I write the title of this post in jest. I originally thought BT could have moved my broadband to the new house within 5 working days of me requesting it. They called today and told me it would be 5 working days after that phone call, i.e. next Wednesday, the 28th. The connection is still working in the flat, so if it holds up I’ll be moving out next Tuesday. If it dies in the meantime, I’ll move out then and improvise. How can it take so long, I ask you?!

I thought I should show off the updated version of Feeder’s iTunes preview, which now matches iTunes version 5. This will appear in Feeder 1.2.2, due for release in a week or so. Like the rest of Feeder, this is all done by drawing gradients, stroking lines, etc – no stretchy Photoshopped images here! Click the image to see a full-size version.

I’ve also given Feeder’s UI a bit of a revamp, but that could still be in progress so I’ll save it for another day. 😀

Feeder got another mention in Episode 21 of This Week in Tech – the one recorded live in the SF Apple Store. Both the mention and the whole live TWiT thing are very cool.

Like many people, I was a little aghast to see yet another interface style appear with iTunes 5, particularly one that isn’t available to everyone else and that has a few little quirks, such as the non-standard radius on the window corners and the way that the gradient starts at the top, ends at the source list then starts again below the lists. On the equaliser window, the same gradient goes from top to bottom – fair enough, but this indicates that the theme is more that just a background and (I suspect) unlikely to become available for everyone exactly as seen in iTunes should the new theme replace brushed metal.

But let’s hope it does, because many people will want to emulate the look and even the best implementations of BM appear a little scratchy next to iTunes now. Besides, the last thing we need is another interface theme in the long run. While I see the need for a device-like theme to limit the evolution of endlessly inconsistent skins, I’m no fan of brushed metal. I think it’s too heavy, too clunky, surprisingly dated and requires an incredible number of changes to standard controls to make them look good. Perhaps the best BM implementation is Safari, but even that has straight corners at the bottom of the window, which isn’t standard for BM windows where all four corners are usually rounded.

Overall, I think the new iTunes theme is a huge improvement, but that isn’t to say I’m totally enamoured with it. I spent most of yesterday being reminded of the Mac version of Windows Media Player, although looking at Windows Media Player again, it’s nothing like it (thankfully!). I also feel better about the iTunes look today, so perhaps it’s a grower. It helped after I updated Feeder’s iTunes preview (for release with 1.2.2 in a week or so) to see that looking much smarter. I wouldn’t expect BM to get replaced before Leopard, however, because of the problems that might cause with existing applications. We’ll see.

Hearing Adam Curry raving about OmniOutliner Pro lately reminds me that my business is almost entirely run using that app. Every feature of each release of my applications, past, present and future can be found in an outline, along with time estimates, notes, link to specifications, etc.

OmniOutliner is perfect for this, not only because you can check each feature off once it’s done and drag them around as necessary, but also because it can show calculated summaries of project-plan style durations (such as 1d, 2h) without having to fiddle with dependancies, dates, etc.

I’ve also used the dynamic HTML export feature to put Feeder’s release notes online when there are so many changes that a collapsable outline makes sense. I also use it to hammer out testing errors, make lists of things that need doing, and sometimes just to organize the scattered thoughts in my brain. I don’t tend to use the new fancy features all that much but it’s good to know they’re there.

The only things I don’t like about OmniOutliner 3 are the application and document icons, but those are easily fixed. I’ve yet to decide whether I like, or can even understand, the latest version of another one of my favourite applications, OmniGraffle, not that I use it much these days.