The Ohanaware Weblog

Aperture integration is a common request for our products and we’re working on making a nice easy and comfortable solution.

In the mean time, if you want to access your Aperture or iPhoto library within our software, you can simply use the “Open” menu from the “File” menu. With Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard, Apple built iPhoto & Aperture integration into the “Open” dialog.

Today we shipped HDRtist 1.2, with a bunch of improvements. Go get it while it’s hot!

"HDRtist 1.2 is the most stable version of HDRtist to date. The large image corruption issue has been resolved along with image removal issue. Aligning images now preserves color profiles (RGB variations only) and the meta data. Making it easier to organize and store the processed HDR images. HDRtist now supports a folder of images being dropped into the main window. Interface changes on the main window include, now showing each images name, a new “Get Info” option and a “Show in Finder” option. Underneath HDRtist features new ImageIO kit code, a new toolbar and improved error reporting (which’ll pick up crash reports)."

Visit the HDRtist webpage

Also the HDRtist videos have returned, the Funtastic Photos videos will be available shortly.

We’ve temporarily removed the videos from our site while we work to replace the Google YouTube videos with our own solution.

We used Google’s YouTube for video, as this was a single solution that could provide video for Mac, Windows and iPhone. In turn Google used our own YouTube videos to advertise and promote competitors products on Ohanaware.com.

Emails to Google have gone unanswered, forcing us to pull these ads and the video from our site. Once we’ve worked out the kinks in our new system we will restore the videos.

Congratulations on starting the new year of the Tiger, my understanding is that this year is going to be good for business. Now that the Chinese New Year is coming to an end and we’re preparing to return to normality, I thought I’d let y’all in on what we’re planning for the year of the Tiger!

Imminently we have a release of HDRtist coming… It should be released within the next couple of weeks.

New website. Apart from removing all GooTube Videos (Google decided to use our YouTube videos to advertise competitors products on our site!), we’ve been slimming down the pages while trying to provide the information that you guys are looking for. Also we’re working on improving the support section.

Fun Photos 2.0, it’s still deep in development, we’ve already got some great new features and the whole engine is slimmer and faster. Expect more to come.

Two new apps are planned for the first half of 2010 and we’re not quite ready to release more details yet!

Today’s I’m gonna talk about something, which I think almost everyone should have. Their own personal Time Machine.

Before Ohanaware was born, I was developing other image manipulation programs. About once every two months, I’d get someone who had done something to their photos and wanted me to undo it. Imagine taking a permanent marker to your photo. I’ve received threats of death and legal action, thankfully neither have come to fruition. In the previous product we gave people multiple warnings, which legally protected us, but ultimately didn’t stop people.

When Funtastic Photos was being designed, this very problem was taken into consideration. We designed it so that your original photo would be protected and it can be recovered even without the use Funtastic Photos. This does only work if you use the Funtastic Photos file format, if you use “Save A”s and replace your original file with a JPEG. Your toast!

In HDRtist, we tried something else. If you try to replace a file, HDRtist offers to take a backup of your file, again you can choose not to and voila your image is gone.

Why do we let people replace files, because at one time we didn’t. We refused to save over people’s files. You got it, this made people upset also.

The solution: Isn’t expensive (providing you’re running Mac OS X 10.5), buy yourself an external hard disk that’s larger than your internal hard disk. Hook it up to your Mac, and it’ll ask you if you want to start the Time Machine. This is superb, as it’ll preserve everything, including your photos! If you overwrite your photo and want to remove the permanent marker, you simply rewind in the Time Machine. I even take mine in the car when we go out, incase, some limey half inches my computer, or anything else happens while I’m out.

Hard drives are prone to failure, it doesn’t matter how old they are. They all fail at some point, photos are precious. So please please back them up and never overwrite the original files.