It’s a great way to be reminded of that great restaurant you had lunch at a month ago, or where you parked your car an hour ago.

Places 1.0 is compatible with iPhones, iPod touchs, and iPads running iPhone OS 3.0 or later. Grab your FREE copy on the App Store!

Just wanted to let you all know that Linkinus for iPhone 1.1 and Linkinus for iPad 1.2.1 are now available in the App Store. This pair of updates fix several user-reported issues and are highly recommended for all users.

What’s New?

• Support for /ignore and /unignore
• Font size and other style preferences now take effect immediately
• Fixed a bug where certain visual settings weren’t applied properly
• Fixed a bug where input bar may be hidden below keyboard under certain circumstances
• New Style: I Are Sea!
• Updated Styles: Better link detection, removed flash embeds, resolved several minor UI glitches in Control, Circus, Midnight, and Whisper.

Linkinus is the most powerful and flexible internet relay chat (IRC) software for iOS there is, yet it’s easy to use and newcomers will instantly know how to use it thanks to its elegant design and over 330 built-in networks. You can purchase both Linkinus for iPhone and Linkinus for iPad on the App Store.

• (new!) Multitasking: stay connected in the background for up to 10 minutes at a time. You’ll receive a notification when your about to be disconnected so you can jump back in if you’d like to remain online
• (new!) New Styles! Control, Circus, Midnight, and Whisper!
• (new!) Media Embedding: Just like the desktop! Get inline images, audio, and some HTML5 video. (More embedding options coming soon!)
• (new!) Configurable style options including font size, emoticons, timestamps, nick coloring, and more!
• (new!) Adjustable scrollback buffer
• (new!) Sort user list alphabetically or by privileges
• (new!) Redirect CTCP requests or notices to console, current window, or separate window
• (new!) Auto-correction (toggle on or off to your liking)

Aside from these great new iOS features, it shares many great features found in the Mac and iPad versions, including:

• Network selector helps you pick servers from the most popular chat networks
• Connect to an unlimited number of networks and channels
• Highlights: IRC can be overwhelming, but with Linkinus you’ll never miss an important message. When someone mentions your nickname, that line will be highlighted so you don’t miss it.
• Identities: it’s you, on IRC. Save your preferred and alternate nicknames in a reusable fashion. And if you provide password credentials, Linkinus will automatically authenticate to NickServ, NickOP, Q, X, G, SrvAuth and AuthServ.
• Displays IRC colors
• Autoconnect/autojoin features
• All standard IRC commands supported from the input field, such as: /me, /all, /away, /ban, /bankick, /clear, /nick, /join, /query, /notice, /quit, /part, /topic, /server, …)
• Blowfish support in channels & queries (/setkey sets the key, /delkey removes it, /key shows it). Automatic key exchange is also support via /keyx
• Channel op commands (/op, /deop, /voice, /devoice, /halfop, /dehalfop, …)
• OPER commands (/oper, /kill, /gline, …)
• Exploding emoticons (tap to cause them to explode)

Linkinus for iPhone costs $2.99 and is available now in the App Store.

PS: A note to our iPad users: These great new features will be available in Linkinus for iPad 1.2, submitted to Apple and waiting for approval.

Can you please send me an email? aaron at conceitedsoftware dot com, and make the subject line “Clips Maniac”

In this email, please describe the following… how many clips do you have the application set to save? What kinds of things do you use Clips for?

We have a beta we’d like to get some help testing. That said, it’s going to be a SMALL group – we’re thinking maybe 10 people total.

You have to be willing to run beta software and file detailed bug reports if you run into problems. Things may break. You need to be prepared for that.

Any takers?

Cheers,

Aaron Kulbe

• The back case of the phone is made out of aluminosilicate glass, which is the same type of glass used in the windshields of helicopters and high-speed trains and is comparable in hardness to a Sapphire crystal. Based on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, sapphire is rated at a nine (9); bested only by the diamond at ten (10). This should be very resistant to scratches while providing both signal accessibility and an extreme sense of build quality. One of my major gripes of the 3G(s) iPhones were that they do not pass the creak test, they flex and scratch extremely easily.
• FaceTime: no-setup video chatting while on WiFi. The concept is very simple, if two people have the iPhone 4, they can simply call each other’s cellphone number and press the FaceTime button to convert the call to a video chat. There is no setup required other than the fact that you have iPhone 4 on both ends. Until now, voice chat has yet to really catch on. Requiring a WiFi connection is an unfortunate side effect of slow network providers, however I am looking forward to testing it’s viability over 3G with the My3G application (available in Cydia, removes the WiFi restriction for applications).
• Three-axis gyroscope. This is great news for iPhone gamers. Sony’s PS3 console has similar technology in their Sixaxis controllers, providing six-axis motion sensing . I’ve used it in a few games and it is pretty cool; very Wii-like. As Apple states on their website:
  

  When paired with the accelerometer, it makes iPhone 4 capable of advanced motion sensing such as user acceleration, angular velocity, and rotation rate. Translation: More motion gestures and greater precision for an even better gaming experience.

