LifeBoard is now free!

Well, that was probably unexpected. However, after some careful consideration, I have now made LifeBord free. Before I begin, I would like to say that I am only making LifeBoard free. Violoncello will continue to offer a paid, premium version for the foreseeable future.

With that out of the way, I feel that I should explain why I made LifeBoard free. For those of you who are not aware, LifeBoard had an upfront cost of $0.99. There was no lite version or any other way to test the app before buying it. This presented a problem.

Today, most people want to use an Android app before they pay money for it, especially when the app comes from a small publisher like myself. This started to become increasingly clear as time went on, and I knew I was going to have to switch strategies for my next app.

As a result, Violoncello Premium was born. For just $0.99, you could get a few nice extras while supporting the app’s development. Best of all, since this upgrade was in the form of an in-app purchase, people could use Violoncello without it and still have a fine experience. This strategy has proven to be much more successful than the last, so I’m likely going to continue using it for future Android apps.

As for LifeBoard, I fully intend to continue development for it. Obviously, charging upfront for it failed. However, this whole experience has helped me learn what works best for me when it comes to paid apps.

I feel that the future of LifeBoard is brighter than ever. By making it free, more people will be able to use it, which is what ultimately led me to making this decision. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what comes next, and in the mean time, you can download LifeBoard for free on the Play Store!

Late 2014 Mac mini in 2022 - Still Worth Buying?

About a year ago, I reviewed the 2014 Mac mini on this blog. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that it was still an excellent machine for productivity tasks, but it could also handle some more intense things you threw at it. Thus, it became my daily driver up until I upgraded to a 2017 MacBook Air a few months ago. That being said, I’ve still been using it some, so I thought I’d briefly share how it’s holding up these days. Here are my thoughts on this miniature Macintosh one year later! Performance Over the last year, I’ve been impressed by how much this Mac can handle. It’s rocking a 2.6 GHz dual-core Core i5 with 8 GB of RAM and a Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB SATA SSD. What all that jargon essentially means is that it’s a moderately powerful little computer, although it certainly isn’t going to put newer Macs to shame. Regardless, I’ve been able to do lots of coding, video editing, and schoolwork on this computer, and it has generally worked pretty well. Granted, it can take a while...

I love my Instax Mini SE. Here's why!

Hey, folks! I did it. I finally got into instant photography. And I love it. Admittedly, I've had some experience with instant photography before now. I got my first instant camera at a thrift store in 2022. It was a Polaroid OneStep from the 90s, and while film was still readily available for it, it was far too expensive to justify using it regularly. As cool as instant photography was, I accepted that it wasn't economically viable for me and moved on. ...Until about a month ago! On one of my first dates with my girlfriend, she introduced me to her Fujifilm Instax Mini 11. It was a much more compact and modern instant camera than my Polaroid. It also used smaller film slides. This was a big deal, as she informed me that the smaller film came at a smaller price. I was intrigued. A couple weeks later, I ventured to Walmart and splurged. I picked up the cheapest Instax they sold: The Mini SE. It only cost about $57, and it came bundled with 10 slides of film. I also picked up an ...

Violoncello for Windows is finally here!

Hi, everyone! Ever since I first started working on it over a month ago, I have spent countless hours creating and perfecting Violoncello for Windows. Featuring a slick and minimal UI, lots of customization options, and support for Windows versions going all the way back to XP, I am very pleased with how the Windows version of Violoncello has turned out. As a result, I am very excited to announce that Violoncello for Windows has finally been released! Violoncello for Windows is packed with features, some of which are found in the mobile version, and others that are not. Some of these include: Open in main browser: Easily open the page you are currently viewing in Violoncello in your default browser! Custom search engine: Choose from Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, or set your own. Lots of customization: Change the background and text colors, and choose a font. Bookmarks: Easily manage and visit bookmarks. Jump to top: Quickly jump to the top of a page. (0, 0) Those are most of the...

John Spahr

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