Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Reader Mail and Rumor Report-December 21, 2004

Today's reader mail: another Babya Presenter question. Rumors include: the new bSuite features, a Babya Photo Workshop edition with layer support based on Paint.NET, a update to Babya bSecure . We also have a update to Monday's Wav2MP3 rumor.


Another Babya Presenter question from an anonymous reader:
"I'm interested in showing a slideshow as a screensaver. Any plans for that in the new version of Babya Presenter?"

A.A. Fussy replies:
Yes, a screensaver option may be available in Babya Presenter 2.0, according to our sources.


Babya Wav2MP3:
We reported previously, that Babya Wav2MP3 will be discontinued. It's now confirmed that Babya Wav2MP3 is officially discontinued as of next week-as posted at the Babya Software Group forum (http://www.myboard.org/ipb/index.php?mforum=babyasoftwaregr&act=ST&f=8&t=5&st=0) :
"Babya Wav2MP3 will be discontinued on December 31 2004, because Babya Wav2MP3 has halted development.

A new Babya audio converter will be announced and availble in January.


It is highly recommended users should upgrade to the new audio converter software when available."

Basically, this means the completely new Babya audio converter will be announced next month.


Babya bSuite:
Babya bSuite will be released in late January or February. Several features, according to some of our sources now say it will include: the Babya accounting software, a contact manager and a edition of Babya Photo Workshop.

Babya Photo Workshop Premium:

The next version of Babya Photo Workshop, is likely to include JASC pallete support, as we reported earlier this week. But, what's even more exciting, a new edition of Babya Photo Workshop will include layer support,new paint tools and several new features and is based on a customized Paint.NET- developed by Rick Brewster, Tom Jackson, Michael Kelsey, Brandon Ortiz, CraigTaylor, Chris Trevino, and Luke Walker-the website is at http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/ .Also this version uses the .NET framework.

Sources say the version number of the new edition is 8.0, but the next versions of the Pro and XL edition is likely to be version 7.1 or 7.5.

Expected release date for the new edition has currently been set for a early February launch, and a preview of it at next month's Babya Expo.

Babya bSecure :

Babya bSecure has not been updated for over 12 months. A new version, 1.1 is planned to be released in the next couple of months, according to a source. At the moment, no details are available on what improvements bSecure 1.1 will have.

We'll report on what new features the update will include in future rumor reports.

That's all the rumors and reader email for today's report. We will follow up on some of today's rumors-including Babya bSecure next month.

We are not going to publishing rumors over Christmas and next week, but the next report will be published in early January. I would like to wish all users of Babya software, a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.


Monday, December 20, 2004

Reader Mail and Rumor Report-December 20, 2004:

Today's our first Reader Mail and Rumor report- reader mail includes a new Babya presenter release query, .pal file support in Babya Photo Workshop and rumors on: Where's the new version of Discoverer, Babya video editing and Flash generator rumor submissions, an Babya freeware alternative to Windows XP's IIS and the long running rumors-Babya CRM/finance/business software and a Babya desktop search, like MSN and Google have and what's up with bSuite? and also Babya Grid

Also we report on some very interesting rumors about a completely new Babya audio converter and application, also the latest information about bSync 3.

Babya Presenter 2:

Babya writes: "I am using Babya Presenter 1.0 and Powerbullet Presenter 1.3 at the moment. It's very basic unlike Powerbullet-no .swf export for example. Do you know if there is a major update or upgrade planned and any word of new features-as it's overdue for one?"

A.A. Fussy replies:I am not so sure about a major upgrade to, say version 2.0. However, you may see a point update (eg. 1.1) or a patch. Usually bPicture is updated when a Babya Photo Workshop is released, but not Presenter.

Features-good question, Babya. You said '.swf export' (Macromedia Flash files)-maybe it could be included, but would not be as easy to use-Flash and Powerbullet handle it better. Other new features are not disclosed at the time of writing.

Where's the new version of Discoverer:

Babya Discoverer hasn't seen a update since January 2004-a long time and would benefit from some new features. Take, for example FireFox has been a amazing web browser this year-popular and some browsers have RSS feed viewing. Babya Discoverer, however has not seen improvements at all-why?

We have some suprising and recent information from some sources relating to a upcoming version of Babya Discoverer:-

The delay of the new version is not quite easy to talk about. Sources familar with the development of Discoverer 11, an anoymous source said-"I learnt that some sort of web browser add-on was acquired and will be in the next release."

Another source reported in November, that next month (January 2005), Discoverer 11 will be released (even the Babya site lists v 11 not v 8). Beta versions reportedly include a download manager and Windows XP Service Pack 2 support.

Contradictory to what was mentioned on the Babya Software Group site in April, the first source had this to say, " Babya bDownload-one of the new features was canned for a different download manager design. Also it is faster overall."
Babya Video Editor:
A Babya video editor is rumored to be one of the new applications announced at next month's Babya Expo.

Sources describe it as "There will be a easy to use Babya video editor, supporting various video editing features, released in early 2005."

Babya wrote in about this rumor: "I've got various videos to edit, and there aren't many free video editors-is a Babya one in the works, and will it support various plugins, like with iMovie?"

Although, there hasn't been any official word about the rumored Babya video editor, I haven't got a clue to what it'll be based on, the release date or any features of the video editor.


Flash generator:

A Flash .swf creation program is being considered, but is offically not yet known whether it will be developed.
Babya IIS alternative:

Another recent rumor was about a Babya IIS alternative. Unlike, IIS, this Babya web server works on Windows 98-Windows Server 2003, as suggested by many users.

We'll have more info about this rumor in a upcoming report.

Babya Accounting Software:

Long rumored, the Babya accounting package will finally debut in January-most likely at the Babya Expo keynote-as several anonymous sources recently revealed.

Currently being developed this month, it has a colorful interface and easy to use. What makes it unique, one source says, it is a MYOB/QuickBooks style, secure and free accounting package and includes industry specific modules-the source said, it will include modules for different business types.

The source also told us that it could be released as BSM-Boutique Management System, but possibly under the bApps brand-a bApp sub-brand is likely to be introduced for Babya business applications.
Desktop Search:
Desktop search software is a very hot product at the moment,, so much that Google and MSN now have desktop search utilities.

A Babya Desktop search software is in development. Not only will it search Google and other search sites, it will be unobtrusive-shown in the notification area (system tray) and very easy to use.

Currently, a release date for this has not been set. We'll keep you updated about this rumor in the coming weeks.


Babya bSuite:
Orginally announced in January 2004, it was supposed to be released in the same month. It's been delayed and going by recent information from our sources, Babya bSuite looks set to be finally released-with a different name in late January or early February , maybe it will be announced next month. However there has not been information on what the UI looks like and what's included, released so far.
We will follow up on this rumor over the next couple of weeks.


Babya Photo Workshop .pal file support:

Babya Photo Workshop Professional XL includes native support for JASC .pal files. But an anonymous reader wants Babya Photo Workshop to also support that file format:

"I was wondering if the next update to Babya Photo Workshop Professional will also have a palette editor that supports JASC .pal files?"

Support for JASC pallete files in Babya Photo Workshop Professional , according to sources will be supported by the release of a new version-probably 7.1 or 7.5, to be released in late February or mid March.

Babya Wav2MP3 no more:
Babya Wav2MP3 hasn't seen a update since at least, June 2004 (the current version of the original Wav2MP3, that Babya Wav2MP3 is based off, has not had a newer version since October).

A source informed us that development of the Babya edition has been halted because the Babya edition had not received a update to version 3.x (as it was not requested to the developer of Wav2MP3). One other source said it is to be declared End Of Life very soon, perhaps as early as next month. There is not a official statement about the status of the Babya edition of Wav2MP3.

We will try to get some official information on this situation in upcoming reports.


Babya Wav2MP3 replacement:
If the Babya edition of Wav2MP3 is to be officially discontinued, one source reckons that an completely new Babya audio converter will replace the Babya edition of Wav2MP3:
"I was recently impressed with a different audio converter, also developed in VB6 and would be very suitable for a Babya release as a replacement the Babya edition of Wav2MP3."

Even a different source gave this anonymous report:
"A software company (not named) was in talks to acquire or create a new [Babya] product which is in the multimedia market segment and released publically during first quarter of 2005."

One more source's comment on a replacement for the Babya edition of Wav2MP3:
"I have seen a new [Babya] audio converter which is being developed for a Babya release.

Over the next week or so, we'll report on any new information on what new Babya audio converter will replace the Babya edition of Wav2MP3.
Babya bSync 3:
Also announced in January 2004 was Babya bSync 3, but has had the development to be delayed to this month-you might wonder when the release date is. The latest information is that it will be released in late January, according to some of our sources-they also say it will be redesigned with several new file backup features.
New Babya application:
There is a brand new Babya application under development for a possible April release. According to one of sources:
"The new product is a new Babya software suite for business users which includes a word processor,Babya Grid and a version of Babya Photo Workshop."

Babya Grid:
Babya Grid, the Babya spreadsheet was introduced at the January Babya Expo. Development has finshed, but was not released because of Babya bSuite undergoing extensive changes. Now Babya Grid, according to a source will be included in the new Babya office suite (bSuite) to be released, in late January or early February.

That's all rumors and reader email for today's report. We will follow up on some of the rumors in reports to be published this week and coming weeks. Later this week, we will have rumor reports on a Babya Photo Workshop Premium edition, bSecure update in the works?, the word on the new Babya word proccessor, and image layers in Babya Photo Workshop.



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