Well, we promised to release Omnimo somewhere in the end of March and the beginning of April, but we're forced to delay this a little bit. And for a good reason. In the last few weeks the momentum of development has really increased. We did more things than in the previous months combined and I think you'll be quite pleased with results.

As we're nearing completion we decided to freshen up the translations a bit. Most of the "visible" default interface is now localized, which should be enough for most people. We managed to find most of the previous translators for languages, but unfortunately some became unreachable, and we also want to add several new languages. If anyone could translate to one of these that would be great:

JAPANESE

KOREAN

ARABIC

HINDI

CHINESE TRADITIONAL

VIETNAMESE

INDONESIAN

And these languages we want to revive:

UKRAINAIN

(90% finished, translating only a few strings)

Everyone who contributes a translation will get the contrib pack of course, and your name will be visible on the language selection screen. If you know this language and have even the slightest interest in Rainmeter, please send me a note and we can negotiate the conditions if you have any

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On a side note, ~Xyrfo made some really awesome stuff detailing the development of Omnimo:



And check out the live stats: [link]

Oh and Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates!

Just got a Dribbble invite. I would like to thank `arrioch for inviting me! It's such an honor to be invited by a professional icon designer Check out his gallery for some amazing icon artwork.


"Dribbble is show and tell for designers. Players share shots - small screenshots of the designs and applications they are working on." In other words, a community for designers to showcase their work, but only kinda (by using 400x300 images). A great source for design inspiration too!


I'll be posting my design related side-projects there. My DeviantArt account has since long become a source for customization resources, so I just needed another place to post my design stuff (and I have quite a few of such projects, unseen by anyone before). I'll still be posting my regular submissions here on DeviantArt, but if you want to see my other creative side, feel free to follow me on Dribbble.

Here is my profile: [link]

Debut shot:




I have some interesting plans for the next version, unfortunately not enough new stuff/panels for a major version release. Let's wait till February and Windows 8 Public Beta. That should give me some stuff to work on, more specifically, interesting new Windows 8 Panels and functionality delivered to Omnimo.

Thanks for reading, have a nice day!

Hello everyone. It has been a while since I posted the "next revision" teaser showing off the improved Windows 8 look in Omnimo (screenshot below). I must say that I expected to release this update sooner, but I've been really busy lately. It's summer, you say? Well this could be very well my last summer in my hometown as I could be moving to Denmark for studies and there are a lot of things to take care of. The biggest burden for me so far was the driving theory exam, which I passed recently (Still need to prepare for the hardest practical part, though).
Anyway, after that I got a little more time to work on the Omnimo update.  It's a little bit more difficult as I no longer have help (~Xyrfo had to leave so he can study for his senior high school year), but I'll get there.




So far the work has been going pretty smoothly. The panels are mostly done with an addition of two new panels made by Omnimo fans (to be included along with the pack). I'm thinking of dividing them into two Addon packs like I did with all installed panels to avoid the bloat (quot jsmorley: which is already measured in metric tons without the downloadable content). Of course I'll include them in the 50+, err 60+ pack too.
I'm currently not finished with the Windows 8 Shortcuts gallery, because there are quite a lot of apps to have shortcuts with...

Aside from the fixes, optimizations, new panels and other stuff, there's one thing you should be looking forward to in this next update: The Extras Gallery. That's right, the chaotic small "extras" which can only be accessed through the context menu will finally be categorized. I also added quite a few new extras which I think will be very useful.




I already addressed most of the community reported issues (although some are unresolvable), I was wondering if any of you found some issues that could be fixed in this version. Feel free to report a bug in the comments or send me an email at omnimosupport.

As usual, suggestions are welcome. New panel ideas? Some useful extra, perhaps something that isn't even related to Metro/Win8 but could be included anyway, I'm all ears. Last time I didn't get many suggestions, though...


