Some dudette in pyjamas informed me of the upcoming testing day this sunday (the 25th) for the new build of the SharpE shell. The idea is that people download the app, test it and report what they think or find in the IRC channel.

“You've been waiting for new, shiny playthings and we have been toiling behind the scenes to make that happen. Finally we have a Developer Preview for you! Want some Testing Day action? Here's the scoop:

Sunday, March 25 from 1200-2400 GMT (or UTC for you kinky devils out there)

irc.freenode.net

#SharpE

[…] Come on out! We're excited to see what you think and you get to walk away from it with TD1, which looks pretty nice, we think. (that's an updated Vista screenshot, by the way).

On Testing Day we will have a wiki page up dedicated to the day, with a download link included. The purpose of Testing Day is to get as many people into the channel as possible at one time, testing the release. It will be a bug-finding free-for all, as well as an impromptu discussion and educational session. Stay as long as you like, it will be a marvelous frenzy of activity.

We'd like to see how many people we're looking at, so if you're going to attend, please make a comment on this post. Hope to see you there!”

I just found out this week that I have an exam next week, so count me out. But if you have an interest in shells and would like to help mangle this one, hop on over and give 'em a hand the 25th. || craeonics | comments (11)

And straight out of Lighttek's oven, by means of customize, a new release of their skinnable shell enhancer cq. ‘desktop replacement’, Talisman Desktop 2.99.

“The basic sphere of application of "Talisman" is the creation of custom-made interfaces for home and office computers. But the program can be used also as:

• Presentation interface for Exhibitions, Shows, Advertisement.

• Protected interfaces for Game Clubs, Information Kiosks, Museums, Libraries, Hotels, Schools, Universities and other organizations.

• HTPC (Home Theater PC) and Media Center interfaces.

• CarPC interfaces.

• Tablet PC interfaces.

The main new features of Talisman 2.99:

• Windows Vista support.

• New "Theme Manager 3.0 beta", including: Theme Manager, Theme Installer, Theme Builder, Shape Builder, Object Collector.

• New TSHAPE 3.0 format for alpha-blended Shape objects.

• New internal commands.

• Antialiased arrows in AClock object.

• New "Create new object" dialog window for dragging file procedure.

• Many other new functions and commands.”

Talisman is shareware ($25) and comes as a 7.6 meg, 30-day trial download. || craeonics | comments

Rainy has released a new beta build of his skinnable calendar application, Rainlendar. It seems to consist mainly of bug fixes.

“[2.1 Build 35] - 18 Mar 2007

• Status and due date were missing in Outlook's tasks. Fixed.

• Changed the snooze and dismiss buttons to icons so that it's not necessary to translate them.

• Added title to all windows.

• Images and buttons can have tooltips.

• EventListHeaderSeparation was handled incorrectly in the old ini-files. Fixed.

• Offline files for network calendars got broken in b34. Fixed.

• The backup path can be changed with a command line argument.

• Reading categories from the skin is now optional (Options->Advanced->Show categories from the skin)

• Fixed scrollbar positioning when items are removed from the lists.

• New option: Options->Advanced->Keep alarm always on top

• Tooltip show delay is now configurable (Options->Advanced->Tooltip show delay).

• Added support for single and right click actions to the tray icon. Note that right clicks will disable the context menu.

• The traytip is shown always inside the screen area.

• Fixed window positioning problem with negative coordinates and the On Desktop feature enabled.”

The man stresses that this is a beta build, so expect some things not working. Beta also means that you give Rainy some feedback if you find something. || craeonics | comments

After three years of drought, the new FF was finally released on these shores a couple of weeks ago. So that's where I've been hiding instead of taking care of Tek.

Back on topic though, just about the only window skinner on the market, so in more ways than one ahead of the competition: WindowBlinds 5.5, which was released last week.

“WindowBlinds 5.5 is a major update in that it is the first program to allow users to change the look and feel of Windows Vista. Thanks to a new technology called "SmartSkinning", WindowBlinds allows skins created for Windows XP to be used to skin Windows Vista. WindowBlinds 5.5 then transforms the skin, on-the-fly, to conform to the new user interface conventions of Windows Vista to give it a distinctly Windows Vista look and feel. Users of .msstyles files on Windows XP can use SkinStudio to convert their favorite .msstyles to WindowBlinds 5.5 to run natively on Windows Vista.

For Windows Vista users, WindowBlinds 5.5 makes use of the new hardware accelerated Desktop Window Manager (DWM) to ensure the highest level of performance. WindowBlinds 5.5 also skins the client controls of "non theme aware" programs on both Windows XP and Windows Vista so that users get a consistent look and feel across all their applications.”

Yeah, but what about us mere mortal XP users? I see the old adage ‘stagnancy yields regression’ is invoked here. But not surprisingly, for the only competitor WindowBlinds has these days is Windows' native theme system. So if there's a new OS out, StarDock can do little but progress.

Hence the following:

“Stardock has also begun work on WindowBlinds 6 which will provide a host of native features to Windows Vista such as custom blur effects, Sidebar skinning, glass toolbar skinning, and some new features that Stardock is keeping under wraps.”

Also check out froggles' news post on customize, which offers something quite different from the usual commercial blabber. || craeonics | comments (5)