Just a couple of thoughts regarding the ReCast product.
1. Context menu on the system tray icon. Put the most common controls on a popup menu, including record, stop, mute, exit and the favorites. Favorites could go on a sub-menu.
1a. Change the system tray icon to _clearly_ indicate Recast's recording status.
2. Minimal interface. The current window is cool for full control, but for just listening a much smaller (think WinAmp tiny sized for some idea of what I mean) window is necssary. Just something that you wouldn't mind eating a portion of your desktop for info/minimal control. This would be a good place to re-use the system tray's context menu.
When I am listening in WinAmp, I keep it minimized to the 1 line mode most of the time, set to "stay on top" and parked on a menu bar. I'll try to come up with a screen capture, since I'm having a hard time clearly explaining this.
3. A "Stop" button. When I was having trouble with Recast (it kept blue-screening my computer), I had a heck of a time making configuration changes, because the very act of having Recast open and active caused the crash. We need to capability to have Recast open, active, but not recording/playing anything.
4. Not really a feature, and a support ticket is forthcoming, but clean up the owner-draw windows and controls. They frequently leave "crud" behind on my desktop/other apps. I have to minimize/maximize the other apps to get them to redraw and clear the crud.
In the same vein, the owner draw borders are not active for focus actions. For example, when I click on the thick border at the bottom of the Recast window (frequently the only part of the window that shows on my destop as it gets covered by other app windows), nothing happens. Extend the app window size and draw the border inside the app's context if necesarry, but make every pixel drawn by Recast active for grabbing focus.
1. Context menu on the system tray icon. Put the most common controls on a popup menu, including record, stop, mute, exit and the favorites. Favorites could go on a sub-menu.
1a. Change the system tray icon to _clearly_ indicate Recast's recording status.
2. Minimal interface. The current window is cool for full control, but for just listening a much smaller (think WinAmp tiny sized for some idea of what I mean) window is necssary. Just something that you wouldn't mind eating a portion of your desktop for info/minimal control. This would be a good place to re-use the system tray's context menu.
When I am listening in WinAmp, I keep it minimized to the 1 line mode most of the time, set to "stay on top" and parked on a menu bar. I'll try to come up with a screen capture, since I'm having a hard time clearly explaining this.
3. A "Stop" button. When I was having trouble with Recast (it kept blue-screening my computer), I had a heck of a time making configuration changes, because the very act of having Recast open and active caused the crash. We need to capability to have Recast open, active, but not recording/playing anything.
4. Not really a feature, and a support ticket is forthcoming, but clean up the owner-draw windows and controls. They frequently leave "crud" behind on my desktop/other apps. I have to minimize/maximize the other apps to get them to redraw and clear the crud.
In the same vein, the owner draw borders are not active for focus actions. For example, when I click on the thick border at the bottom of the Recast window (frequently the only part of the window that shows on my destop as it gets covered by other app windows), nothing happens. Extend the app window size and draw the border inside the app's context if necesarry, but make every pixel drawn by Recast active for grabbing focus.