12 ms·

Show HN: Fenêtre – Picture-in-picture for your mac

70 points by NeekGerd 9y ago

Tankenstein 9y ago
Quite a cool product, and i'd like to commend you on your landing page. Looks cool and conveys all the information i'm looking for.
- wingerlang 9y ago
  To balance feedback out, I've got no idea what it supports after reading the website. It can load websites, sure. But it also mentions e.g. games, does it mean it can play web-games or can I add any kind of app as a floating window? It's not clear at all IMO.
Cenk 9y ago
Love the slogan
simlevesque 9y ago
I sent the link to my whole team. Bien joué ! J'aimerais bien l'utiliser mais je suis sur Ubuntu.
- YoannMoinet 9y ago
  Thank you very much ! I'll have a look for the *nix version, promise!
- Bromskloss 9y ago
  Can't you already do this in Ubuntu, or have I missed something it does?
apk-d 9y ago
Windows user here - looks pretty neat. I googled around and it appears MS is working on something similar for Windows 10, but I'm not sure if it's going to land as a feature available to power users or rather app developers. For now I'm sticking to my ghetto AutoHotkey make-always-on-top script. Also, that Unicode domain name looks sweet.
- YoannMoinet 9y ago
  Thanks mate ! I'm actually working on the windows version. It's not that far, but it needs way more infrastructure, especially for the licence system. As the Mac AppStore has all this built in.
  - apk-d 9y ago
    Great to hear - I'll be checking it out.
- j_s 9y ago
  https://github.com/LorenzCK/OnTopReplica https://github.com/LorenzCK/OnTopReplica OnTopReplica comes close, copying apps (or sub-regions) into an always-on-top window. You have to leave the source app up on the desktop (behind whatever else) and the experimental mouse pass-through is sketchy; I use it mostly for read-only stuff (video).
hhsnopek 9y ago
I currently use http://heliumfloats.com http://heliumfloats.com which appears to be exactly this, albeit Helium is free. What are the benefits to this over Helium?
- YoannMoinet 9y ago
  I was actually using Helium for a long time. It is a awesome app as well, offering a different set of features IMHO. A sneak peak of features offered by Fenêtre. - Browser extension - Code highlight - Markdown Viewer - Click-through and See-through as well as opacity control (Helium has opacity too) - Lots of settings to control defaults behaviors. - Mute window - Clipboard access - Customizable hotkeys - Polished experience for some website (Youtube, Vimeo, Twitch, Github to name a few...) - Access to recent opened items - Local files support (video, image, text files...) - Collapsed view Hope you'll give it a shot !
  - j_s 9y ago
    It's worth at least the "on sale" $5 (compared to Helium's 125 open issues) if that encourages you to slog along with customer support and to fix the inevitable OS-level breaking changes.
scrumper 9y ago
I'm being a bit stupid, sorry. I don't get it. What is it? A remote desktop thing? Or does it pretend to be a second monitor in a window (which is pretty clever so nice work). EDIT: or I can plug another Mac in? I'm confused by that bit about not alt-tabbing between video of a tutorial and your editor. I can do that now, using, you know, the window manager that's built into the OS. That's why I'm a bit lost, sorry.
- YoannMoinet 9y ago
  It lets you load a webpage/picture/video/file in a floating window that will always stay on top. So if you're working in your editor full screen, you can keep this floating window on top. And keep most of your screen's real estate. I hope this answer your questions. [HIJACKING COMMENT] HN has blocked me from commenting too much, but I wanted to share some promo codes ! --- My initial message that I can't post anymore --- I'm Yoann Moinet, I've developed Fenêtre. Thank you so much for all your valuable feedbacks, I love it. I've worked on it with my friend Max William Neilson, who took care of the designs. We also are on Product Hunt https://www.producthunt.com/posts/fenetre https://www.producthunt.com/posts/fenetre To repeat what I answered to other questions. - Windows is coming. - I'll have a look for *nix. - Will fix mobile as soon as I have some time. - I choose the domain name, and I love it. But it gave us a hard time in multiple places, because special chars are not handle well everywhere! - Similar to Helium indeed (I love it too) but with a different feature set. Here are some promo codes for you. H774F7MYTMTY 97PL69RMMX47 FF9WTPXK7KKJ 7H6Y69F4FJNN HRHFM9LJF4X6 HLTYRXX3MLFE P64ERPPTRYWY PPMKWHR99KAF 47ET7J94WLWP L9TY7K339LHK
  - 2-m3m3n70 9y ago
    What are the codes for?
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - scrumper 9y ago
    Thank you for answering my question. I understand what it is now. Congrats on the launch and good luck!
0xbear 9y ago
I wish I knew how to “watch Netflix while working”.
Waterluvian 9y ago
Please just load the whole damn page. I hate scrolling down, watching stuff appear much too late for me to realise I've reached where content is. This page really didn't work at all on mobile.
