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As the initiator and architect of the Pictomio software I thought I knew quite a lot about software development but I have to admit that I had no idea of the dynamics that a free photo viewer software could unleash.
Everytime I read a blog that mentions Pictomio in one sentence together with one of the major multi-billion dollar players (e.g. Vista Photo Gallery, Picasa, Lightroom or Aperture) it is for me a little piece of a dream becoming real. It is kind of a prove that the net is still free and the universal domination plans of Googles and Microsofties fail to limit the market penetration of free and creative new products.
I want to thank everybody who wrote blog entries, reviews or spread the news about Pictomio in some way else! You give us the motivation and the power to continue our development effort and we will try to bring you the best free digital asset management software that we can create in return. Please don't stop spreading the word!
Of course we do not exclusively listen to positive feedback. For example a lot of voices out there complain that some must-have features are missing in Pictomio. The most frequently requested features are image editing, support for RAW file formats, IPTC-support, photo website uploaders, export features, different skins etc. As you can imagine I am unhappy when I read in a user's comment that he or she has uninstalled Pm because it did not provide a particular function the user was looking for. Shortly after asking myself whether it was the right decision to put so much priority on the user-interface I realize that we surely will be able to offer the requested functionality in the future and we never had got such a overwhelmin response from the community with a dusty grey win95-look photo manager.
Even if the process of software development with our limited set or resources seems indefinitely slow measured in internet-time, let me assure you that we are working full steam ahead on the next version.
I also want to take the chance to drop some lines to potential investors (if you are not Adobe, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, a big photo equipment manufacturer you may safely skip this section): Until end of the year we will probably decide whether to develop a next generation version of Pictomio as an open community project. This means the time-window to contact us is closing - once significant parts of Pm start living in community-space they cannot be "bought" anymore. Fact is that we have an excellent developer team, a clear vision and an incredible market. Fact is also that NON of the big players (to name them: Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Corel, ACDSee etc.) currently has the perfect end-consumer photo management solution. Provided you have the monetary resources it is your chance to leverage my vision and the brain-power of the Pictomio DevTeam for your brand and position in the digital lifestyle market. Of course most of the mainsteam features have to remain free and we want to continue our way to create a "cutting-edge next-generation" software... but since you are all benefactors (*twinkle* to data-octopussy Google) this will surely not be your major concern... 
OK - now since all major poker-players had the chance to place their bets back to the more realistic future of Pictomio: How are we going to finance the project in ongoing "David against Goliath" mode?
Of course first of all David has to survive to win the fight: This means that not all new features of Pictomio can be offered for free. We will switch to a shareware mode on a per module/feature basis. End of this week we will provide you with a technology preview version of such a shareware feature which will be offered together with some sort of geeky hardware device every photographers needs  . And the best about it is that we promise to use at least half of the revenue of this and comparable future shareware products to add new functions to the free version of Pm (the other 50% will be eaen up for marketing and development of the pay-feature itself).
Special thanks to the following blog authors:
English:
German:
And something that is going to make you laugh. Chris Pirillo mentioned Pictomio in one of his recent live web-casts:
Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help
And of course special THANKS for everybody translating and testing Pm!
Andreas
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Added features
- New languages: Ukrainian, Slovak, Romanian, Chinese
- Import dialog file extension filter now knows more formats (video + audio)
- It's now possible to locate library files in file system via context menu
- Some new default categories have been added
- Changed default parameters for Explode transition
- Renamed 'Dummy' transition to 'Cut'
Bug fixes
- Slideshow: display error in page turn transition
- Keyboard shortcuts 1,2,3,4 now work for switching Thumbnails, Filmstrip, Single Image and Carrousel
- Volume control does not work linear within complete range
- File dialog: Items are not listed alphabetically
- Alt + F4 closes dialog box but Pictomio cannot be operated anymore afterwards
- EXIF tags are not displayed in the set language but in English
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After a period of intensive bug fixing and optimization we are proud to present today the final release of Pictomio 1.0. As promised this version is still freeware and you can download it and organize your photos, create fancy slide shows or just view your photos with it. Though we fixed a lot of bugs and improved the performace, there might be still a few flaws and for sure there are a lot of features you'd like us to add (also we have a lot of new features in mind). Therefore we are still happy to receive your comments, suggestions and bug reports. The best way to let us know is to post them in the forum under the appropriate topic.
