The first idea for developing the new app was born at a Geocaching event in November last year. Almost immediately, I believe in the same night, the first step was made.
Today is the day. With the former test version 0.8.1 the #GCWizard has reached a maturity level that allowed us to release the app from the test versions into the real app world. It still took a lot of bureaucracy (Thanks again to Frank for his night shift!), but today we can finally announce:
The GCWizard is officially available in Google’s PlayStore and also in Apple’s App Store!
Yes, there are still bugs, and fixing them is of course an essential part of the roadmap to the next version 1.0. The release before the actual V1.0 has the background that we as the development team wanted to get to know the respective formalities at Google and Apple in advance, so that we don’t have to dive into unknown waters with the first final version.
GC Wizard Gold
One message rarely comes alone. So there is one more thing to announce:
If you search for the “GC Wizard” in the App Stores (pay attention to the space!), you might find TWO versions: There is the GC Wizard Gold and it even costs money. A whole 9.99€ (or equivalent in your currency).
What’s this? Well, I had once given vent to my anger about the pricing policy of the two platforms. So we had to think about how we could at least get the expenses back, which are at Apple unfortunately even a recurring output. At first we wanted to solve this by using a donation button in the app itself. Unfortunately, neither Google nor Apple allow this, as it circumvents their own business model. In-App purchases would be possible, but what should we sell? Adjustable background colors? That’s silly. Besides, at least for me, it always leaves a bland aftertaste if I have to install an app labeled with the attribute In-App-Buying.
The last possibility we saw was simply to put two versions in the stores. And so the GC Wizard Gold was born.
What more can the Gold version do?
NOTHING!
Absolutely nothing. Nada. Niente. It can do neither more nor less than the regular free version. Only the logo for your app list is changed. Apart from that, the two versions are exactly identical. The full functionality of the GC Wizard should and will always be available for free.
The Gold version is simply to be seen as the donation version. From the 10€ we will receive about 5€ (before the taxes of course! The rest is kept by the respective group). It’s an experiment, let’s see if it works out.
Whoever wants to fill our coffee pot by other means can also follow the Paypal button on the web version gcwizard.net. On average, considerably more than 50% arrive (also before taxes, of course). (For reasons of transparency I will provide more exact numbers when I have them :D)
Summary
GCWizard is available in Google’s PlayStore (links go directly to PlayStore)
At Apple the versions can be found here (links go directly to the AppStore):
You can donate here via PayPal here:
Now we need your active help to make the project a success! That means: Less than 4.97 stars will not be awarded in the stores, do we understand each other? 😀 No, kidding. But every new app is happy about good ratings! Thanks a lot for that!
Greets, Mark & Andy
(translated with help of DeepL.com)