iDuelpro Yu-gi-oh! Lifepoints calculator soon available in Brazil

December 20, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

iDuelpro has been in all iTunes Stores worldwide for ages, at least we thought. For some reason, games aren’t allowed in the Brazilian iTunes Store and iDuelpro happens to be in this category. So to bypass this shitty Apple rule we made a special version for Portugal and indeed, Brazil.

This version will be in Portuguese and will be exactly the same as the current iDuelpro v3.6 for iPhone and iPod Touch. In this way we can provide the biggest market for the Windows version, Duelpro, with a great lifepoints calculator as well.

As a result of this we will also adapt Duelpro for Windows to display the two iDuelpro versions during install.

iDuelpro (P) (Portuguese Edition) will be available the 5th of January.

iDuelpro v3.6 Yu-gi-oh! calculator for iPhone/iPod Touch popular during the Holidays

December 20, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

Are it the dueling fanatics who get an early Christmas gift or are TCG’s becoming popular again? Anyway, iDuelpro was already popular, but it’s now even more popular and really becoming the killer Yu-gi-oh! App for iPhone & iPod Touch. The other versions for eg. Mac and Windows are also doing fantastic.

Especially the tons of extra features that the last updates brought are bringing a lot of extra Yu-gi-oh! and Magic! The Gathering players. We will even have to create a MTG variant of iDuelpro since the current version is more geared towards the Yu-gi-oh! TCG. But the fact that most versions except for the advanced iDuelpro for iPhone are free has something to do with the immense success and the nearly one million users worldwide.

Here’s an overview of all versions for several devices :
-iDuelpro Lite  for iPhone/iPod Touch (Free)
-iDuelpro for iPhone/iPod Touch (Price : 0.99$/0.79€/…) (Professional Version)
-Duelpro for Windows (Free)
-iDuelpro Mac for Mac OSX (Free)
-iDuelpro Widget for Mac OSX (Free)

iDuelpro for iPhone

iDuelpro for iPhone

Our iPhone app’s pages being translated to Dutch, French and German

December 19, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

Today we started the translation of many of our iPhone apps their iTunes Store pages. We are starting with the translation for the most popular apps to also translate the less popular apps later. So people of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, French Canadian, France and German iTunes Stores will soon be able to read the App Description in their own language.

The following iTunes pages have already be translated :
-MonoPhix – Black/White Image Editing App (Dutch, French, German)
-iDuelpro – Yu-gi-oh! Calculator (Dutch)
-Lingi – Language game (Dutch)

The two who aren’t translated to French and German yet will soon be translated as well.

When these translation are done, iDuelpro Lite, iPhix, FlashPhix and GrayPhix, will also be translated.

We might even translate all the descriptions to Spanish and Japanese as well to improve the internationalisation of the iTunes Store.

Lingi language game for iPhone hits the App Store!

December 17, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

Our newest App, Lingi, has hit the App Store last evening after we thought that all was lost. It seems Apple had to review all languages and check all words for possible offensive ones. This made the reviewing process a bit more difficult. But anyway it’s finally here!

You can download it here : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lingi/id345362647?mt=8

With Lingi you can easily learn multiple languages. It is built that not only you can learn multiple languages, but is built in such a way that your children will want to learn the available languages.

At the moment there are 3 languages available, English, French and Dutch. Each language has three levels, “Easy” for your children, “Normal” the normal settings and “Hard” if you want to take it to a more advanced level with words like “Discrepancy”.

Each level contains 30 words at the moment, but this will be expanded in the next update as well as the amount of available languages. We’re thinking of adding German, Spanish and Italian.

It’s available for 0,99$, 0,79€, …

Here’s the App Store description and some screenshots :

Children can’t start learning languages early enough and Lingi is a great aid in this. But Lingi isn’t only beneficial to children. It’s also a great source of amusement for all ages and the “Hard” mode can even be a real pain for the most advanced linguists!

Lingi features 3 minigames in which you can learn multiple languages and expand your vocabulary. Here’s an overview :

-The Kitchen :
In the kitchen you have to aid Lingi in forming words with the letters in his soup. You can do this by tapping letters in a large bowl of soup. You have one minute to form as many words as possible.

-The Door :
In this minigame you have to check 20 words for spelling errors. Each person in front of the door will say a word. If the word is right, make them enter. Otherwise you can tell them to leave.

-The Garden :
In Lingi’s garden is a spider. This spider will make a large web over Lingi’s entire garden if you don’t stop it. You can stop it by guessing the word represented by the dots in the bottom. If you select a letter and it isn’t part of the word you are trying to find, the spider will add another part to its web. When the web is completed or you succeed in guessing the word, the game is over. This is a typical hangman type game.

