Announcing Transparency Tiles & Start Perfect Updates

[millermk]

I know lots of people on the forum are users of Transparency Tiles and Start Perfect, so I though I'd make a quick post here about the latest updates which are going out now. Hopefully these features will help you enjoy the 8.1 preview a little more, especially the new games tile in Start Perfect which brings back a bit of the 8.0 magic by flipping to show your avatar.

I'm taking requests for new features in Start Perfect and new apps in Transparency Tiles & Start Perfect. You can post them here or email me using the links in the apps. I've been up all night putting the finishing touches on these updates, so I might not be able to reply right away (I have to sleep sometime...) but I will definitely read through the whole thread and do my best to make any requests you have a reality

Start Perfect 1.1.0.2 - Available in the store now
New Features
•Free Trial Version - so everyone who's been on the fence can check out what it's all about
•Set a custom background image for website tiles.
•Setting the URL for websites is now easier. We'll check if you've included http:// and only add it if you haven't.
•Create LowPoly backgrounds and stay in control. Choose the main color, and whether you want to keep it simple, or add matching accents.
•You can now create blank tiles that flip to add a little life to your start screen
•New apps supported in built-in transparency tiles: SurfCube 3D Browser, eBay, AppDeals, Runtastic Pro, Youtube HD, Groupon, YouTube, MUSIC+, PhotoMagic, HERE City Lens, Foundbite, iMusic, adidas miCoach
•Games tiles can now flip and show your avatar on the back.
•Label tiles now support up to three lines of text.
•More features are planned. I'm an active developer and I really want Start Perfect to be the only Start Screen app you ever need!

Fixed
•A few spelling errors
•Tint preview not visible after selecting an image
•Shazam was not visible in app list
•Tint and fill previews didn't match current theme if white theme was selected

Transparency Tiles 1.4.0.0 - Submission is processing, should be coming out within 1-2 days
New supported apps:
• MoliPlayer Pro
• Live Video Player
• Poki
• Battery
• Magnify Beta
• Yelp
• Health & Fitness
• PhotoFunia
• Ask.fm
• Songza
• Maxthon
• Surfy

 

[ebin5]

Transparency Tiles 1.4.0.0[/B] - Submission is processing, should be coming out within 1-2 days
thanks for adding more and more apps. How does now processing app submissions take 1 or 2 days as I heard MS had made it easier by only waiting for a few hours to get it published with 8.1.

 

[ebin5]

Can you please add adobe reader,camera 360 and Nokia camera.

 

[Pete]

Hi there. I'm not usually a fan of third party customisation apps, but I really like your one, it's enabled me to have transparent versions of apps that's really helped me to have a great start screen.

If possible, could you add transparency tiles for:-

• Amazon
• Nokia Camera
• Office Lens
• Dictionary.com
• OneDrive

Thanks for a great app!

 

[millermk]

I seem to get near-instant approvals for Start Perfect, but Transparency Tiles takes a day or two. I think the problem if that before I released Start Perfect I was planning on accepting donations in Transparency Tiles, so I registered an in-app purchase under Transparency Tiles. My best guess is that there's a few things that trigger a manual review when submitting to the store and in-app purchases are one of them (because if they don't work right users could get very unhappy). So I believe that's why it takes longer to review, because inside dev center I have an in-app purchase which if "deleted" but you can't actually permanently get rid of.

 

[millermk]

Hi there. I'm not usually a fan of third party customisation apps, but I really like your one, it's enabled me to have transparent versions of apps that's really helped me to have a great start screen.

If possible, could you add transparency tiles for:-

• Amazon
• Nokia Camera
• Office Lens
• Dictionary.com
• OneDrive

Thanks for a great app!

Sadly most of those don't support third party activations (i.e. Uri Schemes). I actually discovered today that Nokia's imaging apps do have Uri schemes but I don't know the parameters to pass in that make them work. It's possible I'll figure them out in the future, but by no means a certainty.

 

[millermk]

Can you please add adobe reader,camera 360 and Nokia camera.

camera360 is hopefully coming soon. Nokia Camera is possible in theory, but by no means certain. I'm trying to get my hands on an interop unlocked phone which will help me figure out more apps I hope. Adobe Reader isn't possible though.

 

[millermk]

It's now pending certifications in my dev center so I believe that means it's under review

 

[JaiMento]

Thanks for the great apps. Personally using Start Perfect and am completely happy with it. Keep up the great work.

Apps I would like to see gain support:

-OneDrive
-Adobe Reader
-Office Hub
-Bank of America
-Chase
-Skype
-Pandora
-IMDB
-Flixter
-Amazon
-Best Buy
-Microsoft Store (not the app store, but the app for Microsoft's retail store)
-Newegg
-Sports app in app pinned tiles (main Sports app is supported, but if you can find a way to make transparent tiles for the tiles created by pinning my favorite teams from within the Sports app)

Again, thanks for all of your hard work.

 

[millermk]

Thanks for the great apps. Personally using Start Perfect and am completely happy with it. Keep up the great work.

Apps I would like to see gain support:

-OneDrive
-Adobe Reader
-Office Hub
-Bank of America
-Chase
-Skype
-Pandora
-IMDB
-Flixter
-Amazon
-Best Buy
-Microsoft Store (not the app store, but the app for Microsoft's retail store)
-Newegg
-Sports app in app pinned tiles (main Sports app is supported, but if you can find a way to make transparent tiles for the tiles created by pinning my favorite teams from within the Sports app)

Again, thanks for all of your hard work.

