Beware of “OEM deals”

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OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) “… can be used as an adjective to describe software licensed only for a particular system. OEM software is purchased alongside a system or hardware parts.” (source: Wikipedia).

Broken CDRecently I come across number of websites that advertise so-called “OEM deals”, where you can buy cheap software. They offer popular titles for about half of the price, claiming that you’ll receive perfectly legal and working copies.

Allow me to explain why this is not true.

Developers use knowledge, time, patience and fingertips to create software. Customers decide that they need (want, like, …) the software and use money to buy a licence. If software is good, more customers buy it to make a better compensation for developer’s work, and everyone is happy, supposedly.

Then there are Hackers, who use their special kind of knowledge and some time to release a crack, patch or keymaker. Developers fix the leak, but hackers always can find another one (it’s common knowledge that every software can be cracked). This is a closed circle, almost some kind of a “mental game”.

Then Pirates use hacked software for free, risking getting a virus, trojan or worse. 🙂 That’s their decision – I’m sure they think they have perfectly normal reasons to do this (although there are often legal alternatives).

It’s always been like this, and that’s something every software company should count on.

What bothers me much more is new category of people, who think that they are smarter than all groups mentioned above: OEM Dealers. They decide to use cracked versions of software (combined developer’s work and hacker’s special knowledge) and other people money and trust to sell software in half of the price.

Except them, everyone else is betrayed:

  • developers lose money
  • hackers feel that someone else is making a profit on their “job”
  • and honest people think that they have purchased legal licences, while they are actually becomming pirates, getting all risks that come in the package, including possible legal consequences

Speaking as a founder of software company, we can take losing some money. No problem with that. And I personally don’t care about hacker’s feelings. But I do care about honest and innocent people thinking that they found a “great deal”, just to realize what’s behind it first time they contact technical support.

As OEM means buying software in package with some other product, these websites are obviously a fraud. So take our advice: don’t take the bait! Software companies sometimes run promotional deals (I know we do), so if you are desperate, ask and thou may receive. 🙂

PC World review for Agenda At Once

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PC World's Agenda At Once reviewAs you might now, Agenda At Once was almost completely rewritten for v3.0 and it took much more time than we expected in the first place, as beta testers would confirm. That’s why we are more than happy to see that our multi-year efforts of development went in right direction.

As popularity of Agenda At Once grows, we hear more and more praise from the users, and it really means a lot. We are also glad to receive some feedback about what they are missing in AAO as it points us to the right direction for future development.

One of probably most enjoyable affirmation of the hard work is when one of independent websites publishes a review, especially if it’s a positive one. That’s what happened with Agenda At Once some time ago.

PC World’s reviewer Ian Harac wrote a quite pleasant description for AAO. He immediately recognizes main advantage of AAO over the competition:

“A well-designed program should be intuitive to the average user–but not at the cost of depth or functionality. AgendaAtOnce passes this test admirably. Despite not being a regular user of scheduling software (AgendaAtOnce might change that), I was easily able to set up a task and some subtasks, add contacts, schedule appointments, and perform all of the tasks one expects from a personal information manager.”

Read full review

Agenda At Once PIM v3.0.5 released

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Agenda At Once Personal Information ManagerWe usually don’t announce each super-minor update (third version number) on the blog, but we have decided to make an exception now. The reason for this is that changes between original v3.0.0 and current v3.0.5 are really numerous, and don’t include just bug fixes: they contain large number of improvements and even few new features. We could (or should?) call it v3.1 without hesitation…

Anyway, the update is here, it’s is free for current customers and you can download this to-do list software from the usual place.

Agenda At Once product info

Direct download link

Free or cheap: CD Label Designer

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CD Label Designer infoCD label makers are used by wide range of people: hobbyists and professionals, students and business people, musicians and developers, teens, parents and grandparents. Everyone must make a CD or DVD at least once in a lifetime. Still, it’s quite understandable that not everybody has same pocket depth. And what’s more important, not everybody earns money by making CDs.

That’s why we have decided to, at least for a while, offer number of options so you can get your own copy of CD Label Designer for free or with a significant discount. It’s totally legal and supported by officials, of course. 🙂

In return, we need a small favor from you. Lot of time has been spent to create this software, and giving it away just like that wouldn’t be so smart (regardless what some people tend to think). Instead, you can make a small effort and give us something in return.

Currently available options:

  1. Free: TrialPay
  2. Free: Blog or a website review
  3. 50% off: Forum post
  4. 50% off: Download.com comment
  5. 10%-50% off: Tell a friend
  6. 30% off: Competitive upgrade

See details for these offers

If you have another idea, we will be glad to hear it. Feel free to contact us with a suggestion.

“Scam” is a right word for this

While small independent software companies are trying hard to raise a trust with potential customers, some of their partners (payment processors) are undermining these efforts.

Second time in recent history it happens that some of payment processors, on its own, without actual vendor consent and knowledge, are charging extra ~$10 each month from MicroISV customers for something they call a “discount scheme for future purchases”. This fact is hard to notice new item in credit card statement shows up. Oh yes, customers should “just call” to cancel this payments, but damage is already done.

Incidentally, both payment processors, as significant number of others, are owned by same large corporation. It’s not clear if this politics is something their owners require or they are just doing on their own. Just in case, our main payment processor (Plimus, Inc.) is independent company that so far understands that most important recipe for success is to satisfy both sides: customers and vendors.

That said, we can never know what and when will our partners decide to do, so if you notice any sign of dishonesty related to our web site or purchasing our products, please let us know immediately so we can react accordingly. Thank you in advance!