The coupon code is WWDC09, but clicking that link should pre-fill that in for you.

Enjoy!

• Full support for Adobe AIR apps
• Locked profiles Did you just spend 40 minutes setting up your data *just* how you want it to reproduce a certain condition? Are you releasing a new version and need to test upgrading from v1 repeatedly? Set up your data just how you want it and then lock it. Now every time you switch to that profile it will be just how it was when you locked it.
  
• Ability take a preference or other data file from someone and drop it on a profile and have rooSwitch know to include it as part of that profile
• Cleaned up Preference Pane
  
• Updated 512×512 icon
• New, darker color theme to match Leopard.
  
• New website thanks to Erika Greco
• 3 new screencasts with likely more on the way
• Fixed a few minor switching bugs

I’m really happy to have this release out there. I think it adds some cool features for developers and just cleans up rooSwitch a good bit. I’m also really happy to have a new website.

Download 1.5 and if you have any feedback on it or the website please drop them in the comments here or send them my way.

A couple weeks ago I downloaded Potion Store for fun and started playing with the admin interface in a development environment. It was way better than anything I had and I wanted it. The only downside was that I would have to sign up for PayPal pro and would lose $30 each month. I justified that as motivation to do more frequent updates and release new apps. Hope it helps.

It took me 7 days of very part time work to finish deploying the store. The biggest pain was adding support for state taxes. I’m a resident of Idaho and am required to collect sales tax from anyone buying rooSwitch that also lives in Idaho. PayPal’s express checkout is not setup to handle this very well. If you’re interested in the details, I started a thread at pdncommunity. I still can’t figure out why more people aren’t talking about this issue. It makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong. (Feel free to educate me in the comments if you know what I’m doing wrong )

Apart from that little sales tax glitch, I’m happy with the results.

Happy 2008!

Here’s some quick status on the rooApps:

rooSwitch

The 1.2 release was started many months ago and took way too long to finish. I have ideas and user submitted feature requests that could either be rolled into a 1.3, but it’s more likely the next major release will be a 2.0. However, I don’t expect to see this happen before Fall 2008. This would likely be a Leopard only release and an almost complete rewrite (the are some things in 1.x that need rewriting )

rooVid

I finally abondoned hope of ever realesing a rooVid non-lite version on the 1.0 label. During WWDC 2007 I sketched out rooVid 2.0. In my mind it was three things:

• A video convertor featuring profiles (just like lite 1.0 is today)
• A video uploader (to YouTube, your .mac account, your personal website, etc)
• A video organizer

The feature I was most excited about was the organizer. Then iLife ’08 with the new iMovie was announced and I decided to shelf rooVid 2 again. It seemed the organizer part and a lot of the upload and converting was taken care of by Apple in the new iMovie. Now, months after using iMovie ’08 I realize I still want a better organizer and a better convertor and a better everything. I enjoy creating movies in iMovie ’08 (I think I’m one of the only ones that likes the new interface) but the organizing and exporting leave room for rooVid.

rooVid 2 will definitely be a Leopard only app and I hope to have it available in late Spring 2008.

Misc

I know I’ve never been good at estimating when I’ll be able to finish an app or even point releases. I blame this poor scheduling on lack of time and poor time management of that limited time by me. Having a full time job, a family (Married with 2 small girls) and trying to do this work when possible can be hard, and very hard to do consistently without burning out. If all goes well things will be changing around the end of January/early February that will help me with this time issue and remove an excuse or two for me not getting things done. More news on that when it’s official.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks guys

Earlier this week, I found a user generated screencast showing off rooSwitch managing multiple profiles for Final Cut Pro. I got in touch with the author and chatted a bit about rooSwitch and asked if I could post his screencast. Not only did he let me post it, but he redid it to explain a little more of how he’s doing what he’s doing. The six minute QuickTime movie can be seen below:

rooSwitch and Final Cut Pro.mov

Since I’m not a Final Cut Pro user I would never have known this problem existed nor that it could be helped by rooSwitch.

Many thanks to Steve at Double Wide Post in NYC for the great screencast.

I’m obviously pretty excited about this and am glad I made it to WWDC this year. It’s really awesome to have something I made be recognized by Apple.

On with the thanks.

I’ll start by thanking my wife and our two girls. They don’t know Cocoa (yet) nor do they use rooSwitch, they do put up with me and occasionally encourage my programming habits.

Next the peers. I had a lot of help with rooSwitch from some great peers. Specifically (in first name alphabetical order): Andy Kim, Daniel Jalkut, Luis de la Rosa and Steve Harris. I actually got to go out to dinner with 3 of those 4 tonight (all but Daniel). It was my first time meeting both Andy and Steve in person.

Now the catch-all (cause I’m sure I forgot someone (sorry)). Thanks to everyone on the rooSwitch beta mailing list and all the users that provided feedback.

OK, that’s all.

Last year I ran a sale on rooSwitch for the week of WWDC. I even had business cards that advertised the sale. I still have plenty of those cards. Instead of making new cards, I decided to run the sale again. Benefit from my laziness: http://roobasoft.com/rooSwitch?WWDC=1.

MacSanta is:

Thanks to MacSanta, you can save 20% off applications from all 77 companies below! Just use coupon code MACSANTA to save through December 25th.

The number 77 is probably higher by the time you read this. Apps are being added daily.

Since I didn’t have a way to accept coupons, I wasn’t going to participate (read: I’m lazy). Fortunately I got an appropriate nudge from a friend and I took care of that: Save 20% on rooSwitch

Don’t forget to give the full list a look. Enjoy!

Credit and thanks go to the Rogue Amoeba guys for setting this up.