So as you could guess, the biggest news here at roobasoft HQ is that Concentrate has officially shipped. So far, it’s been very successful (compared to other apps I’ve launched). I wrote a bit more about it on the Concentrate blog here.

The most enjoyable part of the release has been watching people talk about it on Twitter. This has meant a lot. Folks seem to get the idea and see how it can help them pretty quickly, and that’s very important. It means a lot when people recommend it so willingly.

To watch twitter real time I’ve been using a new Mac app, Incoming!, to search for the terms: getconcentrating, #Concentrate, Concentrate app and Concentrate OS X. Incoming! has a lot of potential, but its quite buggy in its current beta form. Hopefully it will all be cleaned up soon. Should be a great tool. Update Aug. 16th: 0.89 of Incoming! just came out and fixes both of my reported issues. If you need to keep an eye on twitter I’d definitely check Incoming! out, it’s looking great.

It’s also been enjoyable to get fantastic feedback from users. From that feedback I’ve been able to prioritize features and have scheduled what will be in Concentrate’s 1.1 and 1.2 releases.

I have a few blog posts I want to write. I’m hoping mentioning them here will help make me feel accountable and actually write them. Here are the ideas:

1. Avoiding procrastination with next actions
2. roobasoft v2.0′s secret weapon: A project coach
3. Taking the time to pay attention to details

OK, that should keep me busy until the next v2.0 post, which surely will be late. In fact, how ’bout I just say there won’t be another until October 1st. Done. It’s in my calendar. So, you know, it has a fighting chance of happening now.

[1] Yes, I set a goal I had no realistic expectation to meet)

[2] That may sound pessimistic, but trust me, it’s optimism for me.

So what happened in June plus 2 weeks of July? Development. I started focusing on my new OS X app, Concentrate. Late May and early June were fairly slow. I spent a lot of time experimentating, brainstorming and sketching UIs. Then, about 4 weeks or so ago, the idea was whittled down to what it would be, proof of concept work was done and I had a list of high level things to do. After that everything turned over resulting in 4 extremely productive weeks. Of course I still had some slow days, but they were very few and I was able to get kicked out of them with ease. I also employed a secret weapon that I’ll blog about soon after Concentrate’s release.

So where am I today? The app finally has an official name, Concentrate, and its website is taking shape: http://getconcentrating.com. It also has an icon:

Concentrate is currently in a private beta and I’m hoping to ship 1.0 in the middle of August.

A lot of time was spent settling on both the scope of the application, it started much bigger, and the name and icon. The scope fell into place more or less on its own. The naming, however, was a lengthy process going through about 3 “oh, that’s the one!” names and a handful of icons. I have no regrets about that time spent, I’m very happy with where it all ended. I plan to blog more about Concentrate’s history on its blog (still to be themed).

OK, if you’re interested in helping out with the beta, I’m trying out running the beta through MacDeveloper.net. You’re free to sign up there as a tester for free and get involved that way. Or you can just send me a note asking for a beta build (ask nice ). I’ll blog more about my MacDeveloper.net experience after 1.0 ships.

I’d say 90% of Concentrate is done. Now it’s time to dig into the last, but most difficult, 10%.