SlideShowPro News

07.24.07 | Product update news to be announced soon

I know, I hate "coming soon" blog posts more than anyone, but a number of people have written in asking how things are going with the next version of SlideShowPro Director (which we've posted a couple of preview videos for). Our "to-do" list is getting slimmer, and the light is beginning to appear at the end of the tunnel. With that, we'll soon be offering a private beta to a limited group of Director users. More information about how you can be involved is forthcoming.

Additionally, there will be a private beta for the next version of SlideShowPro, which will also be updated to coincide with the Director update. There's actually a technical reason why the component will require updating alongside Director, which I'll talk more about soon. Trust me, it's pretty cool, and will completely change how both products are currently used together.

Sorry to be a tease, but I want everyone to know that we're busting our tails making both product updates the very best they can possibly be. More news coming soon.

07.14.07 | We've moved!

This morning we threw the DNS switch and pointed slideshowpro.net to our new home -- our very own home -- at Media Temple. This site is now hosted on a dedicated box, which means no more shared hosting instability caused by rowdy neighbors.

This site used to be hosted at Dreamhost, and up until a few months ago it served us extremely well. The uptime was acceptable, the support was great, and you couldn't beat the price. Then things got a little...wacky. Databases crashed at least once every three days (not from anything we were doing), and server administrators were constantly messing around with our server configuration and IP address. The result was steady beat of uptime and downtime that got old pretty fast.

All that should be behind us now (crossing fingers). Thanks to the people at Media Temple for not only their assistance in getting our new home built, but for sponsoring our digs as well.

07.11.07 | New "Filmstrip" demo posted

Contributed by SlideShowPro user Shannon Jensen, this cool filmstrip demo shows (in rather dramatic fashion) what you can do with the image data that SlideShowPro broadcasts. SlideShowPro is actually positioned out-of-view offstage, while everything else is constructed using ActionScript. The original FLA used to create this is on the SlideShowPro product download page (accessible through your profile page). Check it out.

07.03.07 | Howards Events

Travel company Howards Events is using SlideShowPro as a backdrop for their entire web site. They've turned off the navigation, gallery and captions, and are simply using SlideShowPro to cross-fade photos underneath content as you navigate through the site. It's a clean, simple, yet effective technique that works really well with their tropical photography. The site is still in beta, so some sections haven't completely filled out yet, but it's looking great thus far. Check it out.

07.02.07 | iPhone

Someone sent me an email yesterday asking why SlideShowPro doesn't work on something called an "iPhone." Perhaps you heard of it? Anyhoo - in case you're wondering, the answer is no. Why? Because the iPhone doesn't have a Flash Player. It does have the "real internet" according to Mister Jobs, but that comes without the ability to display a SWF. Man, I'm glad hardly anyone embeds those things! ;)

Sarcasm aside, half a million of those little buggers were moved over the weekend (I personally know almost 10 people who bought one on Friday), and that number will only grow over the next few months. Here's hoping we see a plug-in from Adobe sooner rather than later.