Slife 3.0 Time Tracker Becomes A (Paid) Web Service
Slife, the previously mentioned time tracker that tells you exactly how much of your day you’re spending on email, in your browser, and inside other applications (along with non-computer tasks, if you log them), has made its Windows and Mac clients much thinner, open-source, and linked them to a new web service that centralises all your productivity porn. All that is to say, however, that Slife is now a $US5/month service.
That’s not unreasonable, by any means, but it’s worth noting, since the service has gone from free to paid to free to, well, paid once more. Check out Slife 3.0 in the video demonstration below, and tell us what you’ve thought of Slife in its different versions in the comments.
[Slife]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@ethomaz: There is a wide range between not seeing any utility in an app to being willing to pay $60 a year for an app.
Also, as mentioned previously, there are some free apps that provide quite similar features.
Bah, I tried this stuff and never got any useful info out of them to do any billing from it. Plus I never EVER bill by the minute so I found these kinds of tools useless to me.
If I edit your video for 4 hours and surf the web during a render, you pay for my websurfing.
timgray
@UnderLoK:
Hi there. This is Edison Thomaz from Slife Labs here.
We do something really unique in the time and productivity management space. Some people love to be able to track their time automatically, and many many people use Slife for business purposes. In that context, paying $5 a month is nothing. If, on the other hand, you don't see the utility of Slife, even paying $1 would be too much, right?
ethomaz
Hi there. This is Edison Thomaz from Slife Labs here.
@centralasian: Slife also supports active window tracking and one of the major goals of this release was to improve performance. That's why Slife is now a very thin app, with activity management and visualizations on the site.
@UnderLok: We do something really unique in the time and productivity management space. Some people love to be able to track their time automatically, and many many people use Slife for business purposes. In that context, paying $5 a month is nothing. If, on the other hand, you don't see the utility of Slife, even paying $1 would be too much, right?
ethomaz
Of all the time tracking apps I used Slife was buggiest and slowed things down. I also use Wakoopa, My fav is Active Timer [osiris.laya.com] because it tracks active windows!!
centralasian
I was trying Slife and just uninstalled it last weekend. It was not very useful for me.
Ihaveasmartpuppy
They have a better chance of getting people to pay $20 for the software which comes with a year contract or longer. There is no way this thing is that hardware/bandwidth intensive in order to justify that price ($60 a year is a joke).
O hey, that looks like the precursor to what I use!
[wakoopa.com]
Except what I use is free, more colorful, and fun!
Nicatron SynRules
Five dollars here, five dollars there, pretty soon you have a paycheck.
I can see a need for an app to track all the money leaking out of your account for micropayments to web sites (for only $1.99 a month).
aeronaut
@Nicatron SynRules: Nice spam.
@ethomaz: First let me say, I like what you're doing, and I see the value of your product. However, I'll say right away that you have priced yourself outside of my budget. Here's why.
I think, for me (and perhaps others), the issue is losing track of all these $5-per-month services. It's not that $5 is inherently a lot of money for a service. It's just that these things start to add up with time. Before you know it, you're spending $50/month on all your online services combined. And let's be honest, $5/month is on the high end of the spectrum for paid online services. Especially for an personal-use user like me (I have no need for this professionally), and especially for a service that does one thing (even if it does that one thing REALLY great). I appreciate your need to make money, and I'm not fundamentally opposed to you charging for your service. To put it in perspective, I pay roughly $7/month for my web hosting space, with massive storage and bandwidth allotments. Let's say I set my budget for "online" spending to $20/month. Your service, alone, has consumed 1/4 of my budget.
But maybe I'm not your target audience. Either way, I hope you find success with this new pricing setup. It really is a great product.
Avian00
@ryosen: People are allowed to share what they use, especially if it's a free alternative! Unless he's self-pimping (either he works for them or linked to some kind of referral code), I wouldn't call it spam.
Avian00
@aeronaut: Exactly! It seems like such a trivial amount, but you lose track of these little things so quickly!
I liked your joke about the service which tracks your money leakage due to micropayments. I would, however, seriously recommend Mint.com or similar service to stay on top of all your micropayments (at least if your accounts are in the U.S.).
Avian00