[Mac] / [WoW] - CloneKeys Demo Movie

[rjenkins8142]

I've created a new program for the Mac called CloneKeys. I mostly wrote it for myself, so I can multi-box on my Mac, but I'll probably release it to the public soon. I'll probably release it under the GPL (open source) and just ask for Donations from people that find it useful.

Basically, it's very similar to Keyclone for Windows, but coded from scratch for the Mac.

Here's a short demo movie of it in action:

http://files.filefront.com/clonekeysmov/;8585768;/fileinfo.html

[Toy]

No offense intended, i'm sure it's a great program. But honestly

Keyclone

Now Clonekey.

I'd reccomend altering the name.

Being original is win! :)

[rjenkins8142]

Well, that's kind of the whole point. It's a program very, very similar to keyclone, just for a different platform. Thus I thought it was very fitting to use a similar name.

Keyclone is PC only. CloneKeys is Mac only. Keyclone is closed source, $10 a copy. CloneKeys will be open source and free.

Don't get me wrong, I think keyclone is an awesome program. I gladly paid my $10 for my copy. If keyclone were available for the Mac, there really wouldn't be a need for my program. There's just nothing similar for the Mac at this time, and it's my preferred platform.

The goal isn't to be original, it's to give Mac users the first really good way to send keys to multiple applications at the same time, and I thought I'd give back to the multi-boxing community by announcing it here first.

[Jezebel]

i have to agree with other posters.. using the success of a completely unrelated product (especially one that isnt open source) to promote a program of your own is a bit underhanded.. especially since the author of keyclone may decide to upgrade support for macs at some point. nothing wrong with offering an alternative, but that alternative should be marketed on its own merits.

[zanthor]

As a software developer I see nothing wrong with this. Keyclone may feel differently, however if he does I'm sure he'll ask the OP to go ahead and change the name. For fucks sake, the guy hasn't even released it at this time!

As for releasing KeyClone on the Mac, it would be a complete rework and since Mac's make up about 15% of the market I would guess it wouldn't be worth learning unless you were already involved. One of the major reasons I haven't flipped to Mac (and with Parralells (SP) this reasons becoming less by the day) is that I don't want to have to run two systems at home so I can still do my work...

Anyhow, it's a slick looking mac app similar to Keyclone, which is exactly what the OP said it was... if the name offends Keyclone, he'll speak up.

[zanthor]

The goal isn't to be original, it's to give Mac users the first really good way to send keys to multiple applications at the same time, and I thought I'd give back to the multi-boxing community by announcing it here first.

That said, how about we all just try and get along ;). The mac users of the world need SOME love, they are already the pariah in so many other ways!

[Jezebel]

Anyhow, it's a slick looking mac app similar to Keyclone, which is exactly what the OP said it was... if the name offends Keyclone, he'll speak up.

im sure he will. thats not really the issue, though. it would have been polite to ask the author of keyclone if it would be a problem before advertising it on the forum.. or before blatantly mimicking the title to begin with. keyclone has put in a lot of time and effort over years developing his product.. it seems disrespectful to me for another person to come along after 5 minutes and rip off the name without even a conversation with the original author.

[Rin]

Anyhow, it's a slick looking mac app similar to Keyclone, which is exactly what the OP said it was... if the name offends Keyclone, he'll speak up.

im sure he will. thats not really the issue, though. it would have been polite to ask the author of keyclone if it would be a problem before advertising it on the forum.. or before blatantly mimicking the title to begin with. keyclone has put in a lot of time and effort over years developing his product.. it seems disrespectful to me for another person to come along after 5 minutes and rip off the name without even a conversation with the original author.

*nods at Jezebel*, I think Jezebel is right here, folks. Say you owned the trademark for Aston Martin and someone came along with a car that looked the same, felt the same, but had a couple of different gadgets inside and called their product Martin Aston... Set your knowledge of Registrations and Trademarks aside (hence why my fictional example wouldn't ever surface), that's still messed up.

[Shogun]

Anyhow, it's a slick looking mac app similar to Keyclone, which is exactly what the OP said it was... if the name offends Keyclone, he'll speak up.

im sure he will. thats not really the issue, though. it would have been polite to ask the author of keyclone if it would be a problem before advertising it on the forum.. or before blatantly mimicking the title to begin with. keyclone has put in a lot of time and effort over years developing his product.. it seems disrespectful to me for another person to come along after 5 minutes and rip off the name without even a conversation with the original author.

*nods at Jezebel*, I think Jezebel is right here, folks. Say you owned the trademark for Aston Martin and someone came along with a car that looked the same, felt the same, but had a couple of different gadgets inside and called their product Martin Aston... Set your knowledge of Registrations and Trademarks aside (hence why my fictional example wouldn't ever surface), that's still messed up.

And then pretend that the first car can only be driven on Earth, while the other can only be used on Mars. One's for PC, and the other is on the Mac, and he's not making money off of the name

[Rin]

Right.

@Shogun - Then why not come up with an original name? It's not about him making money off of the name, its merely good ethical practice to come up with something original when naming products. Or would you disagree with this too?

[rjenkins8142]

I've already decided to change the name before I officially release the app. Mostly because I don't really care what it's called either way.

No idea yet what I'll rename it to, but whatever. Maybe something like "KeyCloneClone" :shock: *just kidding* :)

[Shogun]

Right.

@Shogun - Then why not come up with an original name? It's not about him making money off of the name, its merely good ethical practice to come up with something original when naming products. Or would you disagree with this too?

