Finally, Beta 1.5 is done!
 
Greetings everyone! Beta 1.5 is finally done, and I’m positive everyone will be very pleased with it. Let me show you the new features!
 
Filter Bar
 
The first new feature is the Filter Bar. It replaces the small, ugly, outdated and out of place one that used to be there…
JapanesePod101 Application Newsletter
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Download Beta 1.5
That’s all for Beta 1.5. One more thing, I’m planning to release this application on New Years, so if you have any feature requests, make them quick so they can be in the initial release!
Please tell me what you think of this newsletter, and if you need to contact me, or unsubscribe, my email is dimitri008@mac.com
You can access the Newsletter Archive here.
As you can see by the beautiful screenshots, the Filter Bar has been updated for the latest lesson categories. When you click on either Lesson or Day, they slide in with a smooth animation, and leave the same way. You can select or deselect all of them by holding down the Option key on your keyboard as you click. And If you don’t like scrolling (via the arrows at the right and left of the bar), There is a new preference that takes care of just that:
Controller
 
The next new feature is the stylish new playback Controller. This new controller give you more control than the generic QuickTime one. It gives you more information on how much of the episode has already been played, and how much is left. Additionally, you get Rewind, Fast Forward, Previous, and Next buttons. I also tweaked the Rewind and Fast Forward buttons, so when you double-click, triple-click, or click them twenty times each, they go faster and faster! (Just when you though Japanese couldn’t get faster…)
Compact View
 
The third new feature is the ability for the user to resize the window to a small size, but it still being usable at the same time. You now even have the current episode in the title of the window for you to know where you are.
Mini Site Viewer / Mini Web Browser
 
The last big new feature is in the Mini Site Viewer: You now have some spiffy controls to go about the JapanesePod101.com site, and PDF support is now finished! Whenever you view a PDF, you can Right-click / Control-click it to get PDF options, or open it in Preview, and to dismiss the PDF, click the Close PDF Button at the bottom of the window.
CAUTION: Please don’t waste any paper trying to print anything before you preview it! The Print button is VERY UNSTABLE.
Smaller Updates
 
There are a few updates that are small, but still very useful!
  1. •You can set if you watched an episode in the blue area above an episode’s transcript
  2. •The split that runs across the window now has certain areas where it “snaps”, to keep everything looking smooth
  3. •Command-R refreshes the podcast.
  4. •Certain columns in the episode list are now resizable.
  5. •Other minor bug fixes.