Announcement
Hello everyone, today I’m announcing that I am bringing QTH.app to the Mac App Store!
Here’s what this means:
- I’ve bumped the version number to 1.0.
- Future versions will be released via the Mac App Store instead of a download on my website
- The licensing process, which used to include a verification process, has now been changed to an in-app purchase
- The homepage, qth.app is now separate from my personal website www.w8wjb.com, and is sporting a new look.
Why was this done?
The licensing process had too many pitfalls
The vast majority of support emails I’ve had since I lauched QTH.app has not actually been about bugs or problems with the app, but rather confusion over what password they should enter to unlock the license file, or requests to reset lost passwords.
Also, I always felt bad when it sometimes took me a long-ish time to notice that there was a verification pending. Especially when I wake up in the morning and see a request pending from someone in a very distant timezome. I know that, at least for me, there’s an excitement when you first make that decision to purchase an app and you generally want to start using it right away. Having to wait can be disappointing and frustrating.
The downside of dropping the verification mechanism is that we can no longer be completely certain that the QTH.app user is a licensed ham. (Although, it seems unlikely that a non-ham would pay money to unlock transmit features in QTH simply to be a nuisance.) When I originally designed the licensing system, I was really hoping that the PKI certificate could be used as a stronger authentication mechanism for connecting to APRS-IS than the insecure passcode system we have now. However, support for that authentication system on the APRS-IS nodes has deterioriated rather than increased. Going forward, I’ll be looking for the APRS Foundation to provide guidance and leadership in this area.
Better update mechanism
Almost a year ago now, the embedded certificate in QTH.app that validates a user’s license accidentally expired. The fix was easy; I just had to release a new version of QTH.app with a new certificate. However, over the subsequent months, as I got emails from users wondering why their license had disappeared, it was obvious to me that my update distribution channel was inadequate. I could announce updates on my website, the mailing list, and various social media sites, but if users weren’t tuned into those sources, they would remain unaware of bugfixes and new features.
Having the app on the Mac App Store will help with that. You’ll now get a badge notification from the App Store when an update is available and installing the update will be as simple as clicking the “Update” button. No more having to remember what website you downloaded QTH.app from and then having to locate the link to download it.
Retiring the store on my website
My current website runs an entire “Woocommerce” ecommerce shop inside Wordpress for a single “product”. Keeping up with security updates is a chore and I’d like retire it.
Hopefully more exposure
I often wonder how users find QTH.app in the first place. Hopefully, now you should be able to just type APRS into the Mac App Store and see QTH.app sitting there now, next to PocketPacket.
Future Synergy
My next project in this space is to bring QTH.app to iOS as “QTH Mobile”. My intent is that users who have purchased the Mac version of QTH.app would automatically get a license for the mobile version for free. Early research indicates this is a feasible plan, but, of course, sometimes you encounter unexpected roadblocks.
What does this mean for current license holders?
It is my intention that a person should only ever have to pay to unlock QTH.app once. So, if you are a user who has purchased a license in the past and find yourself in a situation where it looks like you have to pay again, in order to continue, please, please contact me first and let me help. Terminology-wise, these existing licenses will be called “legacy licenses”, but don’t worry, there’s a migration plan in place.
These legacy licenses are stored in the macOS Keychain. If you’d like to see yours, you can open Keychain Access and go to My Certificates.
You should see a certificate there with your name and callsign. When QTH.app starts up, it will look the presence of a license like this. If it finds one,
it will do 2 things:
- Unlocks transmit so that you can operate as normal. New versions of QTH.app will continue to recognize these licenses indefinitely.
- Unlocks a special in-app purchase. Under QTH.app > License… screen, you will see a “macOS TX Legacy” available for no cost.
Once you’ve download the new version from the App Store, you should claim the “macOS TX Legacy” in-app purchase at your earliest convenience. This process will create a record in the App Store, and a receipt locally, and you will no longer need the legacy license file.
With an App Store receipt, you no longer have to keep track of that legacy license file. If you get a new Mac, you can simply download QTH.app from the Mac App Store and click the “Restore Purchases” button.