After months of tears, sweat and repeated plays of Snap’s “I’ve Got The Power” (don’t ask), we’re now ready to release SongGenie 2.

This is one of our most exciting releases ever. Even as soon as you open the app and search for your first song, it feels slick. It could only be a Mac app.

If the first version of SongGenie was a nice app that did a good job (imagine us ruffling its hair and giving it a pat on the back), the new SongGenie 2 is cool app that does a great job. Building on the basic functions of identifying artists, song and album titles, SongGenie now looks to complete your music collection entirely.

You can search for lyrics, including a nifty web search function, so that you can display them on your iPod or iPhone on the go. Identify and apply genres, or get into detail with BPM and Sample Rate for true audiophiles. Using sorting categories and dropdown filters, you can really get to the heart of your missing music library info.

The bad news is, it’s all too easy to become maniacal about perfecting your collection. SongGenie 2 now includes a status panel which tells you exactly how far your collection has come. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. The good news is, SongGenie feels fun to use. Every little red flag brings you one step closer to collection perfection. Each notch further along the progress bar is OCD manna.

When you’re all finished, and you’ve checked over your shoulder to make sure no-one is watching, load up iTunes and congratulate yourself on a job well done.

This morning our free update for TV Movie was made available by Apple for download on the iPhone App Store. This new version 2.2 has been developed to include built-in data storage, meaning once you’ve filled up on data, you can use the app completely offline. No need to load each channel separately. This should be great news for iPod touch users. It’ll also make downloading the TV guide a whole lot quicker.

The TV Movie update has been a while in coming. We’re reading the reviews with interest and the latest version already has an average of 4.5 stars in the App Store. The comments so far have been fantastic and we’re glad those users are finally getting the most out of their app. It’s a good start but we’d like to know what you think of it too.

Download the app for 79 cents on the App Store, or update the app for free. Don’t forget to write a review so others can read what you make of it.

iSale 5.6 has just been released, and it’s never looked slimmer or quicker. Between sluggish loading times and awkward switching between panels, we felt there was room for improvement. We’ve fixed bugs and really sorted out the Facebook integration.

Existing iSale 5 versions already use Facebook, but we’ve improved it so you can share your auctions right on your Facebook wall. Choose your favorite iSale auction design styles and put them up for everyone to see.

Through rigorous regimes and testing workouts, iSale now works up to 200% quicker for frequent users.

If you already have iSale 5, you can upgrade to iSale 5.6 for free. Owners of older versions of iSale can also upgrade to the new version for a discounted price.

Every time an American or German team reaches the top of the podium during the games, we’ll give out a promo code for one of our products – but only valid for a really short time. Just first place. No silver, no bronze.

So how do you get the codes?

Just follow us on Twitter. Updates to the medal count with promo codes will be posted as they happen. Look out for tweets with the #Yeehaw or #Jawohl hashtags.

When the time is right, go to http://www.equinux.com/promo and redeem your code.

Macworld: Looking back

Every year Macworld was a huge team effort. The entire staff worked through most of the holiday period to get everything ready – the new software releases, the booth materials, the live demos,.. the list goes on. A few days before the show actually started, part of the team from Munich would fly out to San Francisco and set up camp within our US office for the final preparations.

DIY and Bureaucracy

The first few years, our Macworld booth was very DIY. We usually rented a U-haul truck and headed over to Home Depot to stock up on plywood, supplies and tools. Once we had everything we needed, the next challenge was to move our equipment into the exhibition hall. Anything you want to bring into the Moscone Center needs to be weighed and union rules require anything that can’t be carried (not rolled!) has to be transported by union employees. Gotta love red tape!

For a few years a simple drape served as our booth backdrop,
until we upgraded to a solid wall (we called it our own “Berlin Wall”), which we decorated with vinyl stickers featuring our products. Such DIY comes with it’s challenges: the air conditioning in the exhibition hall was always ice cold during the day, but in the evening it would get fairly warm. This would cause air bubbles to form underneath the stickers, leaving ugly ripples on the wall.

Wifi and Chocolate

We were known for giving out Ferrero’s Kinder Surprise eggs – which are apparently illegal to import into the US. We had to smuggle them in via Canada, but judging by the reactions from our visitors, it was worth it!

We would spend hours in the icy, highly air-conditioned exhibition hall setting up our booth until late at night. Once the booth was ready, we set up all the demo Macs and our booth network. Getting online at Macworld is surprisingly expensive: You can rent a connection, but connectivity for a single Mac cost between $1000-$1500 and you aren’t officially allowed to share this connection using a router. Of course in a hall full of nerds, nearly everyone did anyway. One year we even shared our wifi connection with the booth next to ours – in return they gave us some of their fantastic goodies at the end of the show (thanks again friendly booth neighbors!).

