Today I’m announcing ImagePlay 0.8, a layered, non-destructive image editor. It’s been a good long while since the last release and a large number of things have changed, I’ll just highlight a few big things, in no particular order.

• Formalizes the transition to a closed-source shareware model for the application. The core engine, however, will always remains open source.
• The controls for the project are now integrated into each project window, as opposed to the former floating palette. Also, there’s now a dark “frame” around the project workspace. (see below screenshot)
  
• Effects previews are now shown within the project workspace, overlayed over other layers, so you can easily get an idea of how an effect will look on multiple layers. (see above screenshot)
• Undo/Redo! Need I say more, this is great to have.
• The Project Browser now includes List View, and support for Multiple Project folders (Local & Networked)
  
• A new file format for projects which will increase performance when loading/saving. Also features QuickLook support.
• Filter layers now have resize handles so you can easily and visually resize them.
• And much more!

So go check it out and let me know what you think! Remember; during this public beta period you can pre-purchase ImagePlay 1.0 for USD $20, that’s 42% off the final price of $35!

If you used previous versions of ImagePlay, and you have questions, I’d encourage you to first see the FAQ section at the old ImagePlay website. If you still have questions, feel free to let me know via the Contact link at the bottom of SideTree.com

This is just a quick update on the progress of Billboard’s development. There are a lot of minor improvements in the forthcoming 1.0 release, mostly thanks to feedback from users like you! There will also be a new optional Grid View, which is pictured below in its early stages.

1.0 should be out within the next month or two. Before 1.0 ships you still have time to pre-purchase it at the discounted price of $9.95! Afterwards Billboard will be $19.95. So if you’ve been testing out Billboard and you haven’t registered yet, click that Purchase button in the startup window and lock-in your discount.

Thank you, to everyone who has tested out Billboard and sent in great feedback.

Today I’m releasing Billboard 0.9.8, an iTunes controller and status display (for Intel and PowerPC Macs running Tiger or better)

This should be the last release before 1.0 (which should come out about two months from now) and it’s focused mostly on polishing things off, formalizing the trial terms, and fixing some bugs.

First I’ll talk about the trial terms and what they mean. The user has a 30 day trial period in which to try Billboard completely unrestricted. All features are enabled during this time. At the end of that 30 day period a few things happen: Fullscreen and Kiosk mode are disabled, random entries in the browser are blocked out, and album-art is replaced with an alternating ad*.

What’s new in 0.9.8? My favorite new feature of 0.9.8 is the improved album art quality. Both when dealing with high-res and low-res album art. Additionally, there are several minor updates to include support for iTunes 9 (and iTunes U). And clicking directly on the album art now displays a contextual menu for the current song. You’ll find the complete change log at the Billboard homepage.

And don’t forget; as a thank-you to everyone who has sent in feedback, you can pre-purchase Billboard 1.0 for USD $9.95 before it ships, that’s 50% off the final price of $19.95!

*A Word About Ads:
Of course, the hope is that no one will even experience the post-trial ads because they will have paid and registered for Billboard before their trial is over. But regardless, I’d like to assuage any concerns over privacy. The ad system does not send any personally identifying information to any servers. And only one ad is loaded per track. When possible, Billboard displays contextual ads, that is, ads which relate to the song you’re listening to. It does this by looking at the tags of the song, and cross referencing them against its own database of contextual ads. Again, I’d like to stress that no information about your listening habits is sent to any server in order to achieve this. As far as the ad server is concerned, it can’t tell the difference between an ad being pulled contextually, or one being chosen at random. If you have questions about any of this, feel free to leave a comment, or send feedback at the Contact page of SideTree.com.

Today I’m releasing Billboard 0.9.7, an iTunes controller and status display (for Intel and PowerPC Macs running Tiger or better)

This version introduces two big new features; Last 10 and Tunemarks. Both of these features are geared towards solving issues related to internet radio, but will work with any media playing in iTunes. Now when you ask the question; “What’s that song that just played while I was in the other room?” You can simply go to the Last 10 menu and see the last ten songs that played, along with helpful links for each of them. And if you’d like to keep a reference to a song for later purchase or reference, you can add it to your Tunemarks.

One feature which I’d like to highlight is the new behavior of the search field in the Browser. Previously, it served only to search your entire iTunes library. In Billboard 0.9.7 however, the search field is used mainly to filter the current list. Say you’re in the Radio listings, looking through the Eclectic section and you’d like to find all the rock stations. Now you can simply type “rock” into the search field, and there are all the stations whose title or description match. If you’d like to search your entire library, you can still do so from the Home, Search, or Playlists screens.

There are a number of other enhancements and fixes as well including animations for smoother transitions of interface elements, and detection of situations where iTunes requires user interaction. Other new features include customizing the toolbar, and an option to show the playtime even when the toolbar is hidden, among others.

You can access the current change log at the new Billboard homepage. Incidentally, you may notice the new website that Billboard is being hosted on. I’d like to assure everyone that this doesn’t reflect new ownership or developers, but a new home for the various applications and projects I’ve had scattered around the web. I’ll slowly be moving these projects to be under one digital canopy, at SideTree.com

As part of the move, currently registered users will see a dialog asking them to update their registration. All that should be required for most people is to simply click the Update button. If you experience any problems, please feel free to contact me via email (under the Help menu in Billboard) or via the Contact page at SideTree.com

And don’t forget; as a thank-you to everyone who has sent in feedback, during this public beta period you can pre-purchase Billboard 1.0 for USD $9.95, that’s 50% off the final price of $19.95!

