Update frenzy at IOSPIRIT

January 18, 2012 - Filed in Status updates, Mac Development by Felix

Today, you can download brand new versions of almost all IOSPIRIT products: Remote Buddy 1.20, Remote Buddy Express 1.20, Candelair 1.9 and Remote Control Diagnostics 1.2.

Remote Buddy 1.20: control Rdio, Soundcloud, Chrome, QVIVO Player with your remote

The latest release adds support for controlling the aforementioned applications. It also includes Candelair 1.9 (read on for details) and a long list of other minor and major improvements and bugfixes in almost all areas. The Express version also receives an update.

Candelair 1.9: iMac® 2011 compatibility, new Apple® IR emulation, end-of-life for the legacy compatibility mode

A few users of iMac® 2011 models reported issues when putting their Mac® through a sleep/wake cycle under OS X® Lion: the Apple® Remote sometimes no longer was available after that. This issue was particularly hard to address because I couldn't reproduce it. Thanks to the help of affected users, though, I could identify and address the issue. Candelair 1.9 addressed the issue on the systems of all users involved.

The Apple® IR emulation (also known as "Virtual Remote" in Remote Buddy) also received a major update and now exactly mimics the original Apple® IR Receiver on systems running a 64 Bit kernel as well. This re-establishes full compatibility with applications whose Apple® Remote code still depends on undocumented driver internals.

Of course, depending on undocumented driver internals is never a good idea. Which maybe was best illustrated with the release of OS X® 10.4.9, again with 10.5 - and again with 10.6.2. All of these releases changed driver internals. All applications depending on them broke. Each time with consequences ranging from Apple® Remote support not working in just the applications in question to rendering the Apple® Remote unusable systemwide. Previous versions of Candelair provided a Legacy Compatibility mode that allowed applications depending on OS X® 10.5 driver internals to continue to work under OS X® 10.6.2 and beyond. It was meant to give application developers additional time to switch to driver and OS version independent code like the HIDRemote class. A change that should require a developer less than half an hour of work - including testing. Many developers used this opportunity. Others didn't - and probably never will.

To further simplify and streamline Candelair, version 1.9 therefore removes the Legacy Compatibility mode. If this is a problem for one of the apps you're using, please get in touch with their respective developer. Adopting the HIDRemote class is easy.

Remote Control Diagnostics 1.2

Recognition and correct handling of the new Apple IR driver as well as minor visual tweaks best describe the changes in this new version of Remote Control Diagnostics.

IOSPIRIT wishes a merry christmas!

December 23, 2011 - Filed in Inside the company by Felix

A huge thanks to all our customers for the year 2011. We're looking forward to the exciting 12 months that are ahead.

We wish all of you a merry christmas and send our best wishes for a good and happy new year!

Great deals from IOSPIRIT

December 15, 2011 - Filed in Inside the company by Felix

The end of the year is approaching fast and christmas is just around the corner. A great time for great deals - including these from IOSPIRIT:

Spacious: save 50% - only $2.99* until the end of the year

Switch between OS X® Lion spaces and fullscreen apps with every mouse: via the Spacious Navigator at your display's borders - or directly with many mice wheel.

We're putting our innovative, brand-new space switching app for OS X® Lion on a 50% sale until 1st of January 2012. Purchase now!

Remote Buddy Premium Edition: save 33% - currently only 19.99 Euro **

The Premium Edition of Remote Buddy includes a CD with exclusive tutorial videos (in German), a Remote Buddy license - and a free upgrade to version 2.0 of Remote Buddy when it appears. The suggested retail price for the Premium Edition is 29.99 Euro, but German retailer Gravis currently offers it for just 19.99 Euro. That's the same price as the regular download version. What an incredible value!

It's not hard to make a difference

December 15, 2011 - Filed in Shared thoughts by Felix

Past year's news often were about huge, billion dollar programmes to stabilize the economy, the banks, the markets, the Euro .. you name it! With such huge sums still taking a dominant place in this world's news on a regular basis, it's easy to forget that even very small amounts can make a huge impact when given to the right organization.

To me, one such organization is Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organization that is committed to bringing medical care to people in crisis regardless of their race, religion or political affiliation. Not few people owe their life to the donations that made their work possible. Here's just one example from their website: $35 can purchase enough vaccine to inoculate 35 people against measles. A fairly common desease for which - in some countries - the mortality rates are still as high as 28% (source: Wikipedia).

If you are looking for something truly special to spend money on this christmas: make a donation to Doctors Without Borders. Make a difference.