I've just set myself up on Twitter!

We are about to start work on what we hope will be a very cool new app. I'll be using Twitter to post tweets on how we're going and what we're up to.

Shedworx Twitter feed:

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Give Good Food to your Mac is back and kicking!
More than 60 apps for your Mac.

Montpellier, France November 17th, 2008: Aquafadas is pleased to announce the launch of the Third Edition of Give Good Food to Your Mac. This promotion is organised by Indie developers from all over the world.

Diversity and quality are main features of this community action. Every Mac user can download and taste more than 60 apps and enjoy discounts ranging from 20% to 50%.

This year's edition will allow every Mac user to find the software they need amongst Comic Boom, Cheetah 3D, PulpMotion, RapidWeaver, Tangerine! GhostReader, DEVONthink, HoudahSpot, Renamer4mac and many more great apps.

Claudia Zimmer, Aquafadas CEO explains, "We are pleased to introduce the Third Edition of 'Give Good Food to your Mac'. It's a chance for us to build a community among developers and together, create opportunities that would not be possible alone . Mac users benefit from it as they can discover our software at great prices."

From the 17th to the 30th of November 2008, Mac users can create their own cocktail of apps and enjoy increasing discounts starting at 20% for 3 apps and up to an amazing 50% for 5 apps or more.

Website
http://www.givegoodfood2yourmac.com

Discounts are as follows
- 20% off for 3 apps
- 30% off for 4 apps
- 50% off for 5 apps and more

Contact Info
To learn more about the Third Edition of Give Good Food to Your Mac, please contact Fatima AMGHAR, famghar@spicy-distribution.com

The available products are
- AlienConverter from AlienCrypt
- Amigos Number Puzzles from Amigos Software
- Amigos Spanish from Amigos Software
- BannerZest from Aquafadas
- BannerZest Pro from Aquafadas
- Bee Docs' Timeline 3D Edition 2.2 from BeeDocs
- BeFit Get Fit, Stay Fit, BeFit from Jon Brown Designs
- Blue Crab from Limit Point Software
- Cheetah 3D from MW 3D-Solutions
- Comic Boom from Toon Boom Animation Inc.
- DejalNarrator 2.0.3 from Dejal
- DEVONagent from DEVONtechnologies, LLC
- DEVONthink Personal from DEVONtechnologies, LLC
- DiscLabel from SmileOnMyMac
- dJay 2.1.3 from Algoriddim GmbH
- Dossier from Vortimac
- Dragoman from Dare to be Creative Ltd.
- FastCut 3.0.6 from TimesForFun
- Flip Boom Classic from Toon Boom Animations Inc.
- Fluffy's Log 1.1.1 from Shallot Patch
- French Verb Game from Amigos Software
- FunBooth 0.9.3 from SourceBits
- Geoaze Pro from SilverLint Creative Software
- Geoaze Standard from SilverLint Creative Software
- GhostReader English Version from ConvenienceWare
- GhostReader French version from ConvenienceWare
- HoudahGeo from Houdah
- HoudahSpot from Houdah
- Hydra 1.6 + Aperture plug-in from Creaceed
- iArchiver from Dare to be Creative Ltd.
- iDive from Aquafadas
- iKanji 1.0 from ThinkMac Software
- JABMenu 2.0.1 from JNSoftware
- Kameleon From Option-6 Products
- Librarian Pro from Koingo Software
- MacCleanse from Koingo Software
- MacPilot 3 from Koingo Software
- Mail Attachments iConizer from Lokiware
- Mental Case from MacCoreMac Software
- Money 3 from Jumsoft
- Nutritionist from Dr. Frank Kowalewski
- PearNote 1.0 from UsefulFruit Software
- PulpMotion from Aquafadas
- Pulpmotion Advanced from Aquafadas
- RapidWeaver 4 from Realmac Software
- Relationship from Jumsoft
- Renamer4Mac from Dare to be Creative Ltd.
- ResizeMe 1.2.0 from Dare to be Creative Ltd.
- RubiTrack from Toolsfactory software inc.
- Scorecard 1.4.1 from CynicalPeak Software
- ScreenAudit 1.3 from ArtenScience
- Scribbles from Atebits
- Secret of the Lost Cavern From Coladia
- Share Tool from Yazsoft
- ShoveBox from Wonder Warp Software SP
- Speed Download 5 from Yazsoft
- SplitFuse 1.3 from LikelySoft
- SWF&FLV Player from Eltima Software
- Syncmate from Eltima Software
- Tangerine! from Potion Factory
- Today 1. 3 from Second Gear LLC
- Together from Reinvented Software
- Toon Boom Studio From Toon Boom Animation Inc.
- VideoPier HD from Aquafadas
- Voice Candy from Potion Factory
- VoltaicHD from Shedworx
- You Control Desktops 1.3 from You Software
- Yummy Soup from HungrySeacow Software

We have just released version 1.6.0 of VoltaicHD for Mac.

The main change in this release is the addition of Advanced Export options under the Preferences. This allows you to export from VoltaicHD into any format supported by QuickTime on your computer, rather than just AIC.

