Outer Level Acquires Knapsack

The four of us here at TinyPlanet Software are pleased to announce that Outer Level has acquired Knapsack. This acquisition promises an exciting future for Knapsack and its users and we couldn't be more excited.

Jon Trainer, founder of Outer Level, shares our love for Macs and for travel. When he began describing his vision for Knapsack, we all were nodding our heads. It sounded like something we could have written ourselves.

We strongly believe that with Outer Level, Knapsack will not only live on but will grow and thrive in ways we always hoped it would. Jon's vision for Knapsack's future made Outer Level the clear choice to take over development of the application.

This has been an amazing journey for us and we want to thank our customers for their support along the way. Our primary concern when we were looking for a new home for Knapsack was to ensure that our customers would be well served. Knapsack is in great hands with Jon at Outer Level.

While we'll be focusing our attention on our new little guys for a while, we're still Mac, iPhone, and iPad users and we have plenty of ideas for other applications. When the time is right, we'll throw our hat back in the ring. For now, though, it's time for Knapsack to shine in the hands of a new, passionate developer.

Travel on.

Cheers,
Brad, Merrilee, Chris, and Ruby

Knapsack available for acquisition

The four of us here at TinyPlanet Software, LLC created Knapsack from our passion for travel, our desire to start a business, and our love for the Macintosh. We had three goals when we started this adventure in the summer of 2005:
1. Start our own business
2. Learn Objective-C Cocoa programming
3. Perhaps make some money

Nearly five years after that conversation, and nearly two years after launching Knapsack 1.0, not only have we accomplished all three goals, but we also hit some major life milestones along the way. Chris and Ruby were married in August 2008. Merrilee and I had our first baby in March 2009 and Chris and Ruby had their first baby only three months later.

With wedding plans, baby plans, day jobs, and night feedings, our nights and weekends were taken over by real life, and our labor-of-love fell by the wayside.

After much soul-searching, we have decided to offer up Knapsack for acquisition. We want Knapsack and its users to receive all the love and attention they deserve and so we've started our search for a passionate, talented, committed, and visionary successor. We're focused on finding an attentive, nurturing home for Knapsack while continuing to support our existing customers as we have since the beginning.

If you're interested but new to software acquisition, you should take the time to watch Daniel Jalkut's software acquisition video from the C4[1] conference. You may also want to read up on Knapsack on the web, so here are some links to get you started: Apple, MacWorld, TUAW, World of Apple, Mac360, Mac Tips and Tricks, Softonic, Mac Generation (review in French), Mac Generation (interview in French)

If you or somebody you know is a Mac developer or is looking for a way to break into the "indie" scene, please send an introductory email to acquisition [at] tinyplanetsoftware.com. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,
Brad, Merrilee, Chris, and Ruby
TinyPlanet Software, LLC

Knapsack Tip #2: Sync your trip to iCal, iPhone, and MobileMe

The iCal integration released as part of Knapsack 1.1 provides a simple way to get trip information to and from iCal, iPhone, iPod Touch, MobileMe (formerly .Mac), and anything else you may have synced with iCal for use while you're traveling. Any changes you make in a synced device (iPhone, iCal, MobileMe, etc) while on your trip will be synced back when you return home and relaunch Knapsack.



To sync a trip with iCal:

1. Select your trip from the trip list or double-click your trip to open it.


2. Choose Sync with iCal from the Trip menu.


3. You can now choose which iCal calendar you would like to sync with. It is recommended that you choose the New Calendar option to keep your trip on its own calendar. You can choose an existing calendar, but any items already existing on your calendar during the date range of the trip will be added to your itinerary in Knapsack.


4. Click Sync. Now, any changes you make in Knapsack will be made in iCal and vice versa. When a trip is synced, activities on your itinerary will show up as iCal events and to do items on your checklist will show up as to do items in iCal.


5. Once your trip is complete, it is recommended that you stop syncing with iCal to preserve your trip data. Knapsack will automatically prompt you to end syncing when you open a synced trip which has an end date in the past. You can also choose Stop iCal Sync from the Trip menu at any time.

Has this tip helped you? Have you used iCal syncing before? What other tips or tricks do you have that you'd like to share with other Knapsack users? Leave a comment here or email us directly.

New Year's promotion ends tomorrow

Just a quick reminder that our New Year's 2009 25% off promotion ends tomorrow. If you've been trying out Knapsack for the last few weeks but haven't purchased yet, head on over to our store and enter the coupon code NEWYEARS2009 before time runs out!

