If you like to have all your online radio stations in one place, there’s good news for MediaCentral users. We’ve added a long list of radio stations from around the world, meaning you can tune in and listen without searching around for an online feed.
With over 100 new stations, you can listen to student radio in Munich or Cologne, XFM in London and the BBC’s World Service. Choose from classical, country, club sounds and more from the comfort of your computer.
Of course, radio is just one small part of what MediaCentral can offer. Watch live TV, chat on Skype, stream TV over the web, watch films from your hard drive or on DVD and watch a photo slideshow.
Check out the complete list of new radio stations:
During today’s lunch break a surprise arrived for the team. After an exciting unboxing ceremony, we spent a little time with the new iPhone-controlled Parrot AR Drone helicopter quadricopter (all in the name of science, of course):
Once the initial setup (including a firmware update, quadricoptor reboot and iPhone reboot) was done, the Drone was off on its first flight. We’re happy to report it survived the afternoon – despite a few close encounters with a door, a fence and various other obstacles that just seemed to get in the way…
Most people have been in the position where they’ve bought a MacBook or iPod only to find out a new version came out a few days later. We feel miffed the company didn’t tell us beforehand, cheated us out of our hard-earned money. Software developers are, after all, some of the best tech consumers: we know what it feels like when this happens.
For this reason many companies offer grace periods, a time-frame in which all users who bought the software get an upgrade for free or at a reduced rate. This is a rather unique phenomenon in business. When you buy a car and a new model comes out next week, you don’t expect a free upgrade.
Development costs
Software companies must fight a balance between what is fair and how much money is needed to cover development costs. Developing software takes time. A lot of time. While we’d love people to enjoy innovative, user-friendly and useful software for free, we all know this just isn’t feasible.
A big cat with sharp claws
Apple added to the confusion when they introduced Snow Leopard at a record low price of $29.00 and a lengthy grace period to boot. “If Apple can let me upgrade my entire OS for just shipping costs, I think you could too.” Believe us when we say there were ulterior motives behind this. Snow Leopard was, after all, marketed as a major bug fix to Leopard – not many software developers can get away with charging for bug fixes which shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Thanking the loyal
Rewarding our existing customers is a priority. Whether you bought our software one week or five years ago, there will be some kind of discount available. The best way to access your upgrades is via your License Manager. Simply choose your software and click Upgrade Details.
And yes, we always offer a grace period with new software releases. If you qualify you should receive an email from us shortly after a new version is released.
eBay as a service is evolving, and so are the ways in which people use it. What was for a long time a way of easily selling second-hand items you had lying around, has now become a way for businesses to reach new customers.
Over the years eBay has grown and added layers of complexity and detail, which provide buyers with ever more information to be able to make good buying decisions. For sellers, however, this doesn’t always make things easier.
That’s why today we’re releasing iSale express, billed as the lightweight and lightning fast way to create eBay auctions. People who want to sell items occasionally and with a minimum of fuss can load up iSale express and start selling in seconds. Simply choose one of three classy templates, add your own photos and write a description. Your auctions will be automatically updated so you can follow your bids in one place.
iSale express uses the same engine as iSale 5.6, meaning it automatically pulls the correct categories and item specifics directly from eBay. Whilst iSale 5.6 offers innovative features such as the Research Assistant or the ability to use multiple accounts, iSale express offers a basic feature set so there’s no learning curve to selling on eBay.
So if you’re looking to make some ready cash, you now have two great options. Sell in seconds with iSale express, or start making your fortune with iSale 5.6.
Several SongGenie customers have let us know about incorrect genres showing up in iTunes after using our software. Instead of the usual “Rock”, “Pop” or “Reggae”, several different numbers are shown in the genre field. The problem first appeared in iTunes 9.2 and seemingly hasn’t been improved in the latest iTunes 9.2.1 update. The good news (for us at least) is that this change has nothing to do with SongGenie, the bad news is: the problem can only be solved by our friends in Cupertino.
