Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#11

Post by nicoburns » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 12:44 PM UTC

LeonB wrote: post #6

akuji1993 wrote: post #4

One thing about the App. As someone dealing a lot with customers, UX, UI design etc. You definitely need another logo. This icon says "This is something really old and complicated. This is for the 40-something businessman, not for you tech-savy youth", or something in that direction.

Agreed. We’re planning to revise in the next year or so. At the moment we wanted the brand recognition so that existing customers who are looking to use the Mac version know and trust that this is the same product. Modernising the icon can come in a subsequent update. Cheers!

Agree with the other commenter. Change out that icon ASAP. I definitely wouldn't click on that if I hadn't seen this on HN. The existing is actually blurry on retina/hidpi screens.

Personally (given the name of the tool) I recommend something turtle themed.

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#12

Post by akuji1993 » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 12:49 PM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #11

LeonB wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. We’re planning to revise in the next year or so. At the moment we wanted the brand recognition so that existing customers who are looking to use the Mac version know and trust that this is the same product. Modernising the icon can come in a subsequent update. Cheers!

Agree with the other commenter. Change out that icon ASAP. I definitely wouldn't click on that if I hadn't seen this on HN. The existing is actually blurry on retina/hidpi screens. Personally (given the name of the tool) I recommend something turtle themed.

Lol, love the turtle idea.

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#13

Post by jwong_ » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 12:56 PM UTC

noeltock wrote: post #10

Alternative: ScreenNinja (cheaper I think, $20) http://getscreenninja.com/

An alternative I used to use when I wanted this feature:

`while [ 1 ];do vardate=$(date +%d\-%m\-%Y\_%H.%M.%S); screencapture -t jpg -x ~/Desktop/project_name/$vardate.jpg; sleep 10; done`

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#14

Post by ellisv » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 1:12 PM UTC

jwong_ wrote: post #13

noeltock wrote: post #10

Alternative: ScreenNinja (cheaper I think, $20) http://getscreenninja.com/

An alternative I used to use when I wanted this feature: `while [ 1 ];do vardate=$(date +%d\-%m\-%Y\_%H.%M.%S); screencapture -t jpg -x ~/Desktop/project_name/$vardate.jpg; sleep 10; done`

Came here expecting to see this as a top-level comment. Really not sure why someone (here on HN) would pay $30 rather than just write a simple script like this.

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#15

Post by joshstrange » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 1:38 PM UTC

ellisv wrote: post #14

jwong_ wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alternative I used to use when I wanted this feature: `while [ 1 ];do vardate=$(date +%d\-%m\-%Y\_%H.%M.%S); screencapture -t jpg -x ~/Desktop/project_name/$vardate.jpg; sleep 10; done`

Came here expecting to see this as a top-level comment. Really not sure why someone (here on HN) would pay $30 rather than just write a simple script like this.

I could see paying $30 for the options/playback. I'm not sure if `screencapture` gets all the desktops or just the active one or what. Also the playback UI looks nice and is a much better way to check what you were doing and for how long than a directory of images would be. If it was a subscription services I'd be looking for alternatives but one-time purchase? $30 seems reasonable.

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#16

Post by LeonB » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 1:42 PM UTC

ellisv wrote: post #14

jwong_ wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alternative I used to use when I wanted this feature: `while [ 1 ];do vardate=$(date +%d\-%m\-%Y\_%H.%M.%S); screencapture -t jpg -x ~/Desktop/project_name/$vardate.jpg; sleep 10; done`

Came here expecting to see this as a top-level comment. Really not sure why someone (here on HN) would pay $30 rather than just write a simple script like this.

Here’s a comment answering this question when we announced the beta. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19700265

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#17

Post by Shank » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 1:48 PM UTC

LeonB wrote: post #6

akuji1993 wrote: post #4

One thing about the App. As someone dealing a lot with customers, UX, UI design etc. You definitely need another logo. This icon says "This is something really old and complicated. This is for the 40-something businessman, not for you tech-savy youth", or something in that direction.

Agreed. We’re planning to revise in the next year or so. At the moment we wanted the brand recognition so that existing customers who are looking to use the Mac version know and trust that this is the same product. Modernising the icon can come in a subsequent update. Cheers!

Honestly literally any other icon would be better, and that’s something you should do today (not later). I understand that you think brand recognition is really important, but the current logo screams “I’m a Windows application ported over!”

You will just sell more copies, straight up, if you change the logo.

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#18

Post by klausjensen » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 2:09 PM UTC

dddw wrote: post #9

30 bucks for a screenshot app... 3 bucks I can easily life with, and would instantly grab my wallet without thinking. 10 bucks or 20 bucks even if I would use this often. But 30 is quite steep IMHO

I have many times ended up billing more time because of TimeSnapper - time I would otherwise have forgotten about.

For me, it is worth the price.

I have used TimeSnapper on Windows for at least 5 years.

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#19

Post by siebology » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 2:28 PM UTC

jwong_ wrote: post #13

noeltock wrote: post #10

Alternative: ScreenNinja (cheaper I think, $20) http://getscreenninja.com/

An alternative I used to use when I wanted this feature: `while [ 1 ];do vardate=$(date +%d\-%m\-%Y\_%H.%M.%S); screencapture -t jpg -x ~/Desktop/project_name/$vardate.jpg; sleep 10; done`

I’m guessing the target market is users who are not proficient in scripting, but rather business users who want to monitor their employees or non-coders who want to retroactively be able to construct time logs of their work.

Re: Show HN: TimeSnapper for Mac is available now

#20

Post by wlesieutre » Mon, Aug 12, 2019, 2:45 PM UTC

nicoburns wrote: post #11

LeonB wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. We’re planning to revise in the next year or so. At the moment we wanted the brand recognition so that existing customers who are looking to use the Mac version know and trust that this is the same product. Modernising the icon can come in a subsequent update. Cheers!

Agree with the other commenter. Change out that icon ASAP. I definitely wouldn't click on that if I hadn't seen this on HN. The existing is actually blurry on retina/hidpi screens. Personally (given the name of the tool) I recommend something turtle themed.

Since the App Store shows icons at a large size, it's blurry on non-retina screens too:

https://i.imgur.com/kJiaHwM.png

Seeing that icon, I would assume the quality of app I'm getting is not the quality I expect for $30.

Per Apple's documentation, you need icon sizes up to 1024x1024. This represents a 512x512 size at 2x DPI.

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...

At the very least for the short term you could hire someone at an online freelancing site to trace the existing icon into vectors and make larger versions of it.