Today we're releasing a new product: Alkaline. It's a desktop application that lets you run Windows browser tests on your Mac, using Litmus.
It even integrates with other Mac applications like Coda and TextMate, so you can run browser tests from right inside these popular design tools.
To see exactly how it works, watch the two minute screencast I recorded earlier today, then download it and try for yourself.
It's interesting that whilst there have been recent announcements from Adobe and Microsoft about their new browser testing software, no-one has so far offered anything specifically for Mac users. We're Mac users ourselves here at Litmus, and I know many of our customers are, too. I hope Alkaline helps to fill that gap.
I know Alkaline 1.0 will be very beneficial to Mac-based web designers, but I'd like to see it evolve into the de-facto testing tool on the Mac. We've got some great ideas for where Alkaline could go in the future, but I'd love to hear yours too.
Either drop us an email, or leave a comment below. Let's talk about how we can make Alkaline the best possible browser testing tool for Mac-based designers.
By the way, Alkaline was built by the folks at Shiny Development. If you're looking for any Mac (or iPhone) application development I'd highly recommend them.
Comments
You just took 50% of the suck out of web development.
Posted by k-ris on March 27, 2009 3:22 AM
Awesome guys. Well done! Looking forward to checking it out. (Now all we need is to be able to test Javascript ; )
Posted by Galen King on March 27, 2009 3:36 AM
Brave - you guys have done it again. Keep up the great work - you are way ahead of the curve.
Posted by Jennifer Gleason on March 27, 2009 4:10 AM
This tool seems to be amazing, I wish I could sing up. staying tuned!!!
Posted by camilo lopez on March 27, 2009 4:34 AM
This totally made my day! The Coda plugin is super sweet too. Thanks guys.
Posted by Michael Castilla on March 27, 2009 4:45 AM
Looks fantastic! Sadly I am still using 10.4... any plans for a Tiger version?
Posted by Christopher Miles on March 27, 2009 7:26 AM
This is an important day in the live of webdesigners, what a great tool, thanks!
Where can I download the Coda Plugin?
Posted by Esther on March 27, 2009 9:09 AM
Congrats on Alkaline! I've often wondered whether I could bring everything into one app, and coupled with the Coda plugin, it's looking really good!
I do have one issue. When I try to connect to a password protected site to browser test using Alkaline, Alkaline asks me to enter in my username and password, but doesn't give me any fields to do so! Is this a bug?
Posted by Ross Chapman on March 27, 2009 11:08 AM
Congrats on launching the new application guys - it looks great!
It's getting some great buzz on Twitter too:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=alkaline
Posted by David Haywood Smith on March 27, 2009 11:13 AM
Very nice, +1 to the Coda plugin.
Posted by Yari on March 27, 2009 12:25 PM
Sorry guys, but I think your are not selling what you are advertising.
Your tool is just for designers, which want to check their web designs, but definitivly not for "web professionals". You could as well use http://browsershots.org/ or every other web based browser screenshot service instead.
Just add javascript testing, multipage testing and a better structured price policy and then you got me.
But for now I am not convinced.
Posted by Jens Nauber on March 27, 2009 2:04 PM
How about a plugin for MacRabbit's Espresso? I recently made the switch from Coda.
Posted by Jesh on March 27, 2009 5:34 PM
Really glad you all like it!
Christopher: We don't have immediate plans for a 10.4 version I'm afraid.
Esther: You can get the plug in from the bottom of the Alkaline page here. I'm going to bundle the plug ins into the main Alkaline download shortly, though. That'll make it easier to install them.
Ross: Yes, that's a missing feature at the moment. The way around it is to start your test on the Litmus site. You can enter the site's credentials there, then open the test in Alkaline and continue re-testing.
Jens: Perhaps Litmus isn't for you. That's ok. We offer quite a lot above BrowserShots and similar services. You can keep your test results secure and private, track your changes, publish reports for your clients, test web applications and other sites that require a login, and of course test email campaigns as well as websites. We're very happy with how we stack up.
Jesh: That's a great point. When we were completing Alkaline Espresso was only just launching their v1, so we focussed on Coda and TextMate as they're more established. We definitely want to release an Espresso plug in, though. That'll be one of the very next things we'll work on.
Posted by Paul Farnell on March 31, 2009 9:29 PM
really like litmus and alkaline, absolutely brilliant. and the coda plugin just improves my workflow. i would definitely like to see multi-page/site-wide testing and to be able to see how client-side code behaves in some form of video. would be great
Posted by Simon Hamp on April 6, 2009 5:10 PM