This is also the first release that we have made using the auto-update function, so registered users should receive this update automatically.

Finally, we are testing a new conversion method using FFmpeg. This works for some cameras and is a significant speed-up for one part of the conversion process.

While doing various testing with Final Cut Express, we've noticed that Apple have finally added support for Full HD editing in Final Cut Express for the first time.

A very un-publicised 'feature' of FCE was that it did not support 1920x1080 video, but only went as high as 1440x1080 (the old Sony HDV standard for tape-based video cameras). Version 4.0.1 now includes new profiles (under Easy Setup) which go as high as 1920x1080.

This change was not publicised by Apple, obviously to hide the fact that FCE has not supported full HD editing all this time.

This is a welcome upgrade for the HD purists out there, so we thought that we'd let everyone know.

This is a bug fix release of VoltaicHD.

Fixed in this release is an incorrect frame rate setting that occurred only in 1440x1080i clips (PAL and NTSC) for AVCHD clips over 1Gb (i.e. greater than about 9 minutes) in size.

We have just released the first full version of RevolverHD for Mac, which adds the ability to create Blu-ray compatible AVCHD disks using MTS or M2TS clips from AVCHD cameras.

Note that RevolverHD version 1.0 does not yet support iMovie and Final Cut QuickTime exports as part of an AVCHD disk. RevolverHD can take these QuickTime exports and convert them for playback on a PlayStation3, but only using a Data disk. Data disks will not play on a normal Blu-ray player.

We are now working on a new feature to take Full HD exports from iMovie or Final Cut and burn an AVCHD disk which will play on any compatible Blu-ray player.

RevolverHD works on Intel and PowerPC platforms and supports OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

This is the biggest release of VoltaicHD for Mac for some time.

Here's what we've included.

A progress indicator

We have had this requested many times so we've finally done it!

The VoltaicHD conversion takes place in 3 stage:
- Preparing: where the AVCHD file is 'unwrapped' to split out its video and audio streams
- Converting: the main conversion of the H.264 video
- Exporting: final encoding to AIC

The 'Converting' stage takes about 95% of the total elapsed time (although we are working on making this a lot faster right now), so we're printing out the % complete for this stage.

Audio and Visual pop-up alerts

Some users have requested an audio or pop-up alert at completion of the batch. We've added this in, although it is a Preference setting, so you can turn it off.

AppleScript support

A number of users have been asking for this ever since we first released VoltaicHD in July '07.

We've finally taken a break from the heavy duty video codec work to fit this in. The AppleScript interface for Voltaic lets you add files and convert the (of course) and also gives you access to the preferences. This allows you to process multiple batches of files using a script, changing output locations for each batch.

Over the next month we will post some sample AppleScript scripts which use VoltaicHD.

Here is a sample script which adds some files to VoltaicHD and converts them.
Voltaic AppleScript sample

Japanese translation

One of our users has been good enough to translate VoltaicHD to Japanese.

Voltaic 1.2.5 has been released to improve the handling of very large files and address a few minor bugs.

The bugs fixed in this release are:
- input file sizes up to 6Gb (and possibly much higher) now supported
- audio sync problem with very large NTSC clips fixed
- frame rate display issue in FCE fixed

This is basically a bug fix release which addresses a few smaller issues that have only been affecting a handful of users.

We have now released our first widely available BETA version of RevolverHD for Mac.

See the User Guide and FAQ for details of what RevolverHD now does.

This is the the first stage of development for RevolverHD, creating AVCHD movies which will play on a Playstation3. The next stage of development is to burn these AVCHD movies to a Blu-ray formatted DVD, which will play on any Blu-ray player.

VoltaicHD 1.2.4 includes the following improvements:
- full support for 1920x1080 resolution clips
- removal of the requirement to have Perian installed for Final Cut users
- removal of the iMovie/Final Cut preference setting

All of the changes in this release relate to our improved support for 'full HD' cameras and Final Cut.

Previously, VoltaicHD had been producing 1440x1080 clips from 1920x1080 sources. This was an oversight on our part which is now corrected.

The problem with 1920x1080 clips is that Final Cut Express doesn't natively support them. This means that they require rendering in the timeline before they can be displayed. This in turn makes the clips almost un-editable in Final Cut Express. Unfortunately Apple don't document this interesting feature of Final Cut Express. The problem is that Final Cut Express only supports the older HDV standard which is limited to 1440x1080. Here is a well written article providing more details on this situation.

To support our Final Cut Express users who have to work with 1920x1080 AVCHD clips and cameras, we've introduced a new preference setting called 'Restrict to 1440x1080'. Setting this preference will down-scale any 1920x1080 AVCHD clips to 1440x1080, making them editable in Final Cut Express.

For users who are determined to edit their 1920x1080 resolution clips, the good news is that iMovie08 and iMovieHD support full HD 1920x1080 editing.

In fixing the resolution settings in VoltaicHD we have also made some changes which mean that we no longer require Perian to be installed.

Finally, we have made some progress on the 2Gb file size limit. Newer machines with plenty of RAM should be able to convert clips up to 4Gb in size. 4Gb is the largest file produced so far by an AVCHD camera.