- YoannMoinet 9y ago
  Thanks for the heads up on mobile, I will update it ASAP!
  - rosstex 9y ago
    Same on Desktop tbh, loads way slower than my scrolling!
  - xelxebar 9y ago
    FWIW, the page (slowly) loads a few pictures and no content with JavaScript disabled. I just immediately close pages that do this.
tmwed 9y ago
this is already available for free through safari. nevertheless, good luck with your product. :)
- kossmoboleat 9y ago
  Yeah, that's what I thought. What's the difference between these?
- peternicky 9y ago
  can you explain? I wasn't aware of these features in Safari.
blaze33 9y ago
On Ubuntu there's an "always on top" option for all windows (right click the window's top bar), granted you don't get the click/see through features and other niceties but it served me well when I had the TV on my desktop.
- mlevental 9y ago
  just today I was wondering if that feature exists in high Sierra after recently being forced to migrate to Mac
- Bromskloss 9y ago
  I don't know if it's a default setting or if I have set it up in Compiz Config, but I can adjust the opacity of any window by holding Alt and scrolling.
nikivi 9y ago
Is it possible to increase playback speed?
jtnegrotto 9y ago
I'm really enjoying this so far. Using it to keep our app's dashboard floating in the corner to keep an eye on it. My biggest want right now is support for right clicking / keyboard shortcuts in the opened browser pages. Had to manually type out my randomly-generated, 26-character password since I couldn't just copy and paste from 1password. That said, this is great. Well worth the purchase.
borne0 9y ago
While somewhat on the subject of window utilities: Is there a program that lets you make say a virtual desktop, then draw a box around a section that you can then take to your real desktop? It would be handy to have for programs that are overly buttony and ribbony that you know well enough to navigate keyboard only (or that you use only for a specific subset of commands) which take up far too much screen real estate.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- memco 9y ago
  Have you looked into the zoom feature in System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom? You can't draw a box, but you can zoom in and cut down on the clutter you see to an area the same shape as your monitor. I use it all the time because of my vision, but it has the side effect of enabling a distraction free mode of sorts in lots of programs.
  - borne0 9y ago
    I just checked it out, not really what I'm looking for. but thanks
rokhayakebe 9y ago
Bought. Nice. Issue: Not allowing to resize window on YT link. Edit: Actually it works now. Apologies.
stefco_ 9y ago
Just bought it and am trying it out. Where are the instructions, though? I have no idea how to move the window around or activate the pass-through feature, and it is unclear where the settings are. I had to kill the window by bringing up activity monitor! If you do have an instructional page, please put it somewhere highly visible on your website! I couldn't find it after a bit of scrolling. It might be there, but it should be obvious!
undershirt 9y ago
play.hbonow.com does not load in it because I think it's using a mobile user agent, which hbonow seems to not want to support
- YoannMoinet 9y ago
  It is indeed using a mobile user agent. I have plans to rework this, and let the user switch between the two modes. Right now, it's possible to deactivate it in the settings of the Pro app.
  - led 9y ago
    Can't seem to find anywhere to report bugs other than Twitter or here. Have you got a support email address/form/issue tracker users can access?
    - YoannMoinet 9y ago
      You can use support[at]fenêt.re if needed. I'll change the 'Contact' link at the bottom of the webpage to reflect that.
stevage 9y ago
Am I missing something, or is all of this marketing and fanciness entirely about an "always on top" feature?
madavidj 9y ago
Nice product! It might be a bit of a hard brand-word to pronounce and communicate... But who knows, maybe you'll do as well as LaCroix did for pamplemousse ;)
granitosaurus 9y ago
It has been a very popular feature in unix porn community for half-a-decade now for window-managers like i3 or awesome. It's very convenient and can be extensively configured except maybe for the mouse passthrough feature, haven't seen that before but I've seen transparency on mouse over being done before so it's probably there somewhere :) Personally I found that my laptop's monitor (x220) is a bit too small to find any real advantages over simple tiling or workspaces but I can see it being a great tool for bigger displays.
kossmoboleat 9y ago
Although I see the appeal I feel that any more distraction is exactly the opposite of what I want. Maybe I see this way to serious but I would be tempted to use this all the time and I'd assume I'd work much worse.

