PowerTunes 1.1.1, now compatible with iTunes 9
Posted on September 18, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, PowerTunes, Updates, iTunes | Comments Off
PowerTunes 1.1.1 was released today, which now provides full compatibility with iTunes 9, along with a couple other miscellaneous bug fixes. The main points of improvement in working with iTunes 9 are:
- The fix dead tracks, playlist/track copying, and merge functions now work with iTunes 9
- PowerTunes now understands the new layout of the iTunes media folder (formerly known as the iTunes music folder). The main place this affects things is to improve locating multiple tracks when using the Fix Dead Tracks command.
- PowerTunes now also recognizes the new default folder name of “iTunes Media” where applicable
So, if you have any older version of PowerTunes and have iTunes 9, I highly recommend using the “Check For Updates” menu item to update to the latest version.
Snow Leopard compatibility
Posted on August 25, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, PlistEdit Pro, PowerTunes, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | Comments Off
Since Apple announced yesterday that they are releasing Snow Leopard on the 28th, I thought I’d post a quick note about the compatibility status of our products. I’ve run all of them through a thorough testing suite over the last few weeks to try and find any potential compatibility problems.
iPhoto Library Manager
Updated 9/16/09: A handful of users reported crashes when attempting to copy photos on Snow Leopard using iPhoto Library Manager 3.5.3. The cause of this bug has been found and fixed in iPhoto Library Manager 3.5.4.
PowerTunes
There are no known issues with Snow Leopard for the current version (1.1) of PowerTunes.
PlistEdit Pro
Only one issue was found in version 1.4.1 when running on Snow Leopard, but it was a fairly large one: plist files would not open in PlistEdit Pro when double clicking them from the Finder (the “Open” item in the File menu still worked properly). I just posted version 1.4.2 of PlistEdit Pro today, which fixes this problem, so if you encounter this issue, just use the “Check For Updates” menu item to update to 1.4.2.
I do my best to find any issues before an OS X update is released, but if you have any problems upon upgrading to Snow Leopard, please e-mail support@fatcatsoftware.com with a description of your problem, and we’ll try to get things figured out ASAP.
iPhoto Library Manager 3.5 released
Posted on May 5, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | Comments Off
At long last, iPhoto Library Manager 3.5 is now available! The main focus of this update is providing support for transferring the new Faces and Places data introduced in iPhoto ‘09. If you use the new version to copy photos from one library to another, and you have tagged faces in those photos, those face records will be recreated in the destination library. Similarly, if you have assigned places to photos or events that you’re copying, that data will now also be copied over along with the photos. This was probably the most complex new addition to iPhoto in quite some time, so updating iPhoto Library Manager has taken a good while longer than usual. However, with the help of some intrepid beta testers, the new version is now ready for general use.
You can use the “Check For Updates” menu item within the program to update to the new version, or you can download it here as well. This is a free update for anyone who’s already a registered user, so no additional purchase is necessary to update to the new version.
For those interested, here are the complete release notes for the new version:
iPhoto Library Manager 3.5 release notes
- Tagged faces are now transferred along with photos that are copied/merged between libraries in iPhoto ‘09
- Places data is now copied along with photos when performing a copy or a merge in iPhoto ‘09
- iPhoto Library Manager now creates its own log files and logs progress and error information as it copies photos (accessible from the Window menu)
- When using the “Import Photos” menu command, if the user selects an iPhoto library to import, we now perform a merge instead of treating the library like a plain folder
- Fixed a crash that could occur when copying photos on a PPC machine
- Fixed a bug where copying photos that were imported as aliases could result in an unneeded “modified” copy of the photo being created in the destination library
- A printable version of the help is now available at http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/Help/print/index.html
- Removed the preference setting for double clicking a library – double click now always opens the library in iPhoto, and a single click edits the library’s name
- When the user clicks the Cancel button, we now present a dialog to verify that they do in fact want to cancel the operation
- Removed the preference for relaunching iPhoto during a merge. This pref was for working around a bug in iPhoto 6, so we now just relaunch automatically when merging with iPhoto 6.
- Photos that were published to a MobileMe gallery are now always included in the main library during a merge, and not just in the gallery itself
- Fixed a problem where movies and original versions of photos would not be copied for some users
- Added a “selection” property to the Applescript dictionary so scripters can access the currently selected library
The last iPLM 3.5 beta (hopefully)
Posted on May 1, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | Comments Off
After finally tracking down and squishing the last couple major bugs this week, there are now no known bugs left for iPhoto Library Manager 3.5. I’m going to put up one last beta version, which you can download here, for people to try out over the weekend. I’ll be tying up a few loose ends over the weekend, and assuming nothing else major comes up, I’ll be aiming to do a final release early next week.
iPLM 3.5 getting close to release
Posted on April 13, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | 1 Comment
The beta testing for iPhoto Library Manager 3.5 has been going well, although it’s taken a bit longer than I would have ideally liked it to, both due to issues in the program and “real life” delays. However, those who’ve tried it out have helped uncover a number of different bugs, and the number of bug reports has been steadily dwindling. Thanks to all who’ve provided reports on your experiences with the beta!
