Official blog for Houdah Software. We will discuss news, tips & tricks regarding our Mac & iPhone products: HoudahSpot, HoudahGeo, HoudahGPS, ACTCurrency, ACTPrinter, ACTRocket, ACTSudoku, …
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Sudoku Uno — Stylish Sudoku for iPad
Houdah Software today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of "Sudoku Uno - Stylish Sudoku for iPad". "Sudoku Duo" is a dual player Sudoku game for the iPad. Sudoku Uno is based upon the same powerful Sudoku engine as ACTSudoku for iPhone. It is thus able to provide an almost infinite number of Sudoku games categorized in 3 levels of difficulty. Additionally it is able to provide intelligent hints.
"Sudoku Uno" may help the player by blocking digits which are obviously no longer available and by setting positive markers for the remaining ones. One should then further narrow down the possible digits by setting negative markers.
A two-player version is available. "Sudoku Duo" has all the features of "Sudoku Uno", but adds a compete and a collaborate mode for 2 players sitting at either end of the iPad.
Feature Highlights:
* Unlimited number of Sudoku games
* Three levels of difficulty: easy, medium, hard
* Difficulty levels are determined by techniques to master, not by number of givens
* Optional automatic pencil notes
* Intelligent hints with explanations
* Green and red pencil notes
* High scores
Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
Pricing and Availability:
Sudoku Uno 1.3 is priced at $1.99 (USD) and available exclusively in the Games category of Apple's App Store.
ACTCurrency
ACTCurrency - Free for 24h only , selected "Surprise of the Day" in the World Football Calendar 2010 by MagicSolver.
HoudahSpot 2.7
Houdah Software has recently released HoudahSpot 2.7.
While this release does not bring a striking new feature, it does include some significant changes and many improvements. The biggest change being the semantics of the "Any Text" criterion. This has been changed to also match text content.
The options for the global menu and global shortcuts have been simplified. HoudahSpot now automatically determines when it needs to install or to remove its helper tool to handle the menu and shortcuts. This also makes manual upgrading easier. Formerly the running helper could prevent trashing of the old application. Quitting the helper is now taken care of automatically.
Recently Don McAllister praised HoudahSpot as "one of my favourite (and most useful) Mac apps".
All-new Houdah.com web site
Head over to Houdah.com to discover an all-new web site.
We hope the new layout will improve your experience of reading up on our products and on finding support resources.
Thanks go to Ryan Scherf for the excellent job on the design.
BTW, while we were at it, we have also created a Facebook fan page.
HoudahGeo 2.5 - Aperture 3 support
Last week we released HoudahGeo 2.5 - a major update to our photo geocoding solution for the Mac.
HoudahGeo 2.5 has adds full integration with Aperture 3. Upon geotagging photos with EXIF & XMP tags, HoudahGeo may notify Aperture that new metadata is available. This allows for Aperture Places to immediately refresh. This brings the same level of integration to Aperture which was previously reserved to iPhoto'09 places.
This makes HoudahGeo the ideal companion of the Places feature in both iPhoto and Aperture. It extends the photo geocoding feature set way beyond what Aperture can offer. Yet iPhoto and Aperture users retain the full benefits of the excellent Places feature. HoudahGeo adds a myriad of ways to geocode and publish photos. The latest of which is geocoding from iPhoto reference photos. HoudahGeo also brings Google Earth export to the table - a brilliant way of sharing and showing off your photos.
HoudahGeo is also able to access iPhoto, Aperture & Lightroom databases without opening the actual applications. Thus iPhoto and Aperture users may now handle the whole geocoding workflow within HoudahGeo and still find their Places database to be up-to-date.
Sudoku Duo — Dual-Player Sudoku for iPad
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of "Sudoku Duo - Dual Player Sudoku for iPad". "Sudoku Duo" is a dual player Sudoku game for the iPad. Players may collaborate or compete. A single player mode is also available.
