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iBank 5 for the Mac available from IGG Software
After more than a year of development, iBank 5 for the Mac is available from IGG Software. The updated version of the Quicken alternative brings new features such as BillPay and support for IGG's exclusive Direct Access banking service. iBank 5 ships with a handful of major improvements and even more smaller ones. The most important changes include: Bill Pay: iBank 5 will connect to your bank and allow you to manage payments directly within the app. One-button updating: One tap of a button will pull down all transactions from connected accounts, sync your data across devices, update securities prices and more. Direct Access: Direct Access is a subscription service offered by IGG that'll automatically update your transactions by connecting to over 10,000 banks worldwide. Originally only supported on the iPad, the service is now available to Mac users. It is free for a 30-day trial, after that it will cost you US$4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Improved budgeting: An improved budgeting feature automatically adds in recurring transactions and other scheduled transactions. Budgets will now sync to the new iBank for iPad app as well. Along with a new version of iBank for the Mac, IGG also updated its iPad app, improving the app so it'll work alongside the Mac version. iBank 5 for the Mac is available only from IGG's website for $59.99. The Mac App Store will be coming soon. Good news if you already own iBank 4, as you can purchase an upgrade for $29.99. If you've never used iBank, you can download a free, unlimited 30-day trial to test it out. As for technical requirements, iBank 5 requires OS X 10.8 or higher and is compatible with OS X Mavericks. Show full PR text IGG SOFTWARE DELIVERS ADVANCED MONEY MANAGEMENT WITH IBANK 5 Top Personal Finance App For Mac Now Offers Bill Pay, Better Budgets and More (PUTNEY, VT) - IGG Software today announced the release of iBank 5, a full-version upgrade to its popular money management program for Mac. Among dozens of new features and improvements, iBank 5 delivers improved importing of bank transactions, enhanced budgets, better investment support, and online bill pay. The app also offers automatic account updates via Direct Access, IGG's exclusive service for bank connections worldwide. "We've taken iBank to a new level," says IGG president Ian Gillespie. "From bank connections to budgets to bill payment, we re-imagined an application that was already quite capable and found ways to make it both simpler and more powerful. Mac users expect their favorite apps to work effortlessly and seamlessly, and we believe the new iBank makes day-to-day personal finance management more of a pleasure and less of a chore." With many significant new features and enhancements in iBank 5, those of interest to both current and future users include: - Bill pay iBank 5 will connect to most major U.S. banks from within the app, allowing users to schedule and send payments, track those transactions and categorize the expenses, all with easy in-app set-up and a few simple clicks. - One-button updating An Update Everything button on the iBank 5 toolbar imports all transactions from directly connected accounts, syncs devices, updates securities prices, and downloads current Direct Access data. Even users with many accounts, diverse investments and finances in multiple currencies may never have to enter another transaction manually. - Direct Access IGG's exclusive subscription service for automatically updating transactions in all accounts was introduced last year with iBank for iPad. Now available in iBank 5, it connects to over 10,000 banks worldwide. In addition, a single Direct Access account allows subscribers to sync that data between iBank 5 for Mac and iBank for iPad 2. - Smarter budgeting With a streamlined design that offers daily progress updates at a glance, iBank's new budgets automatically incorporate scheduled transactions such as recurring income and bills. Users can view historic budgets accurately even as adjustments are made to future budgets, and budgets will sync to iBank for iPad 2 as well. Among other features, iBank 5 adds: • enhanced investment support for bonds and options; • an updated set-up assistant for more accurate imports from Quicken or other programs; • superior elimination of duplicate transactions from bank downloads; • improvements to scheduled transactions, for integration with budgets and Reminders; • sync of scheduled transactions with iBank for iPad 2; • inline imports that go directly to transaction registers; • better use of import rules to speed categorization; • a new Resolve View to see recent transaction activity in an account at a glance; • improved capabilities for filtering transactions; • the ability to categorize investment transactions; • superior loan support; • and countless refinements to the underlying code to enhance speed, stability and accuracy. iBank 5.0 is available from the IGG online store for $59.99. Users have the option of downloading the app as an unlimited, 30-day free trial. All licensed users of iBank 4 may install the app, use it in trial mode, and purchase upgrades from within version 5; the price for upgrades via IGG is $29.99. For optional, automatic updating of transactions, users of iBank 5 have the opportunity to try Direct Access for free during a 30-day trial. Maintaining the service costs as little as 11 cents a day: just $4.99 per month, or $39.99 for an annual subscription; that data can be synced with iBank for iPad 2 directly from the desktop app over local Wi-Fi or via WebDAV server. Release of iBank 5 via the Mac App Store and other outlets will follow. The new version requires Mac OS X 10.8 or higher and is fully compatible with 10.9 Mavericks. *** IGG Software, Inc., was founded in 2003 by developer Ian Gillespie to offer intuitive, elegant and powerful applications for individuals and small businesses. Based in Putney, Vermont, IGG develops the iBank family of apps exclusively for the Mac and for iOS devices. For further information, review licenses, or to schedule interviews with Ian Gillespie or CTO James Gillespie, please contact IGG Marketing Director Scott Marc Becker: scott@iggsoftware.com.