Glad to hear you like the app We're currently trying to get Pandora sorted out, and we're looking into adobe reader (although it may not be possible). Many of the others aren't possible, but we're contacting publishers to try to convince them to register for Uri schemes so that we can support even more apps. It probably won't happen really soon but we've seen a little progress with Skype, they've marked the idea of supporting Uris as "under consideration" so there's so hope that it will be coming

 

[KKRLessey]

Please add Deezer and Weave!!

 

[millermk]

Please add Deezer and Weave!!

I was looking into Weave, but since they got pulled for copyright violation, I think that including their logo in my app may put me at risk of legal threats too. If they relaunch under a new name then I will definitely add support for their new app.

 

[JaiMento]

So I just finished pinning my websites with some custom images I quickly made and I really appreciate you implementing this. The app crashes now and then when trying to add the images, but nothing severe. Never took me more than 2 tries to finally get the website pinned.

On a side note, one of the websites I pinned, I used an image that I had to make transparent myself. I stored the image in one of my OneDrive folders. After pinning the website, I noticed that I hadn't completely gotten rid of some of the original white background in the image, so I unpinned the website, re-did the image (saved the new image in the same folder, using the same name), and re-pinned the website. However, the image used was still the old image. I tried it a couple of times and the old image was always used. Eventually, to get it to work, I had to remove the images from the folder, go into the folder with Start Perfect and let it refresh to show the images were no longer there, re-add the images back to the folder, and navigate back to the folder in Start Perfect to get it to load the new images.

Anyway, great app.

 

[millermk]

So I just finished pinning my websites with some custom images I quickly made and I really appreciate you implementing this. The app crashes now and then when trying to add the images, but nothing severe. Never took me more than 2 tries to finally get the website pinned.

On a side note, one of the websites I pinned, I used an image that I had to make transparent myself. I stored the image in one of my OneDrive folders. After pinning the website, I noticed that I hadn't completely gotten rid of some of the original white background in the image, so I unpinned the website, re-did the image (saved the new image in the same folder, using the same name), and re-pinned the website. However, the image used was still the old image. I tried it a couple of times and the old image was always used. Eventually, to get it to work, I had to remove the images from the folder, go into the folder with Start Perfect and let it refresh to show the images were no longer there, re-add the images back to the folder, and navigate back to the folder in Start Perfect to get it to load the new images.

Anyway, great app.

I'll check out the process one more time and try to find any bugs I can. If there was a crash dev center will let me know what the problem is in a day or two.

 

[JaiMento]

I'll check out the process one more time and try to find any bugs I can. If there was a crash dev center will let me know what the problem is in a day or two.

The crashes weren't bad at all. Only happened twice (and worked both times on the second try). What I did notice, though, is that both times, it crashed in a similar fashion. I typed in the URL, and gave it a name. Then, I added one custom pic (one time it was the square, the other time it was the wide), which worked fine. On the second pic, however, after I selected the image I wanted, it would return to the main screen and the tile preview wasn't showing the image I selected for the second tile (it was still showing the star image). I would then tap to try and add the image again and the app would crash.

 

[millermk]

The crashes weren't bad at all. Only happened twice (and worked both times on the second try). What I did notice, though, is that both times, it crashed in a similar fashion. I typed in the URL, and gave it a name. Then, I added one custom pic (one time it was the square, the other time it was the wide), which worked fine. On the second pic, however, after I selected the image I wanted, it would return to the main screen and the tile preview wasn't showing the image I selected for the second tile (it was still showing the star image). I would then tap to try and add the image again and the app would crash.

Start perfect pulls images from local storage, the photos library, the app package, and the internet. It's not unlikely that I got a file api a little bit mixed up. You description should help a lot in figuring it out though. Thanks so much!

 

[JaiMento]

Start perfect pulls images from local storage, the photos library, the app package, and the internet. It's not unlikely that I got a file api a little bit mixed up. You description should help a lot in figuring it out though. Thanks so much!

No problem. Keep up the great work on this/these app(s). And thank you. Well worth the money spent.

 

[MDMcAtee]

Tapatalk would be nice along with Iheartradio..

Keep up the good work

Mac

 

[Zeem Frostmaw]

On a side note, one of the websites I pinned, I used an image that I had to make transparent myself. I stored the image in one of my OneDrive folders. After pinning the website, I noticed that I hadn't completely gotten rid of some of the original white background in the image, so I unpinned the website, re-did the image (saved the new image in the same folder, using the same name), and re-pinned the website. However, the image used was still the old image. I tried it a couple of times and the old image was always used. Eventually, to get it to work, I had to remove the images from the folder, go into the folder with Start Perfect and let it refresh to show the images were no longer there, re-add the images back to the folder, and navigate back to the folder in Start Perfect to get it to load the new images.

Anyway, great app.

Are you saying you've made a custom website tile which is also transparent? I'd love to be able to do that.

 

[JaiMento]

Are you saying you've made a custom website tile which is also transparent? I'd love to be able to do that.

Yes. I used Photoshop and it is really easy to do. If you don't have access to Photoshop, something like IrfanView should work and is free. Just make sure to save your file as something that supports transparency (I saved mine as .png).

It's a nice effect, as only the logo shows on the transparent tile, allowing the Start Screen background to show through, instead of the tile being the color of the icon image background.