So, what's "new"?

[RayC]

I hate to sound cynical, but looking at the feature list leaves me wondering what is truly new in NOF12.

I imagine there will be more detailed information to come, and perhaps the "glass half full" view is N.O. has put this info up for the benefit of those of us that have been wondering "when".

Can we assume that any feature that does NOT have a beside it is the same old, same old, like E-commerce component, Photo Gallery, Forms, etc.?

I'll be curious to see more details on all it has to offer. Does anyone have an official User Guide that they can share (legally)? It's not available for download yet, and the online Web Help is text only and very general.

What might be nice is if someone from N.O. (after they're done simultaneously celebrating the new year and all their hard work, of course ) would post a thread for each main feature, spelling out in more detail how it works. Or perhaps some Beta Testers and Early Adopters could do the same.

[chuckj]

NetObjects will have to expound on their plans for the future of XII.

I can say that they've put a lot of work in to the "under the hood" stuff. The program is much faster, with a number of memory leaks being fixed.

As for features, the changes are relatively subtle with the focus apparently on addressing things like the generated code and backing up your site and such.

To some users, there may be a "killer" feature or two new in XII that qualifies it as a new release. To others, it may look like it should have just been an update to Fusion 11.

I took the XII feature list and trimmed out the old. Here: http://www.beyondfusion.com/html/fusion12.php

In some ways, CloudBurst may be the most important new feature. It depends on what they do with it.

I have a feeling they intend to be more aggressive with pushing out new add-ons and maybe even program updates that add new features.

We'll see.

[JLewis]

Chuck Joslin reports that NO 12 is much faster. I actually consider this to be one of the new "killer" features. Under "Enhancements" on the opening screen, the only one I have not installed is the "Stock Photos." I looked at the license agreement and it's so long and complicated that I didn't want to spend an hour studying it. And I remember the stories of of NO users getting warning letters about copyright infringement—and worse. Do we have any reason for the same concerns with NO 12's stock photos? Overall, I am very excited to see NO 12. The major feature of NO 12 to me is just the signal it sends letting us know that someone is still home at NO. I hope that as 2011 unfolds, we see something new on the NO website on a regular basis to let us know that the lights are still on. All the best to NO in 2011. Happy New Year!

[RayC]

Don't get me wrong; "under the hood" improvement is good. Better stability, Win7 compatibility, PNG support (Yay ), guidance for mobile compatible pages/sites are all very welcome.

But it's always nice to have new "toys", and some documented improvements to some of the more flaky components would also be appreciated.

For example, "Cloudburst" appears to be merely a replacement for the MIA Website Pros links from the front page, so at least the links won't produce a 404 error. Is there more to it? Can't tell.

Is "Image Bank" just a stock photo service? Or cloud storage of all one's images? Will NOF owners, like Franko's Food Fotos, be able to sell their images through it and earn commissions? Can't tell.

Anyway, I'm "cautiously optimistic", but need some more details to become convinced it's worth the upgrade.

[franko]

Image Bank is one of the oldest established photo libraries in the world and is now owned by Getty Images. The name and trade mark is owned by Getty Images. As I'm currently in the process of uninstalling my beta copy of 12 to install the retail version, I can't actually check out whether or not the NoF Image Bank is licenced by Getty Images or not.

[RayC]

Image Bank is one of the oldest established photo libraries in the world and is now owned by Getty Images. The name and trade mark is owned by Getty Images.

Hmm... Does that mean no more copyright infringement lawsuits when using NOF template/styles?

[Liz]

Chuck,

Thanks for that list. For my basic use, the automatic template backup and increased speed will be the most important new features.

liz

[franko]

On further checking, the stock image library used by NoF is fotolia which is Europe's largest stock image library, so I can't imagine any copyright issues arising as happened under Website Pros' ownership. NoF is simply using the words 'Image Bank' as a title for a part of the application and not using them as a name for a stock library. I already am a member of fotolia and have a few images listed with them. As most of what I shoot is on assignment I cannot place too many images in stock libraries, although I will be shooting more stock in the future now that I'm semi-retired.

[dove-7]

I haven't seen all of the specs on this, but the details don't seem to be anything major. What I want to see, and maybe they already have this feature, a feature where I can design my own rollover buttons aka java vs. being stuck with only layover buttons that they give us. Coding, need more control of the coding/html.

[City Builder]

Updated, New and more robust components would have sold me on this version. However if they remain the same that was in NO 11, then for me, I have no real reason to give up another $108.00 to them. It seems they are relying on 3rd parties to sell their applications that are replacements for their own components which doesn't sit well with me at all. The forums last time that I read them were chocked full of advise about ditching this component or that component in favor of using a 3rd party program. Oh well... Maybe in NO 13 they will also concentrate on making their components more robust, more feature rich, and work on a bigger scale.