The Breakroom • A blog for the Iconfactory

Aqua’s Back and It’s Black!

September 16, 2008

After a self imposed break, the Iconfactory production line ramps back up in a big way today with the release of an all-new system replacement set from David Lanham. Looking for a nice set of dark-themed folders for that slick black MacBook of yours? Perhaps Aqua blue just isn’t your thing. Either way, we’re willing to bet you’ll love David’s new Agua Onyx Folders available as a freeware icon set starting today. The collection contains over 80 familiar icons including folders, hard drives and trash cans in either Mac OS X, Windows Vista or CandyBar iContainer format.

But that’s not all. David has also whipped up two new Quickpix, the first of which is available today. Unless you’ve been living under a rock these last few months, you probably know this is an election year in the U.S. Now you can proudly display your party preference on your Mac or PC desktop with this week’s release of ‘Somatic Republican Mascot’ or next week’s ‘Somatic Democratic Mascot’. Thanks to David, politics never looked so cute!

Now that the assembly line is moving along again, we invite you to stay tuned for all new icons, desktops and software goodies. All this, plus our favorite holiday is just around the corner. Things are getting good!

Twitterrific 1.1 for iPhone

September 5, 2008

By Webmaster

The Iconfactory is pleased to announce that Twitterrific, our award winning Twitter client for the iPhone and iPod touch, has been updated. Version 1.1 is now available for download in the Apple App Store.

Here are a some of the notable updates in Twitterrific 1.1:

Scrolling is Teh Snappy™
Added a new “everyone” setting to view the public timeline
The number of tweets downloaded has been raised from 20 to 100
Photos are saved to the camera roll before being sent to TwitPic
Scroll positions are now preserved when refreshing and launching
Added image caching for avatars
Many more new features and bug fixes!

To find out more and to download Twitterrific for free go to the App Store. The free version of Twitterrific is supported by ads from The Deck. A premium ad-free version which includes a second interface theme is also available.

We’re Still Kickin’

September 3, 2008

By Webmaster

Since it’s been over a month since our last update we wanted take a moment to let you know we’re still here and pushing pixels as always. Unfortunately those pixels have been for a major client instead of our usual freeware releases. This, combined with Craig’s voyage into Twitterrific revision land has meant there hasn’t been much to post about. Hopefully we should be returning to our regular schedule in the weeks ahead, but for now we’d ask that you hang in there while we work hard to pay the bills and keep the assembly line rolling. Thanks everyone!

Iconfactory In the Media

July 31, 2008

By Webmaster

If you’ve ever wondered just what we do here at the Iconfactory, then we’ve got a treat for you. The Greensboro gang was recently featured by our local Fox affiliate, WGHP for their “Made in North Carolina” series. The goal of the news series is to highlight companies that you may not realize are in NC, but make things you know and use every day.

Stewart Pittman of Fox 8 came by this past Monday and interviewed us to find out more about what we do and how we got started. Stewart said he had a blast filming our office with all our toys we have on hand to keep our creativity up. The resulting segment pretty much nails what goes on at the Iconfactory each and every day. If you didn’t know better, you’d think we design toys instead of icons. Our thanks go out to Stewart and everyone at Fox 8 for having us, we had loads of fun.

On the audio front, Ged is featured in an interview by Chuck Joiner of MacVoices.com. Ged and Chuck talk about Twitterrific in detail, how the application was born and where it is heading on the iPhone. If you’re curious about the little blue bird, head on over and check it out, it’s worth a listen.

Kneel Before Zog!

July 22, 2008

By Webmaster

Preview

In 2004 David Lanham released his first set of Somatic Icons. Within these icons, there was an unassuming purple monster named Zog. Slowly, this character has crept out of the icons and into larger desktops and prints on David’s personal site. Now we’re pleased to announce that Zog will be taking shape as a collectible vinyl toy in the next few weeks! David will be at the San Diego Comic Con for the release and the first shipment of about 50 pieces will be available for purchase, so if you’ll be attending SDCC this year, head over to booth #4637 and say hello!

Twitterrific for the Apple App Store

July 12, 2008

By Webmaster

We’re very pleased to announce the immediate release of Twitterrific for the iPhone and iPod touch from Apple’s newly launched App Store. This revolutionary online store offers limitless software choices for users of Apple’s mobile hardware and we’re proud to be a part of the grand opening.

Like the popular desktop client, Twitterrific displays all recent posts, or “tweets”, including replies and direct messages for the Twitter social network. The mobile version can be optimized for either right or left-handed use and easily allows users to attach photos, locations, specify favorites and much more. The application recently won a prestigious Apple Design Award at the 2008 World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco for Best iPhone Application in the Social Networking category.

Twitterrific’s features include:

Special detail view for showing more tweet information
Built-in mini-browser for displaying links and @screen_names
Nearby tweets are highlighted with a link to Maps
Built-in hints to help you learn quickly
Much more!

