I really don’t know why Smile Software hasn’t built a web service by now. I’d pay an embarrassing amount of money every month to have my snippets everywhere.
@jaredsinclair A web service is the best solution right now, but it seems tricky. Charging would potentially alienate many of the existing users. And charging developers would limit the apps that synced.
@manton In the context of Apple’s antagonizing review policies, it’s possible that users are already feeling frustrated. I also wonder if the average TextExpander user is more likely than average to tolerate subscription pricing.
@manton The bigger problem is still Apple. Apple has made it *very* difficult for anyone providing a paid subscription service paired with an iOS app to conduct business in a satisfying way for customers, c.f. every App.net app.
@jaredsinclair Agreed. I wonder if for ADN the long-term solution is something like an embedded "mini" version of Passport, to get users started. It's been a couple years with the current App Store policy and Apple seems unlikely to budge.
@tofias@jaredsinclair Yes, but currently there's no way for a third-party app to create an ADN subscription (IAP or otherwise) on behalf of the user. The user has to go to the web site or download Passport.
@jaredsinclair iOS and OS X sync their completion shortcuts as of 6 and 10.8, I believe. Better than nothing.
Example: when I type onestar, I get ★☆☆☆☆
@manton@jaredsinclair@tofias i was told specifically by the app store reviewers that a 3rd party service cannot, under any circumstances, create a new account for a service unless that service is 100% free forever.
zero wiggle room.
@manton@jaredsinclair@tofias the only way for any app to create an account on a service that might eventually charge money is to have an IAP for the service in the app creating the user -- which for all intents and purposes, eliminates 3rd parties.
@isaiah@tofias@jaredsinclair I think I could argue that a free ADN account is free forever, though I guess it's a gray area. Definitely doing IAP in third-party apps is a small nightmare.
@manton@jaredsinclair@tofias ADN collects money somehow, so the service is clearly not free, it's tiered. at least as far as the app store reviewers are concerned tiered != free.
@isaiah@jaredsinclair@tofias@manton the gray area seems to be what to do on a login screen when the user doesn’t have an account. Surely the best experience for the user is to provide a link to the underlying web service - is the disallowed?