Marc Charbonneau’s Blog

Those of you who are following me on Twitter have probably known about this for a while, but for everyone else I’d like to officially announce Runner’s Log 2.0, which I hope to release sometime later this year.

I’m very excited about this release. I’ve learned a lot of lessons since the first release of Runner’s Log, and I’m using this as an opportunity to fix some of the things I was never really satisfied with, as well as clean up and polish the entire UI. Best of all, I’m making some changes to the underlying data model that will both speed things up and allow for a lot of flexibility working with other applications and devices, including an iPhone companion app I’m planning.

If you’ve already bought Runner’s Log, good news; updates to version 2 will be free. If not, this really is the best time to purchase a license. Not only will you be supporting development, but you’ll be saving $5 since I plan to raise the price once 2.0 is released.

I’ll post screenshots and beta testing information as the release date draws near. In the meantime, please add your suggestions on the new Downtown Software House UserVoice feedback forum.

The past month or two has seen a lot of controversy over rejections in the Apple’s iPhone App Store. Apple has pulled not just “joke” apps which don’t have any quality or substance behind them, but seemingly legitimate applications like Podcaster and Nullriver’s NetShare.

I haven’t done any iPhone development yet, but I am thinking about porting a version of my OS X application Runner’s Log. By its nature Runner’s Log is a pretty tame application, but this news still concerns me. Is it possible it could fall under the ‘duplicate functionality’ clause the Podcaster was rejected for? The new iPod Touch has Nike+ software (which is definitely a competitor) built in, and it’s certainly possible it might make it into the iPhone eventually. What if my version of Runner’s Log could upload data to a website the same way Nike+ did? What if it could read Nike+ data as well?

Now, this is enough to bother me, but I’m not really concerned about it. I think the chances of Runner’s Log being rejected are honestly pretty low, if at all. But what if instead, you imagine Hulu as an example. Hulu is NBC’s flash based online TV service, and it seems to me there’s no reason they couldn’t create an iPhone app similar to YouTube if they wanted. Except, of course, that it would be a direct competitor to TV show sales in the iTunes Store. It wouldn’t exactly be duplicating iTunes, but how would Apple handle that?

Hulu has NBC behind it, so maybe it’s not fair to compare them to the typical indie developer shop that doesn’t have its own lawyers or high-up connections with Apple. The point I’m trying to make though, is that there are plenty examples of perfectly reasonable applications that could potentially fall victim to Apple. This is an area where Apple needs to be more upfront, either by providing a comprehensive list of what will and won’t be allowed, or through more communication with developers before the development process begins. Software companies big and small can’t afford to spend three, six months (or longer, in many cases) when there’s a possibility the application won’t even have a chance to pay off in the end.

The App Store is new, probably still overwhelmed with requests, and I have no reason to believe the process won’t continue to improve over time. Right now though, this is not a good situation to be in.

I just released another update to Runner’s Log this weekend, version 1.1.1. This release includes several important bug fixes as well as a few other small improvements. If you’ve had problems with the previous 1.1.0 release, give this a try!

Download the new version here, or read more about Runner’s Log.

Although it took a lot longer than I expected, I’m pleased to announce the release of Runner’s Log 1.1.0. This is the first major update to Runner’s Log, and includes a number of great new features and improvements. First and foremost is the ability to import Nike+ data from iPods, something users have been asking for a long time (and I’ve wanted myself)! Also included are assigning locations to workouts, visual improvements to the user interface, bug fixes and more.

You can download the update here, or view the change log here. 1.1.0 is a free update if you have a license; new users can purchase a license through PayPal for $19.95.

It’s taken longer than I expected, but I’m pleased to say that the next version of Runner’s Log is coming very, very soon. I finished up the remaining new features this evening, and after a round of testing it should be ready to go.

I’m very excited about this release, as it includes many great new features I think a lot of people are going to love. Some are ideas I had wanted to do since the start, others were suggested by users, and few just came to me recently. Putting them together, I think they’re going to make Runner’s Log one of the very best applications in its category.

UPDATE: All Leopard bugs have been fixed! Grab the new version of Runner’s Log here.

Just a heads-up for any Runner’s Log users planning on upgrading to Leopard. I’ve just begun testing, and it looks like there are a few unfortunate bugs that need to be resolved. I’ve started working on an update to fix these issues, which I hope will be ready early this week. The next major update to Runner’s Log, which includes several new features as well as bug fixes, will be fully compatible with OS X 10.5 as well as OS X 10.4.

I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone!