Today I’m announcing ImagePlay 0.8.1, a layered non-destructive image editor for MacOS X.

This release focuses on bug fixes and all ImagePlay users are encouraged to upgrade.

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

The changes in 0.8.1:

• NEW can add layers to a project from Project templates, as well as Layer templates
• UPDATE Purchase/Registration process should now be easier to understand
• FIX Various fixes and improvements to the Layer Attributes window
• FIX Possible project corruption when replacing layer’s surface or mask
• FIX Crash when deleting very last layer in the list
• FIX Various problems with saving/loading Layer Templates
• FIX Control board issues with new text layers
• FIX Issues with Project Browser
• FIX Layer previews not updating when changing surface/mask image

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

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 0.8.5, a fullscreen iTunes status display (for Intel and PowerPC Macs running Tiger or better)

I’ve been getting some excellent feedback on Billboard 0.8.1. Thanks to everyone who let me know about problems and left suggestions! I really appreciate it.

Here’s a quick run-down of the changes:

* Fix: reduced CPU usage
* Fix: no more screen blanking on transition
* New: control over auto-flip delay and transitions
* New: improved support for RadioParadise.com internet radio station (play time, additional tags, link to song page and amazon page)
* New Advanced Options: prevent display sleep, show on all Spaces, and more

Starting things off, there are two major bug fixes to reduce the CPU usage and fix a problem introduced in 0.8.1 where the main screen would temporarily blank out during transitions if you had Billboard running on a second monitor. I’ve noticed a similar blanking issue happening when expose/spaces are open during transition and I’m looking at how to work around that issue. I also have a couple ideas for ways to reduce CPU usage even further.

There’s now an entire section of the preferences window dedicated to transitions. You can control the delay between them, set ratings to control frequency, and preview each one. Personally, I prefer the page flip, with a few others popping up every now and then for variety. You’ll need MacOS X 10.5 or higher to get all those nifty transitions listed (there’s a couple built-in fallbacks for Tiger users).

I’m particularly happy with the improved RadioParadise support. RP is a professionally mixed internet radio station I recommend everyone check out. If you’re listening to their stream in iTunes, Billboard will now go to their server and request an XML feed with additional information about the current song. And if you turn on Player Controls in Billboard’s preferences it will display the playtime and duration of the track. Pretty sweet! If you know of any other radio streams that publish song information like this then let me know.

So go check out Billboard 0.8.5 and leave a comment, or drop me an email. I’m mainly developing this to my own satisfaction, but I’m open to hearing any crazy-out-there feature requests.

I realized the old host for Wacky Jabber was down, so I decided to do a minor update and have MacUpdate.com host the download this time. Source code included. It’s a fun little project which creates non-sense english-like phrases and reads them to you via Text-to-Speech. Check it out:

Wacky Jabber hosted at MacUpdate

I released ImagePlay 0.3 today! There’s a few big new things in it, mainly the Filter Layers and the Fullscreen view, you can read about them in past entries. Seeing as they’re completely new, I’m expecting people will find bugs that I haven’t tracked down yet. I’ve think I’ve gotten most of the kinks worked out, but don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you find some unexpected behavior. There are several ways to contact me listed under the Help menu in ImagePlay.

Another major change in this version is one that most people probably won’t even notice. I’ve completely reworked the Help system around a built-in viewer. Previously the help system was built around a local HTTP server and the user’s browser. This new design means I have more control over how the content is presented, and it also lends its self to more interactive features. So we’ll see where this tightly integrated Help system goes.

As you can read in my previous post. I was expecting this release to be out in a week or so. This was mainly due to testing the MacOS 9 / Windows versions. I decided instead to do a staggered release this time. I’ve released the MacOS X (Universal) version now, and as I have time to test the other versions I’ll release them.

Also, 0.3 should fix the problems on Intels.

So go check it out at http://imageplay.sourceforge.net/ and let me know what you think!

So after months in the pipeline, ImagePlay 0.2 has finally been released. It doesn’t have shape-layers like I mentioned in a previous post, but it does have new Text layers, and numerous improvements and new features throughout.

One major new feature is the Effects/Groups Manager. This nifty window automatically takes care of moving your effects groups between two folders “Groups” and “Groups Disabled.” It also displays a preview of the selected effect or group making management much easier.

There are a number of performance improvements with regards to the workspace. I did a lot of work to optimize drawing operations in general, but in particular the selection rect. It took me a good week to implement and tweak the sub-recting routine it now uses to determine the smallest possible area to update as you drag the selection rect around. The end result is that its much faster. If you’ve ever tried dragging a selection across several layers in a large project window you’ll definitely feel the difference.

Working with movies has been much improved as well. Now you can include the sound track when exporting, as well as other layers. This is great for doing logo overlays and things like that.

Another big improvement isn’t really a feature so much, but an ability. ImagePlay is now a Universal binary on MacOS X! In my rough tests this means almost double the performance on Intel Macs. And on the Windows version I have fixed a slew of bugs which basically made the program useless, and I’ve packaged it up in an installer. So now ImagePlay is acting a bit more like a well behaved Windows app.

Due to all the work I’ve put into this release I’ve decided to move from a “donation” system to a “purchase” system. The price is now firmly set at $20.00 USD. However, this does NOT change the open source status of the project or the Effects Library. The Effects Library is still free for all developers to use in their own projects, and it will always be so.

So, go check out ImagePlay 0.2 and tell me what you think! The complete change log is listed there as well, and it’s a long list.

SafeSleep This is a nifty little AppleScript front-end I wrote up that automates the process of putting your Mac into hibernation. I’ve been using it for months without a hitch. I got most of my information for the underlying terminal commands from the following places: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20051114072358161 http://www.andrewescobar.com/archive/2005/11/11/how-to-safe-sleep-your-mac/ Now, it’s pretty cool how this works. And as I’ve said I haven’t had any problems yet. But this usage of MacOS X’s safe sleep is not officially supported by Apple. That being said, you’ll need MacOS X 10.4, and a laptop. I’ve tried it on a couple desktop macs and it hasn’t worked at all, but it didn’t have any adverse consequences either. Get SafeSleep 1.0

I’ve released ImagePlay 0.1.6 today for MacOS X. There’s a long list of minor changes, but the most notable are in the interface.

* Projects Browser has been refined and simplified.
* Starting Points window looks much nicer, and includes a new templates list

There are numerous under-the-hood changes and optimizations as well, so go check it out!

It’s very time consuming to do a MacOS 9 release, and the Windows version has a few complex bugs that need to get fixed. So to save time, this release is MacOS X only.