adamwiggins

9 ms·

31.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
OCR is one we've investigated but it's tricky to find the right API that is compatible with our local-first values. One customer tipped us off that the creators of Nebo have an interesting one. So we'll look into that. Lots o
32.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Thanks! Yes, CRDTs are risky in the sense that they are computer science that is only just at the edge of what's possible in software today. A few folks have put them into practice in small ways (Figma comes to mind) but I wouldn'
33.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Well said. I'm not arguing its utility--I've used it and I think it's a great app. But I do think of it as "fractal sketching" rather than spatial research.
34.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Fair enough. Pen and paper are the ultimate tool for thought, so something that tries to translate them fairly directly into a digital environment also is. Guess my point here is that Muse is not an attempt to translate paper into the compu
35.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Yes, that's planned for somewhere in the 2.x series. Now that we have the foundational sync technology in place, we'll expand to other platforms include publishing to the web. In the meantime, one enterprising customer has already
36.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
You'll be happy to know that Muse is designed to only gate creation of new documents on the membership, not access to anything you've already created. Lapsed memberships go into alumni mode where you can navigate, move, copy, and
37.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Totally agree on the data lock-out problem. Quoting from https://museapp.com/memos/2021-06-pricing/ > In an ideal world, a software subscription will let you pay just when you’re getting value from a product, a
38.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Great sketching app! But unrelated to Muse, which is a thinking workspace focused on text, PDFs, links, and images. The ink annotations and ability to sketch are a minor feature.
39.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
It does, although it will slow down if you load in large data e.g. big PDFs or large boards with huge amounts of ink. I have an iPad I use for testing that cost me $250 on Amazon back in 2019! But watch out for Pencil versions, not all are
40.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
It's a service, so there's a substantial maintenance cost to maintaining multiple versions. Curious if you also feel this way about Figma or Notion? Or for that matter, auto-updating software like Chrome or iOS?
41.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Yes, "pay for a major new version" was the industry model for many years. Office, Photoshop, etc. In the end you're sort of forced to upgrade by file compatibility every two or three years, so it's a subscription with a
42.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Yeah, pricing is really tough. I've experimented heavily with feature-based pricing, most notably in Heroku, and people absolutely hate it. When you put your best features behind a paid upgrade, you're preventing people from evalu
43.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Yes, good point. I'd certainly like software where it's easy to run any version you like. In the Apple ecosystem that's tough because they roll out breaking API changes in the OS every few years. So if you buy a new computer,
44.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Enlighten us! How are people that don't want to pay for software "their best customers"? GoodNotes is great, hope they can make the one-off payment model sustainable. But the reality is that cost needs to match with value ove
45.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Great list. Bear is an inspiration for us in particular. And yeah nested boards[1] and a zooming UI (ala Jef Raskin[2]) is one of the big elements that makes Muse different. [1]: https://museapp.com/how/nestedboards&#x2
46.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Feel free to use a one-off email account (as long as you have access to it indefinitely, since it ties your devices together). Unlike Figma, Notion, etc we don't ask for anything other than an email. We tried implementing Apple sign-in
47.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Much appreciated! And yeah the "Apple tax" isn't awesome but lots to be said for user trust on being in the App Store, a frictionless purchase experience, etc.
48.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
It's freemium rather than a trial, so you can use it for free for as long as you want. (Assuming I'm understanding your request there.) It does export a Muse bundle which is a ZIP archive containing a JSON with the position of the
49.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Fair enough. The other post didn't get any views so it seemed easier to bring the text in and adapt it slightly for this context. Won't happen again.
50.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Yep, the "incredible journey" with a dump of your data in JSON sucks. Muse is built local-first; all your data is kept locally on device, with the sync server merely a second-tier backup. If we go out of business, you keep all the
51.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Yes, agreed. That would be up to my colleague Mark[1], but I'll take the liberty of copy-pasting something he wrote earlier: > Unfortunately we're not going to be in a position to open source or license the syncing software in
52.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Thanks Dan! Hope the Mac app is a good addition to your workflows as well.
53.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Yes, Muse is a prosumer app. Our customers buy it for themselves but usually for use in their work. So if you're a freelancer or entrepreneur who spends a few grand a year on computer hardware, various online hosting services, storage
54.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Well, I would hope that purchase of a product or service is a mutually beneficial business transaction. So in this sense how the product is priced is the problem/concern of both parties. Quoting from https://museapp.com&#x2F
55.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Muse is free for up to 100 cards, which in practice is quite a bit. We have users who have been using it for free for years. (You can always archive old boards to Dropbox etc with the bundle export format.) Some other apps in the "spat
56.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
GoodNotes is great! More of a digital sketchbook (and better than Muse if you're focused purely on the inking/sketching part of things). On paying for software, here's some rationale: https://adamwiggins.com/m
57.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
(cross-posting from an earlier Show HN) Hey all, I'm one of the five folks who built this. We just released a 2.0 version[1] which includes local-first sync. A little backstory: I’m one of the authors of the 2019 essay Local-first soft
58.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Thanks for trying & buying. Concepts has amazing pens (makes sense because it's focused on drawing), but agree we can/should improve the ink experience a lot.
59.
by adamwiggins 4y ago
Thanks for the kind words, Oliver. And yeah, funny how using computing devices for thinking is still such a novel idea, more than half a century after Engelbart wrote about computers augmenting human intellect!
60.
Show HN: Muse 2.0 with local-first sync(museapp.com)
178 points by adamwiggins 4y ago|153 comments

More ›