Although we had to take another break from the WinCustomize SkinCast last week, this week we are returning and will have a special guest, along with some huge prizes we are giving away. For an upcoming episode of SkinCast, we will be talking with Darren McPhee, the Sr. Marketing Manager in Gaming for AMD. We will be discussing several topics with Darren including AMD/ATI products, graphics, gaming, and much more.
We will also be taking user-submitted questions from the community for this episode, and the top three questions selected will win a prize. We will select three of our favorite questions, and the users who submitted these questions will win one of the following:
Grand Prize Favorite - ATI Radeon 4870 512mb video card courtesy of AMD/ATI.
Second Favorite - Copy of Demigod, when released and beta access.
User submitted questions must be submitted as comments in theWinCustomize thread only, no other means will be accepted. Questions can be related to ATI/AMD, skinning, Vista, technology, gaming, etc. The deadline for submissions is 11:59pm EST, Wednesday, August 13th, 2008. Good luck and get those questions in!
*Employees, family, direct firends of Stardock, AMD/ATI, GPG, IC can ask questions, but are not eligible for prizes.
I was happy to have the opportunity to be interviewed by Daniel Foster, who is the Newsletter Editor for TechSmith. TechSmith are the developers for great applications such as SnagIt and Camtasia Studio. These are two apps I use on a daily basis with my work for Stardock and other projects, and they do such a great job at recording screenscasts, video demos, screenshots, etc.
The interview is about my use of Camtasia Studio and how it has had an impact on presenting Stardock software and games to the masses. You can signup for the TechSmith newsletters here, and my interview is at the link below. Thanks again to Daniel and Betsy!
Stardock is pleased to announce the release of SkinStudio 6.2. SkinStudio is an application that allows you to design custom visual styles for Windows Vista and Windows XP. These visual styles (skins) can then be applied using WindowBlinds. When creating a new skin you can change the complete look of Windows by changing the start button, taskbar, buttons, titlebars, and pretty much everything in between. New features:
WindowBlinds Layer Support. The WindowBlinds layer system allows a skin author to provide multiple layers for a given section of a skin. This also includes layer support for per-pixel borders and glyphs. This opens up a whole new level of creativity for skinners.
Skin Color Feature. This feature allows Pro users to recolor a skin, or a specific sub-style by using the HSL sliders that is similar to coloring skins in WindowBlinds. This will make it even easier to create sub-styles of varying colors.
Animated "Please Wait" Support. The Please Wait screen has always been a static image, now it’s possible to create an animation that can be seen while the Wait screen appears.
NWA File Support. NWA files are a way to reduce the size of animations that are used in WindowBlinds skins. These can be used on Start Menu and "Please Wait" animations and can help save considerable memory and hard drive space. SKS 6.2 also includes a tool to create NWA files from vertical .png/.tga image strips.
SkinStudio 6.2 is a free download with a Pro version available with additional features.
Version 1.1 not only includes a host of play balancing changes but new content such as an updated graphics engine, updated visuals, new damage animations, and more. It also includes a new multiplayer system called “Alloy” which eliminates the need for configuring routers or changing port numbers.
I have seen a lot of talk this past week about if you can or can’t use the iPhone as a solid mobile device for getting “work” done. That’s a very good question and it really depends on what type of business you are in, and what exactly are you trying to accomplish. I often see people lug their laptops pretty much everywhere they go, but is that always necessary? One of my main purposes for purchasing an iPhone was the notion that I could leave the laptop at home and still have some of the functionality I need while away from my desk.
One thing I always find amusing about my iPhone, is that I rarely use it as a phone. Aside from some business calls, and some calls with family, the phone part isn’t used much. It’s all about the data! Now I currently have the 1st generation iPhone with the 2.0 software update, and that update has really made the iPhone even more handy. The 1.xx software was nice, but it was just lacking too many features, and lets not forget the lack of 3rd party apps. The 2.0 update takes care of a lot of those issues, but their is still much work to be done.
E-mail is probably the most used feature for my iPhone. I have about 4 of my main e-mail accounts setup including my new MobileMe address. One of my biggest gripes was there was no simple way to delete multiple e-mails, so I was happy to see that the 2.0 update brings that feature. Reading e-mail on the iPhone is just about as good as reading it on my PC, although I do wish you could type e-mails in landscape mode.
Next up would be mobile blogging. Although this was possible pre-2.0, the recent addition of the WordPress application makes blogging from wherever you are at way more easier. The application still needs some features, but you can do some great posts with it as-is. I also like to upload pictures to services such as Flickr, Facebook and Brightkite which can be done several ways including through e-mail, and iPhone apps.
That’s some of the basic ways I use my iPhone. What do you mainly use your for?
Stardock is pleased to announced the release of WindowBlinds 6.2 today. WindowBlinds is an application that lets users easily change their Windows interface by applying a new skin. These "visual styles" can be applied across the entire user interface (title bars, push buttons, start menu, taskbar, etc.) of the operating system. As a result, users gain complete control over the way Windows looks.
What’s new in version 6.2:
Improved compression on start menu animations
Animated wait screens during Apply
Enhanced layer support (accompanied by skin author support in SkinStudio 6.2)
Bug Fixes
WindowBlinds is available in both a free version and a an enhanced version which adds many additional features like the ability to change color/hue/brightness on the fly, change toolbar icons of IE and Explorer, and much more. WindowBlinds is available as part of Object Desktop, Stardock’s ultimate suite of desktop customization tools, or at stand-alone for $19.95.
The Political Machine, is the turn-based strategy game that puts the player in the role of a presidential candidate. Players can play as real-world candidates such as Barak Obama or John McCain, choose amongst historical candidates, or design their own from scratch.
The Political Machine 2008 version 1.04 is now available to all registered owners of the game. This update includes various tweaks, as well as new elements to help you create your own bobble-head. Also, a new enhanced chat feature that allows players to smack-talk opponents in multiplayer during the final votes. Version 1.04 also adds several new ‘Dark Horse’ candidates, such as the wise-cracking Minister Mike Huckabee, the rock skipping Mike Gravel, and media stud Dennis Kuchinich.
To obtain the new patch, just click on the Download Updates button from the main menu, or use our new state-of-the-art digital distribution client, Impulse. If you don’t have The Political Machine, you can pick up a digital copy for $19.95 at http://www.politicalmachine.com or through Impulse. For a boxed copy, visit your local retailer including Target and Best Buy .
DesktopX 3.5 was released recently, and one of the biggest feature updates is the ability to export your DX creations as a Vista sidebar gadget. Creating a gadget for the Vista sidebar isn’t the easiest thing to do, and it has limitations that DesktopX can easily overcome. DesktopX is a very powerful application which can create a wide variety of mini-applications for your desktop. These can range from simple weather gadgets, on up to very complex applications with multiple functions all that can be wrapped in custom graphics.
The gadgets that can be created with DesktopX can be scripted with many languages including C++, which allows an almost endless amount of possibilities. Now if you aren’t big on scripting, don’t be too intimidated, as you can still create some great gadgets with the included plugins, or by going through the huge amount of documentation/tutorials provided by Stardock. You can also find more tutorials written by experienced community members which can be found at the WinCustomize Wiki.
I have created quite a few DesktopX widgets over the last few years, and although I am not a coder, I was able to create some really cool and useful widgets. I’m going to take you on a walkthrough on how to create a desktop widget, and turn it into a Vista sidebar gadget using DesktopX Pro 3.5. I’m going to break apart the Election Countdown gadget I made, which will make a perfect example for today’s guide.
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