The beta period has gone extremely well and I’ve received some great feedback. Still a bunch to do on the software and firmware side of things, but all in all, it went well enough to do the second build.

Unfortunately, I’m almost out of inventory. At this rate, I might have a week left. I’ve put in an order, but it will take about a month to receive fresh inventory, leaving me about 3 weeks with nothing. What this will mean, I don’t know, but it will give me some good time to improve the software and firmware without spending most of the day fulfilling orders and doing support. I’ll try to keep this as a positive…

I’ve updated the 64 bit linux binaries, although you can download the 32 bit deb file and install it just fine on a 64 bit OS.

The reason this would work is because I’ve temporarily given up on static linking. I don’t know why, but for some reason, the static compile of the QT GUI was horribly slow, and created artifacts on the screen. I eventually compiled the libraries again with a bunch more options enabled and got the application to run without the artifacts, but it was still extremely slow. I felt it was not acceptable in the standard of quality I want to set. So I bit the bullet and compiled dynamically adding all the necessary dependencies.

The font also doesn’t look funny in the GUI anymore, so overall, I may just leave it like this. I spent far too much time compiling the QT libraries, and I’ve got more important things to do.

Here is our list of goals:

1. Finish filing patent on proprietary algorithm powering flirc.

2. New version of GUI with more programming views

3. Update video with new GUI on home page.

4. Documentation and Help Section of the Site

5. Firmware wake from suspend support

6. Firmware repeat key detects

Here are a list of changes. An update will come shortly after the weekend with the previously mentioned controller views i talked about in the last blog post. The 64 bit debian file still needs to get compiled and updated, but that should be posted soon. Although there is no reason the 32bit wouldn’t work. Thanks again to everyone who gave feedback.

Fixed—-

windows usb disconnect icon issue

text field in keyboard controller now shows modifiers

cleaned up menu items

border issues in different window views

cleaned up text

linux fonts

linux performance issues

New—-

Limiting GUI to only run one instance

background image

controllers menu

initial support menu under help

check for upgrades menu item (not deployed)

I very special thank you to all those that have purchased and provided invaluable feedback. I’m extremely grateful for all the support and wonderful comments that I’ve received.

We’re working extremely hard on the next release which will have a lot of cleanup and include a lot of the customer feedback.

Something that is in our current software, not reflected in the video on our homepage, is an advanced programming view. Check out the image below.

Along with the default minimalistic window, there is this advanced mode which will allow more custom programming. Want to have an application launcher linked with ctrl+F4? This is easily done on our current release. We will be making this a bit more obvious while cleaning up the menu’s and removing some of the daunting advanced features.

Some customer’s have mentioned that it has been painful trying to find out which keyboard shortcuts exist in XBMC. They do the research, open up our advanced window, and pair those keys. Chris (scofie?) had a great idea and said, why not have a window with XBMC, WMCE, and Boxee shortcuts. Hit the button, and pair it with a key. Bloody brilliant, so that’s going to make it’s way into the next release as well. I’ve contacted Brian Tom, our amazing designer, who is accommodating his busy schedule to do the design. If he can’t get it to us sooner than a week, I’ll make two updates.

Another thing I’m actively investigating is: ‘what the hell is wrong with our linux build’. I spent all this time building a static image for easy distribution and the performance is not only super slow, but there are artifacts all over the advanced window mode. A number of customers noticed it and I’ve spent days re-compiling the QT libraries with different configure options trying to figure out why this is happening. The performance and artifacts don’t exist on the dynamic build. The QT developer community has not responded to my post either. I’ve tried different versions of QT, you name it.

If anyone has any other feedback, or suggestions, please leave them in the comments section or shoot me an email.

After this next release, we’ll start working on a new firmware release to address the interkey delay sticking that some users see when hitting buttons rapidly.

Again, thank you everyone.