Like probably more than a few of you, I’m addicted to ‘Paper’, an incredibly functional and beautiful iPad app that lets you draw or take notes or do whatever. There are a million apps like this. But these guys just managed to implement it better than anyone else – effortless functionality as well as the simplicity, lack of clutter and the lack of excessive functionality that is at the core of every great app. They also have a deal where the app synchronizes really well with a stylus called Pogo Connect. All good before this mornings betrayal …
Yesterday I was fiddling with my iPad and noticed that there was an update to Paper. And that’s not all. They’ve also developed their own stylus called ‘Pencil’ which is supposed to be the best stylus ever. Maybe or maybe not. But it looks cool.
So I download the new app. And this morning I’m meeting with some TPM staffers and I take out Paper to take some notes, start to sync my Pogo Connect stylus, and I see this …
So like just in time to launch their own stylus, they dropped support for the own they’d gotten everyone to buy to work best with Paper. (My consternation is slightly increased by the fact that I’d lost my old Pogo stylus and just bought a new one this weekend. So I may be biased.)
Now, I grant you this is not as big a deal as Obamacare enrollment and probably not even as big a deal as fiscal policy. But that “will return in a future Paper release” means in tech speak “sorry, suckas” we’re done with Pogo Connect. Now, I looked on 53’s support page and they claim (but who can trust these guys now?) that Pogo support is coming back soon. But I’m not sure that reduces the level of betrayal. And I’m disappointed because 53, the folks who make Paper have cultivated a cool, good guys rep something along the lines of what Google at least used to have. So I cannot not register my deep disappointment with this epic app betrayal.