"Sudoku Duo" is based upon the same powerful Sudoku engine as ACTSudoku for iPhone. It is thus able to provide an almost infinite number of Sudoku games categorized in 3 levels of difficulty. Additionally it is able to provide intelligent hints.
Players sit at opposite ends of the iPad and each have there own Sudoku board. They try to solve the Sudoku puzzle by using both positive (green) and negative (red) pencil notes. In collaborative mode, each value entered by one player automatically shows up on the other player's board. The game ends as soon as one player completes the puzzle. The winner is the player who committed the most correct values, made the least mistakes and used the fewer hints.
"Sudoku Duo" may help players by blocking digits which are obviously no longer available and by setting positive markers for the remaining ones. You should further narrow down the possible digits by setting negative markers.
Feature Highlights:
- Three modes: compete, collaborate, single player
- Three levels of difficulty: easy, medium, hard
- Difficulty levels are determined by techniques to master, not by number of givens
- Unlimited number of Sudoku games
- Green & red pencil notes
- Optional automatic pencil notes
- Intelligent hints with explanations
- High scores
Device Requirements:
- Apple iPad
- Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later
Pricing and Availability:
"Sudoku Duo" is priced at $3.99 (USD) and available exclusively in the Game category of Apple's App Store.
Paperless boarding passes on US flights
US airlines keep expanding their paperless boarding pass programs. At many airports you may now use ACTPrinter to present your boarding pass both at TSA checkpoints and at the gate.
American Airlines recently announced the expansion of mobile boarding passes to a total of 27 airports.
United Airlines currently supports mobile boarding passes at 13 airports. 5 more airports are expected to be added soon.
When it comes to mobile boarding passes, Continental is still the leader. The mobile boarding pass option is currently available for departures from 48 cities.
Where mobile boarding passes are not yet supported, you may still use ACTPrinter to bring along your electronic ticket for check-in.
ACTRocket 1.1 - Web search shortcuts on iPhone
With iPhone and the mobile Internet, you may easily put an end to just about any bar argument. The correct answer is always within easy reach. Whoever was wrong pays the next round.
With ACTRocket, you can now be the first to come up with the right answer. Indeed ACTRocket makes it easier than ever to search the web from your iPhone. Search results are only a few keystrokes away.
ACTRocket brings web search shortcuts to the iPhone. Many of us have grown addicted to those while using OmniWeb or Safari plug-ins like Saft, SafariStand or Glims.
What's the name of the latest Johnny Depp movie?
imdb Johnny Depp
Is that movie any good?
rt Alice in Wonderland
Screencast:
http://www.apptheater.com/video/1315/ACTRocket
ACTRocket 1.1 has since added a built-in web browser. You no longer need to jump back and forth between ACTRocket and Safari. The browser features a convenient snap-back button to instantaneously take you back to search results.
More info, FAQ & support:
ACTGratuity 2.0 - The iPhone tip calculator
ACTGratuity may just be another iPhone tip calculator, but this one has ambition. Not only does ACTGratuity strive to be the most convenient tip calculator, it also aims to be the best looking one.
ACTGratuity has a long history which goes back to the day the iTunes App Store first opened its doors. Today ACTGratuity is back to reclaim his throne.
Version 2 sports an all new interface and looks so cute you can't resist. Most importantly though, ACTGratuity is easy to use and loaded with all the features you need.
Screencast:
http://www.apptheater.com/video/1308/ACTGratuity-20
More info, FAQ & support:
Geocoding photos using iPhone
HoudahGeo has traditionally offered several methods of geocoding photos: automatic, manual, bookmark,…. HoudahGeo 2.4 adds a new method: geocode from reference photos.
The most convenient method of geocoding usually is automatic geocoding using a track log. Track logs are created by GPS devices which periodically record current position and time. HoudahGeo will match up times in the track log with the timestamps on the photos. iPhone 3G users may use applications like Trails or GPSRecorder to turn their iPhone into a track recorder.