70 points by NeekGerd 9y ago

Quite a cool product, and i'd like to commend you on your landing page. Looks cool and conveys all the information i'm looking for.

wingerlang 9y ago
To balance feedback out, I've got no idea what it supports after reading the website. It can load websites, sure. But it also mentions e.g. games, does it mean it can play web-games or can I add any kind of app as a floating window? It's not clear at all IMO.

Cenk 9y ago

Love the slogan

simlevesque 9y ago

I sent the link to my whole team. Bien joué ! J'aimerais bien l'utiliser mais je suis sur Ubuntu.

YoannMoinet 9y ago
Thank you very much ! I'll have a look for the *nix version, promise!
Bromskloss 9y ago
Can't you already do this in Ubuntu, or have I missed something it does?

apk-d 9y ago

Windows user here - looks pretty neat. I googled around and it appears MS is working on something similar for Windows 10, but I'm not sure if it's going to land as a feature available to power users or rather app developers. For now I'm sticking to my ghetto AutoHotkey make-always-on-top script. Also, that Unicode domain name looks sweet.

YoannMoinet 9y ago
Thanks mate ! I'm actually working on the windows version. It's not that far, but it needs way more infrastructure, especially for the licence system. As the Mac AppStore has all this built in.
- apk-d 9y ago
  Great to hear - I'll be checking it out.
j_s 9y ago
https://github.com/LorenzCK/OnTopReplica https://github.com/LorenzCK/OnTopReplica OnTopReplica comes close, copying apps (or sub-regions) into an always-on-top window. You have to leave the source app up on the desktop (behind whatever else) and the experimental mouse pass-through is sketchy; I use it mostly for read-only stuff (video).

hhsnopek 9y ago

I currently use http://heliumfloats.com http://heliumfloats.com which appears to be exactly this, albeit Helium is free. What are the benefits to this over Helium?

YoannMoinet 9y ago
I was actually using Helium for a long time. It is a awesome app as well, offering a different set of features IMHO. A sneak peak of features offered by Fenêtre. - Browser extension - Code highlight - Markdown Viewer - Click-through and See-through as well as opacity control (Helium has opacity too) - Lots of settings to control defaults behaviors. - Mute window - Clipboard access - Customizable hotkeys - Polished experience for some website (Youtube, Vimeo, Twitch, Github to name a few...) - Access to recent opened items - Local files support (video, image, text files...) - Collapsed view Hope you'll give it a shot !
- j_s 9y ago
  It's worth at least the "on sale" $5 (compared to Helium's 125 open issues) if that encourages you to slog along with customer support and to fix the inevitable OS-level breaking changes.

scrumper 9y ago

I'm being a bit stupid, sorry. I don't get it. What is it? A remote desktop thing? Or does it pretend to be a second monitor in a window (which is pretty clever so nice work). EDIT: or I can plug another Mac in? I'm confused by that bit about not alt-tabbing between video of a tutorial and your editor. I can do that now, using, you know, the window manager that's built into the OS. That's why I'm a bit lost, sorry.

YoannMoinet 9y ago
It lets you load a webpage/picture/video/file in a floating window that will always stay on top. So if you're working in your editor full screen, you can keep this floating window on top. And keep most of your screen's real estate. I hope this answer your questions. [HIJACKING COMMENT] HN has blocked me from commenting too much, but I wanted to share some promo codes ! --- My initial message that I can't post anymore --- I'm Yoann Moinet, I've developed Fenêtre. Thank you so much for all your valuable feedbacks, I love it. I've worked on it with my friend Max William Neilson, who took care of the designs. We also are on Product Hunt https://www.producthunt.com/posts/fenetre https://www.producthunt.com/posts/fenetre To repeat what I answered to other questions. - Windows is coming. - I'll have a look for *nix. - Will fix mobile as soon as I have some time. - I choose the domain name, and I love it. But it gave us a hard time in multiple places, because special chars are not handle well everywhere! - Similar to Helium indeed (I love it too) but with a different feature set. Here are some promo codes for you. H774F7MYTMTY 97PL69RMMX47 FF9WTPXK7KKJ 7H6Y69F4FJNN HRHFM9LJF4X6 HLTYRXX3MLFE P64ERPPTRYWY PPMKWHR99KAF 47ET7J94WLWP L9TY7K339LHK
- 2-m3m3n70 9y ago
  What are the codes for?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- scrumper 9y ago
  Thank you for answering my question. I understand what it is now. Congrats on the launch and good luck!

