Dear Team,

This morning we woke up to very sad news: Steve is no longer with us. I wanted to share an experience I had at WWDC this year with you all:

I was watching the keynote and was sitting in the fifth row near the front, along with Bernd Brügge. After the presentation, I watched Steve leave the stage and head over to his wife, Laurene, who was sitting in the first row. They rested their heads together for a few moments. He was done. One last keynote, his farewell.

I was a few meters away and watched the scene, which seemed to go unnoticed by the mainstream press audience who were rushing out of the hall. The scene left a lasting impression on me. The next morning, I opened my hotel room door to find a copy of the SF Chronicle with that very same image on the front cover – such a moving moment.

Steve inspired us, but also demanded a lot from the Apple community. He led us through transitions and changes that weren’t always easy. We’ve been amazed by new products and dismayed by App Store regulations and rejections, often all on the same day.

But above all, Steve was passionate about everything he did (I’m reminded of his brilliant article on Adobe Flash), and it was that passion that we believed in and helped us overcome any doubts we may have had.

Steve built an amazing company, and it remains to be seen whether his self-confidence and conviction will live on at Apple. However, I trust that Tim Cook knows what he needs to do and Apple will continue to flourish.

Thanks for everything Steve!

Till
P.S. Instead of tomorrow’s hawaiian shirt day, we’ll be having iOutfit day instead.

We know you guys love the App Store, so we’re pleased to announce that Mail Designer is on the Mac App Store!

Details

All the great layout-changing, link-editing, design-creating goodness is in there – just now you can get it through the App Store if that’s the way your prefer to get your apps. In order to comply with the App Store guidelines, we have made a few changes minor to Mail Designer on the Mac App Store though. For full details, please visit our Mail Designer Mac App Store page.

This latest version was released as an update, so Mail Designer 1.1.1 is now available for all users.

We’re really proud of Mail Designer and hope you love it too. Enjoy!

Team equinux

P.S. If you purchase Mail Designer on the Mac App Store, please leave a review and let us know what you think! Lots of shiny review stars are even better than coffee for our developers…

You can now export designs directly from Mail Designer up to MailChimp. So you can create stunning designs and send them to your subscribers with MailChimp’s powerful distribution service. We’ve also built-in support for MailChimp’s placeholders, so you can take advantage of their powerful mail merge capabilities and build-in links to forward your newsletters, manage subscription preferences and more.

MailChimp have free and paid plans, so if you plan on sending messages to a larger customer base, or just want to have more flexibility and control over your campaigns, check out their service.

Other mail services

A lot of you have also contacted us and asked about support for other email services. Mail Designer now offers an API that third-party services can use to built their own Mail Designer plug-ins. If you have an email service you would like to create a plug-in for Mail Designer, please get in touch.

We think you’re going to love MailChimp integration and the extra power it adds to Mail Designer, let us know if you have any thoughts!

With today’s update, VPN Tracker 6 is fully Lion compatible. We fixed a few smaller issues mostly related to multiple connections.

VPN Tracker 6 also has full support for new Macs that automatically boot with a 64-Bit only kernel, so if you’re using Apple’s latest & greatest hardware and software, you’re ready to roar.

We urge all users of older versions to upgrade to VPN Tracker 6:

• It’s ready for the future, with support for OS X Lion and new 64-bit only Macs
• Secure Desktop makes working over VPN easier and more productive
• Upgrading will not affect your settings and connections – it just works

OS X 10.7 is a great update to the world’s best operating system and we think VPN Tracker 6 and Lion are a great match. If you have any questions or concerns at all, please let us know.

What’s the deal with Lion?

We’ve been doing extensive testing with 10.7 since the first developer previews were announced earlier this year and were able to chat to Apple developers at WWDC about certain details we’re still looking into. We’ll need to release some minor updates for a few apps, but on the whole, we’re pleased to report that most equinux consumer apps are already in pretty good shape for Lion.

Scroll bars

As demonstrated in the WWDC keynote, Apple has changed the default look of scroll bars in Lion – they now look like the familiar iOS scroll bars. We currently use custom scrollbars in nearly all of our apps (swapping the default candy-blue aqua scroll bars for a slightly darker look), so we’ll be updating a few apps (notably iSale) to support the new default iOS-style scroll bars.

Here’s what the scroll bars look like today in Snow Leopard and Lion. As you can see, the scroll bars don’t show up at all in Lion, not even if you scroll with your track pad or mouse (by default they are invisible unless you’re scrolling). That’ll be fixed with one of the next free iSale updates.