I agree totally with the unoriginal part, but I just don't think it's as big of a deal as some of the previous comments, so I was being an ass for the sake of it ;)

[zanthor]

How about naming it "Too many people with no vested interest had an opinion"? I mean it wont fit under an icon very well, but I bet the domain name is available ;).

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I hate to sound pricklish but in the future, I suggest you folks take it to PMs if you have issues with someone's creative decisions, especially when you're operating on false assumptions. I'd also suggest that you give the KeyClone author credit for having the gumption and wherewithal to handle this personally if he/she has issues with it.

I'd really like to see our forums remain free of needless thread hijacks.


Back on a more positive note, thanks to the OP for contributing something worthwhile to a part of the community that I'm sure appreciates having this tool available. ;) /beersalute

[Ticks]

How ironic; the community gave keyclone almost the same exact shit when he first announce his application. I swear people just can't keep their opinions to themselves.

My hats off to both developers and to reiterate Ughmahedhurtz, thanks for helping the community with your time and effort.

[Mons]

You are all missing the point:

This app kicks arse for mac users expecially the ones on intel, laptops etc. If you have a mac book pro you can now effortlessly run 4 copies of wow and two box 5 toons.
I tried it and it is 100 times better than anything Butler or Ikey can do, it is faster and more efficient and the screens do not have to sequence as you press a key.

This application alone is going to open the doors to the whole mac community in multi-boxing by making it cash efficient (no need to buy 4 machines, 4 copies of windows etc.).

I can t wait for this to support key clicks from xkeys. Once it does the sky is the limit for us mac users. Thank you so much again for making this app.

[Ellay]

I appreciate the effort done as well, could you make a post on the general forums so I can move it to the software section where it can have it's own thread to help others, along with a guide/ download.

[keyclone]

i don't really mind what he calls it... entirely up to him. i would appreciate some mention on the UI for keyclone as to its basis of inspiration. (clickable link would also be nice).

as for CloneKey in particular... be careful.. as far as i can tell, those macro capabilities (which i specifically avoided) would make it a bannable product. no macros, no timed or delayed actions... otherwise, ban-hammer.

i would also be willing to work with the author to coordinate protocols so it could connect to keyclone from other pcs. this would enable full mac & pc support using the 2 apps. (do you know UDP?) of course, the only problem here would be the difference between platforms and how key events are handled.

hotstrings would be portable though

[rjenkins8142]

I appreciate that Keyclone... Since you don't care, I'll probably leave the name as is, and I'll definitely provide links to keyclone for the PC folks. I'll send you a PM on coordinating protocols, which I think is an awesome idea.

As for Macros, I don't plan to support anything like that. Just a straight cloning of pressed keys. I don't even plan to support keymaps like keyclone does (at least initially).

[Jezebel]

And then pretend that the first car can only be driven on Earth, while the other can only be used on Mars. One's for PC, and the other is on the Mac, and he's not making money off of the name

its not about money and its not about taking away his customers. its about respecting a solid product by not potentially damaging its reputation and validity by immitating its title with an unproven product. if keyclone is happy to let it be, thats great. my point was that it would have been nice if people had been considerate enough to check that before posting.


as for CloneKey in particular... be careful.. as far as i can tell, those macro capabilities (which i specifically avoided) would make it a bannable product. no macros, no timed or delayed actions... otherwise, ban-hammer.

and, since its open source (and thus changeable) blizzard has no guarantee or control or communication over its functionality, and has a basically identical name as yours.. i wouldnt be surprised at all to see a company like blizzard lump them all into one basket and ban the lot because one tard decides to use it to bot. when youre dealing with a product name theres a lot to consider.


How about naming it "Too many people with no vested interest had an opinion"? I mean it wont fit under an icon very well, but I bet the domain name is available ;).

read above to see my vested interest =P i have 6 PC's that run keyclone in multiple games as my primary method of broadcasting keys. if keyclone gets banned because of poorly thought out immitation software i will not be pleased.

[unit187]

when a person hears something like "you need to buy keyclone, thats cool program bla bla bla", he goes on web and sees an app called clonekey and thinks it is the software he was looking for and downloads it, trying to install and stuff...
just a bit confusing nameing :P

[Mons]

Since I am a marketing person, I am sorry but I can t help talking about the name.

I would recommend naming the app: iClone

- There are no current mac apps called iclone
- It frees you from the keyclone similarities in the name and does not introduce confusion
- It follows the apple i applications naming convention for mac apps

The logo could easily be a single keyboard key with half of its body going into a motion blur to another idientical key. Like two keys next to each other and morphing into each other...you get the idea.

[keyclone]

i can see where the 'iClone' name would come from... but aren't people starting to see the i<put your program name here> gimmick to be a bit too much like the 'McBurger' thing?

[unit187]

IPod... I mean McBurger... :P


so no, not really

[MyLock]

I'm dieing to utilize your app! I'd love to help test it out or whatever I can do... I'm hoping to use it on a dual Mac Mini (each running 2 versions of WOW) and a iMac (with a single instance running) all tied together with synergy and you app as the missing link to complete it!

[Mons]

There are tons of Iapplications out there as well as companies. If you are the first one to release an iapp apple can do crap about it besides asking you for it. Only if a company has registered a trademark can you have a problem...but fine lets move away from the iapp then. Here are a couple other ideas

Keycast
Keycaster
Keystorm
Casterkey
MacKeys
eClone
Keybroadcater

[shivetya]

by chance have you release this rj?

iKeyClone :P


I would very much like to use my iMac exclusively for "multiboxing" so I am looking for every option I can find