Since version 1.0, we’ve received a ton of feature requests. The most popular by far has been “make an iPhone version”, and yes, I am working on MYStuff Mobile, which will be a companion app to MYStuff 2. But there’s been a lot of other ones that may seem mundane, but are important, such as improved CSV import.

As we stated previously, MYStuff 2 is a ground-up rewrite, complete with a new and improved interface. (And yes, the new version will migrate all your old data). But when we sat down with our feature list for 2.0, and realized while there’s a ton of new features, some of them should have been part of MYStuff from the very beginning. We didn’t feel that users of MYStuff 1.x should have to pay for an upgrade to get features that should have been there all along, but at the same time there’s a bunch of new features that will be worthy of a paid upgrade.

Our solution, then, is that we’re going to release two versions of MYStuff 2. MYStuff 2, and MYStuff 2 Lite. All registered users of MYStuff will be able to upgrade to MYStuff 2 Lite for free, and be eligible for discounted upgrade pricing to the full version of MYStuff 2.

MYStuff 2 Lite will have all the same identical features as the current version of MYStuff, but we’re adding a bunch of new (long overdue) features. A few of these include:

• Improved CSV import
• Total values for each Category
• Right-click functions
• User-editable columns
• Smart folders

Obviously, this isn’t a complete list of all the new features of MYStuff 2 Lite, but it should give you an idea what to expect. Of course, there are a few unexpected “wow cool!” features in MYStuff 2 Lite that we’re keeping under wraps for the moment, and the full version will set a new standard for “stuff management” software.

Now the $64,000 question: when will it ship?

I wish I had a firm date, but in the world of software development, there are “hope to ship by” dates and there are “actual ship by” dates. The two sometimes coincide, sometimes they are vastly different. I’ll just say that the “hope to ship by” date is December 31st, 2011 so that people can use it to record the deluge of new stuff acquired over Christmas.

Stay tuned!

{ UPDATE } Based on feedback from MacUpdate customers, the names will be “MYStuff 2″ and “MYStuff 2 Pro”. So all registered users of MYStuff 1.x will be able to upgrade to MYStuff 2 for free, and be eligible for a discounted upgrade to MYStuff 2 Pro.

Also, I’m now expecting a ship date around the end of January. Personally, I’m disappointed I haven’t been able to get the new features implemented as fast as I wanted, but as my engineer wife reminds me, “innovation takes time.”

Needless to say, we are very excited about the added functionality iCloud will bring to the MYStuff platform, especially MYStuff 2 and MYStuff Mobile. We’re actively looking into iCloud and MYStuff compatibility at the moment, but it looks like the current version of MYStuff will “just work” with iCloud in the same way MYStuff “just works” with Dropbox.

As the developer resources are made available to us, we will be optimizing MYStuff to work as fluidly as possible with iCloud across multiple machines. Check back here for more news as it becomes available.

We didn’t, however, test a “new install”, as in “a new user launching MYStuff for the very first time.” And unfortunately, there was a bug that only affected new users.

Ouch.

Fortunately, it was reported quickly (late in the afternoon yesterday) and we had the bug fixed and a new release thoroughly tested and posted by this morning. If you downloaded the 1.5.5 release, either manually or via auto-update, you’ll need to manually update your copy of MYStuff to 1.5.6. Simply download a fresh copy and replace your old version.

Which brings us to the future of MYStuff 2. In recent months, we are beginning to appreciate how Apple felt when Mac OS 9 was out and OS X was under development: you still have to support the older technology, but you can’t wait to leave it behind. Old software code has a way of being like the “junk drawer” in your kitchen: you start out with it all neat and clean and organized, and over time it becomes filled with things that you should have thrown out a long time ago, or put away in their proper place but never quite got around to it.

After over 2 years of active development, MYStuff’s code has gotten to the point where it needs more than just a little house cleaning. MYStuff 2 is going to be a ground-up rewrite.

Radical? We don’t think so. There are a lot of benefits for us as developers, but the real winner will be our customers. Like Apple’s transition from Mac OS 9 to OS X, we’ll be laying a new foundation for the future growth of the application. (And trust us when we tell you that we have some great plans in store for MYStuff 2 and beyond.) From faster performance to more modern technologies and exciting new features, we know that doing a complete re-write for MYStuff 2 will be more than worth the effort.