I'm glad you asked! The answer is yes, but not right now. Currently I chose to hold on to this project and keep enhancing it as it proved to be a incredibly useful resource for the customization community. And not only in the Windows 8/Metro UI aspect. In fact, my theory is that once Windows 8 will be released with the start screen, people will port it to windows 7 and Vista just like that. Kind of like the Windows Sidebar was ported to XP. So while Omnimo won't serve the purpose of being a Windows 8 resource, it will definitely be used by people who just want to customize their desktop regardless if it's to imitate a new OS or not. Did you know that most people who use Omnimo change the layout to something completely different? I was surprised to see that too, but I'm also glad that people make use of the customization freedom in this project we worked so hard to implement. As long as there will be demand, I'll keep this project alive. After it dies down a little, I guess I can go back to regular customization.


Now this is a project that deserves recognition for its delay. We completely halted it and turned our focus to Omnimo. Mostly because iShortcuts is nothing compared to Omnimo, and we are worried it will disappoint because feature wise, it's not that great. Who would want to replace their real-time desktop icons with a static but pretty looking Rainmeter based icons? I don't know, I wouldn't. However something tells me a lot of people would use it anyway. In fact, I get several comments per month asking about that project. If there will be demand for this project, I think I could restart it and release it. But in no way it will be a bang...


On a completely unrelated note - I recently started building a small media library for when (if) I go to Denmark. Does anyone know any awesome TV Shows and Movies which are an absolute must watch? I would appreciate if you could tell me.


Omnimo 4.1 Soon. Bugs or suggestions? Still want iShortcuts? Any good tv shows/movies?

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That is all. Thanks for reading!

Contest is over
Well, we didn't receive many entries like last one, but some of the entries were incredible!



1st prize: Permafrost by ~chrislangle
Smooth and professional, yet simple and elegant. A clear winner right here.


2nd prize: Omnimo skins by ~milanioom
A interesting and stylish execution. Well done!


3rd prize: Omnimo skinning entry by *Balderoine
Professionally made Metro skin concepts (although not completely possible in Omnimo)


Unfortunately due to the fact that we didn't receive many entries, we didn't really have much to chose from, this is why we're changing the rules a bit. Everyone who participated gets some points! I think that's fair for everyone, a small reward for your work

Update: This is what I'm talking about. Looks like DA admins WANT stolen/virus infected deviations in their gallery. I have no further comment
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As most of you probably noticed, some troll has been stealing popular rainmeter themes and other skins, submitting them with a stealth Trojan. This has been going on for days, and the deviantArt administrators have proven to be either unable or unwilling to resolve this issue. I sent a note to Moonbeam13, director of community relations, which was epically ignored (though read). I can't believe how easy DeviantArt is being played, just ONE troll can cause such havoc in a entire customization community. This shows how completely unprotected deviantArt really is, remember the outside link login trick a few years back? Yeah that's why we have a outgoing page on every link now, even this: [link] But at least it was resolved. I'm beginning to think that if just one low life hack can infect a bunch of noobs (plentiful on this site) more attacks are soon to follow. It's evident from the nature of the attacks, at first the asshole stole only a few skins, but then started stealing more and more, including Omnimo. You'll find a list of just a few deviations stolen on the bottom of this page. I'd like to thank jsmorley, varelse42 and karmat111 for continuous attempts to notify the community and administrators. Though so far, looking at the download counts and for how long deviations stay online the administrative response seems ineffective...


Basically to avoid getting infected - do NOT download any shady looking skins. Here's how to determine one:

> The comments are disabled
> The "artist" joined Today or this Week
> "Artist" has no avatar
> Comments are hidden on their page
> Skin looks familiar or too good to be his
> Filesize is too small
> Archive contains a .exe (there are almost NO skins that have a exe installer, remember that!)

More info:
:thumb205462108:

Use VirusTotal.com to scan the archives, but keep in mind, that sometimes they're not detected!


:thumb205459613: :thumb205287434: :thumb205288224: :thumb205453427: :thumb205462624:
~GrieveLogs and ~fatalmmm have not been banned at the time of writing this journal. You can help by reporting the stolen deviations.

