Monday, June 8, 2009

PockeTwit v.75 Released!

PockeTwit v.75 is now available with several bugfixes and some exciting new features!

@marclandis has continued refining the today screen plugin. It now offers a list of groups with unread items similar to the standard "Messages" plugin for pocket outlook. And tapping an item in that list will bring PockeTwit to the foreground and display that group.

He also fixed an issue with QuickPost. The "Post Update" screen will now be displayed regardless of whether PockeTwit was already running or not.

There is now a "Saved Searches" feature. This will allow you to define a search and add it to your custom groups timelines. You can also specify if the saved search will be automatically checked with your friends and messages timelines, or only refresh when it's selected. For example, I've defined a saved search for "PockeTwit OR PocketTwit" and set it to autoupdate, so I know whenever anyone mentions the applications name out there. But I also defined a saved search for any posts near my house and told it NOT to autoupdate, since that would get a constant stream of chatter.

Note that PockeTwit's saved searches do not correspond with the user's saved searches on Twitter's site. Twitter added that feature too late into the development cycle of PockeTwit for me to have them match without adding a significant delay to the release. I do plan to have them synchronize in the future.

I've added support for the web service "140it.com" to help users shorten their posts to fit twitter's 140 character requirement. If your post is over 140 characters, PockeTwit will first ask if you'd like to use 140it. If you agree, it will use their service to shorten some common words. For example, it will replace the word "to" with the character "2" and use other common abbreviations. If that still doesn't get the text to less than 140 characters, it will ask if you'd like to use shorttext.com like it did in the past.

@roelvandenbrand has been trying to keep up with the flood of media services popping up around twitter and making sure PockeTwit supports as many as possible. He's added Img.Ly, Posterous, and TweetPhoto support. And thanks to TweetPhoto's support of development, it has been made the default media service for PockeTwit.

A new developer, @theMark_S ,has come forward and volunteered to write a desktop installer for PockeTwit. This will make it easier for some users to install the application through activesync rather than having to download the cab file directly to their device.

As I mentioned, there have also been several bugfixes. The most important one is a fix that allows a user in the cache to be updated. In the last release, if a user changed their avatar or screen name, PockeTwit could not update the cached information. Their avatar would appear as a question mark or their screenname would not be updated. I'm glad to say that bug has been fixed!

As always, thank you to all the PockeTwit supporters out there. This project has been a tremendous learning experience for me and I'm very glad that you find it useful.

11 comments:

Anders said...

So what just happened. I updated to .75 when I started the app. Then it would not work. I delete, and go to the download site, and there is only an .msi download. So I get on my computer, and go to the website, only to find .75 gone entirely. Checking back a minute later, there is a .75a and it is a .cab. I guess I picked the wrong time to update?

Anyway, awesome app. Thanks.

Jake Stevenson said...

Sorry about that. I got over-eager in uploading the new version and missed a critical step in the upgrade process. I realized it pretty quickly and removed it from the site to prevent getting flooded with people having problems.

The new versions labeled v.75a are all uploaded now and should work smoothly.

Ben said...

Almost the same here: it sadly crashes (v0.75a) and the crashlog reads:
From v0,75
SQLite error
no such column: searchTerm
_________________
bei System.Data.SQLite.SQLite3.Prepare()
bei System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand.BuildNextCommand()
bei System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand.GetStatement()
bei System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteDataReader.NextResult()
bei System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteDataReader..ctor()
bei System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand.ExecuteReader()
bei System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand.ExecuteReader()
bei PockeTwit.SpecialTimelines.SpecialTimeLinesRepository.Load()
bei LocalStorage.DataBaseUtility.CheckDBSchema()
bei PockeTwit.TweetList..ctor()
bei PockeTwit.Program.Main()


.. v0.74 worked just fine. :-/

I do have .Net CF 3.5 but there just seems to be sth wrong.. any ideas.. ?

In any case - thanks for your great app, and the features sound great! :)

Jake Stevenson said...

It should be all better now. You'll need to download v.75b from the website and install it by hand since the app can't even get to the automatic upgrade process.

Ben said...

Thanks a lot! Works for me now (-:

Anders said...

Yup, .75b did the trick for me too. Thanks for making this great app. I love the UI, simple yet powerful.

Everyone should use TweetPhoto, and help these guys make a great app even better.

Unknown said...

great app - cheers for all the hard work - im afraid the app doesnt work on the latest .net v3.7

howiec18 said...

Luv the update-especially the avatar bug fix-that drove me crazy. Thanks for the work.

KatherineN said...

Just discovered PockeTwit and loving it! I have an iTouch which I'd resorted to using Twitter on when around free wifi as none of the WM offerings were really good enough. Yours does everything I need :o) Finally I can share my photos, my URLs, my random jabbering from wherever I am, plus with a snazzy UI :o)
Not entirely convinced by the sideways swipe to menus (perhaps I'll get used to it!) and a few more lighter themes would be nice, but overall I am very impressed! :o)
Great job!! :o)

Shane said...

Just wanted to let you know that I have really enjoyed using this awesome app for the short time that I've known about it! I've looked and looked for a good twitter client for Windows Mobile and just couldn't find one (well, apart from Twikini - though I never got around to registering for that) and I was starting to think that it was an itch I was going to have to scratch myself!

You've done an awesome job! I've also made a post about your app over on my blog at tmotoday.com.

kostiantyn said...

First of all, lots of thanks for the application!
the new v.75 does not update my changed avatar.
(I changed avatar on my twitter profile page but PockeTwit continues to use default avatar)