blendables

Updated Blendables Builds

kurt.brockett — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:33:00 GMT

We launched the new products last week and wanted to turn out a quick new set of builds to address some oddities reported by current customers. The new builds can be found here:

Essentials 1.1 Mix: http://blendables.com/files/folders/installer/entry593.aspx

Layout 1.0 Mix: http://blendables.com/files/folders/layout_installer/entry595.aspx

3D 1.0 Mix: http://blendables.com/files/folders/3d_installer/entry594.aspx

The specific issues addressed were:

- Fixed VS2008 Design Surface error noted here: http://blendables.com/forums/t/275.aspx
- Fix for BlendablesViewer.exe crash when using a Zune Desktop Theme on Windows XP.
- AutoStretchStackPanel Sample error.
- Fixed a bug reported with NUnit automated testing framework.

Blendables Essentials Mix 1.1, Layout Mix 1.0 and 3D Mix 1.0 Now Available

kurt.brockett — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:40:00 GMT

After a few long weeks of final testing we have pulled back the curtain on our latest product offerings. In addition to shipping 2 new and 1 updated product we have also revamped portions of blendables.com to help you manage your product keys. Yes that's right, Product Keys, not Activation Keys. We hope you enjoy the new changes and we look forward to continuing to provide great support for all of our existing and hopefully our group of new customers.

Updates

All Products now work on a no activation model. You will be given a unique product key for each licensed purchased which will be used to install and use the product.
1 Year of Support and Updates now included
MyLicenses Tab - This new page will be active once you have purchased a license. You can reassign licenses to different individuals to ensure they have proper access to the customer support forum.
All Products now $395 per developer license.
New Mixer Sample Viewer application with new samples to get you started utilizing all of the Blendables Products

Blendables Essentials Mix 1.1 - http://blendables.com/products/productsEmix.aspx

Blendables Layout Mix 1.0 - http://blendables.com/products/productsLayoutmix.aspx

Blendables 3D Mix 1.0 - http://blendables.com/products/products3Dmix.aspx

We look forward to rolling out additional information in the forum of video tutorials and additional samples/documentation in the coming weeks.

Thanks all,

The Blendables Team

EvalBinding Examples from Slow Train Software

kurt.brockett — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:33:00 GMT

It's always great to see our customers sharing tips and tricks on using blendables. Recently one of our customers, Slow Train Software, wrote up a few EvalBinding syntax examples that I thought other customers might like to check out. You can check them out here:

http://blog.slowtrain.ie/?p=6

Kurt

New Blendables Labs Launched

kurt.brockett — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:27:00 GMT

This morning we're happy to announce new updates to www.blendables.com/labs. In addition to our new river style layout of projects we've also posted a new utility called "Desklighter"

Desklighter is a windows utility that can convert Silverlight applications into standalone desktop applications. The output from Desklighter is a single executable file that can display the Silverlight content on windows desktops without requiring a hosting server or a browser. Desklighter enables users to carry a Silverlight application off the web to wherever they need it.

You can read more about Desklighter here: http://blendables.com/labs/Desklighter/Default.aspx and as always if you have any questions or feedback please let us know in the Labs Forum group: http://blendables.com/forums/45.aspx

Enjoy and check back often for new and fun side projects on Blendables Labs!

Kurt

August CTPs - We're so close

kurt.brockett — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:16:00 GMT

July CTPs run out of gas tonight so we dropped a couple new builds.

Layout Mix August CTP: http://blendables.com/files/folders/layout_ctp/entry455.aspx

3D Mix August CTP: http://blendables.com/files/folders/3d_ctp/entry456.aspx

These should be identical to the July CTP builds with just an updated expireation date of September 30, 2008.

We're extremely close to finishing up the next two products and will also be announcing some updates to the product line as a whole. I can't share the exact details just yet but it should make a lot of current and new customers happy.

Thanks for being blendables customers, fans, skeptics, etc and for coming along with us as we build out these exciting new products.

Kurt

New July CTPs posted for Layout and 3D Mix

kurt.brockett — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:12:00 GMT

The expiration for the existing CTPs is set to expire Friday, June 13, 2008.

We decided to take a snapshot in our current developement and release two new July CTPs.

Layout Mix July CTP: http://blendables.com/files/folders/layout_ctp/entry455.aspx

3D Mix July CTP: http://blendables.com/files/folders/3d_ctp/entry456.aspx

There were some property changes and thus we also reposted all the samples to ensure they work properly with the July CTPs. We are working on a list of changes as well as some new samples to demonstrate new features. You can expect to see some of those soon.

