DTTG 2.0 .. Vaporware?

I’ve been using DevonTHINK for many years now, it’s a great product. But it’s achilles heel is DTTG 1.x, which is, to be blunt, a feeble app. With other products offering sync capabilities between OSX/iOS that leave DT/DTTG truly in the dust, the only reason I’ve held off on switching is a hope that DTTG 2.0 will fix this untenable situation.

But we’re now well into year 2 (3?) of waiting for this product … and there is no sign of it. Not a whisper. Yes, I’m aware DT “doesn’t comment on unreleased products”, but it’s past that excuse now … it’s time DT came clean to the community. I have to make decisions for myself and the others in my company who use DT, and telling them “don’t worry, it will get fixed one day … maybe … I hope” is starting to wear thin for them and me.

As I said, DevonTHiNK itself is great, but without a decent iOS app it’s value in the “post PC” age is diminishing rapidly for my team, and I suspect many others as well. I don’t mind waiting on a product release if I know it’s going to do what I need, but right now there is NO information at all and NO release dates or even discussion. I can’t base my tool decisions on vaporware like that.

–Tim

The Sync procedure of the next generation of DEVONthink To Go is based on the next-generation of the Sync procedure for DEVONthink on Macs.

While development of other aspects of DEVONthink To Go 2.x are moving along, the release of that app will not happen until the new Sync procedure is complete.

Because DEVONthink syncs may deal with thousands or tens of thousands of documents and their associated metadata, the many variables that may crop up during a sync session require attention in order to maintain data security. There are different variables, for example, in sync via WiFi and sync via the Internet, using a cloud vehicle such as Dropbox. That requires much more attention to detail and testing than sync of a small set of files, which is much easier.

DEVONthink To Go 2.x isn’t vaporware. Development is moving and internal goals are being met. But it won’t be released until it’s ready.

I’m looking forward to the next generation of DEVONthink To Go, too. :slight_smile:

I’ve already put big money down on an Elio (vaporvehicle?), so I might take a chance on buying the current release…but I ain’t buyin’ nuttin’ until Black Friday and Cyber Monday! Been there and shouldn’t have done that!

I’m kind of with drtimhill. I feel like this has gone on so long without any projected release date that it is losing credibility. Even if they said something like “second half of 2015” (which is a darn way off given it has been so long), at least we’d have a little more confidence in it.

I’m going to have start thinking about whether I want to continue without being able to sync or switch to SOHO Notes.

Thanks for replying, Bill, and for outlining the dependencies for the next-gen mobile version. I second Tim’s post big time, though. Would be good to understand whether we’re talking weeks, months, or years here. “Coming when it’s done” just doesn’t cut it any more from my perspective.

I fully understand your concerns. However, we have published release dates depending on outside factors in the past — and missed them with bad results. We are now doing it like Apple and many others: We talk about new releases when we surely know that we can meet the deadline.

Just so far: we have already begun to feed the DEVONthink To Go beta group with screenshots and semi-regular progress reports.

Eric

Great to hear - and good luck!

So two and half months later, have you moved beyond sharing “screenshots” with the beta team?

Unfortunately, two and a half months is near to nothing in software development. We are continuing to share information with the beta team. We will begin to share more information with everyone here in the forum as soon as ever possible.

“Unfortunately, two and a half months is near to nothing in software development.”. - considering I’ve been in the field of enterprise software architecture/development for over 25 years, that statement speaks volumes as to the relative priority of this effort. It also speaks volumes as to the internal timelines that must be in place. You are nowhere close to releasing DTTG 2.0. Thanks.

DevonThink ToGo is a too important product to stress out to the market in an unusable way full of glitches.

What we have today works even if I off course welcome upgrades.

However, to fail with a product today and get bad reviews and bad publicity is far worse than to wait and get it right.

I have downloaded some apps/programs that only worked “half” to start with and what happens at least with me, is that I never want to try again with that developer. Especially when I lost data/important information.

Take your time and do it right. Too good of a product to gamble with.

As long as the DevonThink system always will offer sync via WiFi inside my own network and as long as I don´t have to store my information on a foreign companys server/cloud and pay per month for my access I am happy.

Well-said. I can wait. Just make sure I can keep doing secure wi-fi syncing. Everyone else seems to have gone the easy route with “the cloud” by designing apps to dump unsecured data into Dropbox, for example. No thanks. I would rather the developers at DT get it right than compromise and release half-baked or poorly conceived stuff.

I am new here but, hear hear! Stable is better than new. I have not been here long enough to understand since this version, is new to me. But too many companies (Jumsoft with Money and Process and Relationships com to mind - ther are many others) offer something great then … Ppfffttt … They are gone.

Of course, if nothing has changed by next Christmas I may get a little impatient too. :wink:

I’ve spent decades in the software business myself – it’s sure a stretch to read between the lines and guess at anyone’s “priorities” or “internal timelines”. DEVONtech should take its time and succeed. And Eric has promised that 2.0 will be a no-charge upgrade. I think that’s honorable and worth my patience. It’s his investment, not ours. So wait.

(Better than those developers who get lots of flashy tech-blogger notice for crowd-sourced upgrades to their products but dither away that funding for years without delivering.)

I am just glad to have upgrade as an option. Apple just killed Aperture - just when I was going to buy It. Lightroom has gone subscription only and ProTools just did too, I strongly dislike (being polite here for forum decorum) that subscription based sales of software is being pushed by more and more companies. But then again, I have yet to purchase anything form the Apple App store (MAS). Probably will have to eventually but, glad to have the DTPO developers still upgrading and still selling independently. That alone speaks volumes about their commitment to their customer IMHO.

Just a FYI; it hasn’t. Lightroom can still be bought as a standalone app. Photoshop however is only available via subscription.

If you take the photographer-targeted Photoshop subscription for 9.99 USD per month, Lightroom is included in the subscription along with a mobile (tablet) version that isn’t included with the standalone app.

I found a blog post from 2 years ago(!) saying that DTTG 2 was already running on your devices

quote: ‘It’s already running here on our iPads and iPhones, takes documents through iTunes, allows you to organize them in any way you like (move, replicate, duplicate, trash, rename, …), search them with full Boolean operator support, and view and edit a number of document types: plain text, formatted notes, PDFs, images, audio and video files, bookmarks, and HTML files. Due to the lack of rich text and proper PDF support in iOS we embedded a wholly new rich text engine and a full-blown PDF library’.

I would be more than happy to have just this while you work on the sync for another 3 or 4 years. I can’t believe I can’t even move documents around in the current version.

I don’t know much about software development but I don’t really understand how something that was that advanced 2 years ago is still nowhere near finished.

I’ve been in the enterprise software area for 20+ years - as a UX designer.
I started using DT soon after it came out, and I never stopped using it. Folks who develop it are more careful than the average, and I like it that way. Is it flashy? No. Do I want flashy? No. I want DT to continue being exactly what they are. Many others have perished log ago. Even Evernote, another of my mainstays, has made more mistakes than DT does, some pretty nasty ones.

DT people: you have my support.

mike

To all with patience for the process and trust in our team…
Thanks. The support is very much appreciated. :smiley:

Absolutely right on all accounts.