Façade Screenshots Arrive, We Realize Just How Much We Missed Being Able To Do This Theming Thing
If you’re a customization aficionado and have been living under a rock for the last couple of weeks, you probably don’t know that Slightly Pretentious Software has been dropping tidbits of info on their in-development theming applications, to a point of looking obnoxious (or shall I say, pretentious?). In a way, you can even call me jealous.
Ah, but fear not— that feeling of UI cosmetic nirvana is not but a month away! To compliment the public beta release of their free theme creation tool, Architect, the company is showing off screenshots of Façade, their paid switching tool, as well. Needless to say, the results are incredibly impressive; the theme store, ease of use, and the relatively safe procedure of applying skins is making us itch from impatience. And frankly, the $10 price also helps.
It should be noted that MacThemes is not affiliated with Slightly Pretentious Software— they’ve got a community-famous staff (including administrator Johnny Komisar), but I’m just as in the dark about the product as the next guy— so the writing team here actually hasn’t touched the app yet. But I can speak for the rest of the team when I say that we’re ready to get our hands dirty with Façade when it hits the Internets in October.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Hip hip givemebeta!
September 10th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
This is pure s3x!
September 10th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
That is what we are waiting for long time!
September 10th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
At last! A software company with a brain! I cannot help but believe that by selling this at an affordable price, they will more than make up for it in volume of sales. I sure hope these guys eventually do windowshading. I am way too tired of Unsanity these days.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I see many great themes in the near future. Fantastic to see this will become reality!
September 10th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
October?! Well, big themer guys up there, port everything with Architect and this app launching will be as momentous as an Uncle Steve´s keynote!!! Imagine Amora, Niqu, Kamino, Siro for Leopard… Man, I´m salivating here!!!!
September 11th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Rather than just port the same old song and dance, how about some originality?! I’d like to see some new themes…looking forward to this one!
September 11th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
New themes would be nice, but there were a lot of older themes I really liked and would like to use again.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Not trying to be rude, is fantastic to see themes on Leopard, but… is this a joke? Are they charging for themes from the “theme store”? I’d rather pay 20 bucks for it than buy themes, that’s for sure.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Well, I´m not sure they will be charging for themes, it will be a departure from the free, community model we are accustomed to, but, is it necessarily a bad idea? Think about how much time and effort a themer have to endure and just for some pats in the back, or, sometimes, stabs on the back! Well, for now it is still theoretical, isn´t it? It must pass the reality check and a very (and I mean, very…) critical community. Better be more than slightly pretentious this time.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Their site says that some themes will be free and some will come with a price. I agree that if a an artist goes to the time and trouble to make a nice theme, then he or she should receive compensation. If these artists are wise, they will take a clue from Facade’s developers and charge only a small fee. At the same time, to be honest, a theme is really going to have to go out of its way to impress me if I am going to have to purchase it.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Wow, I say just wow. Facade seems unbelievably sweet. BUT let’s think for a while. How long do you think it takes to Apple to buy the whole thing? It would be sweet of course, to see this kind of functionality built-in OS X! It might be against Apples policy thus far, but Apple is changing constantly. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Snow Leopard themable from the beginning.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Well it seems really great so far, combine the ease of use, management, and a potencial financial return for the themer and it should be booming with awesome themes in no time. Even if a themer chrges just a very minimal fee for a great theme, say 1$ or 50c, it should still be tremendously sucessful. I really can’t wait to see what comes out of it, also as strange as it may, people tend to appreciate paid stuff more, go figure.
I’d like to see a feature that would allow people to test-drive a paid theme, for a couple of hours at least to see how it fits. Since it’s a bit different than seeing screenshots.
Goes away salivating in anticipation.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Can. Not. Wait.
September 13th, 2008 at 4:52 am
OMG this App will be great, I can’t wait to try it.
September 13th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
By the way, I don’t think Apple will buy this. We’ve had the promise of theming from Apple since pre-OS X days. Apple could have just as easily bought Shapeshifter (and, jeez, I wish they would have bought WindowShade), but that never happened. I think these days that Apple focuses only on core system needs and leaves space for developers to profit from these kinds of extras.
Anyway, to the Facade developers - HURRY!!!
September 14th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
doesn’t this web site has other languages support??
September 15th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
THANK GOD.
I’ve been going nuts… and the squirrels are starting to tire me.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Hi, I found your blog on this new directory of WordPress Blogs at blackhatbootcamp.com/listofwordpressblogs. I dont know how your blog came up, must have been a typo, i duno. Anyways, I just clicked it and here I am. Your blog looks good. Have a nice day. James.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Hi, I was wondering… how this is possible???, OSX GUI is vector base…
Interesting… very interesting… A new toy for us
September 25th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Very good, cant wait. The only thing thats getting me is the Theme Store, I dont like seeing this app turn into iTunes… But I suspect there will be MANY free themes and very few priced themes. Also, those priced themes will have to be pretty amazing for me to spend money on.
Other than that, this is great. Finally a way to customize just about every aspect of Leopard!.
September 26th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Any idea of when in Oct. they hope to release this? Obviously - and appropriately - they’re not going to rush a bad program to market. But a ballpark estimate would be nice for those of us who have not patience whatsoever.
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
*whistles*…
Ive started my iLeo theme for leopard using Architect, shouldnt be too long now… shouldn’t be too long now… (?)
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:52 pm
ARRGHHHH!!! I want this!! NOW!!! But not before it’s ready… BUT NOW!!!