iBank for iPad updated with more than 50 enhancements
I've been slowly learning the Mac version of iBank and had all but stopped using the iPad version due to some quirks. A lot of those quirks have been ironed out in the latest version of iBank for iPad, released today. There are also new tools for setting and working with reminders, plus enhancements for people who have various investments. After a quick run-through I can say that current customers will enjoy the vastly improved reminders. You can now edit them, and easily add or remove them. The app feels faster now as well, and the budget setup assistant has had an overhaul. If you're a current user you'll love these additions, and if you've never used iBank now is a great time to start (just after taxes!). Full PR below. Show full PR text IBANK FOR IPAD 1.2 DELIVERS MAJOR UPDATE WITH OVER 50 ENHANCEMENTS Better Reminders and Scheduled Transactions, Improved Support for Bonds and Options (PUTNEY, VT) - IGG Software today announced the release of iBank for iPad 1.2 - a major update featuring over 50 new features, fixes, enhancements and refinements. The app's across-the-board improvements encompass investments, reminders, budgets, scheduled transactions, sync, account set-up, stability and more. The update is available now from the App Store. "iBank for iPad 1.2 takes the experience of using a financial app in iOS to a new level," says chief technology officer James Gillespie. "For anyone with an iPad, it delivers full-powered, full-featured money management, with all the mobility that the platform promises - including updates on the go and instant access to all your data." Among the enhancements in iBank for iPad 1.2 are: • better entry and editing of scheduled transactions; • new ability to post and manage reminders for bills and other time-sensitive events; • a new budget set-up assistant; • much-enhanced investment support for bonds and options; • new ease in adding accounts; • a new "Refresh now" command; • and dozens more fixes and improvements for overall usability and greater stability. iBank for iPad outshines other finance apps in several significant ways: - An exclusive subscription service, Direct Access, delivers mobile account updates from thousands of financial institutions worldwide. New transactions are downloaded via Wi-Fi or data connection in the background, without prompting - ensuring that all of your finances are at your fingertips, any time and anywhere. - iBank's attractive iPad interface presents a clear personal finance summary. Accounts are kept in one or more custom "books," organized as needed. With just a tap or a swipe, users can access accounts; get details on accounts, budgets, transactions or investments; change pages, switch books, edit transactions, delete info and more - naturally and intuitively. - Investment management has never been more elegant. Because the books in iBank for iPad resemble a set of financial reports, it's easier than ever to review trades, positions, history, performance, realized and unrealized gains, market value and more. Portfolios update as changes are available, and users can drill down for security details with a tap. - Simple yet sophisticated budgeting is a key component of iBank. Schedule regular income and bills, set targets for other earnings or expenses, track spending by assigning categories to transactions. Users can check budgets with a tap, compare current performance to previous months, review old budgets and more. - IGG's commitment to privacy and security is paramount: iBank for iPad is ad-free. There are no third-party services offered to users. Customer data and financial records are never stored, accessed, aggregated or analyzed in any way that benefits IGG or outside marketers. And IGG never sells, trades, rents or shares customer profiles or finance information. Among other features, users have full manual editing and entry capabilities, including the ability to split, schedule, categorize and reconcile transactions; the ability to move books between devices; multi-currency support; and many other powerful finance management tools. The app is written to take advantage of the iPad's latest dual-core and graphics processors, its high-resolution Retina Display, and landscape and portrait modes. For automatic updating of transactions, new users of iBank for iPad have the opportunity to try Direct Access for free during a 30-day trial. Maintaining the service will cost as little as 11 cents a day: just $4.99 per month, or $39.99 for an annual subscription; all options are available via In-App Purchase. Users of iBank 4.7 (now available via the Mac App Store or IGG) can use iBank for iPad without a subscription by syncing data directly from the desktop app over Wi-Fi or a WebDAV server. The iBank for iPad App is available for $14.99 from the App Store or at www.itunes.com/appstore. iBank for iPad requires iOS 5 or higher; for more information visit www.iggsoftware.com/ibankforipad
IGG Software, iBank and its climb from one-man shop to Intuit competitor