Twitterrific is available worldwide as a free download from the Apple App Store and is supported by advertising via The Deck. Twitterrific Premium can also be purchased for $9.99 which removes advertising and includes a special “inverse” user interface theme. We invite you to visit Apple’s App Store to view screen shots, download and use Twitterrific for free. Enjoy!

UPDATE: To help try and answer some of the questions user have had since the launch of the App Store, Craig has posted some information over at his blog, Furbo.org. If you’ve been experiencing problems or have a question about Twitterrific, we invite you check there before sending us an email. Thanks!

“They weren’t you, honey.”

July 3, 2008

By Webmaster

Brace yourself for an all new adventure, almost two decades in the making. Join fabled archaeologist, Indiana Jones™ and his trusty sidekick, Mutt, as they race to discover the hidden secrets of the fabled Crystal Skull of Akator. It’s the final installment in our tribute to the adventure films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull™

Artist Anthony Piraino has once again faithfully reproduced memorable objects from the blockbuster hit film for your Mac OS X or Windows Vista desktop. Journey with Indy from the dark recesses of Area 51 all the way to the ancient jungles of the South America. This amazing freeware icon collection includes all new pixelated treasures including Spalko’s homing beacon, Mutt’s pocket knife, the Crystal Skull itself and many more. These and other amazingly detailed icons are available now at the Iconfactory’s Indiana Jones™ home page as Mac or PC icons or as a searchable Candybar iContainer for OS X that also lets you customize your OS X dock appearance.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our special tribute to one of our favorite movie heroes of all time and invite you visit the official Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull™ website for tons of Indy related info and desktop downloads. Lastly, all of us at the Iconfactory would like to extend a gratitude to everyone at Paramount Pictures for allowing us to participate, at least in a small way, to Indy’s return to the big screen. It means a great deal to us, thank you!

TM &

Talking about Twitterrific and the iPhone

June 18, 2008

By Webmaster

During our trip to WWDC, I was fortunate to visit the Macworld office and sit down with Macworld editorial director Jason Snell, NetNewsWire developer Brent Simmons and OmniFocus developer Greg Titus. The topic of our conversation? The iPhone and applications, of course!

I hope you enjoy listening in on this conversation as much as I enjoyed having it. Because of the NDA surrounding the iPhone SDK, discussions amongst developers have been limited: I was surprised at some of the things we uncovered during our talk.

Now please excuse me, I need to get back to work on Twitterrific so we have something besides screenshots on July 11th :-)

Iconfactory Honored with Apple Design Award

June 12, 2008

By Webmaster

Preview

We’re very pleased and honored to announce that Apple generously rewarded our iPhone development efforts at last night’s Apple Design Awards. The beta version of Twitterrific took home one of five iPhone ADAs, winning for Best iPhone Social Networking Application. Created by veteran programmer Craig Hockenberry, Twitterrific for the iPhone lets Twitter users stay in touch with friends and family by “tweeting” on the go. Other winners in the iPhone division included Best Game – Enigmo by Pangea Software, and Best Productivity App – OmniFocus from The Omni Group.

Our very own Craig Hockenberry and Corey Marion were stunned and honored as they stepped on stage to accept “the cube”. Head on over to Flickr to view pictures of the entire event. Congratulations to all 2008 ADA winners, we’re pleased to be included in such great company!

As WWDC 2008 comes to a close, we are hard at work putting the finishing touches on Twitterrific for the iPhone. The “little Twitter app that could” will be available at the launch of Apple’s iPhone App Store this July, so keep your eyes peeled for more information about its arrival in the days and weeks ahead. And, as always, thank you for your generous support!

The Little Blue Bird That Could

June 10, 2008

By Webmaster

Today, at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco, the computer maker unveiled its plans for the next generation of iPhones as well as a sneak peek into third party applications headed our way. Due to hit public airwaves July 11th, Apple’s new iPhone/iPod Touch “App Store” as it’s being called, will allow users to purchase third party mobile applications directly over the air. After the keynote, we were just as surprised and delighted as you probably were to find our very own application, Twitterrific, featured heavily on Apple’s website.

It seems after flying high and far, sometimes to shady destinations, the little blue bird has finally gone legit. I don’t think any of us at the factory realized just how popular Twitter, and in turn Twitterrific would become in this past year. We’ve been making various software applications for a decade now, and in all that time, none of us would have expected such an unassuming little app to become our most well recognized piece of code. Twitterrific’s success speaks volumes about the fine work of the folks over at Twitter, and the hunger for today’s users to stay in touch with friends, relatives and co-workers via new media like social networks.

We’re very pleased the Mac community took to Twitterrific so well and helped make it the success it is today. We’re looking forward to bringing the application to a whole new generation of users for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and would like to extend our thanks to Apple for giving the blue bird such a fine new home. We feel both excited and privileged to be a part of the new App Store and are committed to bringing our users the best software we can offer. We look forward to these first steps on what is sure to be, a fun journey for both users and developers alike.

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