On the Mac we have three different Sniffy products: "Sniffy", "SniffyLite", and "SniffyPro". On Windows, we have "SniffyLite" and "SniffyPro".
(When searching for Sniffy with the Apple App Store App, be sure to select "Mac Apps")
"Sniffy" is a free download from the Apple store which allows you to run the program and verify Sniffy meets your needs. Settings in Sniffy Preferences allow you to run Sniffy as Sniffy Lite (suitable for high school and college intro courses) or Sniffy Pro (suitable for upper year/advanced level college courses). This operates as a "Demo" version, meaning files can't be saved, printing is disabled and experiments are limited to 20 minutes in length. Once satisfied Sniffy is what you need, the In-App Purchase features allows you to "upgrade" to a fully functional version of the program with either the "Lite" or "Pro" feature set you require. Currently, "Sniffy" is only available on the Mac. Institutional installations, which wish to distribute and administer licenses ie student teaching labs etc, should purchase "SniffyLite" or "SniffyPro"
"SniffyLite" is the version of Sniffy suitable for high school and college intro courses. You can download it on the Microsoft store as a free trial to verify SniffyLite meets your needs and use the "buy" button once you are satisfied SniffyLite is right for you. Students using Mac may also buy and download this version, but there is no "free trial" ability and no ability to upgrade to SniffyPro in the future.
"SniffyPro" is the version of Sniffy suitable for upper year and advanced college courses. You can download it on the Microsoft store as a free trial to verify SniffyPro meets your needs and use the "buy" button once you are satisfied SniffyPro is right for you. Students using Mac may also buy and download this version, but there is no "free trial" ability.
NO! You should only have to buy the version you need once. "Sniffy" has the ability to run as either Demo, Lite or Pro. Likely, you still have "Sniffy" set to run as Demo. To correct, select Preferences in the "Sniffy" menu and ensure the "Upgrade" button is selected and then select "Lite" or, if purchased, "Pro". If full features still aren't enabled, try quitting the program and restarting and ensure the correct buttons are still set.
You may have uninstalled the program or installed on a different machine and lost the connection to your purchase. In any case, you can restore your purchase from the In-App Purchases menu. Click restore and follow the prompts. You need to be signed into or sign into the account from which you originally purchased your upgrade. Once completed, use the Preferences to select "Upgrade" and the feature set you desire.
Some earlier versions of Sniffy may restore your purchase but indicate "No products were restored", so check Preferences after clicking Restore regardless of the message.
You can confirm what purchases your copy of Sniffy has by selecting "About Sniffy".
Licenses for multiple installations of SniffyLite or SniffyPro can be purchased through the Apple School Manager Program.
In mid-April, Microsoft removed all paid Apps from their education/business store. Customers who purchased licenses before this date are still able to use the software and reassign licenses, but additional licenses cannot be purchased. We will be investigating ways to provide institutional and volume licenses for Windows over the next few months, but for the present time we are not doing institutional/volume purchases for Windows. Email us at info@sniffythevirtualRat.com if you require additional details.
Basically, the new version is the same from the aspect of what behaviours Sniffy simulates, experiments which can be performed etc. Also, the animation of Sniffy and the cage etc are the same.
However, there are some differences:
New versions of Pro also have the ability to run as if they were Lite or Pro. This option in Preferences is useful for those taking or teaching different level courses using Sniffy. Set the Preference to Lite for the Intro course and then switch back to Pro for the Upper year course.
If your school is the administrator/owner of the student's computer then you use the Apple School Manager and distribute to the student's machine.
If students own their computer and your school doesn't have administrator access to it, then students have to buy and install the software themselves. If you don't want the student to pay for the software, we suggest buying gift cards from the respective store and giving one to each student. Keep in mind, students using Macs need Apple Gift Cards and students using Windows computers need Gift cards from the Microsoft store.
These "gift cards" are simply codes you hand out to students which enable them to make the purchase on the appropriate store.
Some older builds of SniffyPro and SniffyLite did have a problem saving to DropBox. If you can't update to the current version, try saving your file onto your local hard drive. If the problem occurs even when saving into a local folder, contact support at info@sniffythevirtualRat.com
At present, no. It may be possible to run Sniffy on a Chromebook using some kind of emulator, like VMWare. But we have not verified this is possible and do not support it.
Did you try again? Sometimes connection to the internet can be lost and the download interrupted. Verify your computer is connected to the internet and you have a stable connection, then try again.
If you have tried several times and let some time pass between tries and still can't download, you should verify that Sniffy will run on your machine. Sniffy requires 10.13+ on the Mac and Windows 10 Version 1903 Build 18362 or later for PC's. Check the "compatibility" section of the App Store and verify your system meets this criteria.
In some rare circumstances, it might be that Sniffy has already been installed or partially installed by yourself or another user on your computer. You either have to uninstall the current instance of Sniffy on your computer, or determine how to access the copy of Sniffy which is already on your computer.
Dr. Hal Miller prepared an excellent Instructor's Manual for Sniffy V3 and most of it is applicable to this version of Sniffy. We hope to update this in the near future, but for those who need something right away, Dr Miller has given us permission to offer his Instructor Manual on our site. You can get it here: Download Instructor Manual
If the Classical Conditioning Dialog is on screen when the experiment is running, you will not be able to edit the experiment. (This prevents the experiment progressing and running stages you are in the middle of editing. If the Classical Conditioning Dialog is on screen when the experiment ended, you still won't be able to edit. Just close the Dialog and open it again.
If another dialog, like the Classical Conditioning Dialog is on screen when you chose another item from the Experiment menu like "Remove Sniffy for Time-out" it may be obscuring (ie "over top" of) the Time-out dialog. Simply close the top most dialog and you should see the dialog which it obscured.
Try emailing us. Let us know what Sniffy you are running (Sniffy, SniffyLite, SniffyPro), and the version/build info the About Sniffy. Also, tell us what computer you use and give us as much detail as you can about the issue you are having. Screen shots are really helpful communicating what your issue is. Try to give any error messages as fully and accurately as possible.
You can email us at info@sniffythevirtualRat.com