Update: MonoPhix HD 1.2 – The most powerful B&W photography app for iPad.

It’s been a while since our only iPad app got a little update love, but today we are pleased to announce the release of MonoPhix HD 1.2. And it’s not a minor release. It contains better support for multitasking, support for the new iPad’s retina display, a new mode allowing tonal adjustments, color filters, renewed vignetting and the ability to share your pictures on our new Phix filter and photo sharing service. We also fixed an entire busload of bugs and added some UI tweaks, including the ability to remove the tape from your preview.

Tonal adjustments

One request was to include the ability to control the contrast of each color channel separately. To make red parts of your picture stand out more for example. With the new “tonal controls” you can do just that. And just like the default controls you can still control light and dark tones separately.

Color filters

Just like in the iPhone version of MonoPhix, MonoPhix HD now has color filters aboard (Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow).

New settings panel and retina support

The new settings panel has been partially simplified and now also contains the ability to remove the tape ornaments from the picture preview. Instead of the many options to size your preview you now have 2 options, one for retina devices and one for the first and second generation iPad.

Share pictures and filters on Phix

With the release of iPhix for Mac we have created a new more rich way of sharing pictures and we call it “Phix”. Phix is a service you can use to share pictures, get a shortlink to your picture to share on twitter and facebook and most importantly, to show people what you did to your picture to make it look how it looks. With the recipe option you can upload all your changes along with your picture. For more info: http://phix.im/ .

If you already own MonoPhix HD you can update for free and if you don’t own it you can download it here for 1.99$.

Announcement : Phix Software – Reality Distorting Software.

UIC Phoenxsoftware is known to rise from its ash time after time. that’s why I picked the name in 2005. (Actually it should be phoenixsoftware, but the “i” got lost somewhere along the way.)
We rose from the ash when we dropped windows development almost completely and left a number of successful freeware products behind with it resulting in a stable and self sustaining business on Mac OSX and iOS. We rose from the ash when we were hit by a copyright claim from the nice folks at KONAMI for our most successful product at that time iDuelpro, resulting in a 70% drop in revenue. And now we are ready to reimagine Phoenxsoftware for the third time, this time by rebranding UIC Phoenxsoftware to Phix Software.

This giant step comes not only with a new name, but also with a completely redesigned website and more focus on our commercial products. It also means we will release more serious products and have a bigger budget for marketing and more focused management. With the Mac OSX application we will release in a few days we take a first step in this new era.

Not all changes are positive for everyone. Our Windows users will have to settle with a lot less supported apps and some are even completely removed from our website.

Only the following products will be supported, maintained and get their own spot on the new site: MonoPhix (lite), MonoPhix HD, FlashPhix (lite), GrayPhix, iDuelpro (lite), Lingi, iDuelpro for Mac, Duelpro, 36-image express, SpeedShut, ROC and hur.lu and of course our new app.

The following products have been put on a dedicated “archive” page for deprecated software but are still available for download: 36-image converter, LockPhix, LoadDown, FileTorment, CachePhix, MPhix. These applications are no longer supported so we can’t provide mail support for these and waive all responsibility.

The following products are declared dead and aren’t available for download anymore on our site: FileTorment Suite 2006, FileTorment Suite 2007, PhBrowser, Blastgen Beta, older versions of Duelpro, InfoBlaster IN4.

I am certain these changes will benefit the user and will also give us a competitive edge. You can head over to our new site for a look around and check out the products that you didn’t even know existed.

Brand new app: Some samples

For all people who thought that we had died or abandoned development, think again. We’re very much alive and within a few weeks of unleashing a new app onto the world.

That’s about all I can say for now, but I wanted to throw in a teaser in the form of some sample shots.

Although it are black and white shots, the app isn’t a monochrome app. I just chose that certain filter because we all like MonoPhix, don’t we? Also these images never touched an iOS device.

App update: MonoPhix 3 – Vintage meets technology, again. [MAJOR]

NOTE: If you are using iOS 3.1.3 or lower you might want to wait a week until version 3.0.2 is out, this version fixes crashes on iOS 3.1.x devices and adds support for iOS 3.0 devices.

It’s been about a year since MonoPhix 2 was released. It was at that time called the black & white app with the best results around. In a year many things changed, a lot of competition with more feature rich apps got out of nowhere and things became silent around MonoPhix. But we weren’t partying or resting, in fact we spent an entire year developing great new features, filters and tried a lot of different angles to find the most suitable interface for our flagship app. The first results came in MonoPhix HD and now fans of the iPhone version can also rejoice. We present to you, the biggest app update in our entire history: MonoPhix 3.