“The Garden” and “The Kitchen” are provided with hints to make them a little bit easier. But you can also decide to hide these hints to make the game harder.

Lingi contains three levels, “Easy”, “Normal” and “Hard” and contains three languages at the moment, English, French and Dutch. You can make Lingi display the words you have to find in another language instead of displaying hints in the same language.

All your scores are separately stored in a highscore list for each game.

Lingi provides a familiar and soothing interface and is expanded regularly.

=========Current Vocabulary==========
-Easy Mode : 30 Words English, 30 Words Dutch & 30 Words French (+synonyms & hints)
-Normal Mode : 30 Words English, 30 Words Dutch & 30 Words French (+synonyms & hints)
-Hard Mode : 30 Words English, 30 Words Dutch & 30 Words French (+synonyms & hints)

Note : Lingi is rated +9 because the Spider in the garden and monster behind the door can be scary to younger kids.

Home

The Garden

The Garden

The Kitchen

The Kitchen

The Door

The Door

The Settings

The Settings

Phoenxsoftware halting Windows Development

December 9, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

We took the decision to halt the Windows development completely for the coming months. This decision is made because when developing for Mac and the iPhone I realized how bad Windows users are actually behaving towards developers. They come, download, don’t care and give a rant about how much you suck once in a while. The Mac community is much tighter and kinder towards developers. They give kind suggestions, they are understanding and they don’t care to pay for a well built app. The kind people at iPhoneography made me aware of this. When initiating iPhone development our monthly profit was multiplied by 30. By developing for the iPhone and Mac I made 6 new friends in 3 months instead of making enemies. So the decision is made rapidly when you have to choose between being disrespected and broke or being congratulated, aided and actually earning something.  No more rants for us!

This means that there will be no 36-image converter update anytime soon. Also Blastgen will be halted until further notice.

We are also going to stop the development completely for the next apps :
-FileTorment
-LoadDown
-SpeedShut
-LockPhix
-CachePhix

ROC will be continued and ported to Mac OSX. Duelpro will be integrated in the iDuelpro project and will be continued as well.

So Phoenxsoftware will downscale from a medium/big Windows developer to a small Mac developer. I look back in nostalgia to the days that Phoenxsoftware was big and that our servers were overloaded with downloads. Every month featured by another magazine, a million people using our software, and high hopes. But those days are completely over and Phoenxsoftware will be facing the future from now on. Which lies in Mac/iPhone development, shareware, services and technology.

We also wont be using the Mac & iPhone earnings anymore to fund Windows development but to renew our infrastructure to be geared towards Apple and towards the future.

I want to make clear that I have no hard feelings towards Microsoft as they are doing a fine job building great tools and making a platform far more superior to Apple’s when it comes to facilitating development, but the Windows community is a demon which has bothered me for years now.

Our new site should be finished soon to empower the change.

MonoPhix v2.0 Monochrome App for iPhone hits the App Store!

December 2, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

An hour ago the second major version of our Monochrome app for iPhone, MonoPhix, hit the iTunes App Store. This version has a significant amount of added functionality and is even available as a free update to the people who got MonoPhix v1.0 through our acquaintance sale. It’s available for download here : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monophix/id333643515?mt=8 (Link to the iTunes Store)

The new update includes :
-Sliders and previews added to the Monochrome effect to control light and dark tones
-Replaced Hard Mono & Gray Mono with Sepia & Antique
-Revamped MonoCore engine to increase speed of Preview-refresh and filters
-Presets added to the slider panel to automatically set values such as “0″ (Normal Grayscale), “5.3″ (Default Deep Mono), “10.0″ (Maximum/Quality Hard Mono) and “-5.0″ (Minimum/Inversed Mono).
-Fixed bug which did not update the textboxes next to the sliders on cancel or apply
-Changed Save-dialog to make more sense
-Cleaned up everything for smaller sized executables and less memory usage
-Added new splash screen & background

New iDuelpro v3.6 – Yu-gi-oh! Calculator hits the iTunes App Store

November 26, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

Today after some delay version 3.6 of our Yu-gi-oh Calculator for iPhone & iPod Touch, iDuelpro was approved and added to the iTunes App Store. The price remains the same at 0.99$. You can download it here : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iduelpro-yu-gi-oh-calculator/id299220306?mt=8

This update is the biggest ever with 16 changes, the biggest are the settings panel where you can set the players their names, the initial lifepoints and watch statistics of previous duels and the new virtual field where you can play around with tokens and spell counters.

This update is a welcome addition to the most used Yu-gi-oh! calculator on earth and takes care of nearly all user suggestions.

