What’s Happening at ThePremiumPress …?
We’ve had a lot of inquiries as to when gMaps will be WordPress 3.0 compatible, and even more requests regarding the arrival of RadioPress and BuddyCommerce.
It’s been a while since we published any new posts, but have been staying active on Twitter, so for those still using RSS or email subscriptions, or for anyone visiting our site by chance, we wanted to give you an update on where we are and what is coming…
As you may or may not know, ThePremiumPress is a brand that is managed by NI-Limits, a legal business entity based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. NI-Limits has needed to continue focusing on client projects in order to best support ThePremiumPress brand, as such, the majority of our resources have not been available for ThePremiumPress.
At the moment, all of ThePremiumPress development is being singularly focused on the next version of gMaps. But this is not just another minor version of gMaps, this is drastic stuff, and will result in the release of gMaps 2.0, which is in the process of becoming a full-fledged geo-tagging theme framework that utilizes parent and child themes to separate functionality and style.
This new version is fully 3.0 compatible and will support the latest versions of BuddyPress too. With the introduction of it becoming a theme framework, all of the heavy geo-tagging functionality will be placed in the parent theme, which out-of-the-box features 3 types of user interface (sidebar, dialog window and map only) and 4 different theme styles (blue, orange, dark and gray) – it also supports custom styles and has a user-friendly way of managing and storing styles, which once set up, can then be used on any child theme too, and it’s with the child themes where anything is now possible. The child theme we will be including will be a regular blog based theme (as opposed to a full screen map view), and although we could spend hours talking about the new features and functions of the up-coming framework, we’d much rather get on with it…
We will however be posting a teaser soon! 
On an unfortunate note, the project that has suffered the most from our set-backs has been RadioPress. Officially, this project is now 75% complete, but at present, all resources for ThePremiumPress are focused entirely on gMaps 2.0 and active support subscriptions, and will be so until October, at which point we will immediately continue developing RadioPress.
We appreciate all of the positive feedback and support we have been getting from both our paying subscribers and interested fans. It is a pleasure supporting you and are looking forward to the future of gMaps, one that you have helped pave the way towards, and one that we look forward to continuing to support. We know that with the new up-coming framework, there are going to be a lot of developers out there looking for quality commercial support, and know that are the ones that can provide it.
This has been and always will remain our strategy. We are not interested in releasing as many themes or plugins as we can. We are interested in releasing several niche ones that do what they do in the best way imaginable, and continue to support and improve those few and the many people that rely upon them for both personal and commercial projects.
BuddyCommerce is coming along a little quicker than RadioPress as it is something we are experimenting with through NI-Limits projects, as are several other projects such as YourURLs, the TPPO Framework and a few other little tidbits we need to keep under wraps for now. In short, things are going well, but not as well as we would like, yet we’re nonetheless more excited than ever to see what our futures will bring and sincerely hope that those futures continue to involve you all.
Thanks for the update much appreciated – you mention there is big step up with the new release and child themes etc. Will it be a smooth upgrade to upgrade from the current version? I am just wondering if I should hold out until the new version before playing with it so to speak. Thanks for your time.
One of the only things that will remain entirely the same is the places and way we store the geo-data, which we have done on purpose to ensure that anyone upgrading from a previous version of gMaps can continue to use the same data already amassed.
If you are wanting to start getting data (specifically posts) geo-tagged and are happy to use WordPress 2.9.2 to input that data, you could get started now, but if you want to use WordPress 3.0+ or BuddyPress and (or) need to use it within a production environment, its definitely worth holding out for the next version, which we’re doing everything in our power to finish as early as possible.
We were thinking of releasing an alpha version specifically for WordPress 3.0 to existing subscribers, but to be honest, I think we would rather have the entire framework (including BP) ready and already tested (with new child themes) before releasing anything official, but I guess it would depend on the circumstance, if that circumstance was brought to our attention.
Thanks for the prompt reply and seems very exciting indeed. Do you plan to ever make this theme and framework mobile ready for smart phones? Just a thought as its so location based that if it did live on mobile devices it would be extremely handy and extremely powerful. Is this something you are considering or would it only be for custom work? Thanks in advance for your time
After launching gMaps 2.0, our first of the next priorities will be multi-lingual support, but as soon as we are done with that, Mobile compatibility is the next thing we will be addressing…
Thanks for the update much appreciated sounds extremely promising
cant wait
Good luck guys
do your best
I’m waiting for RadioPress
Thanks for the support and encouragement and can assure you that it is at the very top of our list after gMaps 2.0 and other internal projects that getting nearer and nearer to completion.
To be honest, RadioPress is our most exciting project too, it really is a powerful piece of software that will allow anyone to create their own audio broadcasting services.
I’m really looking forward to this, think I’ll hold off putting our site live because of the changes so we’re starting from an uptodate platform.
Keep up the good work
Seymour
Well worth waiting, as gMaps 2.0 is WP3.0+ and BP 1.2.5+ compatible. Since you’re an existing subscriber, we will be in contact soon with early access to the Alpha release if you are interested in testing things out early, but that will be another week or two from now…
Do you have a date for the gmap V.wordpress 3.0
According to our present project plan, the initial release of gPress 2.0 (alpha) is scheduled for the 18th of September 2010, but we were initially hoping to release this alpha version a week or two earlier than that, which is why we had no plans on publicly putting an exact date to it…