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FTM 2017 UPDATE - JULY 8 - UTAH Time 6 PM (UTC 0:00 +1)
LAUNCH ON TRACK - COUNTDOWN STARTED
There's a festive atmosphere in the development labs this weekend as we prepare to come down the home stretch. We don't want to jinx it by saying so but right now we're feeling pretty good about the latest builds and cautiously optimistic about sticking to the schedule we set out two weeks ago. It's been a long and difficult road, but with a whole lot of help from our friends, it looks like showtime at last. Here's a recap.
BETA TESTERS LAST CALL
We put out a last call for "showstopper" bugs this past week to our very able beta test army, and the deadline to send them in to us has now passed. The few dozen we received were far less than we had expected from our 2,600 beta testers. So that's a good sign, and maybe just maybe there will be celebrating in Family Tree Maker valley by this time next weekend. We should know by the middle of the week.
ARE YOU DRIVING YET?
A whole bunch of you are. And it appears that most are having a great ride ... 99.27% to be exact. That's the percent who've just kept on using FTM 2017 after taking it for a two day spin in Test Drive 2.0. We've now offered a test drive to everyone eligible to take one regardless of tree size. The vast majority have told us the same thing -- they think it’s ready to release. And with the adjustments we’ve made recently, we think so too.
LAST DAYS FOR PRE-ORDER PRICES
All good things have to come to an end sometime they say. And that includes the pre-order sale for FTM 2017 which will finally come to an end in just a few days. Until then, you can get a download for $29.95 before the prices go up. Just stop by www.familytreemaker.com and get on the mailing list. You'll get a welcome email right away with a link to an upgrade offer. And tell your friends. They'll thank you for it.
GETTING THE WRONG MESSAGE?
As our engineers and Ancestry's make some final tuneups in the sync system, some test drivers are seeing some surprising messages. Don't let them scare you. Like if you see "Your tree has been deleted" -- it's not true (go ahead and check). And just ignore "FTM is offline" -- you're not disconnected. Those won't misfire in the final release, but in the meantime, head to Live Chat if a message worries you. We’re there for you 24/7.
THE ROLLOUT GAMEPLAN
We’re making what we hope will be the final build this weekend and plan to start beta testing it on Tuesday. If all goes well, we’ll declare it our first official release of FTM 2017. The first to receive their copies will be our many Test Drivers -- on Saturday, July 15th. Followed closely by everyone who has pre-ordered, with the rest of the world not far behind. We'll go as fast as the new system will safely allow. Stay tuned.
STAYING UP TO DATE
Thanks for hanging in there. The best is yet to come. We will continue to post here until the new edition is fully released to everyone who has ordered it. And we'll also post the same updates on our support site:
https://support.mackiev.com/498640-RELEASE-OF-FTM-2017
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My comments: This is definitely good news. It looks like it may happen on 15 July.
Note that you can still order FTM 2017 at the $29.95 pre-release price only for a few more days (they didn't define a day).
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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver
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