MacHouse - A World of Video Tutorials

TOKYO (MacHouse) - More than 40 hours ago, we reported a hostage crisis at MacUpdate (www.macupdate.com) to which we submitted two updates of our software products, BookmarksX 1.7.5 and DVD2Browse 1.1.0. It had been almost 60 hours since we made software submissions and feared that they expunged them intentionally or by accident. So we were obliged to contact MacUpdate. The following is a prompt reply from MacUpdate C.O.O. Misha.






According to the content editor working the shift when your submissions came in, neither the web pages of the apps in question nor the version metadata provided in the download links indicated that the new versions were available yet.






It appears that they have indeed expunged our software submissions. We are disappointed to know that MacUpdate has chosen to make our last 2 software submissions disappear whatever the reason was as its competitor VersionTracker has never lost our submissions in the past. Indeed, BookmarksX 1.7.5 and DVD2Browse 1.1.0 are listed at VersionTracker.

So MacUpdate just makes our software submissions disappear like that?






Related articles:

MacUpdate - Taking Software Submissions as Hostages
Mac Developer’s Guide: VersionTracker vs MacUpdate, Using BookmarksX
Canadian Mac User Stalks MacHouse Over Little Disc+

TOKYO (MacHouse) - MacUpdate (www.macupdate.com) is a popular website for Mac users. It’s a place where software users look for and find what they need and where software developers submit their products. MacUpdate has some unique tools that its competitor VersionTracker (www.versiontracker.com) doesn’t have and make Mac users go back. Whether or not a majority of software users prefer MacUpdate to VersionTracker, software developers don’t necessarily share the same view. In fact, if you ask us, we would answer that we’ve had quite enough of MacUpdate’s harassment. MacUpdate appears to intensionally withhold our submissions. They do lose submissions for sure. They refuse to remove existing software profiles. The worst part is that they will tell you to remove blog articles that you write at your own website. If you refuse, they’ll give you trouble.

More than 15 hours ago, we attempted to update two software titles with MacUpdate. One is DVD2Browser. The other one is BookmarksX. The following screenshots suggest that these submissions would be reviewed ‘within a few hours.’ (See Screenshot 01-2.) These submissions have not been listed at MacUpdate yet. Most likely, they won’t be for the next 10 hours or so. So what has happened to our software submissions?

Screenshot 01 - Source: MacUpdate

Screenshot 02 - Source: MacUpdate

Screenshot 03 - Source: MacHouse

And what happened to the submission we made about 4 weeks ago? Back in January 9, we submitted a new software title (Junk-O-Magic) to MacUpdate. After waiting for more than 46 hours, we e-mailed them and asked what was going on. MacUpdate COO Misha replied   (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - Soon to be released is a new software title called DVD2Browse. DVD2Browse allows the user to drag and drop a DVD disc/Video_TS folder onto a drop box. When imported, DVD2Browse will read the data to get DVD information (duration, movie dimensions, aspect ratio, frame rate) automatically, taking a screenshot. Then it will catalog the DVD.

As long as an imported DVD stays on your computer, the user is able to watch it with a click of Mouse. Simply, choose a media player of your choice like VLC Media Player and DVD Player from the Play button. And DVD2Browse will pass the selected DVD movie to your media player.






DVD2Browse is a product of MacHouse.

TOKYO (MacHouse) - Released as a beta version is mBrowserX. It’s supposed to be an advanced version of mBrowser. Unlike mBrowser, mBrowserX uses ffmpeg to decode video so that Auto shot can be used regardless of the media format. This development project has just started. And we don’t know if mBrowserX will ever become a full-fledged software title.

For now, we want to point out that

There is no User’s Guide for mBrowserX yet as it’s still a beta version. If necessary, please read mBrowser’s User’s Guide.






mBrowserX is a product of MacHouse.

TOKYO (MacHouse) - It’s been almost 2 weeks since we released a new Mac software title. Available soon is a new one called Junk-O-Magic Pro. Junk-O-Magic Pro is quite different from the previous one, Junk-O-Magic, that we released 2 weeks ago. Junk-O-Magic covers more than 3 dozen independent components. Some of them come from existing applications. And many of them have been developed just for this application.

As shown in the screenshots above, the entire application is divided into several areas. Such areas include finder, graphics, audio, movie, disc image and miscellaneous.   (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - The second Mac freeware title we are about to release this month is called Junk-O-Magic. It consists of more than 10 components, most of which are derived from existing applications we’ve developed. If you use it right, Junk-O-Magic can do some quick and wonderful magic tricks. Or maybe it’s just a junk collection of useless applications.   (more…)

TOKYO (MacHouse) - MacHouse has developed more than 20 Mac software products since April, 2009. Some of them are freeware titles. And others are commercial ones. A new comer is called QuickMask. It’s currently available as a freeware title for all Mac users.   (more…)

For both Mac software developers and users, VersionTracker (www.versiontracker.com/macosx) and MacUpdate (www.macupdate.com/) are two major websites where buyers and sellers meet each other. Software developers who submit their product to one of them are quite likely to submit the same product to the other subsequently. Other large Mac review websites are Softpedia (mac.softpedia.com) and Apple - Downloads (www.apple.com/downloads/macosx). As for Apple - Downloads, it’s true that any software developer can submit their products to them. But the hurdle is high. They don’t list any submission unconditionally. If your software product has flaws, Apple - Downloads is likely to ignore it without telling you reasons.

As you see in Screenshot 01, BookmarksX shows that VersionTracker’s Mac website has the highest Google PageRank. Of course, the Google PageRank is not the only parameter of website popularity.

Screenshot 01 - Source: MacHouse

Screenshot 02 - Source: VersionTracker

Screenshot 03 - Source: Google

VersionTracker’s high PageRank partly results from the fact it’s part of a major IT group called CNET Networks. CNET Networks acquired VersionTracker at the end of August, 2007. CNET Networks also owns popular websites including Download.com (download.cnet.com) and GameSpot. Should Mac software developers care about who owns VersionTracker? Maybe, they should. If you submit a software product to VersionTracker, chances are that it will be listed at other group websites simultaneously. For example, we submitted a new software product called AskKey Pro several hours ago. (See Screenshot 02.) According to Google, our submission of AskKey Pro is also found at CNET Download.com. And according to BookmarksX, CNET Download.com’s Mac website has a Google page popularity of 7.   (more…)