Hi All-
Last week we announced the acquisition of TotallyWrite from LTW Productions Canada, Inc. For more info see the following press releases on our site or on Jeff's site.

TotallyWrite, for those that aren't aware, is the creation of Emmy-award winning screenwriter, Jeffrey Schechter. TotallyWrite is script outlining software which literally walks writers through the proper way of writing a script. For the past 7 years, Jeff has built up a large and passionate customer base but, for the last year, was struggling with finding enough hours in the day to promote and market it. Fast forward through numerous conversation and meetings and it quickly became clear that forming some sort of partnership with Jeff would be a win-win. Moving forward we have renamed the product Contour and have started rewriting the app from scratch (we actually started this process a few months ago) and, of course, integrating it with Montage. Today we are approaching the beta stage for Contour and hope to have it shipping in November, just in time for the Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles. As a matter of fact, we are going to have Jeff out at the show giving presentations on Contour and this phenominal way
to structure screenplays. As we get closer to the show I'll blog more on what fabulous things we have planned there.

More to come on Contour!

Mike

Avast, me hearties! It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Other than St. Patrick's Day, it has to be our favorite day of the year here at Mariner!

Aaaargh.

Mike

If you have been trying out MacJournal 5 and need a little push to get things rolling, check out MacUpdate. Until September 10 you can get 10 apps for $50 (one of those 10 is MacJournal). An incredible deal.

Mike

If you have been eyeing our MacGourmet Deluxe software but just needed a little something to push you over the edge, make sure you check out MacUpdate tomorrow. MacGourmet Deluxe will be showcased in their one day promo and have a nicely-reduced price as well.

Thanks
Mike

Averagebetty.com and Mariner Software began a fun partnership this month. If you are not familiar with Average Betty you really need to check out her videos on her site. Betty is part chef, part entertainer and is becoming one of the hottest brands on the internet racking up awards from Yahoo's Video Award for Best Internet Personality to iTunes “Best of 2007 Podcast.” Look for Betty showing up in a future Mariner ad campaign with MacGourmet Deluxe too.

Check out Betty here.

Mike

The guys over at Inside Mac Radio were nice enough to let me on their show several days ago to schmooze about the Mariner product line. Listen to it here or download it to your favorite Apple device.

For some reason, my Blogger account had decided not to play nice for the last few weeks. Today it seems like I'm up and running. Gotta love technology.

Mike

This week we celebrate our 18th year in the software industry and while it's pretty common for us here at Mariner to avoid patting ourselves on the back, I would like to make an exception to the rule and congratulate all that have been a part of the "Mariner experience" since the beginning. Even though it's business as usual this week, a special acknowledgement should be made to the Founder and CTO of Mariner Software, Bill Paar. Personally, I've met many people in this industry in my 16 years but not one who even comes close to Bill's intellect, work ethic, and commitment to build a successful company. Bill is one of these rare individuals who can put in a several week stretch of 20 hour days of non-stop coding, then, to relieve stress, he will go flying in his glider (sans engine and parachute!). A more unique character would be hard to find.

Congratulations Mariner! And here's to 18 more years of smooth sailing!

Mike

Yesterday we released MacGourmet Deluxe. And while it's not our "usual" kind of writing-based app, the response has been wonderful. I was asked the other day to describe the product in 20 words or less ~ here is what I came up with:

"MacGourmet Deluxe helps you create and edit recipes, make wine and cooking notes, publish your recipes as a blog, export shopping lists, plan meals, even create your own high-end cookbook."

Ok, that's 30 words but as you can see that product is jammed packed with interesting features. The Cookbook Builder feature is my favorite. Imagine having dozens of family recipes that you now would like to share with family and friends in a cookbook. With MacGourmet Deluxe, you can now (and rather simply) create a high res PDF with a cover, images, table of contents, an author's preface among quite a few other features. We even have a few print-on-demand sources for you to have your masterpiece created in actual book form.

If you are intrigued and want to learn more or give MacGourmet Deluxe a test drive, feel free to visit our product page.

Have a great day!

Mike

As July 11th approaches (the opening of Apple's App Store), one of the most frequently asked questions we are getting is how much will Mariner Calc for the iPhone cost?

Good question.

In discussions with Apple and several other developers these past few weeks, I've discovered that no developer really wants to be the first to "set the stage." Sure, a few game companies at the WWDC keynote announced they were coming in at the $10 price point, but what about productivity apps? professional apps? what about consumer apps? how about educational apps? No offense to gaming apps as some of them are jaw-dropping impressive, but I wonder if their $10 precedent suggests other apps should be priced higher since there is a greater perceived value in them? Another mindset which might be considered is that an app that will be marketed to corporate America will have a higher price point because the perception is that "I'm not buying it, the company is." Equally important in determining a price for an iPhone app is the new price of the iPhone itself. I know if I'm spending $200 on a phone, I'm going to look long and hard at a $30 app. A few of those and I've spent as much on software as I have on the phone!