Note: The original deviations can be found by browsing this page: [link]

Today is the 1 year anniversary since we released Omnimo. A humble project, which was intended to have no more than 12 blue panels turned out to be one of the most interactive and customizable Rainmeter suites ever! A little known fact, that Omnimo was originally supposed to be this [link] journal CSS, not the Rainmeter suite. However after showcasing the CSS we got the idea of putting it on the desktop too, and as you can see, it was a pretty damn good idea. Our project is now much more than a mere imitation of WP7 (which was the initial goal). With the incredible amount of configs and configuration options it gave Rainmeter users a completely new way to stylize their desktop. What surprised us the most, is that most people using Omnimo don't go for the default WP7 look which comes as standard - they usually customize it to their liking, so almost no desktop is alike with Omnimo. The development was a great challenge for us, we tried to deliver innovative solutions and features for the users' convenience. A great deal of time was spent making those. And to this day Omnimo remains one of the most complex Rainmeter suites ever made. I wish to thank everybody for contributing to its successful reception and especially to the people who donated!


Currently workflow has came to a complete halt due to the fact that I'm currently busy with my upcoming exams and my foreign university application. However after this is sorted we plan on continuing our projects as well as releasing the much awaited 3.2 update to Omnimo which fixes some minor bugs and annoyances gathered from our email support survey. The biggest feature we'll try to revive is going to be languages, and this time done right - we'll include it with the product instead of making you download it through the site. One feature I'm looking forward to including in Omnimo is Aero Blur behind every panel - yes you read it right, Poiru recently informed me that this feature is in the works and it might be included in the latest Rainmeter beta!


Like I mentioned before, currently the time isn't quite right to work on these, but this doesn't mean we won't continue working on those as soon as possible. I'm also looking into completing a certain Mac related customization item in the near future.

That is all folks!

Thanks to everyone for participating! The contest received more entries than we anticipated, a whooping 61 desktops! It wasn't easy picking the winners, since there were a lot of great desktops, but we have come to the following decisions... *drumroll*



Congratulations to ~reb70 for making one of the most original and eye pleasing compositions with omnimo. Who could have thought that Zune happens to look like metro too?


~computerdummy5's eye catching desktops received a lot of attention from the beginning, we wish to thank him for his effort by awarding the second prize


A complex yet unique composition by ~blissBOT which earned them the 3rd place


» 1st place: 800 goes to ~reb70
» 2nd place: 400 goes to ~computerdummy5
» 3rd place: 200 goes to ~blissBOT
Proof of transaction: [link]


Your desktops were judged by the overall originality and impact, comparing each aspect of every desktop. A group decision has been made to determine the winners.

The competition was judged by:

Time for some random features... Thanks to Xyrfo for helping me pick them.

btw After Omnimo 2 and iPhone Clock 3, I'll release Metro styled journal skins


P.S. If you know a good (preferably customization related) deviation that needs exposure, post it in the comments!

And the 1000th llama is...

[link] (=Chevees)


CONGRATURATION, You win 10 points.

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My goal is achieved now, happy Easter

Along with the Omnimo 3 release, we decided to hold a omnimo desktop competition. It's your chance to show off your awesome omnimo setup and win points!


» Omnimo must be used as the centerpiece
» Do not use any socially unacceptable material on your desktop
» You may enter up to 3 screenshots
» Screenshots must be preferably PNG and submitted to Customization>Screenshots>Windows
» List the items you used on your desktop
» Submit a entry with a thumbnail or a link here, do NOT send any notes
» Your account must be more or less active and made at least a month BEFORE this contest


A original layout with a great balance of minimalism, elegance and style. You can use the default settings in omnimo color gallery, but also ad your own skins, fonts and images. Please keep in mind that sometimes less is more. However, your desktop doesn't have to be perfect to win, if you think your desktop looks great, don't hesitate to submit it! Who knows? Maybe you'll win!


» 1st place: 636 (or a 3 Month subscription)
» 2nd place: 318
» 3rd place: 159


Your desktops will be judged by the requirements above. If the winning desktop happens to be highly attractive, it will be made a theme. We reserve the right to change the course of the contest - the prizes may or may not increase, and the top 3 voting, if tough, might be made into a public poll.

The competition will be judged by:



Winners will be announced on January 14th 2011

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