• The addition of a second microphone on the top of the phone for noise cancelation is a welcome one. The Nexus One from Google features the same configuration and it does help out a ton.
• HD Video Recording and iMovie for iPhone. I can’t say I expected this one. Being able to shoot, edit, and publish 720p HD video directly from your phone is a really compelling feature for a device that you carry with you virtually everywhere.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the offering Apple unleash on June 24th (you can pre-order on June 15th, and I suggest that you do if you are interested in picking one up). I think that the new additions in hardware and the new features in iOS 4 further push Apple ahead of the competition.

Note: This is a repost from my personal blog.

For our ticketing system, we use activeCollab. We found out that there is a bug with activeCollab. When you submit a bug to us and we make a comment on it, and email you with the comment content… emails are not getting sent. We were responding, but you weren’t getting our responses. We’re working out a fix for the activeCollab issue that should make communication and issue tracking even easier.

Another issue mentioned was forum registration. We were using Google Apps for email and hit the daily limit on emails, and we ended up having to set up our own email server. There were some issues caused during that server migration, that should be fixed now. I myself had this issue with forum registration, so I understand how frustrating it is.

Since I have started working for Conceited Software, I am taking time to go through the emails, and tickets opened, and get back to each of you. I’ve been working on keeping up with your emails (as they come in) since the day that I started, and working backwards through the backlog. This means that there may be some delay for the older emails, but rest assured, there is *no* radio silence going on here at Conceited.

Our priorities are giving you both first-class software and support!

This has the much-wanted SSL fixes. There is more detail below:

- SSL support improved

- Added dialog to trust self-signed SSL certificates

- Fixed a crash in the input field

- Improved channel topic display

- Performance improvements when scrolling

There are other fixes and enhancements planned for future releases, and I will update you as I have more information.

Cheers,
Aaron Kulbe
a.k.a. SuperLag

UPDATE: It appears that some users are reporting crashing when clicking on links in 1.1. We found and fixed the issue and submitted 1.1.1 to Apple for approval. Sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: 1.1.1 was approved and released on 6/21 – please update now!

A lot of programs start out by doing just that. A developer has a personal need, and then writes an application to meet that need.

It’s how I approach purchasing software, as well. I needed an IRC client for work. We use it to share information about support calls, in real time. Being a Mac user, I wanted something with some *beauty* to it. Something in GUI form. That’s what good Mac apps are made of.

I’d used irssi previously, but as someone said today on IRC, that’s using the terminal in a way it wasn’t intended to be used. Why resort to a hack, when you can use something that builds on the strengths of the Mac?

Linkinus scratches my itches. I like an app with a well-designed interface. As I’ve said before, I think Linkinus is the best-looking IRC client on the market.

I needed an IRC client that had the options that Linkinus provides, and it’s only going to get better from here!

What do *you* use IRC for? How does Linkinus meet your needs?

Come on in to #linkinus on the Conceited network. Share your stories with us!

Aaron Kulbe a.k.a. SuperLag

I had this same question before I came to work here. Honestly, I thought there weren’t going to be any more updates, and that only new products would come out. The reality is, there’s a lot being worked on…

Both Clips and Linkinus are being worked on. In that order.

Clips – the update is significant, with abbreviations, better RAM usage, and a new editing GUI, and documentation updates.

Linkinus – is going to see some major things happening…

NEW – an iPhone version. This is still being worked on, and isn’t ready for primetime yet.

UPDATE – iPad version with some SSL fixes (which has already been submitted to the App Store, and is pending approval!)U

UPDATE – Linkinus Mac… with several fixes, including memory usage, and filter persistence.

Are you ready? I’m ready!

That said, I ran into some issues with Linkinus… my response to said issues was to submit bugs, and wait. I had no idea how many things the Conceited Software dudes were up to, and already had on their plate.

I spoke with drudge about it in #linkinus, and he was refreshingly candid with me. I asked him how I could help…. so here I am.

My name is Aaron. On IRC, I go by SuperLag. I currently hail from the Portland, OR area.

My goal is to be the face of support for Conceited Software, and talk about their products. My goal is to educate users about the quality software that we’re making, and help make it even better.

