Monday, December 14, 2009
Interim Austin Traffic Icon
Yesterday we submitted Austin Traffic version 2.3.1 to Apple for review. There are only a few changes; the main one being a new icon. Last week we were notified that the design of the University of Texas Tower, which is depicted in the application's icon, is trademarked. We were disappointed to find this out as the app icon was one of our favorite parts of the app! In order to resolve the infringement, we quickly modified the icon. Without an in-house graphic designer, this new "interim" icon leaves a lot to be desired. Don't worry, we will be working with a trained professional to get a better icon in place in the near future. We want something that is representative of Austin in some way and currently have an idea or two in mind, but you can leave a comment if you have a suggestion.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Kerlmax releases Sharpshooter 1.1 with Snow Leopard support
Austin, Texas - September 15, 2009 - Kerlmax LLC has announced an update to Sharpshooter which adds full support for Snow Leopard. Sharpshooter 1.1 is a background application that displays screenshots as you take them with Mac OS X's built-in key combinations and lets you rename and move them while they are still fresh on your mind. Never again will you have a bunch of generically named pictures cluttering your desktop.
Featured in the Macworld Mac Gems Superguide, Sharpshooter is designed to give you more control over your screenshots. Sharpshooter provides you the opportunity to rename your screenshots with pinpoint accuracy. As you take each one you can decide which folder to save it to, which image format to save it as, what file name to give it, quickly print it, or even trash it if you didn't get exactly what you wanted. Sharpshooter has been described as invaluable by a number of companies in the printing and publishing business.
System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.4 or later, including Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
* Mac computer with an Intel or PowerPC processor
* System set to a supported language: English, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Pricing and Availability:
* Sharpshooter 1.1 is priced at $15.00 (USD) and can be downloaded and purchased at the Kerlmax website. Users can also take advantage of the free fully functional trial period for thirty days.
Kerlmax LLC
Sharpshooter Product Page
Direct Download Link
Purchase Link
App Icon
Kerlmax LLC is a small software company located in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2008 by Isaac Wankerl, Kerlmax focuses on exciting and intuitive products for the Mac and iPhone platforms. Copyright 2008-2009 Kerlmax LLC. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, and OS X are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
###
Isaac Wankerl
President
Kerlmax LLC
512-680-4142
United States
isaac@kerlmax.com
Featured in the Macworld Mac Gems Superguide, Sharpshooter is designed to give you more control over your screenshots. Sharpshooter provides you the opportunity to rename your screenshots with pinpoint accuracy. As you take each one you can decide which folder to save it to, which image format to save it as, what file name to give it, quickly print it, or even trash it if you didn't get exactly what you wanted. Sharpshooter has been described as invaluable by a number of companies in the printing and publishing business.
System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.4 or later, including Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
* Mac computer with an Intel or PowerPC processor
* System set to a supported language: English, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Pricing and Availability:
* Sharpshooter 1.1 is priced at $15.00 (USD) and can be downloaded and purchased at the Kerlmax website. Users can also take advantage of the free fully functional trial period for thirty days.
Kerlmax LLC
Sharpshooter Product Page
Direct Download Link
Purchase Link
App Icon
Kerlmax LLC is a small software company located in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2008 by Isaac Wankerl, Kerlmax focuses on exciting and intuitive products for the Mac and iPhone platforms. Copyright 2008-2009 Kerlmax LLC. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, and OS X are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
###
Isaac Wankerl
President
Kerlmax LLC
512-680-4142
United States
isaac@kerlmax.com
Friday, September 11, 2009
Presenting at CapMac in October
In about a month I will be presenting at Austin's Capitol Macintosh user group October general meeting. Sharpshooter 1.1 will be final shortly and this will give me a great opportunity to show off its features to the group. Lately I've been making a conscious effort to do a better job of marketing my products and CapMac has been a wonderful tool so far in this respect. Back in January I got an email from Michael Sidoric asking if I would like to demo Austin Traffic at their first iPhone Special Interest Group meeting. At the time the app only showed traffic incident listings but enough work had been done to show off a prototype with traffic cameras. The new feature was well received and I got several good ideas from the group. I've since been back to several of the iPhone SIGs.Photo courtesy of Alex Suarez.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Sharpshooter 1.1b1 supports Snow Leopard
Late yesterday night we released a beta build of the upcoming version of Sharpshooter. We are still reworking some parts of the user interface but decided that there are probably enough users out there with early copies of Apple's new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that we should make a compatible build available. Apple has published that Snow Leopard is coming September 2009 but we don't have an exact date yet.
