My favorite iOS/MacOS text editor Byword has received a signifcant update. Version 2.0 offers (apart from some under-the-hood updates and new font choices) direct publishing to blogging services like Tumblr, Blogger or Wordpress. Frictionless blogging on the go is now indeed just one button press away.
They’ve also been really smart about their update mechanism. The upgrade to the 2.0 codebase is free for every user but access to the new publishing feature requires a one-time in-app purchase. I think this is an elegant solution to the limitations of the Mac and iOS App Store.
I keep coming back to this. Just a week or two after Dutch type foundry Underware surprised and delighted me with their upgrade policy for previously bought fonts, now the Process Type Foundry (makers of the ubiquitous Klavika, among other things) present their version of a font upgrade system as well. And what excites me the most is that they not only offer a retroactive upgrade for fonts you have bought earlier, but also taylor their whole business model around the idea that you might want to extend the product/license you are buying now later on. This kind of flexibility is exactly what I had in mind when I argued for font upgrades and their reasoning reflects the the realities of my daily life as a designer and font buyer: Let me try the basic character set first, and then, if I really need it, let me add OpenType features or non-latin character support via an upgrade later. I think Process Type is to be commended for integrating this notion into their way of doing things; not as an afterthought, but as an integral part of their business. Bravo!
I certainly won’t claim any responsibility here, but I’m excited to find myself in the middle of a sea change in the way the font retail industry operates and I can’t wait to see where we go next.
Holy crap, it’s everybody and their brother playing “On Broadway”.
(George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Dee Dee Bridgewater, China Moses, Tania Maria, Biréli Lagrène, Marcus Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Manu Katché, Hugh Masekela and a bunch of other great musicians whose names I didn’t catch.)
My favorite iOS/MacOS text editor Byword has received a signifcant update. Version 2.0 offers (apart from some under-the-hood updates and new font choices) direct publishing to blogging services like Tumblr, Blogger or Wordpress. Frictionless blogging on the go is now indeed just one button press away. 
