I’m stunned.

What happens when the app crashes and the user clears their preferences?

Now, I’m not encouraging willful interference and hacking of applications, but come on! There has got to be a better way than simply storing everything in plain view of everyone. I don’t want my license or serial number visible to other people who use the same computer. Another hiccup is that in demo modes, AppZapper and Disco store the number of remaining zaps or burns in the plist file. That’s fine up to a point, but at least check if the user (as in the screenshots above) has manipulated it. After so many years of Mac Shareware, something’s got to be done. Hack proof your apps. Please. You’ll get more business and not be exploited.

I have kept this short, since I don’t want to simply tell everyone how to exploit applications, but my general plea is, please, test and retest your apps to make sure they’re not hackable. If the biggest names in shareware are making these mistakes, it’s time run another audit on your work.

Update: Follow up article on shareware licensing techniques using Cocoa.

Shiira is an open source web browser based on Web Kit and written in Cocoa. The goal of the Shiira Project is to create a browser that is better and more useful than Safari. This article presents the most useful features of Shiira and gives a preview to the some of the new additions that are coming in version 2, including exclusive information from the latest build.

Continue Reading Lessons from Shiira