The Family Calendar Blog

Over the next few days, as we roll out the enhanced List Sharing functionality, you are likely to experience some hiccups in our service. The application should work as normal, but you might see Javascript messages relating port 5222 not being accessible off and on.

New users trying to register the application may not be able to successfully register their application at certain times. Should this happen, just try to register at a later time.

Within the next few days, we will be releasing Version 1.1 of our software which will make list sharing a lot more reliable. We will make an announcement as soon as it is available for download.

In the meantime, don’t forget to check out some of the sizzling hot deals that are available on http://mediabee.com/hotdeals.

We updated mediabee.com today to include links to some “hidden” areas of our website throughout the site:

mediabee.com/forum provides a forum for you and us to discuss issues such as announcements, installation, and usage.

mediabee.com/blog quickly gets you to this page.

mediabee.com/weather links you to rich up-to-date weather information. This is the same information that’s available within the application. Go ahead - give it a try now if you haven’t already.

mediabee.com/recipes brings you the following recipes of the day: Breakfast, Main Course, Vegetarian, Low-Carb, Low-Fat, and Dessert. A fresh new recipe in each area every day - from the finest recipe sources on the web. Bookmark it now. (Clicking Recipes within the application will also bring you to this page.)

mediabee.com/health brings you the latest health headlines (powered by MedicineNet®) - updated throughout the day on a wide variety of topics ranging from Allergies to Diabetes to Heart Health to Weight Management. The clean layout helps you to get to this information quickly and choose just the topics you’re interested in. Check it out today!

mediabee.com/hotdeals brings you up-to-the-minute hot deals from our sponsors. Whether you’re looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift, or the hottest notebook computer deal, you’ll find a deal that you can’t resist here.

We release a minor update to Mediabee V1.0.13 on Feb 8, 2005. (This fixes the button issue mentioned in the earlier blog entry.)

It was available for a brief time before the link was broken and the download was no longer available. We’re working with download.com to figure out why it happened. The download is now available again - our apologies to anyone who tried, but failed, to download the application today.

We have learnt that on some high-resolution screens, people may have a problem seeing buttons on some of the screens (including, unfortunately, the registration screen). We’ll be releasing a fix for this soon.

In the meantime, here’s how you can work around the problem. After you make entries on the appropriate forms, just use the Tab button to go to the next entry in the form. Hitting the tab enough times will reveal the buttons at the bottom of the screen.

If you recently upgraded to V1.0.13 and you’re unable to see the correct weather information for your area, then make sure you use this technique on the Registration screen (Main Page->Settings->Registration) and click on Register Now after you’ve selected your weather area. That should fix that problem.

We regret the inconvenience.

Do you love a bargain? We do. Every day, we’re scouring through hundreds of bargains on the net to bring you the hottest deals. Today, we’re officially launching the Deal Bee - you can reach it on the net at http://mediabee.com/hotdeals or from within the Mediabee application.

Why shop at mediabee.com/hotdeals?

At Mediabee, we want to create an application that you can live in - and live out of. We’re bringing your life together into one manageable piece. And we want to keep bringing you the service for free. By shopping at our store, you’ll be supporting the service. It costs you nothing - and our sponsors will continue to support us and the service.

So go ahead and get your loved ones something precious - there are literally hundreds of the hottest bargains to choose from!

Not interested in Valentine’s day gifts? We have lots of other categories to choose from. Here’s a sneak peek:

We’re pleased to note that SoftPedia has certified that our application contains no spyware, adware, or malware. Go ahead, click on the image to find out what this means.

If you’re a user, you already knew this, of course.

Look for V1.0.13 to appear anytime now on download.com. This version has one major enhancement: WEATHER. To get a preview of how cool the new weather pages are, visit http://mediabee.com/weather.

If you like the page, bookmark it - after you’ve entered your own zipcode or, if you’re from outside the U.S., the “ICAO” code (to find out what it is, click on Global Weather).

This implementation is based on the great work done by the folks at Hamweather, LLC.

To make this change effective, once you’ve downloaded the new version, go to Settings->Registration and make sure that your zipcode field is correctly entered. If you’re not in the U.S., be sure to select your nearest weather station so that the left-hand-side panel shows you the correct weather info. Also, clicking on the weather icon will now automatically bring you the correct weather information - is that cool or what?

The various pieces of the application are slowly coming together nicely!

Expect another major release within a few days to make the list sharing behave more predictably and also so you can (if you choose to turn it on) access your home calendar from work or on the road with a browser.

If you like Mediabee, please be sure to tell all your friends about it. Better yet, please email them the following sentence:

“Check out this cool application! http://mediabee.com”

If you’re having any trouble with your application, remember, we’re here to help. Don’t automatically assume that we’ll eventually get to it! If we hear from you, we can prioritize our development accordingly. We’re VERY responsive, as some other customers who’ve complained will tell you. You can contact us by putting in a note on our forum http://mediabee.com/forum or sending us email at support@mediabee.com.

Here are some sneak peeks at the new weather pages: