Looks like some fool has made a Copy Cat version of my Photographers Contract Maker. They have also decided to have less features and charge $9.99 for it. I have no idea what possesses people to do this, but it really upsets me. Coincidentally, I got my first one star rating on itunes this morning- (I can only assume this is also from them in an attempt to lower my rankings on iTunes. Im not even going to mention the name of this App, but yes, it only took a month for someone to make a knock off version of it.
I’m not interested in retaliation even though some of the features are so blatantly copied it’s ridiculous. One way you can help is if you have purchased my App and like it, please post positive feedback on iTunes. Im hoping this will at least counter the fake “one star” ratings this company is posting on my App Review Page. To leave feedback, you can pull up my App in the App store either on your computer or iPhone and look for the “Leave Feedback” bar.
Thanks!
Michael
Link To Michaels App Page on Itunes
that sucks. sorry to hear about it MA
Its ok- Im moving forward. On to better and bigger things!
What happend to all the checking and aproval system in placed by Apple? Really sorry to hear that M, you difinitely don’t deserve it… You have a fantastic group of followers that will always supporta ya…
I saw that app today an almost bought it, but I didnt like the price tag. Def buying yours. Glad I saw this first.
Excellent!
Yes, I found "Easy Release" via RobGalbraith’s post. I wasn’t even aware that such apps were available.
I wouldn’t have gone looking for other (better) apps if not for finding his. So… perhaps competition/rising tide will end up being good for your sales (assuming your app is/continues to be better). Perhaps if you emailed Galbraith, he’d write up your app too…?….
The other app does seem to do some things yours doesn’t though….
The other app does have a better supporting website (eg, it links to the Ten One Pogo Stylus (avail on amazon) which look very neat for capturing the signatures esp. vs. a person’s finger).
Although yours has a decent video tutorial, you could definitely create a higher sense of perceived value if you went beyond the single, design/challenged page with only two links. Also, the movie doesn’t cover model releases at all, which is potentially a much larger market (and perfect match to the iPhone form factor). I’m not sure that we’d use an iPhone for a client job of any significant size.
The Work for Hire is very nice. I’d add a Property Release too (you can grab a "free" one from Getty Images if desired (http://contributors.gettyimages.com/img/articles/downloads/English_-_Property_release_-_Mar2009b.pdf)
While the other app doesn’t allow editing of contracts ("yet" according to the coder), it does seem (I didn’t buy it) to allow taking a photo of the "model" and incorporating right into their database. __VERY__ nice for model (&even property releases)!
Also, it’s unclear from your movie if the AddressBook group is hard coded to "Clients." At a min, it’d be helpful to allow a given group to be associated with a template (ie, "contracts-Clients" for client contracts, release-Models for models, release-Property for property releases, etc.).
***Most importantly (to us anyway) is the ability to have an internal "notes" field. For model/property releases, it’d allow us to document follow ups for a given person on location, their location information, identifying characteristics, etc. Often times, we offer a free print to a subject and it is a REAL hassle to keep track of who we said what to when after days or weeks shooting in the field.
It’d be great to save the GPS Coords when taking the model/property’s mughshot, along with the capture date/time so that the release would sort next to the production photos in Lightroom (ok, so it’d be great to have a JPG version, in addition to the PDF too so lightroom can see it.)
Perhaps the contents of the notes field could be included in the body of the email with the PDF & JPG attachments?
regards,
-c
This could really become a paradigm shifter for how the iPhone is used! Congrats!
PS. I’m sure I could offer more "great" feature ideas if you’re interested 😉
I purchased "Easy Release" just to see what it offered over Michael’s out of curiosity. Having been very happy with Photographer’s Contract Maker, I felt the need to compare. To it’s credit, one thing that was nice was the model image embedding, and the Getty Image Release Wording. What I don’t like about Easy Release is its just not easy to use, way too many blanks to fill in which makes it tedious to use.
Michael’s App is superior in every other aspect, including speed, ease of use, linking clients with contact list, customization options, including placeholders, flexibility for multiple templates and forms, and especially price. Its so easy to use you can really overlook what it can do. I also know that on a thread he mentioned many new features he was working on, including Model images insertion among other things- This was a few weeks ago as well…
I really, truly feel bad for Michael. Ive met him- sincerely a good guy. I’m sure anyone who has met him will say the same and yet he is constantly having people rip him and his videos off. This is another example.
Some of the features in Easy Release were just too similar to Michael’s original concept to say these guys came up with it on their own. From the signature box (almost identical), to the "Settings" which is really the photographers setup, PDFs to email, etc. Sure things were moved around, different color,etc but in my mind, as a third party who has seen and used both, the makers of Easy Release ripped off Michael’s idea.
A bit hypocritical for a group of professionals who rely on others to respect the "copyright" of their work.
I’m looking forward to the updates Michael, you will always have my support.
I have your App Michael and LOVE it. 🙂