Minor updates of JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum have been released.

The updates are just to include the new esellerate purchase engine. No other changes.

JPEGCleaner is an easy to use program that removes unnecessary data (meta-data, resource forks) from jpeg and gif files which results in smaller files that are quicker to send by e-mail and require less storage space. The program can also to send the files directly to your e-mail program (Apple Mail, Eudora, Entourage, PowerMail, and Mailsmith)!

quickWebAlbum is used to rapidly create photograph albums from a folder of JPEG files. The program can create albums that provides a page of thumbnail images linked to larger versions of the pictures, or it can produce albums that automatically changes the images to produce a ‘slideshow’. The user has control over the size and quality of the thumbnail and ‘album’ pictures produced.

JPEGCleaner (a free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 372 kb download from MMISoftware – download
quickWebAlbum (free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 404 kb download from MMISoftware – download

Work has continued on updating MMISoftware programs…

This time it was the turn of JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum to be updated.

Again, as with iCalMaker, it was decided that the best thing to do was to move all the code to a ‘fresh’ project. This way I could be sure all the project settings were correct to allow a universal build and I could use some of the new xcode features. Again, the migration was very easy, I created a new project, closed it down, moved in the nib files from the old project, used ‘Add to project’ to move over the code files, help system, toolbar images etc., I then reset the program details, turned on powerpc and intel compiling, and I was done.

Both programs have had the new esellerate sales engine added so they use the new ‘embedded-web’ system. This also meant that new ‘integrated stores’ had to be produced, again fairly straight forward.

JPEGCleaner is an easy to use program that removes unnecessary data (meta-data, resource forks) from jpeg and gif files which results in smaller files that are quicker to send by e-mail and require less storage space. The program can also to send the files directly to your e-mail program (Apple Mail, Eudora, Entourage, PowerMail, and Mailsmith)!

quickWebAlbum is used to rapidly create photograph albums from a folder of JPEG files. The program can create albums that provides a page of thumbnail images linked to larger versions of the pictures, or it can produce albums that automatically changes the images to produce a ‘slideshow’. The user has control over the size and quality of the thumbnail and ‘album’ pictures produced.

JPEGCleaner (a free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 292 kb download from MMISoftware – download
quickWebAlbum (free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 328 kb download from MMISoftware – download

Work has continued on updating MMISoftware programs…

This time it was the turn of JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum to be updated.

Again, as with iCalMaker, it was decided that the best thing to do was to move all the code to a ‘fresh’ project. This way I could be sure all the project settings were correct to allow a universal build and I could use some of the new xcode features. Again, the migration was very easy, I created a new project, closed it down, moved in the nib files from the old project, used ‘Add to project’ to move over the code files, help system, toolbar images etc., I then reset the program details, turned on powerpc and intel compiling, and I was done.

Both programs have had the new esellerate sales engine added so they use the new ‘embedded-web’ system. This also meant that new ‘integrated stores’ had to be produced, again fairly straight forward.

JPEGCleaner is an easy to use program that removes unnecessary data (meta-data, resource forks) from jpeg and gif files which results in smaller files that are quicker to send by e-mail and require less storage space. The program can also to send the files directly to your e-mail program (Apple Mail, Eudora, Entourage, PowerMail, and Mailsmith)!

quickWebAlbum is used to rapidly create photograph albums from a folder of JPEG files. The program can create albums that provides a page of thumbnail images linked to larger versions of the pictures, or it can produce albums that automatically changes the images to produce a ‘slideshow’. The user has control over the size and quality of the thumbnail and ‘album’ pictures produced.

JPEGCleaner (a free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 292 kb download from MMISoftware – download
quickWebAlbum (free, fully functional trail version is available) is a 328 kb download from MMISoftware – download

It has been a busy few days.

JPEGCleaner, quickWebAlbum, websiteCleaner and mailMaker have been updated.

The updates of JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum were to correct some ‘blank’ image problems reported by a number of users. The problem was due to slight differences in the meta-data recorded in pictures by different makes of camera, and there was also an issue with certain image resolutions.

mailMaker and websiteCleaner have also been updated. In both cases the update addressed a few minor (rare) bugs

mailMaker (free, fully functional trail version) is a 416 kb download from MMISoftware – download
JPEGCleaner (free, fully functional trail version) is a 256 kb download from MMISoftware – download
quickWebAlbum (free, fully functional trail version) is a 332 kb download from MMISoftware – download
websiteCleaner (free, fully functional trail version) is a 260 kb download from MMISoftware – download

We have received a few (read: two) reports of JPEGCleaner / Web Photos / quickWebAlbum have some problems with images under Mac OS X 10.4.

The problem is that every so often the programs will produce a blank image. At present we are not able to reproduce the problem and even though a number of users have sent pictures that produce these blank images on their machines everything works ok on the machines here…..

If you have encountered the problem please send a copy of the image you used to image_probab@mmisoftware.co.uk. Can you please zip the image before you send it (this is not to make the file smaller (which it won’t) but to prevent loss of any meta-data (which I think may be causing the problem) during mailing).

Finally! One round of updates completed!

At MMISoftware there is a group of programs called the ‘One Trick Ponies‘. These are small (and relatively cheap) programs that do one thing (may be two!) and do it well, However, Tiger (10.4) managed to break some features in all of them!

quickWebAlbum, which is used to quickly creates web albums and slideshows from a folder of jpeg images, and JPEGCleaner, which removes jpeg resources and metadata from jpeg files, both had problems with rotated images due to changes in Tiger (see an earlier post). Both programs now correctly handle jpeg rotation under 10.4 and the image resizing code has been improved to produce better quality images (see an earlier post).

