Newsletter December 2009

Hi,

First things first:
Did you already take advantage of our Holiday 2009 Promotion?
This is our special, temporary offer, for our existing customers only,
giving all of you the chance to buy an *extra* product half price.

Use one (or more) of these links to order, but hurry up because
this offer ends on December 31 2009, 23:59 (only 8 days left):

* Movie Collector Pro half price: http://collectorz.com/movie2009
* Book Collector Pro half price: http://collectorz.com/book2009
* Music Collector Pro half price: http://collectorz.com/music2009
* Comic Collector Pro half price: http://collectorz.com/comic2009
* Game Collector Pro half price: http://collectorz.com/game2009
* MP3 Collector Pro half price: http://collectorz.com/mp32009
* Photo Collector Pro half price: http://collectorz.com/photo2009

Okay, with that out of the way... what have I got for you in this last
Collectorz.com newsletter for 2009:

- Now live: Game Collector Connect
- Just out: Improved Movie Collector viewer for Vista and Windows 7
- What's coming in 2010?
- Top 10s: the most popular CDs, movies, books, comics and games of 2009

Here we go:

** Now live : Game Collector Connect **

Robbert and Sven have been working on it for the past two months, but finally,
my favorite Connect edition is here: Game Collector Connect.
Personally, I couldn't wait to put my own game collection online.
And now I can, check it out here (442 games):

http://connect.collectorz.com/users/alwin/games/view

If you have your games cataloged in Game Collector, then I recommend to check
out Connect. Sign-up for your 30-day free trial here:
http://connect.collectorz.com/games/register

BTW: we also implemented some nice tweaks to the navigation of all 3
Connect editions: http://connect.collectorz.com/movies/whatsnew
Just login to enjoy these improvements, no downloads or installs necessary.

** Just out: Improved Movie Collector viewer for Vista and Windows 7 **

After finishing the iPhone app updates, Dinh has been working on our MCE viewer
for movies. Earlier this week we released Movie Collector 6.6 for Windows,
which includes a new version of this ultra-cool viewer for Vista and Windows 7.

Not familiar with the MCE viewer? Check out some screenshots here:
http://www.collectorz.com/movie/windows-media-center-mce.php

** What's coming in 2010 **

This year we launched 5 new iPhone apps and 3 new online Connect apps,
plus we released major upgrades for all 3 Mac products.

So... what's up for 2010? Well, major upgrades for the Windows products
of course, starting with Music Collector.

Early January 2010, we will release Music Collector 9.
Ronald and Mark are finalizing the new version at this very moment.
Here's a (very condensed) overview of what's new:

* Catalog, link and tag music files (MP3, WMA, FLAC, APE, OGG, etc..)
* Improved Add Albums Automatically screen

After the MuC9 release, Ronald will go on a well-deserved vacation.
But as soon as he returns to the office, work will start on v7 releases
for both Movie Collector and Book Collector.
With these v7 release, we are planning to focus on making our software more
useful and more fun *after* you have cataloged your entire collection.

Of course, in the meantime the Connect team (Robbert, Sven and Mark) will work
on the music and comic editions of Collectorz.com Connect and will continue to
improve the existing editions.
Dinh will join the Connect team and will start with the "missing link":
connecting the iPhone apps to Connect.

Sytske is working with Opticon to get a new barcode scanner in our shop.
It will be a high-quality, plug-and-play, tethered CCD-scanner, the
Opticon C37.
Priced somewhere between the entry-level CueCat and the premium OPN-2001.
We hope to have it available for purchase early January.

I think the above will at least keep us busy for the first 6 months...
... and that's as far as my planning goes.
I am sure many cool ideas will pop up before then :-)

** Top 10s: the most popular CDs, movies, books, comics and games of 2009 **

One of the advantages of running our own online media databases is that we can
track which items are the most popular. This helps our content managers Martin
and Rowdy to focus their attention on these popular releases.

And it also lets us generate nice top 10 lists like the ones below.
These are the most popular 2009 releases, as indicated by the number of search
queries in our online database:

CDs:
1. U2 - No Line On The Horizon
2. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
3. Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
4. Porcupine Tree - The Incident
5. Dream Theater - Black Clouds And Silver Linings
6. Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
7. Diana Krall - Quiet Nights
8. Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream
9. Muse - The Resistance
10. Pearl Jam - Backspacer

Movies:
1. Watchmen
2. Star Trek
3. Knowing
4. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
5. Angels & Demons
6. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
7. Fast & Furious
8. Up
9. G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra
10. I Love You, Man

Books:
1. Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol
2. Stephen King - Under the Dome: A Novel
3. Dan Brown - Solomon Key
4. David Baldacci - First Family
5. Vince Flynn - Pursuit of Honor: A Thriller
6. James Patterson - I, Alex Cross
7. Sarah Palin - Going Rogue: An American Life
8. Robert Jordan - Wheel Of Time #12
9. Michael Connelly - Nine Dragons
10. Clive Cussler & Justin Scott - The Wrecker

Comics:
1. The Uncanny X-Men [Marvel Comics]
2. The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 2 [Marvel Comics]
3. Batman [DC Comics]
4. X-Men [Marvel Comics]
5. Action Comics [DC Comics]
6. Detective Comics [DC Comics]
7. New Avengers [Marvel Comics]
8. Green Lantern, Vol. 4 [DC Comics]
9. Wolverine, Vol. 3 [Marvel Comics]
10. Fantastic Four, Vol. 3 [Marvel Comics]

Games:
1. Resident Evil 5 [Xbox 360]
2. Wii Sports Resort [Wii]
3. Killzone 2 [PlayStation 3]
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [Xbox 360]
5. Batman: Arkham Asylum [Xbox 360]
6. Forza Motorsport 3 [Xbox 360]
7. Street Fighter IV [Xbox 360]
8. Left 4 Dead 2 [Xbox 360]
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [PC]
10. Infamous [PlayStation 3]

That's all for today, this month and this year.

And don't forget:

Happy Holidays!

Alwin
Collectorz.com