Enjoy and as always please post to the forurms if you have ANY questions. You can also email us at support@blendables.com if there are any questions that can't be posted.

Kurt

Podder Skinning Competition

kurt.brockett — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:05:00 GMT

Josh Smith, creator of Podder, the WPF podcast player app, has announced a Podder Skinning Competition. To help draw attention to the contest and to support the WPF community we have up'd the ante a bit by providing a free copy of blendables essentials mix to the winner.

Contest Page: http://joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com/podder-skinning-competition/

Blog Post from Josh on Blendables: http://joshsmithonwpf.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/identitymine-sweetens-the-pot/

Good luck to all that enter!

The blendables team

New Features in the May CTP Release of the Layout Mix

JonathanRuss — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:05:00 GMT

Here's a little deeper rundown on the new features in the Layout Mix (May CTP Release).

The Layout mix now includes full support for enter and exit animations when children are added to or removed from an animation panel. The March CTP had a number of hooks for the enter and exit animations, but they were not yet implemented. These new animations are in addition to the existing support for layout animations and switch animations (which come into play when the panel is used within the Layouts collection of a SwitchPanel).

The May CTP also introduces a couple of new animation panels: Carousel and Grid. Like all animation panels, these new panels can be used as layouts within a SwitchPanel or they can serve as standalone panels.

The new Grid panel behaves just like the native WPF Grid but it adds all of the goodness that is provided by the AnimationPanel base class. This includes animated repositioning of the grid's children and support for enter and exit animations when children are added or removed from the panel.

The new Carousel panel is a 2D panel that arranges its children in an elliptical layout. By default, the panel will scale its children and set their z-index values to create a 2D layout that has the appearance of a 3D carousel. For greater control, you may opt out of this automatic scaling and ordering behavior and control the scale and z-indices via bindings to attached properties on the children. Here is a sample demonstrating how the Carousel panel can be used as an items host for a ListBox.

Finally, the May CTP introduces a new "SwitchTemplate" concept to augment the SwitchPanel class. Just to recap the purpose of SwitchPanel a bit... SwitchPanel is all about layout-to-layout animations in WPF. The active layout of a SwitchPanel can be set to any AnimationPanel. Transitions between layouts are animated using an iterative animator that can be specified on the SwitchPresenter or on individual animation panels within the Layouts collection.

The animator that is used to perform switch animations (or for enter, exit, or layout animations in an animation panel) can be a custom class that provides frame-based or time-based updates. It can also be any one of the included animators that ship as part of the Blendables library. These existing animators are built upon the Penner animation equations.

Using the new SwitchTemplate concept that is introduced in the May CTP, you can now place SwitchPresenter elements anywhere within the element subtree of a SwitchPanel. When the active layout of the owning SwitchPanel changes, the template of the SwitchPresenter elements will automatically be updated to the SwitchTemplate associated with the new layout. Not only will this result in a template change, but any items within the new template that can be mapped to items within the old template (because they share the same SwitchTemplate.ID attached property value) will automatically animate to their new positions. This subelement animation will occur using the same animator that is used for switch animations in the SwitchPanel.

Stay tuned for samples demonstrating all of these cool new features. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

Cheers!
-Jonathan

New CTPs - Get em while they're hot

kurt.brockett — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:56:00 GMT

Tonight sometime your March CTPs for the Layout and 3D mix are set to expire. Good news though. We have new CTPs for your CTPing pleasure.

Report for the Layout Mix:

New May CTP Uploaded (expiration June 13) - http://blendables.com/files/folders/layout_ctp/entry455.aspx
Enter and Exit Animations for both AnimationPanel and SwitchPanel
SwitchTemplate Support for SwitchPanel
New Carousel panel as AnimationPanel
New Grid as AnimationPanel
We'll have samples posted shortly.

Report for the 3D Mix:

New May CTP Uploaded (expiration June 13, 2008) - http://blendables.com/files/folders/3d_ctp/entry456.aspx
No breaking changes to report.

As always please let us know if you have any questions in the support forums.

Thanks all!

Kurt

All Aboard for The Code Trip

kurt.brockett — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:56:00 GMT

Earlier this week IdentityMine and the blendables team jumped at the opportunity to help support 'The Code Trip', Microsoft's ongoing bus tour of the Western US. At each stop starting in Irvine, CA the blendables crew has added blendables essentials mix as prize giveaways.

I'll be driving down to San Luis Obispo, CA this upcoming Monday, March 31 to join up with the tour. I'll be riding with the crew up to Santa Cruz and will be at the Mountain View and San Franciso events as well. If you can make it out be sure to track me down.

