News: all updates for our software and apps
Lots of things going on at Collectorz.com, on all supported platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android *and* online (Connect!). Which will result in important software updates in all areas, some within a few months, some as early as “next week”, some even just went live!
Here’s what cooking now, in order of ETA:
- Now live : Improved My.CLZ.com site.
- Now live : Music Collector Cobalt.4 for Mac.
- Next week : Music Collector Cobalt.5 for Windows.
- Next month : CLZ FineDiner app for iOS.
- Within 2 months: Connect 2.0.
- Later: CLZ Comics 2.0 for Android.
Now live : Improved My.CLZ.com site
Since the introduction of the Cobalt version and the new Update Plan system, the My.CLZ.com site has become the central place for you to find your software licenses, to download your licensed software and to renew your Update Plans and Cloud subscriptions.
Robbert has been continuously tweaking the site to make it clearer and easier to use. Here’s are some of the recent changes:
- Easy login to My.CLZ.com from CLZ emails, using your personal secret login URL.
- Big Download buttons for downloading the latest Cobalt version that your Update Plan entitles you to.
- Big green Extend/Renew buttons for renewing/extending your Update Plans, taking you straight to the MyCLZ Shop with the correct plan in your “cart”.
- A new expandable “Pre-Cobalt” panel now shows all your “old version” licenses and download buttons.
- Re-designed Account page for changing your CLZ Username, Password and Email address.
- Changing your email address on the Account page will automatically update all customer records, including our email system.
Why not login to your My.CLZ.com page and check it out?
Now live : Music Collector Cobalt.4 for Mac
Just uploaded to our servers by Patrick: a big update for the Mac edition of Music Collector, with improved support for both vinyl and classical music, plus a new look for the Preview Panel:
- Add Albums Automatically : easily add vinyl (and CDs) by searching Discogs by Catalog Number.
- Extra vinyl-specific fields: RPM, Vinyl color, Vinyl weight and Media Condition.
- Improved support for classical music : Composition, Conductor, Orchestra and Chorus fields now all allow multiple values (and are now on a separate “Classic” tab).
- Add Albums Automatically: new Cobalt Compact template for Preview panel
Full details and screen shots.
Next week : Music Collector Cobalt.5 for Windows
This is going to be a big one, as Music Collector for Windows is the first one to receive Ronald’s recent work, a brand new user defined fields system:
- Create your own data fields, of any type, in any order and as many as you want.
- Choose from: Text, Number (Integer), Number (Float), Yes/No (checkbox), Pick List, Date or Multi-Value (checkbox list).
- User Defined fields work like any other field, you can add them as Columns, sort on them, use pick list fields as Folders and search them using the Quick Search and Filter features.
- User Defined fields automatically appear in the Details Panel, under a “My Fields” header.
After Music Collector, the same user defined fields system will be released for all other Windows editions, probably within a month.
Next month : CLZ FineDiner app for iOS
A new app in the CLZ series for iOS: CLZ FineDiner, a fine-dining diary app for gourmets/foodies and everyone who loves great food. A large part of the CLZ team is now working on it, to get it live ASAP: Pim programming, AJ doing design and testing and Sytske, Rowdy and Martin preparing our own online restaurant database.
We have just posted the first sneak preview screen shots on our FineDiner page on Facebook.
Are you a fine dining enthusiast and wanna stay up-to-date on our progress?
Then Like the Facebook page.
Within 2 months: Connect 2.0
This is the project that our new web-developer Dion has been working on for the past few months, under supervision of Robbert. Dion has completely re-designed and re-written the user interface of the Connect web-applications:
- A new flat-design look, that is cleaner and easier to use.
- All collection lists are endless scrolling lists, no more next/previous through paged lists.
- Fully responsive design, making the web-app work well on all screen sizes: hi-res desktop screens, laptop screens, tablets and mobile phones.
The movie edition of Connect 2.0 is already finished (but not live yet). Dion is now implementing the new look for the other 4 Connect apps. As soon as all five are done, we’ll go live, hopefully within 2 months.
Later: CLZ Comics 2.0 for Android
Judging from the happy Play Store reviews, the new 2.0 version of CLZ Movies for Android is a big success. So it’s time we move on to the next one: CLZ Comics 2.0 for Android. This will be Pim’s main project as soon as FineDiner is ready for testing.
It’s hard to estimate how long it will take to complete. After all, we need to implement the tablet UI, the adding and editing features, the barcode scanning, the 2-way cloud syncing and much more. But then again, we’ve done it all before, for the movie edition. Time will tell…
Talk to you next month (or earlier if you’re on Facebook, Twitter or Google+),