February 1st, 2010
In case if you are wondering what happened with the release of Beta 4 – I decided to merge it with Beta 5 and release both together next Sunday. Basically the issue is that Beta 4 has no features that are interesting to the end-user (it was mostly about plug-in system improvements and new localization) so I decided not to release another boring version. Beta 5 however will have new scanning and printing capabilities – so that will be a good thing to showcase! 
A first release of the new SDK will also be available at the same time as Beta 5 (including much improved localization editor!).
Updated schedule is here – as you can see I replaced weekly releases with fortnightly ones. The change won’t affect you much – the amount of new features and the final release date are the same, but the releases will be done only when new end-user features are introduced 
And finally, thank you again to everyone who donated!
So far the donation total is £141 – which is roughly 24% of the goal. This is a great help towards our hosting costs!
And of course the donation drive still goes on – details here.
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January 21st, 2010
FuturixImager “S” Beta 3 is now available:
Download now! (2.82 MB)
The main addition is the support for individual icons for different file formats registered with Imager – right now the installer includes only one icon library (which will work for users of Windows 7 only), however during the weekend I will add several more iconlibs + SDK with explanation on how to create new ones. New icon libraries are very flexible and can also link to system icons (so Imager will be able to reuse existing Windows icons if you like them).
Two more things:
- Please have a look at our donations page – it would be really helpful if you can contribute!
- And for your reading pleasure there is now a dedicated development blog with frequent updates on what exactly am I doing (or not doing) with Imager
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January 20th, 2010
I’m started a new Twitter-like development blog for FuturixImager – the goal is to provide more frequent updates on actual development of my software, so people won’t be left in the dark about my plans and progress.
In the other news, I decided to try AdSense advertising on this website – hopefully it is not too intrusive! No idea if it will result in any income – it would be nice if it would cover part of the hosting cost though.
And finally, current amount of donations is £99 (which is 16.5% of the target) – this is a great progress. Thank you very much to the donors!
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January 18th, 2010
I’m no good at writing long posts, so here is a simple list of latest updates:
- Donation drive continues – so far the donors sent £62 (which is roughly 10% of our target). This is a great result for a quiet week without new releases – like the last one was!
And huge thank you to everyone who donated!
- In the other news, Beta 3 of FuturixImager “S” is postponed for a week – I started working on too many things at the same time and could not finish everything for the yesterday’s deadline. This delay should not affect final release though, as I’ve included some recovery time in the schedule.
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January 11th, 2010
I’ve been doing some accounting on Sunday and after fruitless attempts to optimise my future spending I feel that I don’t have much choice but to call for help from the users of my software 
As you may have guessed while FuturixImager is free for the public – it is not free for me, the developer. I’m paying for the hosting, the development tools, the third-party code libraries, etc.
During 2009 I was unemployed for almost 6 months (until the mid-December) and my finances took a huge hit during that time – all while the costs of development and hosting grew (they are roughly 20% more than a year ago due to weak UK pound). It certainly does not help that I took a large salary cut when starting in my current job.
Click here to read the rest of the post >>
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January 10th, 2010
My first release of the new decade is a second beta of sixth generation of FuturixImager
Download now! (2.72 MB)
The main focus of this version is improvement of file format registration* – now supporting “Default Programs” for the recent versions of Windows (7, Vista, 2008) and also with improved registration for XP (now it does not require administrative privileges).
* – individual icons for different formats are not here yet, but they will be added soon.
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December 31st, 2009
The best thing about having a personal project is the ability to change deadlines at any time – so yesterday I changed my deadline for Beta 1 to today, and today I made it! 
New features:
- More than 50 bug-fixes in file format support
- Imager now looks better on Windows 7
- Partial introduction of new localization (change not yet visible to the user, but hey)
Download now (2.87 MB)
Happy New Year!
P.S. Starting from the next year/release FuturixImager will be copyrighted by both me and Futurix Ltd – I finally got around to protecting the name Futurix and have my own company for that purpose
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