This will include handling support requests on IRC, and working through bug submissions and feature requests, as well as writing posts about ways to make your work easier by using our products.

I will be available for support in the various product channels on Conceited’s IRC network, as well as via email.

Feel free to help me earn my keep!

Aaron Kulbe
aaron@conceitedsoftware.com

What’s new?

• Added interface for adding custom networks
• Added support for extended /server syntax: ‘/server hostname:port password’ (standard server) and ‘/server hostname:+port password’ (SSL server)
• Fixed an issue with the ‘/whois nickname’ command
• Fixed a bug where channels/connections wouldn’t be deleted appropriately
• Redesigned app icon

Screenshots

Here is a screenshot of the new custom server screen:


We also made some slight modifications to the interface to make things a little easier to use. For example, you no longer have to go into Edit mode to connect or disconnect to servers. Simply click on the blue disclosure button and you’re off to the races.

The navigation bar button layout has changed a bit, so that the + and Edit buttons are aligned more closely with Apple’s built-in applications and now the Channels tab is the default, allowing you to start chatting immediately after opening the app.

This should address our two most requested features: Custom servers and SSL. We’re already hard at work on version 1.1, subscribe to our RSS feed to stay up to date on the latest and greatest.

Some of our new customers are reporting that there is no way to connect to custom servers or IRC networks not provided on the list. It is true that there is not currently any user interface for doing so, however it is possible to join custom servers using the /server standard IRC command. Simply click in the input bar, type /server followed by your host and port and you are off to the races.

An Update is on the way

We have an update, which includes a user interface for adding your own servers, specifying an optional server password if so desired, as well as some additional bug fixes. We will be finishing our testing and submitting the update for Apple’s approval tomorrow.

Linkinus for iPad is at a very early stage and will continue to improve. If you have any suggestions or bugs to report, please let us know!

Update: If there are any IRC networks out there that aren’t on our list and would like to be, please contact us and we’ll add it ASAP.

With the US iPad launch in just a few hours, we are extremely pleased to announce Linkinus for iPad. Linkinus, the most powerful and flexible internet relay chat (IRC) software is now available on your brand new iPad. It’s easy to use and newcomers will instantly feel right at home thanks to its elegant design and over 330 built-in networks. We are launching with the introductory price of $7.99.

While Linkinus for iPad is at a very early stage, it provides many great features provided in the Mac version, including:

• Network selector helps you pick servers from the most popular chat networks
• Connect to an unlimited number of networks and channels
• Highlights: IRC can be overwhelming, but with Linkinus you’ll never miss an important message. When someone mentions your nickname, that line will be highlighted so you don’t miss it.
• Identities: it’s you, on IRC. Save your preferred and alternate nicknames in a reusable fashion. And if you provide password credentials, Linkinus will automatically authenticate to NickServ, NickOP, Q, X, G, SrvAuth and AuthServ.
• Displays IRC colors
• Autoconnect/autojoin features
• All standard IRC commands supported from the input field, such as: /me, /all, /away, /ban, /bankick, /clear, /nick, /join, /query, /notice, /quit, /part, /topic, /server, …)
• Blowfish support in channels & queries (/setkey sets the key, /delkey removes it, /key shows it). Automatic key exchange is also support via /keyx
• Channel op commands (/op, /deop, /voice, /devoice, /halfop, /dehalfop, …)
• OPER commands (/oper, /kill, /gline, …)
• Exploding emoticons (tap to cause them to explode)

Linkinus for iPad costs $7.99 for a limited amount of time, and is available now in the App Store.

The Clips Panel

I think my most used feature of Clips is the Panel. Pictured on the right, you’ll see that the board gives you a nice little palette of all your clips. This is the perfect productivity tool for storing bits of your digital life. Using your clips anywhere on your system is easy, just position your cursor where you want your clip, bring up the panel and then simply choose the clip by clicking on it.

Store your email signatures, text templates, or your stash of links to share in your Clips Panel and get the job done faster. I think this is useful for everyone.

Developers: store and recall snippets of code, insert color codes or graphics, and more

Designers: store template graphics or filler text, apply watermarks, insert overlays, the whole nine

Students: create templates for your course work to speed up assignments, save pieces of text during your research and recall it when writing

Abbreviations

Is the keyboard more of your thing? No problem, Clips includes a feature called Abbreviations; enabling you to do on-the-fly text expansion. Assign Abbreviations to your Clips and Clips will type/paste them automatically for you when you enter the abbreviation anywhere on your Mac.

Get Clips and donate to charity!

Buy Clips via MacHeist anytime between today, March 2nd, 2010 and March, 9th, 2010 and MacHeist will donate 25% of the price to a charity of your choice. Get 7 great apps at $19.95 and donate to a worthwhile charity? There has never been a better reason to buy Clips! Take advantage of this great opportunity now, it will only be around for a week.

