Other Sites

Press release edited by Applelinks senior editor Kirk Hiner

FotoMagico 2 has entered the Public Beta testing phase. FotoMagico 2 represents a significant step forward by introducing high resolution, standalone slideshow players that can be shared with people who do not have a license for FotoMagico. In order to test this new capability thoroughly, FotoMagico 2 is now available as a public beta with a final release planned for March, 2007.

FotoMagico, winner of the Apple Design Award 2006 - Best Mac OS X User Experience Runner-up, is a presentation tool for photographers. It is easy to use and produces phantastic slideshows that makes the audience want for more. As Derrick Story, co-author of iPhoto: The Missing Manual and host of The Digital Story put it, "FotoMagico makes the kind of slideshows that make Ken Burns envious."

FotoMagico 2 will introduce standalone slideshow players. With them, photographers can share their slideshows in high resolution (much better than any video) with people who do not have licensed FotoMagico on their Macs. The standalone player offers the same playback quality as the full version of FotoMagico. Standalone slideshows play as soon as they are opened and can be made to expire after a certain time or after having been played a certain number of times.

Another popular format for distributing slideshows is screensavers. FotoMagico 2 lets you export your slideshow as a screensaver. Again because the screensaver uses the FotoMagico rendering engine, the file size of the screensaver can be kept low even for long slideshows with a lot of movement and high resolution images. With this, FotoMagico opens a new advertising and distribution channel for digital photographers.

A Watermark is a visible logo superimposed on the slideshow. Photographers can use this to brand their slideshows by displaying their logo or website address or phone number or whatever they like. In connection with the standalone player, this is a powerful advertising instrument.

Boinx FotoMagico 2 Public Beta is now available for download as a Universal Application. It requires a special time-limited license key which can be requested at the website free of charge. Pricing and update policy have not been determined yet. The final release is planned for march 2007, subject to beta test results.