You probably haven't heard of IGG Software, but you will. It's the company behind the popular Mac and iOS financial software iBank and it's about to send a knock out blow to finance giant Intuit. So how did iBank climb from a single-man operation to its position as one of the top financial apps for the Mac? Let's dig into some company history to find out. IGG Software started eight-years ago as a single-man operation in Southern California. Ian Gillespie was a graduate student working in plant biology when he wrote his first Mac application to keep track of his field work. When he couldn't find suitable software to help him manage his budget, Gillespie decided to write his own solution. That was in the mid-2000s when Quicken was a household name. Intuit, though, was about to make several costly mistakes which would cause it to fall from grace among Mac users. Quicken 2007 was the gold standard when it was introduced, but Intuit was slow to update the app. The software title never moved beyond its PowerPC code and Intuit instead focused on Quicken Essentials for Mac, a lackluster title that didn't have all the features of Quicken 2007. The nail in the coffin of Quicken was the announcement of Mac OS X Lion. Lion didn't support older PowerPC apps like Quicken 2007, and, suddenly, Intuit's flagship software was obsolete. The company initially shrugged this off, but changed its mind late last year when it said it would would make Quicken 2007 compatible with Lion. On the mobile side, Intuit failed to develop an iOS app for either Quicken 2007 or Quicken Essentials. It's not that Intuit doesn't care about the iOS App Store; it has a variety of apps for other products like TurboTax and Quickbooks. For some reason, official Quicken companion apps are noticeably absent. While Intuit was stumbling, IGG Software was plugging away at iBank. iBank continued to grow in popularity as an alternative to Quicken. The software was in the Mac App Store from the start and climbed to the top of the App Store's Finance category. IGG also released an iPhone app that can be used as a stand-alone money manager or synced with the desktop app. The company is now working on an iPad version, likely called iBank Access, that'll hit the App Store soon. Unbeknownst to many, IGG quietly grabbed two ex-Intuit engineers who are now working on that project. The company also recently announced Direct Access, a paid service that'll automatically download new transactions when you launch the iBank Access app. We spent some time talking to IGG's chief architect James Gillespie, who joined his brother Ian's company in 2008. Gillespie now oversees iBank and other software projects within the company. Here is what he had to say about iBank Access, the Mac App Store and more. TUAW: What was the turning point when you realized you could seriously compete with Intuit's Quicken 2007? Gillespie: Ever since I joined IGG in 2008 it has been about writing the best Mac apps. We are competing with Quicken since we are all in the personal financial space but that has not been a driving force. We just want to do the best features for our customers and that focus has led to our current position in the market, which I think is great. TUAW: Any sales figures or download numbers you care to share with us? Gillespie: We are very happy with our downloads and sales numbers. They have been increasing every year since our first product shipped. But we don't share actual numbers. TUAW: What about the Mac App Store, has it been a boon for your business? Gillespie: As soon as it was announced we said we had to be there. That was just what we thought a Mac app should do. At the time we were selling boxed copies in the Apple Stores, at Amazon, in Office Depot and other retailers as well as our online store. We want to be where people are thinking about getting Mac software so this was just a natural extension. We had no idea what to expect from the Mac App Store when it first went live. Would it add to sales, or just cannibalize sales from other channels? We had a lot of ideas about what might happen but no idea what would happen. So far it has been a great ride, it has turned into our second largest channel, just ahead of our boxed channel, and behind our own online store. In fact we saw sales through our own site grow rapidly throughout year, so the Mac App Store didn't seem to take business away at all. We have also been fairly happy with the speed of Apple's approval process when we are getting updates out to our customers. TUAW: You have a Mac OS X app, an iPhone app, and soon an iPad app. What's next for iBank? What's next for IGG? Do you plan to expand beyond iBank, iBiz and iPaste with any other finance or non-finance titles? Gillespie: We don't like to announce anything until we are completely confident of the timing and functionality. Right now we have way more ideas than people to execute them. In general I can say that we plan on building out iBank and iBiz on Mac and iOS so that each has the correct feature set for the device it is on. We also have a lot of new features that we would like to add to each product. There is one in particular that we are really excited to be working on, but we are not ready to announce anything. Right now we don't have any brand new titles on our road map, but we do have some exciting ideas for where to take our existing product lines. TUAW: Could you comment on your development team and how you assembled it? I hear you have fresh, new talent that has come over from Intuit. Why would they leave a position with a large, stable company to join a start-up? Gillespie: We have been building up an incredibly strong development team. We believe in hiring the right people for the right job, not just filling a seat with someone. So