I’ve posted several new builds since the initial beta went out, and we’re now up to beta 12, which can be downloaded here. This fixes a couple persistent crashers from beta 5 onwards, along with several improvements in the photo copying process. If you’ve been running a previous beta and have encountered problems, I highly recommend downloading the new one.
There are still several minor items to be done before 3.5 can go final, but there are no more major changes to make, and currently no known issues. Of course, we’ll see if anything crops up this week as people have a chance to test things out, but I’m hopeful that the final release will be ready sometime next week. But, as always, nothing is written in stone, and I won’t be finalizing the release until I’m confident things have been sufficiently tested.
iPhoto Library Manager 3.5 public beta
Posted on March 11, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, Updates, iPhoto, iPhoto Library Manager | 1 Comment
Work on iPhoto Library Manager 3.5 has been progressing well, and things are now to the point where the major new features are up and running. However, given the relative complexity of the new features (especially transferring faces data between libraries), I’ve decided to do a (hopefully brief) public beta of iPLM 3.5, so I can get it tested out on a wide variety of setups and make sure to get all the kinks worked out.
The main additions are, of course, the ability to copy Places and Faces data from one library to another when copying photos under iPhoto ‘09. This includes both copying individual albums/events and merging libraries. There are also several other changes and bug fixes included in the release (full release notes are at the bottom of this post).
This is pre-release software – I’ve tested things as thoroughly as possible, and there are no known bugs in the beta, but there is still the possibility of issues popping up, especially when dealing with library setups I haven’t been able to test myself. I strongly recommend backing up your iPhoto libraries before doing any major photo copying.
So, if you have iPhoto ‘09 and want to try out copying photos between your libraries while keeping your Places and Faces intact, you can download the public beta here. Note that I haven’t yet done my full suite of tests on earlier versions of iPhoto, and there isn’t really much in the way of new features for those earlier versions, so if you haven’t upgraded to iPhoto ‘09, there’s probably not much point in downloading the beta.
The system requirements are the same as 3.4.5, and you still need a registered copy in order to perform advanced features such as photo copying and merging. I will be posting updates as bugs get reported and things get fixed – you can use the “Check For Updates” menu item from within the program to check for and install any new updates. If any issues arise, please contact support@fatcatsoftware.com.
Update 4/3/09: Things have been progressing well, and iPLM 3.5 is getting close to completion. There are still a couple issues that need working out, but nothing major at the moment. I’ve just posted a new beta, 3.5b5, that is now available for download. Due to a mistake in 3.5b4, the “Check For Updates” menu item will not detect this new version if you have 3.5b4 currently installed, so you will have to download it manually instead from the link above.
Changes in iPhoto Library Manager 3.5 public beta
- When the user clicks the Cancel button, we now present a dialog to verify that they do in fact want to cancel the operation
- Removed the preference for relaunching iPhoto during a merge. This pref was for working around a bug in iPhoto 6, so we now just relaunch automatically when merging with iPhoto 6.
- Removed the preference setting for double clicking a library – double click now always opens the library in iPhoto, and a single click renames the library
- iPhoto Library Manager now creates its own log file and logs progress and error information as it copies photos (accessible from the Window menu)
- Photos that were published to a MobileMe gallery are now always included in the main library during a merge, and not just in the gallery itself
- Fixed a problem where movies and original versions of photos would not be copied for some users
- Tagged faces are now transferred along with photos that are copied/merged between libraries in iPhoto ‘09
- Places data is now copied along with photos when performing a copy or a merge in iPhoto ‘09
- Added a “selection” property to the Applescript dictionary so scripters can access the currently selected library
iPLM 3.5 progress update
Posted on February 23, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | 5 Comments
Just thought I’d make a quick post to give a progress update on iPhoto Library Manager 3.5. The update is going well, although it’s been slowed a bit by “real life” events such as moving into a new apartment last weekend, etc. At this point, support for Places is basically working, and I’m probably about halfway through getting Faces copying to work. I’m also going to be taking this opportunity to make a few other miscellaneous improvements and some rewriting of the help docs to fix some out of date information and such. So, the end of February goal probably isn’t going to happen, but hopefully it shouldn’t take too much longer than that.
My thanks in advance for everyone’s patience, I’d like to take my time and be thorough in testing to make sure the release is worth the wait.
iPhoto Library Manager 3.4.4 released
Posted on February 5, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, Updates, iPhoto Library Manager | 14 Comments
iPhoto Library Manager 3.4.4 is now available for download! This is the first of two updates for iPhoto ‘09 compatibility. This update allows you to copy albums between libraries and merge libraries together under iPhoto ‘09 just like with previous versions of iPhoto. 3.4.4 also contains some other miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements. What this update does not provide is support for some of the new types of data that have been introduced in iPhoto ‘09. These include:
- Places: Copying photos between libraries will not yet transfer any place tags that you’ve assigned to your photos using iPhoto ‘09. If the photos you imported were already geotagged before importing them into iPhoto, then that same data will be imported by iPhoto in the new library, but if you added the place data yourself using iPhoto, then that data will not be copied. This will be addressed in iPhoto Library Manager 3.5.
