Our newest version of Final Login is packed with so many important, new features that we had to go into detail within each one here on the blog. Before you read on, though, it would be best to get yourself familiar with our product and our company first. While version 1.1 had paved the way for the fundamental building blocks of being able to access website content from the application, version 2.0 provides a couple key new features that allow its potential to really shine.
Local Notifications
Instead of having to check Final Login to see if it has returned the results you want, you can now let it run and then be notified with an alert sound, letting you know that you have new results. If you are using the application when a notification appears, you will see a little pop-up message, describing the results, in the bottom right-hand corner of the application window. If you are not using the application at the time it tries to notify you, you will see a little pop-up message, describing the results, in the bottom right-hand conrer of your desktop. If you aren’t able to read the message in the little pop-up, before it disappears, it will be stored in the notifications panel and a message count is displayed, letting you know how many unread notifications you have in the panel. This way, you will always be able to have your notifications stored, so you don’t miss out on data found by Final Login. Notifications have “click” actions as well, so if a notification is setup to show you the data once you “click” on it, it will do so. So, in summary, local notifications allow you to be notified by a little pop-up inside the application, a little pop-up outside of the application (on your desktop), and by sound, all the while being stored in the notification panel in case you miss any.
Remote Notifications
If you are not at your computer while Final Login is working hard, finding the content you want, we have setup “Remote Mode” for the application. Once you place the application in “Remote Mode,” all notifications will come via text message or email or both, depending on how you configure it. Not only do you configure the medium through which you will get remote notifications, but also the frequency (every 5 minutes, every 10 hours, every month, etc.). While receiving remote notifications, you can update the medium and frequency for which you want to receive them simply by replying to the notification with a defined set of numeric replies. Replying with the number four (“4″), for example, will turn off notifications via email. Replying with the number seven (“7″) will turn on notifications via text message. And if you ever forget the available numeric replies, just remember this one: reply with the number zero (“0″) and it will send you another notification with the list of all available replies (currently there are 8 different replies to choose from). This is great, because it gives you the power of Final Login without having to be at your computer, with the medium and frequency of notifications being completely under your control.
Tours
We have added an interactive introduction tour of Final Login, which explains the basics of using the application. The tour let’s you interact with Final Login during the tour, so that you can literally “get a feel” for how to use it. Because the tour does not require a Final Login account, you can get a feel for its features immediately after installing it and without having to create an account first. If you are logged into the application, though, we have also established a way for you to access mini tours, which help explain how to get to the content you want. Since getting to the content you want can become very custom, these mini tours will really help you feel comfortable getting established.
Clipboard Tools
With version 2.0, a fully-featured clipboard has been integrated into the application, so that you can perform the basic clipboard options you are used to performing with traditional web browsing. Such as: Copy, Copy Link, Copy Email Address, Copy Image, Paste, Cut, Select All, etc. With all of the web content being provided to you from within the application, you can now interact with the applicable information using the clipboard as you are normally used to.
Single Logon
Because you may use multiple computers (at home vs. at work, for example), you may be logging into Final Login from multiple places. In version 2.0, we have set it up such that logging into one location will log you out of any other location from which you may be logged in. This feature serves many purposes. First, it keeps from multiple notifications being sent from the different places in which you are logged in. Second, it avoids Final Login from retrieving content when it doesn’t have to. Finally, and most importantly, if you forgot you left Final Login logged in somewhere that another person was able access, logging in at another location will keep that person from being able to use your account.
Some planned features for 2010
As much as the above features for version 2.0 add an extraordinary amount of power to Final Login, we are always compiling a list of features the future versions will have. Here are some we plan on releasing soon in 2010:
- Drag and drop: We will enable the ability to not only drag and drop web content from and into appropriate places within the application, we will also enable the ability to drag and drop files from your computer into the Final Login application. Example: dragging and dropping in photos, videos, or music from your computer that you wish to upload to a particular website.
- Remote notifications for instant messengers (IM): We plan on supporting as many IM clients as possible, so that you can receive remote notifications from Final Login via IM and reply back to Final Login from within the chat window. Because IM is a very easy way to engage in communication, having you be able to communicate with Final Login will be very powerful.
- Remote notifications with more reply options: The current reply options for remote notifications is limited in the fact that you can only control the medium and frequency for which you receive remote notifications. We plan to offer new reply options, such as remote content retrieval starting/stopping and remotely logging in/out of the application. We may even release the ability for custom replies defined per content retriever (called Parsers), so that, for example, an email Parser could have support for a custom reply to define which email folders to check.
- Macintosh OS support: Currently we only support Windows and Linux, so we will be supporting Final Login running on the Macintosh Operating System early in the year. At that point, your Final Login account could be accessed from practically any computer; providing much flexibility in when and where you want to use it.
- Performance: While we have already updated the application to be faster in version 2.0, we will be planning on many more performance and efficiency improvements to make using Final Login even better and more fluid.
- Many more Parsers: We are constantly thinking up new ideas for Parsers and while many of them are currently in the development stage, we will be releasing them soon. Our list of Parsers continues to grow with each new idea we come up with, but can grow even faster with the ideas you come up with. Not sure what a Parser is? Find out here.
We have quite a few other features in mind, but they won’t be ready for release until later in the year, so please check back on this blog, subscribe to the blog’s feed, or follow us on twitter to stay up-to-date. We always encourage feedback, as well, because we want to make Final Login support the features you want.
After reading this, I hope you are as excited as we are for the new version of Final Login and what it will become in the near future. Download it now and take control of the web.
In order for Final Login to help empower your web browsing experience, lets us know what you think the web should do for you and we’ll try our best to make that happen. If you’d like to follow along with the latest websites supported on Final Login, do so here.