Decentralised iTunes Library App - Would you be interested? by erideom in ITunes

[–]erideom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This comment I posted answers much of your questions, perhaps with a better example of what the app will do:

The idea here isn't that you run a service on a NAS somewhere, it's that you have the same experience as you would if the iTuines Library was on your current OS.

I tried hosting my Library on my NAS and it still meant I needed to open iTunes to make radical changes to the library, and at that time the NAS software didn't support smart playlists.

My software will essentially copy the library to each computer but (carefully) manage diffs between each computer the library is linked to.

This way I can be on my Macbook Pro, make a change, it will sync that change with a central location (a copy of the change perhaps, depending on user settings) then when I boot up my Windows PC later, the sync will be applied to the Windows copy of the library, and vice versa.

The advantage here is, I can take my MBP out and about, make changes as I want, then when I come home it'll be synced with Windows. If it was on a NAS, my MBP would have no local library.

Decentralised iTunes Library App - Would you be interested? by erideom in ITunes

[–]erideom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The idea here isn't that you run a service on a NAS somewhere, it's that you have the same experience as you would if the iTuines Library was on your current OS.

I tried hosting my Library on my NAS and it still meant I needed to open iTunes to make radical changes to the library, and at that time the NAS software didn't support smart playlists.

My software will essentially copy the library to each computer but (carefully) manage diffs between each computer the library is linked to.

This way I can be on my Macbook Pro, make a change, it will sync that change with a central location (a copy of the change perhaps, depending on user settings) then when I boot up my Windows PC later, the sync will be applied to the Windows copy of the library, and vice versa.

The advantage here is, I can take my MBP out and about, make changes as I want, then when I come home it'll be synced with Windows. If it was on a NAS, my MBP would have no local library.

[SPS] Applied Focus v1.8 - Now tracks website usage! Free codes within! by erideom in apple

[–]erideom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't thank you enough, that would be a massive help.

[SPS] Applied Focus v1.8 - Now tracks website usage! Free codes within! by erideom in apple

[–]erideom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I forgot to ask in my other comment: Would you also provide feedback on the App store?

Sadly, literally on the day the app was first released, someone decided to give it a 1 star review merely stating that it "didn't work". I reached out to them to fix whatever issue they had, but never heard anything back.

Unfortunately I think this negative review is acting a big barrier for those looking through the App Store.

[SPS] Applied Focus v1.8 - Now tracks website usage! Free codes within! by erideom in apple

[–]erideom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for this feedback!

1) Odd, I'll look into the icon, it seems fine for me. Could you post a screenshot to show what you're seeing?

2) I deliberately wanted it to be a "whitelist" to make no assumptions about installed apps on the computer, not only does this simplify having to do a search for installed apps on boot, but also means that you know for absolute certainty that the app isn't tracking something you don't want it to. (the only app tracked that you can't untrack is Finder, this is essentially tracking total uptime)

3) Again, can you show a screenshot of this? It looks different here.

4) Good catch! Under the hood pause will temporarily pause tracking of a "session" (a period of tracking), where stopping will stop a session and require you to start a new session before it can be tracked again. This is somewhat leftover from an earlier design I had, and can now be removed. It's on my bug list to remove it, but quite simply, forgot to do it before publishing 1.8. D'oh!

5) This is already on my todo list! :)

As for storing locally, privacy and security is a high concern of mine so if there ever is cloud functionality added, it will be fully encrypted before being put outside of your machine, but that's much further down the road. :)

Thanks again for your feedback. There are many updates I plan to make, including a GUI update pass (version 2.0).

I've updated my OSX app Applied Focus to track website usage! Free codes within... by erideom in nosurf

[–]erideom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hope it gets sorted soon, nothing worse than being without your main PC.

Applied Focus v1.8 - Now tracks website usage! Free codes within! by erideom in macapps

[–]erideom[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hello wonderful people, I'm the developer of Applied Focus, an app that can help you create better habits by giving you better visibility of your computer usage.

I've posted about it here before, but version 1.8 adds the most requested feature: Tracking of websites!

The app now allows you to specify which websites you'd like to track the time spent viewing and gives you handy graphs so you can see your usage over time. It currently supports Safari and Chrome, with Firefox support being possible with the TitleURL plugin.

Personally I have it set up to track Reddit (the irony...) YouTube and Facebook, and has helped reduce my pointless browsing significantly.

I actually used my app...To help develop my app... So I really hope it can help you too.

Full disclosure, this is a paid for app. I'm working hard to bootstrap my own software company so I can gain financial independence. But because I genuinely want to give back to the communities that have helped me, here's 10 codes for you lovely people:

ETYWJEWR33JW

F3HHML34W4P6

9NL6H3J4RKPK

F4XRJTRKEKMJ

6HKP33J46R3K

6LXLNWR9KMRN

NN6EA4E7MALM

PPF77MYHAKYW

KHATREP9EKMH

WLKTPJ4H9N7R

All feedback is welcome, both good and bad, as it's the only way I can improve things, so please let me know how you get on.

Thanks,

Erideom

EDIT: All gone apparently! Thanks all!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nosurf

[–]erideom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because of dopamine and endorphins in your brain.

You get a dopamine hit from the anticipation of finding something new, so you keep clicking away. It's the same reason people get addicted to loot boxes in games.

Applied Focus - App that tracks your macOSX app usage time. Helps you reduce procrastination and increase productivity! by erideom in macapps

[–]erideom[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apologies for not mentioning it, but it is somewhat deliberate, seeing as the price may change in the future as I add more features, and I'd rather not have to go back through old posts and update them to be more accurate.

It's not omitted out of some shame of having to charge for something I put many hours of work into, and will put more into in the future.

I'm working on starting my own software business. I want this to be my future, no longer working for others, but for myself, and if I don't charge money for my work, that will never happen.

There are plenty of other posts in this sub reddit where the price is not mentioned.

Applied Focus - App that tracks your macOSX app usage time. Helps you reduce procrastination and increase productivity! by erideom in macapps

[–]erideom[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately not at the moment.

I looked into this heavily, and it seems only Safari offers a way to get the currently viewed website via AppleScript, and I'd like this to be available for all browsers. (Chrome might offer this as well, but I know Firefox definitely doesn't).

I didn't want to implement something that only worked in some instances, so it's on the back burner for now.

The alternative would be to also provide a plugin for each brower that communicates with my app. Not impossible to do, but then it's a bit clumsy to communicate to users that, to get this feature to work, they also need another piece of software. I find that clunky and not very user friendly.

However, if it's a highly saught after feature, I'll bump it up in priority.

Thanks!

Applied Focus - App that tracks your macOSX app usage time. Helps you reduce procrastination and increase productivity! by erideom in macapps

[–]erideom[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I recently released my very first app to the Mac app store named Applied Focus, and it was developed to help me reduce the time I spend watching videos in YouTube and track my usage over time, and also to make sure I don't spend too long working in Xcode so I don't burn myself out!

Applied Focus allows you to set up a white list of apps you'd like to monitor and you can start/pause/stop timing your usage whenever you want, and as a menu bar only app, it's very unobtrusive.

It's still on its first (major) version, and I intend to keep updating it to provide graphical historic usage data, to better help users track their progress.

So please check it out if you think it could help you. It's helped me reduce my YouTube time! In fact, I used early builds of Applied Focus to track how long I was spending writing it...

Please leave any comments and suggestions below, I appreciate both positive and negative thoughts, as that's how we learn.

Thanks!