Today I’m releasing Billboard 0.9.6, an iTunes controller and status display (for Intel and PowerPC Macs running Tiger or better)

This version brings all-new Shuffle and Repeat controls, as well as several bug fixes and improvements for Star Ratings, the Browser, the Control Bar, and transitions. The complete change log is available in the Links section in the upper right.

And don’t forget; as a thank-you to everyone who has sent in feedback, during this public beta period you can pre-purchase Billboard 1.0 for USD $9.95, that’s 50% off the final price of $19.95!

Today I’m releasing Billboard 0.9.5, an iTunes controller and status display (for Intel and PowerPC Macs running Tiger or better)

This release brings two major new features; window view, and the Browser. Now you can easily toggle Billboard out of fullscreen, throw it in a corner of your monitor and get some work done while still seeing your album art beautifully displayed. The new Browser lets you search your music library, add tracks to a target playlist (”iTunes DJ”, for example), switch the current playlist, and more. Additionally, it features enhanced support for iTunes’ built-in “Radio Tuner”, allowing you to easily peruse the many great stations provided, and mark favorites. Also, when pulling album art for radio streams, Billboard will now try to locate the correct song duration as well, which makes for an even more seamless internet radio experience. (Album art and song durations are courtesy of Amazon.com)

The Browser, in combination with Kiosk mode, turns your mac into the perfect digital jukebox. Users can search your music library, find the song they like, and add it to the playlist (of your choosing), all without having full access to your computer.

There are a number of smaller improvements in this release which add up to create a more polished experience. Album art is now displayed in the dock icon by default. You can now edit star ratings directly from Billboard. The iTunes and Amazon store buttons have now been consolidated into a contextual “links” button which includes searches of Wikipedia, MySpace, and more. And that new links button is displayed as part of the new control bar, which provides a cleaner interface for scrubbing through songs, as well as volume and other playback controls.

And in addition to all of that, there are several new features that were spurred on by user suggestions. Some of these I had already been considering and decided to ultimately implement because people asked for them. These new features include: Smarter use of the space on vertically oriented monitors, ratings for the different angles album-art is displayed at, various improvements to the VirtualDJ, and lastly, the ability to select a font for the main Billboard status display. So remember, if you have a suggestion, don’t hesitate to send it my way. It just might make it into the next release!

Screenshots of Billboard in fullscreen, with the Browser Open, on vertically and horizontally oriented monitors:

And don’t forget; as a thank-you to everyone who has sent in feedback, during this public beta period you can pre-purchase Billboard 1.0 for USD $9.95, that’s 50% off the final price of $19.95!

Today I’m releasing Billboard 0.9.1, a fullscreen iTunes status display (for Intel and PowerPC Macs running Tiger or better)

This release is mainly made up of bug fixes, with increased support for iTunes Shares, iTunes Store content, and radio streams. There are also a few new options in the preferences, including automatic removal of borders on album art. Also, visual feedback is now provided for keyboard shortcuts such as play/pause, volume up/down, etc.

With the goal of increasing iTunes integration, there is now an option (Preferences>Advanced) to forward unhandled keyboard shortcuts to iTunes, and a Billboard launch script which can be installed in iTunes’ Scripts menu. You can easily instal it from within Billboard.

As a thank-you to everyone who has sent in feedback, during this public beta period you can pre-purchase Billboard 1.0 for USD $9.95, that’s 50% off the final price of $19.95!

Today I’m releasing Billboard 0.9, a fullscreen iTunes status display (for Intel and PowerPC Macs running Tiger or better)

There are a number of new things in this release; Kiosk Mode to keep people from exiting Billboard (perfect for parties), the Virtual DJ to announce song changes using MacOS X Text-to-Speech, options to auto-hide various interface elements (such as playback control), and a slew of new transition types for both MacOS X 10.4 and 10.5. There are also a few new settings for tweaking the performance of Billboard, including iTunes update frequency and transition FPS control.

I listen to a lot of internet radio. Unfortunately some stations provide iTunes with poorly formatted tags, or include various announcements along with the song tags. To that end, there is a new “Clean Up Tags for Displays” option that attempts to alleviate this problem. And speaking of tags, Billboard will now attempt to fit long tags entirely on screen by reducing the text size.

As a thank-you to everyone who has sent in feedback, during this public beta period you can pre-purchase Billboard 1.0 for USD $9.95, that’s 50% off the final price of $19.95!

With that in mind, here’s a few features planned for future releases*:

• Visual feedback for keyboard shortcuts
• Playlist control/editing/searching
• Remote control iTunes over the network.

* Subject to change, YMMV, etc.

Today I’m releasing Billboard 0.8.6, a fullscreen iTunes status display (for Intel and PowerPC Macs running Tiger or better)

This update fixes an issue which prevented Billboard from launching on MacOS X 10.4 machines. It also fixes a number of display/performance issues.

New in this release is the ability to download album art for CDs, the option to display album art straight-on instead of at a randomly selected tilt, a nice new icon, and the ability to select the transition duration.

I posted a poll on the Billboard download page for a few feature ideas I have. You can help me prioritize which to implement by heading over and voting for your favorite. Been thinking it would be nice to put some of that empty screen space (above the track names) to use. Maybe allow for displaying personalized content like web pages or something.

Take the poll.

Again, thank you to everyone leaving feedback.