The monitors are dim and the WACOM pens lay silent which means we’ve all headed out to spend some much needed time with our friends and families for the holidays. It also means it’s time once again to reflect on where we’ve been this past year, what we’ve accomplished and look forward to the road ahead.
Back in February of 2011, we released an all-new version 4 of our popular Twitter client Twitterrific to the Mac desktop. We were pleased to finally be able to bring a simple, consistent interface to the Mac from iOS and users flocked to the new version to give it a spin. Version 4’s release was made possible by the UI kit framework Chameleon created by Twitterrific’s lead developer Sean Heber. Chameleon itself was released as an open source project back in March and has continued to be expanded upon, improved and provides a way for iOS devs to easily port existing mobile projects to the Mac desktop faster than ever before.
March also saw the release of our most important software project of 2011 – Flare. Developed in conjunction with our partner ARTIS Software, Flare is a digital darkroom for your Mac that lets both amateur and professional photographers add visual punch to their images. The software took off in the Mac App Store and was our most successful software launch ever. We were honored when Apple recently named Flare in their Best of the Mac App Store 2011 recap and to help celebrate, we’re currently offering Flare for just $4.99 on the Mac App Store. 2012 holds continued development for Flare including new features, presets and more.
In June, we brought Tyler Anderson, a talented new developer, on board full time. Tyler is a graduate of North Carolina’s own Elon University and had previously interned with us to help produce Take Five for iOS and later for Mac. We were pleased when he accepted an offer and joined our team in June and has since helped with a number of projects including the upcoming release of Dine-O-Matic for iPhone which you’ll be hearing more about in the new year.
With all the time spend on software and client projects in 2011, there wasn’t very many hours left in the day for freeware releases unfortunately. We released a handful of icon collections and desktop pictures including Kraftwerk by Dave Brasgalla, Futurama Vol. 7 by Ged Maheux and fan favorites RB:02 System and Heroes and Villains from David Lanham. We hope to spend more time on freeware in 2012, we promise!
Speaking of 2012, watch for new versions of Twitterrific, Flare and perhaps most exciting of all, xScope. Our handy swiss army knife for designers and developers is about to take a huge leap forward with the release of v3 early next year. Of course we wouldn’t be where we are today without the continued support of you, our loyal visitors and fans. In an age when companies spring up, live and then die out just as fast as they were born, we’re still here pushing pixels, coding software and designing new things because of you. We hope you’ll join us again in 2012 to see what we have in store and in the meantime Merry Christmas and happy new year!
