Embraceware Blog http://embraceware.com/blog Behind the scenes at Embraceware Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:40:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en New Awaken UI Feedback [updated] http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/06/30/new-awaken-ui-feedback/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/06/30/new-awaken-ui-feedback/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:40:09 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/?p=97 Hey Everyone,

We’ve been super busy working on Awaken 5 - yes, Awaken 4.1 has become Awaken 5.0 due to all of the under-the-hood changes, new features, updated UI and better performance. We’ll have more on that soon.

For now, we would like your feedback on a UI change related to how alarms are displayed in non-fullscreen mode. We made this change to be more streamlined and easier to use. 

In the video below we are demonstrating the Egg Timer and as of now the countdown screen portion has yet to be updated but the key thing for feedback is the alarm view displayed. 

You will notice that video is being played back. Right now with widescreen video there is an empty space above and below the video. We will be addressing that by animating the height of the window to match.

[Updated video here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/embraceware/2632264329/]

Also, if you’d like to see real-time updates (screenshots, video, notes) and the ability to reply on each as they happen - you can follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jerrybrace.

All feedback is welcomed on this early draft. We look forward to reading it.

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/06/30/new-awaken-ui-feedback/feed/ Join Team Awaken *UPDATED http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/06/29/join-team-awaken/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/06/29/join-team-awaken/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:00:20 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/04/24/join-team-awaken/ teamawaken.jpg
We’re busy working on Awaken 4.1 which is a major update and often times I bounce ideas off of people I know on my buddy list who use Awaken. The feedback is very valuable and I wanted to extend the reach by offering a way for those interested to get involved.

[UPDATED]
So if you’re interested in being sent progress updates, links to screenshots or video of features in development and opportunities to voice your opinion and other feedback during development send please follow me on Twitter via http://twitter.com/jerrybrace.

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/06/29/join-team-awaken/feed/ Awaken in MacHeist Retail Bundle http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/04/12/awaken-in-macheist-retail-bundle/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/04/12/awaken-in-macheist-retail-bundle/#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:18:25 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/04/12/awaken-in-macheist-retail-bundle/ macheist.jpgEmbraceware has teamed up with the MacHeist crew for the first ever MacHeist Retail Bundle.

12 Top Mac Apps (Awaken, Cha-Ching, CoverSutra, DEVONthink, iClip, Overflow, Wallet, WriteRoom, XSlimmer, Enigmo, Bugdom 2, and Nanosaur 2) for $49.

Available online now for a limited time and in stores shelves near you soon.
Buy it online now!

I’d also let you know that development on Awaken 4.1 is going very well. It’s a much bigger update than originally planned and we are aiming to get a public beta out soon. 4.1 will be a free update, as are all updates to Awaken (both minor and major versions).

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/04/12/awaken-in-macheist-retail-bundle/feed/ Awaken 4.1 - Look Ma, no iTunes - and look at the moving pictures… http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/24/awaken-41-look-ma-no-itunes-and-look-at-the-moving-pictures/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/24/awaken-41-look-ma-no-itunes-and-look-at-the-moving-pictures/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:16:50 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/24/awaken-41-look-ma-no-itunes-and-look-at-the-moving-pictures/ We’ve been busy with Awaken 4.1 - it’s a fairly big update. We’re including a lot of the feature suggestions that have been sent in and fixing any bugs reported. In addition to that Awaken will be localized in French and German.

Tonight we have a sneak peek at a new feature…

Up until now Awaken has had to rely on iTunes to play your playlists. For the most part this is okay and it’s great if you’re using wireless speakers via AirTunes. But sometimes iTunes just doesn’t want to play nice. So coming in Awaken 4.1 we’ll be giving you a choice to have Awaken play your iTunes music or have iTunes play it as its been doing.

Advantages of Awaken playing your iTunes content:
- Rock solid reliability can be achieved when not depending on communication to iTunes
- Better performance
- Video playback within Awaken

Advantages of using iTunes to play music:
- AirTunes support…

Awaken will be the default choice - but you can easily change it in the preferences. We’ll also be working on improving iTunes playback for those who want to use AirTunes. We decided that providing the choice makes things work for everyone.

Check out the video to see the new preference and Awaken playing your music and videos…

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/24/awaken-41-look-ma-no-itunes-and-look-at-the-moving-pictures/feed/ Awaken 4.1 in development http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/17/awaken-41-in-development/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/17/awaken-41-in-development/#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:12:47 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/17/awaken-41-in-development/ First I’d like to say THANKS to all who have been sending comments and features for Awaken 4. Our email server has been running hot and keeping our caffeine-based beverages at perfect temperature.

I wanted to let you know that we’re working on Awaken 4.1 now. It’s a little early to go into details on the features that will get locked in - more on that later. I did want to mention that we’ll be adding localization for French so that’s all très bien. All of our point releases will be associated with a new language localization being added.

