Free Mac App A Day > Site Updates

Edit 6/16/10:
The site just went down for about 12 hours or so while I resolved some hosting issues I’ve been having (a problem on my part, not Site5′s). In any case, all is well now. Additionally, I’ll be on vacation from the 19th to the 27th, so I’ll be unable to make much progress until I get back. After that though, I’ll begin making some major changes.

The State of FreeMacAppaDay

Today was my last day of school for the year, and I plan to begin updating this site again this summer. However, I think I’ll be making some major changes first. The fact that I haven‘t posted an update in 85 days is testament to the fact that I simply don’t have time to review a free Mac app every day. Here’s what you can expect to see over the next few months:

New domain
While I love FreeMacAppaDay.com dearly, the name is extremely restrictive—it implies that I will post a new review every day. While this used to be no problem, life has gotten in the way and I simply can’t keep up with such a rapid pace. I’ll be accepting suggestions for a new domain, and will likely keep FreeMacAppaDay.com for a few more months to redirect the users who miss the announcement when it first happens.

New host
Site5 has been an absolutely fantastic web host—so fantastic that I’m fairly certain I don’t need many of their incredible services. FreeMacAppaDay’s hosting package is around $200/year, and leaves me with loads of bandwidth and disk space that I simply don’t need. I’m considering switching to a host like NearlyFreeSpeech.net, which charges based on your use of their services. I calculated the amount I’d be spending annually on the new version of this site with NearlyFreeSpeech’s hosting, and it came out to around $30-40/year. This will likely be the first change I make.

New design
As much as I like the current WordPress theme I’m using (called “leopress”), I feel that it’s time for a makeover. I’ve sketched out several designs for the updated site, and think they’re significantly better than the current one. With a bit of time (and the help of some friends), you may see a brand new site in the near future. While this isn’t one of the most pressing issues at hand, it’s a change I’d like to make for personal reasons, as well as to streamline the site’s overall user experience.

New writers
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last year, it’s that I can’t handle this task alone. I’ll be looking to recruit some new writers once the domain and hosting changes are worked out. This will take a lot of stress off me, and provide for a steadier stream of content for you.

New deals
If the updated site really takes off, I’ll begin working with some shareware developers to get promotions on high-quality apps, and hopefully some software license giveaways.

New platforms
Apple’s iOS line of devices is absolutely packed with awesome apps. I’m considering writing reviews for iPhone and iPad apps in the near future, which would create a much wider variety of content on the site. Of course, this change would have to be made in tandem with the domain change. In any case, I feel it’s an interesting idea worth considering.

None of these changes are certain, and all of them are subject to change. If you have any suggestions or would like to contact me regarding writing or helping with the creation of a new site theme, don’t hesitate to send me an email! I’d love to hear some feedback (if only to let me know that there are still users around to appreciate the work that will go into these changes!). You can contact me using the form on the left sidebar, or by sending an email to gbendinelli@gmail.com. Thanks, and you’ll be hearing from me soon!

-Gus Bendinelli

It’s been a while. Believe it or not, though, FreeMacAppaDay is still alive. Summer has begun, and I can get back to updating frequently. I feel terrible about going months at a time without posting even once, but it was the price I had to pay to keep on top of my schoolwork. You can expect (hopefully) daily updates again soon.

In other news, I’m looking for help. It’s obvious to me now that I’m unable to maintain a daily updating website alone, especially during school. If you think you have what it takes, please send me an email using the contact form on the main page (and, well, every other page for that matter). Thanks, and I hope to receive some emails soon.

Oh, and one last thing. I’ll be doing a small shareware (yes, paid applications) giveaway soon, in return for everyone’s patience in the last few months. I’ve been talking with some awesome developers, and will have some licenses ready for you guys soon. Stay tuned.

Woohoo! Thanks to a friend of mine (a.k.a. eddieck), my site now passes the XHTML 1.0 Transitional markup test. For those of you who don’t know exactly what that means, it essentially means that the code is clean by the World Wide Web standards! See for yourself:

FreeMacAppADay Passes XHTML!

Thanks again to eddieck for helping me out on this, and I’ll be back posting in no time.

Let me just start by telling you guys it’s been tough to keep up as long as I have. I’m trying my hardest, but this time I had reason to miss a few posts. I screwed up the install of Clickheat (a cool little add-on that lets you see exactly where users click on your site). Some of you may have noticed the error on the top of the page (and I noticed the fact that I messed up my functions.php file so bad I couldn’t even log into the admin page). But anyway, it all seems to be good now. I fixed the file over FTP, and we’re running again. In the meantime, I updated to the latest version of WordPress, as well as some other smaller plugin updates.

But speaking of plugins, I realized I never formally introduced the new Categories system. As you probably can tell, all of my posts are categorized, and as such, the list of categories became pretty long. While searching for a new way to present my categories, I found WP-Cumulus, which puts all of them in a 3-dimensional sphere. I’d like to hear what you think of it (in the comments on this post), because I haven’t fully decided whether to keep it or not yet.

Finally, I have one last proposal. Over the last few days I’ve been messing with my iPod touch a lot (exploring the immense amount of applications available for the most part), and came up with an idea. I was thinking I could possibly do a Sunday iPhone/iPod App Review as a departure from my normal all-Mac schedule. I may or may not try that this weekend, you’ll just have to wait and see. But, if you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Thanks for your patience, and you’ll hear back from me soon. As a matter of fact, I’m searching for some Turkey Day freeware as we speak!

I’m working on it. Really. I’ve just been bogged down with stuff to do. I’m currently finding more awesome apps (only the best for you guys, haha), and will be posting again soon. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I’ll have some posts accumulated. Also, thanks to mrjim for his comment on my “Sorry Folks” post a bit earlier. It made my efforts seem worthwhile, so I can’t thank you enough. But anyway, stay tuned. We’ll be back soon.

Edit: 10/28/08: I’m starting to build up several posts here, but I’d rather have a long wait then consistent posts than a short wait between every post. Stay tuned…

Hey there, it’s been a while! Sorry for the recent lack of posts, but I’ve been completely bogged down with schoolwork, and need some time to accumulate reviews (so I won’t have to write one every day, which is pretty tough to do–instead I can just write 5 or 6, so I always have one ready to post every day). Anyway, I should be ready to start posting again in October, and the wheels should start turning on my side possibly even tonight. Hold tight, and you’ll be hearing from me soon!