WebKit

Lion also comes with a new version of Webkit, the browsing engine that powers Safari and web views in third-party apps. We use the webkit engine in quite a few apps, including Mail Designer, iSale, CoverScout and SongGenie. We’ll need to tweak iSale and Mail Designer a bit to reflect the changes in Webkit’s HTML output, but overall there’s not too much that needs to be changed.

As you can see, stationery mails still work great with Lion – but we need to tweak Mail Designer’s HTML output a bit with the free update that we’ll be releasing soon.

Almost there…

It is our goal to have all equinux consumer apps Lion-ready by the time Lion is officially released in July.

If you’re an early adopter and are already running the latest developer previews, feel free to let us know if you run into any issues and expect to see a few updates in the near future. We’ll have more information about our pro apps, once we’ve had a chance to test them more thoroughly.

Mail Designer is the first app of its kind. There are a bunch of great Mail clients that let you read emails on your Mac, but there isn’t a single one that can create a HTML email design from scratch.

We’d like to share the story of how and why we decided to make Mail Designer – it all started in 2007…

Beginnings: Stationery Pack

When Apple first unveiled stationery in Mail for Mac OS X Leopard, we were excited by the possibilities it opened up: finally here was this way to send cool emails that didn’t look boring and dull. We got to work right away and were the first to offer additional stationery for Mail with our Stationery Pack line of products. People loved Stationery Pack and we received lots of requests for additional template categories and designs.

The trouble with templates

One of the most popular requests was for business templates – something that could be customized with a logo and signature to be used for everyday business emails. So in 2010 we started work on Stationery Business Edition. Because Mail only allows the text and images in a stationery message to be customized, we included all sorts of different layouts and looks for each of the designs we created. This gave users a certain degree of flexibility, but the designs were still not fully customizable.

Also, because Apple Mail can’t save a copy of a stationery email once you’ve customized it with your own text and images, you have to basically start from scratch every time you wanted to send a message and couldn’t easily reuse messages you had already sent.

Stationery Editor: A new hope

So we also started work on another project, which had the working title “Stationery Editor”. Our initial idea was that we would create a companion app that would allow users to tweak their stationery and save it as a template to re-use again and again.

Our development team created an incredible editing tool, which not only allowed you to customise text and images, but also included a full set of tools to remix and mash up stationery templates. It was much more powerful than the basic editor we had initially envisioned and opened up whole new possibilities.

However, the original stationery designs hadn’t been created with that kind of flexibility in mind. So while the new app was great for adjusting text and images in our stationery pack templates, the more advanced background and layout editing features couldn’t really be applied to most existing stationery designs.

Project rebooted

And so Mail Designer was born. We kept the original capabilities for stationery editing of course, but we added a whole host of new creation tools, including dynamic layout blocks, graphics and background textures and an advanced editing interface that any Keynote or Pages user should feel right at home in.

If you’re more of a creative type, you can start with a blank slate and create an entirely new design from scratch. Those of us that need a bit of inspiration can choose one of the Design Ideas as a starting point and to kick-start their own ideas.

We also added graphics and additional background textures that can be used to give your designs a more professional touch.

A lot of time was spent testing the app and we put it through its paces by re-creating the look of email newsletters and other messages that landed in our inboxes. We wanted to make sure the new app would be able to tackle any design challenge that our users might throw at it.

Our own graphics department has also been using Mail Designer exclusively now for a few months to create the equinux newsletters we occasionally send out (some of you may have noticed that we’ve started playing with a number of new looks in our mailings).

Finally, we took all the excellent feedback we’ve received from our stationery and Business Pack customers and tweaked and adjusted the app to ensure Mail Designer is a perfect fit for their needs — I think it’s safe to say that Mail Designer is going to be an essential tool for them as well.

So please download a copy of Mail Designer and let us know what you think!

Happy emailing!

In total we gave away four boxes of freebies, everyone in line got a chance to play with tizi on the iPad (and to answer the most popular question, yes – tizi works beautifully with iPad 2 as well) and had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone at the big launch.

Check out the video:

The Mac App Store is here – hooray! We’ve received a few questions about equinux apps on the Mac App Store and thought we’d share them with you…

Question: Will you sell equinux apps through the Mac App Store?

Answer: Yes! We already offer CoverScout, SongGenie, iSale and iSale express on the Mac App Store.

Question: Can I update equinux apps through the Mac App Store?

Answer: That depends on how you bought your software. Any apps purchased on the Mac App Store can be updated using the update feature built-in to the Mac App Store. If you purchased your software elsewhere (e.g. in the equinux Online Store), you can update using the built-in update feature found in all equinux software.