Though the release of this final version is of course an important step for Pictomio and the development team, this is not the end of the story. So be sure to stay tuned and watch out for new versions, updates and even new exciting products. We will use this newsletter to inform you about every major issue related to Pictomio. Please feel free to also subsribe to the RSS feed in our blog where we announce version updates and patches.
Thank you for your support so far and we hope you enjoy Pictomio
Your Pictomio Team
Optimizations + additional features
- Improved and renamed transition 'Burn' (now 'Dissolve')
- Added option 'Show offline files' to file attributes filter that toggles the display of files on detached media
- Double click on thumbnail in slide show editor now appends the picture to current slide show
Bug fixes
- Crash when changing filter setting
- Blocking in carrousel while indexing a folder
- File dialogs can be confirmed with enter key now
- Context menu in TreeView offers 'Update database' and 'Rename' for all library folders
- Last displayed image is still shown after changing to a folder with no pictures
- Folder icons are not displayed sometimes in file and import dialog
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Today we released the Release Candidate for the final version of Pictomio. Hopefully next week we will release the final version. Any bug reports or comments about this release are (as always) welcome.
Optimizations + additional features
- Startup time speedup
- Improved drawing speed by optimizing draw calls to graphic adapter
- Added page turn transition for slide show
- Support for Russian (thanks to Viktoriya Kolesnikova and Alex Roschenko)
Bug fixes
- Stabilized slide show functionality
- Crash and wrong lighting after device lost (workstation lock)
- Dragging albums crashes
- Crash when trying to print some high resolution images
- Deadlock while indexing and changing folders
- High memory consumption for big slide shows
- New album/category does not work
- Some texts show cut letters in some fonts (Vista)
- Many minor bugs
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During the review process for some beta bugs we recognized that in particular our thumbnail image view would require a major rework if we wanted to fix the defects sustainable. In this situation I made the decision to change greater amounts of our code in order to allow a notably higher rendering speed and more visual effects. Unfortunately this means now for our users that we will not be able to release a final version of Pm 1.0 by end of March.
I hope we can bring you a fresh style of presentation that you will feel was worth the effort and release-delay. As soon as our new implementation reaches a presentable stage we will make it avaiable for download.
Thanks for your support and your understanding!
Andreas Köpf
Chief Developer
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Optimizations + additional features
- Added new mouse cursor for skimming
- First application start faster because binary model files (PMSF) are compiled by installer now
- Removed vertex shader check for software vertex processing graphic cards (for example Intel 945 GM)
Bug fixes
- Crash when accessing menus
- Checkboxes show wrong check states
- Low resolution images in slideshow
- Files that are moved and renamed don’t keep their properties (color mark, tags, rating, etc.)
- Floppy access when starting the application
- High latency when dragging many files over file browser tree items
- Crash when setting rating for directory (context menu)
- Can start quick slideshow when only videos are available
- Non-media files don’t show correct symbol in thumbnails view
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Optimizations + additional features
- Improved loading speed and overal performance by changing the texture allocation behaviour
- Ability to use VSync (will reduce tearing effects when animating, like in the carrousel mode)
- Support of graphic cards without hardware vertex processing capabilities (for example some mobile graphic chips)
Bug fixes
- Crash on exit after using fullscreen slideshow
- Crash when solving a device lost problem while playing a video
- Crash when switching between viewmodes while playing a video
- Crash when exiting the application while decoding an image
- Slides in the slideshow cannot be moved
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