- Faces: Similarly, any faces you’ve tagged in iPhoto will also not be transferred when you copy/merge using iPLM. This will also be addressed in iPLM 3.5, though it’s not clear yet to what extent. From what I can tell, copying the actual face tags over to another library shouldn’t be too difficult. What I don’t know yet is whether iPhoto’s “learning” data can be transferred as well. For example, if you’ve tagged a whole bunch of faces in one library and iPhoto has learned how to recognize various people, I’m not sure if that training will be transferrable to another library, so any further faces added to a merged library wouldn’t benefit from the training in the original library. I’ll certainly be looking into doing this if possible, but it may prove to be too complicated to do.
- Facebook/Flickr: Right now, albums/photosets that have been created on Flickr or Facebook using iPhoto are basically ignored by iPLM. I’ll be looking into adding the ability to copy that information between libraries so that you don’t have to republish albums after copying them to another library.
You can download the 3.4.4 updates either by going to the iPLM home page or by opening iPLM on your machine and selecting the “Check For Updates” menu item. This is a free update for all users, so you can just replace your existing copy of iPLM with the new one with no additional purchase necessary.
Update: 2/12/09 An additional 3.4.5 update has now been released to address two issues introduced in 3.4.4. Updating as outlined above will now update you to version 3.4.5.
Now I’ll be starting work on iPLM 3.5, I can’t specify a hard timeline for when it will be done, but I’m hoping to be able to finish up by the end of February at the latest (and hopefully earlier).
iPhoto Library Manager and iPhoto ‘09
Posted on January 6, 2009 by Brian Webster
Filed Under Apple, News, Updates, iPhoto, iPhoto Library Manager | 7 Comments
As many of you know, today Apple announced a new update to their iLife suite, iLife ‘09, which includes an update to iPhoto. iPhoto ‘09 won’t be available until the end of January, but I’d like to fill you in on the status of iPhoto Library Manager compatibility with this new version of iPhoto.
I don’t get special early releases of iPhoto or anything like that, so I’ll be working with it for the first time once I can pick up a copy from Apple. In the past, major iPhoto updates have required updating iPhoto Library manager to provide full compatibility for all its features, and I suspect things will be the same this time around. The basic functionality of iPLM (creating new libraries and switching back and forth between them) has never broken in any previous iPhoto update, so I’m pretty sure that stuff will be the same this time around. The more advanced features, such as copying albums between libraries and merging libraries together, however, require a bit more work to make sure they work properly. For iPhoto ‘07 and iPhoto ‘06, it has taken me about two weeks each time to issue an iPLM update for the new version of iPhoto, so it will hopefully take approximately the same amount of time this time around.
What I can tell you is that the update will be a free update for any existing users of iPhoto Library Manager, so if you buy a copy now, rest assured you will be able to use it with iPhoto ‘09 once the update is released. For those of you wondering whether to upgrade to iPhoto ‘09, you should still be able to switch between your libraries fine after updating, but you almost certainly won’t be able to do any photo copying or merging until the iPLM update is ready. If you really need to be able to use iPLM to do photo transfers, I would recommend holding off upgrading iPhoto until the update to iPhoto Library Manager is ready.
My thanks in advance for your patience, I will be posting further updates on how things are going as I learn more about what needs to be done for the update.
PowerTunes 1.0.2 released
Posted on December 9, 2008 by Brian Webster
Filed Under News, PowerTunes, Updates | 1 Comment
A new update to PowerTunes is finally ready today, PowerTunes 1.0.2. I’ve been wanting to get this out for a while, but Stuff™ (such as preparing to move across the country in about a month) has kept getting in the way. It’s mainly a bug fix release, with several updates for working more smoothly with iTunes 8. There were no major bugs with iTunes 8, just a few things that were either cosmetically wrong, or obscure bugs that cropped up with just the right combination of settings (mostly having to do with the new Genius playlist). You can check out the release notes for the full list of changes.
One thing that is not in the update, which a few people have asked about, is support for managing iPhone applications using PowerTunes. Unfortunately, this is not a simple matter, because as of iTunes 8.0.2, Apple does not provide any mechanism for accessing the list of iPhone applications that are in a given iTunes library. I’ve even filed enhancement requests for this, but suffice it to say, I’m not confident that Apple will be adding this functionality anytime in the near future. So for now, managing iPhone applications will have to be done manually, I’m afraid. I will be looking into other ways of assisting with this in upcoming releases though. And feel free to (politely) bug Apple for this functionality for me if you feel like it. 
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