Have an opinion? I'd love to hear it.

Mike

Today, the fine folks over at macworld.com wrote about what we have been diligently working on for the past few months...Mariner Calc for the iPhone. I blogged about it a bit a little while ago but, effective today, the Mac community, or at least some of the readership of macworld.com, now know what our first effort into these uncharted waters (note the Mariner/ocean-going reference - ;-) will be. While there is still quite a bit of the unknown, I can tell you we are focusing on a core set of functionality. Here's a list of a few of the top features:

1. View native excel files
2. _Edit_ native excel files
3. 1,000,000 by 32,000 row and column support
4. CocoaTouch native application
5. Support for multiple sheets
6. Chart and object support

Stay tuned, folks. This is going to get interesting. :-)

Mike

and most of the Mac community is wondering what Steve has up his sleeve. Have any guesses? Personally, I think the new iPhone will take center stage (no shock there) but, in addition to the iPhone, I expect developers will hear for the first time when the next operating system (code name: Lynx? Puma? Bobcat? Saber-toothed Lion?) and what to expect. Hmmm, maybe a Macworld 2009 roll out?

And speaking of the iPhone, we will hopefully have some news/screenshots to share for Mariner Calc on the iPhone. It's really starting to take shape!


Mike

Hello!
For the last few months we have been busy prepping for the release of MacGourmet Deluxe, which has been scheduled for a mid June release. We are extremely excited about the potential with the product and expect some big things from it. One of the most intriguing features that MGD has is the ability for the user to create a high resolution cookbook (pdf format) complete with a cover page, page numbers, images, text, ect; of all his/her favorite recipes. Want the cookbook in hard copy form? Send it off to one of the print-on-demand partners we have to print off 1, 5, 50, 500. We'll have info and demos on our web site soon.

Best,
Mike

You can find Corey and Dawn presenting our writing software out at the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend. Make sure you say hi if you are attending!

Mike

A few months ago, the super-nice guys over at MacUpdate contacted us and said they were putting together an uber-bundle of today's hottest Mac titles and asked if we would like to be involved with StoryMill. Long story short, fast forward to today and voila, StoryMill is in the latest MacUpdate bundle. The deal is for $65, you get 10 apps! A saving of a couple hundred dollars. If you have been considering starting that novel you have always wanted to write, I think this is a pretty good sign to move forward! :-)

Mike

As excitement builds for the official rollout of of the App Store in June, I thought I would try to clear the air on what our intentions are for entering this market.

Yes, we are currently developing an app(s) for the iPhone.

No, we can't announce it/them yet.

Once we are to a point it is/they are representable, I suspect you'll see another post like this with a hell of a lot more info than this one. :-)

Mike

While it will be several days before we officially announce our news, effective last week, we came to terms with our friends over at Advenio and will soon begin republishing MacGourmet. We will be rebranding the Deluxe version of the product and expect to roll it out as a Mariner app in the Spring/Summer timeframe. I can't go into a lot of detail quite yet but this will be a great addition to our product line. If you have never checked out MacGourmet before, feel free to download a demo over at the Advenio site and discover just how impressive this product is.

Stay tuned!

Mike

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Just a quick note for folks living in the Los Angeles area. Mariner will be exhibiting some of our writing and creativity apps at the LA TImes Festival of Books http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/index.html next month (April 26-27) on the UCLA campus. I guess this would be considered our first _outdoor_ tradeshow! We will be showing off our software http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=20 with our partner, The Writer's Store, at Booth 562. This will be our first time attending but, apparently, it attracts nearly 150,000 people! If you are in the neighborhood, stop on by.

Mike

Our in-house celebrity, Corey Johnson, hit the airwaves yesterday over on mymac.com. Listen to Corey talk about all the Mariner product line and future goals (and maybe even with a little iPhone development tease thrown in) :-).

The show is now live at: http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=3203

best,
Mike


PS: Consider purchasing StoryMill? Check out a 24 hour promo over on MacZot today - http://www.maczot.com

Wednesday we released MacJournal 5.0.2 which cleared up a few nagging bugs from the initial release. It's always a challenge, from a developer's perspective, when you have to "work around" issues (read: bugs) in the operating system so as the product being developed functions properly.

Did you get all that? :-)

Anyway, MacJournal 5 is being very well received and we appreciate all the kudos. Interestingly, and this will tell you how savvy our customers are, we are getting a ton of positive feedback on functionality that is so obscure that it didn't even make the manual or Read Me. That's impressive.

We also came full circle on the app icon. Going back 4 or 5 years ago, MacJournal had a simple, blue icon which seemed to resonate with many. I always thought it was a little too basic, but then again, what do I know? :-) Anyway, MacJournal 3 and 4, as some of you may remember, had a classic, brown app icon of a leather-bound journal.

Swing and a miss on that one, I guess.

Although I liked it, I'd say more than half of our customers didn't. Not to the degree of projectile vomiting or anything, but, "it just isn't the blue one" was a line I heard more times than I could count.

