Clear+ going away, Clear going universal, free for 24hrs to ease migration

RealMac will be ditching Clear+, making Clear universal, and making it free for two 24hr periods in order to help all their existing customers migrate over. They'll also be updating Clear soon to add Reminders integration. All of this to try and clean up the pain that came from their attempt to launch Clear for iPad last year, the ridiculous reaction to it, and the mechanics of the App Store that still, almost 7 years later, don't allow for paid upgrades. Here's Dan Counsel's open letter from Real Mac:

As many of you know, late last year we released a new version of Clear. This new version called Clear+ was built for iOS 7, and a universal app for iPhone and iPad. It was also a new app, in effect a paid upgrade for our customers. Believing that this new app was the best thing for our customers - after all, a universal app was our biggest feature request - we removed the original version of Clear from the store. Shortly after the launch, it became obvious we’d made a huge mistake.Our existing customers were understandably upset that we were no longer updating the old version of Clear, and that we wanted to charge them for an update. So after much deliberation we changed our plan: we updated the old version of Clear for iOS 7 and put it back on the store. Our sole aim was, and remains, wanting to do the right thing for users.Since then we’ve heard from customers that they are excited to pick up Clear but uncertain which version to buy - or even worse, users mistakenly buying the iPhone version when they want the universal version.This confusion and uncertainty isn’t what we want you, our customers, to experience and we’re making an important change that makes things (if you’ll pardon the pun) clearer.

If you're an existing Clear+ customer, go read the rest to find out how it all works, and how to get alerted when your 24hr free migration windows go live, then come back here and let me know - what do you think?

Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.