Tunes Menu, which is a menu-based CD search from iTunes, and WebsiteCleaner, which prepares html, jpeg and gif files for use on the web, have also been updated and recompiled for 10.4

All programs are available from MMISoftware in the ‘One trick pony‘ section. The program are shareware, except for Tunes Menu which is freeware, and are free upgrades for registered owners.

Download Tunes Menu : quickWebAlbum : JPEGCleaner : WebsiteCleaner

<Work is continuing on the updates of MMISoftware programs.

iCalMakeris still in beta-testing and should be ready within a week or so.

Work on JPEGCleaner is complete. It has been beta-tested under 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4 and is now working fine. Whilst testing I encountered a number of ‘interesting’ problems…..

Under 10.4 (Tiger) Apple has changed the way images are handled.

Prior to 10.4 if Image Capture was used to download an image from a camera, and a rotation performed the actual image was rotated. Now, under 10.4, Image Capture sets an internal value in the image file and does not perform an actual rotation on the image. When this file is then viewed under 10.4 using, for example, Preview it appears to be in the right orientation, however, if it is copied to a machine running 10.3 or less and viewed in Preview the orientation is wrong.

JPEGCleaner now recognises these files and will correct the orientation.

Also, whilst working on JPEGCleaner the resizing code was greatly improved. This has two effects:

• Resized images now have slightly smaller file sizes.
• The quality of the resized image has greatly improved, for example, ‘interference’ patterns that used to appear on some resized images tend not to occur (see below).

New Images

Have a look at these two images:

Image created with the ‘old’ version of JPEGCleaner 1.4, note the jagged lines

Image created with the ‘new’ version of JPEGCleaner), note the the jagged lines have gone

The top one was created using JPEGCleaner 1.4 and as can be seen it has an ‘interference’ pattern and ‘dotted’ lines across the street. The lower one was created using the new code in the next version of JPEGCleaner. As can be seen, there is no ‘interference’ and lines across the street are not dotted!

The good news from this is the same image handling code is used in ‘Web Photos‘ and ‘quickWebAlbum‘ so these programs will also benefit from thew new code.

Well, the blog is looking and feeling a little neglected of late. Several reasons for this but the main one is I have been very busy on a number of projects.

1. Work for Quartz

Quartz (http://www.qrtz.co.uk) is a company founded in the UK about a year ago. They provide highly specialised financing to industry (I won’t even beginning to explain how what they do as I don’t understand it – have a look at their website). Anyway, for the past 10 months or so (see an earlier blog entry) I have been designing and coding their website. The website has been through three or four different designs and I think they are now happy with the final version. With luck the site should go live in a week or so.

In addition, I have been doing some php work for Quartz. At this stage I can’t say what, exactly, as it is still not ready to go live. However, I can say that I have had to learn some rather interesting financial calculation methods. Some of these may appear in future MMISoftware products (see note on ‘widgets’ below).

2. MMISoftware program updates

iCalMaker: Work is still continuing on version 2 of iCalMaker. However, because of the ongoing work for Quartz and some of the work below, progress has slowed. Mind you, this has not prevented the list of suggestions and requests from users growing – thanks for the input, it should make version 2 a great release. Version 1.8 iCalMaker download.

It is anticipated that there will be one or two more releases of iCalMaker before version 2. One of the releases will address any ‘late issues’ with Tiger (see below) and add a new esellerate engine, the other will be a general maintenance release to address a couple of known, but rare, bugs I am currently working on.

Web Photos: Version 2 of Web Photos has been on hold for some time. This was mainly because of a bug/problem that could not be solved. It now looks as though I have a solution to the problem, although it may mean the program requires 10.4 or greater. Also, the addition of the esellerate sales engine still needs to be completed.

‘The new program’: There is a new program in the works. The original release date was planned for March. However, due to the work for Quartz, and impending release of Tiger, work has slowed.

3. Tiger, tiger, burning bright….

As you may be aware (!) version 10.4 of Mac OS X is due for release on 29th April 2005. At present all of MMISoftware programs (iCalMaker,Web Photos, Power on X, mailMaker, Tunes Menu, BMI Calculator, quickWebAlbum, JPEGCleaner and webSiteCleaner) function with Tiger. However, until 10.4 hits the stores, and some final testing is carried out, the new versions will not be released.

Four interesting things are in Tiger, from a developers point of view:

• Widgets – not sure what to make of these. They look useful although I haven’t spent enough time with them to be sure. MMISoftware will certainly be developing a few Widgets which will complement existing products
• ‘Core graphics/image‘ – This will have some profound effects on the development of Web Photos, JPEGCleaner and quickWebAlbum. Time will tell….
• WebKit.framework – This framework is used in a number of MMISoftware programs and basically provides ‘web browser like’ properties to the programs. The recent changes introduced by Apple, as part of the new Safari in 10.4, may have some interesting ‘knock-on’ effects for MMISoftware development. Watch this space!
• xcode version 2 – All programs produced by MMISoftware are written in cocoa using xcode. The new version of xcode in 10.4 will make life a lot easier.

JPEGCleaner, quickWebAlbum, and WebSiteCleaner updated

JPEGCleaner, quickWebAlbum, and WebSiteCleaner have been updated.

The updates are fairly minor and generally just includes the addition of a version checking system.

All programs are available from MMISoftware.

Downloads: JPEGCleaner, quickWebAlbum, and WebSiteCleaner.

JPEGCleaner, quickWebAlbum and WebsiteCleaner updates released

JPEGCleaner, quickWebAlbum and WebsiteCleaner have been updated to use the new esellerate sales engine (this means the programs can now be purchased using JCB cards).

All the programs are available for download from the ‘One Trick Ponies‘ page at MMISoftware or from these download links – download JPEGCleaner, download quickWebAlbum and download WebsiteCleaner.