There are however situations where one would like to have more precise control over the geotags. There are also situations where iPhone track logging is not practical. HoudahGeo 2.4 now offers an alternative to continuous track logging: gap fill geocoding. Photographers may now attach all photos form a shoot to a single location, rather than having the photos track minute movements and GPS precision flukes.
The basic idea behind this new technique is pretty simple. Your iPhone creates geocoded photos. However the quality of those photos is low. Your digital camera is able to take excellent pictures. But it lacks a GPS chip. Gap fill geocoding will match up geocoded photos with your iPhone with photos taken around the same time using your real camera. It can thus assume both were taken at the same location.
All you need to do, is use your iPhone to take a picture at each location where you are shooting using your regular camera. All that is needed, is a random snapshot taken shortly before or after making the photos you want to be geocoded.
Back at your computer you load both the images from your camera and those from your iPhone into a HoudahGeo project. The images from your camera will be listed in red: they lack geotags. Those from your iPhone will show geotags.
Now select "Geocode from Reference Photos…" from the "Geocode" menu. HoudahGeo will work its magic to geocode the photos from your camera to the locations of nearby iPhone photos.
Indie+Relief: A day's sales for Haiti
Indie+Relief is a gathering of Mac & iPhone developers who are pledging to donate their sales on Wednesday January 20, 2010 to Haitian relief charities.
All proceeds from the sales of HoudahGeo, HoudahSpot, ACTCurrency, ACTPrinter and ACTSudoku made on January 20 will be donated to the Luxembourg branch of Doctors without Borders: Médecins sans Frontières.
Kudos to Justin Williams and Garrett Murray for making this happen!
ScreenCastsOnline Special Offer
ScreenCastsOnline: "For every new member joining in January 2010, a free copy of HoudahSpot, the superb utility that is the front end most Spotlight users don't know they're missing!
This superb utility supercharges your searching in Spotlight and has a retail value of $30 and is included with your ScreenCastsOnline membership, absolutely free!"
Shell operations using a spreadsheet
Diehard Unix gurus are going to be shocked to see Excel and the Unix shell mentioned in the same breath. Yet this can prove a very powerful combination for the average user. Unix gurus should read on, too. Say you want to remove a bunch of files from different locations in your file system, for instance, temporary files. The Unix way of doing things would be:
find . -name "*~" -exec rm {} \;
We are doing nothing special here: find by name and then remove. Yet this bit of shell may be above the skill or the courage of many Mac users. In real life, you may want to do more complex searches (by modification date, in multiple locations, file type, ...), or do more complex operations (copy, rename, ...). You will quickly find yourself in need of a full-blown shell script which loops over the results from mdfind. Well, there is an easier solution involving HoudahSpot and your favorite spreadsheet (Numbers, Excel,...).
First, use HoudahSpot to formulate a query matching your files. You may create arbitrarily complex searches by combining criteria using boolean operators. You may search several locations at once, yet exclude others. Once you are satisfied with the result, configure HoudahSpot to show the file path column for the result list. (Control-click on the column headers in the results area, and select File Path from the pop-up menu.)
Next, select the desired results from the list and hit Command-C (copy). In your spreadsheet application, paste the file paths into column B (or any column but the first). You may have to drop excess columns (file name, modification date, ...). You may also find a use for such a column in some special situations.
In the first cell of column A, enter your command. E.g. rm for remove. Instruct the spreadsheet application to "fill down" column A.
Now copy all data rows from columns A and B. If you were to paste the result into Terminal.app, you would be asking the shell to remove all the files matching your HoudahSpot search. Nothing special: you could have gotten the same result using HoudahSpot alone.
So now we factor in the text editing capabilities of the spreadsheet app. For instance, change all .jpg extensions to .jpeg extensions. For this we copy column B to column C and use Find & Replace to replace .jpg with .jpeg in column C. In column A we fill down with the mv string: the move command. Now, if we copy columns A, B and C to Terminal.app, we would rename a batch of files without having to write a loop.
Likewise we could use other columns from HoudahSpot -- like modification date, image resolution, etc. -- in column C to create dynamic file names.
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