If anyone has feature ideas for Awaken please send an email to us at support@embraceware.com. We’d love to hear them and pick the features that are in the most demand and benefit a wide range of people. We have a long list already but we could never have enough :) If you’ve written already - we have yours. We keep everything well organized here.

We’ll have lots more on Awaken 4.1 here very soon.

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/02/17/awaken-41-in-development/feed/ Awaken 4 and new site LIVE http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/27/awaken-4-and-new-site-live/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/27/awaken-4-and-new-site-live/#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:35:50 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/27/awaken-4-and-new-site-live/ Awaken 4 is now available here at Embraceware.com. You may have noticed we have a new site design as well.

Some important notes on Awaken 4 for existing Awaken 3 users. Awaken 4 was a major rewrite in all areas and because of this you’ll have to re-add your alarms after updating. There was no clean solution to migrating due to the major changes. Awaken 4 requires Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Anyone still using Mac OS X 10.3 Panther should stay with Awaken 3. Our policy is to support the latest version of Mac OS X as well as the previous version.

Awaken 4 is a free update to all Awaken 3 users. You will be asked for your Awaken serial number after updating. If you have lost your serial number please try the serial lookup form on our support page: http://embraceware.com/support/
If your registration is not found please email us at support@embraceware.com and we’ll manually get it for you.

Check out Awaken 4 here:
http://embraceware.com/software/awaken/

Thanks go to all of the beta testers!!

PS> It would be great if you could let people know that you use Awaken via this site: iusethis.com

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/27/awaken-4-and-new-site-live/feed/ Road to Awaken 4.0 - Part 13 - Full Screen Mode http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/04/road-to-awaken-40-part-13-full-screen-mode/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/04/road-to-awaken-40-part-13-full-screen-mode/#comments Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:35:02 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/04/road-to-awaken-40-part-13-full-screen-mode/ We’ve expanded the full screen mode. You can still have full screen mode triggered by alarms and timers, but you can also have it displayed at anytime via the button on the main window, or from the view menu or even via an Apple Remote. Here is a shot of the new button:

Full Screen

We’ve updated the icon to play well with Leopard in extra detail:

Awaken Icon

In the last post I mentioned that the fading between normal and fullscreen mode could not be recorded by any of the screen recording apps so I just recorded a quick video of the sleep timer (blame the shake on caffeine):

The private beta will be available soon. If you’d like to get in it on it - send an email to jerrybrace@mac.com with “Awaken 4 Beta” in the subject. Thanks!

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/04/road-to-awaken-40-part-13-full-screen-mode/feed/ Road to Awaken 4.0 - Part 12 - Full Screen Clock and Sleep Timer http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/01/road-to-awaken-40-part-12-full-screen-clock-and-sleep-timer/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/01/road-to-awaken-40-part-12-full-screen-clock-and-sleep-timer/#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:36:01 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/01/road-to-awaken-40-part-12-full-screen-clock-and-sleep-timer/ The full screen clock and sleep timer are ready for viewing. Check them out in the following video. One thing to note on the video is that the screen recording software used could not capture the smooth fade in/out effect that I’m doing with the full screen mode - please imagine this effect when watching :)

View the video

Is the beta coming soon? Yes, yes it is. Initially I’d like to do a private beta release to a select few. If you would like to be one of the first to test Awaken 4 - please send an email to jerrybrace@mac.com with “Awaken 4 Beta” in the subject. When the initial beta build is ready I’ll send an email out to those selected. The initial beta will require Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Tiger will be supported in the public beta shortly after.

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2008/01/01/road-to-awaken-40-part-12-full-screen-clock-and-sleep-timer/feed/ Road to Awaken 4.0 - Part 11 - Sleep Timer http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/12/29/road-to-awaken-40-part-11-sleep-timer/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/12/29/road-to-awaken-40-part-11-sleep-timer/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2007 05:17:07 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/12/29/road-to-awaken-40-part-11-sleep-timer/ Just a few hours since the last blog post and we have more to show. The focus here is on the sleep timer. The video below demonstrates the sleep timer playing iTunes music in the Awaken window. You can expect demos of full screen mode very soon. All comments are welcomed!

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/12/29/road-to-awaken-40-part-11-sleep-timer/feed/ Road to Awaken 4.0 - Part 10 - Colors http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/12/29/road-to-awaken-40-part-10-colors/ http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/12/29/road-to-awaken-40-part-10-colors/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:54:26 +0000 Jerry Brace http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/12/29/road-to-awaken-40-part-10-colors/ Awaken 4 is bringing some functionality with color by allowing you to specify a color for each core function.

For example, you can set your alarms to be bright white text, and have the sleep timer set to display content in a darker color like maroon. A specific color can be set for the general main window clock, alarms, egg timer, and sleep timer.

To illustrate we have a video of the egg timer displaying each of the colors.

]]> http://embraceware.com/blog/2007/12/29/road-to-awaken-40-part-10-colors/feed/