0xbear 9y ago

I wish I knew how to “watch Netflix while working”.

Waterluvian 9y ago

Please just load the whole damn page. I hate scrolling down, watching stuff appear much too late for me to realise I've reached where content is. This page really didn't work at all on mobile.

YoannMoinet 9y ago
Thanks for the heads up on mobile, I will update it ASAP!
- rosstex 9y ago
  Same on Desktop tbh, loads way slower than my scrolling!
- xelxebar 9y ago
  FWIW, the page (slowly) loads a few pictures and no content with JavaScript disabled. I just immediately close pages that do this.

tmwed 9y ago

this is already available for free through safari. nevertheless, good luck with your product. :)

kossmoboleat 9y ago
Yeah, that's what I thought. What's the difference between these?
peternicky 9y ago
can you explain? I wasn't aware of these features in Safari.

blaze33 9y ago

On Ubuntu there's an "always on top" option for all windows (right click the window's top bar), granted you don't get the click/see through features and other niceties but it served me well when I had the TV on my desktop.

mlevental 9y ago
just today I was wondering if that feature exists in high Sierra after recently being forced to migrate to Mac
Bromskloss 9y ago
I don't know if it's a default setting or if I have set it up in Compiz Config, but I can adjust the opacity of any window by holding Alt and scrolling.

nikivi 9y ago

Is it possible to increase playback speed?

jtnegrotto 9y ago

I'm really enjoying this so far. Using it to keep our app's dashboard floating in the corner to keep an eye on it. My biggest want right now is support for right clicking / keyboard shortcuts in the opened browser pages. Had to manually type out my randomly-generated, 26-character password since I couldn't just copy and paste from 1password. That said, this is great. Well worth the purchase.

borne0 9y ago

While somewhat on the subject of window utilities: Is there a program that lets you make say a virtual desktop, then draw a box around a section that you can then take to your real desktop? It would be handy to have for programs that are overly buttony and ribbony that you know well enough to navigate keyboard only (or that you use only for a specific subset of commands) which take up far too much screen real estate.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
memco 9y ago
Have you looked into the zoom feature in System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom? You can't draw a box, but you can zoom in and cut down on the clutter you see to an area the same shape as your monitor. I use it all the time because of my vision, but it has the side effect of enabling a distraction free mode of sorts in lots of programs.
- borne0 9y ago
  I just checked it out, not really what I'm looking for. but thanks

rokhayakebe 9y ago

Bought. Nice. Issue: Not allowing to resize window on YT link. Edit: Actually it works now. Apologies.

stefco_ 9y ago

Just bought it and am trying it out. Where are the instructions, though? I have no idea how to move the window around or activate the pass-through feature, and it is unclear where the settings are. I had to kill the window by bringing up activity monitor! If you do have an instructional page, please put it somewhere highly visible on your website! I couldn't find it after a bit of scrolling. It might be there, but it should be obvious!

undershirt 9y ago

play.hbonow.com does not load in it because I think it's using a mobile user agent, which hbonow seems to not want to support

YoannMoinet 9y ago
It is indeed using a mobile user agent. I have plans to rework this, and let the user switch between the two modes. Right now, it's possible to deactivate it in the settings of the Pro app.
- led 9y ago
  Can't seem to find anywhere to report bugs other than Twitter or here. Have you got a support email address/form/issue tracker users can access?
  - YoannMoinet 9y ago
    You can use support[at]fenêt.re if needed. I'll change the 'Contact' link at the bottom of the webpage to reflect that.

stevage 9y ago

Am I missing something, or is all of this marketing and fanciness entirely about an "always on top" feature?

madavidj 9y ago

Nice product! It might be a bit of a hard brand-word to pronounce and communicate... But who knows, maybe you'll do as well as LaCroix did for pamplemousse ;)

granitosaurus 9y ago

It has been a very popular feature in unix porn community for half-a-decade now for window-managers like i3 or awesome. It's very convenient and can be extensively configured except maybe for the mouse passthrough feature, haven't seen that before but I've seen transparency on mouse over being done before so it's probably there somewhere :) Personally I found that my laptop's monitor (x220) is a bit too small to find any real advantages over simple tiling or workspaces but I can see it being a great tool for bigger displays.

kossmoboleat 9y ago

Although I see the appeal I feel that any more distraction is exactly the opposite of what I want. Maybe I see this way to serious but I would be tempted to use this all the time and I'd assume I'd work much worse.