Developers can ask Handango to completely disable and remove the “download protection” fee from the shopping cart on their own web site.

For example, as all our software is always available for re-download on our web site at any time, it doesn’t make any sense to charge that fee and showing it in the shopping cart on our web site, so we asked Handango to remove it.

Of course other developers may have different policies, as it seems to be the case of OmegaOne.

I do think this type of app (maybe not this one in particular) is going to be the wave of the future. It is considerably more flexible than a standalone app, and with so many companies now moving toward unlimited data plans, the restrictions to such an approach are being lifted. Unfortunately, this may also mean the begining of the end for the single pay app, and a move toward pay as you go or subscription apps. We’ll have to see what happens on that front.

Doug

Then they had a product called Battery Pack. It was advertised as having free upgrades. They later came out with Battery Pack Pro. They made the product Id on Handango of Battery Pack PRO to be the same as Battery Pack so they would keep the high ranking and the reviews and all that. However, they told all the existing Battery Pack users that it was a completely new product and they would have to pay to upgrade to it and future upgrades would no longer be free. I think the original Battery Pack product was then abandoned.

So, given this history, don’t assume that future enhancements to 1-togo will be free. Even if they say so in their literature (which I don’t think they do).

Thanks for the prompt and mature responses to my posts. Yes, I will continue to read the posts and articles in this site. I have both an iPhone and a WM device (because of the iPhones lack of support for MSFT Exchange) and am always looking for new and interesting apps for both. Unfortunately, there are no true apps for the iPhone. Hopefully that will change in the coming months.

@ Scott…boy do I wish I could go inline for this. But it really sounds to me like you have some issues with Omega One, which I am not going to really attempt to resolve here.

I do want to clarify that Handango’s treatment of developers is well documented. They really do not leave Omega One the leeway to remove the download protection. Like I said, it was one of the many reasons people have been shying away from Handango. As for the misrepresentation about pricing you mentioned…again, that problem originated with Handango. I actually discussed this fairly extensively with Omega One. They intended to discuss the matter with Handango and have it corrected. I am sorry if that has not happened yet.

As for your comments about the iPhone, I am happy to see that you are happy with your chosen device. I know many people who are happy with the iPhone. And, maybe this is not the best option for iPhone users. Our reviews necessarily must be based upon the platforms we use to test them, which is why we always make sure to tell you which platform was used for each review.

As for your comments about caching, I cannot argue with the comments you made. Offline viewing could be helpful. I would not necessarily use it that way, because then I could not be assured to be viewing the most up to date information. But, that is just me. Others may (and obviously do) disagree.

Anyway, Scott. Thanks for commenting, and I do hope you will keep reading the site.

Doug

Thanks for responding to my comments. I will in turn do the same .

Regarding the whether to cache or not to cache. One of the reasons I would use 1-Togo is to read content when I am off-line, just like I was able to do with Journal Bar (in the rare cases when Journal Bar actually worked). Since 1-Togo does not cache the information, because it can’t since it is sunning in a browser, I cannot read the content when not connected to the Internet. In addition, I need to use bandwidth to reload the information every time I want to use it. If your device is running that low on memory that you would not want to have it cached then I think you need a newer device with more memory since if you are that low your device must be running horribly.

Regarding the download protection, I assume Omega One could tell Handango not to charge for that. If they can’t, they should instruct users to deselect that option when they make the purchase. Another thing that I think is a little sleazy on the part of Omega One is that on the Handango site they don’t mention that there is a $20 per year fee to keep the site running.

Regarding the price, that is something everyone will have to decide for themselves. I think it is grossly overpriced for what it does (given the other options out there).

Regarding the iPhone, I would recommend you find someone that has one and play with the Stocks and Weather applications. You could then comment on how 1-Togo stacks up against the iPhone embedded Stock and Weather applications.

Another fear that I have is how long will their web portal continue to work? Omega One has another program called Journal Bar which I think 1-Togo is supposed to replace. Omega One’s support of Journal Bar has been horrible. The product is always breaking and has been plagued with memory leaks since day one. Omega One has basically abandoned Journal Bar Support. What assurance do we have that the servers which serve up the web pages for 1-Togo will not suffer the same fate?

Go to http://www.technologyatplay.com/main/forums/forum-view.asp?fid=22 to view all the issues with Journal Bar (if posting links is a violation to your blog then I apologize and understand if you have to edit the link out).

OK. Let me see if I can address all of your concerns. Your right. 1-ToGo does not cache any data. Personally, I prefer it that way. If it cached everything then that could potentially take up a lot of space which I do not have to spare. I also did not find that it took any longer to load than any other website I used on my device.

As for the download protection, don’t blame Omega One for that. Their store is a Handango affiliate. That download protection is put in there by Handango and is in all of their affiliate stores. In fact, this is a well documented reason that many users have stopped purchasing from Handango. Of course, if you would like to avoid this problem entirely, you can always purchase it from our affiliate store by clicking the link within the review.

As to the price. When I started looking at this one, I had the same concerns about the subscription and whether it was worth it. I even had several conversations with the developer about it. The truth is though, although free programs will offer some of what is offered here, they cannot come close to matching it all..and in one convenient location. Is the program perfect? Of course not. But, it can replace a weather application, RSS reader, clock programs, stock programs, games, and more (without mentioning the one stop access to news, email, and social networking). You could easily use this program for several years before matching the cost of all of that.

As for the iPhone, I have never tried it on the iPhone, so I have no idea how it would compare on that platform.

Doug