Next week, the Alfred team (Andrew, Anna and myself) will be heading to Austin, Texas. South by Southwest Interactive is a conference held in the city that likes to keep it weird. Developers, designers, marketing types and all sorts of interesting people gather for a few days of interesting talks and keynotes, as well as a lot of Tex Mex and margaritas.
If you're attending, please let us know on Twitter (@alfredapp) or look out for Anna and I who will both be wearing Alfred bowler hats. We'll be giving away Alfred goodies and stickers, so come and grab a sticker that you can wear with pride!
We'll no doubt tweet and announce an informal Alfred meetup, but don't wait for it, come say hi!
Cheers,
Vero
[Photo credit: David Herrera on Flickr]
When Andrew and I look back at how much has happened in the past year, since we first released Alfred on a Sunday night while watching the Canada vs USA hockey game during the Olympics, it's hard to believe it's only been a year.
Back then, Alfred did little more than launch web searches and search your local computer. Since then, we've added a vast number of features throughout the year, launched the Powerpack in August and built a wonderful community of users we love.
We wouldn't be where we are without you, so let us tip our bowler hat off to you. Since we can't invite you all over for a big party to celebrate, we are offering a 10% discount on the Powerpack for single user licenses.
To get your discount, use the code BDAYCAKE11 [now expired] in the coupon code field when you proceed to Google Checkout. Act fast as the discount is only valid until Wednesday 2 March 2011 4PM GMT/8AM PST and applies to single user licenses.
Here's to many more years of productivity on our Macs!
Cheers,
Vero
Yesterday, we released Alfred version 0.8.2, which contains more features, improvements and bug fixes than any previous release. We've worked hard to add polish and refinement to the features you already use and love, as well as bring on a few great new features.
New: Address Book integration
This is quickly becoming one of my favourite features! Search and access your Address Book contacts within Alfred, copy their contact details or launch an email addressed to them. Without launching Address Book, access all your local contacts by simply typing their name in Alfred. (You'll need to enable this Powerpack feature in preferences first.)
New: Colour theme import and export
Since 0.8.1, Powerpack users can create their own colour themes for Alfred. We've now added import and export to allow you to share your beautiful themes with friends. Themes can be shared as theme files or as alfredapp:// URLs, so it couldn't be any easier to spread the word.
Alfred fan Olivier Guerriat created a site where you can submit your own custom themes and custom searches, so pop by Alfredtips.com and share your best Alfred themes.
Most of the themes above were created by Yaro Manzarek and can be found on Deviant Art.
New: "In" keyword to search inside files
By now, you'll be an expert at using "find" and "open" to locate files on your Mac, right? The "in" keyword allows you to search inside the files on your Mac.
New: Share custom searches
Share your best custom searches by clicking on the Clipboard icon in your custom search editing box. Click on a URL beginning with alfredapp:// to import new custom searches to your own Alfred, including the search URL, title and keyword.
Visit Olivier's Alfredtips.com to see other users' great ideas for custom searches and contribute your own!
Over 70 changes for 0.8.2
We've added a scrollbar for the find/open/in views where you can see up to 40 results, the option for the iTunes mini player to only play longer albums when playing randomly, an option to make the 'email' keyword launch Gmail with an email for that contacs, as well as loads of new web locales. As this release contains tons of improvements, have a look at the change log for the full list.
Tempted by the Powerpack features? The range of advanced features for Powerpack users is growing with every release, so why not grab your Powerpack and support the Alfred development? :)
Cheers,
Vero
The community around Alfred has been amazing so far and we truly appreciate your interest and support.
As many of you have been asking for some Alfred-branded loveliness, we've now set up a Zazzle store to reach as many of you as possible (although if you're coming to SxSW, we'll be bringing some exciting swag as well :) ).
We thought we'd start small with some Alfred hat stickers (as shown in this post) and some mugs. Beyond this, we'll let you decide the direction the store should take. Are you keen for some T-shirts with funny taglines, keychains to hold your all-important house keys or buttons to wear around to show just how much you use Alfred? Let us know, we'll listen and act accordingly.
All proceeds from the sales will go to both local UK charities, as well as international ones so you'll be doing good while you show off your Alfred love.
What are you waiting for? Check out the Alfred Zazzle store.
We are releasing version 0.8.1 earlier than expected today. As many of you know, the Mac App Store went live at the end of last week and the Alfred core (0.8) was a very popular download. However, we were approached by Apple this evening, who asked us to re-submit a new build as the current one was in breach of their terms and conditions.
As a result, we are releasing 0.8.1, both in the App Store and out of it, earlier than originally anticipated. While the new features and fixes have been thoroughly tested by our pre-release users, there is a small number of Powerpack users who may be affected by a migration issue where their preferences disappear. Fear not, they're still accessible, safely backed up, and you can find more details here.
Naturally, 0.8.1 doesn't have all of the features originally intended for this release so you can look forward to 0.8.2, which will include import/export of colour themes and more.
We want to end this hurried post by thanking all of our Twitter users who, over the past few hours, have helped us test the latest release. We couldn't do it without you guys!