Enter MacJournal 5 and the return of the blue app icon.

I've heard 90% positive responses on the new, blue icon which tells me we made the right move. And I even like it too. The imagery clearly defines that this is a modern, leading edge app and isn't just a modified text editor. And that's what I was shooting for.

What do you think of the new, blue icon?

Mike

Ok, first a huge apology. I went to Macworld with every intention of taking great photos and commenting every day on the things I saw.

Note to self: Bring out _two_ digital cameras next year and don't schedule so many meetings!

Long story short, my camera got hosed, I got too busy, and my Macworld reporting experiment was a bust. Next year I PROMISE I will be better prepared.

I did post, however, some photos from Corey Johnson, our Director of Product Development, that have moderate entertainment value. If nothing else, you'll get to see some of the faces behind the emails/phone calls.

From our perspective, this was the busiest Macworld we have been to since starting to exhibit 4 years ago. With MacJournal 5 and StoryMill being released at the same time, I think it's safe to say we need to do a better job pacing ourselves next year! We did get to talk to many wonderful people (including Sinbad, who, as our QA gal Dawn says, "has looks and brains!") - thanks for all those that stopped, it was great to meet you.

See ya next year.

Mike

Interesting times. Yesterday started off with the keynote and as you probably have gathered, the Apple-faithful were jacked up to hear Steve introduce the "next big thing."

They weren't disappointed.

Steve introduced the MacBook Air (love the name) and, let me tell you, this thing is thin! And it weighs a lot less than you would expect too. I think the masses weren't all that jazzed about the price point but I suspect after the first month or three when they have sold to the biggest chunk of early adopters, they will come down to the $1,500ish range.

Steve, of course, hasn't shared that with me - I'm just guessing.

The Apple TV announcement was sort of cool. It was interesting to hear Steve admit that Version 1 of Apple TV was a bit of a failure.

The movie rental thing should be a hit. You can almost see that Apple is expanding its reach into media distribution. The days of being a computer company are long gone.

There were a few other announcements but I have a ton to do today so I'll blog more tonight. I had some technical difficulties with my camera today so I'll post more pics tomorrow.

From our side of things, I can't recall a Day One being any more busy. Tons of traffic. For those that stopped by to say hi, thanks for taking time out in your day to visit.

Mike

PS: We also attended the Microsoft-sponsored, Devo-jamming (yes, THE Devo with the hats and all) Macworld Blast Party last night. That was just bizarre. Devo and Microsoft...I'm not sure which one was less interested in being there.

Well, we are off on our little adventure we call, Macworld Expo week. This is our fourth and, most definitely, largest appearance on the show floor and to say that I'm relieved the day is here is an understatement. I'll be posting some blogs from the show (with photos) so check back later here.

Here's a photo I snapped last night of our booth at 80% complete.

Mike

Folks-
For a short period of time we will be releasing MacJournal 5 to the public before its
official release this month. This isn't a public beta, per se, just an opportunity to
get a sneak peek. If interested and are willing to contribute feedback, download a
copy here...

http://www.marinersoftware.com/MacJournal.dmg

Here are some of the highlights...

•All new interface, built for Mac OS X Leopard.

•Add any kind of content, not just text. Drag PDFs, QuickTime movies, images,
and more into the Sidebar to create an entry with anything on your computer.

•Open more than one MacJournal document at a time and save them
wherever you want, or just use the default document and never worry about
saving.

•Create Smart Journals from searches you perform.

•Create aliases to entries that you can store in other journals.

•Assign each entry a rating, status, and priority, and sort any journal by those values.

•Record video from your iSight and attach it to any entry.

•Performance enhancements for working with large amounts of entries.

•And a ton more...

If you have feedback, please send it via email to bugs@marinersoftware.com.

thanks for your support!

Mike

We're pretty excited about our next offering, StoryMill, which has been in beta for awhile now. StoryMill is the latest release in Mariner Software's long (and growing) line of writing and creativity software. This time for novel writing.

So how do you describe StoryMill?

Part word processor, part database and built from the ground up for OS X (just how we like it!), StoryMill is the new, smart and
systematic way to write your best seller.

StoryMill has a ton of features but here are some...

-Track, tag and filter characters, scenes, locations, and research with StoryMill's unique dynamic outline.

-Visually and interactively display your story across time with StoryMill's timeline view.

- annotate any text in your project.

- revise your work with innovative tools like a word frequency tracker and cliche finder.

- set and achieve your daily writing goals with the progress meter.

- built-in support for tracking submissions to editors and agents.

-Manage the creative writing process with Smart Views.

-Write, distraction-free, in Full Screen Mode.

-View your novel in multiple views.

-Back up any and all activity in StoryMill

-Native Cocoa, Universal, and Leopard compatible.


This app makes writing fiction or short stories so easy that even a writer as talentless as me can crank out a masterpiece. :-)

We hope to release StoryMill at the Macworld Expo so we are getting close. Be sure to download a copy and try it for yourself.

Mike