Hehehe can’t wait
October 6th, 2008 at 3:38 am
-Slightly Pretentious-
Site is currently down- 404…. Something tells me something may be on its way, very shortly…
October 6th, 2008 at 5:49 am
the site is down. sigh
October 6th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
The site is not down. No changes. Sigh.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Anyone knows an approximately release date ?
they said Oct but… we are in october now and no date :/
October 9th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Alas, a lot of companies as of late give us release dates and never make those. I don’t like those kinds of teases. People should take a hint from Star Trek’s Mister Scott. He always stated an overestimated time frame. Then he’d come in under time and look like a miracle worker.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:12 am
Aaaaaarrrgggggghhhhhhhhh!!!! There are only 11 days left in the month! Hope they make it on time!
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 am
there is no more hope :/
October 24th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
just release the god damn thing!!!! whats the fucking problem
October 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Wow, I thought I was stressed about it. I suspect we won’t see it until November, unfortunately. Too many companies anymore get us hyped up with overzealous anticipation and then fail to deliver because of some last-moment bug discovery. They might as well have simply waited until the thing was totally ready to go before announcing it. Not that being late will hurt sales (assuming it actually works). While you’re waiting, you might look into this as a short-term solution. (It’s worked okay for me.)
http://www.opt-6.com/KM/
October 26th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Only 5 days left. We’re doomed.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
uggh this is annoying. havent felt this way since leopards been delayed
October 28th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I’m guessing we’ll see it 2nd or 3rd week of November. Remember, Architect also ended up being late. Hate, MacThemes, why don’t you ask these guys what the actual release date will be? I think we’d all appreciate a realistic estimate at this point. You’re the ones who brought this to our attention; please be responsible and follow up.
October 28th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Sorry, that should be “hey, MacThemes.” I don’t hate you. Really.
October 31st, 2008 at 7:57 am
Well, today is the day . . . that their website says “Coming in November . . .”
November 1st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Nope, its November and it still says “Coming in October.” I think I checked every day this month… =(
November 1st, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I don’t know. This does not bode well. As I recall, their other program, Architect, ended up being delayed for about a week or two. But they at least announced that delay on their site. There’s no statement at all for Facade.
I was recently in touch with the developer of Kameleon, who told me version 2 of that program may be out in about 2 weeks, with more themes. I’m feeling inclined to stick with that program. I don’t like developers who are unresponsive or uncommunicative.
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:41 am
DAMMIT. Let down again. Ahh well…I think I’ll hold out hope for another week or so. Bottom line = I want white themes in leopard. And these fools over at unsanity can’t seem to get their act together.
November 2nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I doubt we’ll see anything from Unsanity along these lines. Both Facade and Kameleon appear to operate without APE, whereas Unsanity seems married to that haxie program. I have a feeling that Facade has gone the way of FileRun and ResExcellence. Pity.
November 4th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Well, they removed the “Coming in October” message. Time to move on.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:10 am
I wish they would have posted a message, or at least warned us. There website shrouds “Facade.app” in secrecy, truly not a good sign.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:31 am
This soft will never, ever be released. I think that it’s faster to go and search every pic in our sys and change it the old way
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:37 am
Any update on the thing would be nice. It’s certainly not an encouraging sign. Check out the page for FileRun, which at the time said it was going to be available on Feb. 27, 2006 . . . nothing since. Quasi, I suspect you are correct.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Façade, brought to you by the team behind Duke Nukem Forever!
December 4th, 2008 at 4:29 am
I had to look up that reference. If I’m reading this correctly, DNF was first proposed in 1997? And is now the winner of a few “Vaporware” awards? Very nice! Perhaps we should call the company “Totally Pretentious Software.”
December 10th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
after doing some research it appears that Slightly Pretentious Software is owned and operated by one man. his website is mattpat.net. While there is no email address on the page here is the date from the whois of the site (please note that this IS registered to a residential area):
Whois info for, SLIGHTLYPRETENTIOUS.COM:
Registrant:
Slightly Pretentious Software
66 Annie Street
Pawtucket, RI 02861
US
Domain name: SLIGHTLYPRETENTIOUS.COM
Administrative Contact:
Patenaude, Matt MattPat@mattpat.net
66 Annie Street
Pawtucket, RI 02861
US
+1.4015273493
December 14th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Interesting blog here. Why can’t anyone else give an update of this kind?
http://www.vanillasoap.com/
December 16th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Now it’s December and unfortunately it looks like Façade isn’t coming until mid-January. It’s a shame and I know some people are getting mildly (ahem) annoyed. It’s understandable and would probably of been for the best for them to not have gave any sort of date until much closer completion. They’re not the first ones to do something silly like that, so please don’t gut them okay guys?
December 18th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
hmm Fruiyth1ng, I disagree. The guy deserves to be gutted because he’s put us on edge since September. This is an app people are waiting for + willing to pay for. So it is really annoying when you tell people in September that it will be ready in a month’s time, only to realize that in December, we have no further official update. Why was that done? Just to raise our expectations + get some press for the app? People might have considered trying apps of their own, thought “oh, Facade is coming out soon, why should I bother spending my time + effort?”. So we all lose here.
Just because he’s not the first to do it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be told that what he’s doing is not very nice behavior.
December 19th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Fruiythin1g took their quote directly from the website I posted (vanillasoap.com), so I don’t know what that’s all about. I suppose that the bottomline is that if Facade ever does come out, it will still make money and so on. Life will go on. But I do agree that the behavior was inappropriate. I think that’s just the way modern life goes.