distinctive it looks. App sales seem to be a balance between well-implemented innovative features and flashy-looking hype.

(BTW I'm the author of the article and the developer of Remembary)

Thanks for reading. It is true that the diary space is crowded - and the lock-in on a diary app is pretty strong once people pick one. Getting reviews is of course a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: reviews help get users, but you can't get reviews without users in the first place. I've got a link in the app for the review page, but I thought an interruptive pop-up box wouldn't be appropriate for a personal diary.

I've worked hard on distinctive and powerful features for the latest releases, but I have a nagging suspicion that my big boost in sales recently was from rearranging the screenshots on the app page to highlight the "Jane Austen" handwriting font.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the "lite" iPhone and Universal versions work out - but I have to find some time to build them first.