We’ve just released a new update for Smartlaunch. It contains a lot of bug fixes and a few new features. The most notable being the ability to have 8 users logged into the same console, up from the previous maximum of 4.

For a list of all changes and improvements take a look at the changelog here:

http://bugs.smartlaunch.net/changelog_page.php

As you might have noticed our website and authorization server is down at the moment. Why that is, we’re not sure, but the fault lies host side and unfortunately our host is unavailable for support until Tuesday because of the Easter Holiday keeping everything closed here in Denmark.

Obviously this is completely unacceptable and we will be changing hosts because of this, but until Tuesday our hands are sadly tied

In the meantime however you should still be able to run Smartlaunch with all your licenses intact. All you need to do is click on “Continue trial” when you start up the server and it says you have x days to authorize or you will revert to 3 licenses.

Our office is closed from December 23 to December 27 where we will be unable to answer your support tickets and phone calls.

It comes as no surprise to anyone who’s followed the blog and forum that Smartlaunch 5.0 has been in development for a couple of years now. And while we haven’t officially announced a release date, we have speculated and mentioned possible release dates here and there that unfortunately have been exceeded every time. This is obviously a fault of ours and in hindsight we shouldn’t have mentioned any release date before it was final.

So where are we now?

We’ve put Smartlaunch 5.0 on hold.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s been in development for a couple of years and now you’re scrapping it!? No, we’re not scrapping SL5, but we have to be honest – it’s not coming along like we wanted. We wanted to release version 5 as a successor to version 4.1. More stable, more features and just generally better all-round.

However, we’ve taken a long hard look at the project and have come to the conclusion that this would not be the case. At least not if we release any time soon. There’s a lot of the 4.1 features in SL5 now, but there’s still a lot missing, and let’s be honest – with a new codebase built from the ground up, there’s bound to be a lot of bugs in the beginning. And probably a lot of bugs that are not in version 4.1 right now. And we don’t want to release a new version that’s inferior to the current version – even if it’s free for existing customers. That would just be wrong.

The future

So we’ve put the current version 5.0 on hold, but like I said, we’re not scrapping it. Instead, we’re re-thinking our strategy and will be focusing on other aspects of Smartlaunch that have been lacking for a while.

And as for the new SL5 skin from the design contest – well that may have a role to play yet. Stay tuned

We received a lot of great designs but ultimately we had to choose just one. You can see the winning entry on our website here: http://www.smartlaunch.net/SL5DesignContest/

I just wanted to let you all know about the design contest that we have launched over at http://smartlaunch.net/SL5DesignContest/

We want a new default skin for version 5, and we want to give you the opportunity to help us decide how it’s going to look.

The winner will be able to choose between 50 Smartlaunch licenses or a cash prize of $1,000.

We are looking forward to seeing all of your creative entries!

Before the fix it was perfectly acceptable to just write the user name in the ‘Logon username’ box under ‘network mapping’ in the server, even if on a domain and the user name was a domain user. After the fix however it is now necessary to write the full name, including the domain, for the user. Like this: DOMAIN\USER. Basically the same way you would add the domain user to give him permission to access a folder share through Windows.

We were not aware of this necessity and we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. With the next update (currently in the works), this will be clearly explained in the ‘network mapping’ settings area. Until then, the fix is to just write the domain name as well as the user name in the ‘Logon username’ box, in the format explained above.

This is only applicable to cafés on a network with a domain and where the ‘My Documents’ network mapping feature (U drive) isn’t working following the update(s).

For a complete list of changes see:
http://bugs.smartlaunch.net/changelog_page.php

We apologize for any inconveniences that this may have caused.