We can't get into specifics about what is in Snow Leopard, but there are some changes which broke Sharpshooter's main functionality of intercepting the screenshots that you take. It isn't Apple's fault that this happened. They are free to make any changes they want with new OS releases. The incompatibility stems from how Sharpshooter works to recognize that a screenshot has been taken. This has been addressed and fixed with the 1.1b1 build.
This release comes with a mostly unchanged UI. We did remove the preference to have the Rename button enabled even if you haven't made changes to the name/location/format. This would let you hit return to dismiss the window, essentially the same thing you can do by either hitting Command-W or the escape key. We also incorporated several private changes that had been given out to a few customers such as additional support for Catalan, Czech, Greek, and Polish languages. Since Snow Leopard comes with nearly all of the system applications rewritten in 64-bit code, we did the same with Sharpshooter.
We are interested in hearing if you have any problems with this new build which can be downloaded here. There is a fully functional 30-day trial period.
We can't get into specifics about what is in Snow Leopard, but there are some changes which broke Sharpshooter's main functionality of intercepting the screenshots that you take. It isn't Apple's fault that this happened. They are free to make any changes they want with new OS releases. The incompatibility stems from how Sharpshooter works to recognize that a screenshot has been taken. This has been addressed and fixed with the 1.1b1 build.
This release comes with a mostly unchanged UI. We did remove the preference to have the Rename button enabled even if you haven't made changes to the name/location/format. This would let you hit return to dismiss the window, essentially the same thing you can do by either hitting Command-W or the escape key. We also incorporated several private changes that had been given out to a few customers such as additional support for Catalan, Czech, Greek, and Polish languages. Since Snow Leopard comes with nearly all of the system applications rewritten in 64-bit code, we did the same with Sharpshooter.
We are interested in hearing if you have any problems with this new build which can be downloaded here. There is a fully functional 30-day trial period.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Kerlmax releases Austin Traffic 2.0 for iPhone and iPod Touch
Round Rock, Texas - April 17, 2009 - Kerlmax has announced an update to Austin Traffic, the premier mobile traffic tool for Austin, Texas. Version 2.0 of the iPhone application adds map links, animated traffic camera images, incident detail views, and improved customization of the settings.
Austin Traffic is a tool to give you information about current traffic conditions on roadways in the Austin, TX area. The incidents tab lets you select the roads you travel frequently and get listings of the accidents along them as reported by the City of Austin and the Travis County Sheriff's Office. Over thirty Austin thoroughfares are currently supported and selectable. The cameras tab gives you access to unique animations of the TxDOT traffic cameras along Interstate 35, Highway 183, Highway 290, and Mopac Expressway which lets you get a good visual sense of how traffic is flowing. All of the information presented in the application is designed for quick and easy interpretation.
Austin Traffic is useful for route planning. If you are stuck in an unexpected traffic jam, it's easy to launch and quickly see if there is an accident or what else might be up ahead. Should you take a different road? Are you going to be late getting home? Let Austin Traffic help you determine the answers.
Feature Highlights:
* Animated traffic camera images along Interstate 35, Highway 183, Highway 290, and Mopac Expressway.
* Listing of known traffic incidents grouped by road and arranged according to your preference.
* Map links for each incident.
* Automatic refreshing of data every five minutes.
System Requirements:
* iPhone or iPod touch with OS 2.0 or later
* Cellular data or WiFi connection
Pricing and Availability:
* Austin Traffic 2.0 is available now and can be purchased from the iPhone App Store for $4.99 (USD).