Or see ifiboughtyourappalreadycaniupdateitthroughthemacappstore.com for details

Question: Why does my software not show up as “installed” in the Mac App Store?

The Mac App Store will recognize any applications you have installed on your Mac and will mark them as already installed. But if the currently installed version is different than the version being offered in the Mac App Store, it won’t be recognized correctly and you will see a “buy” button instead.

Question: Is there a difference between equinux software bought in the Mac App Store and software bought in the equinux Online Store?

Answer: No. Our products in the Mac App Store offer the same features and functionality as our software purchased anywhere else. There are some Mac App Store specific changes related to update functionality and purchasing options, but the apps are otherwise identical.

For technical reasons, the version numbers of our App Store apps are currently different than the non-app-store versions (e.g. the Mac App Store version of CoverScout is 3.4, the non-App-Store version is currently at 3.3.2) , but there’s no difference between the two.

Question: Can you swap my equinux software for the Mac App Store version?

Answer: Unfortunately Apple doesn’t offer a way to swap existing software for the corresponding Mac App Store software. But there’s no difference in functionality and we’ll continue to offer updates for both versions of our software.

That’s all for now – if anything else comes up, we’ll let you know here or on twitter. Have fun on the Mac App Store!

Do you think the Mac App Store is an opportunity for developers?

Till: “Currently developers don’t really have access to all the customers that join the Mac platform every day. This target group, usually referred to as a ‘switcher’, is already familiar with the Microsoft Office package and would get VMWare from their resellers when buying to use Windows. A lot of these people actually don’t know where to buy Mac software even though it is available. These customers are apparently untapped to us. The potential will be enormous now that everything is centralized.

For longtime Mac users, the simplicity of buying software from a central platform like the App Store creates a big opportunity to increase sales incentives. Download an app quickly and try it – the threshold is simply reduced.”

What about the risks?

“There are of course some risks for software developers. Firstly, Apple is not a pure reseller, but a kind of co-publisher with its own tastes and whims. That doesn’t make life easier but more complex and, at worst, it gets confusing when you have to spend a lot of time in discussions.

Secondly, as a software developer you almost completely lose contact with the end user. It’s prohibited to ask for user registration details in your software. I fear that in the future the customer support will shift to the App Store as with iPhone Apps where developers won’t have a chance to respond. In this respect Apple has to be active because Mac applications are often more complex than small iPhone apps.

Thirdly, some apps are not adjustable because they simply need to use kernel extensions, etc. The big challenge is that Apple has too many technical guidelines in place that many apps won’t meet. This might lead to a flood of non-sense apps, as we’ve seen with the iPhone and iPad.”

What do you think Apple has to do to successfully launch the Mac App Store?

Till: “We hope that Apple doesn’t repeat the mistakes they made with the launch of the App Store for the iPhone. They were trying times when you had to wait three months for an approval and no one at Apple could give any information on what the status was.”

Some developer’s complained about the guidelines for approval in the Mac App Store. What’s your opinion?

Till: “To us it’s not a big deal, because there is another space beside the App Store. Therefore the rules are fine for us. Those who accept Apple’s rules can start developing their software for the App Store, those who disagree with it can distribute their software conventionally. Everyone has the freedom to choose, Apple is not forcing us yet. It could be problematic, however, if the App Store is the first step to stop the free distribution of Apps in Lion.”

Product release day is always an exciting time at equinux. Today is no different. Today’s release of tizi is not just a groundbreaking iPhone and iPad release, it’s the start of a new era of hardware products for the company.

tizi is the perfect complement to your iPad or iPhone. As Europe’s first TV mobile hotspot, tizi broadcasts high quality DVB-T television to your iOS device over its own WiFi network. No cables, no adapters.

At just 2.5 ounces and smaller than the iPhone, tizi was designed to be carried around in your pocket or bag. Turn on, tune in and start watching. With its glossy housing and silver bezel, it’ll fit snugly next to your iPad or iPhone, all the while casting envious looks from all around. Users can watch TV on the go for up to 3.5 hours thanks to the replaceable Li-Ion High Performance Battery and be recharged via USB.

tizi is just the start of a move into the iPhone and iPad hardware accessory arena. We have a long standing interest in consumer and enterprise software, as well as Mac hardware in TubeStick, and of course iPhone and iPad apps. tizi marks the start of a new era of iPhone and iPad hardware accessories, so you can get even more from your iOS devices.

So sit back, relax and watch the action unfold. With tizi, it’s easy.