A brief history of Rego

Five years ago, in 2012, we launched Rego, the app we created for keeping track of our favorite places, and during the next four years we maintained it with the regular introduction of enhancements and new features.

That was possible because, during that time, one of the core members of the Makalu team was an iOS developer. Sadly, that developer had to leave our company at the end of 2015, and since then we?ve managed to release iOS compatibility updates, but that?s about it, due the high cost of working with external consultants.

Introducing Denis Hennessy

In late 2016, we had a stroke of good fortune. We were contacted by Denis Hennessy of Peer Assembly, with a request, as a long-time heavy user of Rego, to fix a nagging problem in app. When we explained that, unfortunately, it just wasn?t economically feasible for us to fix the problem, Denis volunteered to fix it for us, because, as it turns out, he?s a fantastic iOS developer!

The experience of working with Denis in that small Rego update was special, in the sense that we came to realize that Denis was exactly the type of person we like working with in Makalu. He?s friendly, competent, very adept at working remotely (he actually lives most of the year on the road in a camper van!). Since Denis is also a great web developer, we began working with him regularly on our client projects as well, and the relationship became ever closer.

A partnership is formed

This year, in late 2017, we sat down with Denis and talked about the future of Rego. Long story short, that conversation resulted in an agreement to become equal partners in the project.

So effective immediately, while the app is still sold through the Makalu account at Apple, it?s actually now a joint project between Makalu and Peer Assembly?and we couldn?t be happier!

The first fruits of the partnership

As the very first activity, Denis updated the app to fix all the iOS 11 bugs, and to fix Rego?s compatibility with Dropbox?s changed API, so that, once again, the very import backup and restore feature works!

Introducing Rego Pro

As a second activity, we?ve finally addressed one of the core problems we?ve always faced, and that is a way for people to try the app before having to pay for it.

At $14.99, Rego is a ?relatively? expensive app, compared to the millions that are either free or $0.99. On the other hand, Rego is unique in functionality, and is a surprisingly powerful and useful application that we?ve invested thousands of hours developing. And so we?ve put a price on Rego that we believe fairly reflects the value it delivers.

And if you read the reviews, you?ll find that most people who have made the investment in the app, absolutely love it.

So our dilemma has always been, ?How can we let people give Rego a try, without having to make the up-front investment?? Unfortunately, Apple don?t provide a mechanism to ?trial? an application.

Our solution is to provide two applications?the original Rego app has been renamed ?Rego Pro?, costs $14.99 and is fully functional when downloaded. We then created a second app, available today, called ?Rego?, that is free to download, but is limited to the creation of 10 place bookmarks.

There is an in-app upgrade in Rego, to Rego Pro, that removes that limit, and additionally enables the Dropbox data backup and restore feature.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re a previous paid owner of Rego, you?ll notice that on the next update, the app will change it?s name to Rego Pro. So you’re all good, and nothing to do!

Optimistic about the future

Again, we?re just super excited to be partnering with Denis on the Rego project. Rego has always been one of our own, personal, most-used apps, and it?s exciting to know that the app again has strong development skills behind it, and that we can look forward to an optimistic road forward!