Kerlmax
Austin Traffic
Download and Purchase
Kerlmax LLC is a small software company located in Round Rock, Texas. Founded in 2008 by Isaac Wankerl, Kerlmax focuses on exciting and intuitive products for the Mac and iPhone platforms. Copyright 2009 Kerlmax LLC. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
###
Isaac Wankerl
President
512-680-4142
isaac@kerlmax.com
Austin Traffic is a tool to give you information about current traffic conditions on roadways in the Austin, TX area. The incidents tab lets you select the roads you travel frequently and get listings of the accidents along them as reported by the City of Austin and the Travis County Sheriff's Office. Over thirty Austin thoroughfares are currently supported and selectable. The cameras tab gives you access to unique animations of the TxDOT traffic cameras along Interstate 35, Highway 183, Highway 290, and Mopac Expressway which lets you get a good visual sense of how traffic is flowing. All of the information presented in the application is designed for quick and easy interpretation.
Austin Traffic is useful for route planning. If you are stuck in an unexpected traffic jam, it's easy to launch and quickly see if there is an accident or what else might be up ahead. Should you take a different road? Are you going to be late getting home? Let Austin Traffic help you determine the answers.
Feature Highlights:
* Animated traffic camera images along Interstate 35, Highway 183, Highway 290, and Mopac Expressway.
* Listing of known traffic incidents grouped by road and arranged according to your preference.
* Map links for each incident.
* Automatic refreshing of data every five minutes.
System Requirements:
* iPhone or iPod touch with OS 2.0 or later
* Cellular data or WiFi connection
Pricing and Availability:
* Austin Traffic 2.0 is available now and can be purchased from the iPhone App Store for $4.99 (USD).
Kerlmax
Austin Traffic
Download and Purchase
Kerlmax LLC is a small software company located in Round Rock, Texas. Founded in 2008 by Isaac Wankerl, Kerlmax focuses on exciting and intuitive products for the Mac and iPhone platforms. Copyright 2009 Kerlmax LLC. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
###
Isaac Wankerl
President
512-680-4142
isaac@kerlmax.com
Thursday, March 26, 2009
What's happening at Kerlmax
We've been fairly quiet so far this year although we are working on some updates. There are some exciting new features coming to Austin Traffic and we hope to submit it to the App Store soon. We'll be sending it out to a few beta testers this weekend to get their feedback on function and performance. On the desktop front, it's probably no surprise that Sharpshooter has taken a back seat to our iPhone development. As soon as Austin Traffic version 2.0 is out, we will finish up the Sharpshooter version 1.1 work. We're adding support for Catalan, Czech, and Greek languages (although not full localizations) and fixing an error under the Polish language. The preferences window is being reworked and registration will be much easier and forgiving. Finally the other big feature of the 1.1 release will be remembering your favorite folders of where you're moving the screenshot to.
Kerlmax LLC is coming up on its official one year anniversary; it was formed last year on April 1st. It sure would be nice to have new releases available next week as a celebration, but that's a little too ambitious of a schedule based on where we are right now. Nevertheless, we'll do our best to finish up and release close to that date.
Kerlmax LLC is coming up on its official one year anniversary; it was formed last year on April 1st. It sure would be nice to have new releases available next week as a celebration, but that's a little too ambitious of a schedule based on where we are right now. Nevertheless, we'll do our best to finish up and release close to that date.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Traffic feed problems
From Thursday evening February 5th through Monday the 9th, the City of Austin's traffic feed was malfunctioning. My app Austin Traffic relies on this feed for the data that are displayed. For most of this time Austin Traffic kept showing the same accidents from Thursday like they hadn't been cleared even after 24 hours. Then on Sunday the feed of incidents was cleared and it didn't show any issues, even during empty during peak traffic hours. When I checked again at 5:30 PM on Monday, it was finally back up and working properly.
Unfortunately there isn't much that I can do about situations like this. In the future I might be able to incorporate some sort of messaging system into the app to alert users when there is a known problem. That's not too high on my priority list though because this is the first time I've ever noticed any problems with the traffic information feed. For now I'm focusing on developing version 2 with great new features.
Unfortunately there isn't much that I can do about situations like this. In the future I might be able to incorporate some sort of messaging system into the app to alert users when there is a known problem. That's not too high on my priority list though because this is the first time I've ever noticed any problems with the traffic information feed. For now I'm focusing on developing version 2 with great new features.
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