everyone here at IGG is great at what they do. Over the last year we have hired new two developers who used to work for Intuit. These guys were two core members of a small team that developed TurboTax for the iPad and lead Mac development for the personal tax group for 14 years. I am not sure I would call IGG a start-up - we have been around for eight years, though certainly it is a much smaller company than Intuit. I think that the reason they decided to join IGG is that they are really passionate about making the best Mac and iOS apps. They are enthusiastic about working in a company whose focus is squarely on Mac and iOS products. Part of that is making really complex tasks, like personal finance, easy to understand. We are very excited they chose to join our team. TUAW: iBank Access is similar to Mint. How do you plan to differentiate your service? Why would someone choose iBank over Mint? Gillespie: They are similar but in some ways very different. The comparison is being made because both update account data automatically from thousands of financial institutions. But Mint is first and foremost a website, so all of their customers' financial data lives in the cloud. They do have a native app for iOS that provides a nice front end to their site, but my understanding is that Mint generates revenue by recommending financial products to its customers. So really Mint offers some free tools in exchange for all of its customers financial information and the opportunity to market to them. We just don't feel right about that business model. We feel that our customers financial information is between them and their bank. With iBank Access, we don't store it, we don't see it, we don't want any part of it. All we want to do is make a high-quality product that provides value to people and have people pay a bit for that value. Because of that we have made iBank Access a very full-featured app. You will be able to track your entire investment history - not just your current holdings. It will have advanced budgeting tools that are incredibly easy to set up and tell at a glance how you are doing and how you have done in the past. You can split transactions and still have them match with what your bank has reported to the app. We have interactive charts and graphs so that all of your data is just a tap away and yet still easy to understand. So in most ways iBank Access is more like our desktop product, iBank for Mac, than it is like Mint. With that in mind, we had to figure out how to split the difference between serving users who want to use it strictly as an iPad app, and existing iBank for Mac customers who want an add-on. For the latter's sake, we'll be keeping the app price low and enabling sync between iBank Access and the desktop version. If they don't need the Direct Access updating on the iPad, it won't matter and won't cost them any extra. TUAW: Where do you see iBank in 2-years from now? 5-years from now? Gillespie: This is a tough question to answer. I know the features I would like to see iBank and iBiz have in five years. But I can't really talk about them yet. I think in some ways we want to be what we are today, delivering the best product we can for the Mac and iOS. TUAW: Will iBank Mobile be ported to Android? or Windows Phone? Gillespie: We don't have any plans to, we don't have many customers asking for it, and we have a lot on our plate already. Our focus is still 100% on the Mac and iOS. TUAW: There's lots of pressure for companies to seek out investors. Are you VC-funded or self-funded? Gillespie: We are self funded and we have turned down offers for investment. We are not in this to make a quick buck and then sell to some larger company or go public and then get out. We are in this for the long haul because this is what we like to do. TUAW: What do you think of the future mobile commerce? What role will IGG or iBank play, if any? Gillespie: I think that mobile commerce will be huge. I love using my Starbucks app to pay for coffee. I think mobile credit card processing with Square, Inc. is really interesting. I don't see iBank competing with the transaction processing side. We are more involved with traditional personal finance management: the decision to make a purchase, or how to plan your cash flow.
Daily Update for August 29, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Buy iBank today and help Vermont flooding relief efforts
IGG Software, makers of the popular iBank financial software for Mac, has announced that 100% of sales revenue from their apps generated on Monday, August 29 will be donated to Vermont's relief programs for those affected by the flooding resulting from Hurricane Irene. Furthermore, IGG will double the total amount of sales with a matching contribution. In a press release [PDF] IGG states: "IGG Software, Inc. has been Vermont-based since shortly after its founding in 2003. The majority of its employees are also located in towns throughout Vermont, many of which were hit by devastating flash floods that destroyed homes, roads and bridges. Some of IGG's team members were affected personally with significant property damage and, in one case, an emergency evacuation." IGG Software makes the popular iBank 4 (US$59.99) and iBiz 4 ($39.99) apps for OS X. Users can buy the apps either through the Mac App Store or IGG's online store. All revenue will be donated no matter which store the apps are bought through.
