15th December 2008
I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd better let everyone know that development of Photato is still progressing, although at a somewhat reduced rate currently due to the demands of some other projects. It's unlikely that there'll be any new versions of Photato in January, but hopefully full time development will resume in February. Have a good Christmas and New Year everyone
11th November 2008
I've updated the beta version of Photato that is available on the download link on the main site to 1.0.5.0. This release addresses a number of stability issues which could cause the application to hang or generate an exception stack trace. There are also a number of other fixes that should improve resource usage. I didn't explicity announce the last couple of beta releases on the blog, although in my previous post I discussed the updated login experience. This release continues to use the semi-integrated Facebook login pages.
3rd November 2008
The logging in to Facebook experience in Photato leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately Facebook themselves require that all 3rd party desktop applications use their login web pages to log a user into Facebook. This is normally only a one time process for a given user on a particular PC, so it's not a major problem, but it is one that I want to make a smooth as I possibly can.
10th October 2008
It's taken a while, but the new beta of Photato is available to download over on the forum. If you've already registered you'll be able to download it straight away, if not, simply apply for membership and once your application has been approved you'll have access to it. There are details of what's changed in the forum post
30th September 2008
It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I better just let you know that things are still progressing. The recent Facebook profile changes have caused me a few problems, but hopefully I'm back on track again now. We should be seeing the second beta in a week or two which will include the updates required by the changes to the way Facebook desktop apps save login information as well as some UI improvements. The screenshot below is a recent idea to display the album information. Hope you like it.
31st August 2008
Here's a brief Flash demo of the current Photato beta in action. It's of limited size and resolution, but hopefully it gives you some of idea of what the add-in does and how it does it.
24th August 2008
There have been some positive comments coming out of the Photato beta 1 testing, here are a couple of them:
22nd August 2008
The first beta of Photato is now available for download from the support forum. If you've already emailed photato.beta@armchairware.com to register for beta testing then you should have been included in the list of beta 1 testers and have access to the download once you've registered for the forum. If not, but you want to register for a future beta, please email us and you'll be added to the waiting list
15th August 2008
I am looking for beta testers for Photato. I will be starting a private best test very shortly, so if you are interested in volunteering please email photato.beta@armchairware.com and include some details of your Media Center setup i.e. version of Windows, PC specs and whether you have an extender.
15th August 2008
Welcome to the armchairware.com blog. I'm going to be initially using the blog to post announcements about the development of Photato, the inaugural product from armchairware. Photato is a photo viewing add-in for Windows Vista Media Center built using Facebook Platform. It's designed to give you access to all your Facebook photos through your TV using your Media Center remote - no more crowding around your laptop screen in the study, simply enjoy your photos with your friends and family on the big screen.