Yes, I’m still alive 😅.
Were I was?
These months were and are important at my workplace (Yes, I do something entirely different than programming at my work). These were and are hard days and my free time is almost non-existent (And even difficult to enjoy because of other problems).
This is preventing me to work costantly on my apps, so I’ve almost paused the development of a lot of projects. It’s impossible to make a good work if you have your thoughts in another place. Don’t worry, I’ve provided more details in this very rare blog post.
Un-released some apps
I’ve decided to dismiss and hide from the Microsoft Store some of my apps. These apps are:
- Device Diagnostics HUB – This app was meant for Windows Phone, Hololens and IoT. Since these aren’t supported anymore and on PC it’s very difficult to use, I won’t release any other update.
- Fast Post – This app was made in the very early days of Windows 10 Mobile and I don’t think it’s useful. There are a lot of apps that can do better, including the Memo app on Windows.
- Tracker Player – An updated version compatible with a moltitude of chiptune formats was in development. However, it was too much unstable and there are already some players that can play these formats, like Foobar2000 (With plugins).
Anybody who has purchased the IAPS (If available), should still be able to use these apps.
An update to my other – still supported – apps
Live Tiles Anywhere
I know I know, I promised an update a lot of times and I was near releasing it multiple times. Unfortunately It’s still too much unstable, so I’ll return to this later. The good news is that it’s 90% complete, just not working well.
ModernGlance
The last update was released a long time ago and I want to add some features I got requested. I’ve started implementing all the new things from Live Tiles Anywhere, but I’ve an issue which may be a big road block.
BitPics
I want to improve this app too. I made some tests in the past with a faster algorithm. I’m not focused a lot on this app because it’s performing very badly.
An important issue with the Microsoft Store
Since the launch of Live Tiles Anywhere, I got a lot of praises and good advertisement, even from big channels and websites. I won’t hide that the number of downloads were still very low, especially compared to the numbers I was making when Windows Phone was a thing. ModernGlance has double the downloads of Live Tiles Anywhere, even if almost nobody talked about it.
I’ve started to think that the Microsoft Store isn’t a good place to be to make a little bit of money, which would help me a lot, especially in this period.
Don’t worry, I won’t make “scam” apps on the Store, but I may think on making more small projects in the future, even outside the Microsoft Store.
I want to thank all the people that supported me by donating trough PayPal! Your support is contributing me to keep working on these apps.
Thinking going Android?
Yes. At the moment I’ve some ideas on what to release, but my work has the priority at the moment. I will announce things when it’s time.
Doing other things than apps
In these months I tried to make some small projects to distract myself.
- One of these was the completion of the reverse engineering of the assets of the game Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for the first PlayStation. Here’s the link to my GitHub.
- I’ve opened a secondary Youtube channel here. It’s called U’st’pett, a local dialect word that can be translated as “A little cabinet”.
- I’ve some other old and new projects that I want to finalize to be released in the public. Some of these are meant for an italian audience and are already shared in private groups.
- I may decide to live-stream some things on my Twitch channel. Most likely I won’t make gameplays, we’ll see.
Remember that you can contact me by following the links on top on my site or here (The mail thing should be working now as expected). You can support my work by donating to PayPal here.
TL;DR: Work it’s taking a lot of my time, dismissed some apps, almost paused the development of LTA and ModernGlance, more small projects outside the Microsoft Store asap.