Macworld 2008: Our relaunch

After Macworld 2007, it became clear that we needed to invest in a real booth: our Macworld team had grown to 10 people and we were spending far too much time focusing on logistical issues and booth-building. We decided to commission a professionally built booth.

Working with a team based in LA, we came up with a design that suited our needs and reflected our products best: the booth consisted of a presentation area, 8 modular presentation pods, a sales counter and a small storage room. The cost came as a bit of a shock, but we decided that if we were serious about going to Macworld, we had better do it right. All-in-all, including design, transport, construction and materials, our new booth cost about $150.000. But considering the time, effort and logistical savings, as well as the increased visibility, publicity and sales, it was a solid investment.

We look back at the show itself with a lot of fond memories. Sure it was stressful and chaotic at times, but we got pretty good at pulling it off over the years…

Apple has changed, Macworld hasn’t

A fantastic part of Macworld has always been the opportunity to meet new faces, speak directly to our customers and be a part of the Apple community. We noticed that although the Apple community was growing, with millions of new Mac owners visiting Apple Stores every year, those new Apple users didn’t seem to be joining in the fun at Macworld.

Don’t get us wrong: it’s great to see familiar faces and one of the things we looked forward to most was meeting up with long-time users and fans who have been using our products since day one. But any trade show is also an opportunity to meet new faces and introduce products to new users and we get the impression Macworld isn’t where new Mac users go to check out new Mac products.

So where do they go? Well, as Phil Schiller pointed out, Macworld attendance is about the same number of people that visit an Apple Store every week. Mac users used to go to Macworld to congregate and check out new products, because there was nowhere else to go to get that hands-on experience – that’s no longer the case.

Will the press show up?

We have also spoken to a number of journalists, who indicated that they most likely will not be attending. Macworld used to be a great opportunity to launch new products, but if journalists choose not to cover the show, then there’s no point in trying to bend our release schedule in order to finish a product in time for Macworld.

Macworld has usually also been a great opportunity to meet with our contacts at Apple. We had assumed that even if Apple wasn’t going to have a booth, Apple employees would still show up and be available for meetings etc. However, our Apple contacts have told us they will not be attending this year’s show, so we would need to plan in extra time to visit Cupertino as well.

Cost?

Let’s face it: trade shows are enormously expensive and Macworld was no exception. As the last remaining major Mac trade show, IDG knew they could charge premium prices and companies would gladly pay them for the opportunity to bask in Apple’s limelight. We had already made a major investment in our booth and other exhibition infrastructure in previous years, so those costs had already been laid out.

What about floor space cost? IDG is clearly worried about filling the show floor and we received an offer that was 50% cheaper than last year’s price. But just because something is cheap doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a good investment…

Looking ahead

We loved being part of the Macworld these past 6 years. But the show can’t live on fond memories and nostalgia alone. We believe that this year it’s make or break for Macworld. If this show is a success, we’ll definitely be re-evaluating our options for 2011…

A Mac show in the US still makes a lot of sense. Perhaps we’ll see a revival, similar to the changes we saw in the Mac magazine space: New players such as MacLife, iCreate entered the market and were able to establish themselves as legitimate competition for the old traditional magazines.

Let’s wait and see…

P.S. Here are some pics & memories from over the years – good times!

We’ve updated the Stationery Pack Love and Romance collection, ready for 2010. Already a romantic? Then you can install the update, which also fixes a couple of bugs, free of charge.

If you don’t already have the Love and Romance collection, head over the equinux online store now. Remember Valentine’s is on Sunday February 14th – don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Well Matt, you’re in luck! You can add Stationery Pack designs to the “Favorite” category, for quick and easy access. This is how you do it:

This tip will work with all Stationery Pack templates we offer.
If you have any questions, just get in touch!

- Your equinux Support Team

P.S. If you like this tip, share it on twitter!

How can you easily fix an album with “incomplete artwork”?

Say you have an album with 12 songs, but only one of those songs has artwork. CoverScout allows you to filter for those albums, so you can apply that one cover you already have to all your other songs in that album.

Just switch to track view and drag the artwork from one song to the album thumbnail  to apply that cover to all the other songs:

This shortcut should make it easy to sort out your albums with incomplete artwork. If you have any questions, just get in touch!

- Your equinux Support Team

P.S. If you’re looking for alternative rock from Scotland  (isn’t everyone?), definitely check out Idlewild – we’ve been listening to their fantastic album “Warnings/Promises” all week.

If you would like to make a donation, please visit the Doctors without Borders website.