January 29, 2007

Minted

Huzzah! Today is a big day for a close friend: Shaun Inman has released Mint 2, a snazzy update to his website stat tracking application. I’ve been helping out (alongside the other crumb-bums) with beta-testing for months now, and I can tell you first hand, this is a significant upgrade. To be honest, I didn’t know what more Shaun could add to Mint 1. It already tracked stats well, it had my favorite feature: a Referrer RSS feed, and it looked really nice. Mint 2 brings a slew of UI enhancements, like an improved interface design, more pane layout options, and support for custom styles, just to name a few. It evens supports IE PC now, if that’s the way you swing. All of the default Peppers have been updated, and some new ones have hit the scene, like my favorite: Birdfeeder, a pepper that tracks your site’s RSS feeds, collectively and individually, for number of subscribers and for “seeds” (links clicked from your feeds).

Shaun also gave the Mint site a full overhaul. He created a new account center and integrated forums that use the same login, as well as a flag to identify registered users so that he can stop giving support to software pirates. Yar! Lastly, a new section of the site, Peppermill, tracks and collects pepper releases and updates (even for third-party pepper), so that you can always stay up to date with the best digs. Check out more of the new Mint’s feature highlights.

Shaun has really outdone himself this time… again. As beta-testers, we got to help refine features through our whining and complaining, and eventually, we broke him down. It’s a smoother experience throughout, and well-worth the paltry upgrade. Mint is still my favorite stats package around, and I’m picky as hell. Oh, and when you’re done checking out the new Mint, you might notice that Shaun updated that other site of his too. You can’t stop that guy!

Commentary (8):

1. Smallest Photo says… jan 29, 2007 | 9:13 am

I can’t wait to upgrade. I too can’t imagine how on earth Mint could get any better so I’ll upgrade for that reason alone.

2. Daniel Carvalho says… jan 29, 2007 | 9:16 am

I’ve always loved Shaun Inman’s design for the Mint sites, formatting is so good, clean and clear. I spend most my time just admiring that. No one can make forms and tabular data look as sexy as he has.

3. Angelo says… jan 29, 2007 | 9:35 am

D’oh! I purchased my license in late December.


Version 2 looks nice anyway. Not sure if I’ll upgrade for a bit, see how it works out for people.

Also, I wonder if you would you retain your license to v1 if you upgrade? Newer is not always better.

4. Ranjani says… jan 29, 2007 | 7:53 pm

If he changed his first name to “Magic”, that would explain a lot about where these crazy and splendiferous things came from. Like the Easter Bunny. Can I credit that to him as well?

Honestly, Shaun’s been on a roll in the past few months. First, we had the Heap, and now even more color changing frenzy! And Mint 2 to boot. I’m pretty sure we can deify him now, for fear of smitage if nothing else.

5. apartness says… jan 30, 2007 | 5:41 pm

He making the rest of us look lazy and bad.

6. Steve Williams says… jan 31, 2007 | 10:37 am

I’m amazed Shaun was able to put down the Wii controller for long enough to revamp si.com, let alone 2 sites and a V2 app!

I have a slew of Mint installs for client sites - is there a must-have feature that would make the upgrade worthwhile for the non-bloggers? I didn’t come across anything in the release notes that jumped out…

7. Jason Santa Maria says… jan 31, 2007 | 10:40 am

Steve Williams:

I have a slew of Mint installs for client sites - is there a must-have feature that would make the upgrade worthwhile for the non-bloggers?

It’s just a tighter application all round. It depends on what needs those clients sites have as well, some of the new pepper (like Birdfeeder) are compelling enough reasons to upgrade.

8. Ian Adams says… feb 2, 2007 | 6:53 pm

I’m really glad he gives an upgrade discount. I’ll be getting my Mint upgraded after I finish settling into my new apartment. I love the first version, and those screenshots for v2 look great!