MonoPhix 3 was built with one goal, to be the best Black & White app in the app store. If we succeeded is up to the user, but we certainly did our best. MonoPhix 3 has over 30 new features and changes and a completely redesigned UI optimized to provide easy access to all those tools.

What’s different?

The user interface

MonoPhix 3 has a completely redesigned dark wood UI as mentioned before. People who also use the iPad version will be very familiar with this interface as it’s based on the MonoPhix HD UI. Here’s an example of what you get when you open MonoPhix. You are welcomed by the social note which provides access to our twitter and facebook pages. The dock has been replaced by a simple brown bar which gives access to the controls to open and save your pictures.

The tonal sliders and the new MonoCore 3 filter

The tonal sliders which give users the ability to enhance the contrast of their monochrome picture have been there for a while and now they are even more powerful. Together with the new enhanced monochrome filter they allow for very high contrast while remaining details and quality.

Processing options

The MonoPhix 3 processing options

A lot of features are gathered under the processing tab. It allows you to blow out exposure, generate grain, posterize the image and invert the colors. But the most interesting feature is the alpha slider. It allows you to set the transparency for the monochrome layer and makes MonoPhix less of a monochrome app by allowing users to create desaturated high contrast vintage pics.

Vignetting

Vignetting

We believe that MonoPhix 3 has some of the most advanced vignetting options of any iPhone app. It allows with one slider which takes even Photoshop several actions, clicks and menus further. MonoPhix supports burned and bleached vignetting and you can adjust the radius and strength of the vignet to your specific needs.

Coloring

Coloring

MonoPhix 2 allowed coloring your monochrome pics to eg. Sepia or Antique. With MonoPhix 3 we took this to a whole new level. Now you can recolor the duotone to whatever you like with the 3 RGB sliders.

High resolution preview

Preview mode

The biggest complaint about MonoPhix 2 was that the previews were just too small. Complaints are there to be fixed, so now MonoPhix 3 provides users with an almost full screen preview. People even have the ability to hide the controls by double tapping any menu item or just tapping the active menu item. Now you can review your changes in detail before saving.

The Settings

Settings

For the first time in its history MonoPhix also contains a settings panel and a help file. The settings panel allows you to bring back the old more grainy MonoCore 2 filter under the “Fast film” tab. It allows people with an iPhone 4 or 4g iPod Touch to enable a huge high quality preview for the Retina Display and allows some other UI options to be set.

MonoPhix 3 is still available for 0.99$ in the App Store and even comes as a free update to the 3.000 existing users. But we might raise the price later, so we can give decent discounts on Black Friday and during the holidays.

We can’t wait to see some great MonoPhix edits appear on the web!

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MonoCore 3, a new Hicon Mono filter for MonoPhix. (iPad/iPhone-App)

A lot of people have used our MonoPhix 2.0 for iPhone and it’s the favorite black & white app for people who like a bit of noise in a monochrome picture to get a certain vintage feel. But people who want smooth black and white always jumped to other apps with less control over the results and less functionality. Now MonoPhix will also get more smooth results without losing speed or control and without losing the old grainy filter, with MonoCore 3.0.

MonoCore 3.0 is the name of the Monochrome filter which will be used in the next generation of MonoPhix apps (MonoPhix HD for iPad, MonoPhix 3.0 for iPhone and MonoPhix Lite 3.0 for iPhone), it will be faster, provide higher quality results and will be even more adjustable. And for the grain lovers there will be the ability to choose for the old MonoPhix 2 filter.

Here are some comparisons between the black & white filter in MonoPhix 2 and the one in MonoPhix 3 and MonoPhix HD for iPad :

Time needed for certain actions on a 2.040x1.536 image - MonoCore 2 vs. MonoCore 3 (Measured on an iPad)

Quality in Bytes/Pixel on a 2.040x1.536 image (Measured on an iPad)

But of course it’s better to give a picture result of the quality changes, this image was processed with the development build of MonoPhix HD for iPad, the first image was generated with the MonoCore 2 filter also present in MonoPhix 2 for iPhone, the second image is filtered with MonoCore 3. As you will see the transitions are much smoother in MonoCore 3 and the details are preserved much better, while maintaining the depth of MonoCore 2.

MonoCore2 Result

MonoCore3 Result

MonoCore2 Detail Result

MonoCore3 Detail Result

MonoPhix featured in “New & Noteworthy” in AU iTunes Store.

Today we noticed a spike in the sales of one of our apps, our Black & White photo filtering app for iPhone, MonoPhix. After some research I found out what was causing the 500% surge in sales, MonoPhix is now featured in the “New and Noteworthy” category of the Australian and New-Zealand iTunes App Store along other great apps like Format126.

