We hear you loud and clear. We’ve been juggling a lot, but we fully understand how you want to see what iConsole is before you use it.

Stay tuned, we promise to have full screenshots of everything from the install, to iConsole’s awesomeness, to what’s next… some time next week.

Our CEO, Christopher Price, will be speaking at Google giving a public presentation of iConsole and a sneak preview at what’s to come in future versions.

Date: Monday, April 19
Time: 7 to 9 PM
Location: Eagle Passage Tech Talk Room @ Google, 1098 Alta Avenue, Mountain View, California
Directions: Here

Special thanks to SVMUG for arranging the tech talk.

The Support Wiki will be updated with a how-to for upgrading if you have a previous Alpha 1 release. This release is significantly larger, 794 MB, and we’re updating all the notices to reflect that. While our goal is always to be smaller than a 700 MB CD-R, we felt these changes were important enough to get out the door as quickly as possible.

To download Alpha 1v3, just go to iConsole.vg and click the big red download button.

We expect (hope) this is the final release is in the Alpha 1 branch. Alpha 2 work is getting underway, and will include new features, and major improvements to the iConsole interface.

Unfortunately, the lawyers won’t let us say exactly why iConsole Alpha 1 was delayed. But, the good news is that the code is done. That’s right, finished, and being minted onto golden master discs later today. Everyone already signed up on iConsole.vg will be able to download by the end of the month (and probably a lot sooner).

We’ve added some last minute features and cut a few back, but we think we’re off to a great start with Alpha 1. Thanks for staying with us while help pave the way for the future of open source television and gaming.

iConsole Forums

We do encourage you to sign up early, as at some point we’ll have to hold people over to a second wave.

Oh, and if you’ve already been to iConsole.vg, we’ve made a few tweaks this morning… so head back over. But, if you’re really in a hurry, here’s a direct link to sign up for the alpha.

As you may have noticed, the signup process creates a MechaWorks ID, something we’ve teased in the past. In the near future, this will give you centralized access to iConsole downloads, support, discussion, and connecting to the iConsole platform in the clouds.

What’s next? We’re putting all our resources into the Alpha 1 release set for next month, still a little bit of work to be done on that. While it is an very-first-alpha release, we want to make sure we can avoid as many show-stoppers as possible.

So, yes, we’ve been building the iConsole. No more goofy code-names like Full Circle. Everything we touted with Full Circle will eventually make its way into the iConsole, but we’re taking the time to do this right. You’ll find more details about our release cycle and milestones over on the new site.

Here’s the deal. We previously announced MechaWorks ID, a unified login that was going to work across Newsroom Network and Full Circle, as well as the other stuff we’re working on. That was a “goof” because we already announced Newsroom Network was being spun off, into a separate company. Obviously, MechaWorks and Newsroom Network aren’t going to be sharing logins.

Full Circle will have a robust ID system, and that is the MechaWorks ID that we teased previously. Newsroom Network is getting a copy of this system for its sites, but the two won’t talk to one another… we like to think of it as a parting gift for Newsroom Network, as it goes into its own company. If you’re already on one of our sites (PhoneNews.com, DealNewsroom.com, etc), that login information will be migrated to the “Newsroom Network ID” (that may not be the final name for it). For Full Circle, you’ll have to re-register over here for a MechaWorks ID.

We hate when we make mistakes, and we just wanted to clear the air. Come January 1, MechaWorks and Newsroom Network are going their own separate ways. Each are benefitting from the great technology that we’ve been building over the past few years, but each company’s set of goals are going in different directions that make this necessary.

Full Circle will start to take shape in the next week. A signup form will be offered. First-come, first served. Sign up early for the alpha.

Our jobs page is half-online right now. We’ll update when it’s back in the next day or so.