It started off innocently enough. One of our customers reported a bug: Only “All Categories” was showing in the Category list. We quickly figured out what was causing the bug and figured out how to prevent it from happening again. Fixing existing databases affected by the bug proved to be problematic, however. After trying to fix it 8 different ways, we finally contacted Apple Developer Support. We provided them with a bunch of information, and after waiting three business days we finally got this reply: “I don’t have any new information on your request at this time, but I wanted to let you know that it has not been forgotten.  I will let you know as soon as I have something to report.”

So that’s where we’re at as of right now.

If you’re experiencing this problem, be aware that we are working hard to resolve it.

Since MYStuff 1.0 shipped, we’ve put out 5 major updates, with a bunch of great features:

• Location filter bar & CSV export (MYStuff 1.1)
• FileFinder introduced with iPhoto browser (MYStuff 1.2)
• FileFinder added manual and image searching & CSV import (MYStuff 1.3)
• Support for moving your database to other locations like Dropbox (MYStuff 1.4)
• Updated interface & support for all file types with built-in media player (MYStuff 1.5)

Thanks to user feedback, we have a bucket of new features and big changes, too many to add on to the current line of MYStuff. As a result, we’re starting up development on MYStuff 2. We’ll keep MYStuff 1 updated as necessary with any needed bugfixes and any compatibility issues with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, but all new major features will go into MYStuff 2.

In addition to MYStuff 2, we’re also working on MYStuff Mobile for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. This is the hottest request from our users, and we want you to know that we’re listening. MYStuff Mobile will ship in 2011.

We’re also actively seeking new beta testers to help us make MYStuff 2 and MYStuff Mobile as feature-rich and bug-free as possible. Interested in being a beta tester? Click here.

And if you want to keep tabs on what’s going on, be sure to follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn, like us on Facebook, or subscribe to our RSS feed.

We’re happy to announce that after several months of work, MYStuff 1.5 is available for download.

The first thing you’ll notice is that MYStuff now sports a much more modern interface. But beauty is not only skin deep with this release. MYStuff 1.5 now supports all file types: PDFs, images, audio files, movies, spreadsheets, word processing files… anything.

As always, PDFs and images are displayed in the Details sheet. What’s new is that media files have a built-in player with basic playback controls: play/pause, skip to beginning, and volume. All other files will show their QuickLook preview.

There have been some other under-the-hood improvements to improve launch times, and a few interface improvements, such as the forward & back buttons at the bottom of the Details sheet that allows you to easily step through your Records without closing the Details sheet.

With all the shopping you’re going to be doing in the upcoming weeks, this is a perfect time to start keeping track of your purchases and their receipts, and MYStuff makes that easy. And to kick off the shopping season, we’re knocking $10 off the normal retail price of MYStuff through November 30th. Just enter the promo code “GIVETHANKS” at checkout to buy MYStuff for only $19.

Download your copy today.

The biggest news is long-awaited support for moving your MYStuff data to your Dropbox or iDisk account, file server, USB flash drive, or any other location. Simply open the Preferences, click “Copy & Move”, and select your new location.

MYStuff also has a new “All Records” category that allows you to easily see everything in your database at once.

There were a bunch of little enhancements throughout, but the biggest “little” enhancement is that MYStuff’s interface now works much better on MacBooks and other machines with smaller screen resolution (1280 x 800).

Overall, we think you’ll be pleased with the update, and we can’t wait to hear your feedback.

We’re happy to announce that MYStuff 1.4 is in beta and will be released shortly. This update will bring the much-requested feature of built-in changing the location of the MYStuff data repository, making it easy to move your data to a file server or an off-site online data storage location such as Dropbox or your iDisk.

While we finish work on the update, we’re announcing our Independence Day Sale: just enter the promotion code LIBERTY at checkout, and we’ll knock $11.24 of the price of MYStuff, bringing it to the patriotic price of just $17.76 until midnight July 9th, EST.