First off, let me just say: “My bad!”

In anticipation of some really cool new things we are working on, I made a couple minor backend changes that failed to apply to one of activation servers. I have identified and rectified the issue; resolving all of activation conflicts that some of you experienced within the past 24 hours.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We have some pretty exciting things in the pipeline; if you haven’t subscribed to our RSS Feed, it might be a great time to start. We will be posting status updates as things progress.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

NICHOLAS PENREE
Co-founder & Developer

We picked the Doctors Without Borders charity. Visit the Indie+Relief website for more information.

On a related note, we have just posted updates to a few of our apps:

- Linkinus 2.1.2: added list-only modes and icon/list toggles to the network picker, channel lists and ban lists. Also fixes a crash when connecting to certain IRC networks.

- HealthNut 1.0.2: implemented move and copy operations from one day to another, improved toolbar and richer Journal contextual menus

- Tracks 1.0: added the ability to extend local iTunes searches to iTunes music store songs and play their previews.

Remember, the Indie+Relief operation lasts only one day, so act fast!

HealthNut comes with thousands of built-in food items, each with predefined nutrients and energy values. Browsing this huge database is as easy as opening the HealthNut bar and typing a few characters.

HealthNut also manages your personal goals. Setting goals within HealthNut is key to keeping you motivated and on track. HealthNut’s tolerance thresholds allow for flexible dieting – the fastest way to an improved lifestyle.

HealthNut remembers everything you’ve eaten and lets you review diet changes by jumping days – or years – back.

The features of this initial release include:
* Spotlight-Like Search of 10,000 foods
* Creating New Foods from nutritional facts
* Merging existing food items
* Nutrient breakdown (protein, carbs, fat)
* Instant visual feedback (are you successfully sticking to your diet?)

HealthNut 1.x requires Mac OS X 10.5 or greater, costs €13.99 and a 15 day free trial is available. Student and multi-user discounts are also available. Download the free trial here, buy the full version or view the product page for HealthNut!

And what a treat it is. Ever experience problems with large log files or lacking the option of plain text logging? You are going to like what I am about to write.

To briefly describe the problem mentioned above: the current stable release logs messages in a database that has the tendency to grow a little larger than average for a fixed period of time compared to plain text.
We are, of course working on this size issue as well as reintroducing plain text as logging option you can optionally toggle. This means, you can have the database (with all styles, highlights and colors) log for a couple of days only* and keep it at a more than handy size but keep all logs in plain text and move them as you wish.

* The next version of Linkinus will allow you to set an automatic pruning time for old logs. I.e. you can have Linkinus prune logs older than days.

So what else is new? Tab completion will also receive a spec bump. You are in a very crowded channel and want to highlight a person somewhere in the middle of the nicklist? If he was talking to you a minute ago you’ll now be able to tab complete his/her nick way faster than before because Linkinus can now tab complete in “last spoke” order as well as alphabetically.

Stay tuned and if you want to give it an early try, why don’t you opt into the beta program?

With the introduction of the Styles Catalog, we have updated the Chill Pill website, it now includes a styles browser as well as a guide for creating your own styles.

Grab it now at http://chillpillapp.com or view the full release notes here.

We’re thrilled to announce the availability of Linkinus 2.0.2 and Clips 1.5, both now with full compatibility with Snow Leopard as well as something brand new: Chill Pill 1.0 – Mac integration with the Fever RSS reader by Shaun Inman.

Linkinus

Aside from Snow Leopard, 2.0.2 brings numerous new features and bug fixes. Variant support was added for styles, the filter list usability has been greatly improved, two new styles have been introduced: a completely rewritten version of Simplified, dubbed 2.0 by Ben Alman (aka Cowboy), and I Are Sea!, and irssi-inspired style that should please even the most hardcore of IRC users. For a full set of changes, please see the release notes.

Clips

We didn’t stop with Linkinus! Clips 1.5 brings about some much anticipated performance increases. We are always looking for feedback or feature requests, if you have an idea that you’d like to see make it into Clips, drop us a line. For a full set of changes, please see the release notes.

Chill Pill

Chill Pill allows you to enjoy Fever’s rich RSS experience while taking advantage of Cocoa and all of the other modern technologies in Mac OS X.

Filling the void where web applications fail, Chill Pill allows you to set Fever as your default RSS reader, change hot keys via System Preferences, get notified when new items are available, change Fever’s style with custom styles, and much more! To find out more about Chill Pill, and to download it for free, please visit chillpillapp.com.