it’s been some time since the last post, nevertheless the machinery in the background is working on new ideas.
Now you can help us in which direction development should go!

Answer the simple question: Do you use the Shademode?

We have started a poll at Skin Consortium for this. Feel free to participate!

Stay tuned for updates.

Although 2009 has been a quiet year during the last months, there are plans to take things to some new levels in 2010.
Right now we have released a New ClassicPro Version with a themable default skin and an improved widget manager. If you feel like the updated cPro skin needs more themes, please feel free to create some and submit them in our forums.

Thank you to all who have supported and continue to support SC You guys and gals are awesome and we have loved creating skins and cPro for your listening pleasure.

Well festivities are almost upon us, so we wish you all the best for Christmas.
Don’t drink too much and don’t eat too much Be merry and bright

It’s a time of giving and receiving so enjoy your family time, make the most of it!

Talking of giving and receiving, we are always grateful of donations. The PayPal button is to the left of our Skin Consortium site, give generously
We’ve certainly given you some great skins this year and cPro just keeps getting better. Look out for some new cPro stuff in 2010

Happy Christmas

Team SkinConsortium

the guys at the Winamp HQ in Dulles have released a new version of Winamp this week!
Winamp 5.57 has improved support for Video Playback (mkv, mp4, …) as well as improved Windows Vista / 7 Thumbnail previews.

Grabb the new Winamp now!

We’ve been waiting quite a while – for the new Creed album and for the skin. I’ve already ordered the album from Amazon and expecting it to be shipped on Friday or Saturday. For all of you that need to wait for the album to arrive as well, go and download the Creed Full Circle ClassicPro Skin. The colors are similar to those found on the album artwork and the new Creed Website.

Also expect a review of the album appearing on this site soon.

It’s been some time since the last post. But despite leaning back we were doing some enhancements for the ClassicPro Widget Manager. You will see the new features in ClassicPro 1.14, that will be released in the end of October.

Now we are discussing at Skin Consortium what skin should be done next? I’ve come up with the idea of a Google Chrome inspired ClassicPro Skin. So head over to Skin Consortium Forums and vote for or against this idea.

Besides I will also start working on the ClassicPro Skin for the upcoming Creed album.

Stay tuned and vote!

At the time this article has been written the download count is already at 1,802,193! With the new ClassicPro 1.13 release we hope to pass to the next Million. ClassicPro 1.13 will reintroduce the short tab names, some of you missed so much since we have released version 1.1. So go on and check the new ClassicPro out!

We are also in the works on our next major release ClassicPro 1.2! This one will introduce Colorthemes for the ClassicPro default skin. And we will need your help for the new skin, since all the Colorthemes should be community created! Feel free to offer your help at the ClassicPro Beta Forum.

Here is a ZIP archive with all the ClassicPro Skins participated in the Contest.

The Skin Consortium Admins will decide on the winner of the competition during this week. Of course, we will keep you informed about the winner!

In the meantime you can check the poll at Skin Consortium Forums and vote for your favorite skin.

-Martin

Well, development for ClassicPro 1.13 started this week and we would like to introduce some more cool features you will be able to play with in this upcoming version:

Back by popular demand!
Many of you missed the short tab names. Especially if you were used to displaying ClassicPro on a lower resolution. ClassicPro 1.13 will bring this feature back to you!
Moreover, the ClassicPro standard skin will get some Color Themes. We haven’t decided on the amount of themes yet, but as soon the work has finished we might call on you to create some cool themes that will be bundled with cPro! – You will get credit in our installer under Additional Colour Themes and of course your theme name!

ClassicPro 1.13 is scheduled to be released at the end of this month, of course with the ClassicPro Skinning Blog as the new Browser Start page.

For those who cannot wait, we have published a sneak preview of ClassicPro 1.13 on our Facebook Fan Page: ClassicPro Facebook Fan Page

For a long time the future of Stratovarius was unclear. But after ex-guitarist Timo Tolkki agreed that the remaining members can continue under the old name, the songwriting begun.

As consequence Timo Tolkki was replaced by Matias Kupiainen. But with Tolkki as long term member and guitarist/songwriter a person left who gave the band a face. So will the new album be different – maybe like Kotipelto’s solo project?
Well, indeed they have changed the band logo a bit and Lauri Porra took over most of the songwriting.

So when I plugged in the the new CD and listened to the first track ‘Deep Unknown’ I felt like “hm, this isn’t really what I’d like to expect for the new Stratovarius album”. Before you ask, yes, I’ve bought the CD without listening to samples first.
But the following track ‘Falling Star’, has won me already over – Stratovarius are back!
So let’s walk through the album track by track.
The next song ‘King Of Nothing’ is actually my favorite song. I like the choirs repeating the refrain – catchy and animating to sing along. ‘Blind’ sounds like a Stratovarius song from the old days and will rock when performed live.
The fifth track ‘Winter Skies’ is a true metal-ballad like you know them from their older albums. While listening to this song I thought, the next song should have some high speed keyboards from Jens. And I was right! ‘Forever Is Today’ and ‘Higher We Go’ as next tracks are really speedy.
Then the sound becomes slower with another great ballad ‘Somehow Precious’ and followed by two more ballads ‘Emancipation Suite: I Dusk’ and ‘Emancipation Suite: II Dawn’ that remember a bit of the sound of the Elements double album.
With ‘When Mountains Fall’ as acoustic song the tempo goes down even more and the album fades to an end.

All in all, Stratovarius have a slightly new sound, but as long term fan like me it is good to hear something different and not waiting for and Infinity II or something similar.

Feel free to let us know your opinion about the new album.

-Martin

Check out some samples at Jorn’s Myspace site:

http://www.myspace.com/realjorn

-Martin