Here’s a full list of all new features and updates :
-Ability to change the player’s names
-Ability to change the lifepoints base value from 8000 to 4000 or 2000
-Win/Loss/Draw counter in a statistics section
-Automated function to calculate your Victory percentage
-Added a function to reset statistics
-Added support for up to 19.980 spell counters on a virtual field
-Added support tokens on a virtual field
-Ability to toggle sides when using customized names
-Added a settings panel
-Added a twitter link to stay up-to-date on the latest iDuelpro news
-New snappier “custom lifepoint” and “preset” dialogs
-Fixed “Display wrong grammar on victory” bug
-Minor changes to make the top bar blend in with the GUI
-New online PDF help file with screenshots
-Various changes to the interface
-New Splash screen

MonoPhix v2.0 for iPhone promises interesting changes!

November 23, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

Our latest addition to the iTunes App Store, MonoPhix Monochrome App for iPhone is getting an update within the next weeks. It’s the first of the -Phix apps that will be updated to version v2.0. But MonoPhix carries this tag with pride bringing a total of 15 changes and new features.

In MonoPhix 2.0, iphoneographers will be able to control the output of their Monochrome pictures completely. Where other apps only enable you to change the contrast settings, MonoPhix v2.0 will enable you to set highlights and shadow intensity. In this way you can make simple grayscale images with incredibly bright clear parts or adjust the sliders to make beautiful Monochrome images of pictures taken in all conditions. All changes can be previewed using a thumbnail.

Another major change is the absence of the Hard Mono and normal Grayscale features, these can now be accomplished by setting the slider in the right position with or without a little help from 4 preset settings. The missing buttons have been replaced by buttons to enable Sepia and Antique filters using the same depth and sliders which you use to make monochrome images.

Other changes include a significantly smaller filesize, a more logical save dialog and faster Monochrome filters provided by a major upgrade to the MonoCore engine.

But pictures say more than 1000 words (here are some pictures edited with MonoPhix v2.0 Release Candidate 1) :

 

Black Velvet Leaf

MonoPhix v2.0 Monochrome example

Light at the end of the tunnel

Another MonoPhix Monochrome example - "Light at the end of the tunnel"

Antique Fields

MonoPhix v2.0 Sepia example - Antique Fields

Scratched Snow

Another Sepia example which shows the right grain balance - Scratched Snow

Monaco Train Station

Final example : Sepia - Monaco Train Station

Screenshots will be posted at release, MonoPhix v2.0 will be submitted to the App Store when all Beta testers approve of its quality.

 

 

iDuelpro v3.6 declined by Apple, but adapted version adds extra feature

November 19, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

EDIT :  iDuelpro v3.6 is now available in the iTunes Store! Download Here : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iduelpro-yu-gi-oh-calculator/id299220306?mt=8

As you could have red in the previous iDuelpro post I expected that Apple would decline our yu-gi-oh! calculator for iPhone, iDuelpro v3.6, their reason was pretty creative though. We can not disclose the exact reason (fascistic internal Apple rule). But it has something to do with the pop-up dialogs where you could enter text like used in the custom lifepoints deal button “…” and the presets setting feature.

So we could try to upload the same application again and hope that next time the reviewer is less of an asshole, but we chose to adapt the dialog boxes. The new dialog boxes bring a more snappier and native feel to iDuelpro 3.6’s “Ash”-theme. The dialogs load and close five times faster in this way and the keyboard has been improved. We expect iDuelpro v3.6 to be available next week. If they decline it again, I’m going to post the iPhone connect support’s email address here and then you can all send an email to request the approval and ask for yourselves which idiotic reason they used this time.

Here’s a screenshot of the adapted dialog boxes :

GrayPhix & MonoPhix for iPhone free for acquaintance offer!

November 16, 2009 by phoenxsoftware

Since Apple changed its App Store policy, only front-paging “new” Applications instead of new and updated ones, we can no longer benefit from updates, so we are going to start a new tradition of acquaintance offers. In this way people can get acquainted with new or less popular apps, which are still pretty decent.

The acquaintance offers this time are MonoPhix and GrayPhix. Here a small summary :

-MonoPhix v1.1 :
Category : Photography
Normal Price : 0.99$ (Now Free!)
Description :
With MonoPhix you can create Monochrome images from your pictures with one touch. Even advanced image editing apps on your mac/pc require multiple filters and adjustments to create these high depth and high quality monochrome images.
Download Link

-GrayPhix v1.3 :
Category : Photography
Normal Price : 0.99$ (Now Free!)
Description :
GrayPhix is the most impressive grayscaling app available for iPhone and iPod Touch and is optimized to handle even the largest images directly on your iPhone.You will even be able to simulate camera flash for your grayscale images taken in a dark or twilight environment.
Download Link

Get them while they’re still hot!