You can find more info about the trip here:

Events: http://thecodetrip.com/1/events

Travel Log: http://thecodetrip.com/1/blog

Hope to see you on the road!

- Kurt

New Samples and great feedback!

kurt.brockett — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:15:00 GMT

Really want to thank the community for downloading and checking out our latest offerings. Since we returned from MIX we've been working like mad to get samples up which demonstrate how to use the new mixes.

You can find 5 new 3d samples here: http://blendables.com/files/folders/3d_samples/default.aspx

We have 1 large sample for the layout mix which shows the SwitchPanel infrastructure and a bunch of the individual Panels. You can find that sample and future layout mix samples here: http://blendables.com/files/folders/layout_samples/default.aspx

If you have ANY questions, comments, feedback please visit us in the forums and leave us a message:

Essentials Mix Forum: http://blendables.com/forums/8.aspx

3D Mix Forum: http://blendables.com/forums/36.aspx

Layout Mix Forum: http://blendables.com/forums/35.aspx

Thanks all!

Kurt

2 New Products - Blendables 3D Mix and Blendables Layout Mix

kurt.brockett — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:38:00 GMT

One of the main reasons for relaunching the new blendables.com was to provide a new, updated home for multiple products. I'm happy to announce that we have 2 new products in the blendables family.

Right now we just have the CTP installers out but you should start seeing samples make their way onto the site over the next few weeks.

Read more about each of the products here:

Blendables 3D Mix

Blendables Layout Mix

Thanks all and we look forward to your feedback. Please be sure to jump in and add to the forums if you have any questions/requests.

-Kurt

Be right back....

kurt.brockett — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:12:00 GMT

Don't fret. We know the site is down and no it has not been compromised by rogue h4x0rz. Check back later today for the new hotness.

who needs stickers when you have spray paint?

kurt.brockett — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:35:00 GMT

Over the next few months I'll be participating in a few events including MIX08, SXSWi and Microsoft's The Code Trip bus tour. I looked into getting my laptop laser etched but from what I've seen on the web, etching the Thinkpads don't look as good as the MacBooks. I decided on paint and had a local sign shop cut out a stencil for me from an .ai file I provided to them. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and adds a little more fun to my rig than a plain black top.

blendables laptop on flickr

MIX08 is near. See the IdentityMine Sessions.

kurt.brockett — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:05:00 GMT

As part of our yearly pilgramage to MIX08 we usually have a few opportunities to talk about the exciting things going on at IdentityMine. 2008 is no exception. This year we have 3 sessions we're participating in. One is our own session and we are participating on two panels. Information on on the sessions can be found below.

Nerd + Art: Ten Code Snippets to Empower Your Inner Artist

Friday, March 7 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM, Lando 4201

Speaker(s): Nathan Dunlap (Identity Mine), Robby Ingebretsen (Identity Mine)

Session Type: Breakout

Learn how to increase what a designer can do with Windows Presentation Foundation and Microsoft Silverlight 2 using our designer's code "toolbox"-10 simple concepts that will give you an edge when making your best ideas a reality. We share the code, teach you how to use it and introduce the concepts behind it.

Making it Simple: Designer/Developer Workflow

Wednesday, March 5 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM, Delfino 4001

Speaker(s): Marcelo Marer (Avenue A Razorfish), Ken Azuma (Second Factory), Robby Ingebretsen (Identity Mine), Ryan Lane (Wunderman), Mark Ligameri (frog design), Christian Schormann (MODERATOR), Robert Tuttle (frog design)

Session Type: Panel

How do you combine a designer's vision with the requirements of productive software? Left brain/Right brain workflow is a sophisticated problem that impacts us all but has no easy answers. Industry experts will share their learnings and invite you to join in on a lively discussion about the merits and costs of different approaches.

Real World Design: Working with Silverlight and WPF in the Design Studio

Thursday, March 6 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM, Delfino 4001

Speaker(s): Beau Ambur (Metalliq), Chip Aubry (Tribal), Chris Bernard (MODERATOR), Nathan Dunlap (Identity Mine), Rich Weston (Neudesic)

Audience(s): Creative, Technical

Session Type: Panel

Silverlight and WPF represent a new way for designers and developers work together. But what happens in a professional practice that's focused more on employing designers than developers and using Macs versus PCs for much of their daily design work? Join us as we find out how practitioners from companies like Tribal, Projekt202, Metaliq and Identity Mine discuss the learning curves and the workflow that they adapted with their visual designers and rich interactive developers to get up to speed with Expression Studio, XAML and Silverlight. You'll hear the unvarnished truth about the challenges and rewards of how Silverlight is enabling the digital design practice.