posted March 21st, 2008
The Naked light Pre-purchase Program gives you a steep, 50%-off discount off of Naked light, in exchange for helping Naked by funding a part of the development process.
Naked light 1.0 will go on sale in late Summer, 2008. (For international types, summer in the United States ends September 22nd—six months from now.)
$49.99
plus tax in California and Connecticut
Open Beta
Naked light will remain in open beta for everyone. Paying early just gives you a sizable discount and a warm feeling in your heart. Oh, and I’ll totally get rid of the dock for you.
How It Works
Licenses are available for purchase through Google Checkout. Once I receive your order, I’ll send you a serial number.
Current versions of Naked light Beta don’t accept serial numbers, but future versions will shortly.
Refunds
The Pre-purchase program fee is fully refundable. If a feature you want isn’t showing up or if you just changed your mind, shoot me an email (at refunds@naked.la) with your account information.
Keep in mind that after the Pre-purchase program ends, the price goes up to $99.99.
Bugginess
As you may know, Naked light is fairly buggy at the moment, and simply doesn’t work at all on some computers. Unfortunately, this is a half-Catch-22. I can’t get access to the requisite hardware without cash, and I can’t get cash without the Pre-purchase Program.
If you’re one of the people affected by the bugs, mea culpa. If you want, the Pre-purchase Program would totally help me out and is again refundable if those bugs don’t get fixed soon enough for you. If not, no worries—hopefully enough other people will order the Pre-purchase Program.
If you’re hesitant, though, drop me a message in the comments or by email (brandon@naked.la) about what is holding you back. I can’t guarantee that I can accommodate you—some bugs I just can’t fix in the short term—but I’ll see what I can do.
Why the Pre-purchase Program
I need cash to fund Naked light’s completion. I love working on it full time, but without any income, that’s not possible.
Venture capital really isn’t designed for small companies like Naked—I only need a few thousand dollars, not a few million. I also, frankly, don’t want to spend the time right now soliciting it when I could be working on Naked light.
Bank loans aren’t possible given the intersection of my relative youth (and equivalently youthful credit history) and the current state of the US economy. When the economy was better I could’ve squeezed by, but not being a huge fan of massive debt, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t.
The Pre-purchase Program is good on a lot of fronts. In loan terms, it’s fairly expensive for me: that 50% off to get liquidity six months early works out to be roughly the equivalent of a 300% interest rate. But, it’s relatively low-risk (risk free, in fact, as long as not everyone demands a refund at once), gives me a better understanding of the demand for Naked light, and, well, it’s a really good discount for you.
As an added bonus, I’m hoping that pre-purchasing might psychologically encourage some people to stick around here a bit more, giving me their feedback, and helping me make Naked light better.
Naked light Status Update
Naked light Beta 3.0—the Compatibility Edition—is coming out next week. Important features include iPhoto support, raw image support, a drastically faster brush engine, histograms, and bug fixes. Later Compatibility Edition releases (3.1, 3.2, etc…) should include proper Photoshop support, color management, more export options, and, finally, Universal support.
Pre-purchase It
$49.99
plus tax in California and Connecticut
March 21st, 2008 at 1:22 PM
Hi Brandon,
Just bought it! I’ll be happy to support your work with Naked Light (even though I already own Photoshop CS3, Fireworks CS3, Pixelmator and Acorn). NL feels fresh with a new approach to image manipulation so I’m excited to see where you’re taking it.
With the value of the USD deep down in the cellar with the nowdays discontinued Spanish pesetas and Italian lira, how could I resist to buy it…?
(BTW, I’m in Sweden).
Keep up the good work and don’t buy beer for all the money…
// Leif
March 21st, 2008 at 1:38 PM
Thanks a bunch, Leif!
You’re an inspiration to us all (hint, hint)!
Also good news, because previously I was just sort of praying that Google Checkout worked well internationally. Out of curiosity, does it automatically convert to Euros/Krona for you?
March 21st, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Brandon,
No problem at all with Google checkout. The value in the shopping cart is in USD but I can also se the calculated value in SEK (that’s Swedish krona…). Shouldn’t be any problem with international sales for you.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:29 PM
Brandon I somewhat feel compelled to help you but a couple of things I wanted to ask – have you got any visions of locking NL onto Apples Aperture 2 as and editing plugin component > in someways it will allow us to bypass using CS3 altogether ?
Did you ever approach them about this idea ?
And lastly I assume buying the License now entitles me to use the finished non beta version once it’s released right ?
Let me know on these points if you can ?
March 26th, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Simon,
I haven’t yet worked out how far I want to (or can) integrate with Aperture. Because Naked light doesn’t use a typical document model, round-tripping could be a little awkward. I’m also looking into implementing some of Aperture’s non-destructive features—so you might be able to open up an edited Aperture image in Naked light and be able to go back and edit all the adjustments you made in Aperture. This runs into two problems, though. One, since I don’t have access to Aperture’s algorithms, I can’t replicate their adjustments perfectly. Second, I can’t get those changes back into Aperture (more specifically, I could, but would rather not risk ruining people’s Aperture libraries).
There will definitely be some level of Aperture integration, but right now I can’t say exactly what that will be.
And yes, the license absolutely entitles you to use the full, finished non-beta version when it comes out!
April 4th, 2008 at 1:28 PM
[...] For more details, see the Naked light Pre-purchase Program. [...]