The spike also had an impact on the sales in other countries as only 12 of the 19 sales yesterday brought came out of the Australian app store. MonoPhix is now ranked 32 in the Australian paid photography app section. This can bring some new media attention to this fine black & white app, which is even more interesting because we are at the dawn of releasing an iPad version of MonoPhix and there’s a new version 3.0 with completely revamped interface for the iPhone in the works.

Anyway, we would like to thank Apple for putting the focus on our MonoPhix for a week and would like to tell all our customers that the upcoming releases will be even better!

FlashPhix 2.0 Beta #1 the results!

At the moment we are developing a new version of an iPhone app that needs updating, FlashPhix. We’re still testing and tweaking, but the results look promising although some of the filters take up to 20 seconds to be completed.

But here’s small gallery of the resulting pictures :

The Clouds are Coming (FlashPhix – Advanced Lighting – Channels/Contrast/Global)

Tree of the Dead (FlashPhix – Advanced Lighting – Channels/Contrast/Global

Cagne (FlashPhix – Advanced Lighting – Contrast/Global)

Monaco Bay (FlashPhix – Advanced Lighting – Channels/Contrast

Deep Blue Sea (FlashPhix – Advanced Lighting – Channels/Contrast)

Toy Castle (FlashPhix – Advanced Lighting – Channels/Contrast)

Tunnelview (FlashPhix – Advanced Lighting – Channels/Contrast)

If any of you want to test FlashPhix 2.0 and aid in its development, please comment.

Lingi language game for iPhone hits the App Store!

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 Kitchen

The Door

The Settings

Preview of the coming iDuelpro v3.6 – Yu-gi-oh! calculator for iPhone!

EDIT: iDuelpro v3.6 is now live in the App Store, available for you to download. Download here : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iduelpro-yu-gi-oh-calculator/id299220306?mt=8

A few days ago we submitted the newest version of iDuelpro to the App Store. With v3.6 we skip 2 minor version and this is to point out the significance of this version as it is the biggest update to iDuelpro for iPhone ever and it also makes iDuelpro for iPhone the Duelpro variant with the most features on any platform. Which means that iDuelpro 3.6 brings more power in the palm of your hand than in an entire PC.

The most significant new features are the new settings panel which for example enables you to set both player’s names and the hybrid field view with support for both spell counters and monster tokens.

Here’s a full list of all changes :
-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
-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
-New Splash screen

What works on the iPhone also works on iPod Touch of course so iDuelpro is still available for everyone with iPhone OS 2.0 or higher. The price will remain the same as always $0.99 or €0.79 or 0,59£ or 110¥. It will be available somewhere next week if Apple doesn’t find some F* up reason why it shouldn’t be released, I’m betting on a forbidden word in the marketing text or such…

Here’s a screenshot overview of all changes :

The new splash screen with striped Ankh

The new main window of iDuelpro

The virtual field where you can simulate tokens and spell counters

The Settings panel where you can set your name or initial LP and view stats.

Game Over!

iDuelpro v3.5 for iPhone/iPod Touch preview

Since a few days we are working hard to make a new version of our Yu-gi-oh! calculator iDuelpro available to our users. This version will include a few interesting changes therefore we skip one version from v3.3 to v3.5 to point at its importance.

For the first time in-App pop-up windows will be used to expand iDuelpro. This may not interest you a lot, but it enables the use of settings panes, easier dialog boxes and of course the Spell Counter/token tool you have all been requesting for so long.

And that’s probably one of the 2 biggest changes in iDuelpro 3.5, Token/Spell Counter support. I added it exactly as “Masteranza” suggested in his iTunes App Store review as you will see in the screenshots of the current development version.
Most people suggested a token counter, but I made a hybrid also adding spell counter support. You can put more than just 1 or 0 in the token table, also enabling the use of spell counters. (up to 999) The counter’s state is also saved when the application is quit and is reset when starting a new game.

So this version of iDuelpro actually comes with 19.980 virtual coins included which you can to keep track of spell counters or as a replacement for tokens.

Other things that will be implemented will be eg. a settings pane in which you can set both player’s names and initial lifepoints and where you can view your amounts of wins/losses/draws. An extra icon which enables you to follow us on twitter. An updated help file and of course various bug fixes and added confirmation message to prevent false touches.

iDuelpro v3.5 will be completed somewhere next week but the current version can already be downloaded here>

Here’s how v3.5 looks so far :

iDuelpro 3.5 Dev-preview - Main Window

iDuelpro 3.5 dev-preview - Token/Spell Counter window