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September 12

SP1 is here, xMedia 2 is coming

Hey, folks...  We've posted our latest set of fixes for xMedia, called "Service Pack 1" (don't you just love these catchy names?!?).

This is another bug fix release.  We fixed about 150 bugs including a fair number of crashers that have been around for quite a while.  If you're interested in the fix list, please visit this page on the MSFT Support site.

The team added support for WIC so now xMedia on Windows can support any RAW format if the camera manufacturer provides a WIC handler.  Several camera manufacturers have already done so and several more have plans to do so.  This gives folks much more complete coverage of RAW types than we could offer before.

We also added support for auto-update on both Macintosh and Windows.  This will help us get fixes out more quickly and in a way that patches the current installation rather than requiring an annoying uninstall/reinstall cycle that's been the rule up to now.  The patches should be live in a couple weeks.

There are still a number of bugs that are known and didn't get fixed in this release including a fair number that we really wanted to fix.  We'll tackle more of these in the next release.  We got as many fixes in this window as we could fit.  We set aside other feature development to continue improving overall stability.  I know that this will make some folks happy and will drive others nuts who've been waiting for new features.  It's my call, so be ticked at me if you think I'm making the wrong choices.

We're planning to ship SP1 in all other languages in early October.  We're adding Swedish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish on Macintosh (though the last three are UI-only).

We're shifting our attention now to xMedia 2 (which will have new features ;-).  We're currently planning to release in the second quarter of 2008.  We're also planning on a beta early in 2008 and perhaps a limited-release preview in November.  More on all that later.  I need to drive home to Vancouver, WA, now.

5:55 PM | Add a comment | Read comments (11) | Send a message | View trackbacks (0)
Comments (11)
  • View space
    March 07 7:35 PM
    Hi, folks, sorry to be away for so long.  I'm back now.
     
    Is anyone still having trouble getting SP1?  Nab it directly from the corporate download site here for Windows and here for Macintosh.  You can choose differnet languages on each page.
     
    On another topic, thanks for the nudge on network performance.  Marek worked on that pretty hard and made great strides optimizing network traffice.  I'm cataloging NEFs from my D200 across my 100Mbps LAN here at home and it's great.  Catalogs on network shares work well now, too.  That's particularly important for small workgroups or studios.
     
    I have to apologize that Preferences Panel redesign didn't make the final release.  Tim did a lot of work relaying out things with tabs, and it looked a lot better.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the underlying work done in time.  This will be lots easier when we roll to Cocoa and WPF...
     
    Cheers,
    kb
  • View space
    (no name)
    December 11 9:28 AM
    Hey there Kevin! I am SO looking forward to the next version of EM, since it is THE most comprehensible DAM tool on the market. How's the progress on that v2? Is there any way to sign up as a beta tester, because I sure would love to give this puppy a try!
  • View space
    Evan
    October 23 5:41 PM
    I'm glad that SP1 is available but when I try to download I get an error.  This is what I see:
     
    Windows Live ID is unavailable from this site for one of the following reasons: This site may be experiencing a problem. The site may not be a member of Windows Live ID
    How annoying.  Any ideas?  Can I get it elsewhere?
  • View space
    (no name)
    October 05 8:18 AM
    I am unable to download SP1 because the site is reportign an error with Live ID. Where else can I get this upgrade?
  • September 22 4:42 AM
    Hello Expression crew ! Expression Media 1 will be for the first time presented in French on Apple Expo in Paris comming Tuesday.

    I give two conferences on Microsoft Stand at 10 AM and 2 PM... All visitors welcom with any question about digital photo workfow after the conference... More information here :

    http://http://http://www.macandphoto.com/2007/09/expression-medi.html

    Maybe can you relay information (sorry very late)... All informations about beta 2 are welcom in Paris :
    vibert@actionreporter.com

    Thank's
    JFV
  • Inge
    September 16 2:47 AM
    Don't know what you mean by some of the added languages being UI only, but please let the user choose language himself and not use regional settings in Windows. Many users around the world prefer English over any local languages.
  • View space
    September 14 4:02 PM
    Glad to see the SP1 came out and fixed so any of the buggers. Must say though I am saddened that the issue with network drives on Windows was not addressed. As our office setup is Windows using a NAS, this is a near critical issue. Everytime we add to the archive it must be done in small bursts and left to run overnight and hope it is done when you get back in the AM.

    Don't want to beat a dead horse as I know you all are aware of the issue, just wanted to add that it is a really huge hurdle for some of us. Thanks for keeping us updated with this blog, it is definitely appreciated.
  • View space
    Kevin K7VI
    September 14 2:49 PM
    Got this note from one of our long-time users:

    In the next major (or minor) update to Expression Media please put all of the preference panes into one window/secton so we don't have to keep going back to the main window and then to the preference menu to go to the next preference pane. Something like Photoshop has their preferences. It's really a pain. Thanks.

    Yeah, that's a good idea.  Tim is working on dialog redesign, in general, for xm2.  I'll ask him whether this is on his roadmap.

    BTW, unless there's some serious reliability issue, we're not planning any new releases other than the previews and betas for xm2.  We really need to focus on feature development and have spent a ton of time massaging the existing code to improve reliability.  More to be done there, but the team needs to focus on feature dev.
  • View space
    Kevin K7VI
    September 13 7:58 PM
    Thanks to Finder for making the link explicit.  I had it buried in the body of the blog entry, sorry.
     
    The list of what ISN'T fixed is still pretty long.  Most of what's left is much lower severity, but I'm still not comfortable posting the whole list.  The more annoying issues that come up are getting Knowledge Base articles written about them, particularly if they're affect more folks and we have a work-around.  Otherwise, they're mostly on our xm2 fix list.
     
    Let me chat with the team about this and see if I'm thinking about it the right way.  Thanks for asking.  It's a good and fair question.
  • Finder
    September 13 12:04 PM
    Did you check out this SP1 page?
     
  • View space
    (pas de nom)
    September 13 1:36 AM
    Can we know what is fixed and what isn't ?
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