Resolve to travel more and save 25%

According to Wikipedia, one of the most popular New Year's resolutions is to take a trip. Many people make a resolution to visit a new place or to better document their travel experiences. That sounds great to the four of us here at TinyPlanet Software. We have taken many trips together and even formed our company while traveling. Because of our love for travel, we designed our flagship product, Knapsack, to be the personal travel organizer for Mac OS X Leopard.

If your New Year's resolutions include traveling more often or you know someone who wants to take the trip of a lifetime, we'd love to help. To celebrate the new year and get you on your way, we're offering 25% off a single-user or 5-user family pack license for Knapsack from December 29th to January 15th. Just enter the coupon code NEWYEARS2009 on our online store and the discount will be included automatically.

Enjoy and Happy New Year from the TinyPlanet Software crew!

Knapsack Tip #1: Reuse Checklists with Template Trips

New Blog Series: Knapsack Tips
We've decided to start a series of blog entries containing tips and tricks to help our users get the most out of Knapsack. Our first tip below deals with reusing checklists by creating custom template trips. Future items will include topics covering all aspects of trip planning and organizing with Knapsack. We'll be sharing our own Knapsack habits plus some ideas we've received directly from our users. Of course, we'd love to hear from you. Let us know how you're using Knapsack for your travels. Feel free to leave a comment here or send us an email directly.

Knapsack Tip #1: Reuse Checklists with Template Trips
As we're preparing for our trip to Colorado this winter, we need to make sure we've packed everything. In this case, it's a trip to visit family, exchange presents, work on our software, and snowboard. As you can imagine, that involves a lot of different items: warm clothes, presents, snowboarding gear, laptops, power supplies, etc. It would be tedious to re-enter every single item to pack in every new trip, so we use previously-created packing lists from a "template" trip to make this easier.

In this case, we'll copy the existing "Snowboarding" and "Business Trip" packing lists from a template trip called "Packing Lists" into our new "Colorado 2008" trip. This is simple to accomplish and can save a lot of time when creating new trips.

1. Create a new trip and name it "Packing Lists"



2. Use the Checklist area in the itinerary view to create various packing lists for different types of trips


3. When planning a new trip, open this Packing Lists trip, select the top-level item in the list you'd like to use in your new trip, and choose Edit > Copy


4. Create and open your new trip file, click in the Checklists area of the itinerary, and choose Edit > Paste

Within a matter of seconds, we have a great start on our packing lists for Colorado. This same technique can be used for checklists other than packing lists: souvenirs to buy, postcards to send, etc. In fact, sharing content between trips isn't limited to only checklists: activities can be copied and pasted between trips just as easily. Use your imagination to prepare some fun and useful templates or get started by simply borrowing from trips you've already taken.

What has the TinyPlanet crew been up to?

The short answer: A lot!

We've all had quite an eventful year and we just wanted to take a moment to reflect on it all.  To recap, we launched Knapsack in March, followed by our first supporting dot release in May.  But what's happened since then?  Well, shortly after our last release Chris finally, and when we say finally we mean after 12 years finally, pops the question.  Not "Would you like fries with that?", but "Will you marry me?".  Chris and Ruby are engaged!  The four of us squeezed in WWDC in June; lots of brain storming, lots of iPhone planning, lots of fun! Then in August, it was off to Hawaii for Chris and Ruby's wedding.  Picture a breath-taking Maui sunset, a private ceremony on a grassy bluff overlooking the ocean and classical guitar music playing as Ruby walks down an orchid petal isle; you get the idea.  The trip to Hawaii was an especially meaningful trip because we were also there to celebrate 10 years of blissful marriage for Brad and Merrilee.  Way to go guys, you're an inspiration!  In November, to honor Ruby's Chinese heritage and to honor her family, Chris and Ruby threw a semi-traditional Chinese Wedding Banquet; lots of family and close friends, lots of food and an open bar, ah good times.  All this excitement took our attention away from Knapsack, but now we're re-energized and itching to get back to it.  So, in December we'll be going on a TinyPlanet Software coding retreat to Colorado.  There'll be some relaxing, there'll be some snowboarding and there'll definitely be some designing and developing to kick 2009 off with a bang.  Speaking of 2009, we have a few more surprises still to come...