SongGenie uses the ID3 tag standard to write all information to a song. The way iTunes reads this information is unfortunately out of our control. We have filed a bug report with Apple and the issue is being openly discussed on Apple’s own discussion forums. We hope a solution is found soon.
For those users who’d like to know a little more about genres and their associated numbers can look this up on this website.
If you have any questions regarding this change, simply email songgenie@equinux.com and we’ll get back to you soon.
Over the coming days eBay are going to be changing the way auctions are created. In the past, for example, users could only distinguish between items that were new or used. The new auctions will have more options, so you can better describe the precise conditions of your items. This means fewer customer queries and more satisfaction.
Due to this change from eBay, we’ve just released iSale 5.6.2, which deals with the new auction options. Existing iSale 5 users can download the update for free. However, we’re not able to offer a technical solution for users of iSale 4 or earlier.
With that in mind, we’re dropping the price of an upgrade to iSale 5. All our iSale 4 users will be receiving an email in due course. The switchover from eBay takes place on July 27th, and our offer applies then for the next two months.
Anyone who’s wondering what the improvements have been made in iSale 5 should check out our latest features page. There you can see the benefits of our Research Assistant, iSale mobile and more layout options. You can even download the demo and try it all out for yourself.
Of course, if you have any questions, we’d be happy to hear from you. Simply email isale@equinux.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Up until now it was just iPhone and iPad users who had access to the entire TV guide offered by TV Movie Flat Rate. The Tube users are now able to benefit from the TV Movie Flat Rate too.
We’ve just released The Tube 2.9.7, an update to our TV software. This small update prepares The Tube to be able to use the full features offered by TV Movie Flat Rate, which replaces the existing TV Movie EPG.
What this means for you is that with a single Flat Rate subscription, you can get the complete TV Movie guide on your iPhone, iPad and on your Mac via The Tube. One service, three great uses.
We’re adding to the usefulness of the TV Movie Flat Rate by combining TV Movie on the iPhone, iPad and in The Tube at the end of September. However, you can start using the service right away by buying it directly in the TV Movie apps for iPhone and iPad (in the App Store) or by going to the equinux Online Store.
As Apple were busy launching their exciting new iPhone 4 in California, they quietly released Safari 5, the latest version of their web browser for Mac OS X. Since then our team has been busy testing all of our apps, to make sure they are compatible with the new browser.
Safari 5 comes with a new build of WebKit, which is important for many of our applications. The good news is, Safari 5 is compatible with the latest versions of all of these applications:
The TV guide folks over at TV Movie in Germany have made a video which shows off the iPhone app we developed for them. Whilst concentrating on the iPhone, it also shows the iPad version, TV Movie HD.
The YouTube video is German only, but it’s great to see so many of our features packed into a two minute presentation.
The Apple Store in Munich was full to the rafters at 8am this morning as fans queued to get their hands on the new iPad. Developer Alex was on hand to get this photo, but sensibly decided his iPad case could wait!
It’s an exciting day at equinux. We’ve had the iPad for a while thanks to our San Francisco office, but we hope to see a new wave of excitement over the coming days.
We already have two iPad apps on the App Store:
Firstly, TV Movie HD means that you can now use Germany’s best TV guide with high resolution images and more information on screen. The much larger screen space compared to the iPhone app means TV Movie HD is now comparable in size to the magazine itself. With data for more than 200 channels that loads in the background, it’s perfect for using around the home.
Secondly, there’s the Barbecue HD iPad app. If your weekend looks anything like ours, this app is the closest you’ll be getting to juicy steaks and kebabs. We spent a huge amount of time making sure the sights and sounds of this app were as authentic as possible, taking 160GB worth of photos of real (and often burnt!) food. Now available on the iPad, we’re glad that our users can experience the full detail and resolution for which we’d always hoped.
Both apps are available on the App Store, so show off to friends and family what your newest family member can do.