Quicken Essentials for Mac available for pre-order
Quicken Essentials for Mac is finally available for pre-order. Too little, too late if you ask me. Its taken three years to get this next version of Quicken for Mac out the door. In that time, worthy alternatives have risen, like iBank and Mint.com. While I won't give it a review until I've tried it, it seems that Intuit should just give up until they want to make a financial software package that the Mac deserves. Here are just a few of my peeves from the Quicken Essentials for Mac FAQ (bold added): 1. Can I track my investments? Yes, Quicken Essentials for Mac allows you to track the overall value of your investment accounts and the value of your specific holdings. It will not, however, track investment buys and sells, nor will it provide some advanced investment performance reports. If you need more more advanced investment features, try Quicken Mac 2007. 2. Can I export my data to TurboTax? Quicken Essentials for Mac does not support that capability. If you'd like that functionality, we recommend trying Quicken Mac 2007. 3. Can I pay my bills within Quicken? While you cannot pay bills within the product itself ("direct bill pay"), you can track your bills and make sure you have enough cash to pay them when they're due. A few alternatives available include using Quicken Mac 2007 or using the bill pay functionality on Quicken Bill Pay. Did you see that? If you want to do anything useful, you have to buy their three year-old product. I ditched Quicken for Mac years ago, moved to iBank, then eventually quit that and moved entirely to Mint which has a great iPhone app [iTunes link]. How good is Mint? Good enough that Intuit has since purchased it. I can only hope they plan to leave it good enough alone. Thanks Gilbert
iBank provides yet another reason to dump Quicken for Mac
If there's one software company and product line that can raise the ire of even the most mellow Mac user, it's Intuit and the Quicken line of accounting software. While the company rightfully owns the market for home and business accounting software in the Windows world, their Mac products are beset with bugs, delays, and incompatibility issues.IGG Software has announced a "Why wait another day?" rebate program to persuade frustrated Quicken Mac 2007 owners to switch to iBank 3.5 (US$59.99). If you're a Canadian or U.S. owner who purchased iBank after July 10th, 2009, and have proof of ownership (installation disc or receipt) for either the Mac or Windows versions of Quicken or Microsoft Money, sending in a mail-in rebate form will get you a $20 incentive to switch to iBank.iBank 3.5 requires Leopard, and has a number of features that take advantage of Apple technologies. For example, you can take a picture of a receipt using your iSight camera and include that with a transaction record. MobileMe users get the advantage of automatic backups of their financial data, as well as a way to enter transactions "on the road" with the companion iBank Mobile iPhone app (US$4.99, purchased separately).All in all, the rebate is a great way to start saving money and begin working with an accounting application that was designed from the ground up to work on Macs.
Slate throws Apple a $100B idea, suggests iBank
In an interesting -- not to say wildly speculative -- essay, Slate Magazine's Karim Bardeesy says that Apple should take some of its $28 billion and start a bank. During Wednesday's conference call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer made it clear that the company was looking to keep its cash right where it is. Anecdotal evidence suggests that now might not exactly be the best time to get one's feet wet in high finance, but Bardeesy does make a few interesting points. First, if Apple takes $15 billion of its own cash, at "regulated reserve ratios," Apple could offer $100 billion in loans. Couple that with the company's tech savvy and trustworthy brand, Bardeesy says, and you're looking at an opportunity to "revolutionize the industry." Second, Bardeesy suggests creating an internet-only bank, taking deposits from everyday people -- via an iPhone fund transfer app, of course. He says the rise of Internet banks isn't unprecedented: just look at how popular they were in Iceland! (Ignore for now those banks' participation in the total collapse of Iceland's banking system.) And how about a slice of that sweet, sweet government bailout? Apple can have some -- if it's a bank. "Goodie side benefits to banking status include access to some of that TARP money and a steady revenue stream to smooth out any bumps in retail demand for other Apple products," he writes. Contradictorily, in his final sentence, Bardeesy chides the banking industry for "pocketing taxpayer billions while sending nary a penny [his] way." You can't have it both ways, buddy. In sum, Bardeesy admits that "Apple has prided itself on sticking to its knitting and not indulging in diversionary acquisitions or enterprises." He claims, however, that "an exception can be made when economy and country are at stake and profits are on the table." Can it? Really? Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
